"We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention."
I
wish to particularly call attention to John Gee's article, "Abraham
and Idrimi," which examines interesting parallels between the
text of the Book of Abraham from the only other known autobiography
from the specific region and time of Abraham. Here is the final
paragraph of Gee's article with some important food for thought:
According
to Edward Greenstein and David Marcus, "The story of Idrimi is
unlike Mesopotamian literature both in content and style."31
The story, as Oppenheim describes it, is "without parallel in
texts of this type from Mesopotamia and Egypt."32
This
led him to conclude that "all this seems to me to bespeak the
existence of a specific literary tradition, totally different in
temper and scope from that of the ancient Near East."33
Thus Oppenheim considered the autobiography of Idrimi to be unusual
even for the ancient Near East.
But
the Book of Abraham belongs to the same specific literary tradition
as Idrimi's autobiography. More inscriptions like Idrimi's from Syria
dating to the Middle Bronze Age would enable a better comparison, but
it is at least worth asking, How did Joseph Smith manage to publish
in the Book of Abraham a story that closely matched a
Middle-Bronze-Age Syrian autobiography that would not be discovered
for nearly a hundred years?
Although
some folks continue to make the tragic mistake of losing faith over
attacks based on the Book of Abraham, the evidence continues to mount
for the authenticity of the Book of Abraham as an ancient text beyond
anything Joseph could have fabricated. The evidence from the text of
Idrimi is a minor part of that, but a fascinating one.
Professor
Kerry Muhlenstein’s above-listed article on the Book of Abraham
and the ancient use of biblical figures in Egypt provides further
information for those seeking to dig deep into the Book of Abraham.
Although
we don’t know exactly how Joseph created this “translation”
and what role any of the papyrus scrolls, missing or found, played in
the translation, we can accept that this is an ancient text provided
to us in our day through the power of God. There is much to learn
about the remarkable Book of Abraham.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.
