How did we get the Book of Abraham?

[Phineas]

Just curious.

[Fether]

Where is the “A salamander whispered it to JSjr” option?

[JohnsonJones]

8 hours ago, Phineas said:

Just curious.

A LOT of knowledge has been lost recently, including knowledge of the differences between the Urim and Thummim and the Seer Stones that Joseph utilized.  One item that both could do was to reveal hidden things. 

Based on the old ideas we used to know (where the Book of Mormon was actually translated by the power of the Urim and Thummim, just as Joseph Smith claimed, and the Seer Stones were utilized for revelation and at times also translation, but in a different manner), my thoughts pertaining to the Book of Abraham probably would be centered more on the following:

In this way, one could say it was much like parables, in where a story would seem evident on the surface, but a deeper meaning or another story was hidden inside for those who actually understood what it was talking about.

There is not much we have in modern writing (at least in English) which really parallels such an idea.  Coming up with an example is particularly tough because of this.

A pretty different idea is satire, but we can use it to compare such a thing.  If we take the story of A Brave New World at the surface it seems to be a story of a distopian society where many things are utopian in appearance.  The deeper meaning of the story is more along the lines of criticizing the new modern morals and expectations of the world of his day, including promiscuity and the ideas that utopian society was actually better. 

Some ancient writings (especially in Judaic discourse) had a completely different and hidden story or meaning that the writing was talking about.  Hence, you'd have two stories or writings in the same document.  We can see this in scriptures with types and Shadows.  The Story of Moses or David are about Moses and David, but at the same time they are talking about the Messiah and are prophecies of what he will do and things he will accomplish (lawgiver, king, savior of the Jews...etc).

In this way, we can view Joseph's Translation of the Bible or the Book of Abraham.  It could be that it was a simple manuscript on the surface in the exact way that scholars identify what the scrolls most likely contained, but at the same time had deeper hidden meanings behind them which Joseph was able to have revealed to him while translating.  Thus, not only was there one story or information on the surface, but the deeper meaning and the actual content were revealed to him and he translated such ideas and information.

We see this in documents that the Jews possessed (and was something that occasionally they are accused of in the Bible, as they loved to have these double stories and hidden ideas in their writings...a LOT.  It was not just the Jews thought, but were in other civilizations.  Secularly, we do not know a lot about the Egyptians, and many would say this did not extend to the Egyptians of that time period, but in truth...it's hard to actually make a definitive statement in that manner as there is still too little information to really make definitive statements on a LOT of Egyptian culture of the past in many of it's ancient eras) and other civilizations of the past.

[Carborendum]

On 9/9/2020 at 10:43 PM, Phineas said:

Just curious.

Wow, quite the list there.