Episode 18: Translate Like an Egyptian

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:00)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:02)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:04)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:31)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:36)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:45)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:10)
On this podcast, we've had some laughs, we've told some great who's the boss jokes, great is debatable. Mentioned arrested development generally enjoyed ourselves.
But today, we need to get serious.
We need to talk about circus peanuts. This one object elicits a whole spectrum of responses. Some people who are insane think they are delicious and chow them down at every opportunity. Others think that they aren't food and wonder why someone would put that in their mouth. Some in the middle can be in a certain mood and enjoy the age in orange with a sort of certain kind of deranged energy. But in the end, it's the very same object, one with a somewhat murky history. Some historians in the candy-ology field trace their history all the way back to the 19th century. Some suggest they came from Delaware.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:06)
All right, fine, we're not going to spend an entire episode on circus peanuts. If you're disappointed, like my friend from college, Tarina, to whom this ingenious metaphor is dedicated, please turn to one of the many other Fine Sister podcasts in the Sunstone family. No, today we're going to talk Book of Abraham.
The very same small object, 5,297 words, three facsimiles with explanations, brings forth a swath of opinions. It's a translation, equaling modern sense of translation. There was a text on the papyrus, and Joseph Smith transferred that text into English in a very straightforward manner.
It's a translation, equaling there was text about Abraham on the papyrus, but the Book of Abraham also reflects Joseph Smith and the 19th century to some degree. It's not a translation, equaling the Book of Mormon and the papyrus have zero connection other than the mummies and scrolls arrive in Kirtland, and then Joseph Smith produces the Book of Abraham, but no textual connection. All right, let's do it, circus peanuts, let's talk. What is the Book of Abraham? What's the history? How have people thought about this very curious text?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:20)
Mormonism begins with a complicated translation, the Book of Mormon was its own sort of circus peanuts in its day. We've already talked about some of the messiness and various opinions out there.
Like the Book of Mormon, the Book of Abraham was tied to an object. Unlike the Book of Mormon, that object is still here to be examined, sort of, that is. Let's set the stage. The US in the early 1800s wanted to walk like an Egyptian. As the Joseph Smith Papers editors put it, Joseph Smith dictated the Book of Abraham at a time when Western culture was enthralled with the discovery and excavation of ancient Egyptian artifacts. Honestly, like, who's not into ancient Egypt? That was like my dream as a kid. Back to Joseph Smith Papers. But even before such discoveries, scholars, philosophers and theologians had studied and written about ancient Egypt for centuries.
According to many of these writers, ancient Egyptian documents and artifacts such as monuments, mummies and papyri held universal truths waiting to be revealed.
The Rosetta Stone had been discovered in 1799 in Egypt, and initial reports immediately expressed the hope that the stone would be the key to cracking Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stone was grudgingly transferred from French to British possession and ended up in the British Museum. And I have seen it several times. And have a little coffee mug with all of the prints of the Rosetta Stone on it.
Oh, remember, this whole episode is a shining example of colonialism. We are white dudes. We obviously know what's best, and we are the intelligent ones in the room. Let us yoink your treasure, Egypt, thank you very much. As comedian John Oliver jokingly but really noted, quote, the entire British Museum is basically an active crime scene. He's not wrong. The French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphs on the stone in 1822 and began a decade of further work in the area. As news and research began to spread, it created enormous interest in Egypt. By the mid 1830s, it was really just the vibe rather than the findings that would have reached Kirtland though. So again, everyone sort of caught up in this ancient, the ancient truth of an ancient empire.