BYU Studies Quarterly
Article Title
The "Kirtland Egyptian Papers" and the Book of Abraham
Keywords
Book of Abraham, Joseph Smith papyri, translation
Abstract
Associated with the translation of the Book of Abraham is a collection of documents commonly known today as the “Kirtland Egyptian Papers.” This name was coined by Hugh Nibley in the early 1970s to describe a corpus of manuscripts that can be classified into, broadly, two categories: Book of Abraham manuscripts and Egyptian-language manuscripts (or manuscripts that “focus on alphabet and grammar material that the authors connected to the ancient Egyptian language”). Because some of these documents postdate the Kirtland period of Latter-day Saint history, and because the name coined by Nibley to describe this corpus is somewhat vague, the name has fallen out of general use among scholars, who prefer more precise classifications. Regardless of what people today call them, “the[se] name designations are modern ones and typically reflect assumptions of the individuals using the particular designations. No [single] designation [to describe these texts] has gained wide acceptance.
Recommended Citation
Smoot, Stephen O.; Gee, John; Muhlestein, Kerry; and Thompson, John S.
(2022)
"The "Kirtland Egyptian Papers" and the Book of Abraham,"
BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 61:
Iss.
4, Article 5.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol61/iss4/5