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BYU Studies Quarterly

BYU Studies Quarterly

Keywords

Book of Abraham, priesthood ban, curse in the land, Pharaoh

Abstract

The Book of Abraham preserves an account of the founding of Egypt (Abr. 1:23–27) and mentions the origins of a “curse in the land” (v. 24) pertaining to the priesthood among the descendants of Ham. “The land of Egypt,” the text says, was “first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus” (v. 23). According to this account, “when this woman discovered the land it was under water, who afterward settled her sons in it; and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land” (v. 24). Before the text can clarify what exactly this curse might be, it goes on to explain how the effects of this curse were transmitted by the descendants of this Egyptus. “Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was patriarchal” (v. 25), the account continues. Although Pharaoh was “a righteous man” who “established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days” and who sought “earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations,” he was nevertheless “cursed” as “pertaining to the Priesthood” (v. 26), since he was “of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from Noah, through Ham” (v. 27). This claim, Abraham explains in his account, is why his “father was led away by their idolatry” (v. 27).

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