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The New York TimesSunday, December 29, 1912
Museum Walls Proclaim Fraud of Mormon Prophet
Sacred Books Claimed to Have Been Given Divinely
to the First Prophet Are Shown to be Taken from
Old Egyptian Originals, Their Translation Being a
Work of the Imagination---What a Comparison
with Metropolitan Museum Treasures Shows.
The sacred books of the Mormon Church, which this wholly American cult proclaims to have been given divinely to the first Mormon prophet as a solemn addenda to the known Scriptures, have now been in circulation in Mormondom for about seventy years. On their faith that the texts were really produced through the gift and power of God, hundreds of thousands of devotees have hailed Joseph Smith as the "prophet, seer and revelator" of God, and God's spokesman on earth. His successor, Joseph F. Smith, the present prophet, they hail by the same title, and so strong in their faith that the prophet wields unlimited power in politics, in finance and in religion in at least two Western States.
Within three months the only one of these sacred writings in which the test of scholarship could be applied has been submitted to such a test and its authenticity has been destroyed completely. The walls of the Egyptian rooms of the Metropolitan Museum proclaim it to be a fraud. Dr. Albert M. Lythgoe, Curator of the Egyptian department, voices unequivocally the condemnatory evidence of the mute Egyptian drawings and hieroglyphics. Two eminent scholars in England, two scholars in Germany, and four of the most noted Egyptologists in this country join without a dissenting paragraph in the condemnation.
The sacred Mormon text was susceptible of accurate and complete analysis from the simple fact that it was taken from a genuine Egyptian original. The translation was a work of the Mormon prophet's curious imagination.
Within a few weeks all leading officials of the Mormon Church will receive from the Rt. Rev. F. S. Spalding, Episcopal Bishop of Utah, the results of an extended inquiry among the scholars of the world as to the accuracy of the Prophet Joseph Smith's work on ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics [Web-editor: See Why Egyptologists Reject the Book of Abraham]. Bishop Spalding has collected the opinions of the scholars for distribution among the Mormons themselves. He writes to the Mormons in a kindly mood, and describes the ideas of their prophet and founder as "self-delusions" instead of using a shorter and an uglier word.
Much of Bishop Spalding's work was done in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in this city. The ten rooms of the Egyptian collection yielded proof in such abundance that any layman, even in Egyptology, can take the drawings as published in the sacred Mormon record and reproduced on this page of THE TIMES, and find dozens of duplicates of certain figures in them on the walls of the Museum and in its cases of Egyptian objects.
A certain picture in the Mormon work representing Abraham "sitting on the throne of Pharaoh by the politeness of the King," really represents a scene depicted in the Museum's hieroglyphics a score or more of times. Father Abraham, therefore, must have been one of the best known Egyptian characters.
If a bit of Egyptian writing, again, represents what the Mormon prophet says it does, then practically every mummy that has been dug out of Egypt had a bit of the writings of Abraham tucked away beneath its head, and the mummy, buried with a religious service calling for the worship of many gods, was thus put to rest with a reverential prayer made to the one God whom Abraham recognized.
The "Sacred" Writings.
The sacred writing of the Mormons which Bishop Spalding holds up to the merciless light of modern scholarship is known among Mormons as "The Book of Abraham," and is published in a sacred volume entitled "The Pearl of Great Price." The other two books which the Mormons consider sacred are "The Book of Mormon," which purports to be a history of the American Indians and a white race which formerly dwelt on this Continent with them, and "The Doctrine and Covenants."
The "Doctrine and Covenants" consists of the laws which God, in His infinite wisdom laid down directly by word of mouth to the Prophet Joseph Smith. No witnesses were called in to testify that any of its messages from on high were actually delivered, so that the Mormons accept this work, with its divine order authorizing polygamous marriage, upon their general credence in their prophet.
The "Book of Mormon" was written, as Smith proclaimed, from golden plates delivered to him from a hill in New York State by an Angel of the Lord. He translated these plates by divine power, as he asserted, and then gave the originals back to the Angel. But, first, to give his book a credible standing, he had three men look over the golden plates, heft them, and hear the words of the Angel of the Lord concerning them. Also he had eight men look over the plates and heft them, but he did not admit them to the presence of the Angel. Each group made affidavits, and in Mormondom they are famed as "The Three Witnesses" and "The Eight Witnesses."
Their testimony is printed in the prefatory pages of the work with each edition as a notice to the world of its importance. The third sacred book, "The Pearl of Great Price," differs from the others in that it at least has a source that is traceable, and is taken from documents that are capable of translation by scholars in the field of Egyptology.
The reason why it took seventy years for this test to be applied to this important Mormon writing, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of devout believers to the Mormon cult, is explained by Bishop Spalding in a simple manner. When the Mormon prophet published his translation and proclaimed it divine, there was no one to challenge him because there was no Egyptian scholarship amounting to anything at that time. The working out of the Egyptian alphabet was a matter of more recent accomplishment, and the scholarship that has grown up in its wake has not had an opportunity to overhaul and submerge the Mormon claim to the divine origin of its sacred work.
It should be mentioned that in addition to their own particular three divine works the Mormons accept the King James version of the Bible, but with the proviso that they accept it only "so far as it is translated correctly." Their other sacred books they accept without any qualifications whatever.
In fact when the "Book of Mormon" first appeared it was pointed out in its behalf that it contained in their original purity certain early sections of the Bible which the original settlers of this Continent brought here with them from Jerusalem and kept with their records. It was also said that the Mormon prophet gained access to them through Divine favor. The "Book of Abraham" they especially delighted in because it gave to the Mormons without the corrupting influence of any Christian translation a new history of the world's formation direct from Abraham himself through the medium of an Egyptian mummy.
The Egyptian mummy and the papyrus inside of it were genuine enough, as is well attested through the scores of duplications of it which the Metropolitan and other museums contain. As Bishop Spalding concludes, and as Dr. Albert M. Lythgoe, head of the Department of Egyptian Art of the Metropolitan Museum, pointed out to the TIMES reporter, there is nothing so certain as that the Mormon prophet got hold of pictures showing the common mortuary ritual of the Egyptians and that these pictures recur time and time again throughout the whole period of Egyptian burials.
When the Mormon prophet obtained his mummy and the papyrus that went with it his followers were in a frenzy of delight over his powers as a divine translator. The mummy, in fact, was brought to him because of his reputation as a translator, gained through the use, as a boy, of his "seer stone" in place of the water witch to locate wells, and through the production of his "Book of Mormon."
As his followers already had a good deal of new scripture in his own special revelations, and from the writing on the gold plates he had given back to the Angel, it occurred to the prophet to oblige them with still some more scripture, produced from an Egyptian mummy.
When Bishop Spalding was obtaining data as in the real significance of the papyrus obtained by the Mormons, Dr. Lythgoe was absent from the Metropolitan Museum on an Egyptian expedition. He was found at the Museum last week, and a copy of the Mormon work, with drawings from the original of the Mormon papyrus, was shown him.
Palpable Mistakes.
"Sad copies of very familiar papyrus," he said, "and a sadder, a much sadder, translation. Come upstairs with me and I will show you several pictures that duplicate the figure that the Mormon prophet says is Abraham sitting on the throne of Pharaoh. It is merely Osiris, god of the underworld. And I will show you more duplicates of the figure the Mormons declare to be Pharaoh. It is Isis, wife of Osiris, who is always with him. And when it comes to the Mormon picture of 'God on His Throne, signifying the Grand Key-Words of the Holy Priesthood as revealed to Adam in the Garden of Eden,' why that is a sad joke.
"The representation is the most common of all in Egyptian papyri. It is the view of the 'Sun god in his boat.' The Mormon version is right in that this is the picture of a god, but it is the chief god of a polytheistic people instead of God, who was worshipped by monotheistic Abraham, and pictures of him were among the widely distributed pictures in Egypt."
An examination of the Mormon explanation of the three pictures from the papyrus, which the Mormons printed in their "Pearl of Great Price," indicated that at times the divine power of the prophet left him, because under some of the figures a legend was written in lieu of a translation, saying that it "ought not to be revealed at the present time," and "will be revealed in the fullness of the Lord." A weirdly concluding line after one part of the translation was this: "The above translation is given as far as we have any right to give it at the present time." Under another section was this: "This ought not to be revealed; if the world can find out these numbers so let it be. Amen."
The things that puzzled the inspired Mormon translator were no puzzle at all to Dr. Lythgoe. They were simply snatches of a hymn to the Sun god inserted on every flat disk that was put, for its magical effect as a charm, under the head of the ordinary mummy. The pictures were very badly drawn in the Mormon version, but still were near enough to the originals for their character to be known.
New York Times The Dec. 29 1912 Museum Walls Proclaim Fraud of Mormon Prophet
Museum Walls Proclaim Fraud of Mormon Prophet
Sacred Books Claimed to Have Been Given Divinely
to the First Prophet Are Shown to be Taken from
Old Egyptian Originals, Their Translation Being a
Work of the Imagination---What a Comparison
with Metropolitan Museum Treasures Shows.
The sacred books of the Mormon Church, which this wholly American cult proclaims to have been given divinely to the first Mormon prophet as a solemn addenda to the known Scriptures, have now been in circulation in Mormondom for about seventy years. On their faith that the texts were really produced through the gift and power of God, hundreds of thousands of devotees have hailed Joseph Smith as the "prophet, seer and revelator" of God, and God's spokesman on earth. His successor, Joseph F. Smith, the present prophet, they hail by the same title, and so strong in their faith that the prophet wields unlimited power in politics, in finance and in religion in at least two Western States.
Within three months the only one of these sacred writings in which the test of scholarship could be applied has been submitted to such a test and its authenticity has been destroyed completely. The walls of the Egyptian rooms of the Metropolitan Museum proclaim it to be a fraud. Dr. Albert M. Lythgoe, Curator of the Egyptian department, voices unequivocally the condemnatory evidence of the mute Egyptian drawings and hieroglyphics. Two eminent scholars in England, two scholars in Germany, and four of the most noted Egyptologists in this country join without a dissenting paragraph in the condemnation.
The sacred Mormon text was susceptible of accurate and complete analysis from the simple fact that it was taken from a genuine Egyptian original. The translation was a work of the Mormon prophet's curious imagination.
Within a few weeks all leading officials of the Mormon Church will receive from the Rt. Rev. F. S. Spalding, Episcopal Bishop of Utah, the results of an extended inquiry among the scholars of the world as to the accuracy of the Prophet Joseph Smith's work on ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics [Web-editor: See Why Egyptologists Reject the Book of Abraham]. Bishop Spalding has collected the opinions of the scholars for distribution among the Mormons themselves. He writes to the Mormons in a kindly mood, and describes the ideas of their prophet and founder as "self-delusions" instead of using a shorter and an uglier word.
Much of Bishop Spalding's work was done in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in this city. The ten rooms of the Egyptian collection yielded proof in such abundance that any layman, even in Egyptology, can take the drawings as published in the sacred Mormon record and reproduced on this page of THE TIMES, and find dozens of duplicates of certain figures in them on the walls of the Museum and in its cases of Egyptian objects.
A certain picture in the Mormon work representing Abraham "sitting on the throne of Pharaoh by the politeness of the King," really represents a scene depicted in the Museum's hieroglyphics a score or more of times. Father Abraham, therefore, must have been one of the best known Egyptian characters.
If a bit of Egyptian writing, again, represents what the Mormon prophet says it does, then practically every mummy that has been dug out of Egypt had a bit of the writings of Abraham tucked away beneath its head, and the mummy, buried with a religious service calling for the worship of many gods, was thus put to rest with a reverential prayer made to the one God whom Abraham recognized.
The "Sacred" Writings.
The sacred writing of the Mormons which Bishop Spalding holds up to the merciless light of modern scholarship is known among Mormons as "The Book of Abraham," and is published in a sacred volume entitled "The Pearl of Great Price." The other two books which the Mormons consider sacred are "The Book of Mormon," which purports to be a history of the American Indians and a white race which formerly dwelt on this Continent with them, and "The Doctrine and Covenants."
The "Doctrine and Covenants" consists of the laws which God, in His infinite wisdom laid down directly by word of mouth to the Prophet Joseph Smith. No witnesses were called in to testify that any of its messages from on high were actually delivered, so that the Mormons accept this work, with its divine order authorizing polygamous marriage, upon their general credence in their prophet.
The "Book of Mormon" was written, as Smith proclaimed, from golden plates delivered to him from a hill in New York State by an Angel of the Lord. He translated these plates by divine power, as he asserted, and then gave the originals back to the Angel. But, first, to give his book a credible standing, he had three men look over the golden plates, heft them, and hear the words of the Angel of the Lord concerning them. Also he had eight men look over the plates and heft them, but he did not admit them to the presence of the Angel. Each group made affidavits, and in Mormondom they are famed as "The Three Witnesses" and "The Eight Witnesses."
Their testimony is printed in the prefatory pages of the work with each edition as a notice to the world of its importance. The third sacred book, "The Pearl of Great Price," differs from the others in that it at least has a source that is traceable, and is taken from documents that are capable of translation by scholars in the field of Egyptology.
The reason why it took seventy years for this test to be applied to this important Mormon writing, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of devout believers to the Mormon cult, is explained by Bishop Spalding in a simple manner. When the Mormon prophet published his translation and proclaimed it divine, there was no one to challenge him because there was no Egyptian scholarship amounting to anything at that time. The working out of the Egyptian alphabet was a matter of more recent accomplishment, and the scholarship that has grown up in its wake has not had an opportunity to overhaul and submerge the Mormon claim to the divine origin of its sacred work.
It should be mentioned that in addition to their own particular three divine works the Mormons accept the King James version of the Bible, but with the proviso that they accept it only "so far as it is translated correctly." Their other sacred books they accept without any qualifications whatever.
In fact when the "Book of Mormon" first appeared it was pointed out in its behalf that it contained in their original purity certain early sections of the Bible which the original settlers of this Continent brought here with them from Jerusalem and kept with their records. It was also said that the Mormon prophet gained access to them through Divine favor. The "Book of Abraham" they especially delighted in because it gave to the Mormons without the corrupting influence of any Christian translation a new history of the world's formation direct from Abraham himself through the medium of an Egyptian mummy.
The Egyptian mummy and the papyrus inside of it were genuine enough, as is well attested through the scores of duplications of it which the Metropolitan and other museums contain. As Bishop Spalding concludes, and as Dr. Albert M. Lythgoe, head of the Department of Egyptian Art of the Metropolitan Museum, pointed out to the TIMES reporter, there is nothing so certain as that the Mormon prophet got hold of pictures showing the common mortuary ritual of the Egyptians and that these pictures recur time and time again throughout the whole period of Egyptian burials.
When the Mormon prophet obtained his mummy and the papyrus that went with it his followers were in a frenzy of delight over his powers as a divine translator. The mummy, in fact, was brought to him because of his reputation as a translator, gained through the use, as a boy, of his "seer stone" in place of the water witch to locate wells, and through the production of his "Book of Mormon."
As his followers already had a good deal of new scripture in his own special revelations, and from the writing on the gold plates he had given back to the Angel, it occurred to the prophet to oblige them with still some more scripture, produced from an Egyptian mummy.
When Bishop Spalding was obtaining data as in the real significance of the papyrus obtained by the Mormons, Dr. Lythgoe was absent from the Metropolitan Museum on an Egyptian expedition. He was found at the Museum last week, and a copy of the Mormon work, with drawings from the original of the Mormon papyrus, was shown him.
Palpable Mistakes.
"Sad copies of very familiar papyrus," he said, "and a sadder, a much sadder, translation. Come upstairs with me and I will show you several pictures that duplicate the figure that the Mormon prophet says is Abraham sitting on the throne of Pharaoh. It is merely Osiris, god of the underworld. And I will show you more duplicates of the figure the Mormons declare to be Pharaoh. It is Isis, wife of Osiris, who is always with him. And when it comes to the Mormon picture of 'God on His Throne, signifying the Grand Key-Words of the Holy Priesthood as revealed to Adam in the Garden of Eden,' why that is a sad joke.
"The representation is the most common of all in Egyptian papyri. It is the view of the 'Sun god in his boat.' The Mormon version is right in that this is the picture of a god, but it is the chief god of a polytheistic people instead of God, who was worshipped by monotheistic Abraham, and pictures of him were among the widely distributed pictures in Egypt."
An examination of the Mormon explanation of the three pictures from the papyrus, which the Mormons printed in their "Pearl of Great Price," indicated that at times the divine power of the prophet left him, because under some of the figures a legend was written in lieu of a translation, saying that it "ought not to be revealed at the present time," and "will be revealed in the fullness of the Lord." A weirdly concluding line after one part of the translation was this: "The above translation is given as far as we have any right to give it at the present time." Under another section was this: "This ought not to be revealed; if the world can find out these numbers so let it be. Amen."
The things that puzzled the inspired Mormon translator were no puzzle at all to Dr. Lythgoe. They were simply snatches of a hymn to the Sun god inserted on every flat disk that was put, for its magical effect as a charm, under the head of the ordinary mummy. The pictures were very badly drawn in the Mormon version, but still were near enough to the originals for their character to be known.
New York Times The Dec. 29 1912 Museum Walls Proclaim Fraud of Mormon Prophet
