Brian M. Hauglid

John Laurence Gee

Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant is the third volume in the FARMS series and includes papers from a recent conference on the subject. Rather than focus on biblical interpretations of Abraham, each chapter instead explores a lesser-known aspect of Abrahamic studies: his startling visions of the heavens, comparisons between the Book of Abraham and other ancient texts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, and an investigation into shifting interpretations of Abraham throughout nineteenth-century America. The compilation is an excellent introduction to recent scholarship on the subject and will prove to be fascinating reading.

Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant

John A. Tvedtnes

Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham represents the first in a series of books in the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) collection at Brigham Young University. Here the authors have assembled and translated more than 100 ancient and medieval stories from their original Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Persian, Coptic, and Egyptian sources, all in an effort to piece together the early life of Abraham. This unprecedented compilation sheds new light on the Book of Abraham as an authentic ancient text and will be a welcome resource for biblical and religious studies scholars.

Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham

When the Book of Abraham was first published to the world in 1842, it was published as "a translation of some ancient records that have fallen into [Joseph Smith's] hands from the catacombs of Egypt, purporting to be the writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called 'The Book of Abraham, Written by his Own Hand, upon Papyrus.'" The resultant record was thus connected with the papyri once owned by Joseph Smith, though which papyrus of the four or five in his possession was never specified. Those papyri would likely interest only a few specialists--were the papyri not bound up in a religious controversy. This controversy covers a number of interrelated issues, and an even greater number of theories have been put forward about these issues. Given the amount of information available, the various theories, and the variety of fields of study the subject requires, misunderstandings and misinformation often prevail. The goal with the Introduction to the Book of Abraham is to make reliable information about the Book of Abraham accessible to the general reader.

John Laurence Gee

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