Manuscript from which the Prophet Joseph Smith obtained

Facsimile 1, part of the Book of Abraham, is included ~n

..this valuable find.

Egyptian Papyri Rediscovered

By Jay M. ToddEdito1'ial A.~sociate.

• Perhaps no discovery in recent mem­ory is expected to arouse as muchwidespread interest in the restored gos­pel as is the recent discovery of someEgyptian papyri, one of which isknown to have been used by theProphet Joseph Smith in producingthe Book of Abraham.

The papyri, long thought to havebeen burned in the Chicago fire of1871, were presented to the Church onNovember 27,1967, in New York Cityby the Metropolitan Museum of Art,more than a year after Dr. Aziz S.Atiya, former director of the Univer­sity of Utah's Middle East Center, hadmade his startling discovery whilebrowsing through the New York mu­seum's papyri collection.

Included in the collection of 11 man-

Plloto:. by J Heslop

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uscripts is one identified as theoriginal document from which JosephSmith obtained Facsimile 1, whichprefaces the Book of Abraham in thePearl of Great Price. Accompanyingthe manuscripts was a letter datedMay 26, 1856, signed by both EmmaSmith Bidamon, widow of the ProphetJoseph Smith, and their son, JosephSmith, attesting that the papyri hadbeen the property of the Prophet.

Some of the pieces of papyrusapparently include conventional hiero­glyphics (sacred inscriptions, resembl­ing picture-drawing) and hieratic (acursive shorthand version of hiero­glyphics) Egyptian funerary texts,which were commonly buried withEgyptian mummies. Often the funerarytexts contained passages from the

Dr. Aziz Atiya examines manuscripts in the room in which he foundthe papyri and document signed by Emma Smith.

Dr. Aziz Atiya, Dr. Joseph Noble, Dr. Thomas P. F. Hoving, PresidentTanner compare Facsimile No. 1 with original.

"Book of the Dead," a book that was toassist in the safe passage of the deadperson into the spirit world. It is notknown at this time whether the teIlother pieces of papyri have a directconnection with the Book of Abraham.

It was also discovered that on thebacking of three of the manuscripts(the backing was pasted to the fragilemanuscripts, apparently by the Proph­et. Joseph, to give them firm support)are some jottings, hand-drawn maps,and apparent notations of townships,all thought to be in the ProphetJoseph Smith's handwriting. Theirimportance or revelance has not yetbeen ascertained but will be of intenseinterest to Latter-day Saint historians.

The collection of manuscripts waspresented to President N. Eldon Tan­ner of the First Presidency by ThomasP. G. Hoving, director of the Metro­politan Museum of Art, in an impres­sive ceremony held in the N ew Yorkmuseum and attended by worldwidenews agencies. After being displayedin the Church offices in Salt Lake

January 1968

City, the manuscripts were turnedover to Dr. Hugh Nibley, scholar, lin­guist at Brigham Young University,arid contributing editor of The Im­provement Era. for further researchand study.

The story of the unusual manner inwhich the Prophet Joseph Smith ob­tained the original papyri and fourI:gyptian mummies has been told oftenand is full of adventure and fascina­tion. But of equal interest is the storyof Dr. Aziz S. Atiya's discovery of thepapyri in the Metropolitan Museumof Art, which is best told in his ownwords:

"1 was writing a book at the time,one that 1had started while a profes­sor of world Christianity and easternChristianity, and 1went to the Metro­politan Museum of Art looking fordocuments, papyri, pictures, and illus­trations to serve the book. It musthave been in the early spring of 1966.1 really forget the date. My book wasready for the press, and r was lookingfor supplementary material.

"While 1 was in one of the dimrooms where everything was broughtto me, something caught my eye, and1 asked one of the assistants to takeme behind the bars into the storehouseof documents so that 1 could looksome more. While there 1 found afile with these documents. 1 at oncerecognized the picture part of it. When1 saw this picture, '1 knew. that it hadappeared in the Pearl of Great Price.r knew the general format of the pic­ture. This kind of picture one canfind generally on other papyri, butthis particular one has special pecu­liarities. For instance, the head hadfallen off, and 1 could see that thepapyrus was stuck on paper, nine­teenth ce-!1turypaper. The head wascompleted in pencil, apparently byJoseph Smith, who must have had itwhen. that part fell off. He apparentlydrew' the head in his own hand on thesupplementary paper. Also, the handsof the mummy, raised as they are, andthe leg, raised as it is-usually themummies lie strai~ht forward-are

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very peculiar. This papyrus is Egyp­tian, true enough, but what it standsfor, I really don't know.

"Now when I saw this, I began tosearch further. I saw more pieces ofpapyri stacked together and suspectedthat Providence had assisted. Anotherdocument was found with these docu­ments, signed by Joseph Smith's wife,his son, and someone else, testifyingthat these papyri were treasured andowned by Joseph Smith.

"In 1918 a Mrs. Heusser came to themuseum and informed the officialsthat she had some papyrus, but anunderstanding was not reached until1947. They were then acquired bythe museum, and then the museumchanged curators of Egyptian antiqui­ties and the whole subject was for­gotten.

"When I saw these documents, Ireally was taken back. I know theMormon commimity, what it standsfor, its scripture, etc., a"(ld I !laid atonce that these documents don't be­long here; They belong to the Mor­mon Church. Well, of course, thepeople in the museum are good friendsof mine, and I tried to tempt them intoceding the documents to the Church.I informed my good friend TazaPeirce, who is executive secretary ofthe Salt Lake Council for InternationalVisitors, and we discussed the mannerin which I should acquaint the Mor­mon community of the find. She sug­gested I see President Tanner, aridshe was the intermediary who arrangedand attended our first two meetings.Thereafter, I met directly with Presi­dent Tanner, who had said the Churchwas very, very interested and would doanything 'or pay any priCe for them.Since that time, we worked quietlyon the possibility of their transferenceto the Church.

"In these kinds of things, I neverpush. I take my time. With somekindly persuasions and discussions,the museum ultimately put a memo­randum on the subject to the boardof trustees of the museum. This tooka long time to come to that step. TheBoard discussed the matter at verygreat length, greater length than youmight think, and in the end theythought that since the museum hadpapyri of this nature in plenty, whyshould they keep these documentsfrom the Church?

"When their generous decision wasmade, it was telephoned to me by thecurator, and he wrote to me also. Thenwe had a lull in the situation, because

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the curator had .to go to Egypt for amonth iri order to arrange final stepsfor the transference to the Metropoii~tan Museum of another treasure, inwhich I also had a hand. It coricernsIi great temple that is being presentedby the Egyptian government to theAmerican nation in recognition of thecontributions America has 'made to­ward the salvage of the Abyssinianmonuments.

"When the curator came back, hereported' very nicely about the subjectand said, 'The decision has beentaken; your Mormon friends are go­ing to get these papyri. So, yoti goto your friendsaIid the President ofthe Church and make the necessaryarrangements for a ·ceremony.'

"Of course, President Tanner wasjust as excited as J was. He reportedto President McKay, who was very.enthusiastic about the project also.We then decided. the way in whichthe ceremony would be conducted.

"I felt very honored and· very, verypleased to be in the center of the'picture with such. a' distinguished per­son as President Tanner and Mr.Thomas P. G. Hoving, who is directorof the museum. He's a very hnportantmali, as is his assistant and vice di­rector, Dr. Joseph Noble: He's a veryfine man. All of them were there,and to my surprise I found that thepapyri Were prepared in a very finebox for safekeeping.

"But during the morning of that dayI made it a point to go in at an earlyhour, long before the meeting of thesemagnates, in order. to make sure thatthe papyri. were there-not only thepapyri, because what is of importanceis the document that accompanied thepapyri. It was a faded thing, in nine­teenth century hand. I found thatthe. museum had photographed it.Well, of course, they had tried tophotograph it before, but it wouldn'tshow because it was very faded bluepaper. Now they used infra-red andultra-violet photography to get thetext out, so that now the photographis very much better than the original.

"I was enchanted about. the dis­covery of the papyri, which had beenin the hands of Joseph Smith, butthe discoveries were not ended there.On the morning of handing over thepapyri, I began looking them up anddown, up and down, and lot I foundon the back of the paper on which thepapyri were glued writings and mapsand an enumeration of townships andmaterial of the highest value to Mar-

mon history, made, I thin~, by JosephSmith's own hand. Three of the backswere full of notes and maps, whichhave to be studied by the specialists. Iam 'not a specialist of that; but I havean eye for original documents, andthese papyri documents are not fakes;they are original Egyptian papyri ofa pre-Christian era. They could befrom 3000 B.C. to 300 B.C.-over 300B.C.,at any rate. That is my estimate.The era will have to be decided by thespecialists.

"I know the kind of ink the Egyp­tians used and the difference betweenthe genuine and the ·fake. Papyruswritings were usually placed with themummy~papyri of many kinds-butessentially the "Book of the Dead,"which would give the mummy safepassage to the world beyond. Thepapyri were sometimes colored. Youfind papyri like this with blue, gold,and red colors. This was not out ofthe ordinary. With regard to the inkused, it was generally made of sootand glue, and that is why it was eter­nal. . I think these scrolls are writtenin that kind of ink. Usually the priestsdid the writing-they were mostskilled. They used reed pens, andhad to sharpen the reed and split itin the middle.

"The Egyptians had the papyrusplant, arid they used to split it intothin layers and put the layers criss­cross on one another, pound them witha wooden hammer, and then gluethem together. They cut them to' suitthe purposes of the documents theywanted to write. Usually long stripswere used to make scrolls, and thisone was made in that fashion.

"In order to protect the papyrus,which bec<;>mesbrittle with age~forinstance, the head of the person felloff simply because the papyruswas brittle-:-Joseph Smith probablythought that the best thing for itsprotection was to glue it on paper.When I first discovered these docu­ments, I was so excited about theEgyptian writings that I did not lookon the back of the paper, but when Ireturned to the museum, I noticedthe writings on the back by JosephSmith. These writings may not turnout to be of very great importance;however, any footnote one can get inthe restoration of Mormon history isvaluable.

"The exciting part, which has provedbeyond doubt that this was the papyrithat was in Joseph Smith's hand, wasestablished by' that document signed

Improvement Era

by his widow. When I saw that, Ihad it transcribed and a copy type­written to show to President Tanner.

"Do you know that this discoveryappeared in the Egyptian press onthe day following the ceremony? Onthe first page of the most importantpaper! You would be surprised at the'attention that was given to this dis­covery, and apparently the Egyptianswere very pleased about the revealingof these documents. I consider it agreat honor to have been able tomake this discovery. Great discoveriesare always accidental, and this onewas as accidental as any discovery Ihave made-and probably more excit­ing than all of them. It was an honorto have been able to persuade such anaugust body as the MetropolitanMuseum to present it to another bodyas august as the Mormon Church. Ifeel flattered to have been able to dowhat I did."

The fact that Dr. Atiya made thediscovery and so energetically atteststo the manuscript's authenticity asthat which Joseph Smith used in partin the translation of the Book ofAbraham is of no little importance.Dr. Atiya is a world-recognizedscholar and researcher of Egyptianand Arabic manuscripts. He was in­strumental in building the Universityof Utah's Middle East Library to whathas been called "perhaps the finest inits field in America." (The library,named for Dr. Atiya, was previouslyregarded as one of the five finest inthe U.S.) I.Ie is one of three Distin­guished Professors at the university.He is well-regarded for his lecturesand writings while at the universitiesof Michigan, Columbia, .Princeton,Liverpool, London, Bonn, Zurich, Cairo,and Alexandria. He is the author ofapproximately 20 volumes and about50 monograph articles.

But of lasting importance are hiswritings on the .Crusades of the MiddleAges and his studies and writings ofhis own Orthodox Coptic religion. Heis also the founder of the Institute ofCoptic Studies in Cairo. In essence,he is a well-recognized fellow amongthe worldwide community of scholars.

It could as well be said of Dr.Atiya's discovery as that which ParleyP. Pratt said of Joseph's reception ofEgyptian mummies and papyrus inthe first place: "Singular is the provi­dence by which this ancient record fellinto the hands of the servant of theLord, Joseph Smith."

Indeed, the story of how Joseph

January 1968

Smith received the papyri is veryfascinating, one seemingly filled withprovidential direction. Some of thedetails are still clouded, although newresearch each year seems to divulgeadditional bits of information, but theprinciple points of the episode are ingeneral agreement: Napoleon's 1798­99 conquest of Egypt turned theworld's attention toward the land ofpharaohs, and Egypt was soon over­run with both scientific expeditionsand robbers of catacombs and ancientburial sites. One of those early ad­venturers interested in Egyptian an­tiquities was a Piedmontese namedAntonio Lebolo, who worked as anagent for one of the powerful antiquitybarons of the day, Bernardino Drovet­ti. While in Egypt durmg what nowappears to be at least as early as 1817,Lebolo obtained a license to enter thecatacombs in Thebes, Egypt. He dis­covered a pit tomb near a place calledGurneh, near Thebes, and foundmany mummies therein. He turnedthe best of them over to Drovetti butmanaged to keep some for himself. Helater left Egypt en route to Francevia Trieste with some mummies, 11 ofwhich eventually reached America.

While on the island of Trieste hebecame ill and died. This is believedto have been in 1823. It has long beenpresumed that the mummies JosephSmith eventually received· were fromLebolo's find, and that Lebolo willedthem to Michael H. Chandler, who hasbeen presumed to have been Lebolo'snephew. But some present-day scholarsquestion Chandler's relationship toLebolo. As early as 1885 N. L. Nel­son, in an address at Brigham YoungAcademy at Provo, said that Chandlerreceived the mummies from an "Eng­lish Minister Plenipotentiary." Such aperson might have been Henry Salt,a famous representative of the crownin Egypt, who died in 1827. Atany event, Chandler apparently wasthought to be in Ireland, and themummies were apparently sent to Ire­land via London. Chandler's friends re­directed the mummies· to America,where Chandler was living in Phila­delphia. The mummies eventuallyarrived at the New York City custom­house.

Scholars have observed that it seemsnothing short of miraculous that themummies and their important recordsshould have safely navigated throughthe rough waters of antiquity barons,catacomb plunderers, dishonest andrival agents in search of mummies, to

eventually find safe port in the NewYork harbor.

In April 1833 Michael H. Chandlerpaid the customs duties, took posses­sion of the 11 mummies, and openedthem. He was disappointed in notfinding jewels or something of greatmonetary value, but he did find sev­eral rolls of papyrus. Providenceseemingly once more entereg thestory, for while yet in the custom­house, Chandler was informed thatthere was no man in the city whocould translate the scrolls, "but wasreferred, by the same gentleman (astranger), to Mr. Joseph Smith, Jr.,who, continued he, possesses some kindof power or gifts, by which he hadpreviously translated similar char­acters."

It was more than two years later,on July 3, 1835, that Chandler metthe Prophet Joseph. During thoseyears Chandler had exhibited for anominal charge the mummies andeven sold seven of them to privatemuseums.

According to James R. Clark, a per­sistent and intelligent student of thehistory of our Pearl of Great Price,apparently a Benjamin Bullock ofMoirie, New York, a nonmember' buta relative of Heber C. Kimball, hadheard of Joseph Smith, and whenBullock met Chandler, he offered totake him more than 250 miles bywagon to Kirtland, Ohio, to meet theProphet.

(An interesting sidelight is that asa result of Bullock's visit to Kirtland,he returned to his home greatly im­pressed with Joseph Smith. He tookwith him a copy of the Book of Mor­mon. After he and' his wife read it,they moved west to be with theChurch.)

When they reached Kirtland, Mr.Chandler asked the Prophet Joseph ifhe had the power to translate thescrolls, and Joseph replied that hehad. The Prophet records that he gaveChandler an interpretation of some of.the material on the scrolls.

Mr. Chandler was so impressed thathe wrote a certificate testifying ofJoseph Smith's "deciphering the an­cient Egyptian hieroglyphic char­acters" "to correspond in the mostminute matters"· with that whichChandler had learned from "the mostlearned."

The Prophet records in his Docu­mentary History of the Church (Vol.2, page 236): "Soon after this, someof the Saints at Kirtland purchased

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The official presentation ceremonies in New York in which President Tanner acceptedpapyri from Dr. Thomas P. F. Hoving.

the mummies and papyrus, a descrip­ti.on .of which will appear hereafter,and with W. W. Phelps and OliverC.owdery as scribes, I c.ommenced thetranslati.on .of s.ome .of the characters.or hierglyphics, and much t.o .our j.oyf.ound that .one .of the r.olls c.ontainedthe writings .of Abraham, an.other thewritings .of J.oseph .of Egypt, etc.-am.ore full acc.ount .of which will ap­pear in its place, as I pr.oceed t.oexamine .or unf.old them."

C.oncerning the f.our -mummies, tliePr.ophet generally admitted that hedid n.ot kn.ow wh.o the mummies were,alth.ough s.ome sec.ondary s.ources laterrep.orted that the Pr.ophet identi­fied them as a phara.oh, _a queen, aprincess, and a slave. The r.olls .ofpapyrus are kn.own t.o have been with.one .ofthe female mummies. C.oncern­ing the r.olls, it has been surmisedthat apparently they were .originalrec.ords .or c.opies .of .original rec.ordsmade by Abraham and his grands.onJ.oseph, and written up.on by succeed­ing rec.ord keepers and phara.ohs .overseveral th.ousand years' durati.on.

The result is well-kn.own t.o Latter­day Saints. The Pr.ophet interpreteds.ome .of the writings .on the scr.olls,and this interpretati.on and facsimiles1, 2, and 3 make up .our present Book.ofAbraham. S.ome present-day sch.ol­ars think that part .of the papyri thatJ.oseph had in his p.ossessi.on c.on­tained an actual primer in the Egyp­tian alphabet and grammar previ.ousiyprepared by its ancient auth.ors f.orthe benefit .offuture translat.ors. It isals.o kn.own that the Pr.ophet pr.om­ised "further extracts fr.om the B.o.ok.of Abraham" than th.ose writings thatwe already have, but martyrd.om cutsh.ort his publicati.on .ofnew materials.(J.ohn Tayl.or, Times and Seasons,Feb. 1843.)

At any rate, after the martyrd.om.of the _Pr.ophet, the mummies andmanuscripts were turned .over t.oJ.oseph's m.other, Lucy Mack Smith.At her death in May 1855, the mum­mies and manuscripts were kept byEmma Smith· Bidamon, with wh.omLucy Mack Smith lived the tw.o yearsprevious to her death. Emma SmithBidam.on was the Pr.ophet's wid.owandhad since married L. C. Bidam.on.Sh.ortly after .one year .of h.olding themummies and manuscripts, Emmas.old them t.o a Mr. A. Co.ombs.

It was this letter .of sales t.o Mr. A.Co.ombs, signed by Emma Smith Bida­mon and dated May 26, 1856, in addi­tion t.o the 11 pieces of papyri, thatwas f.ound by Dr. Atiya. The letter

reads: "This certifies that we haves.old t.o Mr. A. Combs f.our EgyptianMummies with the rec.ords .of them.This mummies were .obtained from thecatac.oms .ofEgypt sixty feet below thesurface .ofthe Earth. by the antiquari­tan society of Paris & f.orwarded t.oNew Y.ork & purchased by the M.or­m.on Pr.ophet J.oseph Smith at theprice .of twenty f.our hundred dollarsin the year eighteen hundred thirtyfive they were highly prized by Mr.Smith .on account of the imp.ortancewhich attached t.o the record whichwere accidentaly f.ound enclosed inthe breast .of .one .of the Mummies.From translati.ons by Mr. Smith ofthe Rec.ords. these Mummies weref.ound to be the family .of Phar.o Kingof Egypt. they were kept exclusively byMr. Smith until his death & since bythe Mother of Mr. Smith n.otwith­standing we have had repeated .offerst.o purchase which have invariablybeen refused until her death whichoccurred on the f.ourteenth day .ofMay last." Signed: "L. C. Bidam.on,Emma Bidam.on, J.oseph Smith [hers.on]. Nauvo.o, Hancock C.o. Ill, May26."

The next acc.ount .of the mummiesappears in the 1859 "St. L.ouis Mu­seum Catalogue" and then in the 1863"Chicago Museum Catal.ogue," page42, in which are described tw.o mum­mies that were "kept by the Pr.ophet'sm.other until his death, when the heirss.old them, and were sh.ortly afterpurchased for the Museum."

A great fire destr.oyed muCh of Chi­cag.oin 1871, and it had been presumed

that the mummies and manuscriptswere burned in that fire, even thoughthe 1856, 1859, and 1863 catal.ogues d.onot give any information about the tw.oother mummies or the manuscripts.Inf.ormation .on the tw.o .other mum­mies and the rest of the papyri manu­scripts used by the Prophet may yetc.ome forth in some future day.

The c.ollecti.on recently f.ound byDr. Atiya first came to the attenti.on.of the New Y.ork Metr.op.olitan Mu­seum .ofArt in 1918. Apparently Mr.A. C.o.ombshad n.ot disposed .of allhis purchases made fr.om Emma SmithBidam.on, because in 1918 a Mrs. Alice­C. Heusser of Br.o.oklyn, New Y.ork,to.ok the recently discovered papyriand d.ocument signed by Emma Smitht.o the Metr.op.olitan Museum f.orevaluati.on. Mrs. Heusser was adaughter .of the housekeeper of Mr.A. C.oombs. But the museum did n.otbuy the collection .of papyri untilEdward Heusser, husband .of Alice,­finally s.old them t.o the museum in

-1947. The papyri have been in themuseum's files since that time.

Thus, the stage was set for the re­markable discovery .of Dr. Atiya.These pieces of papyrus, .only part .ofthe ones J.oseph Smith had in hispossessi.on, are n.ow back in the hands.of the Church. They are a remark­ably p.owerful and tangible testim.onyt.o the truthfulness .of the Pr.ophet'sclear and simply told story that he hadin his hands some .original papyrid.ocuments, some of which -he used inpr.oducing the Bo.ok.ofAbraham in thePearl .ofGreat Price. 0

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