The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons/LDS) contends that it has four canonized written Scriptures that are authoritative for its doctrine and for the practice of its members. Those sources, referred to by the church as its “Four Standard Works” include The Bible (King James Version); The Book of Mormon- Another Testament of Jesus Christ; The Doctrine and Covenants; and The Pearl of Great Price. We have explained the histories and contents of those books and how they each fit into the story of Mormonism. See the following links for that material:
- The Book of Mormon: Is It “Another Testament of Jesus Christ?”
- Mormonism Versus Christianity- Can They Both Be Christian? Part 1
- Mormonism Versus Christianity – Can They Both Be Christian? Part 2
One of those four, The Pearl of Great Price, is a collection of five separate documents which, as it states in the title page, are “A Selection From the Revelations, Translations, and Narrations of Joseph Smith, First Prophet, Seer, and Revelator to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” They include: “Selections from the Book of Moses”, which is Joseph Smith’s additions to the book of Genesis; “The Book of Abraham”; “Joseph Smith- Matthew” which was his revision of the Gospel of Matthew verses 23:39 through chapter 24; “Joseph Smith- History” which is Smith’s own story of the discovery of the Book of Mormon and the founding of the LDS church; and “The Articles of Faith”, a list of supposedly essential doctrinal tenets of the church.
One section of The Pearl of Great Price that has garnered a great deal of interest over the past few decades among Mormons and nonMormons alike is “The Book of Abraham (BOA).” According to LDS teaching, it is purported to be a divinely inspired book written by the patriarch Abraham while he was sojourning in Egypt (see Genesis 12:10-20). In the book, Abraham describes how he rejected idolatry, married his wife Sarai, received special knowledge about the creation of the world, and was almost sacrificed to a pagan god. Joseph Smith claimed that in the late 1830s he miraculously translated the BOA text from Egyptian hieroglyphics. Eventually, in 1880, it was placed in the LDS canon of scripture. The full story of the bizarre history of the BOA and its historical controversy can be found at this link on the MarketFaith website: The Book of Abraham.
The key point is that for more than fifty years experts in Egyptology have made the case that Smith’s alleged translation of the Book of Abraham was fraudulent. Now new evidence is available from one of the nation’s top experts in Egyptology disproving Smith’s ersatz translation. Dr. Robert K. Ritner is head of the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute and a foremost expert on Egyptian writings. It should be noted he has never been a Mormon and as far as I know he is not an evangelical Christian, so he has no axe to grind or religious agenda.
In any case, earlier this year (2020) he recorded a three part series of extended (approximately 10 hours) and extremely detailed video interviews on the YouTube podcast “Mormon Stories.” In the podcasts he describes and visually shows his unsolicited and unpaid work analyzing the papyrus (Egyptian paper) texts from which Smith drew the Book of Abraham. He rigorously compared the words of Smith’s version to what he deciphered was actually on the papyri. His verdict was simple: Smith’s translations were nowhere near being accurate. This, of course, casts major doubt on his claims that he received miraculous revelations from God in The Pearl of Great Price, The Book of Mormon, or The Doctrine and Covenants.
I invite you to listen to the presentations for yourself, especially if you are a Mormon or are just interested in the subject. They are fascinating and very educational. Here are the links to the three YouTube video interviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORNYUyHg3pY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H70IdpLHhZE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df4flxToFvM