Overview - The Book of Abraham

"Abraham and Isaac" by Titian
Located in the church of Santa Maria della Salute
Venice, Italy

     For those of you who don't know, the Pearl of Great Price is a collection of writings, translations, and testimonies written by Joseph Smith.  It is recognized as a standard work of the Church and today is one of the four scriptures used by the Mormon Church.  It contains an excerpt from Joseph Smith's translation of the Old Testament book Genesis (The Book of Moses), his translation of an ancient Egyptian papyri (The Book of Abraham), an excerpt from his translation of the New Testament book Matthew (Joseph Smith - Matthew), a section that covers his testimony and history (Joseph Smith - History), and the LDS statements of faith (The Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  Eventually I would like to discuss each of these books, but for now I will be dealing with the 2nd book of the Pearl of Great Price, namely the Book of Abraham. 

     A while ago, I decided to re-familiarize myself with this book as it had been a while since I picked it up.  Also, now being removed from the LDS church, I was curious to see how my new perspective would play out while reading it.  If you would like to read it for yourself, I would encourage you to do so.  It is a fairly quick read and would provide a lot of context to what I will be talking about.  You can read the entire book here.

     This book seems to fit in around the end of Genesis 11 and the beginning of chapter 12, as it starts off by providing some background as to why Abraham felt he had to leave the land of Chaldea.  The text says that the Chaldeans were evil idolaters (v. 6) practicing human sacrifices (v. 8-11) and that the priests tried to kill him as well (v. 12).  But God delivered Abraham from them (v. 15) and told Abraham of His great plan for him (v. 16-19).  This all gives context to why God told Abraham in Genesis 12:1 to leave his country.  

WHAT'S MY NAME AGAIN?

     One thing I found peculiar is that the Book of Abraham, which is claimed to have been penned by Abraham himself, is his name.  In the LDS text, Abraham refers to himself as "Abraham" (Abr. 2:2).  Now, recall in your Bible that during this time his name was Abram, not Abraham.  God would not change his name for another 15 or so years.  Now it is possible that Abraham wrote this book post-name change and therefore just inserts his new name into the story, but to me this doesn't seem to be a plausible explanation.  Here is why.

     Let me put it in perspective.  At 75 years old, Abram set out from Harran (Gen 12:4) with Sarai, Lot, and his crew.  He then traveled through Canaan, built an altar to the Lord for telling him that his offspring will possess this land, went to the hills east of Bethel, built another alter, entered Egypt and lied about Sarai being his sister,  traveled to Negev, traveled to Bethel, parted ways with Lot, walked “through the length and breadth of the land” (Gen 13:17) that God was going to give to him and ended up at Hebron, heard about Lot’s capture and took three-hundred and eighteen men as far as Dan, fought these men and then pushed them back as far as Hobah (North of Damascus), received blessings from Melchizedek king of Salem (who called him ‘Abram’), God tells Abram that he will have an heir of his own flesh and blood (Gen 15:4-5), he has a vision about his descendants, Sarai gives Abram her servant Hagar to sleep with, a year later – after Abram turns 86 - Ishmael is born, and then four more years happen.  After all of this happened, God changes his name to Abraham (Gen 17:1-5).  So after 90 years, he writes this book and just uses his new name with no mention of the change?  Now, remember this is a Joseph Smith Translation, which means that the Book of Abraham could theoretically be inserted into Genesis 11-ish.  However, since the "name-timeline" does not match up it does not work.

     Not to mention the significance of the name change itself.  God changed his family name.  That is HUGE!  Back then, your name was your birthright.  It was purposefully given to you by your fathers.  In the Bible, all the names mean something, so to change something so valuable as a name is a huge deal!  This is why the Bible makes clear that the Big Guy made the call, so it's cool.  The Book of Abraham, on the other hand, just disregards his former name and goes on as if nothing happened.  

     Again, this may not be 'proof' of anything, but it is something that I find very peculiar.   

NO, NO, NO.  SHE'S MY SISTER!

      According to this book, God tells Abraham “Behold, Sarai, thy wife, is a very fair woman to look upon; Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see her, they will say – She is his wife; and they will kill you, but they will save her alive; therefore see that ye do on this wise: Let her say unto the Egyptians, she is thy sister, and thy soul shall live.” (Abr. 2:22-24).  There are a few problems that I see with this account of Abraham’s life.  

     The first is that God, or more specifically Jehovah (v. 8), tells Abraham to lie.  This is a contradiction to the very nature of God.  God cannot lie (Titus 1:2) and He specifically commands us all to not tell false stories about one another (Exodus 20:16).  Why would God command his prophet to sin?  Remember that our God is Holy, Holy, Holy (Isaiah 6:3, Rev. 4:8).  That means He is pure and completely righteous.  Sin cannot even escape His mouth because it has no place in Him.  The idea that God would command His servant, the one through which the entire world would be reconciled to Him through, to sin is very difficult to believe.

     Secondly, the Bible says that after Pharaoh took Sarai into his palace the Lord inflicted serious diseases on him and his household “because of Abram’s wife Sarai” (Gen 12:17).  God allowed pain and suffering to be inflicted upon Egypt because they took the woman who God was going to establish His covenant with.  God was clearly not on board with the idea of claiming Sarai was his sister and made it known to everyone so that nothing could come from it.  Look at Pharaoh’s response. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?  Why did you say ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife.  Take her and go!” (Gen 12:18-19).  He is so upset that he was being punished by God for stealing a woman he had no idea was already taken.  He wants nothing to do with them and just orders them to get all their stuff and leave.  This begs the question as to why God would command Abraham to lie when it seems like they had nothing to worry about in the first place.
     Biblically speaking, Abram was the one who came up with the idea of lying out of fear.  It was not God's plan.  “I know what a beautiful woman you are.  When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.  Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” (Gen 12:11-13).  Abram told Sarai to lie because he feared for his life.  He didn’t trust God enough to protect him, so he took matters into his own hands. 
     Lastly, what did Abram get from the lie?  He didn’t receive any gold, or silver, or livestock, or power, or land, or servants, or women, or anything like that.  After the exchange, the Bible says that he took all that he had and left.  Pharaoh didn’t pay him to leave or anything, he just left.  So, say for arguments sake, that God did command Abram to lie.  What was the purpose?  Did God just want to inflict the Egyptians with diseases for a few hours/days/however long they were there for out of spite?  That seems pointless and counterproductive coming from a God who is perfectly purposeful.  

URIM AND THE THUMMIMMIMM....MIM

     Abraham learns about several things through the use of the Urim and the Thummim (Abr. 3:1).  Biblically speaking, the “Urim and the Thummim” are referenced several times in the OT, but they occur a bit later in time than where we are in this story.  In Exodus 28:30, they were attached to the breastpiece of the priestly garments so that Aaron would have the means to make decisions for God’s people.  It was even used to obtain answers for the Israelites (Num. 27:21, Neh. 7:65, Ezra 2:63, 1 Sam. 14:41, 1 Sam. 28:6).       Again, this is not 'proof' of anything, per-say.  It's just something I find odd.

PLANETS AND STARS

     Planets and stars are mentioned that modern Astrology has not been able to locate, which is saying a lot.  Celestial bodies such as Kolob which “according to its times and seasons in the revolutions thereof; that one revolution was a day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning, it being one thousand years according to the time appointed unto that whereon thou standest.  This is the reckoning of the Lord’s time, according to the reckoning of Kolob” (Abr. 3:4).  Furthermore, Kolob “is set nigh unto the throne of God [or God’s home], to Govern all those planets which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest [Earth]” (Abr. 3:9) There are other heavenly bodies mentioned in this text as well, such as the star Kokob, the moon Olea, and the stars Kokaubeam that are not recognized by the scientific world.

     Now, to be fair, modern science doesn't know everything.  So it is possible that these planets do exist but they have yet to be discovered.  However, it is also possible that these planets have never existed and are complete fabrications.  I'll let you decide on which.  

ANOTHER CREATION STORY?

     Abraham 3:21-5:21 discusses specifics of God's creation of the world.  However, in this text it is more like "the Gods' creation of the world."  These chapters refer to creation being done by "the Gods" and seems to be a dramatized version of Genesis, chapters 1 and 2.  The main difference here is that Abraham uses the plural form "Gods" to denote multiple Gods (polytheism) whereas the Bible refers to God as Elohim (plural form) with singular verbs, denoting a 3-1 God, or the Holy Trinity (monotheism).  For more information on this, which is very illuminating, check this out.  

     So, one book says there are multiple Gods and the other says there is one.  Again, I'll let you decide.  

CONCLUSIONS?

     You're a big boy/girl, you can decide for yourself.  I know what I believe, and I think from my writings and tone you can guess where I am going to land on this issue.  But, to be honest, even if I did tell you, it really wouldn't matter.  It's like I've heard time and time again, "You cannot argue someone into heaven."  Ultimately, you are going to have to look at the facts, at both sides, read it for yourself, and decide.  These are just a few of my findings/ramblings/etc. and I will do my best to post more to give you a broader perspective, but I can only do so much.  

Anyways, that's my two cents.