Review of John Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Religious
Studies Center, 2017), 197 pp.
A couple of months ago, in the spirit of Doctrine and
Covenants 88:118, I made a sort of “faith crisis prevention” reading list,
consisting of what I considered the 15 “best books” on several important and
controversial topics related to the Church, its history, doctrine, and
scripture. That list included An Introduction to the Book of Abraham,
despite the fact the book was not available yet.
I did this based on having skimmed over an earlier
pre-publication version of the book a few years ago. I am now pleased to say,
having now read the final, published version of the book, that I absolutely
stand by my original recommendation. This is, indeed, the “best book” to read
for an overview on the issues and research on the Book of Abraham.
John Gee writes as an active member of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints and as a professional Egyptologist with an
extensive list of relevant publications with some of the most prestigious
publishers and journals. Despite this fact, however, Gee does an impressive job
of keep the material clear, concise, and readable for a lay audience. The book
was easy to read and surprisingly thorough in its coverage of the pertinent
issues, all in under 200 pages—no simple task for a such a complex and thorny
historical conundrum like the Book of Abraham.
Gee begins with a historical overview (pp. 1–12) that
provides background on how the papyri came into Joseph Smith’s hands in the
first place, what happened to them after the translation was complete, and how
some fragments ended up back in the possession of the Church in the 1960s. The
longest chapter in the book discusses, in a broad sense, Joseph Smith’s
involvement with the papyri (pp. 13–42), including his translation and
publication of the Book of Abraham, and the so-called Kirtland Egyptian Papers
(KEP), also known as the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language (GAEL).
At the beginning of this discussion, Gee notes that it is unclear
to what extent Joseph was involved in various activities connected to the
papyri, and argues that a “minimalist” approach to Joseph’s involvement—where
only that which is explicitly attributed to Joseph by the evidence—is “the safe
scholarly approach and avoids unnecessary speculation” (p. 14). This becomes
especially important when it comes to the KEP/GAEL, a series of documents
largely in the handwriting of various scribes and others close to Joseph. As
Gee notes, nearly everything about these documents is uncertain, including
Joseph’s involvement with their development (p. 32–33). Despite this
uncertainty, many secular or naturalistic theories about the origins of the
Book of Abraham are built upon these documents, placing them, in Gee’s view, on
shaky ground.
Next, Gee provides a brief survey of the contents of the Book
of Abraham (pp. 43–47), and then, to determine “whether ancient Egyptians might
plausibly have had such a book” (p. 47), he reviews stories about Abraham that
were circulating among Egyptians about Abraham around the time-period the papyri
are from (pp. 49–55). This is followed by a fascinating exploration of what Gee
has learned about the ancient owners of the papyri—where they lived, their
profession, and the gods they worshipped (pp. 57–72). Since all the previous research
on this subject appeared only in professional Egyptological publications, this chapter
makes the most original contributions to LDS Book of Abraham studies. Gee then
reviews the contents of the surviving Joseph Smith Papyri (pp. 73–81).
It’s now at this point where Gee begins to address topics
most people are likely to have questions about, such as the relationship
between the papyri and the text of Book of Abraham (pp. 83–86), and the historicity
(pp. 87–96) and ancient context (pp. 97–105) of the story. While it might seem
strange that such popular topics are not addressed until the about 80 pages
into the book, the flow of the book from topic to topic is very smooth and
logical. There is no question that the foregoing discussion adds helpful context
and perspective that is just as important to answering questions about the Book
of Abraham.
As Gee begins to tackle the Book of Abraham’s relationship
to the papyri, Gee is careful to point out that there are various existing
theories and frankly admits, “for none of the theories is the evidence as neat
or as compelling as one might wish” (p. 86). Gee reviews the strengths and
weaknesses of each theory, and notes, “Whichever theory one chooses to follow,
one must be prepared to deal with the problems posed by the evidence that the
theory cannot account for” (p. 84). Nonetheless, Gee is also clear that he
feels “the theory that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Abraham from papyri
that we no longer have accounts for the most evidence with the fewest problems”
(p. 86).
From there, Gee points out that while the Book of Abraham
cannot be compared against missing papyri, it can be compared “with what is known of Abraham’s time and place”
(p. 86), which leads into Gee’s discussion of historical authenticity. Again,
Gee is careful to lay out the various views and perspectives on the relationship
of the Book of Abraham to history, and argues that some of these positions are
more intellectually stable than others (pp. 87–90).
Gee also makes the important point that there is no way of getting around religious biases in this discussion. “On the basic issues of
historical authenticity there is no agreement whatsoever between believers and
nonbelievers” (p. 90). This is a natural result of the simple fact that, “Any
theory … that has Joseph Smith translating an authentic ancient text assumes
that he had to have done so by divine inspiration” (p. 84). Thus, to those who
reject the divine inspiration of the translation, “the notion of discussing
archaeological or ancient evidence of the Book of Abraham makes as much sense
as discussing the archaeology of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Gondor or the location of
Jane Austin’s Pemberley; they are fictional and never existed, so it makes no
sense to treat them as real” (p. 90).
Gee also makes it a point to discuss the limitations of
scholarly methods in discussing the historical authenticity of ancient
documents, noting that suspect documents cannot be proven authentic. This is
because, by design, scholarly tests can only prove a document is a fake, or be inconclusive—a
document that passes all tests for authenticity could potentially be a very
good forgery (p. 92). Thus, “The best that can be done is to show that a
document is plausible in the setting which it claims for itself,” but we must
always remember, “Historical plausibility does not preclude the existence of
alternative hypotheses or explanations” (p. 92). This means that no argument
for the authenticity of the Book of Abraham can overcome skepticism of divine
revelation or eliminate the need for faith.
The next several chapters discuss the Book of Abraham in an
ancient Near Eastern setting which Gee believes provides the most compelling
background to the text. Following the narrative of Book of Abraham, Gee goes
over the historical setting for Abraham in northern Syria (pp. 97–105), the
Abrahamic covenant and ancient Near Eastern covenant patterns (pp. 107–113),
and the astronomy of the Book of Abraham compared with ancient understandings
of astronomy (pp. 115–120).
Gee then discusses the pre-existence described in Abraham 3,
but now his focus is no longer on ancient context, but the unique and
invaluable doctrinal knowledge provided by Abraham’s vision and its reception
among Latter-day Saints (pp. 121–127). While I appreciate the doctrinal
insights, I was left somewhat confused as to why the ancient perspective was
abandoned at this point. I would have liked to see some discussion about how
Abraham’s vision of the pre-existence fits the pattern of a divine council
scene as found in ancient Israel and the Near East more broadly. Since the
divine council was often associated with the stars, this would have dovetailed especially
well with Gee’s observation in the astronomy chapter that the transition from
stars (ach) and spirits (ich) in Abraham 3 reflects an Egyptian
wordplay (p. 117).
As Gee moves on to the creation, he again returns to the
ancient world, reviewing how the creation account in the Book of Abraham
differs from Genesis and how it compares with other ancient Near Eastern creation
myths, noting particularly how some aspects of the Abraham creation are closer
to Egyptian creation myths (pp. 129–136). Gee then discusses his views on how
biblical source criticism relates to the Abrahamic creation account and the
relationship between science and scripture (pp. 136–142). These views are
likely to prove controversial for different reasons among different audiences,
even among the Latter-day Saints. Those who are more open to the Documentary
Hypothesis, for example, will take issue with Gee’s stance on source criticism,
while more literalist thinkers are likely to push back against Gee’s approach
to scientific issues related to the creation. In both cases, no approach is
likely to please everybody. Gee is to be commended for including discussion of these
controversial topics and articulating his views clearly and concisely.
From here, Gee goes into a brief discussion of the facsimiles
(pp. 143–156). This was, in my view, the weakest part of the whole book. That’s
not to say the chapter is bad or the information provided here is not helpful—to
the contrary, Gee provides important background about the papyri each facsimile
came from, the uncertainty about how they are connected to the Book of Abraham
or who made those connections, and the difficulties of interpreting them due to
their uniqueness. But the discuss of each of the facsimiles individually felt a
bit on the shallow side, even for an introduction.
Gee opts to simply discuss “the overall interpretation” of
each facsimile instead of review them figure-by-figure, an understandable
decision since a figure-by-figure review would be impossible in a short
introduction like this (p. 148). In each case, Gee identifies general ways
similar Egyptian iconography has been tied to Abraham, which is certainly
interesting and useful, but I couldn’t help but feel that people with questions
about the facsimiles would feel left wanting. At least some brief discussion of
a few of the major controversies and highlighting a few of the more direct “hits”
in the interpretation of the figures would have made this chapter more satisfying,
I think.
Gee closes out the book by discussing the impact of the Book
of Abraham in both ancient (pp. 157–161) and modern times (pp. 163–173). Gee
then provides a helpful FAQ hitting on some of the more salient points of
discussion found throughout the text (pp. 175–184). The book is kept visually
interesting with the inclusion of various images, charts, and maps scattered
throughout the volume, all of which provide useful information and are
incorporated into an aesthetically attractive layout. Most chapters also
included “further reading” recommendations with annotations, making it easy for
interested readers to further pursue research into various topics.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed reading An Introduction to the Book of Abraham, and feel that it provides a
much needed introduction and guide to all the important issues and research on
the Book of Abraham. I highly recommend it to interested lay persons and more
informed readers alike.
Comments
Post a Comment