Charles M. Larson - By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus

By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus

A new look at the Joseph Smith papyri

By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus Part 1

A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri Part 1 (Chapters 1-4)

By:

Charles M. Larson

Post date:

Copyright 1 992 Institute for Religious Research. All rights reserved.

Notice: By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus by Charles M. Larson is Copyright 1992 by the Institute

for Religious Research in both its printed and electronic forms. Users of the Mormons In Transition

Internet web site have permission to download it and make one printed copy and one computer disk

copy for their personal use. Permission may be granted to make additional copies, but only after a

request is submitted to the publisher. Please make your request in writing to the Institute for

Religious Research, 600 West Street, Cedar Springs, MI 49319, USA.

Under no conditions may this file or any reproduction of it be sold. This electronic version of the

book By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus or any derivative version may not be posted to the Internet or

other computer network without the express written permission of the publisher.

Note: This version of the text does not contain some important elements available in the printed

book, including the first published color photographs of the complete Joseph Smith Papyri

collection, as well as photographs of the original translation manuscripts, and other important

documentation. You will also notice occasional references in the text to charts, illustrations or other

graphic elements that do not appear with the text. Unfortunately, these were incompatible with the

text format of this file.

FOREWORD

One of the most exciting events in modern Mormon history was the rediscovery of some of the

Egyptian papyri which the Prophet Joseph Smith had in his possession when he produced his Book

of Abraham translations. Long thought to have been destroyed in a fire in Chicago, they had in

reality found their way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where they resurfaced

in 1967. Their rediscovery established for certain that Joseph Smith had authentic Egyptian

documents on which he based his translation of the Abrahamic work now published in the Pearl of

Great Price.

The rediscovery of these Joseph Smith Papyri, as they have come to be known, sent scholars

rushing in all directions to explore the meaning and full implications of these texts. Articles and

books have flooded the market examining every facet of these documents.

For a long time the average reader has needed someone to bring into manageable form this mass of

material. Charles Larson has had the patience and skill to render us this service. Complications have

been reduced to understandable terms, various theories have been set forth and evaluated, and the

essential facts have always been kept before the readers eyes. To do these things with clarity requires

more than a brief pamphlet, yet Mr. Larson has kept the task within a commendably brief span. The

reader who stays with this book until the final sentence will find himself amply rewarded with a

knowledge of all the facets of these most significant documents.

Unlike the gold plates of the Book of Mormon, which scholars were never able to examine, these

Egyptian texts give us the actual documents from which Joseph Smith was working in making his

translation. Therefore, they give us the first real opportunity to examine the Prophets claims

objectively and scientifically. Mr. Larson has provided us with all the pertinent data we need to reach

our own conclusions on this much discussed and important topic.

Wesley P. Walters

How It All Began: The Mormon Story

The Mormon church began with a man who claimed a vision. For nearly nineteen centuries God

had been silent; neither his voice nor his messengers had been heard upon the earth since the days

of Christs apostles. For long ages the world had to depend upon only the Bible as a spiritual guide, a

record which many believed was poorly preserved, often improperly translated, difficult to

understand, sprinkled throughout with additions made by men, and with many plain and precious

parts lost. Forced to depend upon such a standard, the inevitable happened. Different opinions

arose, factions erupted, and the one, True Church was racked by apostasy and division. Many

splinter churches sprang up, each putting forth its own interpretation of the Bible. [1]

But one event was about to change all of this. A new, latter-day prophet a young man named

Joseph Smith was about to appear who would claim he had been given the mission of restoring

the one, True Church and the fullness of the Gospel.

An angel had appeared to Joseph Smith four years earlier and revealed the hidden location of a

sacred record, written on plates of gold. [2] These plates, when translated, would settle once and for

all the disputes which had arisen because of apostate Christendoms sole reliance upon the Bible.

This revelation, given by supernatural power to Joseph Smith, was to become a new scripture to

mankind. It would be a book pure and undefiled, translated from its ancient tongue by the gift and

power of God operating through Joseph Smith. [3]

Smith was now on his way to recover the hidden records. The time had arrived. It was the twenty-second day of September in the year 1827.

The golden plates turned out to be a record of the former inhabitants of the Americas, ancestors of

the American Indians, who had journeyed to the new world from the land of Israel hundreds of

years before the time of Christ. They had left a vivid account of their travels and wars, and of the

teachings and visions of their prophets, and even of Christs visit and ministry among them

following his crucifixion and ascension on the other side of the world, [4] knowing that these

writings would one day come forth and speak to men low out of the dust, as the voice of one

having a familiar spirit. [5]

The record, however, could not be translated by normal means or by an ordinary man. Written in a

strange, long-forgotten language called Reformed Egyptian, only a person called and blessed of God

could read and understand it.6 Joseph Smith could do so, but because of all the excitement and

misunderstanding that the discovery of the strange plates caused, and the persecutions and moving

he was forced to endure, it was more than two years before his translation was completed and ready

for publication.

Finally, in the early spring of 1830 the Book of Mormon first appeared in print and shortly

thereafter the one, Tme Church of God was re-established on the earth. [7]

But circumstances were not favorable for the little church as it stmggled to grow in those early days.

The world seemed generally either hostile or indifferent to the claim of the Restoration of the

Fullness of the Gospel, and after many months of heartfelt labor proselytizing throughout the area

around Joseph Smiths home in upstate New York, his little group had scarcely enlisted the

membership of a handful of families from his own neighborhood. [8] The missionaries ranged

farther and farther afield, selling their books and seeking their harvest of souls.

Then, for a while things began to look up. Word came from Ohio that the leader of a communal

religious society had read the Book of Mormon and converted himself, his family, and several

hundred of his followers. [9] Joseph soon moved the center of the Church from New York to the

town of Kirtland, Ohio, where the missionary effort was redoubled. One group was sent westward