By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
In the April 1966 issue of the Salt Lake City Messenger we announced that we had printed a document entitled “Joseph Smith’s Egyptian Alphabet & Grammar.” This document was suppressed by the Mormon Church for 130 years because it proves that Joseph Smith did not understand ancient Egyptian and that his Book of Abraham was a work of his own imagination.
I. E. S. Edwards, Keeper of the Dept. of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum, examined a microfilm copy of the original document, and in a letter dated December 22, 1965, said that “The writer could not possibly have understood ancient Egyptian.” Some time later a gift copy of the printed document was sent to him in a letter dated June 9, 1966, he acknowledged receipt of the document and again denounced Joseph Smith’s work as fraudulent. Below is a photo of that letter.
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