By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

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Besides the devastating evidence against the authenticity of the Book of Abraham that has been furnished by the translation of the original papyrus from which it was supposed to have been taken, there is additional evidence which we should consider. For instance, it is plain to see that Joseph Smith borrowed heavily from the King James Version of the Bible. An example is Genesis 12:1 compared with the Book of Abraham 2:3

We could cite many parallels, but these should be sufficient to convince the reader that the two texts are related. Now, we feel that the only logical explanation for this relationship is that Joseph Smith merely borrowed from the Bible, rewriting and adding to the text as he went along. Dr. Sidney B. Sperry, of Brigham Young University, on the other hand, states that the Book of Abraham was in existence before Genesis was written and that Genesis was taken from it! Dr. Sperry states:

. . . the writer believes that the second chapter of Abraham is the original, of which Gen. 12:1-13 is an abridgment. This is a remarkable fact . . . (Ancient Records Testify in Papyrus and Stone, Salt Lake City, 1938, page 81)

[Bold in quotations is added for emphasis and does not appear in originals.]

On pages 83-84 of the same book, Dr. Sperry states:

For a number of years I have strongly felt that chapter 2 of the Book of Abraham is the original account from which Gen. 12:1-13 was made. Putting it another way, the account in Genesis is nothing more or less than an abridgment of that in the Book of Abraham . . . the writings of Abraham . . . must of necessity be older than the original text of Genesis . . .

Let the reader make but a casual comparison of Gen. 12:1-13 and the second chapter of the Book of Abraham and he will discover that an apparently close relationship exists between them. . . . The similarity cannot be accidental . . . a linguistic study of the Book of Abraham and of the parallel versions of the Bible points unmistakably to the independent character of the Egyptian record and to the conclusion that it is, at least, the possible original from whence the account in Genesis was taken.

Although Dr. Sperry’s idea that Genesis was taken from the Book of Abraham may seem fantastic, it is the only answer he could give that would not undermine the Book of Abraham. To say that the Book of Abraham came from Genesis is to label it a fraud. Of course, now that we have the original papyrus from which the Book of Abraham was “translated,” we know that it is in reality nothing but an Egyptian funerary document and has nothing to do with Abraham or his religion. But even if the original papyrus were not available, there would be sufficient evidence to show that the Book of Abraham was written after Genesis.

It is extremely interesting to note that the Book of Abraham itself seems to catch Joseph Smith in the process of changing his doctrine concerning the Godhead. In the first part of the Book of Abraham we do not find the doctrine of a plurality of Gods. For instance, in Abraham 2:1 we read: “Now the Lord God caused the famine to wax sore . . .” This part of the Book of Abraham was probably written in 1835.

The Mormon writer Jay M. Todd states: “Another fact of relevance in the matter is the amount of present-day Book of Abraham in the hand of Warren Parrish: chapter 1:1–2:18. This is also the exact length of the first installment in the 1842 Times and Seasons. One tends to wonder if that is as far as the Prophet reached in his 1835 work” (The Sage of the Book of Abraham, by Jay M. Todd, page 324). In 1842, however, Joseph Smith “translated” more of the Book of Abraham. Under the date of March 8, 1842, we find this statement in his history: “Recommenced translating from the Records of Abraham for the tenth number of the Times and Seasons, . . .” Jay M. Todd makes this remark concerning the entry in Joseph Smith’s History: “This is a very important entry, the first entry since November 1835 in which the Prophet is mentioned as ‘translating.’ Interestingly, it is after the publication of the first installment, which was up to Abraham 2:18” (The Saga of the Book of Abraham, page 228). As we examine the text of the Book of Abraham we find that it is the part which was “translated” in March, 1842, which contains the doctrine of a plurality of Gods. The words “the Gods” appear more than forty times in the fourth and fifth chapters of the Book of Abraham.

Actually, chapters four and five of the Book of Abraham appear to be nothing but the first of Genesis rewritten to include a plurality of Gods. The word “God” is changed to “the Gods” and wherever the word “he” refers to God it has been changed to “they.” It would appear, however, that in one instance Joseph Smith forgot to change the word “he” to “they” and that it had to be changed after his death. He was apparently copying from Genesis 1:16, which reads:

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. (Genesis 1:16)

Joseph Smith rewrote this to read as follows:

And the Gods organized the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; with the lesser light He set the stars, also; . . . (Times and Seasons, vol. 3, page 721)

This was reprinted the same way in the Millennial Star, August 1842, vol. 3, page 51. In the Pearl of Great Price it has been changed to read:

And the Gods organized the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; with the lesser light they set the stars also. (Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham 4:16)

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