By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

On November 27, 1967, the Deseret News announced the rediscovery of some of the Joseph Smith Papyri. In the Salt Lake City Messenger for March 1968, we demonstrated that the piece of papyrus from which Joseph Smith was supposed to have translated the Book of Abraham was among the papyri which had been located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When this fragment was translated by Egyptologists it was discovered that it was nothing but an Egyptian funerary document know as the “Book of Breathings.” This pagan document had absolutely nothing to do with Abraham or his religion. The original of Fac. No. 1 for the Book of Abraham was also found among the papyri. In the May 1971 issue of the Messenger, we quoted from a letter which related that Dr. Hugh Nibley had told someone that “there was more papyri found and that it was discovered in Texas. . . . Mention was made by Nibley that Facsimile No. 2 was among the papyri.”

Another individual was supposed to have said that Nibley claimed the papyri were in a small town safe which was owned by an antique dealer. Research by Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters led us to believe that the papyri might be in the possession of a Mr. Markham, the owner of Markham’s Trading Post in Cleveland, Texas. Mr. Markham apparently died or left the area a number of years ago, and we did not take the time to search for his descendants.

In any case, it has recently been reported that Mark Hofmann has obtained the original Egyptian Papyrus which Joseph Smith used as Fac. No. 2 in the Book of Abraham. It is also claimed that Hofmann plans to secretly sell the document to the Church so that it can remain hidden from the eyes of the public. A prominent Mormon scholar, however, told us that although he had heard the Church was buying the document, he was not aware of any plans for a cover-up. Mr. Hofmann has acknowledged that the original of Fac. No. 2 is in existence and that paste up work has been done on it. Another individual, who has seen the original, claims that there are pencil and ink drawings on the paper it is pasted to which fill in missing portions.

In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pages 335- 343, we maintained that strong circumstantial evidence showed that the original of Fac. No. 2 was badly damaged when Joseph Smith obtained it and that he made false restorations from other pieces of papyrus to fill in missing portions. Some of the Egyptian writing was even inserted upside down! We believe that if Mr. Hofmann or the Church will release the original, it will prove our charges of fraudulent reconstruction. The false restorations and the erroneous translation of the Egyptian writing show beyond all doubt that the Book of Abraham is a work of Joseph Smith’s own imagination.

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