By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
In the last Messenger we told that Dee Jay Nelson, a Mormon Egyptologist, was given photographs of the Mormon Papyri by special permission of N. Eldon Tanner (a member of the First Presidency) before they were published in the Improvement Era. Mr. Nelson translated the papyri, but he felt that the Church leaders would not print it. Therefore, he turned his work over to us for publication. On April 1, 1968, we submitted the following ad to the Newspaper Agency Corporation:
The Salt Lake Tribune ran the ad, but the editor of the Deseret News informed us that they would not run it. We asked N. Eldon Tanner if he did not feel a moral obligation concerning the matter. He replied that he did not. We asked the editor of the Deseret News why the ad was rejected. He stated that he did not believe it was a correct translation. He claimed that he had a conversation with Dr. Nibley concerning Nelson’s work, and that Nibley had told him that he did not believe the translation was correct.
If Dr. Nibley made the statements that the editor of the Deseret News attributed to him (and we have no evidence that he did, other than this man’s word), he seems to have now changed his mind. Dr. Nibley wrote the following for the Brigham Young University Studies:
The publication to the Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri has now begun to bear fruit. Two efforts at translation and commentary have already appeared, the one an example of pitfalls to be avoided, the other a conscientious piece of work for which the Latter-Day Saints owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Dee Jay Nelson. . . . This is a conscientious and courageous piece of work . . . Nelson has been careful to consult top-ranking scholars where he has found himself in doubt. He has taken the first step in a serious study of the Facsimiles of the Pearl of Great Price, supplying students with a usable and reliable translation of the available papyri that once belonged to Joseph Smith. (Brigham Young University Studies, Spring, 1968, pages 245 and 247)
Dr. Nelson’s statements concerning Dee Jay Nelson’s work will, no doubt, come as a great shock to the editor of the Deseret News. Dr. Nibley claims that Nelson’s work is a “reliable translation” and that “the Latter-day Saints owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Dee Jay Nelson” for giving them this translation. It would appear, then, that the Mormon leaders deliberately suppressed this publication because they did not want their people to have a “reliable translation” of the papyri. N. Eldon Tanner must have been well aware of the fact that Dee Jay Nelson is a skilled Egyptologist at the time he allowed this ad to be suppressed.
Actually, we were rather surprised that Hugh Nibley would publicly endorse Nelson’s work after the Mormon leaders had suppressed it. Mr. Nelson feels that the Book of Abraham is a false translation and that the Church must give it up. He feels that Dr. Nibley is a “skilled and capable scholar” in some areas, but he believes that Nibley’s knowledge of Egyptian philology is “superficial,” and that he is “not qualified to present an honest evaluation of the papyri.” He is very disturbed by Dr. Nibley’s articles in the Improvement Era.
It is interesting to note that Dr. Nibley only attacks the Egyptologists who are now dead and cannot retaliate. He does not dare attack those who are living today. Both John A. Wilson and Richard Parker have stated that Joseph Smith’s interpretations are incorrect (Salt Lake City Messenger, February 1968), but Dr. Nibley does not attack their character as he does the Egyptologists who lived in 1912. Instead, he tries his best to stay in their favor by praising them in every way that he can. He makes this statement concerning them in Dialogue: “ . . . they are among the ablest and most honorable scholars who ever lived . . . (Dialogue, Summer, 1968, page 105). Dr. Nibley knows that he must not offend these men. He knows that he does not have the ability to fight against them. Therefore, he spends his time picking on the dead. We hope that these Egyptologists will not be fooled by Dr. Nibley’s flattery.
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