This is an archived copy of a post written by Conflict Of Justice (conflictofjustice.com). Used with permission: Conflict Of Justice may not agree with any alterations made.
Different Context Than Abraham
Sed-Festival Origins
Abraham & Osiris
Crucifixion Of Jesus Christ
Skeptics claim Figure 2 shows “the deceased with whom this papyrus was found.” Book of Breathing documents typically include funeral lion couch scenes of the deceased individual being prepared for the afterlife. Egyptian text next to the Facsimile reads: “Hor, justified… May your ba live among them, and may you be buried on the west.” The recovered papyrus fragment which includes Facsimile 1 dates to the 1st century A.D., long after Abraham’s lifetime, and contains some remnants of a Book of Breathings funeral text for a person named Hor. So why does Joseph Smith’s explanations talk about Abraham instead?
Different Context Than Abraham – Did Joseph Smith ever claim that whoever drew this papyrus drew it for Abraham? No. He simply gave an explanation of the vignette with Abraham as a character in it. We find close similarity between Joseph Smith’s descriptions of Facsimile 1 and the Sed-festival, suggesting this vignette for the Book of Breathing derives from a much older Sed-festival ritual scene, and that was what Joseph Smith was describing.
Facsimile Was On A Different Scroll – The facsimile was found on a different scroll than what Joseph Smith used to produce the Book of Abraham. Joseph Smith told a witness the Book of Abraham source was found on a mummy he named Onitus: “I… examined the four mummies one of which his Mother told me was King Onitus, on whose breast was found the writing of Abraham.” Other witnesses confirm Onitus held the Book of Abraham scroll. Joseph Smith’s Notebook of Copied Characters associates text about Onitus with hieroglyphics from the Amenhotep scroll.Witness descriptions of scroll size, ink color, preservation state, and resemblance to Hebrew could only match the missing Amenhotep scroll. Therefore, out of the four scrolls in Joseph Smith’s Egyptian collection, we know that Joseph Smith used the missing Amenhotep scroll as his basis for the Book of Abraham text. Facsimile 1, meanwhile, shows up on the small Hor papyrus.
Book Of Abraham Description Does Not Match Facsimile 1 – The Book of Abraham text mentions “figures at the beginning” of the book, which it calls “hieroglyphics,” to provide an “understanding” of the idolatrous gods involved in the attempted human sacrifice of Abraham. Facsimile 1 includes five drawn figures with the same list of names as in the Book of Abraham. But Facsimile 1 is not hieroglyphics. There are no hieroglyphics in it. It’s an illustration. This suggests the Book of Abraham text wasn’t referring to Facsimile 1.
Also, the vignette is not located at the beginning of the Hor scroll like the Book of Abraham description says. There is a bunch of text before it, and the transcription of hieroglyphics from the Hor scroll into Joseph Smith’s notebooks proves he understood the text read right to left. If Joseph Smith’s notebooks were translation documents as skeptics claim, why does Joseph Smith’s Book of Abraham claim Facsimile 1 is located at the beginning of the document when that is clearly not the case?
Finally, the Book of Abraham text describes the scene differently than what it actually looks like in the recovered papyrus Facsimile. Abraham describes the bedstead as standing “before” the idol gods, while the facsimile (as originally shown on the papyrus) shows the bed over the idols. The priest’s foot overlaps the jars, which indicates the jars are under the bed, not before them. Abraham would have described what Facsimile 1 showed if that were truly what he was basing his description on. This indicates the Facsimile we have today is not what Abraham originally wrote in his book. It sounds like Abraham simply drew some Egyptian hieroglyphics at the beginning of his book.
Explanation, Not Translation – Joseph Smith did not claim to give a “translation” of the Facsimile–just an explanation. This “explanation” was hastily scrawled onto the back of the 1842 manuscript for the Book of Abraham after everything else was done. He labeled this page “A Fac-simile from the Book of Abraham — Explanation of the above cut.” Does this mean Facsimile 1 comes from the Amenhotep scroll, the source of the Book of Abraham text? Well, it could be that the vignette had been copied from the Amenhotep scroll to the Hor scroll by whoever the author of the Hor scroll was so that it appeared in both scrolls. Or maybe Joseph Smith was intending to tell us this scene in the Hor scroll originally derives from the Book of Abraham. “Facsimile” means “an exact copy or likeness.” The vignette in the Hor scroll was “an exact copy” from the Book of Abraham. That’s what “Facsimile from the Book of Abraham” means. He’s saying the vignette may appear in this other scroll but what it shows is actually derived from the Book of Abraham.
After associating this vignette with Abraham, Joseph Smith went on two associate two more papyrus fragments–Facsimiles 2 and 3–with Abraham. These other two facsimiles certainly do not appear on the Hor scroll. Everyone agrees that Facsimile 2 came from a hypocephalus document and not the Hor Book of Breathings scroll. Yet Joseph Smith titled it “A Fac-simile From The Book Of Abraham,” just like he labeled Facsimile 1. Why the same label if one came from the Book of Abraham scroll and the other did not?
Clearly, Facsimile 1 was not part of the Book of Abraham scroll. Joseph Smith remarked on the “exact likeness” of this vignette to what the Book of Abraham described in chapter 1. Indeed, this vignette closely describes the Sed-festival ritual which Abraham was involved in.
Vignette Derived From Sed-Festival
Human Sacrifice – The Egyptian lion couch scene derives from the Sed-festival, an old ritual in which the king ritually “died” and was “resurrected” to reclaim his kingship. Abraham was one of these substitute sacrifices, which is how he figures into Facsimile 1–the same sacrificial ritual that Abraham talked about in the Book of Abraham. Skeptics dismiss the idea that the lion couch scene could be a derivative of an earlier ritual, but the Sed-festival very closely matches the same events Abraham described. The Sed-festival was “the more ancient ritual of killing the king who became unable to continue his reign effectively because of ageing. The rituals represented a symbolic burial of the old king” and his rebirth. Abraham was to be sacrificed as one of these substitute sacrifices. Researchers have discovered that animals and humans were sacrificed as substitutes for the king’s ritual “death.” In early Sed-festivals, “a human substitute was chosen for the king.” “In most of the temples of Egypt, of all periods, pictures set forth for us the principal scenes of a solemn festival called ‘festival of the tail,’ the Sed festival. It consisted essentially in a representation of the ritual death of the king followed by his rebirth. In this case the king is identified with Osiris, the god who in historical times is the hero of the sacred drama of humanity, he who guides us through the three stages of life, death, and rebirth in the other world. Hence, clad in the funeral costume of Osiris, which the tight-fitting garment clinging to him like a shroud, Pharoah is conducted to the tomb; and from it he returns rejuvenated and reborn like Osiris emerging from the dead. How was this fiction carried out? how was this miracle performed? By the sacrifice of human or animal victims.” ( M. Alexandre Moret via James Frazer)
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Funeral Shroud – In Facsimile 1, we see a figure on a lion couch wrapped in a tight-fitting garment, an Egyptian shroud. The garment extends to the knees and bears the same pattern as the Egyptian shroud, the same shroud specifically used in the Sed-festival, complete with anklets and shoes. It is clearly a shroud. The funeral Book of Breathings, as it applies to the deceased, never shows a funeral shroud, however. Vignettes from other books recovered by archaeologists “show the king in a long shroud like that of Osiris… Osiride figures are actually associated with the sed-festival… statues showing him in the shroud are not funerary.” I have seen zero examples of the deceased person wearing the shroud in a typical Egyptian funeral scene. Typically they are naked, or wrapped in a white sheet, or encased in a sarcophagus. The shroud suggests a direct association with the Sed-festival.
Identify As Osiris – Egyptologists agree this Figure 2 in Facsimile 1 identifies as youthful Osiris. The Book of Breathings identifies the deceased laying on the lion couch as Osiris. The king in the Sed-festival likewise assumed the identity of Osiris so he could die and be reborn. “Apparently the essence of the rites consisted in identifying the king with Osiris; for just as Osiris had died and risen again from the dead, so the king might be thought to die and to live again with the god whom he personated. The ceremony would thus be for the king a death as well as a rebirth. Accordingly in pictures of the Sed festival on the monuments we see the king posing as the dead Osiris.” ( Adonis, Attis, Osiris: Studies in the History of Oriental Religion, Sir James George Frazer)
The same kind of breathing incantation we see in the Book of Breathings was spoken at the Sed-festival at Abydos, where the king breathes air once again: “Thou dost recommence thy renewal, thou art granted to flourish again like the infant god Moon, thou dost grow young again, and that from season to season, like Nun at the beginning of time, thou art born again in renewing the Sed festivals. All life comes to thy nostril, and thou art king of the whole earth for ever.” ( Adonis, Attis, Osiris: Studies in the History of Oriental Religion, Sir James George Frazer)
Lion Bed – Egyptians portrayed their king “as a god from the lion bed” in the typical Sed-festival lion couch scene, says Jeremy Naydler. The purpose of the lion couch scenes were to show “the birth of a god…. re-membering of the dismembered Osiris.” The ritual starts with the king ritualistically being overcome by his enemies and violently torn apart limb from limb. The priests and gods then try to help him restore to life and regain his throne. The figures under the lion bed symbolized by canopic jars, according to Naydler, pay “homage to the newborn god-man.” They aid in the “healing and revivification of Osiris.” The sacrificial “phase in the rites was the supreme moment of the Sed festival,” when the king or his proxy was “dressed in a shroudlike garment, such as was used by the king during his entombment in the Sed festival, stretched out on a lion bed.”
| See also: | Facsimile 1, Figure 1 The Horus Bird |
Horus is represented in the lion couch scene as the hovering bird that ushers the revived king across the horizon into the heaven. We see this bird in the top right corner of Facsimile 1. A typical lion couch scene illustrated “the relationship between Osiris and Horus,” allowing the rebirth of the king because “the two gods correspond to two different kings: the deceased king and his successor, the living king who occupies the throne.” Joseph Smith explains this bird Figure 1 to be “the angel of the Lord”–and indeed, the messenger of Horus comes in the figure of a falcon bird.
Three Virgins – The Book of Abraham says three daughters of the local ruler Onitah were sacrificed on the altar before the grand sacrifice of Abraham. These three women may have played a role in the Sed festival rituals as well. The mace head of King Narmer (shown to the right) shows two women with lotus flowers below the revived king sitting. Let’s look at all the other elements in this scene. The Horus bird (corresponding with Figure 1 in Facsimile 1) flies above the throned king. A figure on what could be a lion couch sits to the left facing the throned king. Three figures stand to the left of the lion couch. Above these three figures stand four figures with banners which correspond with the four canopic jars below the lion couch in Facsimile 1. At the bottom are a variety of things that will be offered as sacrifice (Figure 10 in Facsimile 1). The lion couch figure and the three figures to the left of it appear to be “the representation of a captive ruler brought before Nar-mer, and followed by his subjects who are compelled to perform a sacred dance.” Do these figures match Abraham and the three virgins of Onidah?
An image of the Osorkon Sed-festival shows three women instead of two women holding the lotus flowers below the throned king: “…in the accompanying scene there are three women called ‘singers’ who are shown holding lotus flowers.” These scenes indicate sacred dances and singing accompanied the Sed-festival human sacrifice, and that in at least this case it was three women performing it. This may have been the role of the three daughters of Onitah in the Book of Abraham. Why three? The three virgins may correspond to the three years between every Sed-festival of a king’s reign. One sacrifice per year of the king’s reign.
Abraham And Osiris
Osiris In The Story Of Lazarus – Joseph Smith corresponds Abraham consistently with figures of Osiris in each of the Facsimiles. This is quite impressive considering they look very different and Egyptologists didn’t know any of this in Joseph Smith’s time. A clear association consistently shines in various stories of Osiris and of Abraham, which matches associations we see in other ancient literature. Scholars have noted the striking similarities in the Egyptian Setna II story and Abraham in the Lazarus story of the New Testament: “in the place Osiris would have occupied in an Egyptian context, Jesus instead mentions Abraham.” The earlier Egyptian Setna II story tells of a rich man and poor man dying on the same day. Because the rich man receives a large funeral, Setna II remarks, “how much happier is the rich man who is honored with the sound of wailing than the poor man who is carried to the cemetery” (Lichtheim, 139). In order to teach him a lesson, Setna is led into the desert where he visits the underworld and sees the poor man “dressed in fine garments standing near Osiris,” while the rich man is being tormented by his misdeeds in life. This judgement scene was illustrated in the Book of the Breathings where judgement is being passed out before Osiris–which we also see in Facsimile 3.
Well, it turns out this Egyptian Setna II story “is the probable basis for the Luke tale” of Lazarus in the Bible. In Luke 16, we read of a a rich and poor man dying on the the same day, and the poor man going to paradise and the rich man going to torment. Instead of standing by Osiris, the poor man goes to Father Abraham: ”And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” (Luke 16:22-23)
Abraham As Osiris At Lion Couch – Ancient literature places Abraham directly in this lion couch scene. Egyptian papyrus Leiden I 384 shows the same couch scene as in Facsimile 1, and references Abraham in a cartouche directly below it: “Abraham who at… and the whole soul for her… to burn for her… burn her, NN, until she [comes] to me.” (based on The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, Vol. 1)
This love spell invokes Abraham and refers to this lion couch scene in a plea to “inflame” (burn) the object of his desire. Context is missing, but it is interesting that various demotic love spells invoked Osiris in the same way. A very similar 4th century love spell discovered in Hermoupolis Egypt speaks of burning the victim and laying her on a bed, and mentions Osiris. In this case, she is physically inflamed by a bath-house rather than fire in order to make the spell work: “Constrain Gorgonia, whom Nilogenia bore, to cast herself into the bath-house for the sake of Sophia… Burn, set on fire, inflame her soul, heart, liver, spirit with love for Sophia… the couch of Persephone delights you, when you go to the longed bed, whether you be the immortal Sarapis [god of resurrection], whom the inverse fears, whether you be Osiris, star of the land of Egypt; your messenger is the all-wise boy.” (based on Supplementum Magicum 1.42 in Unchanging Witness: The Consistent Christian Teachings on Homosexuality…)
Abraham’s Father Was Called ‘Osiris’ – Of course, it’s more complicated than just substituting Abraham for Osiris. Facsimile 1 in the Egyptian Sed-festival context shows the moment of transformation when the king starts out deceased as Osiris and then becomes resurrected like Horus: “Because the king/pharaoh becomes ‘the Osiris’ upon his death, it is obvious why he would be identified with the god, although it is more appropriate for the living king/pharaoh to be called Horus.” Horus as the son of Osiris represents revivification: “Horus was Osiris resurrected.” In Islam, Abraham’s father was called Azar (or Asar), and Azar is often translated as Osiris. Thus, Islam’s name for Abraham’s father directly links him to Osiris.
The Name ‘Lazarus’ Derives From Osiris – Some scholars say this name for Osiris–Azar–explains the origin of the name Lazarus, who as we saw, dwelled with Abraham/Osiris in paradise: “The ancient Egyptian designation for Osiris was Asar or Azar… One of the Hebrew terms for Lord was El and was applied to their many deities, such as El-Shaddai or El-hoim. So when the Hebraic writers included Osiris in their myths they put him in as El-Azar The Lord Osiris. This in the later Latin translation was change dto El-Azar-us. The use of the ‘us’ was the way that masculine names ended under the Roman language… Horus therefore raised ‘El-Azar-us’ or ‘El-Osiris’ from the dead, just as Christ was to raise ‘Lazarus.’ This story in itself is an allegory of the sun god Osiris being reborn…” (based on Lightning Fusion, Solomon Azar)
The allegory of the sun god Osiris being reborn, of course, is what Facsimile 1 is all about and what the Sed festival was for. The Islamic name for Abraham’s father thus ties him directly to Osiris and Facsimile 1.
Osiris’ Sister Requests His Revivification – When we take a closer look at this allegory of the sun being reborn, we see further association of Osiris and Abraham. Next to the Facsimile 1 vignette written on the Hor papyrus we see an explanation that the entire Book of Breathings was written “by Isis, so that her brother, Osiris, may live.” Isis requested for Osiris to be revived in emulation of Horus. Isis frequently takes the place of the Horus bird in many lion couch scenes to perform this role. In Genesis 12:11-13 and Book of Abraham 2:23-25, Abraham recognized his wife Sarai as performing this exact same role. “And it came to pass that I, Abraham, told Sarai, my wife, all that the Lord had said unto me–Therefore say unto them, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee.” Isis was both the sister and wife of Osiris, just as Sarai was both the sister and wife of Abraham. And her role, as explained right next to the Facsimile 1 vignette, allowed Osiris’ soul to live, “so that her brother Osiris may live” in exactly the same way as Abraham described. Sarai assumed the identity of Abraham’s sister when they traveled into Egypt to prevent Abraham from being killed. In the Lazarus story, Mary of Bethany was the sister of Lazarus who was to be revived, and she was the one who requested Jesus to perform the revivification. The same three characters–Osiris, Isis is sister, and Horus his father–thus show up in both Abraham’s case and Lazarus’ case, performing the same roles.
Cosmologically, the Egyptian moon requests the sun to shine again at daybreak, symbolizing rebirth. The name Sarah suggests this imagery–Sa-Ra. The name means “princess” similar to the definition of Isis, “Queen of throne.” Sar mean princess or guardian angel and Ra is, of course, the Egyptian sun god which shines forth to revive Osiris in Facsimile 1.
The name Azar thus incorporates the cosmology of Osiris, Horus, and Isis. Osiris is the sun god, Isis the moon god. The name Azar was actually a combination of words, “the sun was the az, or fire, the moon the ar, or dark lightened up by the sun, and the two together formed an azar. This was a real azar: the Osiris of Egypt was an ideal azar.” By surviving the attempted human sacrifice, perhaps Abraham forever after imbued the qualities of the figure for which he was to be sacrificed, Osiris.
Abraham Takes Osiris’s Place In Book Of Mormon – The bottom row of hieroglyphs in the Osiris judgement scene Facsimile 3 translates to: “O gods of the necropolis, gods of the caverns, gods of the south, north, west, and east, grant salvation to the Osiris Hor, the justified, born by Talkhibit.” Compare this to what we read in 2 Nephi 29: “I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath… For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south. I will judge the world every man according to their works, according to that which is written… I covenanted with Abraham that I would remember his seed forever.” The phrase “heavens above and in the earth beneath” is similar to the “gods of the cavern,” and It is even the same order of cardinal directions as in Facsimile 3, just flipped backward. The Book of Mormon thus provides yet another case of Abraham taking the place of Osiris. Hor identifies with Osiris in Facsimile 1’s Egyptian context and is “Abraham” in Joseph Smith’s explanation.
Joseph Smith Made The Hieroglyph ‘Osiris’ Into ‘Abraham’ – Perhaps the most remarkable connection between Osiris and Abraham comes from Joseph Smith himself. Joseph Smith and his scribes created what is now known as the Egyptian Alphabet notebooks by dissecting characters from the Amenhotep scroll which they had translated to the Book of Abraham text. The first Egyptian character to show up in these notebooks comes from page 2 of the Valuable Discovery notebook. Joseph Smith took the first letter of the first word in a transcribed paragraph of hieroglyphs–which happens to be the first character of the name Osiris (wsir)–the throne ws character. (Somehow he was able to pick out the first letter of the entire paragraph even though it is surrounded by other characters). Joseph Smith flipped it around, and explained that it is pronounced “ah”–which was correct, that is indeed close to how the first letter of Osiris is pronounced (it’s more of an “eh” sound). The letter is alef in Egyptian, which corresponds to alpha in Greek, Alef in Arabic, and Alep in Hebrew. He writes next to it, “The first being who exercises power.” Then he copies it into the Grammar & Alphabet, where it curls into what looks like an Egyptian vulture hieroglyph, and he writes next to it: “Ah brah—aam— a father of many nations, referring to Abraham.” This vulture character clearly is the letter “A” in hieratic Egyptian, a totally different character than ws which he started out with. I think Joseph Smith was aware of the association between Osiris and Abraham, and he noticed that the first character of the name Osiris makes a similar sound as the first letter of Abraham. Now, I don’t think Joseph Smith intended to mean the name Osiris literally derives from Abraham. But it is very interesting that he took a letter which he referenced to “the first being who exercises power”–which is a correct description of Osiris–and manipulated it to become a letter which he correctly referenced as the first sound in the name Abraham.
Tomb Of Abraham Similar To Tomb Of Osiris – In 1999, archaeologists investigated vertical tunnels known as the ‘Osiris shaft’ below the causeway between the Great Pyramid and Sphinx. They called it the “Osiris shaft” based on the “inventory stele” at the queen’s pyramid which said the Great Pyramid was located “northwest of the house of Osiris, Lord of Rosta.” Egyptians believed this House of Osiris complex gave resurrecting power in the netherworld to the kings buried nearby. The shafts descended in a procession of three rooms, which represented “the Sun-god as journeying from cavern to cavern beneath the earth, passing through the realm of Osiris and bringing light and joy to the dead who dwell there.” The second room down contains six niches for burials, and then the third room contains a representation of the Osiris tomb. Zahi A. Hawass of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said this Osiris tomb takes the form of a “rectangular pit” with a “sarcophagus in the middle surrounded by water in the shape of the pr sign.” Four pillars stand on each corner of the island. Hawass said the island represents the “primeval mound surrounded by the NVn” the sky God (firmament of waters). The water represents “Osiris’s role as god of vegetation and resurrection.” To the side of the Osiris tomb chamber is a tunnel that leads “in an easterly direction towards the Sphinx.” Rumor has it this connects to tunnels that have been found leading down under the Sphinx itself, though this is unconfirmed.
Compare this to the Cave of the Patriarchs were Abraham is believed to have been buried. In 1982, Jewish community spokesman Noam Arnon and his team reportedly snuck into the highly-restricted site near Jerusalem. The entrance is a vertical shaft above the cave, much like with the Osiris shaft. But they discovered a second entrance to the underground cave complex that connects down a long tunnel, much like the tunnel of Osiris Shaft that leads to the Sphinx. There are several unique similarities to the Osiris Shaft:
- There are three levels of shafts and three consecutive vertical chambers
- 6 niches for sarcophaguses in the second chamber
- It is located below fields (Giza plateau vs. Machpelah)
- 4 pillars stand above main tomb
- It is positioned relative to a city above with the theme of “four” (Hebron was also known as Kirjathj-arba “city of four”, and Giza was a city of four-sided pyramids)
- Both sites are accessed from two openings
Compare these sites–Osiris Shaft and Tomb of Abraham:
The Teotihuacan Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico uses the same design as well. A tunnel leads from the processional Avenue of the Dead to rooms and caves below the pyramid. The final cave is called “Place of the House of Maize.” This name “House of Maize” is pretty much identical to the Osiris Shaft’s name “house of Osiris, Lord of Rosta (aka cave).” Maize was a symbol of creation for the ancient Americans, with the Popul Vohl creation gods emerging from maize like how Osiris emerged from the tree of life to be reborn. In ancient America, “caves are thought by some indigenous people to house the maize god.” Maize gods also assume the color green to symbolize creation, much like the green color of Osiris and the green shroud around Abraham’s body. This cave tunnel descends three levels, thought to represent the three levels of the ancient American concept of the universe. The mid-level part of the Teotihuacan cave contains two niches, and the lowest level contains four niches (for the four quarters of the earth), making a total of six niches. These four niches in the lowest chamber surround a center point in a lotus pattern, like the four pillars in Egypt and El-haram. Perhaps the most shocking similarity to the Osiris Shaft is the use of water symbolism. Archaeologists found evidence that water was directed into this tunnel, perhaps to represent the water deity Ixchel, the chaos of creation. Scholars believe the Teotihuacan cave represents “initial creation of the universe from a watery void.” The water was all dried up by the time archaeologists got to it. But a few years ago, archaeologists discovered another tunnel leading from the Avenue of the Dead to another chamber under a pyramid, with water that wasn’t dried up yet. There are only four niches in the final cave, but this tunnel has a powerful symbol of four: four statues representing the four quarters of the earth, all facing in a rectangular arrangement inward to the very center of the chamber, which is the center of the pyramid, which is the center of the city. Scientists describe these statues as “Greeters, or Witnesses” who “mark the location of the axis mundi, the ‘world tree’ that connects the three tiered worlds.” Sergio Gomez Chavez, who worked on the excavation of the tunnel and cave, said “this is where the underworld and heavens meet,” (see ‘Secrets of the Dead’) which also describes Horus’ role in Facsimile 1. Are these four statues the same as the four statues we see in Facsimile 1 standing as witnesses for the great sacrifice of Abraham? In Ether 13 we read: “…and they are they who were scattered and gathered in from the four quarters of the earth, and from the north countries, and are partakers of the fulfilling of the covenant which God made with their father, Abraham.” How better for the ancient Americans to symbolize their place in the house of Israel and Abraham than to build a likeness of it as part of their funerary temple?
Polar Stars – The Egyptian words for “star,” “spirit,” and the Hebrew “eternal” are all phonetically related. “Howbeit that he made the greater star; as, also, if there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the other, yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal.” (Abr 1:18)
| See also: | 40 Evidences For The Book Of Abraham |
These are very different words in English, but in original Egyptian these words are phonetically similar, and are frequently associated with each other in ancient literature such as the apocryphal Book of Enoch (which Joseph Smith didn’t have access to.) John Gee noticed: “Egyptians believed that at death individuals could become a type of spirit (ih) if they had the proper rituals performed. These rituals were called sih.” The very word for spirit thus refers to a person in the afterlife who took the form of a star: “The words for spirit (ih) and star (ah) is common… the spirits (ih) became stars (ah) in the sky.” Egyptians directly used certain stars as symbols for spirits in the eternal afterlife: “The power that presided over the pole as Osiris was given rebirth as Horus in the vernal equinox. The pole star symbolized the lord of eternity.” The rebirth of Osiris as Horus, of course, is represented in Facsimile 1 where Abraham takes the place of Osiris. It is quite appropriate, then, for God to tell Abraham he is one of the unsetting stars at the earth’s pole, one of the noble and great ones. The Egyptian and Hebrew words used here–ihmw-wrd, ihmw-sk, 3hw, lm–all sound very similar. “The Egyptian words for spirits/souls (??w) and both the non-circumpolar (??mw-wr?) and circumpolar (??mw-sk) stars are phonetically similar, and would’ve played nicely for Abraham’s Egyptian audience. That is, Abraham was shown the never-setting circumpolar stars (??mw-sk) and then the pre-mortal spirits (??w), which “shall have no end . . . for they are gnolaum [Heb: ?lm], or eternal” (v. 18).” plonialmonimormon.com
We see another pun in verse 23 of Abraham chapter 1 where it says God “stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good.” The word for spirit in Egyptian (3hw) sounds very similar to the word for good (3ht).
Crucifixion Of Jesus Christ
The symbolism of Jesus Christ in Abraham’s account is unmistakable. The three virgins–if indeed they represented the each year of the king’s reign between Sed-festivals–matches the three days between Christ’s death and resurrection. The Horus bird matches the dove from God the Father descending up Jesus after his baptism of immersion in water (an ordinance which symbolizes death and rebirth). The four figures below the lion couch match the four points of the cross. The entire premise of Abraham’s story is reminiscent of the crucifixion–an innocent man who refuses to bow to false idols wrongfully judged and sentenced to death, killed as a proxy sacrifice for the sins of another, but he is delivered by God and lives once more. When you add the Osiris context of the Egyptians, the whole thing points more unmistakably towards the atonement of Jesus Christ–his resurrection brings resurrection for everyone else afterwards, he is glorified with the character of his Father in His resurrection, our ordinance of baptism emulates his death and rebirth, etc.
Thirty Year Festival – The Egyptian King was known as “lord of the 30-year festival,” as the Sed-festival was celebrated initially upon the 30 year mark of his reign. At this 30 year mark, the King was officially recognized as containing the character of Osiris: “At this festival the Pharaoh was made manifest as an incarnation of Osiris, and hence there may have been some tradition that Osiris was incarnated or chosen to be Lord of mankind exactly thirty years before he attained his earthly throne as Pharaoh… the idea perhaps passed thus into Christian minds that the manifestation of Jesus at His baptism occurred, like Pharaoh’s Sed-festival, exactly thirty years after His divine appointment, or birth in this this…” Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection, D. M. Murdock & Acharya S
Jesus was baptized when he was 30 years old. Doesn’t the the Sed-festival remind you of the baptism of Jesus? The Spirit as a dove descended upon him like the Horus bird and the waters flowed below him like zig-zag lines in Figure 12. Jesus also began his ministry at this point in his life, 39 years old, as a public recognition of his identity as Messiah and Son of God. John the Baptist was also 30 years old when he began his ministry to pave the way for the Messiah, as were various other prophets 30 years old when they began their ministry. Aaronic priests began their service in the temple at age 30. Perhaps this was all in reference to the age Jesus would be when he would begin his ministry. The number 30 holds even greater reference to the crucifixion of Jesus, as Judah sold him out for 30 pieces of silver and Jesus died in the year 30 A.D.
Why thirty years? Cosmology was the basis for this thirty year timespan in the Sed-festival. Egyptians also sometimes performed the Sed festival in twelve year intervals. Twelve and thirty are the time spans of the Egyptian calendar– twelve months in a year and thirty days in an Egyptian month: “According to one view, it was based on the observation of Saturn’s period of revolution round the sun, which is, roughly speaking, thirty years, or, more exactly, twenty-nine years and one hundred and seventy-four days. According to another view, the thirty years’ period had reference to Sirius, the star of Isis. We have seen that on account of the vague character of the old Egyptian year the heliacal rising of Sirius shifted its place gradually through every month of the calendar.” Adonis, Attis, Osiris: Studies in the History of Oriental Religion, Sir James George Frazer
Joseph in Egypt was 30 years old when he officially became Pharaoh’s second in command, after spending most of that time in prison. The connection to Pharaoh’s age at the Sed-festival certainly would not have been lost on the Egyptian crowds as Joseph received this honor. It would have solidified his place as Pharaoh’s second. As for Abraham, there was a 30 year time span between God’s covenant to multiply his posterity as the stars and when Isaac was finally born. Abraham was doubtlessly aware of the significance of this time span, and would have drawn a connection between the Sed-festival horror of his youth and the sacrifice of Isaac, making the experience all the more difficult and traumatic. Isaac was 30 years old when Jacob was born, who would become known as Israel and originator of the kingdom. Thus, Abraham and his posterity passed on the thirty year cycle.
Conclusion – To me, this all answers the question of why Joseph Smith provided this explanation of Facsimile 1 at all. Why take an illustration from a different scroll from a different context and explain the scene’s original Sed festival context? Is it just something to tuck away in the back with the Bible maps as a neat reference to check out when you get bored at church? No. Scriptures don’t need pictures. Was it some parlor trick for Joseph Smith to prove that he was really a prophet, as skeptics try to make it out to be? No. Joseph Smith provided this explanation because he correctly discerned that illustrations in Egyptian literature were just as informative of a story as the hieroglyphic words were. They were just as essential to the reader, and so he provided something that nobody ever thought to put in scripture before: diagrams. These facsimiles and explanations give us important gospel doctrine, a diagrammatic symbolism for the Savior’s crucifixion and atonement. This can help us better understand Jesus Christ from the experiences of prophets.
Since the days when Joseph Smith gave this explanation, many ancient books have come to light which corroborate details of the attempted human sacrifice of Abraham. The Catena Severi says Abraham’s father decided “to hand over his son Abraham to them to death.” The Babylonian Talmud says ” the angel Gabriel said to the Lord: ‘Permit me to go and make the furnace cold, that it may do no harm to Abraham.'” The Lord rescued Abraham in these other sources, much like in the Book of Abraham. These other sources talk about death by fire rather than a priest holding a knife, but then, the Book of Abraham doesn’t actually say what the method was, does it? Facsimile 1 may show a priest with a knife, but it is also a later derivative from the Sed-festival and this detail was likely added in. There were likely a variety of sacrificial methods for different Sed-festivals and Abraham’s experience could have been with fire. The important thing is the symbolism of Abraham’s experience as it relates to Christ. The story is a beautiful artistic display of the atonement.