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.
“The Book of Abraham is supposed to be an ancient text written thousands of years ago ‘by his own hand upon papyrus.’ What are 17th century King James Version text doing in there?” (CES Letter)
“86% of Book of Abraham chapters 2, 4, and 5 are King James Version Genesis chapters 1, 2, 11, and 12. Sixty-six out of seventy-seven verses are quotations or close paraphrases of King James Version wording.”
Not true. In Genesis, Abraham goes straight from Canaan to Egypt, while in the Book of Abraham he has a lengthy vision of Jehovah. Some quotations match fairly closely, yes, such as Abraham’s instruction to Sarah to call him her brother in Egypt. But why is this a problem? Isn’t this to be expected if both books are telling the same story?
Let’s start with the beginning of the first allegedly parallel chapter:
| Abraham 2: | Genesis 11: | |
| 1. Now the Lord God caused the famine to wax sore in the land of Ur, insomuch that Haran, my brother, died; but Terah, my father, yet lived in the land of Ur, of the Chaldees. | And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. | |
| 2. And it came to pass that I, Abraham, took Sarai to wife, and Nahor, my brother, took Milcah to wife, who was the daughter of Haran. | And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. | |
| 3. Now the Lord had said unto me: Abraham, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee. 4. Therefore I left the land of Ur, of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and I took Lot, my brother’s son, and his wife, and Sarai my wife; and also my father followed after me, unto the land which we denominated Haran. | But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. | |
| 5. And the famine abated; and my father tarried in Haran and dwelt there, as there were many flocks in Haran; and my father turned again unto his idolatry, therefore he continued in Haran. | And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran. |
| So we can see: Genesis includes crucial details that the Book of Abraham does not, and the Book of Abraham includes details that Genesis does not. Genesis claims Abraham followed his father Terah to Canaan, while the Book of Abraham claims Terah followed Abraham to Canaan. Genesis claims Terah died at soon thereafter in Haran, while the Book of Abraham claims his lived and turned idolatrous. Phrases that are parallel are shifted around and reworded. Continuing… |
| Abraham 2: | Genesis 12: | |
| 6. But I, Abraham, and Lot, my brother’s son, prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord appeared unto me, and said unto me: Arise, and take Lot with thee; for I have purposed to take thee away out of Haran, and to make of thee a minister to bear my name in a strange land which I will give unto thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession, when they hearken to my voice. | Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: | |
| 7 For I am the Lord thy God; I dwell in heaven; the earth is my footstool; I stretch my hand over the sea, and it obeys my voice; I cause the wind and the fire to be my chariot; I say to the mountains—Depart hence—and behold, they are taken away by a whirlwind, in an instant, suddenly. 8 My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from the beginning; therefore my hand shall be over thee. 9 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations; | And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: | |
| 10 And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father; 11 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal. | And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. | |
| 12 Now, after the Lord had withdrawn from speaking to me, and withdrawn his face from me, I said in my heart: Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; now I have found thee; 13 Thou didst send thine angel to deliver me from the gods of Elkenah, and I will do well to hearken unto thy voice, therefore let thy servant rise up and depart in peace. 14 So I, Abraham, departed as the Lord had said unto me, and Lot with me; and I, Abraham, was sixty and two years old when I departed out of Haran. | So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. | |
| 15 And I took Sarai, whom I took to wife when I was in Ur, in Chaldea, and Lot, my brother’s son, and all our substance that we had gathered, and the souls that we had won in Haran, and came forth in the way to the land of Canaan, and dwelt in tents as we came on our way; | And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. | |
| 16 Therefore, eternity was our covering and our rock and our salvation, as we journeyed from Haran by the way of Jershon, to come to the land of Canaan. 17 Now I, Abraham, built an altar in the land of Jershon, and made an offering unto the Lord, and prayed that the famine might be turned away from my father’s house, that they might not perish. 18 And then we passed from Jershon through the land unto the place of Sechem; it was situated in the plains of Moreh, and we had already come into the borders of the land of the Canaanites, and I offered sacrifice there in the plains of Moreh, and called on the Lord devoutly, because we had already come into the land of this idolatrous nation. 19 And the Lord appeared unto me in answer to my prayers, and said unto me: Unto thy seed will I give this land. | And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. | |
| 20 And I, Abraham, arose from the place of the altar which I had built unto the Lord, and removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched my tent there, Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east; and there I built another altar unto the Lord, and called again upon the name of the Lord. | And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. | |
| 21 And I, Abraham, journeyed, going on still towards the south; and there was a continuation of a famine in the land; and I, Abraham, oncluded to go down into Egypt, to sojourn there, for the famine became very grievous. | And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. | |
| 22 And it came to pass when I was come near to enter into Egypt, the Lord said unto me: Behold, Sarai, thy wife, is a very fair woman to look upon; 23 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see her, they will say—She is his wife; and they will kill you, but they will save her alive; therefore see that ye do on this wise: 24 Let her say unto the Egyptians, she is thy sister, and thy soul shall live. 25 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. | And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, 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. |
| This time we can see some similar language. A couple verses from Genesis are found in the Book of Abraham at length, with a lot of detail filled in. This suggests Genesis could have been based on the Book of Abraham, or some derivative from the Book of Abraham. Some details are conflicting, such as Abraham’s age. Genesis includes a separate vision of Jehovah. Very significantly, the Lord tells Abraham to call Sarai his sister in the Book of Abraham version. Phrases are more parallel this time, but the Book of Abraham contains much more text. |
Did Joseph Smith Use The Bible To Translate? – The Book of Mormon includes language close to the KJV bible in lengthy quotes from Isaiah, but we would expect that from the Book of Mormon because it claims to be quoting from the bible. The Book of Abraham does not claim to be quoting anything. So why are some phrases very close to Genesis, as we see in the chart above?
Joseph Smith may have used the bible as a resource to making translating easier. I once sat down to translate a 15the century German book into English. Despite my fluency in German, I found this extremely challenging, and I was relieved when I realized parts of the book were quoting a book that had already been translated into English. With great relief, I grabbed that book and used it as a close reference for those parts.
Is this what Joseph Smith did with the Book of Abraham? Perhaps, but probably not. It is very telling that so many words are switched around and worded differently. It doesn’t make sense why Joseph Smith would be careful to switch wording so much in some instances yet keep other lengthy phrases exactly the same. Why would he be careful to make it not look like plagiarism some of the time but not the rest of the time?
There is a vast library of Abraham stories that we know for sure are ancient books and are written the same way, with some parts that sound like Genesis and other parts that don’t. More importantly, the Book of Abraham contains material from these other Abraham stories that aren’t in Genesis, such as a vision of the Creation, which we see in The Apocalypse of Abraham, and which Joseph Smith could not have had access to. In the Testament of Abraham Abraham confronts Satan who appears to him as a being of light, and Abraham orders him to depart. This story wasn’t available to Joseph Smith either, so why is it so similar to the Book of Abraham?
So, one could just as well say Joseph Smith plagiarized these pseudepigraphic texts as to say he plagiarized Genesis–except he couldn’t have because those texts weren’t available!
In any case, anyone who is bilingual will tell you there is no reason why Joseph Smith should mire through difficult Egyptian text when he could just grab a bible off the shelf for help. Why not use it for help? And the version of the bible is not important–the Book of Abraham is about as similar to other versions as the KJV. I think the more likely explanation, however, is that the Book of Abraham and the Genesis account are both derived from the same source, and that they therefore include different details and different wording.
But this argument is really impossible to answer and is asked in bad faith. One could complain that the Book of Abraham conflicts with Genesis too much, and then out of the other side of their mouth complain that they are too similar.
CES Letter Logical Fallacies
| Falsehood | CES Letter‘s 86% similarity claim is ridiculous. The Book of Abraham is totally different. CES Letter calls it “close paraphrases of King Joames wording,” but as we see from the chart above, Genesis often looks like paraphrasing compared to the Book of Abraham. What does CES Letter mean by “close paraphrasing?” What does that mean? Many details are different. The two books talk about some of the same stories, so of course there will be similarities. As for some phrases that are worded similarly, why wouldn’t they be, if they both came from Abraham? |
| Cherry-Picking | CES Letter says 86% of certain cherry-picked chapters are “paraphrases” of the KJV bible. Certain chapters? That’s ridiculous! That’s like saying 86% of certain ingredients in beer is good for you. Talk about the book as a whole. You can’t just base a sweeping statistic on a narrow portion of something. I wouldn’t be surprised if CES Letter started saying, “100% of phrases that begin with ‘And it came’ and end with ‘pass’ are similar to the bible.” |
| Non Sequiter | The 86% statistic is false, but besides that, CES Letter fails to demonstrate one example of “close paraphrases of King James wording,” or explain what that actually means. They have not shown that there is “17th century King James text” that ought not to be there. Why would the wording all be completely different if both books came from Abraham? The Testament of Abraham says God blessed Abraham “above the sand of the sea and above the stars of heaven.” Did they plagiarize that from Genesis 22? “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore.” Well, in any case, it’s an ancient Apocryphal book, so if the Book of Abraham contains some similar lines as well that doesn’t negate it from being an ancient book. |
| Subjectivist Fallacy | Whether two phrases are similar is a totally subjective opinion. When we see the Apocalypse of Abraham talk about the heavenly “firmament the powers of the stars,” which we don’t see in the Genesis Abraham account, do we conclude that the Book of Abraham plagiarized this: “stars, or all the great lights, which were in the firmament of heaven?” Well it couldn’t have, because the Apocalypse of Abraham hadn’t been discovered yet! |
| Shifting Goalposts | CES Letter previously complained that the Book of Mormon is not similar enough to the bible. Now they complain that the Book of Abraham is too similar. In their previous argument CES Letter incorrectly said scientific ideas in the Book of Abraham are too different from ancient beliefs. Now they are arguing that the text is to similar to the ancient bible.No matter what, anti-Mormons can say any similarities or differences are evidence of fabrication. They could swing either way. |
Kafkatrapping – This argument attacks the belief that the Book of Mormon is ancient scripture by cherry-picking associations with modern bible translations. CES Letter says the association is too strong, and then in other arguments they complain about supposed errors in the bible that are perpetuated. The truth is, the Book of Abraham is totally different, and we would expect similar phrases and a generally similar story-line if they both came from the same guy, Abraham.
What is brilliant about CES Letter is how they allege unreasonable associations as well as unreasonable discrepancies, part of the Contradiction Strategy. They go back and forth between contradiction and similarity, like a demolition man swinging a rusted old metal pole back and forth in order to tear it off quicker. One second we are appalled at inconsistencies. The next we are shocked at the similarities. One second it is language similar to the bible. The next it is science that doesn’t fit modern quantum mechanics.
But just raising the question gives it some tiny amount of credibility. As is often the case with innuendo, this argument successfully uses the kafkatrapping tactic. They begin with the frame that the Book of Abraham’s relationship with the bible deserves to be called into question, and we buy into it. As one of the strongest physical evidences for the Mormon Church’s authenticity, this allows CES Letter to go on and use physical evidence as a wedge to attack the church. This leads to an obsession with truth that you can only see, and a superstitious outlook.
Innuendo Rather Than Logic – CES Letter drops a few (incorrect) bits of leading evidence, and the reader connects to dots in their mind to the inevitable conclusion. If 17th century language appear2 in the Book of Abraham, obviously the Book of Abraham wasn’t produced before then. CES Letter does not give us this logic, but allows the reader’s mind to string it together. They do this because people are much more likely to believe a deduction if they figured it out on their own, subconsciously. They are also more likely to believe the evidences for that deduction, which in this case are falsehoods.
Changeable Truth – What is the alternative to scripture that has remained essentially the same for many thousands of years? Scripture that is always changing, that’s what. Truth that is never static for Marxists. In the anti-Mormon’s narrative, there is no way the story of Noah is true today the way it was back then, nor should it be. Truth is relative, always fitting modernity.
Today, why don’t we add some more female characters to the Book of Abraham story, to show that we are “inclusive?” Why don’t we add something to justify abortion? That is what the anti-Mormon alternative to scripture would be.