Questionable Texts

After reading Joseph Smith’s translation of The Book Of Abraham, I was fairly confused at times. But after reading the Wikipedia page, I was a bit more at ease with my interpretation of this translation. What I found most interesting was why some of the different sects of the Church of LDS do not believe The Book Of Abraham is considered a religious text, even though it was interpreted by Joseph Smith, the founder of LDS Church. I could only imagine the reasons concerning the historical uncertainties seen throughout this text.

For one, there are several themes Christianity, Islam and Judaism share with this text. The first piece I had really noticed when reading the text, was the reference to angels, something most religions fail to cover, yet Christianity, Islam and Judaism all seem to embody. In other religions besides these, there is not a specific reference to angels, but Islam and Judaism believes God created angels as messengers between heaven and earth. This idea is seen in The Book of Abraham when it is said “the Lord thy God sent his angel to deliver thee from the hands of the priest of Elkenah” (35). This unique theme of the role of angels now is present in Mormon, Islam and Judaism; which shows where this idea may have originally stemmed from (not 2000 BE). I could only imagine this text is riddled with questionable statements similar to many of which that can be seen in Joseph Smith’s background.