Author: BMC Team

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Abrahamic Legends and Lore

Life of Abraham

Book of Abraham Insight #12

As a central figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there are many extra-biblical traditions about the life of the patriarch Abraham. These sources are important to study because they may contain distant memories of real events in Abraham’s life. It is also interesting to compare the Book of Abraham with these sources because the Book of Abraham might help us understand these extra-biblical sources better and vice versa.

Much of the Book of Abraham’s content that does not appear in the Genesis account parallels the extra-biblical material from these religious traditions.1 Just some of the unique elements in the Book of Abraham that are found in ancient and medieval Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sources include:

      • Idolatry in Abraham’s day
      • A famine in the land of the Chaldeans
      • An attempt to sacrifice Abraham
      • Abraham receiving a vision of God and the cosmos
      • Abraham being knowledgeable about astronomy and teaching such to the Egyptians2

For example, an early Christian author named Eusebius preserved an account of Abraham teaching the Egyptians astronomy: “Abraham lived in Heliopolis with the Egyptian priests and taught them much: He explained astrology and the other sciences to them, saying that the Babylonians and he himself had obtained this knowledge.”3  The ancient Jewish historian Josephus likewise recorded that Abraham taught the Egyptians astronomy: “He communicated to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy; for, before Abram came into Egypt, they were unacquainted with those parts of learning.”4

Detail of a sixteenth-century Ottoman Turkish manuscript depicting Abraham being cast into a burning furnace by the wicked king Nimrod in Tvedtnes, Hauglid, and Gee (2001), 532.

Another recurring theme in these ancient extra-biblical accounts about Abraham is his having a vision of the cosmos and being brought into the presence of God.5 Medieval Jewish sources also speak of Abraham having in his possession a “glowing precious stone” with which he read the stars and performed miracles:

Abraham wore a glowing stone around his neck. Some say that it was a pearl, others that it was a jewel. The light emitted by that jewel was like the light of the sun, illuminating the entire world. Abraham used that stone as an astrolabe to study the motion of the stars, and with its help he became a master astrologer. For his power of reading the stars, Abraham was much sought after by the potentates of East and West. So too did that glowing precious stone bring immediate healing to any sick person who looked into it. At the moment when Abraham took leave of this world, the precious stone raised itself and flew up to heaven. God took it and hung it on the wheel of the sun.6

With a few exceptions, the extra-biblical sources discussing Abraham that parallel the account in the Book of Abraham were unavailable to Joseph Smith. Even with those sources that could have been available to the him, such as the writings of Josephus, it is not clear how much exposure or access Joseph Smith had to them or how much they influenced his thinking.7  “Josephus was known to Oliver Cowdery and theoretically known to Joseph Smith, but it is not clear that Joseph Smith actually read much, if anything, out of Josephus before he translated the Book of Abraham. While some elements of the Book of Abraham agree with Josephus, there are important disagreements as well.”8

It is also important to keep in mind that these later sources do not necessarily always reflect an accurate history of Abraham’s life. “Not all [ancient] authors treated their sources [about Abraham] the same way. Some authors retold the tales they read in their own words, adding more vivid and imaginative details. Other authors repeated their sources word for word. Some authors expanded their stories, while others abbreviated them, and still others left them unchanged. This makes it difficult to come up with a general theory [for their reliability] that covers all cases.”9

What is important for the Book of Abraham is not that these sources somehow “prove” the book is true, which they don’t. Rather, they demonstrate that important themes and narrative details in the Book of Abraham fit comfortably in the ancient world and do not always fit comfortably in Joseph Smith’s nineteenth century environment.10  “The nonbiblical traditions about Abraham underscore the pervasive influence this great patriarch had on ancient and modern peoples. Because the Book of Abraham parallels so many nonbiblical stories, it is clearly part of the same tradition.”11

While they perhaps do not rise to the level of “proof,” these parallels are still evidence for the Book of Abraham because “it is difficult to argue that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Abraham using [these] Abrahamic stories because most of them were not available to him, and those that were often contained details that do not match the Book of Abraham. On the other hand, the ancient existence of a Book of Abraham can explain why these stories existed.”12

Further Reading

Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 2009), 375–468.

Hauglid, Brian M. “The Book of Abraham and Muslim Tradition,” in Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, ed. John Gee and Brian M. Hauglid (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2005), 131–146.

John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid, and John Gee, eds., Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2001).

Bradley J. Cook, “The Book of Abraham and the Islamic Qisas al-Anbiya (Tales of the Prophets) Extant Literature,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 33, no. 4 (Winter 2000): 127–146.

John A. Tvedtnes, “Abrahamic Lore in Support of the Book of Abraham,” FARMS Report (1999).

Footnotes

 

1 Hugh Nibley provided pioneering work on this subject. See Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 2000), 11–42; An Approach to the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 2009), 375–468. More recently, John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid, and John Gee have collected and synthesized a large (though not exhaustive) amount of these sources. See John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid, and John Gee eds., Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2001). See additionally Bradley J. Cook, “The Book of Abraham and the Islamic Qisas al-Anbiya (Tales of the Prophets) Extant Literature,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 33, no. 4 (Winter 2000): 127–146; Brian M. Hauglid, “On the Early Life of Abraham: Biblical and Qur’anic Intertextuality and the Anticipation of Muhammad,” in Bible and Qur’an: Essays in Scriptural Intertextuality, ed. John C. Reeves (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), 87–105; “The Book of Abraham and Muslim Tradition,” in Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, ed. John Gee and Brian M. Hauglid (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2005), 131–146.

2 Tvedtnes, Hauglid, and Gee, Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham, 537–547.

3 Tvedtnes, Hauglid, and Gee, Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham, 8–9.

4 Tvedtnes, Hauglid, and Gee, Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham, 49.

5 Jared W. Ludlow, “Abraham’s Visions of the Heavens,” in Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, ed. John Gee and Brian M. Hauglid (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2005), 57–73.

6  Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2004), 332, citing B. Bava Batra 16b; Zohar 1:11a-11b, Idra Rabbah. As Schwartz comments, “This talmudic legend about a glowing stone that Abraham wore around his neck is a part of the chain of legends about that glowing jewel, known as the Tzohar, which was first given to Adam and Eve when they were expelled from the Garden of Eden and also came into the possession of Noah, who hung it in the ark. See The Tzohar, p. 85. This version of the legend adds the detail that the glowing stone was also an astrolabe, with which Abraham could study the stars.”

7 Lincoln H. Blumell, “Palmyra and Jerusalem: Joseph Smith’s Scriptural Texts and the Writings of Flavius Josephus,” in Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, edited by Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey, and Andrew H. Hedges (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015), 356–406, esp. 371–373.

8 John Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, and Deseret Book, 2017), 159.

9 Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham, 158.

10 See the discussion in Andrew W. Hedges, “A Wanderer in a Strange Land: Abraham in America, 1800–1850,” in Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, 175–187.

11 Tvedtnes, Hauglid, and Gee, Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham, xxxv.

12 Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham, 160.

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Jews in Ancient Egypt

Elephantine

Book of Abraham Insight #11

The Egyptian papyri acquired by Joseph Smith in 1835 can be confidently dated to many centuries after Abraham’s lifetime. Based on a number of different criteria, it can be determined that the papyri were written in a period when Egypt was ruled by a dynasty of Greek rulers who reigned from circa 300–30 BC.1

One question that readers of the Book of Abraham might have is how a copy of Abraham’s writings written sometime around 2,000–1,800 BC could have ended up in the possession of an ancient Egyptian living many centuries later.

One plausible scenario is that Abraham’s descendants (ancient Hebrews) transmitted the text over the centuries by copying it through succeeding generations in the same way that the books of the Bible were written and copied over many centuries. But the Book of Abraham as translated by Joseph Smith is said to have been preserved on Egyptian papyri recovered “from the catacombs of Egypt” (Book of Abraham heading). If Abraham’s descendants transmitted his record, how did it end up in Egypt?

In fact, there is ample evidence that groups of ancient Israelites and other Semitic peoples migrated into Egypt over the course of many centuries, taking with them their culture, religious practices, and sacred texts. “Abraham himself was in Egypt, as was his great-grandson Joseph and all of his Israelite descendants for hundreds of years thereafter. After the Exodus, Israelites continued to travel to and live in Egypt. After the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, large groups of Jews settled in Egypt and created longstanding and thriving communities.”2

One of these migrations occurred during the time of the prophet Jeremiah. The Bible records “Judeans living in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros” during this time (NRSV Jeremiah 44:1). These Jews had evidently fled into Egypt after the Babylonian conquest of the kingdom of Judah.3

Around this time another group of Israelites travelled as far south as the island of Elephantine on the Nile river and not only established a thriving community, but also built a temple to Yahweh (or Jehovah), the God of Israel.4  They made copies of biblical texts that have survived today, attesting to the existence a thriving literary and religious culture in their community.5

Reconstruction of the temple to Yahweh at Elephantine by Rosenberg (2004): 4.

During the Greco-Roman period of Egyptian history (circa 300 BC–AD 400), ancient Jews built communities in many parts of Egypt. The city of Alexandria on the coast of the Mediterranean was home to a sizable Jewish community. Other Egyptian sites such as Leontopolis, Oxyrynchus, Thebes, and locations in the Fayum likewise had a Jewish presence. In fact, ancient sources indicate that another temple to Yahweh was built at Leontopolis.6  Synagogues were likewise built at Alexandria and at sites in the Fayum.7

Evidence from surviving textual sources confirms that Jewish names (including names such as Solomon, Aaron, Abraham, and Samuel) proliferated throughout Egypt. Summarizing this evidence, one scholar wrote how “besides the Greeks, Jews were the most numerous group of foreigners living in Egypt” during this time.8

There is also clear evidence that these Egyptian Jews copied their sacred texts and even composed new texts while they lived in Egypt. The Old Testament was translated into Greek in Alexandria during this time, and stories about Abraham and other biblical figures circulated amongst Jews living both inside and outside of Egypt.9

So even though Abraham would have written his record many centuries earlier, there is plenty of historical evidence to suggest a plausible way in which those writings could have been transmitted into Egypt at any point over the course of many centuries.

Further Reading

Kerry Muhlestein and Courtney Innes, “Synagogues and Cemeteries: Evidence for a Jewish Presence in the Fayum,” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 4, no. 2 (2012): 53–59.

Peter C. Nadig, “‘We Beg You, Our King!’ Some Reflections on the Jews in Persian and Ptolemaic Egypt,” in Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, ed. John Gee and Brian M. Hauglid (Provo: The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2005), 83–93.

Footnotes

 

1 Marc Coenen, “The Dating of the Papyri Joseph Smith I, X and XI and Min who Massacres his Enemies,” in Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand Years, ed. Willy Clarysse, Antoon Schoors, and Harco Willems (Leuven: Peeters, 1998), 2:1103–15; Michael D. Rhodes, The Hor Book of Breathings: A Translation and Commentary (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002), 3.

2 Kerry Muhlestein, “Egyptian Papyri and the Book of Abraham: A Faithful, Egyptological Point of View,” in No Weapon Shall Prosper: New Light on Sensitive Issues, ed. Robert L. Millet (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 230–231.

3 Jan K. Winnicki, Late Egypt and Her Neighbors: Foreign Population in Egypt in the First Millennium BC (Warsaw: Warsaw University, 2009), 180–181.

4 John Merlin Powis Smith, “The Jewish Temple at Elephantine,” The Biblical World 31, no. 6 (June 1908): 448–459; Bezalel Porten, “The Structure and Orientation of the Jewish Temple at Elephantine-A Revised Plan of the Jewish District,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 81, no. 1 (January-March 1961): 38–42; Joseph M. Modrezejewski, The Jews of Egypt: From Ramesses II to Emperor Hadrian (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1995), 21–44; Lisbeth S. Fried, The Priest and the Great King: Temple-Palace Relations in the Persian Empire, Biblical and Judaic Studies 10 (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2004), 92–107; Stephen G. Rosenberg, “The Jewish Temple at Elephantine,” Near Eastern Archaeology 67, no. 1 (March 2004): 4–13.

5 Charles F. Nims and Richard C. Steiner, “A Paganized Version of Psalm 20:2–6 from the Aramaic Text in Demotic Script,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 103, no. 1 (January-March 1983): 261–274; Karel van der Toorn, “Three Israelite Psalms in an Ancient Egyptian Papyrus,” The Ancient Near East Today 6, no. 5 (May 2018).

6 M. Delcor and R. de Vaux, “Le Temple D’Onias en Égypte,” Revue Biblique 75, no. 2 (1968): 188–205; Robert Hayward, “The Jewish Temple at Leontopolis: A Reconsideration,” Journal of Jewish Studies 33, no. 1-2 (Spring-Autumn 1982): 429–443.

7 Judith McKenzie, The Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt, 300 BC–AD 700 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 66, 180–182; Kerry Muhlestein, “Synagogues and Cemeteries: Evidence for a Jewish Presence in the Fayum,” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 4 (2012): 53–59.

8 Winnicki, Late Egypt and Her Neighbors, 182.

9 Taylor Halverson, “The Lives of Abraham: Seeing Abraham Through the Eyes of Second-Temple Jews,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 32 (2019): 253–276; R. Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth, 2 vols. (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1983), 1:681–705; E. P. Sanders, “Testament of Abraham,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:871–902; Dale C. Allison, The Testament of Abraham (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2003).

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The Blood of the Canaanites

Beni Hassan

Book of Abraham Insight #10

The first chapter of the Book of Abraham contains a short detail about the ancestry of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. “Now this king of Egypt was a descendant from the loins of Ham, and was a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites by birth. From this descent sprang all the Egyptians, and thus the blood of the Canaanites was preserved in the land” (Abraham 1:21–22). Although he was a righteous man who “judged his people wisely and justly all his days” (v. 26), Pharaoh could not lay claim to any priesthood authority because of his ancestry (v. 27).

The mentioning of the king of Egypt being “a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites” may appear odd at first glance, but actually makes some historical sense in a specific way for Abraham’s time and circumstances.

The Egyptian Twelfth Dynasty ruled a unified Egypt for about 200 years from circa 1990–1800 BC. However, at the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, control over Egypt was split between the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties.1 The Thirteenth Dynasty rulers were native Egyptians and “carried on the policies” of the Twelfth Dynasty. However, scholars have determined from their Semitic names that the Fourteenth Dynasty rulers were not likely native Egyptians, but rather were probably natives of Syria-Palestine (Canaan).2  “[This] dynasty came into being when the Canaanite population in the [Nile] Delta proclaimed its own ruler . . . after having gradually seceded from the rest of Egypt during the late Twelfth Dynasty.”3

It might be that Abraham had in mind the Asiatic or Semitic kings of the Fourteenth Dynasty with his comment that the “king of Egypt . . . was a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites.” He “seems to classify all pharaohs as Canaanite” in his text, “though the Twelfth Dynasty pharaohs whose servants tried to kill him [in Abraham 1] were not. Since Abraham never met the Twelfth Dynasty pharaohs, he may have assumed that all pharaohs were like the Fourteenth Dynasty ones he did meet.”4  He likewise may have simply assumed that all the Egyptians he encountered at the time were descendants of Canaanites (Abraham 1:22).

This, in turn, might help us narrow down a general range of dates for Abraham’s life. According to the biblical account, Abraham lived to be 175 years old (Genesis 25:7–8). If this figure is taken at face value, and if as a young man Abraham lived towards the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, perhaps during the reign of pharaoh Amenemhat III (ca. 1860–1814 BC),5  this would afford enough time to accommodate either the early (ca. 1800 BC) or late (ca. 1730 BC) date for the commencement of the Fourteenth Dynasty of Canaanite pharaohs.6

Detail from The Caravan of Abraham by James Tissot. Groups of Asiatic or Semitic nomads not unlike Abraham himself are attested migrating into ancient Egypt.

Admittedly, the biblical age of Abraham seems difficult to believe. Adjusting Abraham’s lifespan to something more reasonable such as his 90s7 would still put him in generally the right chronological window, but would narrow that window by a few decades and would favor the earlier as opposed to later origin for the Fourteenth Dynasty. There are still large gaps in the archaeological record for this period, and so establishing an incontrovertible chronology for Abraham’s life based on information from the Book of Abraham is not much more feasible beyond this.

In any case, “whether one dates the arrival of the Fourteenth Dynasty toward the beginning or the end of the Thirteenth Dynasty, there would have been a dynastic change during Abraham’s life, with rulers of a different dynasty in Egypt at the time of his visit than had been in charge during his attempted sacrifice.”8 Not only were these rulers indeed “partakers of the blood of the Canaanites” as mentioned in the Book of Abraham,9 but they may have even had a friendly disposition towards Abraham on account of their shared Semitic ancestry. This, in turn, might account for why Abraham was granted royal privileges, such as the opportunity to teach Pharaoh and his court astronomy (Facsimile 3).

Even with a number of remaining uncertainties that should temper our conclusions, small textual details such as those at Abraham 1:21–22 might help us better narrow down a plausible historical timeline for Abraham and situate the Book of Abraham in a plausible ancient context.

Further Reading

John Gee, “The Book of Abraham in the Ancient World,” in An Introduction to the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2017), 97–105.

Footnotes

 

1 Gae Callender, “The Middle Kingdom Renaissance (c. 2055–1650 BC),” in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, ed. Ian Shaw (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000), 171.

2 K.S.B. Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period, c. 1800–1550 B.C. (Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997), 94, 99–101.

3 Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period, 5.

4 John Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2017), 101–102.

5 As reasonably argued by Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham, 101.

6 The chronology of the Fourteenth Dynasty remains disputed because of “the brutal truth . . . that there is no reliable anchor point for Egyptian history before the New Kingdom [circa 1550–1069 BC].” As such, “the chronological position of the Fourteenth Dynasty . . . has been a key problem in” reconstructing the history of the end of the Middle Kingdom and the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period. Harco Willems, “The First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom,” in A Companion to Ancient Egypt, ed. Alan B. Lloyd (West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2010), 1:81, 99. While most Egyptologists accept a late date for the beginning of the Fourteenth Dynasty, Ryholt has argued vigorously for an early date. See the opposing arguments in Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period; Daphna Ben-Tor, Susan J. Allen, and James P. Allen, “Review: Seals and Kings,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 315 (1999): 47–74. While Ryholt’s position remains the minority view among Egyptologists, his theory is nonetheless a viable interpretation of the scarce archaeological evidence that survives for this period.

7 Ancient people surviving to this old age is rare but attested. Pharaoh Ramesses II (circa 1300–1210 BC) lived to his 90s, for instance.

8 John Gee, “Shulem, One of the King’s Principal Waiters,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 385.

9 In fact, some modern Egyptologists today still refer to the Fourteenth Dynasty kings as “Canaanites,” including Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period, 5.

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Shulem, One of the King’s Principal Waiters

Fac 3

Book of Abraham Insight #9

Figure 5 in Facsimile 3 of the Book of Abraham is identified as “Shulem, one of the king’s principal waiters.” We don’t know anything more about the man Shulem beyond this brief description as he does not appear in the text of the Book of Abraham. Presumably, if we had more of the story, we would know more about how he fit in the overall Abrahamic narrative.

However, there are some things we can say about Shulem and his title “the king’s principal waiter.”

First is Shulem’s name. As John Gee has documented, this name is “widely attested in Semitic languages” from the time of Abraham.1 This includes attestations in Old Akkadian, Old Assyrian, Old Babylonian, Middle Babylonian, Eblaite, and Ugaritic.2

Additionally, Shulem’s title “the king’s principal waiter” is arguably attested in ancient Egypt. In particular, the title “butler of the ruler” (wdpw n ḥqꜣ) is a fairly close match to “the king’s principal waiter” and is attested during the time of Abraham.3

But what would a Semite like Shulem be doing in the royal court of Egypt, as depicted in Facsimile 3? In fact, there is evidence of Asiatic migration into Egypt during the time of Abraham. “A number of Asiatics residing in Egypt are also observed in texts dating to [the time of Abraham],” observes one scholar. “They list Asiatic retainers, dancers, singers and other workers. . . . They further point to the presence of institutions for the coordination of relations between Asiatics and the local population. As some Asiatics bear Semitic names, it is likely that Levantines were still migrating into Egypt at this time.” 4

In fact, the Egyptian Fourteenth Dynasty “was ‘a local dynasty of Asiatic origin in the north eastern Delta’ who are notable as ‘kings with foreign, mostly West Semitic, names.’”5 Once again, not only the names of the rulers but also members of elite households show signs of Semitic origin during this time.6

“So from Shulem’s name and title and we can surmise the following: From the form of his name, [it would appear] that Shulem lived during the late Middle Kingdom or the Second Intermediate Period [circa 1800–1600 BC]. Shulem was [likely] not a native Egyptian. He was probably a first generation immigrant. He [likely] served in the court of a Fourteenth Dynasty ruler, who was probably not a native Egyptian either.”7

This external evidence reinforces the overall historical plausibility of the Book of Abraham.

Further Reading

John Gee, “Shulem, One of the King’s Principal Waiters,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 383–395.

Footnotes

 

1John Gee, “Shulem, One of the King’s Principal Waiters,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 383.

2 Gee, “Shulem, One of the King’s Principal Waiters,” 383–384.

3 Gee, “Shulem, One of the King’s Principal Waiters,” 385–387.

4 For a collection and summary of the relevant evidence, see Anna-Latifa Mourad, Rise of the Hyksos: Egypt and the Levant from the Middle Kingdom to the Early Second Intermediate Period (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2015), 19–130, esp. 124–130, quote at 126.

5 Gee, “Shulem, One of the King’s Principal Waiters,” 384, quoting K. S. B. Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c. 1880-1550 B.C. (Copenhagen: The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Near Eastern Studies, 1997), 94, 99; compare Marc Van de Meiroop, A History of Ancient Egypt (West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2011), 132; Kathryn A. Bard, An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 2nd ed. (West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2015), 216.

6 Gee, “Shulem, One of the King’s Principal Waiters,” 384–385; compare Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2006), 28–29; Kerry Muhlestein, “Levantine Thinking in Egypt,” in Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology and Literature, ed. S. Bar, D. Kahn and JJ Shirley (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 206–208; James K. Hoffmeier, “Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews,” in “Did I Not Bring Israel Out of Egypt?” Biblical, Archaeological, and Egyptological Perspectives on the Exodus Narratives, ed. James K. Hoffmeier, Alan R. Millard, and Gary A. Rendsburg (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2016), 9–10; Garry J. Shaw, War & Trade with the Pharaohs: An Archaeological Study of Egypt’s Foreign Relations (South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Archaeology, 2017), 49–51.

7 Gee, “Shulem, One of the King’s Principal Waiters,” 387.

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Zeptah and Egyptes

Ptah

Book of Abraham Insight #8

The Book of Abraham contains the following account of the discovery of Egypt by the descendants of Ham: “The land of Egypt [was] first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus” (Abraham 1:23). This woman “discovered the land [when] it was under water, who afterward settled her sons in it; and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land.” Thereafter “first government of Egypt” was established by “Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham” (vv. 24–25).

This genealogy in the Book of Abraham reflects the names of the characters as printed in the 1 March 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons.1 Two of the names, however, are rendered differently in the 1835 Kirtland-era Book of Abraham manuscripts. The name of Ham’s wife in all three Kirtland-era manuscripts is either “Zep-tah” or “Zeptah.”2  Additionally, the name of Ham and Zeptah’s daughter is Egyptes in the Kirtland-era manuscripts, as opposed to Egyptus.3

The name Zeptah stands out since it could very plausibly be a rendering of the Egyptian name Siptah (sꜣ ptḥ), meaning “son of [the god] Ptah.”4 This name, as well as its feminine equivalent “daughter of [the god] Ptah” (sꜣt ptḥ), is attested during the likely time of Abraham (circa 2,000–1,800 BC).5 It is also the name of an Egyptian king who lived many centuries after Abraham.6 The spelling of the name with a Z instead of an S is not a problem for the Book of Abraham, since in the Egyptian language of Abraham’s time “these two consonants were pronounced the same, like English s as in set.” They were “essentially one consonant [in the Egyptian language of this time], and could often be written interchangeably.”7

The name Zeptah as it appears in one of the Kirtland-era Book of Abraham manuscripts. Image via The Joseph Smith Papers Project.

The name Egyptes/Egyptus is clearly related to the name Egypt, which comes from the Greek Aigyptos (Latin: Aegyptus). Aigyptos is a rendering of one of the Egyptian names for the ancient city of Memphis, which contains the theophoric Ptah element (ḥwt-kꜣ-ptḥ; literally “the estate of the Ka [spirit] of [the god] Ptah”).8 Since Egyptes/Egyptus is a Greek name that would be anachronistic for Abraham’s day, it might reflect the work of ancient scribes transmitting the text who “updated” the name centuries later. This may have been the case with the name Zeptah as well.9

We don’t know for certain why Joseph Smith changed the names Zeptah and Egyptes when he published the Book of Abraham in 1842. The change from Egyptes to Egyptus might easily be explained as the modern scribe(s) for the Book of Abraham originally mishearing the name and being corrected later.10 The change from Zeptah to Egyptus is harder to explain. It could have been the result of scribe Willard Richards incorrectly copying the name shortly before the Book of Abraham was published.11 Another possibility is that the Prophet or one of his scribes who read through the text of the Book of Abraham beforehand substituted a more familiar name for the less familiar one to make it more consistent with other names in the text.12

But why would a woman have a man’s name like Zeptah? One possibility is that the name was confused by ancient scribes copying the text after Abraham’s lifetime. This seems to have happened before to other ancient Egyptian figures, including, potentially, a male Egyptian king named Netjerkare Siptah who lived before Abraham’s lifetime and who appears to have been mistaken as a beautiful woman for almost 2,000 years because of ancient scribal mistakes.13 Perhaps a similar problem happened when the Book of Abraham was copied over the centuries.

Alternatively, Egyptologist Vivienne G. Callender argues that Netjerkare Siptah was in fact a woman ruler named Neitikrety Siptah, despite the masculine form of Siptah in her name.

Perhaps the presence of the phrase, ‘Son of Ptah’, . . .  may have been a specific tribute to the Memphite god, who was particularly prominent at this time. The masculinity of this name . . . is not a problem for a feminine ruler, because the masculine filiation, sꜣ Rˁ [son of Re], was later used by other female rulers, such as Sobekneferu, who fluctuated between using male and female nomenclature. Sobekneferu, Hatshepsut and Tausret all used various forms of masculine display or titulary when they were rulers, so, if she had been a female ruler, perhaps Neit-ikrety may have done the same, and the title, sꜣ ptḥ, may have been used to indicate that her monarchy was different from that of the other rulers who used sꜣ Rˁ in the Old Kingdom.14

If this argument is correct, then we would have an attested ancient Egyptian female personality using precisely the same masculine name as in the Book of Abraham.

While we may not be able to currently answer these questions entirely, what can be said is that the name Zeptah in the Book of Abraham is, arguably, authentically Egyptian.

Further Reading

Hugh Nibley, “A Pioneering Mother,” in Abraham in Egypt, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 2000), 466–556.

Footnotes

 

1 “Book of Abraham,” Times and Seasons 3, no. 9 (March 1, 1842): 705.

2 Robin Scott Jensen and Brian M. Hauglid, eds., The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts (Salt Lake City, UT: The Church Historian’s Press, 2018), 199, 211, 227.

3 Jensen and Hauglid, The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 4, 199, 211, 227.

4 The god Ptah was “one of the oldest of Egypt’s gods,” with evidence for his worship as early as the Early Dynastic Period (circa 3,100–2,700 BC). Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Egypt (London: Thames and Hudson, 2003), 123; Jacobus Van Dijk, “Ptah,” in The Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion, ed. Donald B. Redford (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2002), 322. Among his other attributes, Ptah was imagined early on as a craftsman and creator god, and was later associated with Nun and Nunet, the godly personifications of the primeval waters of creation. Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2002), 182. This may have significance for the Book of Abraham’s depiction of Egypt being “under water” when it was first discovered by Zeptah and her family.

5 Hermann Ranke, Die Ägyptischen Personennamen, 3 vols. (Glückstadt: J. J. Augustin Verlag, 1935), 1:282, 288.

6 Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt (London: Thames and Hudson, 2004), 181; Marc Van De Mieroop, A History of Ancient Egypt (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 243–244; Ronald J. Leprohon, The Great Name: Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013), 124.

7 James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 3rd rev. ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 19.

8 See the discussion in Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 2000), 466–556, esp. 526–539; cf. Manetho, Aegyptiaca (I.5).

9 “The transmission of [ancient] documents allowed for updating of language,” including place names and personal names. John H. Walton and D. Brent Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Literary Culture and Biblical Authority (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2013), 32. This is seen in the Bible where the names of two of king Saul’s sons are given as Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel but are rendered Eshbaal and Meribaal in 1 Chronicles. While not all scholars agree on the meaning of this divergence, many think the baal (as in the god Baal) element was deliberately replaced by scribes with bosheth (the Hebrew word for “shame”). See the discussion in Michael Avioz, “The Names Mephibosheth and Ishbosheth Reconsidered,” Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 32, no. 1 (2011): 11–20. City names might also be updated by scribes so that the older name is given along with the name the city was known by at the time the scribe was working. This is seen in Judges 18:29: “They named the city Dan, after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel; but the name of the city was formerly Laish.” Examples of Egyptian scribes actively “updating” and “expanding” the language older texts, including names and epithets, can also be cited. See for instance Emile Cole, “Interpretation and Authority: The Social Functions of Translation in Ancient Egypt,” PhD dissertation (2015), 167–171, 201–205; and the discussion in Emily Cole, “Language and Script in the Book of the Dead,” in Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt, ed. Foy Scalf (Chicago, Ill.: Oriental Institute, 2017), 41–48.

10 Jensen and Hauglid, The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 4, 292n78.

11 Jensen and Hauglid, The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 4, 261.

12 One author has suggested that the name was changed “for consistency,” since Joseph had already “translated or transliterated the name of the country as Egypt.” This makes sense, because “Joseph Smith was translating the papyrus into English for readers who were already commonly familiar with this nomenclature.” James R. Clark, The Story of the Pearl of Great Price (Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1955), 127, emphasis in original. Another possibility is that the change was made because the Prophet or one of his clerks had come to view Zeptah and Egytpes as the same person. The story seems to still work if they are viewed as the same person, but the textual history makes it seem more likely these are two different women. For another proposed explanation for this change, see Brent Lee Metcalfe, “The Curious Textual History of ‘Egyptus’ the Wife of Ham,” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 34, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2014): 1–11.

13 Kim Ryholt, “The Late Old Kingdom in the Turin King-list and the Identity of Nitocris,” Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache 127 (2000): 87–100.

14 Vivienne G. Callender, “Queen Neit-ikrety/Nitokris,” in Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2010/2011, ed. Miroslav Bárta, Filip Coppens, and Jaromír Krejčí (Prague: Czech Institute of Egyptology, 2011), 256.

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Sobek, The God of Pharaoh

Relief of the god Sobek

Book of Abraham Insight #7

The opening chapter of the Book of Abraham identifies “the god of Pharaoh” as being one of the idolatrous gods worshipped by Abraham’s kinsmen (Abraham 1:6, 9, 13, 17). In Figure 9 of Facsimile 1 of the Book of Abraham, this god is depicted as a crocodile. Is there any evidence for who this god might have been and whether he was worshipped in Abraham’s lifetime (circa 2,000–1,800 BC)?

A strong case can be made for identifying the “god of Pharaoh” in the Book of Abraham as the Egyptian deity Sobek.1 This god was worshipped even before Abraham’s day and was commonly depicted as either a crocodile-headed man or a full crocodile wearing a crown.2 Anciently “he was regarded as a powerful deity with several important associations,” among them “procreative and vegetative fertility” and, importantly for the Book of Abraham, “the Egyptian king . . . as a symbol of pharaonic potency and might.”3

The worship of Sobek was popular in Egypt in Abraham’s time. Many names from this period contain the name Sobek as a theophoric element,4 including the name of the last ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty (ca. 1991–1782) and no less than seven different rulers of the Thirteenth Dynasty (ca. 1800–1650 BC).5 “[Sobek’s] sanctuaries were numerous and widespread” throughout Egypt during this time.6 Iconography of the god Sobek even made its way into northern Syria, a likely candidate for Abraham’s homeland.7 At the site of Ebla, an important Syrian city throughout the third and second millennia BC, artifacts bearing the images of different Egyptian gods, including Sobek, have been identified by archaeologists.8

Specimens of ivory plaques discovered at the site of Ebla bearing marks of Egyptian style and influence. The crocodile figure (D) is very likely a representation of the god Sobek. Image from Anna-Latifa Mourad (2015), 173.

The ancient Egyptian king Amenemhet III, who was a contemporary of Abraham’s, venerated Sobek, bringing the god “to specific prominence” during his reign.9 In a hymn praising Sobek, Amenemhet III is mentioned towards the end thus: “It is for Sobek the Shedytite, Horus dwelling in Shedyt, lord of myrrh, delighting in the giving of incense. May thou be merciful to King Amenemhet, through whom thy face is happy on this day.”10

From evidence unknown in Joseph Smith’s day,11 we can say the following about “the god of Pharaoh” in the Book of Abraham and Facsimile 1. First, the god in question is most likely the crocodile deity Sobek. Second, among other things, Sobek was closely associated with the Pharaoh of Egypt.12 Third, Sobek was especially venerated by king Amenemhet III, a pharaoh contemporary to Abraham. Fourth, and finally, specimens of Sobek iconography have been recovered from the likely region of Abraham’s homeland during the right period for Abraham’s lifetime (the Middle Bronze Age).

All of this “provides concrete archaeological evidence that . . . the [B]ook of Abraham accurately describes an aspect of the ancient world about which Joseph Smith could have known little or nothing.”13

Further Reading

Quinten Barney, “Sobek: The Idolatrous God of Pharaoh Amenemhet III,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 22, no. 2 (2013): 22–27.

John Gee, “The Crocodile God of Pharaoh in Mesopotamia,” Insights, October 1996, 2.

Footnotes

 

1 See the discussion in Quinten Barney, “Sobek: The Idolatrous God of Pharaoh Amenemhet III,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 22, no. 2 (2013): 22–27.

2 Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002), 200; Tine Bagh, “Sobek Crowned,” in Lotus and Laurel: Studies on Egyptian Language and Religion in Honour of Paul John Frandsen, ed. Rune Nyord and Kim Ryholt (Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2015), 1–17.

3 Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003), 218–219.

4 Hermann Ranke, Die Ägyptischen Personennamen (Glückstadt: J. J. Augustin Verlag, 1935), 1:303–306.

5 Ronald J. Leprohon, The Great Name: Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013), 60–61, 64, 67–68, 70.

6 Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, 220.

7 Stephen O. Smoot, “‘In the Land of the Chaldeans’: The Search for Abraham’s Homeland Revisited,” BYU Studies Quarterly 56, no. 3 (2017): 7–37.

8 Beatrice Tessier, Egyptian Iconography on Syro-Palestinian Cylinder Seals of the Middle Bronze Age (Fribourg: University Press Fribourg, 1996), 10n34; Gabriella Scandone Matthiae, “The Relations Between Ebla and Egypt,” in The Hyksos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives, ed. Eliezer D. Oren (Philadelphia, Penn.: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1997), 421–422; Joan Aruz, Kim Benzel, and Jean M. Evans, Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. (New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008), 37; Kerry Muhlestein, “Levantine Thinking in Egypt,” in Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology and Literature, ed. S. Bar, D. Kahn and JJ Shirley (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 194; Joan Aruz, Sarah B. Graff, and Yelena Rakic, ed., Cultures in Contact: From Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. (New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013), 109–110. Note also the important comment in Anna-Latifa Mourad, Rise of the Hyksos: Egypt and the Levant from the Middle Kingdom to the Early Second Intermediate Period (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2015), 173: “Two additional antithetic [ivory] fragments [discovered at Ebla] represent a falcon-headed figure, whereas another inlay preserves the full body of a crocodile-headed individual. . . . Such Egyptian elements are manifestations of royalty and divinity. The Levantine artist(s) who crafted the inlays was thereby well-versed in Egyptian symbolism and art. The choice to pair the inlays with a piece of palatial furniture further highlights the association of Egyptian art with Eblaite elitism and power.”

9 Tine Bagh, “Sobek Crowned,” 1.

10 Barney, “Sobek,” 26, modifying the translation provided in Alan Gardiner, “Hymns to Sobk in a Ramesseum Papyrus,” Revue d’egyptologie 11, no. 2 (1957): 43–56, quote at 47–48.

11 One source contemporary to Joseph Smith did report that “the crocodile or hippopotamus” was “the emblem of Pharaoh and the Egyptians” and “was one of their principal divinities.” This source also reported that “Pharaoh . . . signifies a crocodile.” Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments (London: Thomas Tegg and Son, 1836), 1901, 2148. (This Bible edition with Clarke’s notes was based on an eight-volume commentary series Clarke published between 1810–1826.) By contrast, the Book of Abraham says nothing about hippopotami and indicates that “Pharaoh signifies king by royal blood” (Abraham 1:20), not “crocodile.” Furthermore, none of the archaeological or inscriptional evidence confirming Sobek’s presence in northern Syria or his association with Egyptian kingship was available in Joseph Smith’s lifetime.

12 See further Elizabeth Laney, “Sobek and the Double Crown,” The Ancient World: A Scholarly Journal for the Study of Antiquity 24 (2003): 155–168, esp. 158; Maryan Ragheb, “The Rise of Sobek in the Middle Kingdom,” American Research Center in Egypt: “[I]t was Amenemhat III who brought the role of ‘Sobek of Shedet-Horus residing in Shedet’ to the highest significance. Sobek-Horus of Shedet became associated with epithets like ‘Lord of the wrrt (White) Crown,’ ‘he who resides in the great palace’ and ‘lord of the great palace.’ All of these epithets were related to the king rather than associated with any god. Even the name of Horus in this merged form was enclosed in a serekh like a king’s name. The king has always been identified as Horus on earth. With the new divine form of Sobek-Horus, the king as Horus merged with Sobek and incorporated himself as one with the god Sobek. Sobek’s association with divine kingship is illustrated in the Amenemhat III’s ‘Baptism of the Pharaoh’ scene at his Madinet Madi Temple in Fayum. This scene, the earliest of its kind, depicts Sobek and Anubis anointing Amenemhat III with ankh signs of life. The anointment marks the king’s initiation into eternal kingship and was usually related to the state god’s divine procreation of the king.”

13 John Gee, “The Crocodile God of Pharaoh in Mesopotamia,” Insights, October 1996, 2.

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The Idolatrous God of Elkenah

Elkenah

Book of Abraham Insight #6

The Book of Abraham tells how Abraham’s kinsmen worshipped idols. One of these was the god of Elkenah (Abraham 1:6). When Abraham preached against the worship of this god, he said that his kinsmen “hearkened not unto [his] voice, but endeavored to take away [his] life by the hand of the priest of Elkenah” (v. 7). Not only did the priest try to take Abraham’s life, but “this priest had offered upon this altar three virgins at one time . . . because of their virtue; they would not bow down to worship gods of wood or of stone, therefore they were killed upon this altar” (v. 11).1 Fortunately, the angel of the Lord delivered Abraham out of the priest’s hands before he could be sacrificed (vv. 15–20; Facsimile 1).

What do we know about the ancient god Elkenah? No deity of that name is mentioned in the KJV Bible,2  but in the last century archaeologists have unearthed evidence of his worship.

Elkenah is very likely the shortened form of the name of the Canaanite god El koneh aratz, meaning “God who created the earth” (or “God, creator of earth”).3  Among the ancient Hittites living in Asia Minor he was known as Elkunirsha.4

Originally a Canaanite deity, his worship spread to the Hittite capital of Hattusha in northern Turkey, to Karatepe near the border of modern Turkey and Syria, to Palmyra in inland Syria, to Jerusalem, and to Leptis Magna in Libya. All told, Elkunirsha was worshipped for more than 1500 years—from the time of Abraham to the time of Christ.5

We know something about Elkunirsa [Elkenah] from a Canaanite myth that was preserved by the Hittites.6 Unfortunately, the clay tablets containing this myth are broken, so we do not have all the story. One scholar summarized the story as follows:

Ashertu, the wife of Elkunrisha, attempts to seduce Ba’al [the storm god]. The Storm-god reveals everything to her husband and insults her on his inspiration. Thirsting for revenge, Ashertu regains the favor of her husband who then lets her do whatever she likes with Ba’al. The goddess Anat now comes to the scene. Having overheard the conversation between Elkurnisha and Ashertu, she warns Ba’al.7

Then the text breaks off.

The details of this myth may be unsavory, but it is somewhat reminiscent of the situation described in the Book of Abraham: “These virgins were offered up because of their virtue; they would not bow down to worship gods of wood or of stone, therefore they were killed upon this altar, and it was done after the manner of the Egyptians” (Abraham 1:11). One way of reading this passage is that worshipping the local gods would involve sexual acts in some way. Some have suggested that the Elkunirsha myth was ritually enacted, but because of the fragmentary nature of the surviving texts, how (or even if) this myth was ritualized is disputed.8

What is clear is that, along with the other deities in the text,9 the god Elkenah mentioned in the Book of Abraham has very likely been identified in the ancient world and was featured in a myth involving violence and sexual acts.

Further Reading

John Gee, “The Idolatrous Gods of Pharaoh,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship (2019): forthcoming.

Kevin Barney, “On Elkenah as Canaanite El,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 19, no. 1 (2010): 22–35.

Footnotes

 

1 The ancient Hittites recorded myths about deities engaging in sexual acts with mortals, myths that were possibly enacted in ritual dramas. One class of cult specialists among the ancient Hittites were the šuppiššareš, literally “virgins.” There may even have been a rare instance of the Hittite king and queen enacting a “fertility rite” of some sort that included sexual intercourse, although the evidence for this isn’t entirely clear. See Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., “Sexualität(sexuality). B. Bei den Hethitern,” in Reallexikon der Assyriologie 12 (5/6) (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2010), 427–430. The sacrifice of the “virgins” in Abraham 1:11 to the idolatrous gods of the Chaldeans might be read in this context.

2 The name Elkanah appears in the KJV Bible as a male personal name. It is, for example, the name of the prophet Samuel’s father (1 Samuel 1:1, 4, 8, 19, 21, 23). A form of the name appears in the Hebrew Bible as a divine epithet (e.g. Genesis 14:19, 22), but in the KJV it is translated (“God, possessor of heaven and earth”) as opposed to transliterated as a proper name/epithet (El elyon koneh shamayim wa aratz). The personal name Elkanah in the Bible is derived from this divine name/epithet.

3 W. Röllig, “El-Creator-Of-The-Earth,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, ed. Karel van der Toorn (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 280–281; Kevin Barney, “On Elkenah as Canaanite El,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 19, no. 1 (2010): 22–35.

4 Ben H. L. Gessel, Onomasticon of the Hittite Pantheon (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998), 1:63; Mark S. Smith, God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 82–83; Maciej Popko, Religions of Asia Minor (Warsaw: Academic Publications Dialog, 1995), 128; N. Wyatt, “Asherah,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 101.

5 Patrick D. Miller, Jr. “El, The Creator of Earth,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 239 (1980): 43–46; F.O. Hvidberg-Hansen, “Uni-Ashtarte and Tanit-Iuno: Two Phonecian Goddesses of Fertility Reconsidered from Recent Archaeological Discoveries,” in Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean: First International Conference on Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean. University of Malta, 2–5 September 1985, ed. Anthony Bonanno (Amsterdam: B.R. Grüner Publishing Company, 1985), 170–171.

6 “Although the particular events of this tale are not known from the mythological tablets recovered at Ugarit, the story certainly belongs to the corpus of northern Syrian myths which they represent.” Gary Beckman, “Elkurniša and Ašertu (1.55),” in The Context of Scripture, Volume 1: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World, ed. William W. Hallo (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 149; cf. Heinrich Otten, “Ein kanaanäischer Mythus aus Boğazköy,” Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientforschung 1 (1953): 125–150.

7 Popko, Religions of Asia Minor, 128. See also Beckman, “Elkurniša and Ašertu (1.55),” 149.

8 Popko, Religions of Asia Minor, 106; Meindert Dijkstra, “Let Sleeping Gods Lie?” in Reflections on the Silence of God: A Discussion with Marjo Korpel and Johannes de Moor, ed. Bob Becking (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 74–75; Mary R. Bachvarova, “Adapting Mesopotamian Myth in Hurro-Hittite Rituals at Hattuša Ištar, the Underworld, and the Legendary Kings,” in Beyond Hatti: A Tribute to Gary Beckman, ed. Billie Jean Collins and Piotr Michalowski (Atlanta, GA: Lockwood Press, 2013), 30–33. How much ritualized sexual activity occurred in various ancient cultures is an intensely debated question for nearly all cultures where it is alleged to have occurred. The Book of Abraham does not explicitly confirm or deny the practice though it suggests that it was practiced by some in Abraham’s day.

9 John Gee, “The Idolatrous Gods of Pharaoh,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship (2019): forthcoming.

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Did Abraham Lie About His Wife Sarai?

Abraham and Sarai

Book of Abraham Insight #5

Before he journeyed into Egypt, Abraham was instructed by God: “Behold, Sarai [or Sarah], thy wife, is a very fair woman to look upon; 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: Let her say unto the Egyptians, she is thy sister, and thy soul shall live” (Abraham 2:22–23).

This passage is paralleled in Genesis 12:10–20.1  The rationale behind Abraham’s actions are clear enough. He was “afraid that his wife’s beauty [would] put him in danger when the couple arrive at a foreign kingdom, because he might be killed if the king desires his beautiful wife for himself. This [was] not an unrealistic fear, given how ruthless royalty could be” in the ancient world.2  A key difference between the accounts in Genesis and the Book of Abraham, however, is that the Book of Abraham portrays God as instructing Abraham to engage in the subterfuge, a detail not found in the Genesis account.

The question that naturally arises is whether Abraham was lying by saying Sarai was his sister instead of his wife.3 Some readers of the Book of Abraham are especially bothered by what appears at first glance to be God commanding Abraham to lie.

The important thing to keep in mind is that Genesis 20:12 identifies Sarai as Abraham’s half-sister. “So it is at least possible that Sarah belonged to Abraham’s extended family and was thus considered to be his ‘sister’ in the sense of a near blood relative.”4 Abraham was therefore using somewhat ambiguous terminology and not necessarily making a false statement.5

This tactic would have played well in ancient Egyptian. As Egyptologist John Gee explains,

Abraham was instructed by God to refer to his wife, Sarah, as his sister (Abraham 2:22–25). This takes advantage of an ambiguity in the Egyptian language: the Egyptian word for wife (hime) means only wife, but the Egyptian word for sister (sone) means both sister and wife. Thus, the term that Abraham used was not false, but ambiguous. It was also necessary: since numerous Egyptian texts discuss how pharaohs could take any woman that they fancied and would put the husband to death if the woman was married, this advice saved Abraham’s life.6

Finally, it is noteworthy that a text from the Dead Sea Scrolls called the Genesis Apocryphon depicts Abraham being warned in a dream of the danger he faced when traveling into Egypt because of Sarai’s beauty. This in turn prompted his equivocation with Pharaoh.7 While this text does not overtly say that God told Abraham to “lie” about his relationship with Sarai, it heavily implies that he was divinely forewarned of the situation. This harmonizes nicely with the account in the Book of Abraham.

Further Reading

Gaye Strathearn, “The Wife/Sister Experience: Pharaoh’s Introduction to Jehovah” in Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, and Deseret Book 2005), 100–116.

Hugh Nibley, “The Sacrifice of Sarah,” in Abraham in Egypt, 2nd ed. (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2000), 343–381.

Footnotes

 

1 This so-called “sister/wife” motif is picked up again at Genesis 20:1–18 and Genesis 26:6–11 but involves different characters. For some perspective on this motif, see Gaye Strathearn, “The Wife/Sister Experience: Pharaoh’s Introduction to Jehovah” in Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo and Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, and Deseret Book 2005), 100–116.

2 Hilary Lipka, “Sarah, Abraham, and Pharaoh,” Bible Odyssey, online at www.bibleodyssey.org. See additionally the insights offered by James K. Hoffmeier, “The Wives’ Tales of Genesis 12, 20 & 26 and the Covenants at Beer-Sheba,” Tyndale Bulletin 43, no. 1 (1992): 81–100.

3 Yael Shemesh, “Lies by Prophets and Other Lies in the Hebrew Bible,” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Society 29 (2002): 88–89; Shira Weiss, Ethical Ambiguity in the Hebrew Bible: Philosophical Analysis of Scriptural Narrative (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 130–138.

4 Strathearn, “The Wife/Sister Experience,” 103. See additionally the remarks in Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, 2nd ed. (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2000), 361–363.

5 Shemesh, “Lies by Prophets and Other Lies in the Hebrew Bible,” 88. “[The biblical text] is implying that [Abraham] did not lie to Abimelech [and also Pharaoh in Genesis 12:13] but only concealed vital information from him.”

6 John Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, and Deseret Book, 2017), 102. Note that Gee is using the Coptic spelling for the words ḥmt and snt. The Egyptian texts Gee is referring to include Pyramid Text 317, P. D’Orbiney (BM EA 10183), and the Bentresh Stele (Louvre C 284). For Pyramid Text 317, see Kurt Sethe, Die Altaegyptischen Pyramidentexte (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1908–1910), 1:261; Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), 99; James P. Allen, The Egyptian Coffin Texts, Volume 8: Middle Kingdom Copies of Pyramid Texts (Chicago: Oriental Institute, 2006), 293; Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 1:40; James P. Allen, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005), 60; for P. D’Orbiney (BM EA 10183), see Alan H. Gardiner, Late-Egyptian Stories (Bruxelles: Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, 1932), 22–21; Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2:208; for the Bentresh Stele (Louvre C 284), see Adriaan de Buck, Egyptian Readingbook (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1963), 106; Orell Witthuhn et al., Die Bentresch-Stele: Ein Quellen- und Lesebuch (Göttingen: Seminar für Ägyptologie und Koptologie der Georg-August-Universität, 2015); Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 3:91. On the usage of sone (snt) as both sister and wife, see Rainer Hannig, Ägyptisches Wörterbuch II: Mittleres Reich und Zweite Zwischenzeit (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern Verlag, 2006), 2:2247–2253, esp. 2253. See also Rainer Hannig, Ägyptisches Wörterbuch I: Altes Reich und Erste Zwischenzeit (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern Verlag, 2003), 1153–54.

7 John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid, and John Gee, eds., Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2001), 26–29.