Book of Abraham

Lore & Background

The Book of Abraham originated from eleven mummies and several papyri discovered near Thebes by Antonio Lebolo between 1818 and 1822. After Lebolo's death in 1830, the artifacts were sent to New York and eventually came into the possession of Michael H. Chandler, who toured the eastern United States displaying them. In late June or early July 1835, Chandler exhibited his collection in Kirtland, Ohio, where Joseph Smith examined the papyri and claimed they contained writings of Abraham and Joseph of Egypt. Smith, along with Joseph Coe and Simeon Andrews, purchased four mummies and at least five papyrus documents for $2,400.

Smith began translating the papyri between July and November 1835, working with scribes W. W. Phelps and Oliver Cowdery. He produced a manuscript called the 'Grammar & Alphabet of the Egyptian Language,' which attempted to decipher Egyptian characters. The translation was dictated by Smith, with Phelps, Warren Parrish, and Frederick G. Williams acting as scribes. The complete work was first published serially in the Latter Day Saint movement newspaper Times and Seasons in 1842, and was later canonized in 1880 by the LDS Church as part of the Pearl of Great Price.

The papyri were thought lost in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, but in 1966 several fragments were found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the LDS Church archives. Professional Egyptologists identified these fragments as Egyptian funerary texts, including the 'Breathing Permit of Hôr' and the 'Book of the Dead.' Some Latter-day Saint apologists defend the book's authenticity, but the academic consensus does not regard it as an ancient text.

Dragons in Sacred and Religious Narratives

Beyond folklore, dragons occupy prominent positions in sacred and religious narratives. In Abrahamic tradition, the figure of Azazel is specifically described as a dragon within the Apocalypse of Abraham, linking the creature to one of the world's major religious lineages. In the Buddhist sphere, the goddess Benzaiten is credited with subduing an unnamed five-headed dragon at Enoshima in Japan in the year 552 of the common era, embedding the dragon in a specific historical and devotional context.

These examples show that dragons are not merely folkloric monsters but carry theological and cosmological weight. They appear in apocalyptic literature, serve as adversaries to divine figures, and function as symbols of chaos that must be overcome by sacred powers. The fact that a dragon figure appears in both Abrahamic apocalyptic writing and East Asian Buddhist legend highlights how the creature transcends any single religious framework and instead serves as a universal symbol of formidable, often destructive, supernatural force standing in opposition to divine order.

Reader's Guide

The Book of Abraham holds significance within the Latter Day Saint movement as a source of distinct doctrines, including the idea that God organized eternal elements to create the universe, the potential exaltation of humanity, a pre-mortal existence, the first and second estates, and the plurality of gods. It expands upon the nature of the priesthood, suggesting that those foreordained to the priesthood earned this right by valor in the pre-mortal life, and explicitly denotes that Pharaoh was a descendant of Ham and thus could not have the right of priesthood.

The text also shows dependence on the King James Version of the Book of Genesis, with nearly half of its content paralleling Genesis. The book was incomplete at Joseph Smith's death in 1844, and Oliver Cowdery indicated it could be quite large. The discovery of the papyri fragments in 1966 and their identification as common Egyptian funerary texts has led to ongoing debate about the book's origins and authenticity, with the academic consensus rejecting it as an ancient text.