Comments on: Your Friday Firestorm #41

By: Clark Goble

Clark Goble — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:50:54 +0000

Patricia, I thought you were talking about her claims about what happened to her. Her claims about the content of the text are no different than those critics – except she’s got less qualification. She makes no arguments for this. And a lot of her claims about her father’s scholarship are demonstrably false. (See the Sunstone review, for instance, if the link still works)

By: Talon

Talon — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:57:19 +0000

Line 11 – Oh God of the Sleeping Ones from the time of the Creation

Line 10 – O Mighty God, Lord of Heaven and Earth, (and)

Line 9 – the hereafter, and his Great Waters.

Line 8 – Grant life to the soul of the Osiris Sheshonk

The text of line 8 is most significant, for it is a plea to the Egyptian god to grant life to the soul of a person who had taken upon himself the name Osiris. This makes what is happening a ritual performance. It is an act of granting life to an initiate.

From – A study guide to the Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham, by Grant J. Fletcher.

I found some of Fletcher’s conclusions a stretch, and some made no sense at all, but some of the translations provided were interesting to think about.

By: Patricia Lahtinen

Patricia Lahtinen — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:55:14 +0000

Without reading all of your blog’s links concerning Beck’s book Leaving…, Clark, I don’t see where you address her claim that Abraham is not a translated work AT ALL.

You had lots of links to tributes to Nibley, but I know that not everyone had positive interactions with him.

By: Clark Goble

Clark Goble — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:00:53 +0000

I had up quite a bit on that Patricia. I think Beck's story is highly problematic even though obviously none of us can know for sure.

By: Patricia Lahtinen

Patricia Lahtinen — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:26:13 +0000

And what of Martha Beck’s claims about her father’s work with the book of Abraham?

By: Mephibosheth

Mephibosheth — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 05:34:00 +0000

In Fig. 8, from left to right I see a couple of stick-figure trees, an all-seeing eye which I presume is God, an apple, a stick-figure animal on its hind legs, and a stick-figure man. And finally a stick-figure bong, which I take to be Satan, bringing the creation narrative full circle. Yep, I missed my calling as an Egyptologist alright.

By: Left Field

Left Field — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:56:18 +0000

Actually, I wasn't that quite that adventurous either. I used phallus and ithyphallic. I momentarily thought of the search you suggest, but balked at the thought of what images might turn up.

By: Clark Goble

Clark Goble — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:47:04 +0000

Sam, yeah. Plus think of the extra bit on the endowment before the marriage ceremony.

By: Latter-day Guy

Latter-day Guy — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:00:27 +0000

I actually did a little searching on the internet…

Thanks, Left Field, for taking one for the team. There are just some Google searches I don’t feel adventurous enough to make. “Egyptian penis” is among them. ;)

By: Kevin Barney

Kevin Barney — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:32:23 +0000

The scholarly term for the state fig. 7 finds himself in is “ithyphallic.” A great word, that.