Book of Abraham & "God Making" in Nauvoo - John Turner Pt. 28 | Ep. 2104

The Book of Abraham translation remains one of the most testable claims in Mormon history. Unlike the golden plates, which disappeared into angelic custody, the Egyptian papyri Joseph Smith purchased in 1835 survived. They sat in a Chicago museum until 1967, when scholars finally compared Joseph’s translation against the actual ancient text. The mismatch is complete. According to historian John Turner in his Mormon Stories interview, the papyri date from around 300 to 100 BC, roughly 1,500 years after Abraham lived. They contain standard Egyptian funerary texts, not the autobiography of a Hebrew patriarch. Yet from these fragments, Joseph produced a text that redefined Mormon cosmology: a premortal existence, a council of gods, and the doctrine that humans might become gods themselves.

Background: From Storage to Scripture

Joseph acquired the mummies and papyri from a traveling exhibitor in Kirtland, Ohio. He initially worked on what became the Book of Abraham in 1835, creating an alphabet and grammar that scholars now view as an attempt to reverse-engineer a translation. He abandoned the project by 1836, turning instead to Hebrew studies. For seven years, the scrolls remained stored, occasionally displayed as curiosities while church members waited for the promised translation.

In late 1841 or early 1842, Joseph completed his Red Brick Store in Nauvoo. The building served as a commercial enterprise selling coffee, tea, and sugar to church members even after the Word of Wisdom, and as a private space for theological innovation. Upstairs, in rooms reserved for the An