The Joseph Smith Papyri (JSP) are eleven Egyptian

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

 papyrus

Papyrus

Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....

 fragments which were once owned by Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of Mormonism

Mormonism

Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...

. After Smith's death, they were eventually acquired in 1947 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

 (the Met) and brought forth again in 1966, after which they were returned to the church Smith founded, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The fragments are portions of a larger set of papyri that Joseph Smith purportedly translated into the Book of Abraham

Book of Abraham

The Book of Abraham is a 1835 work by Joseph Smith, Jr. that he said was based on Egyptian papyri purchased from a traveling mummy exhibition. According to Smith, the book was "a translation of some ancient records....purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book...

.

Origin

The papyrus fragments are parts of some papyri and eleven mummies which were discovered in Thebes by Antonio Lebolo between 1818 and 1822. At that time Lebolo was working as superintendent of archaeological digs for Bernardino Drovetti. Sometime between 1822 and his death on February 19, 1830, Lebolo arranged to have them sold. The mummies were shipped to New York, where they were purchased by Michael Chandler in 1833. Over the next two years Chandler toured the eastern United States, displaying and selling some of the mummies.

In July 1835, Chandler brought four mummies and associated papyri to Kirtland, Ohio

Kirtland, Ohio

Kirtland is a city in Lake County, Ohio, USA. The population was 6,670 at the 2000 census. Kirtland is famous for being the early headquarters of the Latter Day Saint movement.-Origins of Kirtland:...

, then headquarters of the LDS Church. Although the Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek...

 had been discovered in 1799, the ability to read Egyptian wasn't well developed until the 1850s. Chandler asked Joseph Smith to look at the scrolls and give some insight into what was written on them, due to Smith's notoriety and claim to have translated the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...

 from golden plates

Golden Plates

According to Latter Day Saint belief, the golden plates are the source from which Joseph Smith, Jr. translated the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the faith...

.

Shortly after examining the scrolls Joseph Smith, Joseph Coe and Simeon Andrews purchased the four mummies and at least five papyrus documents for $2400

After Joseph Smith's death, the mummies and papyri were in the possession of Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith

Lucy Mack Smith

Lucy Mack Smith was the mother of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. She is most noted for writing an award-winning memoir: Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. She was an important leader of the movement during...

 and after her death on May 14, 1856, Smith's widow, Emma Hale Smith

Emma Hale Smith

Emma Hale Smith Bidamon was married to Joseph Smith, Jr., until his death in 1844, and was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, during Joseph Smith's lifetime and afterward as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...

. On May 25, 1856, Emma sold "four Egyptian mummies with the records with them" to Mr. Abel Combs. In 1947 the Met acquired them from Alice's widower. Aziz S. Atiya of the University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

 found ten fragments of the remaining papyri in May 1966, after he recognized the vignette was similar to Facsmile 1 in the Pearl of Great Price

Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)

The Pearl of Great Price is part of the standard works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and some other Latter Day Saint denominations....

. Henry G. Fischer, curator of the Egyptian Collection at the Met, stated that an anonymous donation to the Met made it possible for the LDS Church to acquire the papyri. The LDS Church published sepia tone photographs of the papyri in the February 1968 issue of the Improvement Era

Improvement Era

The Improvement Era was an official magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1897 and 1970....

.

Egyptologist John A. Wilson stated that the recovered fragments indicate the existence of at least six to eight separate documents. Another scholar estimated that the fragments constitute roughly one-third of Joseph Smith's original collection of papyri. Scholars conclude that the recovered papyri are portions of the originals partly based on the fact that the fragments were pasted onto paper which had "drawings of a temple and maps of the Kirtland, Ohio area" on the back and were accompanied by an affidavit by Emma Smith stating that they had been in the possession of Joseph Smith.

Discovery of the Church Historian's Fragment

In addition to the ten fragments that were discovered at the Metropolitan Museum, another fragment was located. In the same article in the February 1968 issue of the Improvement Era that contained the near full size sepia color reproductions of the papyri, Jay M. Todd, Editorial Associate for the magazine, discussed the discovery of a fragment which had been stored with the manuscript of the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar and had been in the Church Historian's archives since at least 1908. Todd referenced an entry in the Church Historian's Office files dated Wednesday, October 17, 1855 describing several items which were being transferred to the newly constructed Historian's Office, including "...three plates of the Book of Abraham" and a "red box with papers, blanks, journal, stereotype and plates."

Todd went on to discuss an entry from a personal journal dated Saturday, July 11, 1846, describing a meeting between "Brigham Young

Brigham Young

Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

 and the Brethren" and Chief Banquejappa of the Pottawatomie [sic] tribe during which the Chief gave Brigham Young "two sheets of heiroglyphics from the Book of Abraham" and a letter dated 1843 that had been given to them by Joseph Smith. Todd referred to the background of the Historian's fragment as "most puzzling" and stated that William Lund and Earl Olsen, assistant Church Historians, did not recall any information about the fragment except that it had been there with the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar throughout their service, which dated to 1911.

The Church Historian's fragment was labeled IX by Hugh Nibley and appears on page 40-H of the Improvement Era article, with the text:
and the image heading; "IX. Church Historian's fragment".

Comparison of Joseph Smith Papyrus I with other similar vignettes

As of 1998, there were twenty-nine known examples of the Book of Breathings Made by Isis, of which the Joseph Smith papyri fragment is an example. Of those twenty-nine, eighteen have vignettes associated with them. A comparison of the Book of Abraham facsimiles with these other documents indicates that the Book of Abraham Facsimile No. 1 (derived from JSP I) is unique in at least two ways; it is the only version of a Book of Breathings Made by Isis with this particular image and the position of the legs of the reclining figure, with one raised, is also unique. This is significant because even minor differences in the images or content of the missing portions of the papyri could have an effect on interpretation of the images and text and accuracy of Smith's explanations..

Recovered fragments

Eleven papyrus fragments were recovered, and were designated I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, X, and XI in the Improvement Era article. Other designations were given by the Met, and various Egyptologists and scholars that analyzed the fragments; however, the designations established by the Improvement Era have remained the most commonly used numbering.

The table below summarizes different designation schemes:

Joseph Smith Papyri Fragment Numbering

Improvement Era JSP #	Met #	Wilson-Jeppson #s
I	47.102.9	A (photo 1)
II	47.102.10	B (photo 8)
IIIa	47.102.2	C (photo 5)
IIIb	47.102.3	C (photo 6)
IV	47.102.1	B (photo 3)
V	47.102.4	B (photo 2)
VI	47.102.7	B (photo 4)
VII	47.102.5	B (photo 7)
VIII	47.102.6	B (photo 9)
X	47.102.8	D (photo 10)
XI	47.102.11	D (photo 11)

The editors of an independent quarterly journal Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought is an independent quarterly journal of "Mormon thought" that addresses a wide range of issues on Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint Movement....

, arranged for John A. Wilson and Klaus Baer of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and Richard Anthony Parker, Director of the Department of Egyptology at Brown University to translate the text from the photographs. Their translations were published in Dialogue in the summer and autumn of 1968. The fragments are portions of three original documents as shown below.

The Breathing Permit belonging to the priest Hôr, son of the priest Osorwêr and the lady Tikhebyt

Klaus Baer reconstructed this document by reassembling JSP I, X-XI, and portions of JSP IV. From right to left, the papyri are sequenced JSP I(including the vignette), JSP XI (with portions of JSP IV), and JSP X (with portions of JSP IV).

Dating

The handwriting was identified

Palaeography

Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...

 as being "of the late Ptolemaic or early Roman Period, about the time of Christ". Jan Quaegebeur has suggested a date in the first half of the second century B.C.

Translation

A portion of Klaus Baer's translation is as follows starting with JSP I and the vignette from right to left (lacunae in the manuscript are shown with an ellipsis

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is a series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word, sentence or whole section from the original text being quoted. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence...

 or "[?]"):

JSP I, Lines 1 - 3

"...the prophet of Amonrasontêr, prophet [?] of Mîn Bull-of-his-Mother, prophet [?] of Khons the Governor...Hôr, justified, son of the holder of the same titles, master of secrets, and purifier of the gods Osorwêr, justified [?]...Tikhebyt, justified. May your ba live among them. and may you be buried in the West..."

JSP I, Line 5

"May you give him a good, splendid burial on the West of Thebes just like..."

JSP I, Vignette

According to Baer, Coenen and Quaegebeur, the scene represents the resurrection of Hor (as Osiris) aided by Anubis. Osiris

Osiris

Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...

 lies on a lion couch, with Anubis

Anubis

Anubis is the Greek name for a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion. In the ancient Egyptian language, Anubis is known as Inpu . According to the Akkadian transcription in the Amarna letters, Anubis' name was vocalized as Anapa...

, the jackal headed god standing over him. Four canopic jars are shown below the figures, which have lids representing the four sons of Horus, Imset, Hapi, Qebeh-senuwef, and Duwa-mutef. According to Baer, Osiris was "almost certainly represented as ithyphallic, ready to beget Horus", grasping his phallus

Phallus

A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...

. Michael D. Rhodes

Michael D. Rhodes

Michael Dennis Rhodes is an associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University . Rhodes is an Egyptologist who has published a translation of some of the extant Joseph Smith papyri....

 says this interpretation is unlikely because in all other conception scenes the reclining figure is nude and in this one he is wearing a kilt.

JSP XI (two columns)

"Osiris shall be conveyed into the Great Pool of Khons -- and likewise Osiris Hôr, justified, born to Tikhebyt, justified -- after his arms have been placed on his heart and the Breathing Permit (which [Isis] made and has writing on its inside and outside) has been wrapped in royal linen and placed under his left arm near his heart; the rest of his mummy-bandages should be wrapped over it. The man for whom this book has been copied will breathe forever and ever as the bas of the gods do."

"Here begins the Breathing Permit, which Isis made for her brother Osiris in order to revive his ba, to revive his corpse, and to make his entire body young again, so that he might appear gloriously in heaven in the disk of the moon, and that his corpse might shine in Orion in the belly of Nut -- and in order that the same might happen to Osiris Hôr...Keep it secret! Do not let anyone read it. It is useful for a man in the Necropolis, to help him live again and it has worked successfully millions of times."

JSP IIIa-b

Klaus Baer identified these fragments as "The Book of the Dead

Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead is the modern name of an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom to around 50 BC. The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw is translated as "Book of Coming Forth by Day". Another translation would be "Book of...

belonging to the musician of Amon Re Neferirnûb" (Emphasis in original)

JSP II, V-IX, and most of IV

Klaus Baer identified these fragments as "The Book of the Dead

Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead is the modern name of an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom to around 50 BC. The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw is translated as "Book of Coming Forth by Day". Another translation would be "Book of...

belonging to the lady Tshenmîn" (Emphasis in original)