The Real Meaning of the Book of Abraham

Whether there was additional papyri besides the fragments we know of today that held the actual writings of Abraham, which Joseph Smith interpreted and has since been lost, possibly in the Chicago fire, or whether the papyri merely served to bring Joseph Smith’s attention to a point where the Lord could inspire him to record the Book of Abraham, and the vignette scenes were merely representative of the idea of Abraham’s events is of little importance. What is of import is that the Book of Abraham gives us a better and clearer understanding of the doctrines of the Lord’s gospel and the very character of the ancient prophet.

As an example, from the papyri we see that Abraham:

1. Understood at an early age the blessings his ancestors enjoyed;

2. Knew and understood priesthood ordination;

3. Knew the ancient patriarchs from Adam onward held the priesthood;

4. Knew his immediate ancestry had turned away from the Lord and his holy commandments;

5. Knew idolatry was wrong and that idols held no conscience or power;

6. Knew human sacrifice was evil and that life was a God-given gift;

7. Knew the genealogy of the royal family of Sumeria back nine generations to Ham;

8. Talked with Jehovah face-to-face, as one man talks to another;

9. He was promised a land for himself and his posterity;

10. Had all the records in his possession that dated back to Adam, including the record of the rights of the priesthood;

11. He had the Urim and Thummim;

12. He knew and understood the Creation, and knew about the planets and the stars as they were made known unto the fathers, some of which he wrote on the papyri;

13. He went into Egypt to declare the knowledge of the Universe and the Lord unto the Egyptians.

As we read the Book of Abraham, we learn:

1. Through Abraham’s seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed with the Gospel and eternal life;

2. The blood of Ham’s wife, or the Canaanite blood, was preserved after the flood through their daughter, Egyptus’ first born son, whom she named Pharaoh;

3. When Egyptus first reached the land now called Egypt, it was still underwater from the Flood and she settled there as the waters rescinded;

4. The government Pharaoh established in the land of Egypt was after the government of Ham, or patriarchal;

5. That this first Pharaoh was a righteous man, and established his kingdom and judged his people wisely;

6. Pharaoh strove to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, even to the reign of Adam;

7. Noah blessed Ham with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him pertaining to the Priesthood;

8. Pharaoh was not entitled to the Priesthood;

9. All later Pharaohs feigned a claim to the Priesthood and in so doing, led astray Abraham’s father, Terah, by their idolatry;

During this time Abraham learned:

1. About the planet Kolob, and it being the nearest to where God dwelt;

An international team of astronomers led by the University of Central Lancashire in the UK has discovered “the largest known structure in the universe” (it is 1200 Mpc at its widest point—by comparison, the distance between the Milky Way Galaxy and Andromeda Galaxy is about 0.75 Mpc)

2. That one day to the Lord is the same as 1000 years on Earth;

3. The principle that governs the planets, stars, and moons, as well as their rotational times, and the order that governed their orbits;

4. That all celestial bodies have a set time to their orbits and that the slower a celestial body rotates, the higher is its order, and that these orders were set to a higher and higher level all the way up to Kolob;

5. Kolob is after the reckoning of the Lord’s time;

6. Kolob governs all the planets, from its rotational level down to that of Earth;

7. All the stars have set times to their rotation;

8. The Lord made all the stars, planets, and celestial bodies, a number so numerous Abraham could not see the end of his creations in a vision that opened his eyes to them;

In the Adamic language, the Lord called the Sun (Shinehah, a Star (Kokob), the Moon (Olea), all the Stars or the great lights (Kokaubeam)

9. Spirits vary in order and intelligence, and one spirit is more intelligent than another;

10. Spirits have no beginning and no end, and shall exist forever because they are eternal;

11. God is the most intelligent of all the spirits and his wisdom exceeds all;

11. God rules in the heavens above and in the Earth beneath in all wisdom and prudence over all the intelligences;

12. Intelligences were organized in the beginning before the world was;

13. God chose different intelligences, or spirits, for their roles on the Earth before they were born;

14. Abraham and others were chosen before the world was and before they were born to specific callings and positions during Earth life;

15. Our position or status at birth was due to how we performed and lived our lives in the spirit before the world was organized;

16. The purpose for all of us coming to this Earth is to prove ourselves in our obedience to God;

17. The role of the Savior, Jehovah, Jesus the Christ, was determined in a Grand Council of spirits in this pre-mortal period;

18. Lucifer, Satan, the Devil, fell from grace when he demanded God’s glory for saving all mankind and was cast out of the pre-mortal sphere.

There is still more in the Book of Abraham, but the above should suffice in showing how important this writing of the ancient prophet, this interpretation by Joseph Smith at the hand of the Lord and through the Spirit, is to all of us. And knowing these things is essential to our salvation and exaltation. What a shame so many so-called professional people would prefer to stick to their old paradigms than to move forward with knowledge essential to their salvation, and how sad it is that people will rush to find fault and criticize the Book of Abraham they have probably never read, rather than try to learn what it has to say and its value in their lives.