by H. Donl Peterson

In July 1835, while living in Kirtland, Ohio, the Prophet Joseph Smith purchased, on behalf of the Church, four Egyptian mummies and accompanying papyri from Michael H. Chandler, a traveling entrepreneur from Pennsylvania. The price was $2,400. Chandler had acquired eleven mummies in early 1833 and had sold the other seven in the eastern United States prior to meeting Joseph Smith. Shortly after obtaining the antiquities, Joseph Smith announced that the papyri contained some writings of the Patriarchs Abraham and Joseph, both of whom had lived in Egypt (Gen. 12:37, 39-50).

These antiquities had been exhumed by Antonio Lebolo on the west bank of the Nile River opposite the ancient city of Thebes (present-day Luxor), probably between 1817 and 1821. Lebolo, born in Castellamonte, Piedmont (northern Italy), had been a gendarme during Napoleon's occupation of the Italian peninsula. When Napoleon was defeated, Lebolo chose voluntary exile rather than face imprisonment under the reemerging Sardinian monarchy. He moved to Egypt, where he was employed by Bernardino Drovetti, former consul general of France in Egypt, to oversee his excavations in Upper Egypt. Drovetti also allowed Lebolo to excavate on his own. Lebolo discovered eleven well-preserved mummies in a large tomb. Because Lebolo directed several hundred men excavating at different sites, the exact location has not been identified. The mummies were shipped to Trieste, where Lebolo authorized Albano Oblasser, a shipping magnate, to sell them on his behalf. Lebolo died February 19, 1830, in Castellamonte. Oblasser forwarded the eleven mummies to two shipping companies in New York City—McLeod and Gillespie, and Maitland and Kennedy—to sell them to anybody who would pay an appropriate sum. The proceeds were to be sent to Lebolo's heirs. Chandler acquired them in the winter or early spring of 1833. He claimed that Lebolo was his uncle, but that relationship has not been confirmed.

It has become clear that some Abrahamic literature exhibits links with Egypt. For example, the Testament of Abraham—likely first written in Greek—almost certainly derives from Egypt. Substituting a biblical figure such as Abraham in Egyptian hieroglyphic scenes is a Jewish technique known from the Hellenistic period (Grobel, pp. 373-82). Thus, it is not surprising that Egyptian texts are somehow linked to the appearance of the Book of Abraham.

According to some Egyptologists, the writings of Abraham acquired by Joseph Smith are to be dated to the early Christian era. Such dating is not without precedent. The Testament of Abraham, edited initially by M. R. James in 1892, was described by him as "a second century Jewish-Christian writing composed in Egypt" (Nibley, pp. 20-21).

The identity of the mummies is not known, since there are no primary sources that identify them.

(See Basic Beliefs home page; Doctrines of the Gospel home page; Scriptual Writings home page; Book of Abraham home page)

Bibliography

Grobel, K. "…Whose Name Was Neves." New Testament Studies 10 (1963-1964):373-82.

Nibley, Hugh W. Abraham in Egypt. Salt Lake City, 1981.

Peterson, H. Donl. The Pearl of Great Price: A History and Commentary. Salt Lake City, 1987.

Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol. 1, Book of Abraham, Origin

Copyright © 1992 by Macmillan Publishing Company