About This Video
Join fellow believers for a community event called 'Heart in the Park' on July 8, 2007, at Sugarhouse Park in Salt Lake City for music, worship, and fellowship, and engage in thoughtful discussions at Squatter’s Pub every Tuesday night to deepen your understanding of Christianity alongside exploring faith concepts at Lordsword gatherings starting July 15, 2007. Shawn McCraney emphasizes the importance of highlighting differences between Mormonism and Christianity and explains his sometimes forceful show demeanor as necessary to navigate and control the dynamic live discussions, aiming to communicate effectively despite perceptions of arrogance.
The "Pearl of Great Price," an essential text within Mormonism, is heavily laden with unique LDS doctrines and has significantly influenced the church's theology, distinguishing it from other religious beliefs. Despite Joseph Smith's translation being criticized by scholars as inaccurate, the text was canonized in 1880 and continues to be upheld by the LDS Church, emphasizing the importance of understanding its origins and content, particularly to those outside the faith to prevent conversion without knowledge.
The discovery of the original Egyptian papyri, believed to have been destroyed, provided the LDS Church an opportunity to validate the Book of Abraham's authenticity and Joseph Smith's role as a Seer, but translations revealed the texts were common funerary documents unrelated to Abraham and composed long after his time. Despite initial excitement, the scholarly analysis conducted by Brigham Young University failed to support Smith’s translation claims, highlighting a significant discrepancy between church teachings and historical evidence.
Dr. Hugh Nibley, though not an Egyptologist, was involved in the examination of papyri associated with Joseph Smith, leading to the determination that the documents were standard Egyptian funerary texts rather than unique religious revelations as claimed by Smith. This finding, later confirmed by several Egyptologists, suggested that Joseph Smith's translations were fabricated, a revelation that was controversial within the LDS Church and eventually led to Dee Jay Nelson and his family leaving Mormonism after publicizing the truth through Gerald and Sandra Tanner.
Shawn shares an anecdote where he accidentally hit a renowned professor of ancient languages on the head with a water polo ball, leading to a humorous reputation for the rest of the season as the person who struck one of the world's smartest individuals. This incident highlights the unpredictable and sometimes humorous nature of unexpected events in academic environments.
Heart of the Matter Live Broadcast
LIVE! From the Mecca of Mormonism – Salt Lake City – This is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology.! June 20th 2007 PEARL OF GREAT PRICE Conclusion
And I’m your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion.. Remember, streaming Video! (www.bornagainmormon.com)
Shout Outs
Scott K. out of Boise – God bless you, my brother and our sincere thanks!
Terrelynn – my apologies. I gave you a short answer without really reading your email. Thank you for your understanding and for the exquisite documents.
Shoutout to HEARTSTRINGS – they are a group of musicians who perform every other week at the Tea Grotto in SLC and give the donated proceeds for their concerts to underprivileged kids so they can buy instruments and music lessons. They may be performing at Sugarhouse Park on Sunday July 8th.
To Carl W. Don L. and Martin M – all missionary comps who I love that have recently contacted me.
Shout out to Trista in Colombia Tennessee – an avid fan. God bless you sister.
Jonathan who I saw eating lunch today – God bless.
Pete and Kendra – a great couple at a restaurant this afternoon. Thanks for taking the time to say hello.
Upcoming Events
In-House Guests:
Two and a half weeks! HEART IN THE PARK! Sunday July 8th 2007! Our annual get together. Four outstanding musical guests! Bounce House for kids! Spoken Word, Worship and an open mic for Q&A!
Sugarhouse Park in SLC 3pm to sunset. Bring your own chairs and food. We’ll have some books and t-shirts if you’re interested. We just want to meet YOU – our audience – face to face, to hug you, to thank you, and to fellowship with you in the Lord. Everyone is invited – everyone except assassins. Assassins are not welcome.
Every Tuesday night after the show we are getting together at Squatter’s pub in downtown SLC. Listen, the name Squatter’s pub is a little misleading. It’s more like Squatter’s restaurant that also serves beer. It’s a light and airy place, open and warm. It is NOT a dark smoke-filled bar. Geez, you guys are always thinking the worst of me. The food is excellent and from what they tell me the beer is good too – I drink diet coke or water. But come on down. We had a huge group last week – all are invited. Let’s fellowship and talk, and see if some good can get done thereby – okay?
Lordsword Gathering
Another reminder: Lordsword A Christian Triage for the Religiously Disaffected
First gathering?
Sunday JULY 15th from 9:15 to 10:15 in the morning.
We’ll worship God together. We pray to God together. We study the Word of God together. And then we go out and discover what it means to be Christians until we meet the following week. Please join us if you are seeking to know God.
Community Feedback
Christian Movie Review by ANDY This weeks recommendation and review:
Couple of calls to address:
Valerie notified us with some great information about Mountain Meadows Massacre that she obtained from www.UTLM.org Thank you for the heads up, Valerie. We’ll include this info when we get to the massacre.
Nancy B – a wonderful woman and counselor to the show called to say I was a little hostile with the guy who said he lost respect for me because we were meeting in a pub.
Also received an email from someone who likes me but thinks I come off arrogantly when all I am really doing is trying to communicate with my ever limited abilities.
Let me try and address these perceptions.
I suppose the perception IS the reality, and so all I can do is address the reality of what some people are seeing. I’m sure I come off arrogantly and impetuous at times on the show. But understand a few things relative to this perceived view:
I have to have a very strong will to do this type of show. The combination of our topic, my views, and the facts coupled with live calls make for a volatile and at times tenuous situation. I am purposefully forceful at times as a means to control the direction of the show. If the self-appointed LDS apologists had their way, they would call and make everything seem like it was all Christian, all the same, all nice-nice. I know differently and I have the obligation to make sure these differences are evident. As far as my personal arrogance, I know very well where I stand in the scheme of things and that I am nothing. But this reality does not inhibit my pointedly addressing issues relating to Mormonism and Christianity. Please try and take all these factors into account when you sense I am being too forward or aggressive.
Prayer
Translation of the Egyptian Papyri
Once Joseph had translated the Egyptian papyri the entire text of the translation, along with the woodcuts of the three facsimiles, were printed in the Mormon newspaper, The Times and Seasons starting in March of 1842. Forty years later, in 1880, the “translation” was officially canonized by unanimous vote in a general session of the Church’s semi-annual conference.
Now remember this: This translation is so full of distinct LDS doctrines that it can NEVER be discounted as inauthentic without altering the entire body of Mormon doctrine and throwing Joseph Smith’s reputation out the window. What theologically makes Mormonism Mormonism is more the result of the Pearl of Great Price than any other LDS book. Therefore, THIS is the book that should be scrutinized MOST!
Forget the Book of Mormon. It’s a fairly good counterfeit of the Bible and its message. Teach your people the true and full story of the Pearl of Great Price if you want to protect them from joining the Mormon Church!
The story of the Pearl of Great Price and its contents is what every single non-Mormon should be taught about BEFORE the missionaries ever knock at their door. Why is it most people who join the Church – why is it most members – have no idea about the origins and history of this book but that the Church insists on calling the Word of God!
The Controversy Surrounding the Pearl of Great Price
This is why: Members don’t know its complete history and contents because it is far too controversial to teach but LDS leaders won’t reject it out of hand because that would open the door to doubting all of the Smithian myths he ever presented as from God! Well guess what? Over the course of those forty years it took the Church to canonize the Pearl of Great Price something occurred that Joseph did not foresee – scholars learned to actually decipher Egyptian with the same amount of distinction as they could translate Hebrew and Greek.
Ut-oh . . . .
Sequestered in safety of the Great Basin, the LDS were impervious to the implications that men and women could actually take the facsimile and tell you what it really communicated. So, believing in the myth-making magic of their founding prophet, they canonized the Pearl of Great Price in isolation from the growing reality that the thing was farcical.
Even if the Early Utah Saints wanted to verify the translation of the facsimile it would have been impossible because Joseph Smith’s first wife Emma – who refused to follow Brigham Young to Utah – retained the papyri while remaining behind in Nauvoo. So while the Salt Lake Saints dreamed, and Emma simmered in Nauvoo, the rest of the world was expanding into the dangerous world of “fact.”
Scholarly Examination and Challenges
One of the first scholars to examine the Pearl of Great Price was M. Theodule Deveria in 1856. He had examined hundreds of Egyptian documents when someone in France placed a pamphlet in his hands called the POGP. Though the copies of the facsimiles were difficult to clearly see, he readily recognized them as common Egyptian funerary documents. Deveria dismissed Joseph’s explanations of the papyri as “rambling nonsense.” But his work went largely unnoticed.
Then in 1873, a man named TBH Stenhouse wrote a book that brought Deveria’s work back into the light. Published in New York, the book was called The Rocky Mountain Saints, and it presented a serious challenge to the book of Abraham. The LDS Church pretty much played ostrich and ignored all accusations.
Twenty-seven years later, in 1900, Stenhouse’s book was republished. In response, the Church moved its membership to do what they do best: Support the untenable by sustaining the leadership: and in October of 1902 the general membership once again sustained the POGP as the Word of God.
In 1912, a Reverend Franklin Spaulding from the state of Utah decided to pursue the matter in state regarding the POGP and sent the three facsimiles from the Book of Abraham to some of the world’s leading scholars of Egyptology. Eight of them responded.
Their verdicts?
Dr. Author Mace of The Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote: “Joseph Smith’s interpretation of these cuts is a farrago of nonsense from beginning to end. Five minutes study in an Egyptian gallery of any museum should be enough to convince any educated man of the clumsiness of the imposture.”
Dr. Sayce of Oxford England said: “Smith has turned the Goddess into a king and Osiris into Abraham!”
Dr. James Breasted of the University of Chicago replied: The text . . . “very clearly demonstrates that he (Joseph Smith) was totally unacquainted
The Rediscovery of Ancient Egyptian Papyri
With the significance of these documents and absolutely ignorant of the simplest facts of Egyptian writing and civilization.”
Dr. Flinders Petrie of London University said:
“…the attempts to guess at a meaning are too absurd to be noticed. It may be safely said that there is not one single word that is true in these explanations.”
Every one of the scholars agreed: The papyrus in question was nothing but a common Egyptian funerary text NOT written by Abraham nor by anyone else in Abraham's time. These writings were penned at least 1500 years later.
Historical Context
Why were these conclusions so easily determined by these scholars? Just imagine comparing some writings today in 2007 to some writings that were composed in 507 A.D. Think you could tell the differences? Well, that is the same time difference between Abraham and the time stamp on these funeral texts.
And how did the ‘brethren’ respond to these criticisms? In 1913, LDS writer John Henry Evans wrote in the church-sanctioned magazine called the Improvement Era that in order for a true test of Joseph’s ability to translate to occur, the original papyri from which the Book of Abraham came would have to be examined. This was really safe to say because remember, everyone was under the impression that the original papyri disappeared years before in the great Chicago fire! Therefore – like the first Vision, like the Golden plates, like the restoration of the Priesthood – the Saints had to trust and believe that Joseph was just telling the truth.
But God works in very mysterious ways, doesn’t He? Fifty years passed, and in the Spring of 1966, a professor in Arabic studies at the University of Utah, Dr. Aziz S. Atiya, who was writing a book, was searching for some supplementary materials in New York’s huge Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Discovery of the Papyri
Dr. Aziz is not LDS, but teaching in Utah exposed him to some of the LDS claims – including their claims that their founding prophet translated the ancient writings of Abraham into a book of scripture. Behind some bars in a storehouse area of the museum, Dr. Aziz says that something “caught his eye” and he requested to be allowed in the area to look around. Well, guess what he finds? The apparently destroyed collection of Egyptian papyri! It had been glued to some stiff backing paper in an effort to preserve them way back in the mid-1800s. A year and a half year later, the Metropolitan Museum gave the papyri to the LDS Church.
Implications for the LDS Church
Okay, so the Church gets possession of the original papyri and boy are they excited. Now – finally – they can prove to the world that Joseph was no con man, that he truly was a Seer, and that this book of Scripture really was from God to Father Abraham! There was also another exciting possibility this discovery presented:
The opportunity for a Latter-day Prophet to illustrate the unique gift of Seer in these Latter-days. Every LDS prophet is sustained as a “Prophet, a Seer, and a Revelator.” So is each member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Being a Seer in Mormonism means the right and ability to translate ancient texts. In the Journal of Discourses Volume 20 page 65-67, LDS Apostle Orson Pratt asked:
“Have any other denominations got this gift among them? Go and inquire throughout all of Christiandom…‘Can you translate ancient records written in a language that is lost to the knowledge of man? No…the universal reply of the Christian denominations, numbering some 400 million, would be that they have not the power to do it – you must give us credit of at least professing to have these great and important gifts.”
And they wonder why the Christian community has a hard time a just a lovin’ all over them.
But instead of turning the papyri over to a then ailing Church president (David O McKay) or to the quorum of the Twelve, the Church decided to send them to its most qualified academic center for analysis and translation – Brigham Young University. Patiently but ever so excitedly, the Saints held their collective breath.
In February 1968, the Church published a glorious pictorial spread in the Improvement Era, which somehow seemed to validate the Book of Abraham Story and Joseph interpretation thereof. I suppose this publication would be like National Geographic presenting a magazine full of glossy pictures of a paleontologist discovery they brazenly labeled the missing link – only to later find through legitimate analysis that their “missing link” was simply a large
The Egyptian Papyri Controversy
The pictorial layout was important. The Church – especially its scholars and academics at the time – was suffering from an embarrassing blow related to a document Joseph called the “Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language.” Pictures of the papyri in living color would go a long way to boost the confidence of the membership at large. And finally – finally – the question of whether or not Joseph Smith was telling the truth could be revealed. Finally hard evidence, both sides shouted. Finally, validation or refutation!
The Quest for Translation
Dr. Hugh Nibley was assigned to do the translation. But, as Nibley was quick to admit, he was not an Egyptologist! But in early 1967 Nibley and an LDS man named Dee Jay Nelson struck up a rapport. Long story short, Nibley got Nelson to interview with a member of the First Presidency of the LDS Church (N. Eldon Tanner) and he was cleared to do the translation. Nelson had been a student of Egyptian for 20 some odd years and had extensive field work under the tutelage of that Egyptian Egyptologist Zakaria Goneim. For years Goneim had been Keeper of Antiquities at the Necropolis of Saqqara. So, with an LDS Egyptologist in place, the Church anxiously awaited an official translation. The Improvement Era promised that a forthcoming translation was on the way. And Brother Nelson went to work with Dr. Nibley standing by to assist in any way he could.
Everything was set and right. They had the original manuscripts. They had Nelson, an LDS Egyptian Scholar. They had the oversight of the known and respected linguist Dr. Hugh Nibley – also LDS.
The Findings and Aftermath
What was the finding? The papyri were ordinary funeral documents – nothing more, nothing less – written around 500 years after the deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. of Jesus. Nothing about Abraham. Nothing about Kolob. Nothing about God sometimes justified deceit, eternal progression, principles of astronomy, a pre-existence of spirits, or the way Deity governs the heavens. Did Joseph lie? Yes. Did he lie in the name of God? Yes. Did he lie about important LDS doctrines? YES. Yes. Yes.
Obviously, the Church wasn’t about to publish Nelson’s findings, which caused Nelson to go to Gerald and Sandra Tanner, who were more than happy to publish the truth. Dee Jay Nelson and his family left Mormonism after he dedicated himself to the Church in a variety of ways. When asked about the absence of a translation, Dr. Nibley stated: “It is doubtful whether any translation could do as much good as harm.”
In later years, a number of extremely qualified experts in the field of Egyptology have had the opportunity to examine the original papyri (usually through detailed photographs). Dr. Baer of the Chicago Oriental Institute, Dr. John A Wilson and Dr. Klaus Baer (at the University of Chicago), and Professor Richard Parker (at Brown University) all unanimously agree that in the essentials the original fragments Joseph Smith claimed came from the HAND OF ABRAHAM on Papyrus, were: From the Book of Breathings, also known as the Shait en Sensen, Book of the Dead (belonging to Amon-Re Neferirnub), Book of the Dead for the deceased Tshenmin, daughter of Nes-Khensu.
In light of all this scholarly evidence, Dr. Nibley began to suggest that Joseph didn’t actually translate the papyri, but instead received heavenly transmissions from God inspired by his merely viewing these ancient texts. He wrote publicly in the Summer of 1968 (Dialogue): “Today nobody claims that Joseph Smith got his information through ordinary scholarly channels. In that case, one wonders how any amount of checking along ordinary scholarly channels is going to get us very far.”
After reading this, I am certain I wasn’t the first person to bean Dr. Nibley in the head with a waterpolo ball. Alright, let’s go to the phones! (801) 973-TV20 (801) 973-8820. And while we wait for the operators to clear the calls, I’m going to read a few emails.
BYU scholar and professor Hugh Nibley stated that this “discovery was the most momentous transaction to occur in the Church since the Angel Moroni retrieved the golden plates from Joseph Smith.” As a side note, while attending BYU I was on the swim team and Hugh Nibley would come to the pool in the afternoons and swim laps. Well, I was in my late teens and just full of energy and I happened to take a waterpolo ball and fire it across the pool – hoping to hit an unsuspecting teammate. Unfortunately, I missed him all together and the ball skipped across the deck and flew into the other pool only to bean Professor Nibley right in the head as he was swimming by. Our Coach freaked out and ran to…
Introduction
The aid of a somewhat stunned professor of ancient languages. Apparently he was unharmed. But for the remainder of the season I was known as the guy who hit one of the smartest men in the world in the head with a waterpolo ball.
Experience
Reflection
Conclusion
