View source for Improvement Era (January 1968): "Often the funerary texts contained passages from the 'Book of the Dead,' a book that was to assist in the safe passage of the dead person into the spirit world"

{{Main Page}}
<onlyinclude>
==''Improvement Era'' (January 1968): "Often the funerary texts contained passages from the 'Book of the Dead,' a book that was to assist in the safe passage of the dead person into the spirit world"==
Jay M. Todd, ,[https://archive.org/stream/improvementera7101unse#page/n13/mode/2up "Egyptian Papyri Rediscovered,"] ''The Improvement Era'' (January 1968):
<blockquote>
Perhaps no discovery in recent memory is expected to arouse as much widespread interest in the restored gospel as is the recent discovery of some Egyptian papyri, one of which is known to have been used by the prophet Joseph Smith in producing the Book of Abraham.

The papyri, long thought to have been burned in the Chicago fire of 1871, were presented to the Church on November 27, 1967, in New York City by the metropolitan Museum of Art, more than a year after Dr. Aziz S. Atiya, former director of the University of Utah's Middle East Center, had made his startling discovery while browsing through the New York museum's papyri collection.

Included in the collection of 11 manuscripts is one identified as the original document from which Joseph Smith obtained ''Facsimile 1'', which prefaces the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. Accompanying the manuscripts was a letter dated May 26, 1856, signed by both Emma Smith Bidamon, widow of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and their son, Joseph Smith, attesting that the papyri had been the property of the Prophet.

Some of the pieces of papyrus apparently include conventional hieroglyphics (sacred inscriptions, resembling picture-drawing) and hieratic (a cursive shorthand version of hieroglyphics) Egyptian funerary texts, which were commonly buried with Egyptian mummies. Often the funerary texts contained passages from the "Book of the Dead," a book that was to assist in the safe passage of the dead person into the spirit world. It is not known at this time whether the ten other pieces of papyri have a direct connection with the Book of Abraham.<ref>Jay M. Todd, ,[https://archive.org/stream/improvementera7101unse#page/n13/mode/2up "Egyptian Papyri Rediscovered,"] ''The Improvement Era'' (January 1968)</ref>
</blockquote>
</onlyinclude>
{{endnotes sources}}
<!-- PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
[[Category:An Insider's View of Mormon Origins]]
[[Category:Letter to a CES Director]]

[[de:Quelle:''Der Stern:Mai 1968:Die Begräbnistexte haben oftmals Passagen aus dem „Buch der Toten” enthalten; dieses Buch hat dem Verstorbenen einen sicheren Übergang in die Geisterwelt ermöglichen sollen]]
[[es:Fonte:Improvement Era:enero 1968:A menudo, los textos funerarios contenían pasajes del "Libro de los Muertos", un libro que era para ayudar en el paso seguro de la persona muerta en el mundo de los espíritus]]
[[pt:Fonte:Improvement Era:Janeiro 1968:Muitas vezes, os textos funerários continha passagens do "Livro dos Mortos", um livro que era para ajudar na passagem segura da pessoa morta para o mundo espiritual]]