296 
 R33i 
 
 Hi Are We of Israel? 
 
 and 
 
 The Book of 
 Abraham 
 
 By Elder George Reynolds 
 
 FIFTH EDITION 
 
II B R.AFLY 
 
 OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 /73J 
 
 ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY 
 

 Are We of Israel? 
 
 By 
 Elder George Reynolds 
 
 "Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the world with fruit," — Isaiah 
 
 FIFTH EDITION 
 
 Press of Zibn's Printing and Publishing Company 
 
 Independence, Jackson County, Mo. 
 
 August 1931 — 5m 
 
Copyright by 
 JOSEPH F. SMITH 
 
 for the 
 
 Deseret Sunday School Union 
 
 Salt Lake City, Utah 
 
in 
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introductory — The Promises of God to Abraham and His 
 Posterity — The Seed of Joseph in America — The 
 Journey of the Ten Tribes Northward — Ephraim 
 Mixed with All Nations — Testimony of President 
 Brigham Young Page 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Israel a Maritime Nation — Tyre and Sidon — The Lacede- 
 monians Claim Relationship with Israel — The Ion- 
 ians, Etrurians, Danes, Jutes, etc. — The Various Cap- 
 tivities of Israel and J udah — Media Page 1 3 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Land of the North — Jeremiah, Esther and Esdras' 
 Testimonies — The Course of the Israelites North- 
 ward — The Jordan, the Don, the Danube, etc. — 
 The Land of Moesia and Dacia — The Getae — Zal- 
 moxes Page 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Israel's Journey Northward — Esdras and Modern Reve- 
 lation Compared — The Testimony of Jesus to the 
 Nephites — Ephraim to be Gathered from All Coun- 
 tries — The Coasts of the Earth — The Ancestors of 
 the Latter-day Saints Page 30 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Origin of the Anglo-Saxons — Derivation of the 
 Word Saxon — The Goths and Vandals — Overthrow 
 
IV CONTENTS 
 
 of the Roman Empire — The Mythology of the 
 Ancient Scandinavians — Baldur — Their Early Litera- 
 ture Page 38 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Numerous Identifications Considered — Religion and 
 Laws of the Ancient Northern Races — Free Masonry 
 — Language Page 45 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Salvation a Gift to All — God's Covenant with Abraham — 
 Proselytes — The Dispersion — Conclusion Page 52 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 "Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the world with fruit." — Isamh 
 
 Introductory — The Promises of God to Abraham and 
 His Posterity — The Seed of Joseph in America — 
 The Journey of the Ten Tribes Northward — 
 Ephraim Mixed With All Nations— The Testi- 
 mony of President Brigham Young. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The belief that the Latter-day Saints hold that the 
 great majority of their number are of the house of Israel, 
 and heirs to the promises made to Abraham, to Isaac 
 and to Jacob, like many other portions of their faith, 
 has received the ridicule of the unthinking and the con- 
 tempt of the ungodly. However, it is not our present 
 intention to answer such, but to seek to adduce evidence 
 outside of the sure word of modern revelation, to prove 
 that the Latter-day Saints have good reasons, drawn 
 from history and analogy, for believing the words of their 
 Patriarchs who, in blessing them, pronounce them of the 
 house of Abraham and of the promised seed of Jacob. 
 
 It is unnecessary to here quote all of the many gra- 
 cious promises made by the great Father of us all to His 
 friend Abraham, and to that Patriarch's immediate pos- 
 terity, as they are cherished by the Saints as of more 
 than earthly value, as pearls beyond all price, as sweet 
 comforters in the day of trial, and as strong towers of 
 defense in the hour of temptation; yet it may not be out 
 
6 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 of place to refresh our minds by the recital of a few of 
 the most prominent, that we may better comprehend the 
 ideas and statements that follow after. 
 
 It is recorded (Genesis xvii: 4-7) that the Lord 
 covenanted with Abraham, saying: 
 
 "As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and 
 thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall 
 thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall 
 be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made 
 thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I 
 will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of 
 thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and 
 thee and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an 
 everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy 
 seed after thee/' 
 
 Again (Genesis xxii: 16-18) Jehovah declares: 
 
 "By myself have I sworn saith the Lord, for because 
 thou hast done this thing, and has not withheld thy son, 
 thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in 
 multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the 
 heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; 
 and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in 
 thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed/' 
 
 To Isaac and to Jacob were these glorious promises 
 confirmed if possible in yet stronger wording. (Genesis 
 xxvi: 4-10; xxviii: 14.) To the latter it was said: 
 
 "And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and 
 thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, 
 and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in 
 thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed/' 
 
 The blessing of Jacob upon his son Joseph is doubt- 
 less so familiar to the majority of our readers, that w r e 
 shall simply quote the latter portion: 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 7 
 
 "The blessings of thy father have prevailed, above 
 the blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost bound 
 of the everlasting hills. They shall be upon the head of 
 Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was 
 separate from his brethren/' 
 
 We will take but one step further in this direction. 
 Jacob, in blessing Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of 
 Joseph, said (Gen. xlviii: 16): 
 
 "Let my name be named on them, and the name of 
 my fathers, Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into 
 a multitude in the midst of the earth/' 
 
 When Joseph reminded the aged Patriarch that his 
 right hand was placed on the head of the younger boy, 
 he declared: 
 
 "I know it, my son, I know it. He (Manasseh) also 
 shall become a people. And he also shall be great. But 
 truly his younger brother shall be greater than he; and 
 his seed shall become a multitude of nations/' 
 
 There are two points in these blessings that are very 
 noteworthy. The first, that the seed of these Patriarchs 
 should become innumerable, and grow to be a multitude 
 of nations in the midst of the earth; the second, that in 
 or through this seed, all the nations and families of the 
 earth should be blessed. With Abraham a covenant was 
 made by the Most High, that he should become the father 
 of many nations, and when we have laid aside the de- 
 scendants of Ishmael — the Arabians and their fellows, 
 who have grow T n into mighty multitudes, and not even 
 counted the posterity of the sons of Keturah and of Abra- 
 ham's other wives, yet in the one son Isaac the promise 
 is renewed, his seed also is to multiply "as the stars of 
 heaven." Once again we will divide the posterity, and 
 leave unnoticed the dukes of Edom and the other de- 
 cendants of Isaac's favorite son. We will speak alone 
 
8 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 of Jacob. To him was repeated the divine promise: 
 "Thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth;" and again, 
 "A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee." 
 Here let us pause for a moment and ask, are they whom 
 the world regard as the only representatives of Jacob 
 today — the dispersed of Judah — all that that holy man has 
 to show as the fulfillment of so great a promise as the 
 one last quoted? We think not, but believe that future 
 research will vindicate prophecy, and prove that the 
 promises of the Eternal are not cut short in their complete 
 fulfillment. 
 
 We are well aware, so great is the tendency of the 
 races of the earth to mix and intermingle, that the Jews, 
 as well as many Christians, point to their continued 
 existence as a distinct people, as an unanswerable argu- 
 ment in favor of the divinity of their scriptures and the 
 inspiration of their prophets. But their history, their 
 exclusiveness, their dispersion, etc., do not fulfill a vast 
 number of the prophecies uttered with regard to Israel. 
 Yet when the history of all Israel is written, of Ephraim 
 as well as of Judah, we are satisfied that no portion of 
 God's holy word will be found to have returned to His 
 mouth unfulfilled, and He will be as much glorified in 
 the hiding up of the Ten Tribes and the mixing of Eph- 
 raim among the nations, as in the scattering of the sons 
 and daughters of Judah. 
 
 Jacob had one son (and he not the ancestor of the 
 Jews), to whom these blessings were not only renewed, 
 but extended. To Joseph it is said that his blessings 
 have prevailed above the blessings of his progenitors unto 
 the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, while of Joseph's 
 younger son it was declared, "his seed shall be a multi- 
 tude of nations." Thus we observe that with each sue- 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 9 
 
 ceeding heir to these choice blessings the promises seem 
 to have grown, extended and spread out. To Abraham it 
 was promised that he should be the father of many nations; 
 to Ephraim, his grandson's grandson, it was said of his 
 seed, his seed alone, that it should become a multitude of 
 nations. Where is that multitude of nations today? is 
 a pertinent question, for God has promised it and they 
 must exist. 
 
 The average student of history cannot answer this 
 question. He knows nothing of the posterity of Ephraim; 
 they are hidden from his sight. But the believer in the 
 Book of Mormon will point to its record and declare that 
 in the aborigines of North and South America, and of 
 many of the Pacific isles, we find the seed of Joseph grown 
 into a multitude of tribes, peoples and nations. We 
 thankfully admit this truth, we cannot contradict it, did 
 we wish to do so. God has so revealed it, and the external 
 confirmatory evidences are growing stronger and more 
 convincing every year. Yet another pertinent question 
 here presents itself. We understand, from the Book of 
 Mormon, the Lamanites to be of the house of Manasseh; 
 that is their great father Lehi and his sons, the founders 
 of the Nephite and Lamanite races, were of that tribe. 
 If so, his greatness does not fulfill the promises to Eph- 
 raim, who was to be greater than he. Surely the Lord, 
 having so abundantly fulfilled His promise to the one 
 brother, has not forgotten His covenant with His "first 
 born/' But shall we be deemed inconsistent if we say 
 that we do not think that the whole of that multitude of 
 nations is found in the descendants of Lehi, of Mulek and 
 their companions. Is it supposable that the Lord has 
 confined the fulfillment of the promises to Joseph (w T hose 
 blessings were to prevail above those of his progenitors), 
 
10 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 to tribes who are today and the majority of which have 
 been for fifteen hundred years — or one-quarter of this 
 world's existence since mortals dwelt hereon — among the 
 wildest, the most degraded of mankind? If so, the de- 
 scendants of those to whom no promises were made have 
 enjoyed the greater blessings. 
 
 We contend that where Israel is not under the ban 
 of God's displeasure through his sins and follies, he leads 
 the world. His sons are princes among men and the 
 ministers of God's law to all people, indeed that in him, 
 according to the oft repeated promise, all the families of 
 the earth will be blessed. Here we may be interrupted 
 by our readers (for it is Latter-day Saints we are address- 
 ing) with the question if we have forgotten the Ten Tribes 
 hidden by Divine Providence in the far off frozen regions 
 of the north, and environed by a belt of snow and ice so 
 impenetrable that no man in modern days has reached 
 them. No, we have not forgotten them, and through 
 them, we believe, as through Lehi and others, have the 
 promises of God to Jacob and Joseph been partially ful- 
 filled. But we ask further, is it altogether improbable 
 that in that long journey of one and a half years, as Es- 
 dras states it, from Media, the land of their captivity to 
 the frozen north, some of the back-sliding Israel rebelled, 
 turned aside from the main body, forgot their God, by 
 and by mingled with the Gentiles and became the leaven 
 to leaven with the promised seed all the nations of the 
 earth? The account given in the Book of Mormon of a 
 single family of this same house, its waywardness, its 
 stiffneckedness before God, its internal quarrels and 
 family feuds are, we fear, an example on a small scale of 
 what most probably happened in the vast bodies of Israel- 
 ites who for so many months wended their tedious way 
 northward. Laman and Lemuel had, no doubt, many 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 11 
 
 counterparts in the journeying Ten Tribes. And who so 
 likely to rebel as stubborn, impetuous, proud and warlike 
 Ephraim? Rebellion and backsliding have been so char- 
 acteristically the story of Ephraim' s career that we can 
 scarcely conceive that it could be otherwise and yet pre- 
 serve the unities of that people's history. Can it be any 
 wonder then that so much of the blood of Ephraim has 
 been found hidden and unknown in the midst of the nations 
 of northern Europe and other parts until the spirit oi 
 prophecy revealed its existence? But before proceeding 
 further in our research, it may be well to insert the words 
 of one having authority, to the effect that the Latter-day 
 Saints are of Ephraim; to adduce ideas and reasons to 
 substantiate this statement will be our pleasure as we 
 proceed. 
 
 President Young delivered a discourse in the Taber- 
 nacle, Salt Lake City, April 8th, 1855, from which the 
 following are extracts: 
 
 "The set time has come for God to gather Israel, 
 and for his work to commence upon the face of the whole 
 earth, and the Elders who have arisen in this Church and 
 kingdom are actually of Israel. Take the Elders who 
 are now in this house, and you can scarcely find one out 
 of a hundred but what is of the house of Israel. It has 
 been remarked that the Gentiles have been cut off, and I 
 doubt whether another Gentile ever comes into this Church. 
 
 "Will we go to the Gentile nations to preach the 
 gospel? Yes, and gather out the Israelites wherever they 
 are mixed among the nations of the earth. What part 
 or portion of them? The same part or portion that re- 
 deemed the house of Jacob and saved them from perish- 
 ing with famine in Egypt. When Jacob blessed the two 
 sons of Joseph, 'guiding his hands wittingly/ he placed 
 his right hand upon Ephraim, 'and he blessed Joseph, 
 
12 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and 
 Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long 
 unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all 
 evil, bless the lads/ etc. Joseph was about to remove 
 the old man's hands, and bringing his right hand upon the 
 head of the oldest boy, saying, 'Not so, my father; for 
 this is the first born; put thy right hand upon his head/ 
 And his father refused, and said, 'I know it, my son, I 
 know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall 
 be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater 
 than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations/ 
 Ephraim has become mixed with all the nations of the 
 earth, and it is Ephraim that is gathering together. 
 
 "It is Ephraim that I have been searching for all 
 the days of my preaching, and that is the blood which 
 ran in my veins when I embraced the gospel. If there 
 are any of the other tribes of Israel mixed with the Gen- 
 tiles we are also searching for them. Though the Gen- 
 tiles are cut off, do not suppose that we are not going to 
 preach the Gospel among the Gentile nations, for they 
 are mingled with the house of Israel, and when we send 
 to the nations we do not seek for the Gentiles, because 
 they are disobedient and rebellious. We want the blood 
 of Jacob, and that of his father Isaac and Abraham, which 
 runs in the veins of the people. There is a particle of it 
 here, and another there, blessing the nations as predicted. 
 
 "Take a family of ten children, for instance, and you 
 may find nine of them purely of the Gentile stock, and 
 one son or one daughter in that family who is purely of 
 the blood of Ephraim. It was in the veins of the father 
 or mother, and was produced in the son or daughter, 
 while all the rest of the family are Gentiles. You may 
 think that is singular, but it is true. It is the house of 
 Israel we are after, and we care not whether they come 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 13 
 
 from the east, the west, the north or the south; from China, 
 Russia, England, California, North or South America, or 
 some other locality; and it is the very lad on whom father 
 Jacob laid his hands, that will save the house of Israel. 
 The Book of Mormon came to Ephraim, for Joseph Smith 
 was a pure Ephraimite, and the Book of Mormon was 
 revealed to him, and while he lived he made it his business 
 to search for those who believed the Gospel. * * * 
 
 "You understand who we are; we are of the house of 
 Israel, of the roval seed, of the roval blood/' 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Israel a Maritime Nation — Tyre and Sidon — The 
 Lacedemonians Claim Relationship with Israel — 
 The Ionians, Etrurians, Danes, Jutes, etc. — The 
 Various Captivities of Israel and Judah — Media. 
 
 The idea, though not until lately widely diffused, that 
 many of the races inhabiting Europe are impregnated 
 with the blood of Israel, is by no means a new one. Many 
 writers, in their researches into the early history of that 
 continent, have been forcibly struck with the similarity 
 that existed between the laws, manners, customs, etc., 
 of the ancient inhabitants of its northern and north- 
 western portions and those of ancient Israel. These 
 writers have endeavored to account for this peculiarity 
 in two ways. First by the supposition that Israelitish 
 
14 ARE WE OF ISRAEL 
 
 colonies for various causes, left the land of their inheri- 
 tance and gradually worked themselves north and north- 
 westward over Europe; and second, by the argument that 
 remnants or branches of the lost Ten Tribes had emi- 
 grated from Media into Europe, and through the ignor- 
 ance of historians, disguised under other names, they had 
 remained unknown until the present, their habits, customs, 
 traditions, etc., having in the meanwhile become so greatly 
 changed by time and circumstance, as to render them 
 unrecognizable at this late day. 
 
 We will take up the first of these ideas, and present 
 a few of the arguments advanced by those who support 
 it. It is asserted by them that Israel early became a 
 maritime nation, that its location on the Mediterranean 
 Sea admirably adapted its people for such pursuit. By 
 means of the Red Sea in its rear, it also had undisturbed 
 access to Africa, India, and the isles beyond. As early as 
 the days of the Judges (say B. C. 1300) we find that 
 Deborah and Barak, in their song of triumph, complain 
 that Dan came not up to the aid of Israel in the hour of 
 need, but remained in his ships while his fellows were 
 contending with Sisera and his hosts. "Why did Dan 
 remain in ships?" (Judges v: 17) is the exact question 
 asked. This shows that thus early in Israel's history it 
 had commenced to hold commercial relations with its 
 neighbors.* The tribes whose inheritances bordered on 
 the Mediterranean, commencing at the north, were Asher, 
 Manasseh, Ephraim, Dan and Simeon. Asher's inheri- 
 tance lay contiguous to the great ports of Tyre and Sidon, 
 
 *We have seen a translation of an ancient Danish history, in which it is asserted 
 that Angul of Issacher, a brother of Tola, who judged Israel about 1,225 years B.C., 
 invaded England, and was assisted by Tola in so doing. In the name of Angul we 
 find another derivation of the word Angleland (England). 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 15 
 
 while Simeon's bordered on Egypt, and contained within 
 its confines other seaports of the Philistines or Phoenicians, 
 to whom, we think, profane writers have given credit for 
 many of the commercial ventures undertaken by the 
 Israelites. 
 
 It must not be supposed that these maritime tribes 
 were the only ones that would be found spreading abroad. 
 The members of the various tribes did not strictly con- 
 fine themselves to the boundaries assigned their tribe by 
 Joshua, but they intermingled for trade, etc., and many 
 men of other tribes resided within the borders of Judah's 
 inheritance, and vice versa. We have a notable example 
 of this (B. C. 600) in the case of Lehi and Laban, who 
 were of the seed of Joseph, yet were residents of Jerusa- 
 lem, and Nephi incidentally remarks that his father, Lehi, 
 had dw r elt in that city "all his days/' The children of 
 Ephraim, from their great enterprise and force of charac- 
 ter, seem to have early spread, not only among other 
 tribes, but also into foreign nations, notably to Egypt, 
 and the anger of the Lord is repeatedly expressed through 
 His prophets at His people's disregard of His law in mixing 
 with the heathen. In Isaiah's time, Ephraim had, like a 
 "silly dove," mingled himself among the people to the 
 displeasure of his God. 
 
 But it w r as not only for trade and commerce that 
 Israel spread abroad; her children were sometimes forced 
 to foreign lands against their will. Two hundred years 
 before Lehi left Jerusalem, the Lord upbraided Tyre and 
 Sidon, through Joel his servant (Joel iii:6), telling them, 
 among other things, "The children also of Judah, and 
 the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians" 
 (or Gentiles), "that ye might remove them far from their 
 border." Here we obtain a glimpse of the policy of these 
 two cities; they sought to weaken Israel by deporting 
 
16 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 her children as captives to other nations afar off, and with 
 true commercial instincts endeavored to make the trans- 
 action a profitable one. And if Judah and Jerusalem, at 
 the other end of the land, thus suffered at the hands of 
 Tyre and her sister city, is it not a certainty that other 
 tribes, living nearer, would suffer from this same cause, 
 and probably more severely? 
 
 We are of the opinion that this wholesale slave trade 
 of the Phoenicians is greatly underestimated as a factor 
 in the diffusion of Israelitish blood throughout the world. 
 So great was the number of slaves held by these people, 
 that at one time in their chief city, the slaves exceeded 
 the freemen in number, and their maritime enterprise was 
 such that they established colonies or depots on all the 
 islands of the Mediterranean Sea, in France, Spain, Italy, 
 Britain, and probably in Germany. The whole coast of 
 northern Africa was studded with their colonies, which 
 they carried south as far as Timbuctoo and the Niger, 
 while by way of the Red Sea they reached eastern Africa, 
 Persia, India, and some suppose China; in fact, they 
 traded with, and established colonies all over the then 
 known world.* 
 
 It is also a remarkable fact that a few hundred years 
 after Joel had delivered his message of condemnation to 
 Tyre and Sidon, that the people of one of these Grecian 
 states, the Lacedemonians or Spartans, claimed relation- 
 ship with Israel as children of Abraham, and had their 
 
 *Although the ancient Jews were mainly an agricultural nation the geographical 
 position of Palestine and the contiguity of some of the tribes of Israel to the Medi- 
 terranean Sea, induced the Jewish people to make common cause of their friendly 
 neighbors, the sea-faring Phoenicians. There were two causes which conduced to. 
 render the Jews well acquainted with navigation on high seas. Many of them were 
 carried away as captives in their frequent, and often unsuccessful, warfare with more 
 powerful nations. The prisoners of war were forced to serve on land and sea. Allusions 
 to redeemed prisoners, returning from the Islands of the Sea and from the "four cor- 
 ners of the earth," occur in many parts of the Hebrew Scripture and the experiences 
 of the Jews in sea voyages are graphically depicted in the Bible (Psalm 107). Then 
 there were missionary voyages of the Jews for the inculcation of monotheistic teachings 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 17 
 
 claim allowed, and still more remarkable in the light of 
 poetical justice, that these Lacedemonians were the ones 
 used by Alexander the Great in the destruction of Tyre, 
 and in the fulfillment of the words of the Lord through 
 Joel: "Behold I will raise them out of the place whither 
 ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon 
 your own head" (Joel iii: 7). It would appear that the 
 sons destroyed the cities that had sold their fathers into 
 captivity. The fact that these Lacedemonians did claim 
 kindred with Israel, is narrated both by Josephus and 
 the author of the First Book of Maccabees. The writers 
 of both histories gave a synopsis of the letter sent by 
 Oreus, king of the Lacedemonians, to Onias, the High 
 Priest of Israel. The two accounts agree very closely. 
 Josephus gives the opening clause of the king's letter in 
 these terms: "We have met with a certain writing where- 
 by we have discovered that both Jews and Lacedemonians 
 are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of 
 Abraham/' In the book of Maccabees it runs as follows: 
 "It is found in writing that the Spartans and Jews are 
 brethren, and come out of the generation of Abraham/' 
 (I. Mac. xii. ) The Jews admitted the relationship in a 
 letter full of sentiments of friendship and brotherhood, 
 
 The Jewish missionaries visited many lands across the sea, as is attested in many parts 
 of the prophetic writings. Allusions to a life on the ocean and to the unpleasant ex- 
 periences of sea-sickness occur in several places in the scriptures together with magnifi- 
 cent representations of the wondrous sights of mid-ocean. Such descriptions were not 
 borrowed from alien and pagan nations for the simple reason that the admirers of God's 
 marvelous work on the sea are mentioned as coming home from their perilous expe- 
 ditions and praising God's glory in the midst of their own people. The distribution ol 
 the Jews in many sea-girt places of the Gentiles is often mentioned in the Hebrew 
 Bible and bears evidence to the sea-faring habits of many Jewish families; David's 
 conquest of Ezeon-Gaber: the greatest sea-port in Southern Arabia, was followed by 
 other kings, Jewish and non-Jewish, who coveted the possession of that harbor. The 
 history of King Solomon's alliance with the Phoenician King Hiram is given in the Book 
 of Kings. The building of mercant-men in Ezeon-Gaber and the voyages undertaken 
 by the Jewish mariners could not be merely legendary seeing that even in the latter 
 days when the Romans attacked the Jews the latter had numerous ships and seamen on 
 the inland seas. On this subject we find many notices in the works of Joephus and in 
 parts of the New Testament." — Dr. Lowry. 
 
18 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 sent by a special embassy to the Spartan court. This 
 letter is given in full in I. Maccabees, chap. xii. In neither 
 history is any hint given as to which branch of Abraham's 
 family the records showed that the Lacedemonians be- 
 longed, but from their rigid virtue and honesty, and their 
 near approach to the united order in their daily lives, it 
 is presumable that they had not been long separate from 
 a people in whose midst the law of the true God was known 
 and observed. 
 
 It being thus admitted that the people of one Grecian 
 state were of the family of Abraham, students of history 
 have endeavored to trace Israel to other parts. The in- 
 habitants of the Ionian commonwealth, one of the most 
 enterprising communities of ancient Greece, are claimed 
 to have been of Israelitish stock, the most weighty argu- 
 ment used in the advocacy of this idea is the great simi- 
 larity that existed between their laws and customs and 
 those of the Jews. Attention is especially drawn to the 
 fact that the Ionians were divided from choice, and not 
 from the force of circumstances or geographical position, 
 into twelve communities, corresponding with the twelve 
 tribes of Israel. The same argument is advanced regard- 
 ing the Etrurians who were among the earliest settlers 
 in Italy, and who, tradition states, emigrated from Tyre 
 or its neighborhood. They also were divided into twelve 
 communities or states, but all under one king. Admitting 
 that these two nationalities were of the outcasts of Israel, 
 there is no difficulty in understanding how the children 
 of Jacob spread abroad over all the coasts of Europe and 
 northern Africa, as they were (especially the Ionians) 
 renowned for enterprise at sea, the last named being the 
 first people among the Greeks to undertake long voyages. 
 
 More than one author has advanced the idea that the 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 19 
 
 Welsh are of the tribe of Manasseh, some vague tradi- 
 tions of that people being thought to point in that direc- 
 tion; it has also been asserted that the Irish are of that 
 tribe. From this idea we differ. With greater show of 
 reason it has been claimed that Denmark was colonized 
 by the tribe of Dan (in Danish it is Danmark, or Dan's 
 land, to this day), so, according to this, a Dane is simply 
 a Danite. Jutland, adjoining, is regarded as Judah's 
 land, Jute being considered merely another form of the 
 word Jew; while a little further north we find Gottland, 
 Gothland, or Gad's land, as these writers believe, thus 
 tracing in immediate proximity the homes of three promi- 
 nent tribes of Israel through the names given to the regions 
 they settled in. 
 
 Some who, of late years, have made the subject of 
 Israel's "identification" their study, have gone almost 
 to the verge of the ridiculous in the minuteness with 
 which they have endeavored to fix the boundaries of the 
 lands which, they assert, were occupied by descendants 
 of the different tribes. Our position is the Bibical or 
 prophetical one, that Ephraim has mixed himself with 
 the nations; theirs, that remnants of all the tribes can be 
 localized and their descendants determined with the same 
 certainty as the posterity of those races who have never 
 in God's providences, and for the accomplishment of His 
 purposes, been "lost." One set of these enquirers claim 
 to have made the following discoveries. They have 
 traced the tribe of Dan to the north of Ireland and of 
 Scotland; Simeon to Wales; Naphtali, as Jutes, to Kent; 
 Gad and Asher, as Angles and South Angles, to Mercia 
 and East Anglia in England; Ephraim to Northumber- 
 land and as far north as Edinburgh; Manasseh to the 
 north of England; Reuben as East Saxons, to Essex; 
 
20 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 Zebulon, as West Saxons, to Wessex; Issacher, as South 
 Saxons, to Sussex; all these last named places being in 
 England. 
 
 There is another cause that many believe led to the 
 migration of certain families of Israel and Judah. Before 
 the final captivity of either kingdom was brought about 
 there were several partial deportations of the people to 
 Assyria and Babylon, or local captivities. Assyria com- 
 menced by carrying off the inhabitants nearest her domin- 
 ions and gradually extended her incursions. The captivity 
 of Judah was still later. In the interval, it is argued, 
 that many Israelites, believing in the words of the prophets 
 and seeing the evils that were coming upon them, migrated 
 to Egypt, Greece, or other convenient lands; some, doubt- 
 less, led, as were Lehi and the son of Zedekiah, by the 
 revelation and commandment of God, others simply fol- 
 lowing the inclinations of their own feelings. 
 
 As abundant proof that many were led by God from 
 the land of promise before the days of the captivity we 
 have the words of Nephi: 
 
 "For it appears that the house of Israel, sooner or 
 later, will be scattered upon all the face of the earth, and 
 also among all nations, and behold there are many who 
 are already lost from the knowledge of those who are 
 at Jerusalem. Yea, the more part of all the tribes have 
 been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon 
 the isles of the sea ; and whither they are, none of us know- 
 eth, save that we know that they have been led away. 
 And since they have been led away, these things have been 
 prophesied concerning them, and also concerning all those 
 who shall hereafter be scattered and be confounded/' 
 
 Also the testimony of his brother Jacob: 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 21 
 
 "And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our 
 merciful God has given us so great knowledge, concern- 
 ing these things, let us remember Him, and lay aside our 
 sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast 
 off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of 
 our inheritance; but w r e have been led to a better land, 
 for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon 
 an isle of the sea. But great are the promises of the 
 Lord unto them who are upon the isles of the sea; where- 
 fore as it says isles, there must needs be more than this, 
 and they are inhabited also by our brethren. For behold, 
 the Lord God has led away from time to time from the 
 house of Israel, according to His will and pleasure. And 
 now behold, the Lord remembereth all them who have 
 been broken off, wherefore he remembereth us also." 
 
 That we may better understand the various partial 
 and subsequent general captivities of Israel and Judah, 
 the following short statement thereof is here inserted. 
 The dates given are those of the commonly accepted 
 chronology: 
 
 Pul, or Sardanapalus, imposed a tribute on Menahen, 
 king of Israel, about 770 B. C. 
 
 Tiglath Pileser carried away the tribes living east of 
 the Jordan and in Galilee, B. C. 740. 
 
 Shalamaneser twice invaded the kingdom of Israel, 
 took Samaria, after three years' siege, and carried the 
 people captive to Assyria, B. C. 721. 
 
 Cennacherib (B. C. 713) is stated to have carried 
 200,000 captives into Assyria from the Jewish cities that 
 he captured. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, in the first half of his reign (B. C. 
 605-562), repeatedly invaded Judea, besieged Jerusalem 
 and carried its inhabitants to Babylon. 
 
 The next question that presents itself is, to what 
 
22 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 portion of the land of Assyria were the Israelitish captives 
 taken. Scripture has not left us in the dark on this point. 
 Both the book of Chronicles (I. Chron. v: 26) and the 
 book of Kings (II. Kings xxvii: 6) give us the needed in- 
 formation. In the latter book it is stated (and the state- 
 ment in the book of Chronicles is almost identical there- 
 with j, that the king of Assyria "carried Israel away captive 
 into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Harbor, by 
 the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes." 
 
 Media, the land of the Medes, lay to the north of 
 Assyria proper, embracing the country lying on the south- 
 ern border of the Caspian Sea, as far west as the River 
 Araxes. The exact location of Halah and Harbor has long 
 since been lost sight of and the only river that today, in 
 name, bears any affinity to the Gozan is the Kuzal Ozan, 
 which empties into the Caspian Sea to the southeast of 
 the Araxes. 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Land of the North — Jeremiah, Esther and Esdras' 
 Testimonies — The Course of the Israelites North- 
 ward — The Jordan, the Don, the Danube, etc. — 
 The Land of Moesia and Dacia — The Getae — 
 Zalmoxes. 
 
 Having traced the Ten Tribes to Media, the next 
 question is, what has become of them, for they are not 
 to be found in that land today. Many attempts have, at 
 various times, been made to discover the Ten Tribes of 
 Israel as a distinct community, but all have failed. Jose- 
 phus (Antiquities xi) believed that in his day they dwelt 
 in large multitudes somewhere beyond the Euphrates, in 
 Asareth, but Asareth was an unknown land to him. Rabbin- 
 nical traditions and fables, committed to writing in the 
 middle ages, assert the same fact, with many wonderful 
 amplifications. The imaginations of certain Christian 
 writers have sought them in the neighborhood of their 
 last recorded habitation. Jewish features have been 
 traced in the Affghan tribes; statements are made occa- 
 sionally of Jewish colonies in China, Thibet and Hindo- 
 stan (the Beni-Israel), while the Black Jews, of Malabar, 
 claim affinity with Israel. But none of these people would, 
 in any, but the slightest degree, fill the place accorded in 
 the prophecies to Ephraim and his fellows. 
 
 The fact that James the Apostle opens his epistle 
 with the following words, has been adduced as an argu- 
 ment that the condition of the Ten Tribes was known to 
 the early Christians: "James, a servant of God and of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are scattered 
 abroad, greeting/' But it would rather convey the idea 
 
24 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 to our mind that the epistle was addressed to those of 
 the houses of Israel and Judah, who, for the various reasons 
 before cited, and which by that time had multiplied, had 
 wandered into Egypt, Greece, Rome and other parts of the 
 earth, and not to those whom God had hidden to fulfill 
 more completely His promise to the Patriarchs. 
 
 We have before stated that the Latter-day Saints 
 believe that the Ten Tribes still exist, and that their 
 home is in the far north. That they still exist is abso- 
 lutely necessary to fulfill the unfailing promises of Je- 
 hova to Israel, and to all mankind. The presence of 
 the remnants of Judah, in every land today, is an uncon- 
 trovertible testimony that the covenant made with Abra- 
 ham has not been abrogated or annulled. The vitality 
 of the Jewish race is proverbial, and can we reasonably 
 expect that when one branch of a tree shows such native 
 strength, that the other branches will not be propor- 
 tionately vital? Is it not more consistent to believe that, 
 as the Jewish race under the curse of the Almighty and 
 suffering centuries of persecution, still survives, so is it 
 with the rest of Jacob's seed, rather than that they, ages 
 ago, were blotted out of earthly existence? 
 
 The belief that the Latter-day Saints hold that these 
 tribes are residents of the northern regions of the earth, 
 is sustained by a cloud of scriptural witnesses of ancient 
 and modern days, to whom we now appeal. Our first 
 witness shall be the prophet Jeremiah. In the third 
 chapter of his prophecies we find the Lord rebuking both 
 Israel and Judah for their treache-y and back-sliding, yet 
 still proclaiming His long-suffering and mercy to His 
 covenant people. He then gives command to the Prophet, 
 saying: 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 25 
 
 "Go and proclaim these words towards the north, 
 and say, return thou, backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, 
 and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; for I 
 am merciful saith the Lord and I will not keep anger 
 forever. * * * In those days [the latter days] the house 
 of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they 
 shall come together out of the land of the north to this 
 land that I have given for an inheritance to your fathers/' 
 
 Again, in speaking of the mighty works accompany- 
 ing the final glorious restoration of the house of Jacob, 
 the same prophet declares: 
 
 "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, 
 that they shall no more say, the Lord liveth which brought 
 up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but 
 the Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seed 
 of the house of Israel out of the north country and from 
 all countries whither I had driven them, and they shall 
 dwell in their own land/' (Jeremiah xxiii). Again it is 
 written (Jeremiah xxxi): "For thus saith the Lord, Sing 
 with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the 
 nations; publish ye, praise ye, and say, 0, Lord save thy 
 people, the remnant of Israel. Behold I will bring them 
 from the north country and gather them from the coasts 
 of the earth. * * * I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim 
 is my first born/' 
 
 We will turn for a moment from the Asiatic to the 
 American continent. There w r e find Ether, the Jaredite, 
 about 600 years B. C, prophesying of the latter days: 
 "And then also cometh the Jerusalem of old; and the 
 inhabitants thereof, blessed are they, for they have been 
 washed in the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who 
 w r ere scattered and gathered in from the four quarters of 
 
26 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 the earth, and from the north countries and are partakers 
 of the fulfilling of the covenants which God made with 
 their father Abraham." 
 
 But the most definite word on this subject given by 
 any of the ancient writers of the Asiatic continent is 
 contained in Esdras, a book of the Apocrypha (II Esdras 
 xiii). Therein is given a dream and its interpretation 
 showing forth the works and the power of the Son of 
 God. It is to Him and His gathering of the people to- 
 gether that the Prophet refers. The verses more parti- 
 cularly bearing on our subject read as follows: 
 
 39. "And whereas thou sawest that He gathered 
 another peaceable people unto Him. 
 
 40. "Those are the Ten Tribes which were carried 
 away captives out of their own land in the time of Oseas 
 the king who Shalmaneser the king of the Assyrians took 
 captive, and crossed them beyond the river; so were they 
 brought into another land. 
 
 41. "But they took this counsel to themselves, that 
 they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go 
 forth unto a further country where never man dwelt. 
 
 42. "That they might there keep their statutes, 
 which they never kept in their own land. 
 
 43. "And they entered in at the narrow passages of 
 the River Euphrates. 
 
 44. "For the Most High then showed them signs, 
 and stayed the springs of the flood till they were passed 
 over. 
 
 45. "For through the country there was great jour- 
 ney, even of a year and a half, and the same region is 
 called Arsareth (or Ararath). 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 27 
 
 46. "Then dwelt they there until the latter time, 
 and when they come forth again, 
 
 47. "The Most High shall hold still the springs of 
 the river again that they may go through; therefore sawest 
 thou the multitude peaceable/' 
 
 The statements of Esdras throw considerable light 
 upon the reasons why the captives in Media preferred not 
 to return to their ancient home in Canaan; supposing 
 always that that privilege had been accorded to them as 
 well as to the captives of the house of Judah. In their 
 home of promise they had seldom kept the counsels and 
 commandments of God and if they returned it was prob- 
 able they would not do any better, especially as the As- 
 syrians had filled their land with heathen colonists whose 
 influence would not assist them to carry out their new 
 resolutions. Hency they determined to go to a country 
 "where never men dwelt/' that they might be free from 
 all contaminating influences. That country could only 
 be found in the north. Southern Asia was already the 
 seat of a comparatively ancient civilization. Egypt 
 flourished in Northern Africa and Southern Europe was 
 rapidly filling with the future rulers of the world. They 
 had, therefore, no choice but to turn their faces north- 
 ward. The first portion of their journey was not however 
 north; according to the account of Esdras, they appear to 
 have at first moved in the direction of their old homes and 
 it is possible that they originally started with the intention 
 of returning thereto, or probably in order to deceive the 
 Assyrians they started as if to return to Canaan, and when 
 they had crossed the Euphrates, and were out of danger 
 from the hosts of the Medes and Persians, then they 
 turned their journeying feet toward the polar star. Esdras 
 states that they entered in at the narrow passage of the 
 river Euphrates, the Lord staying the "springs of the 
 
28 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 flood until they were passed over/' The point on the 
 River Euphrates at which they crossed would necessarily 
 be in its upper portion, as lower down would be too far 
 south for their purpose. 
 
 The upper course of the Euphrates lies among lofty 
 mountains and near the village ot Pastash, it plunges 
 through a gorge formed by precipices more than a thousand 
 feet in height and so narrow that it is bridged at the top; 
 it shortly afterwards enters the plains of Mesopotamia, 
 how accurately this portion of the river answers the 
 description of Esdras of the "narrows," where the Israel- 
 ites crossed! 
 
 From the Euphrates the wandering host could take 
 but one course in their journey northward, and that was 
 along the back or eastern shore of the Black Sea. All 
 other roads were impassable to them, as the Caucassian 
 range of mountains with only two or three passes through- 
 out its whole extent, ran as a lofty barrier from the Black 
 to the Caspian Sea. To go east would take them back to 
 Media, and a westward journey would carry them through 
 Asia Minor to the coasts of the Mediterranean. Skirting 
 along the Black Sea, they would pass the Caucassian 
 range, cross the Kuban River, be prevented by the Sea 
 of Azof from turning westward and would soon reach the 
 present home of the Don Cossacks. It is asserted, on 
 good authority, that along this route and for "an immense 
 distance" northward, the country is full of tombs of great 
 antiquity, the construction of which, the way in which 
 the dead are buried therein, and the jewelry, curiosities, 
 etc., found on opening them, prove that they were built 
 by a people of similar habits to the Israelites. Dr. Clark, 
 a well known traveler, states that he counted more than 
 ninety such mounds at one view near the Kuban River. 
 
 We will here digress, and give some of the ideas of 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 29 
 
 a writer on the Israeli tish origin of the nations of mod- 
 ern Europe (Mr. J. Wilson), though in our own words. 
 He endeavors to prove that Israel traveled northwest- 
 ward from the neighborhood last spoken of, and claims 
 that the names of all the principal rivers, in the regions 
 round about, show that colonists from the Holy Land 
 gave them. The Jordan was distinctively the River of 
 Canaan as the Nile was of Egypt. The word Jordan is 
 by some claimed to mean flowing, by others the River of 
 Eden. There was also the Dedan or Dan (el Leddan) 
 flowing into it; which would lead to the supposition that 
 the word Dan had some connection with Israelitish rivers 
 not now understood. Suffice it, the exiles doubtless 
 carried with them many hallowed recollections of their 
 ancient river, which it was but natural they should seek 
 to perpetuate as they journey farther and farther from 
 its waters and from their long cherished home. As a 
 result we find in southeastern Europe the Don, the Daniz 
 or Donitz, the Daniepei and Daniester (now contracted 
 to Dnieper and Dniester) and the Danube. The con- 
 clusions of the writer already referred to are that Israel 
 gradually drifted westward to the region known to secular 
 history as Moesia and Dacia, the one north and the other 
 south of the Danube, and called by modern English speak- 
 ing people, Roumania and Bulgaria. To further strengthen 
 his theory he claims that Moesia means the land of Moses, 
 and Dacia the land of David (after Israel's shepherd 
 king), and that the people of the latter kingdom were 
 called the Davi. In this country dwelt also the Getae 
 (a Latinized form of Gad) who, some historians assert, 
 were the forefathers of the Goths, of whom we shall speak 
 again hereafter. The historian Herodotus, in recounting 
 the conquest of his people by Darius states, that the 
 Getae "believed themselves to be immortal; and whenever 
 

 30 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 one dies, they believe that he is removed to the presence 
 of their god Zamoxis (Zalmoxis) * * * and then sincerely 
 believe that there is no other deity." He also states that 
 this god left them the institutions of their religion in 
 books. Mr. Wilson directs attention to this idea of only 
 one God, so different to the Pantheism of the surrounding 
 peoples, and that of man's immortality as tending to prove 
 the Israelitish origin of the Gatae, particularly as in analyz- 
 ing the word Zalmoxis he finds it to be composed of Za, el, 
 Aloses. If his facts be correct, his conclusions are war- 
 ranted, but of his facts we express no opinion. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Israel's Journey Northward — Esdras and Modern 
 Revelation Compared — The Testimony of Jesus 
 to the Nephites — Ephraim to be Gathered from 
 all Countries— The Coasts of the Earth— The 
 Ancestors of the Latter-Day Saints. 
 
 Having considered the causes that led the outcasts 
 of Israel to determine to seek a home in a new and un- 
 inhabited land, we may be excused if we endeavor to fol- 
 low them in fancy in their journey northward. We have 
 no way of accurately estimating their numbers, but if 
 the posterity of all those who were carried into captivity 
 started on this perilous journey, they must have formed a 
 mighty host. Necessarily they moved slowly. They 
 were encumbered with the aged and infirm, the young 
 and the helpless, with flocks and herds, and weighed 
 down with provisions and household utensils. Roads 
 had to be made, bridges built, and the course marked 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 31 
 
 out and decided by their leaders.* Inasmuch as they 
 had turned to the Lord and were seeking a new home 
 wherein they could the better serve Him, they were doubt- 
 less guided by inspired leaders, who, by Urim and Thum- 
 min, or through dreams and visions, pointed out the 
 paths ahead. Perhaps, as in the days of the deliverance 
 from Egypt, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night 
 guided their footsteps; no matter the means, the end was 
 accomplished, and slowly and gradually they neared the 
 frozen regions of the Arctic zone. The distance in a direct 
 line from the conjectured crossing of the Euphrates to 
 the coasts of the Arctic Ocean, would be about 2,800 miles 
 or a seven months' journey, averaging fifteen miles a day. 
 But according to Esdras, one year and a half was consumed 
 in the journey, which is an evidence that they were en- 
 cumbered with families and cattle, who could only travel 
 slowly and for whom many resting places had to be found 
 where they could recuperate. It is highly probable that, 
 like modern Israel in its journey westward to the valleys 
 of Ephraim, they planted temporary colonies by the way, 
 where the weary rested and crops were raised for future 
 use. 
 
 The length of the journey had its advantages as well 
 as its drawbacks. The slow rate at which they traveled 
 enabled them to become acclimatized to the rigors of the 
 frigid zone. We must recollect that we are dealing with a 
 people cradled in the burning sands of Egypt, and who, for 
 many generations, had dwelt in one of the most balmy 
 and genial climates on this globe. Their temporary so- 
 journ in the bleaker regions near the Caspian Sea, had 
 partially prepared them for that which was to come, but 
 
 * Jesus distinctly states to the Nephites, that these tribes were led "by the Father 
 out of the land." 
 
32 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 it required time to give them the capability to endure 
 the rigors of a northern climate, as they were, by ancestry 
 and location, distinctively children of the sunny south. 
 
 No doubt, as the hosts of Israel advanced, the change 
 in the climate, the difference in the length of the days and 
 nights, the altered appearance of the face of the country, 
 and the newness, to them, of many of its animal and vege- 
 table productions, struck them with amazement, perhaps 
 with terror, causing some of the weak-kneed to falter and 
 tarry by the way. These defections probably increased as 
 the changes became more apparent and toils of the journey 
 grew more severe. But what must have been their sen- 
 sations when they came in view of the limitless Arctic Ocean, 
 if the climatic conditions were the same as those which 
 exist today; of which, however, there is perhaps some rea- 
 son to doubt. No matter whether they drew nigh unto it 
 in winter or in summer, the prospect must have been ap- 
 palling to the bravest heart not sustained by the strongest 
 and most undeviating faith in the promises of Jehovah. 
 Supposing they reached the northern confines of the 
 European continent in summer, they were in a land where 
 the snow is almost perpetual, and scarcely else but mosses 
 grow. Before them was a troubled ocean of unknown width, 
 every step they advanced took them further north into 
 greater extremes of cold. Well might they question, if 
 so little is here produced for the food of man and best, 
 how will it be yet further northward? Must we perish of 
 hunger? If, on the other hand, they approach the frozen 
 shores of this unexplored waste of waters in the gloom of 
 the long night of an Arctic winter, with the intense cold 
 freezing to their very blood, their feelings of dread must 
 have been yet more intense. No wonder if some turned 
 aside, declared they would go no further and gradually 
 wander back through northern Europe to more congenial 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 33 
 
 climes. Again it may be asked, how did this unnumbered 
 host cross this frigid ocean to their present hiding place? 
 On this point both history and revelation are silent. The 
 Arctic Ocean was no narrow neck of the great waters like 
 the Red Sea, with the mountains of the opposite shore full 
 in view. No, it spread out before them eternally — north, 
 east and west, with no inviting shore in sight beyond. Yet 
 despite all this, they did cross it, but how, we know not — 
 perhaps on the ice of winter, perhaps the Lord threw up a 
 highway or divided the waters as he did aforetime, that 
 they passed through dry shod. But we must abide His 
 time, when this and other secrets of their history shall be 
 revealed. 
 
 Since penning the foregoing ideas, we have been in- 
 formed that certain ancient Scandinavian legends entirely 
 agree with our theory. We understand that these legends 
 state that the Ten Tribes, in their journey northward, 
 erected at various points, on prominent mountain heights 
 and such like, monuments or heaps of stones, so that if 
 they determined to return they might have some guides 
 on the road back to the Euphrates. These same traditions 
 state that colonies of the very young and infirm, as well as 
 the Wayward and rebellious, were left by the wayside, and 
 from these colonies the fathers of the Norsemen sprang. 
 These legends, in time became crystalized, and make their 
 appearance as verities in the traditional histories of the 
 nations of northern Europe. 
 
 Esdras says that he was shown that they abode in 
 this north country until the latter time, when they were 
 to come forth again, a great multitude, to add to the 
 glory of Messiah's kingdom. This statement agrees with 
 the word of modern revelation to which we now draw 
 attention. 
 
 More than half a century ago the Lord, through Joseph 
 
34 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 Smith, in speaking of the lost Ten Tribes, says: (Doc. and 
 Cov., Revelation called the Appendix). "They who are 
 in the north countries shall come in remembrance before 
 the Lord, and their prophets shall hear His voice, and shall 
 no longer stay themselves, and they shall smite the rocks 
 and the ice shall flow down at their presence. And an high- 
 way shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep. * Their 
 enemies shall become a prey unto them, and in the barren 
 deserts there shall come forth pools of living water; and 
 the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land. And 
 they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children 
 of Ephraim, my servants. And the boundaries of the ever- 
 lasting hills shall tremble at their presence. And they shall 
 fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the 
 hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of 
 Ephraim/' 
 
 It is very evident from the above quotation that 
 Ephraim, or at least a large portion of that tribe, had at 
 some period of his history, separated from the rest of the 
 tribes of Israel, and at the time of this restitution was to 
 dwell in a land far from the north country in which the 
 residue w r ere hidden. These tribes are to have the frozen 
 barriers of the north melted, so that the ice shall flow 
 down, then a highway is to be cast up for them, in the 
 midst of the great deep, next they cross barren deserts 
 and a thirsty land and eventually arrive with their rich 
 treasures at the home of Ephraim, the first born of God of 
 the house of Israel, to be crowned with glory at his hands. 
 
 We must now draw the attention of our readers to 
 certain extracts from the Book of Mormon, which show 
 that at the time of our Savior's visit to this continent, 
 
 *Query — The Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans. 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 35 
 
 Ephraim and the Ten Tribes dwelt neither on this land nor 
 on the land of Jerusalem. Jesus says: "Verily, verily, I 
 say unto you, I have other sheep which are not of this land 
 nor in the land of Jerusalem, neither in any parts of that 
 land, round about whither I have been to minister. But 
 they of whom I speak have not as yet heard my voice, 
 neither have I at any time manifested myself unto them; 
 but I have received a commandment of the Father that I 
 should go unto them and they shall be numbered among my 
 sheep, and there shall be one fold and one shepheard, 
 therefore I go to show myself unto them. And I command 
 you that ye shall write these sayings, after I am gone, that 
 if it be so that my people at Jerusalem, they who have seen 
 me, and been with me in my ministry, do not ask the Father 
 in my name that they may receive a knowledge of you by 
 the Holy Ghost, and also of the other tribes that they 
 know not of, that these sayings which ye shall write shall 
 be kept, and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles, that 
 through the fullness of the Gentiles the remnant of their 
 seed who shall be scattered forth upon the face of the earth, 
 because of their unbelief, may be brought to a knowledge 
 of me, their Redeemer. And then will I gather them in 
 from the four quarters of the earth and then will I 
 fulfill the covenant which the Father hath made unto all 
 the people of the house of Israel/' (III Nephi, chap. xvi. ) 
 The statement of Jesus above cited, that the Ten 
 Tribes did not dwell in the land of Jerusalem, neither in 
 any parts of that land round about effectually disposes 
 of the theory of Josephus and others, that they dwelt near 
 the River Euphrates. The reason why the Jews had lost 
 sight of their brethren of the house of Israel is explained 
 by Jesus in the same chapter of the Book of Mormon as 
 that from which the above quotation is taken. He states: 
 "The other tribes hath the Father separated from them 
 
36 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 [the Jews]; and it is because of their iniquity that they 
 knew not of them/' 
 
 Some have imagined that it was unscriptural to look 
 for Israel except in three places: The scattered Jews in 
 all the world, the Lamanites on this continent, and the 
 Ten Tribes in Azareth. But we claim that we have abun- 
 dant reasons from scripture to expect to find the seed of 
 Joseph as well as that of Judah in every nation under 
 heaven. The prophecies recorded in the Old Testament 
 expressly state that — Israel, especially Ephraim, was to be 
 scattered among all people. 
 
 How completely they were to be scattered is shown 
 by the following prophecies: 
 
 Hosea (xiii:3) in rebuking Ephraim' s idolatry in the 
 name of the Lord, says: 
 
 "Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as 
 the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven 
 by the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of 
 the chimney." 
 
 Amos (ix:8, 9) states: 
 
 "Behold the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful 
 kingdom [of Israel], and I will destroy it from off the face 
 of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the 
 house of Jacob, saith the Lord. For, lo I will command, 
 and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like 
 as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall 
 upon the earth/' 
 
 Could any scattering be more complete? 
 
 We are directly told that the Lord will bring His 
 sons (Ephraim still being His first-born) from afar and 
 His daughters from the ends of the earth. It is further 
 said that He will gather His Israel — not from the north 
 alone — but from the north and the south, from the east and 
 from the the west and bring them to Zion; and that 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 37 
 
 He (the Lord) will gather them from all countries (not 
 America nor the polar regions only, but all countries) in 
 which He had scattered them; among other places from the 
 coasts of the earth. How apt a description is the last sen- 
 tence of the lands from which the great bulk of modern 
 Israel have been gathered. From the coasts of the 
 Atlantic Ocean, from the coasts of the North and Baltic 
 Seas, they have come to Zion by tens of thousands. 
 
 President Brigham Young stated in the discourse 
 quoted in a previous chapter, that ninety-nine out of every 
 hundred of the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ were 
 of the blood of Israel. The people whom he was addressing 
 were men of various nationalities, but by far the greater 
 portion of them were descendants of those races that in 
 the fourth and succeeding centuries of the Christian era 
 swarmed in myriads out of that mother of nations, Scandi- 
 navia, and filled central and western Europe with a new 
 civilization; the people, in fact, who overthrew the great 
 Roman empire and laid the foundation of the majority of 
 the nations of modern Europe. It was to the descendants of 
 the Goths, the Danes, the Jutes, the Angles, the Saxons, 
 the Normans, the Franks, that he was talking, and in our 
 next chapter we shall bring forward some of the historical 
 arguments used by Gentile writers to prove the Israelitish 
 descent of these races, more particularly of that dominant 
 one known today as the Anglo-Saxon. We do not this 
 because we think the work of God's servants requires prov- 
 ing by Gentile evidence, but because it is a satisfaction 
 to many minds, not only to know that a thing is so, but to 
 be able to give a reason, or advance an argument to demon- 
 strate why it is so. 
 
38 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Origin of the Anglo-Saxons — Derivation of the 
 Word Saxon — The Goths and Vandals — Over- 
 throw of the Roman Empire — The Mythology of 
 the Ancient Scandinavians — Baldur — Their Early 
 Literature. 
 
 As the question, "What became of the Ten Tribes?" 
 still remains to the world an unanswered historical enigma, 
 so also is the question unanaswered, "Whence originated 
 the vast hosts of so-called barbarians who, descending 
 from the frigid regions of Scandinavia, filled Europe with 
 new races, new laws, new ideas, new languages and new 
 institutions?" Some have traced a connection between the 
 loss of the one people and the advent of the other, and one 
 author ot repute — Mr. Sharon Turner — extensively quoted 
 in this connection, claims that the original home of the 
 Anglo-Saxons was in the very country where Israel is 
 lost, and further states that these people commenced their 
 migration therefrom about the same time as the tribes of 
 Jacob must have taken their journey northward. 
 
 Mr. Turner, in his valuable history of the Anglo- 
 Saxons, while discussing the Teutonic descent of many of 
 the nations of modern Europe, says; 
 
 "It is peculiarly interesting to us, because, from its 
 branches, not only our own immediate ancestors, but also 
 those of the most celebrated nations of modern Europe 
 have unquestionably descended. The Anglo-Saxons, Low- 
 land Scotch, Normans, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, 
 Germans, Dutch, Belgians. Lombards and Franks have all 
 sprung from that great fountain of the human race, which 
 we have distinguished by the terms, Scythian, German or 
 Gothic. The first appearance of the Scythian tribes in 
 Europe, may be placed, according to Strabo and Homer, 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 39 
 
 about the eighth, or according to Herodotus, in the seventh 
 century before the Christian era. The first scenes of their 
 civil existence, and of their progressive power were in Asia to 
 the east of the Araxes. Here they multiplied and extended 
 their territorial limits for some centuries, unknown to 
 Europe/' With regard to the Saxons, Mr. Turner writes, 
 "They were a German or Teutonic, that is a Gothic or 
 Scythian tribe: and of the various Scythian nations which 
 have been recorded, the Sakai or Sacae are the people from 
 whom the descent of the Saxons may be inferred, with the 
 least violation of probability. They were so celebrated 
 that the Persians called all the Scythians by the name of 
 Sacae. * * * That some of the divisions of this people 
 were really called Sakasuna (from which we have our word 
 Saxon or Sacson) is obvious from Pliny; for he says that 
 the Sakai who settled in Armenia were named Sacassani 
 which is Saka-suna, spelt by a person who was unacquainted 
 with the meaning of the combined words; and the name 
 Sacasina, which they gave to that part of Armenia they 
 occupied, is nearly the same sound as Saxonia. It is also 
 important to remark, that Ptolemy mentions a Scythian 
 people from the Sakai, who resided near the Baltic Sea, 
 by the name of Saxones." 
 
 Mr. Turner was not advocating the Israelitish ancestry 
 of the Saxons, hence those who believe in that theory put 
 the greater stress on his two most important statements: 
 that the forefathers of this race dwelt in the region east of 
 the Araxes, the exact spot to which Israel was carried 
 captive, and that they began to spread out therefrom some 
 six or seven hundred years before Christ, answering to the 
 very period that the children of Jacob dwelt captives in 
 that country. One author has assumed a very unique 
 derivation for the word Saxon. He says: "We suppose it is 
 
40 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 derived from Isaac, by which we find from Amos, this house 
 of Israel had begun to denominate itself, just before the 
 captivity. It was usual to contract the commencement of 
 the name, especially when they combined it with any other 
 word, or when it came to be familiarly applied. Saxon is, 
 literally or fully expressed, the son of Isaac/' Just as 
 Dickson in modern English was abbreviated to Dixon.* 
 Such abbreviations, we may remark in passing, in familiar 
 talk are also common with our neighbors, the Shoshones, 
 also a remnant of the seed of Jacob. One writer on this 
 portion of the subject sees in this explanation of the word 
 Saxon a fulfillment of the promise made to our father 
 Abraham, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called, "and goes as 
 far as to advance the argument that Cossac is another ex- 
 pression of this same idea, or that a Don Cossack is literally 
 and truly a son of Isaac, of the tribe of Dan. 
 
 The ferocity of the northern races, who overthrew the 
 Roman empire, is thought by some to argue against their 
 Israelitish origin. But we must recollect that the pictures 
 of the Goths and Vandals, which have been handed down to 
 us, were painted by their enemies. Nor would the argu- 
 ment, however true, have any weight with us were the 
 rest proven. If they were of Israel they had been wander- 
 ing, lighting and colonizing for a thousand years since they 
 left Palestine before they overwhelmed Rome. And as far 
 as ferocity is concerned they cannot equal the seed of 
 Joseph on this continent, who but three hundred years 
 after the fullness of the Gospel was proclaimed to their 
 fathers by the crucified Redeemer, committed atrocities 
 that no Goth or Vandal ever exceeded. A very pretty theory 
 has been advocated in connection with this portion of their 
 history, to the effect that as the Roman empire was used 
 
 *It is claimed by some that the word Brahmin i3 an abbreviation of Abraham, 
 in fact that God Brahma is the patriarch himself deified. 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 41 
 
 by the Lord to destroy the house of Judah and slay millions 
 of that devoted race, so the Lord chose a portion of the 
 house of Israel (unknown to both themselves and their 
 enemies) to destroy the Gentile rulers of the world who 
 had slain and scattered their brother's house. 
 
 The mythology of the northern race of Europe may 
 also be noticed in connection with these inquiries. Those 
 learned in the mythologies of ancient Rome and Greece 
 say that it bears no likeness to them: its peculiarities would 
 rather tend to the idea that it was of Persian origin (British 
 Encyclopedia). Some of the early Christian fathers fancied 
 they discovered a great resemblance between one of their 
 deities, named Baldur or Balder, and our Savior.* This 
 god is represented as the son of Odin and Frigga, youthful, 
 beautiful and benignant, the dispenser of kindness, the 
 bringer of joy and blessings, who loves to dwell with men, 
 and whom all men love. But he is killed by the wicked. 
 (The manner of his death is surrounded with mythological 
 nonsense.) All men mourn the loss of their friend, and 
 search through the world for some remedy to bring him 
 to life; but in vain; stern death has taken him away to the 
 realms of the dead, and he cannot come back. His wife 
 Nanna, that she may not be separated from him, has gone 
 to dwell with him there. At last Frigga, his mother, sends 
 a messenger to obtain his release. He leaps the gate of the 
 gloomy world, sees Baldur, and speaks with him, but no, 
 Baldur cannot be released, here he must remain, and his 
 wife Nanna must dwell with him forever. 
 
 From some of the details not here inserted, we incline 
 somewhat to the opinion that the above narration is a 
 confused tradition of the way death was brought into the 
 
 *"The early Saxons." American S. S. Union, Philadelphia, 
 
42 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 world through the transgression of Adam and Eve, rather 
 than that it bears relation to the life of the Savior. We 
 draw attention to the way Baldur' s death was brought 
 about. The tradition runs (American Cyclopedia), 
 Baldur having long been troubled by dreams and evil 
 omens, indicating danger to his life, his mother traveled 
 through the whole universe, eliciting from every created 
 thing a promise not to injure the god. But she neglected 
 to ask it from the apparently harmless mistletoe. Loki, 
 the most deceitful among the gods, an enemy of Baldur, 
 noticed the omission, and cut from the mistletoe a piece for 
 the point of a dart. The other gods, surrounding Baldur, 
 made proof of his invulnerability in sport, by casting at 
 him their weapons, with stones, etc.; but nothing injured 
 him. Loki approached and induced the blind god Hodur 
 to throw the dart he had made from the forgotten mistletoe. 
 Baldur was pierced by it and killed. In this tradition Loki 
 takes the place of Satan, Hodur typifies the serpent, and the 
 mistletoe the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is also 
 noticeable that they represent, in this tradition, that man 
 could do nothing of himself, to overcome the power of 
 death. 
 
 The very earliest literature of the Scandinavian people, 
 preserved on the island of Iceland, adds many testimonies 
 to the Scandinavians' Israelitish origin. On this point, 
 Encyclopedia Britannica says: "On entering on these 
 ancient books, we are immediately struck with the corro- 
 borative evidence which they furnish of the eastern origin 
 of the Goths, the fathers of the Scandinavians. As all 
 languages, so all mythologies run in lines, which converge 
 in one common center, * * * Central Asia. And little as 
 we might expect it, no sooner do we open the ancient reli- 
 gious books of Scandinavia than we are carried back thither. 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 43 
 
 Our northern people are a people of eastern origin. Odin* 
 and his Asar, are Asiatics, declare themselves to be from 
 the great Svithiod, a country which appears to have been 
 the present Circassia, lying between the Black and Cas- 
 pian Seas. The whole of their memoirs abounded with 
 the proofs of it. They brought with them abundant 
 eastern customs, those of burning the dead, and burying 
 under mounds. They practiced polygamy, looked back 
 with imperishable affection to the great Svithiod, to the 
 primitive district of Asgord and the city of Gudahem, or 
 the homes of the gods. They transferred a religion bear- 
 ing the primal features of those of Persia, India and Greece, 
 to the snowy mountains of Scandinavia/' In reading the 
 above we were strongly impressed with the geographical 
 idea there expressed. Without any great stretch of the 
 imagination we could easily consider the traditions regard- 
 ing the great Svithiod, to refer to Media, the primitive 
 district of Asgord, to be the dim rememjbrance of their 
 first home in the land of promise, and Gudahem, the home 
 of the gods to be Jerusalem, the city of the great King. 
 The parallel we consider to be very significant. 
 
 *Rev. A. B. Grimaldi, A. M., states: "The Saxon kings traced themselves back to 
 Odin, who was traced back in his descent from David, as may be seen in a very ancient 
 MSS. in the Herald's College, London, and in Sharon Turner." 
 
44 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Numerous Identifications Considered — Religion 
 and Laws of the Ancient Northern Races — Free 
 Masonry — Language. 
 
 It would be almost impossible to enumerate the 
 multitude of likenesses that have been found, by authors 
 predisposed in that direction, between the habits, manners, 
 customs, personal appearance, etc., of the Israelites and 
 the Anglo-Saxons. To give even a cursory glance at these 
 "identifications" would occupy more space than we feel 
 would be desirable. We will simply mention a few that 
 have been advanced by various writers, and then proceed 
 to a short consideration of their laws; it may be observed, 
 however, that some of their identifications are very re- 
 markable, while others, in our opinion, are puerile, and 
 would be advanced by none but zealots. Great similarity 
 has been claimed between the form of the Jewish and Saxon 
 heads, and the great beauty of both races has been ad- 
 vanced as a proof of common ancestry. The style of dress 
 of the early northern European nations has also been 
 claimed to be distinctively Israelitish. The care with 
 which both people kept their records or chronicles has also 
 been largely commented upon. One author claims con- 
 nection between the two in the manner that they mustered 
 their forces in battle, and their love of distinctive or tribal 
 banners, giving rise in Europe to the system of heraldry 
 and the development of chivalry. Their division of the 
 people into tithings, hundreds and thousands, has been a 
 strong aurgument in favor of the Saxon's Jewish descent. 
 The three great yearly convocations of the people are also 
 said to have taken place on the same dates as the three 
 great feasts of the Jews. The Saxons' marriage ceremonies, 
 their respect for women, and the great misfortune which 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 45 
 
 the latter esteemed it to be without children, are also ad- 
 verted to as links in the chain of evidence. One author 
 (Mr. Ed. Hine) pursues a different line of argument and 
 makes the history of the English nation, its constitution, 
 laws, insular position, etc., fulfill the varied prophecies of 
 the ancient servants of God with regard to the Ten Tribes. 
 To our mind, however, these fulfillments of ancient prophecy 
 are often strained and frequently untenable. 
 
 In the religion of the ancient Scandinavians, terrible 
 and bloodthirsty as were many of its rites, students have 
 found striking analogies to the religion of ancient Israel, 
 so much so that it is considered one of the strongest proofs 
 of the ancestry of this people in Jacob. And it is claimed 
 that the further we trace the matter back through the 
 centuries, the greater does the likeness become. Lest we 
 shall be considered as straining this point we will quote the 
 language of another: "They (the Anglo-Saxons and their 
 brethren of the north of Europe) are described as having 
 been acquainted with the great doctrine of one supreme 
 Deity, the Author of everything that existeth; the eternal, 
 the living, the ancient, the living and awful Being; the 
 searcher into concealed things; the Being that never chang- 
 eth; who liveth and governeth during the ages; directeth 
 everything that is high, and everything that is low; of this 
 glorious Being they had anciently esteemed it impious to 
 make any visible representation, or to imagine it possible 
 that he could be confined within the walls of a temple. 
 These great truths, the same as we know were taught to 
 Israel, had in a greater measure become lost or obscured 
 before the people's coming into Britain. But this very 
 obscuration itself, speaks of their origin; it having chiefly 
 taken place, it is said, in consequence of their receiving a 
 mighty conqueror from the east as their god in human 
 nature, correspondent to the expectation of Israel with re- 
 
46 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 gard to the Messiah. This supposed god incarnate is 
 thought to have presented himself among these people 
 about the same time as the true Messiah appeared among 
 the Jews/' (Is it probable that tidings of Jesus' visit to 
 the Ten Tribes could have been conveyed to them or have 
 reached them in a vague or adulterated form?) "The 
 name of this pretender was Odin or Woden, and he was 
 esteemed the great dispenser of happiness to his followers, 
 as well as fury to his enemies. When Wodin was removed 
 from them they placed his image in their most holy place, 
 where was a kind of raised place or ark, as if in imitation 
 of that at Jerusalem, where, between the Cherubim, the 
 divine presence was supposed to abide. * * * Before this 
 elevation or ark, in this most holy place on which the sym- 
 bols of their worship were placed, they had an altar, on 
 which the holy fire burned continually; and near it was a 
 vase for receiving the blood of the victims, and a brush for 
 sprinkling the blood upon the people; reminding us again 
 of what was done in ancient Israel. They had generally 
 one great temple for the whole nation, and in one of these, 
 it is particularly noticed, they had twelve priests presided 
 over by a high priest, and having under their charge the 
 religious concerns of the whole people. This temple is 
 said to have been of the most splendid description — of 
 incredible grandeur and magnificence. It was at Upsala, 
 Sweden/' 
 
 As nearly related to this branch of our subject, it 
 has been remarked that Free Masonry was first known in 
 Europe among these people, a fact that will have its weight 
 among Latter-day Saints. In the middle ages these lodges 
 of free masons built the cathedrals of Europe, and it is 
 asserted that "the English cathedrals appear to have been 
 built after the fasion of the temples that they frequented 
 previous to their conversion to Christianity 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 47 
 
 And these cathedrals, it has been observed, 
 seem evidently to be built after the design of the temple 
 at Jerusalem. Like this, they have their most holy place, 
 the altar, and their holy place, choir; and the court outward 
 from thence for the body of the people." It is also some- 
 what remarkable that the only Gentile people of old, 
 among whom anything like Free Masonry was found, were 
 the Ionians, for whom we stated in a previous chapter some 
 claim an Israelitish ancestry. Their temples dedicated to 
 Bacchus and other heathen deities, were built by lodges, 
 who had secret signs, etc., and conducted their affairs 
 much after the manner of the masons of the middle ages. 
 But the strongest of all the supposed identifications 
 of the two races, stronger even than the religious phases of 
 the subject, is the peculiar Mosaic tendency of the ancient 
 Norseman's laws. So great is the similarity that most 
 writers on this subject have been greatly puzzled to ac- 
 count therefor. It is written, 'To those who have atten- 
 tively studied the institutions of Moses, and compared 
 them with the Saxon, there must appear a similarity as 
 will be apt to lead to the conclusion that the Saxon com- 
 monwealth was thus framed, after their becoming ac- 
 quainted with Christianity. This, however, does not 
 appear to have been the case. They brought these in- 
 stitutions with them into England, and left similar institu- 
 tions among the people in the north of Europe, with whom 
 they had been from time immemorial. Limited monarcy, 
 constitutional law, and representative government, an 
 efficient civil police, and trial by jury, are among the most 
 important legacies left the English nation by their Anglo- 
 Saxon forefathers, and these may all be easily traced to an 
 Israelitish origin. And to this origin they have been 
 traced * * * even by those who were obliged, in rather an 
 unphilosophical way, to account for the connection/' 
 
48 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 Among the Anglo-Saxons the theory of their constitu- 
 tion seems to have been, that every ten men or heads of 
 families, should choose one from among them, to act for 
 them in the council of their little community, consisting 
 generally of ten such compartments or wards. Tert of these 
 wards formed a tithing or parish. And ten of these tithings 
 formed a hundred, the elders of which, thus chosen, were 
 supposed to meet for the management of matters belonging 
 to the ten tithings in general; while each tithing took charge 
 of the affairs that especially belonged to itself. The county 
 which was still more extensive corresponded to the tribe in 
 Israel. The word county or compte seems to be derived 
 from the Hebrew word signifying to rise up, to stand — 
 and refers to the rod or ensign of the tribe to which they 
 congregated themselves in the large assemblies of the people. 
 
 * The nation of Israel we have seen, were, at an earlier 
 period of their history, given proper rules for their associa- 
 tion, such as were equally adapted for a small society or for a 
 large one. The people were given to have a mutual oversight 
 of each other in tens; each ten had one who represented and 
 acted for them. See 1st chapter of Deuteronomy: "So I 
 [Moses] took the chiefs of your tribes, wise men and known, 
 and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, 
 and captains over hundreds and captains over fifties, and 
 and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes/' 
 
 The law of primogeniture, so prevalent in different 
 degrees among the nations overrun by the Goths and 
 Vandals, and their kinsmen, strikes us as being a relic of 
 Mosaic law. According to Hebrew law, the first born son 
 received a double portion of his father's estate. The En- 
 glish law greatly resembles this. It would almost appear 
 that this double portion was conferred, among the Hebrews, 
 on the oldest male child, to compensate in some degree 
 for the loss of the Priesthood held by him of right in pa- 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 49 
 
 triarchal days, but under the Mosaic dispensation vested in 
 the house of Aaron, so far as the lesser Priesthood called 
 after his name is concerned, while the higher or Melchizedek 
 Priesthood appears, after the days of Moses until the 
 coming of Christ, only to have been held by a certain fa- 
 vored few, who, because of their righteousness, were en- 
 dowed with this special measure of Divine favor. 
 
 With a certain class of scientists, the language of a 
 people has great weight in determining its origin. This 
 test has been applied to the language of the Anglo-Saxons, 
 and it has been found that a number of Hebrew words exist 
 almost unaltered in our modern English tongue. On this 
 point, the author of "Our Israeli tish Origin ' writes: "As to 
 language, it is granted, that this, of itself could not identify 
 a people, or distinguish Israel, for example, feom the 
 Canaanites. * * * Still it may be expected that a sufficien- 
 cy would remain of the Hebrew, to tell of this people's 
 (the Saxons) acquaintance therewith; and such is the 
 case. It has been observed by linguists, that a very great 
 deal of the ancient language of Israel exists in the modern 
 languages of Europe, and that it is through a Gothic medium 
 that this plentiful supply of Hebrew has come. So much 
 have these languages been thrown into a Hebrew mould 
 that a French abbe has lately proposed to make use of the 
 Hebrew as a grand key to these languages/' 
 
 Another writer, referring to Mr. Wilson s statements, 
 remarks: *"There is no reason to doubt that in common 
 with the wave of nations speaking the Indo-Germanic 
 dialects, which overflowed Europe on the breaking up of 
 the Roman empire, the Anglo-Saxons came from the Zend- 
 speaking districts of Asia. And while Mr. Wilson adduces 
 reasons from the language of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, 
 
 *"Ethnic Inspiration" by Rev. J. T. Goodsir. 
 
50 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 for believing that a long and intimate association had 
 existed between these people and the Persians before the 
 former moved westward, he also proves the existence of a 
 large admixture of Hebrew words in the language of the 
 Anglo-Saxons, and not the least in the Scottish branch of 
 that people. In this he sets a proof of the descent of these 
 people from the Israelitish tribes that were removed by 
 the kings of Ninevah, from their native land, and planted 
 in the cities of Media and Persia. They had retained, in 
 their new abode, much of their Hebrew mother-tongue, 
 while gradually adopting the Zend as the body of their new 
 language. An additional and most important confirmation 
 of Mr. Wilson's idea has been supplied by Prof. C. P. 
 Smyth. This is seen in the circumstance that the Anglo- 
 Saxons possessed a metrology* corresponding exactly, as 
 far as it extended, with the metrology common to the 
 temple of Jerusalem and the great pyramid." 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Salvation a Gift to All — God's Covenant with Abra- 
 ham — Proselytes — The Dispersion — Conclusion. 
 
 Before proceeding further we wish to remark that we 
 trust no one will imagine, from reading these chapters, 
 that we believe that the literal descendants of Abraham 
 will be the only ones saved in the kingdom of God. To 
 the contrary we are fully aware that God has made of one 
 blood all the nations of the earth, and realize that all men 
 of every clime and age, may be partakers of the priceless 
 blessings resulting to fallen humanity from the infinite 
 sacrifice on Calvary. We also firmlv believe that within 
 
 *Metrology — the science of measures. 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 51 
 
 the scope of the Gospel covenant are provisions, and ways 
 and means, by which the obedient of all races become the 
 recognized children of Abraham, and heirs, by adoption, 
 to all the God-given promises to that Patriarch. John the 
 Baptist told the degenrate Jews of his day who were boasting 
 of their Abrahamic descent, that of the very stones in the 
 roadway, if it so pleased Him, God could raise up children 
 unto Abraham. All we claim for Israel, no more, no less, 
 is the fulfillment of God's covenant with the Father of the 
 faithful, which covenenat modern revelation lays before 
 us in the following language : 
 
 "My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from be- 
 ginning; therefore my hand shall be over thee [Abraham] 
 and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee 
 above measure, and make thy name great among all na- 
 tions, and thou shalt be blessed unto thy seed after thee, 
 that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priest- 
 hood unto all nations, and I will bless them through thy 
 name; for as many as receive this gospel, shall be called 
 after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall 
 rise up and bless thee, as their father; and I will bless them 
 that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee 
 (that is in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is thy 
 Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right 
 shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee ( that is to 
 say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the 
 families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings 
 of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of 
 life eternal/' (Book of Abraham. ) 
 
 From this we learn that it has been covenanted by the 
 Eternal One, that Abraham's seed shall bear the message 
 and minister of God's grace to all nations, and that through 
 him and his seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed 
 with the blessings of the Gospel which, through obedience, 
 
 a of iu, UB. 
 
52 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 brings salvation and eternal lives; also as many as receive 
 the Gospel shall be called after his (Abraham's) name, shall 
 be accounted his seed, and shall rise up and bless him as 
 their father. 
 
 This last mentioned portion of the covenant was well 
 understood by the Jews and acted upon by them, even 
 though they had cringed from obedience to the fullness of 
 the Gospel, and were living under a lesser law of bondage 
 and carnal commandments. The manner in which the 
 Israelites received and treated proselytes is certainly not 
 one of the least interesting features of their policy and 
 history, and may here be glanced at, without wandering 
 far from the question under consideration. 
 
 There appears to have been two classes of proselytes 
 recognized among the ancient Jews. The first, known 
 as Proselytes of Righteousness, or Proselytes of the Cove- 
 nant, became pefect Israelites, and, according to the Tal- 
 mud, were admitted to the household of Abraham by cir- 
 cumcision and baptism. The other class were termed 
 Proselytes of the Gate ("the stranger that is within thy 
 gate/') It is said converts of this class were not bound 
 by circumcision and the other special laws of the Mosaic 
 code. It was enough for such to observe the precepts 
 against idolatry, blasphemy, bloodshed, uncleanness and 
 theft, and of obedience, also, to that precept against 
 eating "flesh with the blood thereof." Of this latter class 
 were converts who embraced Judaism for other than the 
 purest motives; for instance, for the sake of a lover, a 
 husband or a wife, to court favor and promotion, or in 
 dread of some calamity or threatened judgment. Such con- 
 verts were regarded by the Jews of old very much in the 
 same manner as their counterparts are regarded among the 
 Latter-day Saints. Again, the Jews sometimes spread 
 their faith with the same weapons as those with which 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 53 
 
 they had defended it. The Idumeans, after their conquest 
 by John Hyrcanus, had the alternative of death, exile or 
 circumcision offered to them. They chose the latter. 
 The Iturians were converted (?) in the same way by Aris- 
 tobolus. In the days of Jesus, when the light of truth shone 
 but dimly in the Jewish creed, and the vices of the degen- 
 erate Jews had been engrafted on those of the profligate 
 heathen, the Savior cried, "Woe unto you, Scribes and 
 Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make 
 one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two-fold 
 more the child of hell than yourselves/' (Matt, xxiii: 13.) 
 There is one factor that tended greatly to the diffusion 
 of Israelitish blood, that we have scarcely noticed, as it 
 relates far more largely to Judah than to Ephraim. We 
 refer to those who remained settled in foreign countries 
 after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, 
 and during the period of the second temple. At the begin- 
 ning of the Christian era the dispersed were divided into 
 three great sections, the Babylonian, the Syrian, and the 
 Egyptian. From Babylon the Jews spread through Persia, 
 Media and Parthia. The Greek conquests in Asia extended 
 the limits of this dispersion. Large settlements of the 
 children of Judah were established in Cyprus, and on the 
 western coast of Asia Minor. These latter, to a very un- 
 fortunate extent, adopted the Greek language and Greek 
 ideas. In Africa, Alexander and Ptolemy I. established 
 large colonies of Jews at Alexandria, not far from which 
 place a temple was erected to Jehovah after the order of 
 that at Jerusalem. From Alexandria the Jews spread out 
 over the coasts of northern and eastern Africa. How 
 greatly the Jews had become scattered in the time of Christ, 
 may be judged from the devout men who came up to wor- 
 ship and keep the passover at Jerusalem, and who listened 
 to the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentacost. They 
 
54 ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 
 
 are stated to have been Parthians, Medes, Elamites (Per- 
 sians), dwellers in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, 
 Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Paraphilia, Egypt, Cyrene (Tripoli), 
 Cretes, Arabians, Romans, Jews and proselytes. 
 
 There is also another view of the subject, which we 
 are not prepared to enlarge upon in this article, but which 
 bears the weight of abundant proof. It is, that the Latter- 
 day Saints have been, and are today, fulfilling the work 
 that it has been oft foretold Ephraim and his fellows 
 should do. Then, if we are doing the work, and claim that 
 we are they who should do it, and it being impossible 
 to invalidate our assumption, is not our claim worthy of 
 thoughtful consideration and average respect? God has 
 declared that he will make of His latter-day Israel a nation 
 of kings and priests. In former dispensations (except that 
 lesser authority among the Jews given to the house of 
 Aaron) the Priesthood was conferred upon the few, it was 
 an honor of the highest kind; but in the dispensation of 
 the fullness of times, the whole people are to be a race of 
 kings and priests, and not less honorable because of the 
 multitude. To our mind this is a great proof that that 
 people will be of Ephraim. There is a cause for all God's 
 promises — there is one for this. In the order of the higher 
 law, the Priesthood belongs to the first-born. Ephraim is 
 God's adopted first-born in all the races of mankind, there- 
 fore, by right of that adoption, they are a nation of priests 
 — priests of God after the order of Melchizedek, under 
 Jesus our Redeemer, the Savior of the world. 
 
 To conclude, we believe that there is scarcely a people 
 or nation under heaven in which is not to be found some of 
 the blood of Abraham, leavening w T ith the promised seed 
 all the families of the earth. And this chosen generation 
 will, by right of kindred, administer to all people the word 
 of God, and as saviors will they stand upon Mount Zion, 
 
ARE WE OF ISRAEL? 55 
 
 drawing all men unto the great Savior of our race, who will 
 stand in their midst, on the right hand of the Father, 
 crowned and exalted as King of kings, and Lord of lords, 
 the great Apostle and High Priest of our salvation. Truly 
 the Lord is fulfilling His promises, Israel has blossomed and 
 budded and filled the earth with fruit, but in the great 
 future He will do it yet more abundantly and gloriously. 
 
The 
 
 Book of Abraham 
 
 Its Authenticity Established as a 
 Divine and Ancient Record 
 
 With Copious References to Ancient 
 and Modern Authorities 
 
 By ELDER GEORGE F. REYNOLDS 
 
 First Edition 1879 
 Second Edition 1931 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Abraham, Book of, (see Book of Abraham,) 
 
 His early life in Chaldea, 69 
 
 Attempted sacrifice of. 69 
 
 God's covenant with .. 70, 74, 75 
 
 A preacher of righteousness.. 77, 78 
 
 He visits Egypt 79, 103 
 
 He reigns in Damascus 82 
 
 Sits on Pharoh's throne 101 
 
 His greatness..... 101, 102 
 
 Forms a treaty terminating a one hundred years' war.... 102 
 
 His knowledge of Astronomy. 104, 105 
 
 Uses the Urim and Thummim 104 
 
 Teaches the Egyptians Astronomy Ill, 112 
 
 Adam, Worshiped by the Egyptians 87 
 
 First patriarchal king. 96 
 
 Achior, Testimony of. 72 
 
 Ancients, Chronology of. 95, 98 
 
 A key to 99 
 
 Antediluvian kings 98, 99 
 
 Astronomy, Abraham's knowledge of. 104, 105 
 
 True System of. 106, 107 
 
 Taught to the Egyptians Ill, 112 
 
 Alcyone 109, 123 
 
 Book of Abraham, Discovery of. 63, 64 
 
 Description of Papyrus 66 
 
 Synopsis of Contents 66 
 
 Evidences of its genuiness 67 
 
 Circular Cut in 90, 91 
 
 Deveria's translation ;.. 128, 129, 130, 131, 132 
 
 Historical accuracy 133, 134 
 
 Lack of chronological sequence 133, 134 
 
 Brahmanism 80, 81 
 
 Baptism..... 85, 93 
 
 Barfoot, Jos. L., Astronomical ideas of. 109, 120, 122 
 
 Chandler, M. H., Visits Kirtland 64 
 
 Certificate of. 65 
 
 Chinese antediluvian history 99 
 
 Cheops. 103, 104, 1 14 
 
 Chepren 103 
 
 Cubit, Sacred '. 016, 120, 122, 124 
 
 One day to a .. 106, 121, 124 
 
60 INDEX 
 
 Coffer in Pyramid 118, 120 
 
 A baptismal font 118, 120 
 
 Its capacity 120 
 
 Chaldean knowledge of Astronomy 116 
 
 Champollion, M 133 
 
 Discovery of the Book of Abraham.. 63, 64 
 
 Dead, Book of the 87 
 
 Deluge, The 99 
 
 Deveria, T.. his translation 128, 129, 130, 131 
 
 Egypt, First government of 95 
 
 Religion of. 102 
 
 Civil war in _ 102 
 
 Hatred of Cheops 103 
 
 Its language 132, 133 
 
 Its ancient name 133 
 
 Enish-go-ondosh 106 
 
 Equinoxes, Precessions of 109 
 
 Gospel, God's covenant with Abraham based upon the.... 74, 75, 76 
 
 Goodsir, Rev. Mr., Extracts from his works 82, 85, 112 
 
 Gospel ideas, Traces of, in paganism 83 
 
 Persia 88 
 
 Greece 89 
 
 Nineveh 90 
 
 Human sacrifices 70 
 
 Hyde's "Religions of the Ancient Persians," ~ 8 
 
 Hypocephelus, The 90, 94, 110 
 
 Buried with mummies 94 
 
 Ham not entitled to the priesthood. 96 
 
 Hah-ko-kau-beam 107 
 
 Hamilton, Sir Wm, G., Discoveries of- 107 
 
 Hercules, The solar system nearing.. 107 
 
 Herodotus, : 115 
 
 Inspiration of the Ancients 112 
 
 Josephus, Testimony of.. 71, 73, 79, 80, 99, 101, 113 
 
 Joshua, Testimony of 73 
 
 Jehovah, The word - 132 
 
 Keys of the Holy Priesthood. . 90, 96 
 
 Kolob 106, 157 
 
 Greatest of all the stars, etc 106 
 
 Kae-e-vanrash 107 
 
 Kli-flos-is-es 107 
 
 Magianism 80 
 
 Mysteries, Pagan 92, 93 
 
 Of Mythras 93 
 
 Of Dionysus 94 
 
 Repentance and Baptism in 93 
 
 Immoralities introduced into.. 94 
 
 Mackay, Rev. Mr., Extract from the works of........ Ill, 113, 124 
 
 Melchizedek 115 
 
 Moabite Stone 133 
 
INDEX 61 
 
 Nicolaus of Damacus 82 
 
 Noah, A preacher of righteousness 84 
 
 Noah, A patriarchal king 96 
 
 Names in the Book of Abraham 132 
 
 Osborn, Wm, Extracts from writings of. 86, 96 
 
 Osiris, Attempt to make his worship general in Egypt 102 
 
 Resurrection of. 129 
 
 Oliblish : • 106 
 
 Paul's testimony to the Galatians 74 
 
 Persians and Brahmins originally one people 81 
 
 Patriarchial government, Antediluvian 96 
 
 Egyptian 96 
 
 Pleiades 109, 123 
 
 Year of. 123 
 
 Petrie, Mr. Wm ~ 109 
 
 Writings confirmatory of the Book of Abraham 109 
 
 Planets 110 
 
 Philips, Sr. R., Opinions of. 110 
 
 Philibion 114, 117 
 
 Pyramid of Cheops 114, 115, 116, 117, 118 
 
 Astronomical aspects 116 
 
 Religious references- 117 
 
 General references 119, 120, 121, 122 
 
 Pyramids, Uses of. 118 
 
 Proctor, Mr., Extracts from his works 115 
 
 Records possessed by Abraham 97 
 
 Antediluvian 98 
 
 Remy and Brenchly's work 128, 129, 130 
 
 Roots of names in Book of Abraham. 130 
 
 Smith, The Prophet Joseph, translates the Papyrus,. 65, 66 
 
 Sarah and Savitree 82 
 
 Desired as a wife by Pharaoh 101 
 
 Sun's motions, The 110 
 
 Distance, The 125 
 
 Seiss, Dr. J. A., Extracts from. 126 
 
 Sacred Cubit (see Cubit) 
 
 Word roots 132 
 
 Zend-Avista 80 
 
The Book of Abraham 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introductory. — The Discovery and Subsequent His- 
 tory of the Mummies. — Translation of the Papy- 
 rus by the Prophet Joseph Smith. 
 
 The late republication of the Pearl of Great Price has 
 drawn renewed attention to the Book of Abraham, which 
 forms a portion of its contents. And as but very little has 
 ever been said by the Elders of the Church in advocacy of 
 its claims as an inspired record, written by one prophet of 
 God in the infancy of the earth's history, and translated 
 by another prophet of the Most High in the dispensation of 
 the fulness of times, we think that a few chapters written to 
 prove its genuineness and divine origin, will not be without 
 value to the Latter-day Saints, and to the world at large. 
 For while the people of God have said or written little in 
 its defense, there have been those opposed to the revela- 
 tions of God in these days, who have vigorouly attacked it, 
 who have styled its language "gibberish/' and classed it 
 among the "pious frauds" that have so often disgraced the 
 history of religion, Christian and heathen. We hold, and 
 we have confidence that we can prove, by history, science, 
 and in various other ways, that the Book of Abraham is 
 exactly what it claims to be, and that it was translated by 
 the wisdom and power of God for the benefit of the human 
 family, by the Prophet Joseph Smith. 
 
 Before entering into the discussion of its contents, we 
 deem it advisable to say a few words with regard to the 
 
64 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 manner in which it fell into the possession of our martyred 
 Prophet. The account he gives in his history of this in- 
 cident, is to be found under date of December 30, 1835, 
 (Vol. XV. Millennial Star,) from which we condense: He 
 states that the records from which the Book of Arbaham 
 was translated were found in one of the catacombs, near 
 the city of Thebes, in Egypt, in the year 1831, by a French 
 traveler named Antonio Sebolo, who had received permis- 
 sion from Mehemet Ali, the then ruler of Egypt, to open it. 
 After vast labor, an entrance was effected on the 7th of 
 July, 1831, and several hundred mummies discovered there- 
 in, in various stages of decomposition. M. Sebolo ob- 
 tained eleven of the best preserved mummies and started 
 with them for Paris, the capital of France. On the way he 
 was taken sick, and after an illness of ten days, died at 
 Trieste. In his will he left these valued remains of ancient 
 Egyptian art to his nephew, Mr. M. H. Chandler, and after 
 various vicissitudes they came into this latter gentleman's 
 possession in April, 1833. He proceeded to make a living 
 by their exhibition, and traveled about the country for that 
 purpose, reaching Kirtland July 3rd, 1835. In the mean- 
 time he had opened the coffins and found "that in connec- 
 tion with two of the bodies was something rolled up with 
 the same kind of linen, saturated with the same bitumen, 
 which, when examined, proved to be two rolls of papyrus." 
 "Two or three other small pieces of papyrus, with astro- 
 nomical calculations, epitaphs, etc., were found with 
 others of the mummies." In Joseph's history is the follow- 
 ing account of Mr. C's visit to Kirtland. 
 
 "On the 3rd of July Michael H. Chandler came to 
 Kirtland to exhibit some Egyptian mummies. There were 
 four human figures, together with some two or more rolls 
 of papyrus covered with hieroglyphic figures and devices. 
 As Mr. Chandler had been told I could translate them, he 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 65 
 
 brought me some of the characters, and I gave him the 
 interpretation, and like a gentleman he gave me the fol- 
 lowing certificate: 
 
 'Kirtland, July 6, 1835. 
 
 'This is to make known to all who may be desirous, 
 concerning the knowledge of Mr. Joseph Smith, jun., in 
 deciphering the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic characters 
 in my possession, which I have, in many eminent cities, 
 showed to the most learned; and, from the information 
 that I could ever learn, or meet with, I find that of Mr. 
 Joseph Smith, jun., to correspond in the most minute 
 
 matters. 
 
 'Michael H. Chandler, 
 Traveling with, and proprietor of Egyptian 
 mummies/ ' * 
 
 The Prophet, a few days later, writes: "Soon after this 
 some of the Saints in Kirtland purchased the mummies and 
 the papyrus, and I, with W. W. Phelps and 0. Cowdery 
 as scribes, commenced the translation of some of the charac- 
 ters or hieroglyphics, and much to our joy found that one 
 of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another 
 the writings of Joseph of Egypt, etc., a more full account of 
 which will appear in their place as I proceed to examine 
 and unfold them. Truly we can say the Lord is beginning 
 to reveal the abundance of peace and truth." 
 
 From this time it appears from the history that Joseph 
 set himself diligently to work to translate the records, as 
 often as his other important duties permitted. Under 
 date of October 1st, he records in his journal: "This after- 
 noon I labored on the Egyptian alphabet, in company with 
 Brothers 0. Cowdery and W. W. Phelps, and during the 
 research, the principles of astronomy as understood by 
 
 *History of Joseph Smith, Millennial Star, Vol. XV, page 285. 
 
66 THE BOOK OP ABRAHAM. 
 
 Father Abraham and the ancients, unfolded to our under- 
 standings/' It is desirable that these dates and facts should 
 be remembered, as they have an important bearing on our 
 future inquiries. Under dates of October 7th, November 
 24th, and in other places, he refers to his labors in transla- 
 ing the papyrus. He also makes frequent reference to 
 showing his friends these records, and of explaining to them 
 their contents, not only to those in the Church, but to 
 numbers who were not members. We will simply cite one 
 instance. "December 16th, 1835. Elders McLellin, B. 
 Young, and J. Carter called and paid me a visit, with 
 which I was much gratified. I exhibited and explained the 
 Egyptian records to them, and explained many things 
 concerning the dealings of God with the ancients, and the 
 formation of the planetary system/'* 
 
 The next thing we deem in order is to give the Prophet's 
 description of the appearance of the papyrus, which de- 
 scription, we may remark in passing, is identical with that 
 of President John Taylor, who freqeuently saw them when 
 in Brother Joseph's possession. The latter writes :t 
 
 "The record of Abraham and Joseph, found with the 
 mummies, is beautifully written on papyrus, with black, 
 and a small part with red, ink or paint, in perfect preser- 
 vation. The characters are such as you find upon the coffins 
 of mummies, hieroglyphics, etc., w r ith many characters or 
 letters like the present (though probably not quite so 
 square) form of Hebrew, without points." 
 
 Before proceeding further, it will doubtless be de- 
 sirable to give a slight sketch of the contents of those 
 portions of the Book of Abraham already translated and 
 published. It opens with a short account of his early life 
 
 ♦History of Joseph Smith, Millennial Star, Vol. XV, page 519. 
 jlbid, Vol. XV, page 550. 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 67 
 
 at the home of his father in Ur of Chaldea, of the persecu- 
 tions he suffered for righteousness' sake from his idolatrous 
 kindred, and of the causes that led him to leave Chaldea 
 for Canaan. It gives, at greater length than does the 
 Bible, the covenants made with him by the Almighty, and 
 affords some exceedingly interesting details with regard to 
 the history of the priesthood in that early day. Further 
 on an account of Abraham's visit to Egypt is given, and 
 the revelations of God to him, with regard to the order of 
 the planetary worlds, the condition of the spirits of man- 
 kind in their pre-existent state, and a history of the creation 
 of this earth are laid before the reader in plain and simple, 
 but inspired and soul inspiring language. No short synopsis 
 can give any idea of the beauty, grandeur and value of the 
 truths made manifest by the Most High to his friend and 
 servant, Abraham; truths which the world, to-day, in part 
 ignores and partly comprehends. We suggest to our readers 
 the study of this important, though brief fragment, feeling 
 assured that they will arise from its perusal with a more 
 exalted and more comprehensive relialization of the power, 
 the glory and the love of God, than the study of any un- 
 inspired treatise could ever give, no matter how beautiful 
 its language, or how sublime its thoughts. 
 
 It is our intention, as we pass along, to take up the 
 various subjects treated in the Book of Abraham, and 
 demonstrate the exact truthfulness of the record, by the 
 writings of historians, ancient and modern, by the discover- 
 ies by archaelogists, Egyptologists, astronomers and other 
 scientists, and prove, we believe, beyond the possibility of 
 successful contradiction, that no element of fraud enters 
 into its composition. So remarkable have been the con- 
 firmatory evidences that we have met in our investigations 
 into this subject, that we are of the opinion that there is not 
 a book in existence whose genuineness can be more easily 
 
68 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 proven than can that of the record of the Father of the 
 Faithful. Being thus fully assured, we shall lay the forth- 
 coming chapters before our readers with the joyful assurance 
 that they will add to the already incontrovertible testi- 
 monies that Joseph Smith was a prophet, seer and revelator, 
 and servant of the Most High God. 
 
 We make this last statement advisedly, because it 
 must be evident to all who seriously consider the matter, 
 that if the Book of Abraham as given to us by Joseph Smith 
 be true, it must have been translated by a greater than 
 human power. We well know that so far as the wisdom of 
 this world is concerned, Joseph Smith was an unlearned 
 man, unskilled in the higher branches of science, with little 
 other knowledge than that which heaven conferred, but 
 had he been a scientist of the highest order the production 
 of the Book of Abraham would be but little less remark- 
 able, as many of the truths taught therein (as we shall 
 presently see) are in advance of the times, and were as un- 
 known to the sage as to the simpleton in the year that the 
 papyrus was translated, and indeed for many years after- 
 wards. Consequently, human learning and human wisdom 
 could not give them to the world. By some other power, 
 which we claim was divine, they must have been revealed 
 and made manifest. 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 69 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Abraham's Early Life in Ur— Human Sacrifices. — 
 Causes which led Abraham to leave Chaldea. — 
 Confirmatory Testimony of Joshua, Josephus, 
 the Book of Judith, etc. 
 
 Of the early history of Abraham's life very little is 
 said in the Book of Genesis. The mere fact is stated that 
 his father's dwelling place was in Ur of the Chaldees, where 
 the patriarch married his kins-woman Sarai, where also 
 his brother Haran died.* After these events, it is recorded, 
 Terah, his father, took a portion of the family and removed 
 to Haran, where he dwelt until the day of his death, but the 
 causes that led to his removal are not given. The next* 
 chapter opens with the command of God to Abraham, 
 "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred/' etc., 
 but the reasons why God gave him that command are not 
 mentioned, not even hinted at. The Book of Abraham 
 supplies many interesting details on this point not to be 
 found in the history given by Moses, and that the details 
 thus supplied are consistent with the condition of life in 
 Egypt and Chaldea at that time, and in many respects 
 corroborated by the writings and sayings of men living in 
 later ages, it now becomes our business to prove. 
 
 Abraham states, in the second paragraph, into which 
 his book has been divided, that his fathers had "turned 
 from their righteousness and from the holy commandments 
 which the Lord their God had given unto them, unto the 
 worship of the gods of the heathens," and that "they turned 
 their hearts to the sacrifice of the heathen in offering up 
 
 *Genesis, chap. xi. 
 
70 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 their children unto their dumb idols/' In the next para- 
 graph it is written, "Now at this time it was the custom of 
 the priest of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to offer up upon 
 the altar which had been built in the land of Chaldea, for 
 the offering unto these strange gods, men, women and chil- 
 dren." A little further on Abraham writes, "And it came to 
 pass that the priests laid violence upon me that they might 
 slay me also. * * * And as they lifted up their hands upon 
 me that they might offer me up and take away my life, 
 behold, I lifted up my voice unto the Lord my God, and 
 the Lord hearkened and heard, and he filled me with a vision 
 of the Almighty, and the angel of his presence stood by me, 
 and immediately unloosed my bands, and his voice was unto 
 me, Abraham! Abraham! behold, my name is Jehovah, 
 and I have heard thee, and I have come down to deliver 
 thee, and take thee away from thy father's house, and from 
 all thy kinsfolk, into a strange land that thou knowest not 
 of, and this because they have turned their hearts away 
 from me, to worship the god of Elkenah, and the god of 
 Lebnah, and the god of Mahmackrah, and the god of 
 Korash, and the god of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; therefore I 
 am come down to visit them, and to destroy him who hath 
 lifted up his hand against thee, Abraham, my son, to take 
 away thy life." 
 
 To substantiate the truthfulness of the above state- 
 ments, we ought to be able to bring testimony in favor of 
 four points : 
 
 1st, That human sacrifice was practiced in Egypt and 
 adjacent countries in Abraham's day. 
 
 2nd, that Abraham's fathers were idolaters. 
 
 3rd, That he was persecuted by his fellow country- 
 men because he opposed their idolatry. 
 
 4th, That God commanded Abraham to leave Chaldea, 
 because his father's house had turned their hearts away 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 71 
 
 from him to the whorship of strange gods. 
 
 If the above points can be proven by other testimony 
 than that of the Book of Abraham, we think we have strong 
 evidence that the record is historically correct. Admit 
 this, and we have taken a very decided step towards ack- 
 nowledging the authenticity of the entire work. For it is 
 very improbable, nay, almost absurd, to imagine that Joseph 
 Smith, with his limited range of ancient historical knowl- 
 edge, could have produced a work of this kind that would 
 be historically correct. Had the work been a forgery, that 
 is, had it originated with Joseph Smith, the probabilities 
 are overwhelming that he would have made some egregious 
 blunders, which could easily have been detected, and the 
 whole affair, from beginning to end, proven a tissue of 
 falsehoods. 
 
 Firstly, then, we have to show that human sacrifices 
 were offered to the strange gods of the heathen in Abraham's 
 day; more particularly in Egypt, as it is represented that 
 it was the priest of Pharaoh who officiated on the occasions 
 mentioned by the patriarch. 
 
 To substantiate this point we shall make but one quo- 
 tation, as its author mentions so many other historians, 
 ancient and modern, as his authorities, that in quoting it 
 we call upon them to become our witnesses also. It is 
 taken from Dissertation II, Whiston's Josephus, and is as 
 follows: "It is evident from Sanchoniatho, Manetho, Pau- 
 sanias, Diodorus, Siculus, Philo, Plutarch and Porphyry, 
 that such [human] sacrifices were frequent both in Phoenicia 
 and Egypt, and that long before the days of Abraham, 
 as Sir John Marsham and Bishop Cumberland have fully 
 proved: nay, that in other places (though not in Egypt) 
 this cruel practice continued long after Abraham." 
 
 We may here draw attention to the statement that this 
 cruel practice did not continue in Egypt after Abraham's 
 
72 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 day, owing, we doubt not, as will hereafter be shown, to the 
 great influence that that patriarch wielded in later life 
 with Pharaoh and his subjects, in favor of a more perfect 
 way of serving heaven. 
 
 Again, that Abraham's fathers were idolaters, though 
 the book of Genesis carries no such inferences, as also that 
 Abraham was commanded by Jehovah to leave his father's 
 house because of this idolatry, is proven, we consider, by 
 the following extracts. We will first turn to the Book of 
 Judith, in the Apocrypha (chap, v, verses 6 to 9). It is 
 there represented that when the invading hosts of the king 
 of Nineveh were approaching the land of Israel, the com- 
 manding general made some inquiries with regard to the 
 history of its people. Then Achior, the captain of all the 
 sons of Ammon, in answer to his inquiries, replied: "This 
 people are descended of the Chaldeans, and they sojourned 
 heretofore in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow 
 the gods of their fathers which were in the land of Chaldea. 
 For they left the way of their ancestors, and worshiped the 
 God of heaven, the God whom they knew, so they cast them 
 out from the face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopo- 
 tamia and sojourned there many days." 
 
 From the above it is very evident that the facts re- 
 lating to the "call of Abraham" were not only well known to 
 the Hebrews, but to the people of the surrounding nations 
 also. As Achior was one in high authority among the sons 
 of Ammon, his w r ords under the peculiar circumstances in 
 which they were uttered, would carry great weight, and if 
 unauthorized would meet with severe criticism and probable 
 contradiction. 
 
 But the question is forever set at rest by the words of a 
 greater than Achior. Joshua, the valiant, God-fearing 
 leader of Israel, shortly before his death, gathered the 
 people together and rehearsed in their hearing the great 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 73 
 
 things the Lord had befbretime done for them. It is written 
 that at this time* "Joshua said unto all the people, Thus 
 saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the 
 other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father 
 of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they served 
 other Gods. And I took your father Abraham from the 
 other side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of 
 Canaan, and multiplied his seed/' And again,! "Now, 
 therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in 
 truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on 
 the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the 
 Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose 
 ye this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods your 
 fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or 
 the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as 
 for me and my house, we will serve the Lord/' Further 
 evidence than this we deem unnecessary, as here we have 
 the end of all controversy, even the word of the Lord on the 
 matter. 
 
 We cannot prove, directly from the writings of any 
 authors at our disposal, that an attempt was made to take 
 Abraham's life for righteousness' sake; but we can show 
 from the "Antiquities" of Josephus that he was maltreated 
 for that cause. This historian, after referring to the doc- 
 trines taught by Abraham, regarding God, writes, "for 
 which doctrines, when the Chaldeans and other people of 
 Mesopotamia raised a tumult against him, he thought fit 
 to leave that country; and at the command and by the 
 assistance of God, he came and lived in the land of Canaan." 
 
 * Joshua, chap, xxiv, v. 2, 3. 
 fJoshua, xxiv, v. 14, 15. 
 
74 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Abraham as a Preacher of Righteousness. — The Testi- 
 mony of Paul. — His Ministry in Ur and Ha- 
 ran. — God's Covenant with Him Based on the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Paul, the Apostle, in his epistle to the Galatians, writes: 
 "And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the 
 heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto 
 Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." 
 The record of the covenant made by the Almighty con- 
 tained in the Book of Genesis, conveys no intimation that 
 the promise that in x\braham all the families of the earth 
 should be blessed, was in any way connected with the 
 preaching of the Gospel; we must, therefore, conclude that 
 the Apostle quoted from some other authority, or that the 
 Book of Genesis, as handed down to us in the Bible, has 
 been mutilated or abridged. It is quite possible that both 
 views are correct. Paul had unquestionably other sources 
 of information with regard to God's dealings with the Father 
 of the Faithful, than those possessed by modern Christen- 
 dom; it is also exceedingly probably that the early Scriptures 
 have not been handed down to us in their entirety. No 
 matter, this does not affect the subject under consideration; 
 the point to which we desire to draw attention is, that the 
 Book of Abraham sustains the Apostle's statements that 
 the covenant was based upon the preaching of the Gospel, 
 whilst Paul's testimony, on the other hand, confirms the 
 veracity of Abraham's record. 
 
 The covenant, as given by the latter, is as follows: 
 "And the Lord appeared unto me, and said unto me, Arise, 
 and take Lot with thee, for I have purposed to take thee 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 75 
 
 away out of Haran, and to make of thee a minister to bear 
 my name in a strange land, which I will give unto thy seed 
 after thee for an everlasting possession when they hearken 
 to my voice. For I am the Lord thy God; I dwell in heaven, 
 the earth is my footstool; I stretch my hand over the sea, 
 and it obeys my voice: I cause the wind and the fire to be 
 my chariot; I say to the mountains, depart hence, and be- 
 hold they are taken away by a whirlwind, in an instant, 
 suddenly. My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from 
 the beginning, therefore my hand shall be over thee, and I 
 will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above 
 measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and 
 thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in 
 their hands they shall bear this ministry and priesthood 
 unto all nations, and I will bless them through thy name; 
 for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy 
 name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up 
 and bless thee, as their father; and I will bless them that 
 bless thee; and will curse them that curse thee; and in thee 
 (that is, in thy priesthood ) and thy seed ( that is, thy 
 priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right 
 shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to 
 say, the literal seed or seed of the body) shall all the 
 families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of 
 the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of 
 life eternal." 
 
 We would here ask, what salvation could be brought to 
 the heathen, how could they be justified through faith by 
 the preaching of the Gospel to Abraham, if power and 
 authority were not given him to preach its glad tidings? 
 And again, how could they be benefited thereby if he did 
 not avail himself of the privilege thus given of becoming a 
 preacher of righteousness to his fellow man? Furthermore, 
 we ask, is it reasonable to suppose that he, who was to be 
 
76 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 father of that race in whom all the families of the earth were 
 to be blessed by the preaching of God's word, would not 
 himself be a type of what such messengers of salvation 
 should be? Is it supposable he would hold his peace and 
 leave the work of regeneration entirely to his posterity, 
 when it was promised that through the eternal truths re- 
 vealed to him all mankind should regain the presence of 
 their God? We think not, and further, we imagine that 
 his record would lack consistency if some reference was not 
 made to his ministry and labors. xAnd several such re- 
 ferences we actually find more or less direct and exclusive 
 with regard to his acts as a priest of the Most High. In 
 fact, the whole of his writings are pervaded with this spirit, 
 and are full of his anxieties to be a preacher of truth and 
 righteousness. The opening paragraph of his book abounds 
 with this feeling, indeed it contains nothing else; he writes, 
 "finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest 
 for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the 
 right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the 
 same, having been myself a follower of righteousness, 
 desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and 
 to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a 
 greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, 
 a prince of peace; and desiring to receive instructions, and 
 to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful 
 heir,* a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the 
 fathers, it was confirmed upon me from the fathers; * * * 
 I sought for mine appointment unto the priesthood; ac- 
 cording to the appointment of God unto the fathers con- 
 concerning the seed/' After the attempt of the priest of 
 Pharaoh to take his life, the Almighty tells him, "Behold I 
 
 ^Abraham, in another place, states that "the records of the fathers, even the 
 patriarchs, concerning the right of priesthood, the Lord my God preserved in my own 
 hands." By this means, amongst others, he no doubt learned that he was "a rightful 
 heir.*' 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 77 
 
 will lead thee by the hand, and I will take thee to put upon 
 thee my name, even the priesthood of thy father, and my 
 power shall be over thee. As it was with Noah, so shall it 
 be with thee, that through thy ministry my name shall be 
 known in the earth for ever, for I am thy God." Still 
 further on the Lord says: "I have purposed to take thee 
 away out of Haran, and to make of thee a minister to bear 
 my name in a strange land." Not only in Canaan was he 
 to be a messenger of God's word, but the Almighty after- 
 wards tells him, "I shew these things unto thee before ye 
 go down into Egypt, that ye may declare all these words/' 
 
 Thus we find that Abraham, having sought for the 
 privilege of becoming a preacher of righteousness, in answer 
 to his desire the priesthood was given to him with the com- 
 mand to magnify it. It is not probable that such a man 
 would fail in the hour of action. The friend of God and 
 Father of the Faithful was one "who knew no such word as 
 fail/' in carrying out heaven's commands. That he did 
 proclaim the law of the Lord wherever he went, is evidenced 
 by his statement that in his youthful home in Ur, his kins- 
 folk utterly refused to hearken to his voice. So earnest 
 did he become in his advocacy of the truth, that his death 
 was decided upon, even by his own father, and he did not 
 flinch from the issue, but the angel of God rescued him from 
 the sacrificial altar; his work was not yet done. In another 
 place he states, "I took the souls that we had won in Haran, 
 and came forth in the way of the land of Canaan." We 
 shall presently discover, by outside testimony, that his 
 ministrations were not alone confined to Ur and Haran. 
 
 We feel fully persuaded that Abraham was not only 
 great in his unflinching integrity and his unswerving faith, 
 but he was also great as a leader of men — he commanded 
 his children and his household after him — and as a preacher 
 of the divine word. We hold this opinion from the fact 
 
78 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM, 
 
 that his power in these directions is frequently referred to 
 by ancient writers, and because the effects of the preaching 
 of God's holy word can be traced in Gospel ideas mixed with 
 the follies of heathenism in the mythology and religions of 
 almost every leading nation of antiquity. 
 
 We have shown from the Book of Abraham, that in 
 early life the patriarch desired to become a preacher of 
 righteousness, that God conferred the priesthood upon 
 him in answer to his desires, and commanded him to pro- 
 claim the truths He revealed, and furthermore, that Abra- 
 ham joyously fulfilled His command. It is not to be sup- 
 posed that strangers could tell the world much about Abra- 
 ham's desires, or the Lord's covenants with him, but we 
 can substantiate, from a multitude of sources, that as a 
 preacher of righteousness the patriarch has left his mark 
 indelibly inscribed on the history of the world. That, in- 
 deed, as God promised so He has fulfilled, and has made 
 Abraham's "name great among all nations," and has also 
 brought to pass His gracious promise, "through thy (Abra- 
 ham's) ministry my name shall be known in the earth 
 forever." 
 
 To prove this will be our pleasure in succeeding chap- 
 ters. 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 79 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Abraham in Egypt. — Confirmatory Statements of 
 Josephus, Nicolaus of Damascus, and Others, — 
 Abraham's Influence on the Religions of Egypt, 
 
 • Persia and Hindoostan. — Traces of Gospel Teach- 
 ing in the Mythologies of Egypt, Persia, Chaldea, 
 Greece and Rome. — First Departures from the 
 True Faith. — The Egyptian Worship of Adam 
 and the Patriarchs. — The Book of the Dead. 
 
 The Book of Abraham states that God commanded the 
 patriarch to show unto the Egyptians the things that He 
 had revealed unto him. Josephus, in narrating this por- 
 tion of Abraham's history — being only partially acquainted 
 with the facts of the case from the authorities at his dis- 
 posal — tells us that Abraham went down into Egypt to 
 avoid the famine in Canaan, and to "become an auditor of 
 their priests, and to know what they said concerning the 
 gods; designing either to follow them if they had better 
 notions than he, or to convert them into a better way 
 if his own notions proved the truest/'* After his arrival in 
 Egypt, and the circumstances arising out of the attempt of 
 Pharaoh to add Sarah to the number of his wives, the out- 
 come of which placed the monarch under obligations to the 
 patriarch, Josephus states that "Pharaoh gave Abraham 
 leave to enter into conversation with the most learned 
 among the Egyptians, from which conversation his virtue 
 and his reputation became more conspicuous than they had 
 been before. For whereas the Egyptians were formerly 
 addicted to different customs, and despised one another's 
 sacred and accustomed rites, and were very angry one with 
 
 ♦Josephus, Antiquities, Book 1, chap. viii. 
 
80 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 another on that account, Abraham conferred with each of 
 them, and, confuting the reasonings they made use of, 
 every one for his own practices, he demonstrated that such 
 reasonings were vain and void of truth; whereupon he was 
 admired by them in those conferences as a very wise man, 
 and one of great sagacity, when he discoursed upon any 
 subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding 
 it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him/'* 
 In another place the Jewish historian states, "He (Abra- 
 ham) was a person of great sagacity, both for understand- 
 ing all things, and persuading his hearers, and not mistaken 
 in his opinions; for which reason he began to have higher 
 notions of virtue than others had, and he determined to re- 
 new and to change the opinion all men happened then to 
 have concerning God.""*" 
 
 So far as Josephus' testimony, confirmatory of this 
 portion of the Book of Abraham, is concerned, we deem the 
 above abundant. In later chapters we shall show the 
 great political and religious changes that Abraham's visits 
 to Egypt produced. 
 
 From Egypt we will turn to Persia, and from the 
 writings of various modern authors adduce testimony to 
 prove that Abraham's power as a religious teacher was felt, 
 known and recognized in the faith and creed of that nation. 
 
 In the sacred book of the ancient Persians and modern 
 Parsees — the Zend Avista — "it is declared that the reli- 
 gion taught in it was received from Abraham; and according 
 to Hyde, who supports his statements by quotations and 
 references, this was believed by leading Arabian writers 
 not only of Persian Magianism but of Indian Brahmanism." 
 The same writer remarks: "The claims of Magianism to 
 have been influenced bv the revelations made to Abraham 
 
 *Josephus, Antiquities, Book 1, chap. viii. 
 Tlbid, Book 1, chap. vii. 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 81 
 
 are far from being discountenanced by the laws of historiacl 
 probability. For the war waged so successfully by Abra- 
 ham in behalf of his kinsman, Lot, against the five kings, 
 among whom was the king of Elam [i. e., Persia], is of it- 
 self a sufficient proof that the Father of the Faithful, 
 Abraham, the Hebrew from Ur of the Chaldees, must 
 have been as well known to the eastern kingdoms as Moses 
 was in after times."* 
 
 It is generally admitted that in the days of Abraham 
 the forefathers of the Persians and Brahmins were one 
 people, inhabiting one region of country. It is supposed 
 that the ancestors of the latter race moved to India from 
 1500 to 1300 years B. C. That these two races are of com- 
 mon descent is urged from the close relationship existing 
 between the Sanskrit, the language of the Brahmins, and 
 the Zend or Persian; it is also said that the "remarkable 
 identity between the Brahminical and Persian mythologies 
 indicates, unerringly, the original union of the two/' It 
 may also be noticed that Hitzig, in his "Geshichte des Volkes 
 Israel," reasons from the identity of certain practices ob- 
 served by Abraham and the patriarchs of Israel on the one 
 hand, and by Brahminical Hindoos on the other, that a 
 community of some kind once existed between these people. 
 
 The two nations being thus admitted, by authors of 
 research, to have been one people in Abraham's time, it is 
 supposable that the Brahmin as well as the Persian branch 
 of the family would exhibit some traces of Abraham's 
 ministry. On this point it has been written "Abraham's 
 influence extended to Bactria, and the most complete proof 
 at once of its spread, and the spread with it of the name and 
 renown of Abraham, is contained in the language and 
 name of the Brahminical Hindoos. "t 
 
 *Ethnic Inspiration, by Mr. Goodsir, pages 73 and 80. 
 tlbid. 
 
82 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 "The name Brahma signifies he who multiplies; the 
 name Abraham likewise means the father of a multitude. 
 (Arabic, Rahama, a multitude. Genesis xxii, 5. ) The 
 wife of Brahma was named Savitree. The wife of Abraham 
 was named Sarai or Sarah/'* 
 
 Mr. Goodsir, remarking on this last extract, writes; 
 "These coincidences appear to us to be well deserving of at- 
 tention, though we are not aware that they have ever before 
 been noticed. We leave them and the whole question 
 of the identity of Brahma and Abraham to the judgment 
 of our readers, merely observing, in conclusion, that hav- 
 ing found Adam and Noah and Ham to have been the 
 father-gods of Egyptian mythology, and Japhet the father- 
 god of that of Greece, there is abundant analogy as well as 
 probability in our inference that the father-god of the 
 Indian superstition was Abraham/' 
 
 Admitting the truth of the following extract from the 
 writings of Nicolaus of Damascus, referred to by Josephus, 
 it is very easy to understand when and how Abraham ob- 
 tained his great influence in Persia; and we know of no 
 conflicting testimony to render the statements unworthy of 
 our consideration. He writes, in the fourth book of his 
 history: "Abram reigned in Damascus, being a foreigner, 
 who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, 
 called the land of Chaldees; but after a long time he got 
 him up and removed from that country also, with his people, 
 and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but 
 now the land of Judea. * * * Now the name of Abram 
 is even still famous in the country of Damacus, and there 
 is shewed a village named from him, the habitation of 
 Abraham/' 
 
 We now come to the consideration of the traces, oft- 
 
 ♦Osborn's "Religions of the World." 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 83 
 
 times scarcely discernable, found in the pagan religions 
 of the ancient nations of the eastern continent, of a time 
 when the worship of the true God was taught and under- 
 stood in their midst, for we fully believe that having made 
 of one blood all the nations of the earth, "God guided 
 and ruled over pagan nations in a manner the same in 
 kind, though much modified in degree, as in the case of the 
 chosen people; and for the same great final end/' Let it 
 not be supposed, in the following pages, that we desire to 
 extenuate the sinfulness, or to palliate the foulness of idola- 
 trous, cruel, unclean and licentious paganism in any of its 
 branches. Our desire is to exalt the goodness of God, as 
 well as to show that under all the vileness, the indecency, 
 the lust and cruelty of many of the forms of ancient pagan- 
 ism, could be found a sub-stratum of pure revealed truth, 
 testifying to us that at some period the fathers of these 
 peoples held intercourse with the servants of the true God, 
 but had fallen away from the principles of righteousness 
 aforetime taught them, and after their own peculiar ways 
 and to suit their own peculiar notions and desires, had 
 heaped to themselves gods and demons, creeds and rites, 
 ceremonies and mysteries, oracles and auguries, differing 
 in different nations according to the force of circumstances 
 and the direction given to them by master minds. 
 
 As a proof of the truth of our position, we have but to 
 refer to the fact that it has been demonstrated that the 
 further we go back through the centuries to the primeval 
 days succeeding the dispersion of mankind at the Tower of 
 Babel, the more frequent and more noticeable are the traces 
 of pure religious truth found intermingled with the follies 
 and vagueries of man-made religions. As an example of 
 this, it is recounted by Levy, the Roman historian, that 
 certain sacred books having been found at the burying 
 place of Numa, the great religious legislator of early Rome, 
 
84 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 they were burned because they were not suited to the times 
 in which they were discovered, when Rome had added 
 scores of gods to its Pantheon, though they were considered 
 suited to the early era in which they were written, when 
 Numa forbade images and their worship as well as the offer- 
 ing of human sacrifices. 
 
 It is not difficult for those who believe in the Bible 
 as it is written, to understand that immediately after the 
 flood there was but one form of faith upon the earth, and 
 that the true one. Noah was a preacher of righteousness 
 before and after the deluge, and because of their obedience 
 to God's laws, he and his family were saved from the uni- 
 versal destruction that came upon the wicked. But their 
 descendants, in an early day, began to depart from the 
 purity of the truths that had saved "the fathers," and a 
 knowledge of the forms of iniquity that existed amongst 
 the antediluvians was in some manner conveyed to them, 
 and incorporated in their debased new systems of worship. 
 Noah, Melchizedek and others battled with but partial 
 success against these growing infamies, and Abraham was 
 especially called of the Lord to usher in a new dispensation. 
 We have seen, in part, how he fulfilled this call; we shall 
 now refer to some Gospel ideas that for many centuries 
 afterwards were found incorporated amongst the filth and 
 rubbish of paganism, some in Egypt, some in Persia, some 
 in Chaldea, some in Greece, Rome and other nations. 
 From this almost universal admixture of the true and the 
 false it is evident that there was some primeval source 
 from which the ancient gentile nations drew that which 
 was good and true in their religions. 
 
 In our researches into the mythology of these peoples 
 we find, amongst others, the following Gospel ideas: 
 
 The belief in the existence of one great father God. 
 
 The prophecy and expectation of the coming of a Son 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 85 
 
 of God in the flesh. 
 
 A reverence for Adam as the great prince of his race, 
 in some nations, extended to his worship as the father of 
 the terrestrial gods. 
 
 The belief in a resurrection, and in future rewards and 
 punishments. 
 
 The necessity of faith in the gods, and under certain 
 very remarkable circumstances, to be hereafter noticed, of 
 repentance and baptism. 
 
 The administration of washings and anointings. 
 
 Traditions, more or less perfect, of the great war in 
 heaven when Lucifer and his angels were cast down upon 
 the earth. 
 
 The belief in good and bad angels, ministers of the will 
 of heaven. 
 
 A belief in the eternity of matter, and 
 
 The almost universal practice of sacrifice. 
 
 To give strength to the above assertions we shall now 
 appeal to a number of well-known authors. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Goodsir, in his work on Ethnic Inspira- 
 tion, writes: "The principles of mythology enable us to 
 discern the true order in which the various erroneous and 
 morbid developments of human belief arose. It proves 
 both that monotheism — the knowledge of the true God, 
 preceded the various forms of polytheism, and especially 
 the worship of the heavenly bodies; and that the worship 
 of dead men preceded other forms of false or idolatrous wor- 
 ship; and the same facts which show that the worship of 
 dead men was the first step in false religion, prove at the 
 same time the original grafting of this on the belief of a 
 heavenly Creator and Father. Were there no other than 
 the single case of Egypt, as explained from its language, 
 hieroglyphics and monuments, by Mr. Osborn, it would 
 place the matter beyond all doubt, so clear and well-sup- 
 
86 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 ported is that case. Adam and Eve, Noah and Tamer, 
 Ham, Mizraim* and Phut were all deified there, while the 
 supreme God was incontrovertibly known; and the sun 
 was only a symbol and the supposed abode of Adam. There 
 is a reason to believe that the state of things in Chaldea 
 and Babylon was substantially the same as this/' 
 
 To this we may append the remark that the Eyyptians 
 appear to have recognized the partial truth that there be 
 "that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as 
 there be gods many and lords many/' but were ignorant of 
 of the corollary, "but to us there is but one God the Father." 
 (1 Corinthians, viii, v. 5, 6.) 
 
 It must be evident from the light thrown on the early 
 history of the world, more especially of Egypt, by the 
 Book of Abraham, that under the almost universally 
 existing form of patriarchal government that "the fathers" 
 were not only High Priests unto God by right of their 
 "fatherhood," but also the kings of the earth by that same 
 right, f and it was one of the easiest things in the world for 
 the descendants of these men, who ruled by right divine, to i 
 not only reverence them as ministers of heaven's will in 
 all things, temporal and spiritual, but also to deify and 
 afterwards worship them. Indeed in the case of most of 
 these holy patriarchs it was but a very small step in advance 
 of their true position in relation to the sons of men; for 
 "He called them Gods unto whom the word of God came, 
 and the scriptures cannot be broken." (John, x, 35.) 
 
 We next appeal to Mr. Osborn author of "The Reli- 
 gions of the World." In writing of the Egyptian mythology 
 he states: "This most ancient mythology, as described 
 by authors who lived before the Christian era, and as set 
 
 *Mizraim is identified with Osiris, chief lord of the land of the departed. 
 fMax Muller says "king" originally meant "father." 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 87 
 
 forth on the walls of the temples in which its ritual or wor- 
 ship was performed, was taught to the initiated and con- 
 cealed from the vulgar, that God created all things at the 
 first by the primary emanation from himself, his firstborn, 
 who was the author and giver of all knowledge in heaven 
 and on earth, being at the same time the wisdom and the 
 word of God. The birth of this all-powerful being, his 
 manifestation as an infant, his nurture and education 
 through all the succeeding periods of childhood and of 
 boyhood, constituted the grand mystery of the entire 
 system/' So convinced were the priests of this people of the 
 coming of a son of God, that they had chambers prepared 
 in their temples for his nativity. 
 
 Another quotation from Mr. Osborn will, we trust, 
 make the matter yet clearer to our readers. He says: 
 "The founders of the nation knew not only of Ham and 
 Mizraim, but of various men and women contemporary 
 with them even of our first parents, Adam and Eve, as 
 well as of our second progenitors, Noah and his wife Tamer. 
 Adam has thus been handed down to us as Athon, the guide 
 or governor of the sun; Eve as Hathor, w r ho presided over 
 the moon; Noah as Nuh, who presided over the Nile; 
 while Ham, Mizraim, Phut, Neveth, or Neith, the w r ife of 
 Ham, and others, occupied singular and sometimes multi- 
 form positions and offices in the Egyptian Pantheon/'* 
 
 We will now leave modern w r riters, and draw attention 
 to that wonderful papyrus, the Ancient Egyptian Ritual 
 or Book of the Dead, and from its hieroglyphics show the 
 relation in which Adam stood in their mythology; reminding 
 our readers that the abode of the great father of humanity 
 was supposed by them to be the sun, and that the chief 
 seat of his worship was at Heliopolis, the city of the sun, 
 
 ♦"Religions of the World." 
 
88 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 the On of the Scriptures; also that Asenath, a daughter 
 one of the priests of On was married to Joseph, the sor 
 of Jacob. 
 
 Our extracts are necessarily brief, and simply intended 
 to prove the trustworthiness of the quotations already 
 made. 
 
 In the fifteenth chapter it is written: 
 
 'The praise of Athom* when he sets from the land of 
 life, saith the Osir,t 
 
 "Glory be to Athom, setting from the gate of life, 
 
 "When his colors glow in the western gate of the hori- 
 zon, 
 
 "Hail to thee setting from the land of life, 
 
 "Thou father of the Gods/' 
 
 Again, (chapter xvii, ) Adam is represented as saying: 
 
 "I am the great God, creating myself; 
 
 "I am the great Phoenix which is in On; 
 
 "I am the creator of beings and existences." 
 
 In another place it proclaims: 
 
 "Glory be to thee, O Sun; glory be to thee, O Athom, 
 
 "When thou goest down, perfect, crowned and glori- 
 rious." 
 
 Adam is also called "the old man whose palace is at 
 On/' the "God alone in the firmament/' "Father Athom/ 
 "Righteous Athom/' and much more. Probably were we 
 better versed in the mysteries of its hieroglyphics and 
 idioms, the translation of this wonderful testimony to the 
 belief of the ancients in the immortality of the soul, which 
 this ritual is, would be yet plainer and more instructive. 
 As it is, much of its imagery is very difficult for modern 
 minds to grasp. 
 
 From the Egyptians we will turn to the Persians, the 
 
 *The Egyptian form of the name Adam. 
 iThe deceased. 
 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 89 
 
 people next most likely to show traces in their religion of 
 the influence left by the preaching of the Gospel in patriar- 
 chal days. Mr. Hyde, in his "Religion of the Ancient 
 Persians/' points out how that Magianism, as set forth in 
 its sacred books, taught that the human race sprang from 
 a single pair; that it bore testimony to the occurrence of 
 the flood; that it mentions Noah and his sons; that as far as 
 Abraham is concerned, it declares him to have been its 
 own author; and that it makes mention also of Moses. 
 Moreover, it contains predictions respecting the appearance 
 on earth of a Savior, who would ultimately overthrow 
 the kingdom of darkness and make supreme and universal 
 the kingdom of light and of God. It also taught the 
 existence of good and of bad angels, also a resurrection of 
 the dead. 
 
 The religions of ancient Greece and Rome were, to a 
 very great extent, originally drawn from those of Egypt, 
 Persia and Phoenicia. Many traces of Gospel principles 
 can be found in them, hidden concealed under the mass of 
 filth and abomination that in later ages disgraced the 
 religions of the kingdoms of brass and iron. Still, in all 
 these nations it is admitted that "so far from atheism and 
 godless irreligion being the rule, belief in the Divine, how- 
 ever mistaken, and worship of the Divine, however super- 
 stitious, everywhere prevailed/' With regard to special 
 Gospel ideas prevailing in all these nations, it has been re- 
 marked that "baptism was as completely a portion of the 
 primeval ceremonial worship as was the tenet of immortali- 
 ty and resurrection a portion of the primeval creed/' It 
 is also noticeable that all the Greek schools of philosophy 
 taught the doctrine of the eternity of matter, and not only 
 had these races a knowledge of things that occurred in 
 antediluvian days, but in their different, absurd ways they 
 recounted the historv of the war in heaven when Lucifer 
 
90 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 was cast out. Those curious on this point can read their 
 accounts of the war between the Titians and Heaven, and 
 of the giants against Jupiter. 
 
 Late discoveries at Nineveh have demonstrated that 
 the Chaldeans had also a very distinct tradition of this 
 pre-Adamite war, as many particulars relating thereto 
 have been found transcribed on the earthen tiles exhumed 
 from the mounds where that once mighty city is supposed 
 to have stood. These tablets having been translated by 
 Mr. Geo. Smith, of the British Museum, prove to be an 
 account of the war in heaven before the creation of this 
 earth, of the fall of man, of the flood, the building of the 
 tower of Babel, etc. The similarity between the state- 
 ments on these cuneiform records and the Bible account of 
 the same events is very remarkable and interesting, while 
 at the same time they prove how widespread in ancient 
 times was the knowledge of God's dealings with humanity. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Ancient Pagan Mysteries.— Their History and 
 Intent.— The Circular Plate in the Book of 
 Abraham.— Its Purport and Use. 
 
 We now turn to another interesting feature of this 
 phase of the subject. 
 
 In the explanation given by the Prophet Joseph of the 
 disc or circular cut accompanying the Book of Abraham, he 
 states: "Fig. 3 is made to represent God sitting upon his 
 throne, clothed with power and authority, with a crown oi 
 eternal light upon his head, representing, also, the grand 
 key words of the holy priesthood, as revealed to Adam in 
 the Garden of Eden, as also to Seth, Noah, Melchisedek.. 
 Abraham, and all to whom the priesthood was revealed/' 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 91 
 
 Fig. 7 also contains "the grand key words of the Priest- 
 hood/' God having delivered these powers of the heaven- 
 ly kingdom to "all to whom the priesthood was revealed/' 
 until Abraham's day, it would be but natural to suppose 
 that as men gradually departed from the truth they would 
 still endeavor to retain these sacred trusts in their midst; 
 and however much they might depart from the purity of 
 the faith proclaimed and practised by the ancient patri- 
 archs they would still strive to perpetuate the knowledge 
 these "keys" conveyed, that they might have a claim on 
 the blessings of the world to come. It is so natural to 
 [humanity to claim the blessings of God's word long after 
 they have ceased to regard its obligations. 
 
 The fact of these things appearing in the Book of 
 Abraham, written in hieroglyphics, renders it very sup- 
 posable that at one time the import of these revelations 
 was comprehended by those among the Egyptians who 
 received the teachings of Abraham; and so far as Jewish 
 tradition is concerned, it is full of references to these mat- 
 ters, though these latter, perhaps, more directly centre in 
 the rites of the temples of Jerusalem. It is our province 
 to show that the recollection of these things was sought to 
 be perpetuated amongst the heathen — originating, as 
 usual, in Egypt long after the greater portion of that which 
 was pure and holy in the principles with which these things 
 had been associated, by the ministers of the word of Jeho- 
 vah, was lost sight of in the teachings and practices of 
 these gentile nations. To do this we must call attention to 
 the so-called secret "mysteries" of the ancients, which, 
 to us, seem clearly, in their origin, to have been attempts to 
 imitate the administrations of the holy priesthood, in the 
 sacred rites appertaining to the fulness of the Gospel. 
 In the investigation of this point we are greatly indebted 
 to M. Faber's researches into the "Mysteries of the Cabiri," 
 
92 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 and to other authors who have enlarged upon his researches. 
 According to one of the gentlemen above referred to, 
 "some of these mysteries were expressly instituted, as 
 there is good reason to believe, to preserve in rememberance 
 the remains of pure primeval faith and worship." Another 
 states, "every ancient people possessed its mysteries, 
 which had for their object to uphold the religious truths 
 that animate the hope of immortality, or in which were 
 observed rites intended to explain and enforce the conduct 
 suitable to those who cherished and wished to realize that 
 hope/' What took place in the administration of these 
 mysteries is very difficult for the inquirer to discover, for 
 they were "conducted in secret, and those who were per- 
 mitted to take part in them were solemnly obliged not to 
 divulge what they had seen and learned/' the word mystery 
 itself being derived from a Greek word signifying to "shut 
 the lips/' However, from what can be learned it is be- 
 lieved that the initiated were "powerfully appealed to by 
 scenic or other modes of representing the condition of 
 the good and bad." According to a writer in the American 
 Cyclopaedia, "they consisted, in general, of rites of puri- 
 fication and expiation, of sacrifices and processions, of 
 ecstatic or orgiastic songs and dances, of nocturnal fes- 
 tivals fit to impress the imagination, and of spectacles 
 designed to excite the most diverse emotions, terror and 
 trust, and sorrow and joy, hope and despair. The celebra- 
 tion was chiefly by symbolical acts and spectacles, yet 
 sacred mystical words, formulas, fragments of liturgies or 
 hymns were also employed. There were likewise certain 
 objects with which occult meanings, that were imparted to 
 the initiated, were associated, or which were used in the 
 various ceremonies in the ascending scale of initiation. 
 The sacred phrases, concerning which silence was imposed, 
 were themselves symbolical legends, and probably not 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 93 
 
 statements of speculative truths." St. Croix, on this sub- 
 ject, writes: "The germ of the mysteries is lustration/' 
 (or purification by water) "and expiation. The doctrines 
 taught were the necessity of repentance and confession, 
 the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards 
 and punishments." The Sr. De Sacy adds, "certain rites 
 and symbols were secret, and these it was sacrilege to re- 
 veal." Baur states, "the fundamental idea of the mysteries 
 is that of a god who suffers and dies and afterwards tri- 
 umphs over death, and has a glorious resurrection." Re- 
 garding the Persian mysteries of Mythras, it has been 
 written: "The initiation was protracted and severe. The 
 neophyte was baptized, anointed on the forehead and re- 
 ceived bread and wine; a crown was placed on his head." 
 
 With regard to the preparation needed from those who 
 asked admission to these rites the very remarkable state- 
 ment is made: "It is quite undoubted respecting them, 
 that as a necessary condition to admission, and as an im- 
 portant part of initiation, two things were imperatively 
 necessary, namely a confession of sins, a promise of amend- 
 ment of life, followed by baptism in some form more or 
 less complete." Faber states "baptism continued to be 
 handed down in all the mysteries," whilst another writer 
 affirms that "continence, fasting and lustrations" were nec- 
 essary pre-requisites before the applicant could enter the 
 sacred doors. It is also a fact worthy of consideration that 
 in a list of forty-five sacred Greek words gathered by M. 
 Faber, there is scarcely one which does not resemble the 
 Hebrew term for the same or a similar object. 
 
 As the ages roll round these mysteries degenerated 
 into the most licentious orgies, where excesses of a disgrace- 
 ful character were so shamelessly practiced that in some 
 cases they fell under the ban of the law, though presumedly 
 a portion of the worship of the gods. As an example of 
 
94 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 this we will take the mysteries of Dionysus. These were ori- 
 ginally celebrated by women alone, in the temple of Diony- 
 sus. They were presided over by the wife of the Archon 
 king (Basilissa), assisted by fourteen priestesses, to whom 
 she took an oath that she was pure and unpolluted, and 
 with whom she offered mystic sacrifices for the welfare of the 
 city. When these mysteries were introduced into Rome, 
 they speedily degenerated into shameful immoralities; 
 men, as well as women were initiated; and such were the 
 crimes and excesses committed that they were at length 
 suppressed by a senatus consult, B. C. 186 (Livy, xxxix, 8 
 to 18). 
 
 It has been urged as an argument against the veracity 
 of the translation by the Prophet Joseph Smith, of the 
 circular cut or disc, but why, we cannot comprehend, that 
 numerous copies of it exist, scattered among the museums 
 of Europe. These copies have been found buried with 
 mummies in the same way as the one that fell into the 
 Prophet's hands. Instead of being an argument against 
 the truthfulness of the translation given by Joseph Smith, 
 we consider it a very strong one in its favor. For this 
 reason, Egyptologists acknowledge that some peculiar 
 potency was ascribed to it by the ancient Egyptians, 
 but their ideas are very vague as to in what that power 
 consisted. It was customary with the ancient inhabitants 
 of Egypt, to enshroud their dead in hieroglyphic wrappings, 
 on which various facts relating to the life of the deceased 
 were narrated. This writing was addressed to Osiris, the 
 chief lord of Amen ti, the land of the departed, and amongst 
 other things it stated that the acts of the Osir, the deceased, 
 had been scrutinized by the seven inquisitors appointed to 
 investigate the lives of men, and that he was found worthy 
 to pass by those who guarded the gates of the eternal 
 worlds, and partake of the blessings of the saved. Accom- 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 95 
 
 panying the mummy is also often found this sacred disc, or 
 hypociphilas, as the learned term it, which, if we mistake 
 not, was usually placed under or near the head of the 
 mummy. The translations given by the professedly 
 learned convey no idea why this was so placed, but the 
 revelation through our martyred Prophet, that it contains 
 the key words of the holy priesthood, at once makes the 
 reason plain. The Egyptians buried this disc cotaining 
 these sacred words with their dead, for very much the same 
 reason that the Saints bury their dead in the robes of the 
 holy priesthood. No doubt the true meaning of these key 
 words were soon lost from amongst the Egyptians, but 
 they knew enough to understand something of their value, 
 and as ages rolled on, their apostate priesthood doubtlessly 
 invented some myth to take their place. That these priests 
 did claim to hold such keys, is clearly shown in a photo- 
 graph in the Deseret Museum, of the walls of the Temple 
 at Karnac, on which the gods are represented, each holding 
 a key in his hand. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Chronology of the Ancients. — A Key to its 
 Mysteries. — The Antediluvian Monarchs. — Jose- 
 phus and Chinese Chronology. — Abraham on 
 Pharaoh's Throne. — He makes a Treaty Ending a 
 One Hundred Years' War. — Cheops. 
 
 In the seventh paragraph of the Book of Abraham we 
 find the following: "Now the first government of Egypt 
 was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, 
 the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the 
 government of Ham, which was patriarchal, Pharaoh being 
 
96 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his 
 people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to 
 imitate that order established by the fathers in the first 
 generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even 
 the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed 
 him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings 
 of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the priesthood/' 
 The next paragraph is as follows: "Now Pharaoh being of 
 that lineage by which he could not have the priesthood, 
 notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from 
 Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by 
 their idolatry; but I shall endeavor, hereafter, to delineate 
 the chronology, running back from myself to the beginning 
 of the creation, for the records have come into my hands, 
 which I hold unto this present time/' 
 
 We desire to draw attention to several ideas advanced 
 in the above quotations. 
 
 1st. That the early Egyptians were acquainted with 
 events that occurred before the flood. 
 
 2nd. That the antediluvian patriarchs reigned in 
 the midst of their descendants as kings. 
 
 3rd. That this form of government was the prevailing 
 one, in the days immediately succeeding the deluge. 
 
 4th. That the Egyptians established in their midst 
 an imitation or bogus priesthood, that rapidly carried the 
 people into idolatry. 
 
 5th. That Abraham, and probably many others, 
 possessed records running back to the beginning of time. 
 
 Modern research has amply vindicated the statements 
 of Abraham's record with regard to the condition of society 
 amongst the early dwellers on the banks of the Nile. Listen 
 to what Mr. Osborn states on this subject, and, though in 
 different wording, note how fully he bears out the patri- 
 arch's assertions. Mr. O. remarks in his "Religions of the 
 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 97 
 
 World/' that "Egyptian remains prove clearly that, while 
 to all appearance the first settlers in Egypt carried along 
 with them some germinal forms of very malignant religious 
 error, they carried with them, in addition to the mere 
 ancestral or genealogical and historical knowledge, a most 
 deep experimental knowledge and conviction of the reality 
 of divine being and agency, and a knowledge also of that 
 form in which, from the time of the Fall, the revelation of 
 the most important elements of religion appears to have 
 been imparted to mankind." 
 
 We shall not attempt to establish the ideas from the 
 Book of Abraham, above noticed, in the order in which 
 they are placed, but before leaving this branch of the sub- 
 ject, we believe that we shall be able to adduce sufficient 
 evidence to convince all who are willing to learn the truth, 
 that Abraham's statements as given by the Prophet Joseph 
 are historically correct. 
 
 The fact of Abraham coming in possession of certain 
 genealogical records may seem somewhat incredible to 
 those who have not studied the subject. Many are too 
 apt to consider the people of those early ages as but one 
 step removed from barbarians, being, if we sense their 
 idea correctly, very much on a par with the modern Tartar 
 or Bedouin Arab; and the thought of such a people possess- 
 ing a literature seems to be inconceivable to the minds of 
 many otherwise intelligent people. But have such ever 
 noticed that the Bible, in one of its very first chapters, 
 actually speaks of "the book of generations of Adam/' 
 (Genesis v. 1,) and it is from that book apparently that 
 Moses' genealogical record of the antediluvians was trans- 
 scribed. In confirmation of the existence of such a book, 
 Josephus states that those who lived before the flood 
 "noted down, with great accuracy, both the births and 
 deaths of illustrious men," (Josephus, book 1, chap. 3, ) 
 

 98 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 which record would undoubtedly be preserved among the 
 royal archives, and as such, being deemed of the utmost 
 value as giving the genealogy of the kings, be saved by 
 Noah in the ark, he, according to Abraham and Josephus, 
 also being the reigning soverreign at the time of the deluge. 
 Josephus specifically states that "that calamity happened 
 in the six hundredth year of Noah's government/' (Jose- 
 phus, book 1, chap. 3.) In fact Josephus gives a list of the 
 antediluvian monarchs, or patriarchs, as they are termed 
 in the Bible, but the fact that he recognized them as the 
 sovereigns of the antediluvian world is very strong cor- 
 roborative testimony of the statement of Abraham that 
 Adam and Noah reigned as kings over their fellow men. 
 The following is Josephus' statement with regard to this 
 matter: (Josephus, book 1, chap. 3.) 
 
 "Seth was born when Adam was in his 230th year, who 
 lived 930 years. Seth begat Enoch in his 205th year, 
 who, when he lived 912 years, delivered the government to 
 Canaan, his son, whom he had at his 119th year. He 
 lived 905 years. Canaan, when he had lived 910 years, 
 had his son Malalaleel, who was born in his 170th year. 
 This Mahalaleel, having lived 895 years, died, leaving his 
 son Jared, whom he begat when he was at his 165th year. 
 He lived 962 years and then his son Enoch succeeded him, 
 who was born when his father was 162 years old. Now he, 
 when he had lived 365 years, departed and went to God, 
 whence it is that they have not w T ritten down his death. 
 Now Methuselah, the son of Enoch, who was born to him 
 when he was 165 years old, had Lamech for his son, when he 
 was 187 years of age, to whom he delivered the government 
 when he had retained it 969 years. Now Lamech, when he 
 had governed 777 years, appointed Noah, his son, to 
 be the ruler of the people, who was born to Lamech when 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 99 
 
 he was 182 years old, and retained the government 950 
 years/' 
 
 We here draw attention to a somewhat remarkable 
 coincidence. It is that the length of the reigns of these 
 patriarchs, as given by Josephus, agrees, with one excep- 
 tion, we believe, with the length of their lives according to 
 Bible chronology, but what makes this feature more re- 
 markable is that Josephus does exactly the same thing as 
 the Chinese do in their antediluvian chronology. "The 
 Chinese account speaks of ten dynasties of superior beings, 
 who ruled in their country 1,000 years each before the sky 
 fell on the earth (i. e. the flood). It is not hard to see that 
 this is only a different and a singular manner of relating 
 the same facts. * * * Moses informs us that each of these 
 ten generations did extend near a thousand years, but he 
 let us know that a son and his father walked much of their 
 earthly race together. The journey of each was long, but 
 it was a simultaneous travel/'* 
 
 Now, we think that the statement of Abraham turns a 
 key by which a flood of light is thrown on the early history 
 of the first nations that came into being after the flood, for 
 instance, the Egyptians, the Chaldean, and the Chinese. 
 Scientists and religionists have been wrangling for scores of 
 years with regard to the chronology of these nations, both 
 parties, as a rule, seeming to take it for granted that these 
 chronological records should stop at the flood, presumedly 
 for the reason that all mankind but one family of eight were 
 then destroyed. As there is incontrovertible evidence that 
 the ancients were acquainted with facts and events relating 
 to the earth and the heavens long anterior to the generally 
 accepted date of the deluge, skeptics have loudly expressed 
 their doubts as to the flood having occurred at all. But 
 
 ♦Nelson's "Infidelity, its Cause and Cure." 
 
100 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 when we take into consideration the fact that those who 
 were saved were the royal family — the king and queen, with 
 their three sons and the princesses, their wives — and that 
 this king (Noah) ruled after as well as before the flood, it 
 remains no longer a wonder how these nations traced their 
 existence to years long anterior to that dire calamity. To 
 them it was a terrible disaster in the history of their nation, 
 nothing more; there was no break in the royal descent, the 
 same king reigned before and after it took place, the same 
 d3 r nasty remained in power, his son succeeded to the throne; 
 the royal records were preserved, and the Egyptians, the 
 Chaldeans, and the Chinese alike with natural national 
 pride all claimed the sovereigns who ruled from Adam to 
 Noah as the kings of their peculiar nation. Their records 
 were like three converging lines, centering at Noah, and 
 from him continuing backward in one and the same straight 
 line to Adam. To illustrate: let us suppose a case. We will 
 imagine that a vast desolation sweeps over the empire of 
 Germany. The king and the three princes, with their 
 families, alone are saved from its fatal horrors. By and by, 
 these three princes establish thrones of their own, say, one 
 in Prussia, one in Pomerania, and one in Hanover. Would 
 the national historians of future ages, when these three 
 kingdoms had become great and populous, stop in their 
 respective national histories at the date that this over- 
 whelming catastrophe occurred? Would it not be much more 
 reasonable to conclude that they would accumulate the 
 histories of this and former epochs and continue their 
 accounts through this calamity to the earliest days their 
 records would reach. We think so, and in this way we dis- 
 cover an easy and reasonable solution to the difficulties 
 that beset Chinese and Egyptian chronology, and are able 
 to account for the interminable lists of kings that grace 
 their annals. In fact, so far as Egypt is concerned, it had 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 101 
 
 no consecutive chronology. This truth is now admitted 
 by the most learned in that branch of science. But they 
 undoubtedly carried their records, in a jumbled up way, 
 back beyond the flood, (probably obtaining some informa- 
 tion thereon from the records in the possession of Abraham, ) 
 and in postdiluvian days they, in vanity, inserted the names 
 of scores of princes who reigned contemporaneously in 
 various parts of the Valley of the Nile. Admit these two 
 facts, and the solution is found to the mysteries of Egyptian 
 chronology, what they had of it. Again, why should we 
 permit the descendants of Shem, as in the case of the He- 
 brews, to monopolize their antediluvian progenitors. 
 These men were the fathers of all mankind, and all had 
 equal right to claim them as their own v 
 
 Considerable ridicule has been needlessly expended on 
 the statement that the sitting figure in Plate III, of the 
 Book of Abraham, represents that patriarch "sitting upon 
 Pharaoh's throne by the politeness of the king/' It has 
 been scoffed at as an idea entirely too silly to be met with 
 calm argument. To imagine that the great and mighty 
 ruler of Egypt would invite an "Arab Sheik/' at best a 
 shepherd prince, to sit upon his throne, was altogether too 
 absurd for a moment's serious consideration; such ex- 
 traordinary condescension would shame a Chesterfield. 
 But we all know that it is often as easy to ridicule as it is 
 difficult to disprove; so we will let the scoffer jest, whilst we 
 bring forward our "strong reasons" for believing this, as 
 well as all other portions of Abraham's divinely inspired 
 record. Josephus writes (Antiquites, book 1, chap. viii. ) 
 that when Pharaoh discovered that the woman, Sarah, 
 whom he desired to take into his household, was the wife of 
 Abraham, he made, as an excuse for his action, that be- 
 lieving her to be the patriarch's sister he wished to marry 
 her, from his desire to be related to so distinguished a per- 
 
102 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 sonage as Abraham. This could not be irony; Pharaoh 
 was not in a condition to be ironical with his guest. It 
 must have been an excuse that bore upon its face the 
 probability of truth, and one that would be accepted as 
 genuine by the powerful visitor from Canaan. Had it been 
 otherwise, it would have been adding insult to injury, and 
 instead of Abraham remaining in Egypt to become a 
 teacher to its people, we should probably learn that in 
 anger he returned to his own land. Then, accepting Pha- 
 raoh's own statement to be true, is it difficult to believe 
 that he who wished to be so nearly allied to Abraham, 
 would, in the fulness of Eastern politeness, think it any 
 too great a condescension to ask him to sit upon his throne, 
 whilst he explained to him and to his court the wonders 
 of the numberless creations of God? 
 
 Nor is this all; we have yet other testimony of how 
 powerful a man was Abraham amongst the children of the 
 Nile. Our readers will probably recollect that we have 
 already drawn attention to a statement of Josephus, 
 that at the time the patriarch visited Egypt, the people of 
 that country despised each other's sacred rites, and were 
 very angry one with another on that account; further, that 
 Abraham proved to them that their various reasonings 
 were vain and void of truth. Modern research has shown 
 that Abraham did more than this. It appears that some- 
 what more than one hundred years before Abraham's ad- 
 vent into Egypt, one of its monarchs — Mencheres — at- 
 tempted to establish the worship of Osiris over all Egypt. 
 As a result, a great religious war ensued, which continued 
 for a century. The history of the country at this time be- 
 comes involved and obscure in the highest degree, but one 
 fact is absolutely certain, and that is, that this civil war 
 was fierce, long continued and with varying success. A 
 late British historical text book states that in the vear 
 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 103 
 
 1984 B. C. (according to the best chronology, which is, 
 however far from satisfactory ) * Abraham visited and aided 
 Achthoes [Pharaoh] in forming a treaty with his rival to 
 terminate the religious war. Then, if it be true that Abra- 
 ham was so great a power in his day that by his aid a civil 
 war of one hundred years' duration was brought to an 
 amicable close, is there anything incongruous in the idea 
 that he, by politeness, sat upon the throne of the ruler to 
 whom he had been of so great service? 
 
 About this time, as near as can be told, a great change 
 was effected in the religion of the Egyptians, which we 
 ascribe to the preaching, in their midst, of the Gospel, by 
 the Father of the Faithful. It appears from Herodotus, 
 that according to the story of the idolatrous Egyptian 
 priests of his day, that when Cheops ascended the throne he 
 "closed the temples of the false gods, and prohibited their 
 sacrifices." t Cheops is said to have reigned fifty years, 
 and was succeeded by his brother Chepren, who also kept 
 the temples closed. In the succeeding reign the temples 
 were again opened, and the people returned to their old 
 modes of worship. So hated were these two sovereigns by 
 the heathen dwellers by the Nile, of later years, that Hero- 
 dotus states that they would not even mention their names. 
 Mr. John Taylor, author of "The Great Pyramid; why 
 was it built and who built it?" from various evidences 
 brought to his notice, infers that these kings "might have 
 been pre-eminently good, or were at all events of different 
 religious faith" from those who told the story to Herodotus. 
 Putting the various facts before stated together, that 
 Abraham taught holy principles to the Egyptians, that his 
 teachings so wrought upon them that they brought to a 
 close a civil war of one hundred vears' duration, and that 
 
 *Facts and Dates by Rev. A. Mackay, Edinburgh, 1870. 
 f Hartcourt's Doctrines of the Deluge. 
 
104 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 near this time the idolatrous temples were closed, all form- 
 ing parts of one harmonious whole, we are irresistibly drawn 
 to the conclusion that these changes were brought about by 
 the proclamation of the Gospel; more especially are we led 
 thereto by the hatred shown to the kings who accepted this 
 message and carried out these reforms, by the worshipers 
 of Osiris in succeeding generations. It so much resembles 
 the course pursued by others in like circumstances in other 
 lands and at other times. Cheops is usually credited with 
 being the builder of the great pyramid, and to that mighty 
 structure we shall by and by appeal for testimony to prove 
 that whoever its builders were, they were acquainted with 
 the sublime system of astronomy revealed by Jehovah to 
 Abraham, with instructions to teach it to the Egyptians. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Means by which Abraham was Taught Astrono- 
 my. — The Abrahamic System of Astronomy. — 
 From the Earth to Kolob.— The System Proven 
 True by Recent Research. — Testimony of Various 
 Authors. — Alcyone. — Mr. Petrie's Testimony. — 
 Admissions that the Ancients were Taught 
 Scientific Truths by Divine Revelation. 
 
 Abraham tells us that there were three ways by which he 
 received his knowledge of astronomy. 
 
 1st. Through the records handed down to him from 
 antediluvian patriarchs. 
 
 2nd. By the use of the Urim and Thummim, which 
 he received from the Lord in Ur of Chaldea. 
 
 3rd. By direct communication with the Almighty, 
 who, face to face, and with His own voice, explained to 
 him the laws that govern His countless creations. 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 105 
 
 The system of astronomy revealed by God to Abraham 
 is so vast, so grand, so comprehensive, that no uninspired 
 man ever searched out its depths or ascended its heights. 
 Occasionally a patient searcher after truth caught a faint 
 glimmer of its glory, but that was all. But they had not 
 learned as Abraham learned, nor did the profoundest as- 
 tronomers of forty years ago have aught but the most 
 meagre and vain conception of the truths given to the world 
 by Joseph Smith in his inspired translation of Abraham's 
 record. Indeed, the truths there set forth are, to-day, 
 scarcely recognized by the more conservative schools of 
 astronomy; it is only the more daring minds that accept 
 them, even in part. 
 
 The great truths told by Abraham regarding the starry 
 hosts of heaven are recorded thus: "I saw the stars that 
 they were very great, and that one of them was nearest 
 unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones 
 that were near it: and the Lord said unto me, These are the 
 governing ones: and the name of the great one is Kolob, 
 because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God; 
 I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the 
 same order of that upon which thou standest. And the 
 Lord said unto me, by the Urim and Thummim, that Kolob 
 was after the manner of the Lord, according to its times and 
 seasons in the revolution thereof, that one revolution was a 
 day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning, it being 
 one thousand years according to the time appointed unto 
 that whereon thou standest. This is the reckoning of the 
 Lord's time, according to the reckoning of Kolob/' 
 
 In other words these great, governing planets control 
 all others in their revolutions, or are the centres around 
 which the others revolve. As the moon revolves around the 
 earth, and the earth with the other primary and secondary 
 planets belonging to this solar system revolve around the 
 
106 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 the sun, so has the sun a centre around which it, with all 
 its earths and moons, revolves, while this grand centre has 
 a governing planet also, a sun or world round which it, 
 w 7 ith its attendant systems of suns and worlds, revolves, and 
 so on until we come to Kolob, the "nearest to the celestial 
 or the residence of God/' which is the grand centre which 
 governs all the suns and systems of suns "which belong 
 to the same order" as our earth and those that move with it. 
 
 Still further than this the Book of Abraham teaches us: 
 
 1st. That Kolob is the greatest of all the stars seen 
 by that patriarch. 
 
 That it is so because it is nearest to the celestial, or 
 residence of God. 
 
 That it is nigh unto the throne of God. 
 
 That it governs all the planets which belong to the 
 same order as this earth. 
 
 That it is after the reckoning of the Lord's time. 
 
 That it is after the manner of the Lord according to its 
 times and seasons and the revolutions thereof. 
 
 That one revolution is a day unto the Lord. 
 
 That one day, in Kolob, is equal to a thousand years, 
 according to the measurement of this earth. 
 
 That Kolob signifies first creation. 
 
 That it is the first in government, and last pertaining to 
 the measurement of time. The measurement according to 
 celestial time; which celestial time signifies one day to a 
 cubit. 
 
 2nd. That Oliblish stands next to Kolob. 
 
 That it is the next grand governing creation. 
 
 That it is equal to Kolob in its revolution and in its 
 measurement of time. 
 
 That it holds the key of power as pertaining to other 
 planets. 
 
 3rd. That Enish-go-on-dosh is also a governing planet, 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 107 
 
 which was said, by the ancient Egyptians, to be the sun, 
 and to borrow (receive) its light from Kolob through the 
 medium of Kae-e-vanrash. 
 
 4th. That Kae-e-vanrash is the grand key, or govern- 
 ing power, which governs fifteen other fixed planets or 
 stars, as also the moon (Floeese), the earth and the sun in 
 their annual revolutions. That Kae-e-vanrash receives its 
 power through Kli-flos-is-es or Hah-ko-kau-beam. 
 
 5th. Kli-flos-is-es and 
 
 6th. Hah-ko-kau-beam receive their light from the 
 revolutions of Kolob. 
 
 To summarize: That this solar system is governed by 
 Kae-e-vanrash, which is governed by Kli-flos-is-es or Hah- 
 ko-kau-beam, which are governed by Kolob. Whether 
 Oliblish belongs to the same order of systems as this earth, 
 or simply holds the keys of power pertaining to other plan- 
 ets, is not so apparent. 
 
 When Joseph Smith enunciated the sublime truths 
 above noticed, no such thoughts were prevalent amongst 
 the students of astronomy. The Herschels had some inkling 
 of the facts, but their ideas were crude and undeveloped. 
 It was not until the Book of Abraham had been published 
 in America, and if we mistake not in England also, that Sir 
 Wm. G. Hamilton, of the Dublin University, advanced the 
 idea that our solar system had a centre around which the 
 sun and all its attendant planets moved. To-day the 
 scholars in the most radical school of astronomy will only 
 admit that our system has a centre, and that the proba- 
 bilities are that that centre has a centre also round which it 
 and all its satellites move. Further than this they cannot 
 go. However, the little they do admit, confirms the mighty 
 truths revealed to Abraham of old and Joseph of to-day. 
 On the other hand, the followers of the more conservative 
 schools will simply acknowledge that our solar system has 
 
108 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 a proper motion of its own, independent of its relative or 
 apparent motion with regard to other stars. They admit 
 that "relative to the general mass of stars, our sun is moving 
 in the direction of the constellation of Hercules/' They 
 have come to this conclusion because they find that the 
 stars in that part of the heavens are continually growing 
 brighter, (thus showing they are coming nearer,) whilst 
 those in exactly the opposite direction are as continually 
 growing more dim. They have also discovered that "there 
 are in the heavens several cases of widely extended groups 
 of stars, having a common proper motion entirely differ- 
 ent from that of the stars around and among them. Such 
 groups they say "must form connected systems,"* or in 
 other words, are all controled by one and the same govern- 
 ing planet. It is also admitted that "the stars in all parts 
 of the heavens move in all directions with all sorts of 
 velocities ^ but they claim that the distances of the stars 
 from the earth are so immense, and so short a period of 
 time has elapsed since they first began to notice these 
 movements, that cannot with certainty say whether they 
 are moving in circles or straight lines, it is only by analogy 
 that they reason that they are moving around a centre. 
 So little are some of these observers willing to admit, that 
 Prof. Newcomb simply allows that "as our sun is merely 
 one of the stars, and rather a small one too, it may have a 
 proper motion as well as other stars." The Smithsonian 
 report for 1871, speaking of Herschel, says: "The world 
 can afford to wait. Astronomy advances. It may be, in 
 the distant future, that the mysterious centre around which 
 our sun and his worlds revolve, may be detected and afford 
 a solution for other mysteries as well as these. The great- 
 
 *"Popular Astronomy, 1878," by Professor S. Newcomb, of the United States 
 
 Naval Observatory, 
 flbid. 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 109 
 
 est astronomer is equipped for no more than a Sabbath-day's 
 journey/' Another writer remarks, "Madler attempted to 
 show from an examination of the proper motions of the 
 stars, that the whole stellar universe was revolving around 
 Alcyone, of the Pleiades (or 'seven stars') as a centre — 
 a theory, the grandeur of which led to its wide diffusion in 
 popular writing." Mr. Wm. Petrie, of London, writing 
 with regard to this same star says: "Alcyone, a primeval 
 name of the star, means the centre, and has quite recently 
 been discovered to be really the centre around which even 
 our whole solar system, amongst others, revolves." 
 
 Short as is this last quotation, it testifies to three 
 things confirmatory of the divine inspiration that gave to 
 the world the Book of Abraham. 
 
 1st. That this solar system has a central or governing 
 sun or planet. 
 
 2nd. That this fact was known to the ancients, who 
 gave to this particular star the name of the centre. 
 
 3rd. That in modern times this truth has only been 
 "quite recently discovered." That is to say, Joseph Smith 
 could not have learned it from living men or modern books, 
 but only through the revelations of God. 
 
 And here let us observe that the word planet, as given 
 by Joseph Smith to the suns, in common parlance called 
 fixed stars, is scientifically correct, as a planet is a world 
 that moves or wanders through space, and the common 
 nomenclature of fixed stars is untruthful and scientifically 
 incorrect, as none are absolutely at a standstill or fixed 
 immovably in one place. 
 
 Elders Joseph L. Barfoot affords us the following ad 
 ditional particulars with regard to the revolution of th 
 solar system around Alcyone. He states: "The enti 
 march of our sun and its system around its centre is 25,8 
 years. (The period of the precession of the equinoxes. ) 
 
110 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 believe this to be the period of the solar orbit, and that 
 there is some relation to this period and the sacred cubit 
 (25.025) which may yet be discovered. The change of 
 50. 1" per annum in the appearance of the stars as seen from 
 earth results from the orbital motion around Kolob or 
 some other large body. This would be a degree in seventy- 
 two years. Of course the orbit would be immense; the Lord 
 evidently gave the Prophet Joseph an insight into the order 
 of this grand eternal round, which I think is really pictured 
 in the Hypocephalus. 
 
 "The earth rotates on its axis, and moves in its orbit 
 by the power imparted to its mass by the solar forces, -..the 
 deflective force from the line of the sun's motion, produced 
 by the sun's rotation on its axis, and its progression around 
 the centre of momentum of the system to which it belongs. 
 And, since neither the earth, nor any other body of matter, 
 has power without motion, so, in the sun's great power, we 
 have evidence of its great progressive motion. The rotation 
 of the sun of more than 6,500 feet per second would demand 
 a velocity of progression of over 26,000 feet per second. 
 Herschel, by observation, was led to conclude that 'the 
 sun somehow moved towards Hercules with the velocity of 
 earth, or 100,000 feet per second/ and to infer that the 
 sun actually describes 'a great orbit around some undis- 
 criminated centre/ Sir R. Philips analogically estimated 
 the size of this orbit, and announced that with equal cen- 
 tripetal and centrifugal force, it would require an orbit of 
 162,865 millions of miles, performed in exactly 25,868 years, 
 the period of the precession of the equinoxes. 
 
 "And as the earth and the other planets of this system 
 rotate by reason of the central solar motion, and turn on 
 their axis by being deflected from a right line in their re- 
 spective orbits, Philips has shown that the sun and all 
 other planets rotate, as a result of the operation of the 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. Ill 
 
 same law of motion, and the fact that its satellites move in 
 elliptical (eggshaped, to be exact) orbits shows that the 
 solar centre is advancing. 
 
 "That this earth is part of a system that suffers no 
 permanent change, is seen in the unvarying order of the 
 eclipses, which return in periods of eighteen years and eleven 
 days, if there are four leap years, and in eighteen years and 
 ten days, if there are five leap years in the period. And 
 although astronomy does not yet recognize the different 
 orders of planets alluded to in the Book of Abraham, the 
 teachings of science are all tending to show that there are 
 great governing, central forces and periodic cycles/' 
 
 Having thus shown that present research and investi- 
 gation are proving the astronomical truths first given to 
 this generation by that unlearned but heaven-inspired man, 
 the Prophet Joseph Smith, we have next to show that the 
 Egyptians were familiar with them, and that they learned 
 them through the teachings of Abraham. To have done 
 this some fifteen or twenty years ago would have been 
 next to an impossibility; but to-day, through the researches 
 of various talented and earnest men it can be demonstrated 
 with comparative ease. 
 
 But before we attempt to prove that Abraham was 
 actually the instrument used of God to instruct the Egyp- 
 tians in the mysteries of the starry worlds, we will present a 
 few extracts, from various writers, to manifest that even 
 the scientific world is beginning to admit that the Egyptians 
 obtained their knowledge of astronomy through divine 
 agency or revelation, as it was entirely out of their power in 
 those early postdiluvian days to make such stupendous 
 advances in this science with the instruments and learning 
 then at their disposal, without they received such aid from 
 records, etc., of antediluvian times. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Mackay, referring to some of the astronomical 
 
112 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 truths known to the ancient inhabitants of the land of the 
 Pharaohs, states that he believes they were "revealed to 
 man, ages and generations before science had any existence/' 
 and strange to say, the truths to which this gentleman 
 refers have a direct relation to those contained in the 
 Book of Abraham. Mr. Wm. Osborn, in a sketch of the 
 history of ancient Egypt, remarks: "According to Moses, 
 moreover, the age that produced by far the most remarkable 
 of those monuments (the pyramids) was one in which the 
 Almighty had frequent and familiar intercourse with man, 
 as in the case of the patriarchs, Abraham, Melchizedek and 
 Job; while the monument itself evinces innumerable evi- 
 dences of a knowledge and wisdom to which unaided hu- 
 manity has nowhere ever attained/' 
 
 Rev. Air. Goodsir, from the demonstration of facts akin 
 to the foregoing, remarks: "The conclusion that some men 
 in primeval times w T ere taught by God, for important 
 religious and moral purposes, scientific truths which modern 
 men of science are only now discovering, is maintained on 
 the strength of two lines of evidence — first, the freedom of 
 scripture rightly interpreted from scientific error, and from 
 the religious and moral errors witnessed among the pagans 
 as the result of ignorance and errors in science; and second, 
 the possesson by primeval man of such scientific knowledge 
 as we are only now reaching, as demonstrated by the great 
 pyramid. Certain things render it extremely probable that 
 this knowledge was imparted to the Ethnics [the gentiles] 
 (who employed it in constructing the great pyramid) 
 by servants of God, whom He had taught; and though ulti- 
 mately corrupted and obscured by the pagans, still it is 
 highly probable that, evincing its truth even from the midst 
 [of enveloping error, this scientific knowledge continued to 
 stimulate the Egyptian, and afterwards the Greek, mind 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 113 
 
 to scientific inquiry. * * * For as there is the clearest 
 evidence that a revelation of religious truth existed in 
 primeval times, and continued to benefit men, even when it 
 became more or less corrupted, so is there as clear evidence 
 that men were primevally instructed in the most important 
 cosmologic and scientific truths. * * * The extreme 
 probability is that a true scientific conception of the Kosmos 
 in general would be at first conveyed to man directly by 
 God, to guard his intelligent and highly-favored child 
 from nature worship/' 
 
 That God did use Abraham, as stated in his book to 
 convey astronomical knowledge to the Egyptians, is, we 
 think, fully demonstrated by the following: Josephus 
 (book 1, chapter viii, ) states that Abraham "communicated 
 to them (the Egyptians) arithmetic, and delivered to 
 them the science of astronomy, for before Abraham came 
 into Egypt they were unacquainted with those parts of 
 learning, for that science came by the Chaldeans into Egypt, 
 and from them to the Greeks also/' 
 
 This is very strong corroborative testimony, but modern 
 research actually claims to have discovered the year in 
 which Abraham did this. The British text book already 
 referred to, entitled "Facts and Dates/' published in 1870 
 by the well-known firm of Wm. Blackwood & Sons, of 
 Edinburgh (we are particular in giving details, to show 
 that it proceeds from a reliable and highly respectable 
 firm), in its history of ancient Egypt, gives the following: 
 
 "B. C. 1980. Abraham teaches the king of Egypt the 
 true chronology, after which the inscriptions bear the 
 name of the year and month." 
 
 So far as the actual years is concerned, we deem it a 
 matter of minor importance, so that the fact is acknowl- 
 edged, and the truth of modern revelation vindicated. 
 
114 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 \braham as a Pyramid Builder.— Philition.— The 
 Uses of the Pyramids— The Coffer a Baptismal 
 Font.— Symbolism in Baptism for the Dead.— 
 The Sacred Cubit.— "One Day to a Cubit."— 
 Alcyone.— The Sun's Distance— Pyramid Ref- 
 erences to Astronomical Truths.— Summary of 
 Pyramid References. 
 
 The next task which we have assigned ourselves, is to 
 show from the ancient pyramid of Cheops that the true 
 system of astronomy, as taught by God to Abraham, was 
 known to those who raised this mighty structure. To 
 do this we desire to draw attention and consider separately 
 thiee points. 
 
 1st. The historical reasons we have for believing 
 that Abraham superintended the erection of this pyramid. 
 
 2nd. The reasons why this vast structure was built, 
 and the uses for which it was designed. 
 
 3rd. The direct evidences from the dimensions, form, 
 etc., of the pvramid of Cheops, that tend to prove that its 
 builders were acquainted with the laws that govern the 
 starry worlds. 
 
 The Pharaoh, or king of Egypt, who is generally re- 
 earded as the builder of the first pyramid, is known to 
 secular history by the name of Cheops. To him and his 
 actions in closins the idolatrous temples o< Egypt, we have 
 referred to a nrevious chapter as well as to the statement 
 of Herodotus * . toe Egyptians so detested his memory 
 that thev woui not even mention his name. Hence he 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 115 
 
 states, "they commonly called the pyramids after Philition,* 
 a shepherd, who at that time fed his flocks about the place/' 
 Remarking upon the above statement, Mr. Proctor, the 
 celebrated astronomer, writes: "The mention of the shep- 
 herd Philition, who fed his flocks about the place where the 
 great Pyramid was built, is a singular feature of Herodotus' 
 narrative. It reads like some strange misinterpretation of 
 the story related to him by the Egyptian priests. It is 
 obvious if the word Philition did not represent a people, 
 but a person, this person must have been very eminent 
 and distinguished — a shepherd king — not a mere shepherd. 
 Rawlinson suggests that Philitis was probably a shepherd 
 prince from Palestine, perhaps of Philistine descent. Prof. 
 Smyth comes to the conclusion that some Shemite prince, 
 'a contemporary of, but rather older than the patriarch 
 Abraham/ visited Egypt at this time and obtained such 
 influence over the mind of Cheops as to persuade him to 
 erect the pyramid. According to Smyth, the prince was 
 no other than Melchizedek, king of Salem, and the in- 
 fluence he exerted was supernatural. * * * It seems toler- 
 ably clear that certain shepherd chiefs who came into 
 Egypt during Cheops' reign were connected in some way 
 with the designing of the great pyramid. It is clear also 
 that they were men of a different religion from the Egyp- 
 tians, and persuaded Cheops to abandon the religion of 
 his people/' 
 
 If Josephus be correct, Professor Smyth's deductions 
 regarding Melchizedek are wrong, for the former says that 
 the Egyptians were taught astronomy by Abraham; with- 
 out Melchizedek followed Abraham into Egypt instead of 
 preceding him, which, though possible, we have no account 
 of in any of the sacred writings. 
 
 *It is worthy of note that the root of the name Philition of Philitis signifies a 
 lover of truth, a most appropriate name for Abraham. 
 
116 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 Mr. Proctor further writes: "In the first place, the 
 history of the pyramids shows that the erection of the first 
 great pyramid was in all probability either suggested to 
 Cheops by wise men who visited Egypt from the east, 
 or else some important information conveyed to him by 
 such visitors caused him to conceive the idea of building 
 the pyramid. In either case we may suppose, as the history 
 indeed suggests, that these learned men, whoever they 
 may have been, remained in Egypt to superintend the 
 erection of the structure. * * * The astronomical peculiari- 
 ties which form so significant a portion of the great pyramid 
 were probably provided for entirely under the direction 
 of the shepherd chiefs who had exerted so strange an in- 
 fluence upon the mind of king Cheops. * * * It is certain 
 in any case that they [the shepherd chiefs] were opposed 
 to idolatry; and we have thus some means of inferring 
 who they were or whence they came. We know that one 
 particular branch of one particular race in the east was 
 characterized by a most marked hatred of idolatry in all 
 its forms. * * * And the Bible record shows that members 
 of this Chaldean family visited Egypt from time to time. 
 They were shepherds too, which accords with the account 
 of Herodotus. * * * But having formed the opinion on 
 grounds sufficiently assured, that the strangers who visited 
 Egypt and superintended the building of the great pyramid 
 were kinsmen of the patriarch Abraham, it is not very 
 difficult to decide what was the subject respecting which 
 they had such exact information. They or their parents 
 had come from the land of the Chaldeans, and they were 
 doubtless learned in all the wisdom of their Chaldean 
 kinsmen. They were masters, in fact, of the astronomy of 
 their day, a science for which the Chaldeans had showTi, 
 from the earliest ages, the most remarkable aptitude. * * * 
 It is highly probable that the astronomical knowledge of 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 117 
 
 the Chaldeans in the days of Terah and Abraham was much 
 more accurate than that possessed by the Greeks in the 
 time of Hipparchus." Mr. Proctor ultimately comes to the 
 conclusion that "the stranger called Philition by Herodotus, 
 may, for aught that appears, have been Abraham himself/' 
 
 It is a matter of secondary moment, in this considera- 
 tion, whether Abraham himself or some other divinely in- 
 spired man, was the actual architect of the great pyramid; 
 it is sufficient to know, which it itself testifies, that whoever 
 that builder was, he was acquainted with the same grand 
 astronomical truths that the Book of Abraham states the 
 Lord revealed to that patriarch, and which, at the time 
 Joseph Smith translated the papyrus, w r ere unknown to 
 modern scientists. 
 
 Our next inquiries are, with regard to the causes or 
 reasons that led to the erection of the pyramids, and to the 
 purposes for which they were used. 
 
 Various theories have been advanced to these points. 
 Some have supposed that these vast structures were associ- 
 ated with the religious rites of the ancient Egyptians; others 
 have suggested that they combined the purposes of tombs 
 and temples; again, that they were astronomical observa- 
 tories; also that they had primarily astrological import. It 
 has also been argued that they were defences against the 
 sands of the great desert, or places of refuge during the ex- 
 cessive overflows of the Nile; the idea has also been ad- 
 vanced that they were granaries, somewhat after the man- 
 ner of those erected under the direction of Joseph, the 
 Israelite. 
 
 A very little reflection will manifest that some of the 
 suggestions are entirely untenable. Take for instance the 
 notion that they were granaries. If so, what a vast waste of 
 material, how entirely does their structure and form unsuit 
 them for such a purpose. As wise a people as their builders 
 
118 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 must have been would scarcely have constructed a mountain 
 of masonry, with two or three relatively small rooms there- 
 in, for such a purpose. There is some show of reason for 
 believing that some of them were tombs and temples com- 
 bined, but this will not hold good with regard to the pyra- 
 mid of Cheops. Nothing found therein has given the 
 least ground-work for the supposition that it was used for 
 sepulchral purposes. In what is called the king's chamber 
 was found an empty stone chest or coffer, without a lid; 
 but in form, ornament and material it is entirely different to 
 the usual sarcophagus used by the ancient Egyptians for 
 the reception of the embalmed dead. 
 
 Two of the reasons advanced above, as applied to the 
 pyramids of Cheops, are worthy of our consideration. 
 
 1st. That it was an astronomical observatory. 
 
 2nd. That it was associated with the religion of the 
 ancient Egyptians. 
 
 The reasons for believing it to have been built as an 
 observatory are cogent and numerous. There can be no 
 doubt that in many respects it was intended by its builders 
 to typify astronomical truths; evidence in proof of which 
 will be hereafter adduced. It has been suggested that the 
 granite coffee found in what is now called the king's cham- 
 ber (simply that it may have a distinctive name) was 
 filled, in whole or in part, as circumstances required, with 
 water, and that the face of the heavens was reflected there- 
 in, through the slanting passages that pointed directly to 
 the polar star. That this coffer was used as a receptacle for 
 water is highly probable, from the fact that a well tapping 
 the waters of the Nile is found in the pyramid.* In this 
 inner chamber, surrounded by this vast mass of masonry, 
 
 *The assertion that this well connected with the Nile, is denied by Prof. Smyth 
 and other explorers. 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM 119 
 
 removed as far as possible from the atmospheric and electric 
 perturbations existing on the earth's surface, it is argued 
 that using the water in the coffer as a mirror, the most 
 accurate observations could be taken that were then pos- 
 sible. This idea we deem untenable, as it appears to us 
 that the inclines and angels in the passages would render 
 such reflection next to impossible. According to certain 
 Arabian historians "there were placed in the pyramid divers 
 celestial spheres and stars, and what they severally operate 
 in their aspects, and the perfumes which are to be used to 
 them, and the books which treat of these matters." 
 
 The evidences that it was an edifice erected for sacred 
 purposes are not so strong as those that can be brought 
 forward in favor of its astronomical uses. We incline to 
 the opinion that it combined both purposes; but we are 
 scarcely willing to admit that if it was a temple, it was 
 erected by a believer in the faith that looked upon Osiris 
 and associate deities as the true Gods. The style oi this 
 vast structure and the temples erected by the followers of 
 that faith are the antipodes of each other. The perfect 
 purity of the pyramid from every idolatrous ornament 
 and reference as well as of all attempts to glorify the 
 wealth, might or wisdom of it? human builders, makes it 
 differ entirely, generically ant! radically from all ordinary 
 Egyptian temples, pictured from top to bottom with the 
 praises of their false gods. Besides, it is asserted, as before 
 shown that the man who built this pyramid shut up the 
 temples, a very inconsistent act, if he were a worshiper 
 at their shrines. We hold the opinion that if this pyramid 
 was used for religious purposes at all. it wa n connection 
 with the doctrines taught by Abraham, ami * the Lord 
 permitted the patriarch to preach to the Eg%i-ti*uis foai 
 principle of the Gospel know r n to us as baptism 'or . He 
 we can well imagine the use to which the coffer in th; j ag 
 
120 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 chamber was applied. Indeed, the idea that the coffer was 
 a baptismal font has been suggested by more than one 
 Gentile writer,* but if it w T ere used especially in the ordi- 
 nances for the salvation of those who had passed from this 
 sphere of action the symbolism would be almost perfect; 
 for we have here a font enshrined in the heart of an artificial 
 mountain, that could be reached only through a straight, 
 stony gate and by a long, narrow and mysterious passage. 
 How accurately these typify the valley of the shadow of 
 death, and the grave, and how perfect the imagery of going 
 into the heart of this solid mountain to act for those who 
 had been laid away in the sepulchre. There is one thing that 
 greatly strengthens the idea that if its uses were religious, 
 they were Abrahamic. It is that this very coffer is of the 
 exact capacity of the ark of the covenant of Moses's day, also 
 that an originally marked off portion of the chamber in 
 which the coffer stands is of the exact capacity of the brazen 
 sea, or baptismal font, in Solomon's Temple. Surely there 
 is something more than a mere coincidence in this. 
 
 We next desire to draw attention to some of the im- 
 portant truths relating to the earth and the heavens, re- 
 vealed by God to Abraham (as stated in part in his book), 
 of which the generality of mankind of that and every suc- 
 ceeding age have remained in ignorance, even to the day in 
 which we live, but with which the builders of the great 
 pyramid were evidently acquainted. Amongst these and 
 kindred truths, as manifested in the construction of this 
 vast artificial mountain, we may mention the law of plane- 
 tary and solar motion, the distance of the earth from its 
 centre — the sun, the exact size, shape and density of our 
 terraquous globe, the precise length of its solar orbit, as 
 also the value of the sacred cubit as the unit of measure- 
 
 *Bryant, Faber, Goodsir and I others. 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 121 
 
 ment. Writing on this subject, in a recent number of the 
 Juvenile Instructor, Elder Joseph L. Barfoot (Beth) re- 
 marks: "There has been a great deal of guess-work hereto- 
 fore about the use of the great pyramid at Geezah. The 
 prevailing opinion was that it had been intended for a tomb 
 for one of the ancient kings of Egypt. Discoveries have 
 recently been made which have led to the inference that it 
 had far more important uses, in fact that it was an ob- 
 servatory, built upon mathematical principles, and designed 
 to perpetuate, through all succeeding time, a correct knowl- 
 edge of the heavens and the earth. * * * It is found that 
 the measure by which the proportions of the great pyramid 
 were determined is an exact proportional to the axis of the 
 earth itself. This is a very important thing, for it is thus in 
 harmony with natural standards of measure, such as used 
 by Deity. This pyramid standard measure is called the 
 sacred cubit, as it is found that the standard divinely 
 recognized through Moses was the same as that of the 
 pyramid. The sacred cubit was the pyramid cubit/' 
 
 Now then, with this fact before our eyes, let us turn to 
 the Book of Abraham. The explanation of Fig. 1, of the 
 circular disc, reads thus: "Kolob, signifying the first crea- 
 tion, nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God. First 
 in government, the last pertaining to the measurement of 
 time. The measurement, according to celestial time; which 
 celestial time signifies one day to a cubit. One day in Kolob 
 is equal to a thousand years, according to the measurement of 
 this earth, which is called by the Egyptians Jah-oh-eh/' 
 
 If we understand the above aright it means that with 
 the Gods the unit of the measurement of time is one of the 
 days of Kolob, or one thousand of our years, "which celestial 
 time signifies one day to a cubit/' or, that as one of Kolob' s 
 days is the unit of celestial time, so the cubit is the unit of celes- 
 tial measurement, by which the size of the worlds are measured 
 
122 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 when the foundations thereof are laid; by which the dis- 
 tances of the suns and planets are regulated, and all the 
 creations of the Holy Ones controlled. That this cubit, 
 which was the unit of measurement of holy things on this 
 ea^th — the ark of the tabernacle, the temple, etc., was also 
 the unit of measurement when this earth was created, is 
 further proven by the following extract from Elder Bar- 
 foot's writings: "The sacred cubit is in length rather more 
 than twenty-five (25.025) inches of English measure. 
 It is one ten-millionth part of the radius of the axis of the 
 earth at the poles/' that is, it is 10,000,000 sacred cubits 
 from the centre of the earth to either the north or south 
 pole, or 20,000,000 through the earth from pole to pole. 
 Brother Barfoot continues: "No higher or more reliable 
 standard of extreme precision could be given to man than 
 the measure of the polar radius, for all other terrestrial and 
 celestial things relating to the earth are in proportion to this 
 natural standard. So important are the discoveries made 
 recently by means of the sacred cubit that men are sur- 
 prised to think that the uses of the great pyramid have been 
 so long concealed/' To this remark of our esteemed 
 brother we answer, the Lord had not turned the key; and 
 here we pause for a moment to ask, and ask of all the w r orld, 
 how could Joseph Smith have possibly become acquainted 
 with this great truth if God had not revealed it unto him. 
 This one truth alone of which all the world was ignorant, of 
 itself, in its revelation by him, proves him to have been a 
 prophet of the Most High God. 
 
 We now turn to some of the peculiarities of the great 
 pyramid, to which passing reference has before been made, 
 gleaning our information from the writings of Petrie, Os~ 
 born, Smyth, Mackay, and others. We would observe, 
 however, that our space prevents us from giving any but 
 the more prominent references. 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 123 
 
 1st. For parts cosmocally and symbolically significant, 
 the metric standard of the great pyramid is the sacred cubit, 
 exactly one ten-millionth of the earth's polar radius, the 
 only natural standard of both unique and extreme precision; 
 a standard of divine origination, primeval, and preserved 
 in the least disturbed line of Abraham's family (the Arabs) 
 to the present day. (Mr. Wm. Petrie. ) 
 
 Does not this testimony almost word for word confirm 
 the statements of the Book of Abraham? 
 
 2nd. The direction of the strait entrance passage, 
 inclining at 26°20 / into the north side of the pyramid, was 
 such that at the reputed date of its establishment* this 
 direction was that of the primeval pole star, then at its 
 lower culmination, while Alcyonef (the centre of, or govern- 
 ing planet which controls our solar system) then near the 
 celestial equator, was at its upper culmination, or on the 
 same meridian at midnight of the autumnal equinox. This 
 definite combination cannot recur for 25,898 years; it 
 marked the date of the pyramid, and of the year of the 
 Pleiades," a commencement of a natural chronologic era, 
 traditions of which have remained in most times and 
 countries, or to put it in another shape, "the meridian of 
 the primeval pole star became rigidly stationary on Alcyone 
 at the date of the great pyramid, after which it commenced 
 to retrograde." 
 
 3rd. A thousand billion times the pyramid's weight, 
 carefully computed, is the mass of the whole earth, 
 
 *B. C. 2170, or exactly 4000 years before 1830, the date of the organization of the 
 Church of Jesus Christ in this dispensation. 
 
 f'The Pleiades are the seven stars, called cemah, which means an axle, that on or 
 around which something turns. Now, a few years ago, Prof. Madler, the German 
 astronomer, was awarded a gold medal by the scientific societies of Europe. And why? 
 Because he was the first to advance the hypothesis of the existence of a central body in 
 the stellar universe, about which all in our system revolved. He fixed, as that pre- 
 ponderating mass, upon the Pleiades, and upon the brightest star in the group, namely, 
 Alcyone, as the very centre. Yet from Job we learn this scientific fact, and Prof. 
 Madler had no special claim for such a discovery, nor had he any right to such a medal, 
 unless he was a lineal descendant and heir of Job." — Dr. Wilde, of New York. 
 
124 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 namely, six thousand and fifty trillions of British tons* 
 4th. The annual circuit of the earth — that is, one year, 
 is represented by the lenth of the base circuit of the pyramid, 
 and each day of twenty-four hours by four cubits. Or 
 each day of our year is represented by one cubit on each of 
 the four sides of the pyramid, each side representing in its 
 whole length one year of this earth. Or one day to a cubit as 
 stated in the Book of Abraham. Can any one explain to 
 us why this pyramid were so built that one cubit should 
 represent one day exactly, if Abraham did not teach this to 
 them? and if he did, then we have called the pyramids to 
 bear witness to the truth of his book, which they most 
 assuredly do, and at the same time to the truth of its trans- 
 lation by the Prophet Joseph Smith. Napoleon Bonaparte, 
 when he gathered his armies in Egypt, pointing to the pyra- 
 mids, told his legions that forty centuries looked down upon 
 them. We have also called these mighty monuments of the 
 past to bear record to the unity of revealed truth. Admit 
 the above to be facts, and how is it possible to deny that 
 Joseph Smith received his wisdom from a divine source, 
 and consequently was a prophet of God. 
 
 Mr. Mackay, writing (1870) on facts in astronomy, 
 states that the great pyramid has been "investigated and 
 explored as no other monument, ancient and modern, ever 
 was; and the indefatigable explorers have been rewarded 
 with an abundant harvest of the most brilliant discoveries. 
 One of these, discovered by Mr. Petrie, is the clear indica- 
 tion that the architect of this pyramid knew the mean dis- 
 tance of the sun from the earth with an exactitude to which 
 modern science never approached till within the last seven 
 years. * * * The best lineal and angular measurements 
 have been combined by W. Petrie, who shows therefrom 
 that the original height of the great pyramid, from the 
 pavement to its base, was 486.25 British feet; this multi- 
 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM, 125 
 
 plied by the ninth power of ten — i.e., 1,000,000,000 gives 
 a result of 92,093,000 British miles, for the mean distance 
 of the sun. The latest collective result of science reckons 
 the probable truth to be between 91,970,000 and 92,150,- 
 000; while the great pyramid gives 92,093,000 miles,* 
 being completely within these minimum uncertainties of 
 science/' This, by other references, has been proven to 
 have been no accident, but intended by the builders, as it 
 constitutes but a small part of the evidence discovered in 
 this direction. 
 
 Here, then, we have evidence that the ancient Egyp- 
 tians had a knowledge of the true distance from the sun. 
 That they obtained this knowledge only by divine light is 
 evidence by the abortive attempts of other ancient investi- 
 gators to determine this question. For instance, in the days 
 of Herodotus, (B.C. 500, ) it was thought that the sun was 
 distant only some eight or ten miles; fifty years later it was 
 estimated by Anaxagoras at 1800; 150 years later, 5,300,000 
 was the computed distance; 1900; years later, Kepler 
 calculated the distance at 26,400,000 miles; in A. D. 1750 
 the supposed distance was increased to 81,650,000, and so, 
 from the dawn of creation until now, uninspired men have 
 been groping after this truth, and even to-day they are not 
 entirely satisfied that the exact measurement has been 
 obtained. 
 
 It is unnecessary, for our present purpose, to enter into 
 all the details of the varied geometrical, metrical, mechani- 
 cal, geographical, astronomical and cosmical references 
 found in the great pyramid, all of which, it is vigorously 
 asserted, have been tested and proven correct by the very 
 best scientific ability; nor will space permit us to follow a 
 rapidly-increasing class of writers who find in its lines, angles 
 
 ♦The most recent scientific estimate of the sun's distance from the earth actually 
 places it within 270 miles of the exact pyramid figures. 
 
126 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 and markings a prophetic history of the world; but we 
 should scarcely feel satisfied if we did not summarize a few 
 of its leading characteristics. "We find/'* to use the lan- 
 guage of Dr. J. A. Seiss, of Philadelphia, "a perfect geo- 
 metric figure, so framed that the four sides of its base bear 
 the same proportion to its vertical height as the circum- 
 ference of a circle to its radius; that each of its base lines 
 measures the even ten-millionth part of the semi-axes of the 
 earth just as many times as there are days in the year; that 
 its height multiplied by the ninth power of ten gives the 
 mean distance between the earth and its great centre of 
 light; that its unit of length is the even five hundredth 
 millionth part of the polar diameter of the globe we inhabit; 
 that its two diagonals of base measure in inches the precise 
 number of years in the great precessional cycle; that its 
 bulk of masonry is an even proportion of the weight of the 
 earth itself, and that its setting and shaping are squared and 
 oriented**" with miscroscopic accuracy/' Regarding the 
 coffer in the king's chamber he continues: "We perceive in 
 it a most accurately-shaped standard of measures and 
 proportions, its sides and bottom cubically identical with 
 its internal space, the length of its two sides to its height as 
 a circle to its diameter, its exterior volume just twice the 
 dimension of its bottom, and its whole measure just the 
 fiftieth part of the chamber in which it was put when the 
 edifice was built," for it could not have been gotten into the 
 chamber after the building was finished, by reason of the 
 size and angles of the entrance passages. Now, then, let 
 us add to these facts a statement by the same author, and 
 we think our position regarding the veracity of the portion 
 of the Book of Abraham we have lastly been commenting 
 upon is amply vindicated. "Everywhere do we encounter 
 
 *Miracle in Stone. 
 
 rOriented — situated with respect to the four cardinal points. 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 127 
 
 the traditions of Abraham's skill in the knowledge of the 
 heavens, how he argued from his observation of the heavenly 
 orbs, and how he occupied himself in Egypt teaching the 
 priests of Heliopolis in the lore of the skies. Doubtless this 
 was not the naked science of astronomy as the schools 
 conceive of it, but as respected the theological and Messianic 
 truths symbolized in these celestial hieroglyphics, in which, 
 as in the more literal promises, he rejoiced to see Christ's 
 day, and saw it and was glad. (John, viii, 56. )" Which tes- 
 timony of the Savior's is in direct accord with the state- 
 ments of the Book of Abraham; nor need we be surprised 
 thereat, when revelation, ancient and modern, states that 
 Enoch, and indeed other antediluvian patriarchs, saw not 
 only "Christ's day," but the world's history, even to the 
 winding up scene. 
 
 Admitting that the shape of the pyramid, in connection 
 with its other references, has a prophetic import, it becomes 
 a remarkable fact that this stupendous four-sided monu- 
 ment, in this particular phase of its construction, typifies the 
 number of days, according to the reckoning of the Lord and 
 of Kolob, between the fall of man and the incarnation of our 
 Savior (4000 years), and the time between the date ot its 
 own construction and the organization of the Church of 
 Jesus Christ in the last days (also 4000 years). Two of the 
 most important events then in the future of the world's 
 history, and known in the economy of God, the first as the 
 ushering in ot "the dispensation of the meridian of time," 
 the second as the ushering in o\ "the dispensation of the 
 fulness of times." 
 
128 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Scientific Objections to the Prophet's Translation of 
 the Book of Abraham. — M. Deveria's Translation. 
 — Samples of Ancient Languages in the Book of 
 Abraham. — Word Roots. — Lack of Chronologic 
 Sequence. — Conclusion. 
 
 In the year 1855, Messrs. Remy and Brenchly, two 
 French travelers, visited Utah. On their return to Paris 
 they carried with them a copy of the Book of Abraham, 
 which they placed in the hands of "a young savant of the 
 Museum of the Louvre, M. Theodule Deveria," w T ith the 
 request that he w T ould translate it. This he attempted to do. 
 Messrs. Remy and Brenchly afterwards published an 
 account of their travels, and embodied therein M. Deveria's 
 soi-disant translation. They pretend to consider that the 
 disclosures made by the scientific translation should place 
 the Book of Abraham in the catalogue of the pious frauds 
 that have so often disgraced the history of religion. We 
 come to an entirely opposite conclusion, and claim that so 
 far as M. Deveria's translation is concerned, if it does any- 
 thing, it substantiates the statements of the Prophet Joseph 
 with regard to the true meaning of the papyri. Two things, 
 how-ever, have to be remembered — the first, that the 
 Egyptian hieroglyphics had at least two (but more prob- 
 ably three ) meanings, the one understood by the masses — 
 the other comprehended only by the initiated, the priest- 
 hood and others; which latter conveyed the true though 
 hidden intent of the writer. The second consideration is 
 that when M. Deveria made his translation, Egyptology, 
 as a science, was in its babyhood. Since then highly im- 
 portant discoveries have been made in this branch of 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 129 
 
 literature, which have greatly changed the conclusions of 
 earlier students. But even to-day the science is so inexact 
 that but a few weeks ago the Destret News published an 
 ancedote of two eminent Egyptologists, who unitedly came 
 to the conclusion that the hieroglyphics on the wrappings 
 of a mummy they were examining proved the deceased to 
 have been a great warrior or king among the ancient 
 Egyptians. On removing the inner bandages, the body 
 proved to be that of a women. If the scientists of to-day 
 make such egregious blunders, what may we expect from 
 Messrs. Remy and Brenchly's young savant of twenty 
 years ago, before Osborn, Smyth, and others, had made the 
 important discoveries that are almost revolutionizing the 
 ideas of the learned on ancient Egypt and its literature. 
 
 We will now draw attention to a few of the differences 
 between the two translations. 
 
 The Prophet Joseph Smith states that Plate I repre- 
 sents an idolatrous priest attempting to offer up Abraham 
 as a sacrifice to his gods. M. D. affirms that it represents 
 the resurrection of Osiris. . We ask, if it is a representation 
 of a resurrection, what is the priest doing with a knife in 
 his hand? Osiris was not resurrected with a knife, but Abra- 
 ham would have been slain with one if God had not de- 
 livered him. And it is a somewhat remarkable fact that the 
 original Egyptian hieroglyphic for the verb Nohem, to 
 rescue, to deliver, was a bedstead-shaped altar with a bird 
 flying above it, just as represented in Plate I, of the angel of 
 the Lord rescuing Abraham. Is it not probable that the 
 hieroglyphic had its origin in this very circumstance? 
 
 Joseph the Prophet says Fig. 1 represents "the angel 
 of the Lord/' M. D. states that it is "the soul of Osiris 
 under the form of a hawk (which should have a human 
 head)/' Fig. 3, the Prophet states, is "the idolatrous priest 
 of Elkenah." M. D. says it is "the god Anubis (who should 
 
130 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 have a jackal's head)/' and in other places he makes sub- 
 stantially the same statement, that a certain figure repre- 
 sents somebody or something, or would do so if it were 
 different. This puts us in mind of a little story. A certain 
 clergyman was visiting the home of one of his parishoners, 
 when he noticed a little son of his host very buisly engaged, 
 first intently eyeing him and then working away at a 
 slate he held in his hand. Suspecting what he was doing, 
 the clergyman asked the boy if he was not drawing his 
 portrait, and finding his suspicions were correct, he asked to 
 see it. With some reluctance the boy consented. After 
 looking at it a moment, the cleryman exclaimed: "Why, this 
 is not like me!" and received in reply the very consoling 
 answer, "Well, I guess it's not; suppose I put a tail on it 
 and call it a dog." So M. Deveria wants to put a head or 
 a tail on some of these characters and then call them Osiris, 
 Anubis, or some other god 1 . Anything to beat revelation. 
 In a great many instances, though the wording in the 
 inspired translation varies greatly from the scientific 
 attempt, yet the idea is almost identical. Placed together, 
 they substantiate the statement of an eminent modern 
 writer on Egyptian literature, who delcares that at first 
 sight the religious branch of this literature "seems to pro- 
 claim the Egyptians the most polytheistic of men, but a 
 more careful examination leads to the supposition that the 
 various gods were only intended to bring out in symbol 
 and in allegory the various qualities and manifestations of 
 one great God, incarnate, eternal and omnipotent." 
 Joseph's translation conveying the higher though hidden 
 meaning, and M. D. the presumedly literal intent of the 
 hieroglyphics. For instance, Fig. 9, Plate I, is stated by 
 the prophet to represent "the idolatrous god of Pharaoh;" 
 M. D. calls it "the sacred crocodile, symbolic of the god 
 Sebat." Sebat was certainly a god to Pharaoh, so wherein 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 131 
 
 lies the difference? Again, Fig. 3, Plate 11, "is made to 
 represent God sitting upon his throne, clothed with power 
 and authority, with a crown of eternal light upon his head." 
 The scientist says it is "the god Ra, the sun, with a hawk's 
 head, seated in his boat/' What great difference is there 
 in the idea? and how did Joseph Smith know that it repre- 
 sented God (call him by what typical name you like) if 
 not by revelation? What is there in the figure of a cow 
 (Fig. 5) to convey the idea to an unlearned man that it 
 had reference to the hosts of heaven? yet both translations 
 distincly convey that idea. Figs. 12 to 20 (Plate II), 
 Joseph says will be given in the own due time of the Lord. 
 M. D. does not attempt to translate them, he says they are 
 "illegibly copied/' "cannot be deciphered," "illegible 
 in the copy," etc., and so gets out of the difficulty, but not 
 without insinuating that the MSS. have been "intentionally 
 altered." But what earthly reason there could be for the 
 "Mormons" attempting to alter them, is beyond our com- 
 prehension. At any rate he does not translate them. As a 
 sample of how M. D. twists definitions on purpose to give a 
 different translation from that of the prophet, we have an 
 instance in Plate I, in the figures representing the gods of 
 Elkenah, Libnah, Mahmackrah and Korash, which our 
 French savant states represent the Canopian vessels or 
 jars. And what are the Canopian jars? Certain jars 
 first found at Canopus, a city at the mouth of the Nile, 
 and because the learned did not, nor do not now know, with 
 certain ty, their intent,* they called them after the place 
 where they were found. But because they were found at 
 Canopus is it any reason that they should not be the gods 
 Joseph Smith represents them to be? The learned believe 
 them to be gods, but their researches result in no definite 
 
 *See article "Canopus," in American Cyclopaedia. 
 
132 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 conclusions. The Prophet Joseph associates them with the 
 god of the ruler of Egypt, which statement placed along 
 side of the fact that they were found in Egypt, gives strength 
 and consistency to his translation. M. D/s translation is 
 simply begging the question so far as attempting to prove 
 the inaccuracy of Joseph's translation is concerned. 
 
 Exceptions are taken by M. Deveria to some of the 
 proper names that appear in the Book of Abraham, and 
 which our martyred prophet informs us were Egyptian. 
 Messrs. Remy and Brenchly apply the word "gibberish" to 
 certain portions of the book, which we suppose must relate 
 to such words, as the English portion is plain enough and 
 gibberish means senseless or unmeaning talk or gabble. 
 To enter into a detailed account of the root of each Egyptian 
 or Chaldean word given in the book would be very tedious 
 to the most of our readers; we shall therefore simply sum- 
 marize by saying, that so far as we have been able to trace 
 through the authorities at our disposal, which are very 
 meagre, three things are evident: 
 
 1st. That the words given by Joseph have true roots. 
 
 2nd. That these roots are from the languages of the 
 countries known to Abraham. 
 
 3rd. That the meanings of these roots are consistent 
 with the meanings of the words as translated by Joseph 
 Smith. 
 
 All of which proves that they are not gibberish. 
 
 As an instance of how far M. D. goes out of his way to 
 attack these words, he remarks on the statement of Abra- 
 ham that this earth was by the Egyptians called Jah-oh-eh; 
 that "the word Jah-oh-eh has nothing Egyptian in it, it re- 
 sembles the Hebrew word Jehovah badly translated." 
 If it has nothing Egyptian in it how does it happen that 
 the word Jehovah itself has been claimed by many to be 
 an Egyptian and not a Hebrew word? With regard to 
 which see Dr. Smith's Dictionarv of the Bible. It is also 
 
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 133 
 
 positive that this sacred word was known to other nations 
 as well as the covenant people of God, as it is to be found, in 
 its exact form, and applied to the God of the Hebrews, on 
 line eighteen of the Moabite stone, lately translated by Sir 
 Henry Rawlinson. 
 
 There are other words that are objected to as not being 
 Egyptian. In reply we ask, How can M. Deveria or any 
 one else, at the present stage of Egyptology, tell whether a 
 word was Egyptian or not? Joseph has undoubtedly 
 written the word in the English characters that best repre- 
 sented the actual sound of the word in ancient Egyptian. 
 Scientists know nothing positive of those sounds; they 
 know that certain hieroglyphics form certain words with 
 certain supposed meaning, but for the sounds they have to 
 rely on the language of the modern Copts, basing their 
 theory on the slender foundation that the sounds of words 
 in Egypt are the same to-day as they were 4000 years ago. 
 We well know the customs, habits, etc., change but little 
 in the stagnant lives of the inhabitants of Egypt, Canaan, 
 and kindred nations, but it is almost too great a stretch on 
 our credulity to ask us to accept as definite the assumed 
 sound of a word in Abraham's day, because it is pronounced 
 in that way now. For instance, who can, with certainty, 
 assert how the ancient Egyptians pronounced the name of 
 their own country? Was it Kham-to, or Gyp-to, or Egyptos 
 or indeed Ghubsi.? 
 
 There are certainly some words in the record that are 
 evidently Egyptian. Such as Kli-flos-is-es, the name of 
 one of the stars. All Eygptologists admit that Isis 
 relates to the moon. But it may be urged that Joseph Smith 
 obtained these words from some Egyptian work. Not so; 
 for the first grammer and dictionary of ancient Egyptian 
 published in modern times (between 1836 and 1844) — those 
 of M. Champollion — were not published until after the 
 
134 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 translation of the papyrus by the Prophet Joseph. So that 
 objection falls to the ground. 
 
 In the word Kolob we have another instance of a 
 word whose roots are to be frequently found in the languages 
 of Phoenicia and the neighboring nations, and the word* 
 itself appears in the languages of some of the descendants of 
 Abraham (certain tribes of the American Indians) at the 
 present time. But probably this is enough on the subject 
 of language. 
 
 There are two other points to which we will allude, 
 that are strong internal evidence of the genuiness of the 
 Book of Abraham. One is, that in its historical portion no 
 reference, however slight, is made to events that occurred 
 after its assumed date of composition. Had Joseph Smith 
 been its author, the probabilities are strongly in favor of 
 circumstances being mentioned therein that did not take 
 place until after the time that the book claims to have been 
 written. Had Joseph been a man well versed in the history 
 of the world in Abraham's day, the probabilities would not 
 have been so great; but ignorant as he was, so far as book 
 learning is concerned, of ancient history, this simple cir- 
 cumstance alone is strong evidence in favor if its authen- 
 ticity. 
 
 The other point to which we wish to draw attention is 
 the lack of chronological sequence in the historical portions 
 of the book, a trait manifested in the writings of many of 
 the patriarch's descendants, and which we believe to have 
 been general with the writers living in the early ages 
 of the world. Chronologic accuracy, in the writers of 
 personal or historical narratives, appears to have been the 
 outgrowth of a later age. 
 
 The concluding portions of the Book of Abraham are 
 
 ♦Kolob signifies in their language the eye (or light) of the world. 
 

 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. 135 
 
 mainly historical, and relate to circumstances that occurred 
 in the heavens in man s preexistent state, and at the creation 
 of the world. These subjects have been so ably handled by 
 others that we shall not attempt to treat upon them here. 
 Besides, they are somewhat foreign to our subject, and di- 
 rectly have no bearing on the truth of the Abrahamic record, 
 having been made plain in other revelations of God's 
 word. We shall therefore, with this chapter, conclude our 
 review of the Book of Abraham, but before doing so must 
 acknowledge the aid we have received from many wise 
 suggestions and valuable information afforded us by Presi- 
 dent John Taylor, Elders Franklin D. Richards, Joseph L. 
 Barfoot, John R. Howard, David McKenzie and others. 
 
 In conclusion we would say, that we believe that those 
 who have carefully followed us through this inquiry must 
 be satisfied that the Abrahamic record is genuine. We 
 have appealed to ancient historians and modern scientists, 
 and they have not failed us; we have called to our aid the 
 monuments of ancient Egypt, and they have borne un- 
 equivocal testimony; we have examined the glorious system 
 of astronomy advanced in its pages, and find it is being sub- 
 stantiated by modern research; internally we have found its 
 unities well preserved, nor have we discovered a contradic- 
 tion within its pages. As with the Book of Mormon, so 
 with the Book of Abraham, we feel fully assured, that every 
 day as it passes, every new discovery that has a bearing on 
 its statements, will increasingly vindicate its truthfulness, 
 and bear united testimony that Joseph Smith was indeed 
 and of a truth a Prophet, Seer and Revelator, inspired by 
 the Spirit of Jehovah, the mighty God of Jacob.