This seems to be an ideal
opportunity to mention a recently published correction to a quotation from Hugh
Nibley found in his intellectually staggering work, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, an Egyptian Endowment,
first edition. The Prophet Joseph Smith is here (incorrectly) credited with
“furnish[ing] a clear and specific description.… ‘The record of Abraham and
Joseph, found with the mummies, is (1) beautifully written on papyrus, with
black, and (2) a small part red, ink or paint, (3) in perfect preservation.’”
It has since been found that Oliver Cowdery provided that description, not
Joseph Smith. For a discussion of this correction, see Hugh Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, an
Egyptian Endowment, second edition, edited by John Gee and Michael
D. Rhodes (Salt Lake City & Provo, Utah: Deseret Book & FARMS, 2005),
xxi-xxii, 2n.5.
Furthermore, of great importance is
this statement: according to the editors of the second edition, “There is no
reason to assume that the papyrus Joseph Smith I + X is the source of the Book
of Abraham. The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints has had no official position on the issue, and most
members do not believe that it is. The Egyptologists are adamant that it is
not, and so everyone seems to be in agreement on that issue.” I mention this
because I have noticed some anti-Mormons ignorantly stating otherwise—even
publishing translations of the papyri that do still exist—all in an effort to
discredit Joseph Smith. The Church today simply does not possess the original
papyri text of the Book of Abraham that Joseph Smith used to make his
translation now found in the Pearl of Great Price. Those papyri went up in
ashes in the great Chicago fire and no amount of clamor and false charges by
enemies of the Church can change that fact.
Hugh Nibley:
“In a book
called An Egyptian Endowment, I
analyzed an Egyptian temple endowment at length and in an appendix supplied
half-a-dozen parallels from the earliest Christian and Jewish writings. I think you will find there truly impressive
resemblances to our own temple ordinances throughout, as well as an
indisputable common pattern among them all, far exceeding the Masonic
ordinances in age. The undoubted
parallels between our temple ordinances and certain Masonic rites can be easily
explained. But ours makes a consistent
theological and historical whole and is much closer to some of the older rites
than they are to Freemasonry. The Hopi
Indians, for example, come closest of all as far as I have been able to discover—and
where did they get theirs?” (Hugh Nibley Correspondence, 1980.)
One Eternal Round
As quoted in the Deseret
News:
Egyptology, Hugh Nibley and the really big book
By Michael De Groote
Mormon Times
Published: 2010-04-09 00:19:17
PROVO, Utah -- Hugh Nibley was dying. BYU professors Michael
D. Rhodes, John W. Welch, John Gee and others met at Nibley's home to decide
what to do with his unfinished book, "One Eternal Round."
Nibley was at home, but was unconscious. The amount of work
needed to complete the book was massive. Rhodes and the others knew that the
only way to finish Nibley's exhaustive examination of Facsimile 2 in the Book
of Abraham was to have one person take the project on.
"As we all looked uncomfortably at each other, no one,
at that point, was willing to commit to doing it, and so we adjourned without
making a final decision," Rhodes said on Thursday, April 8, at the final
installment of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute's weekly lecture series that
honored the late Professor Nibley.
Rhodes couldn't shake the thought throughout the rest of the
day: "Mike, you got to do this."
"Finally, sometime in the middle of the night, a sense
of calm came over me, and I realized this was something I had to do and could
do," Rhodes said. "I would finish this book for Hugh."
Early that next morning, Feb. 24, 2005, Hugh Nibley died.
"I firmly believe that once I had made that decision,
Hugh somehow knew it and felt he could leave this life, assured that his book
would be finished," said Rhodes, an associate research professor in BYU's
department of ancient scripture.
Rhodes' interest in things Egyptian began at age 9 when he
noticed Facsimile 2 in the Pearl of Great Price -- a round drawing with
mysterious figures. "I felt a burning desire to learn Egyptian so I could
read those characters," Rhodes said.
Rhodes had just returned from a Mormon mission and was
studying at BYU when several portions of the Egyptian papyrus that had belonged
to Joseph Smith were discovered. Rhodes approached Nibley to see if he would
teach a class on Middle Egyptian. Nibley did and a friendship began.
After graduation, Rhodes studied Egyptology with Professor
Hans Goedicke at John Hopkins University. Goedicke lost patience with Rhodes'
interest in Joseph Smith and the Book of Abraham.
"On several occasions I would go to him and say 'Look
at this! Joseph Smith said this and it's right.'" Rhodes said. "And
his response was always, 'Lucky guess!'"
After three years, Goedicke told Rhodes he could never be a
good Egyptologist because Mormons could not be objective enough about the
subject.
Nibley encouraged and mentored Rhodes throughout his career.
He wrote Rhodes about Goedicke's attitude: "Goedicke's obvious annoyance
at your independence is the best guarantee that you are really going to produce
something. ... I have never been 'objective' and never will be. ... Don't
weaken -- you may be the world's last, as I am the world's worst,
scholar."
Rhodes career took him to the Air Force, which took him to
many different places near many different universities. He studied science or
the ancient world, depending on what was available -- including more Egyptian
at Freie Universitat Berlin.
Again Nibley encouraged him: "Three cheers! The path of
genius is a rough one, and I glory in my safe mediocrity."
After 17 years in the Air Force, Rhodes wrote to Nibley that
he hoped to teach at BYU when he retired in three years. "You can imagine
how elated I am at the news," Nibley wrote back. "I will try to hang
on until you get here, but you MUST come!"
Rhodes came to BYU in 1993 and, among his other duties,
helped Nibley with his next big project, a book to be titled "One Eternal
Round."
Nibley renewed an interest in Egyptian in the late 1950s
while researching in the library. Rhodes said Nibley "received a prompting
that he should go back to (his old graduate school at) Berkeley and study
Egyptian."
Nibley studied Egyptian under Klaus Baer from 1959 to 1960
at Berkeley and 1966-67 at the University of Chicago. In 1967, the Joseph Smith
papyrus fragments were found, beginning 40 years of Nibley's work on the Book
of Abraham. Rhodes divided those years into four phases.
Phase 1 -- 1968-71
Rhodes called the first phase "preliminary
studies." Nibley concentrated on how the Book of Abraham matched many
ancient sources that were not available to Joseph Smith. He published "A
New Look at the Pearl of Great Price."
Rhodes said some of Nibley's conclusions are dated -- such
as the idea that the Egyptian sed-festival had human sacrifice -- but he was
using the best sources available at the time.
Phase 2 -- 1971-76
During this phase, Rhodes said Nibley worked on Joseph Smith
papyrus fragments I, X and XI -- Facsimile 1 and portions of the Egyptian Book
of Breathings.
Nibley found parallels with the Book of Breathings and LDS
temple ceremonies. Again, Rhodes said some of his findings are dated. However,
Nibley's identification of the Book of Breathings as an "initiation
text" -- which was radical at the time -- is widely accepted today. Nibley's
contention that funerary texts were also used by the living is also "part
of mainstream Egyptology," Rhodes said.
Phase 3 -- 1979-81
This phase was marked by the book "Abraham in
Egypt," a collection of evidence from many ancient sources about Abraham's
life, from Egytian to Islamic. "To Nibley," Rhodes said, "the
real value of the Book of Abraham is the eternal truths it teaches us."
Phase 4 -- 1990s
This phase brings us back to "One Eternal Round."
Rhodes called it Nibley's "magnum opus" and his "swan
song." When Rhodes decided to help complete the book, there were more than
30 boxes of papers, notes and pictures. There were more than 450 computer
files. Some chapters of the book had more than 20 different versions.
"As I sifted through the enormous mountain of material
that comprised Nibley's work on 'One Eternal Round,'" Rhodes said,
"my chief goal was to remain true to Hugh's purpose. ... This was Hugh's
book, not mine, and I made every effort to keep my editing and writing at a minimum."
One thing that was not included was a complicated
mathematical examination of the pyramids. Rhodes and his colleagues couldn't
figure it out. "If he were here to explain it, he probably could have
explained what he really meant."
One thing that was added was a reference to an early
stone-age temple complex recently discovered in Turkey -- supporting Nibley's
contention that temples go back to the very beginnings of time.
But that was about it.
The book's sweeping scope, its mining of sources --
mathematics, Alexander the Great, Egyptian pharaohs, medieval Jewish Kabbala,
ancient Hermeticism, Greek myths, Christian apocrypha, ancient Chinese jade
disks, Aztec calendars, Egyptian mirrors, Hopi Indian ceremonies, Shaman drums
and more, are all pure Nibley. And all of it is mustered to bring light to the
round Egyptian hypocephalus known as Facsimile 2 in the Book of Abraham.
It has been five years since that restless night when Rhodes
felt a sense of calm that he could "finish this book for Hugh." Now
his mentor's book is done. "It is my sincerest hope that when it comes my
turn to cross through the veil, that Hugh will approach me with a beautiful
smile on his face and words of approval for what I have done," Rhodes said
"To paraphrase Mormon, 'And now, if there are faults in this book, they
are the faults of Mike, wherefore condemn not the things of Hugh Nibley.'"
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