Maxwell Institute Podcast

Joseph Smith left a lot of documents behind when he died in 1844, from the mundane to the intriguing. Some of the more puzzling documents deal with a book of scripture in the Latter-day Saint canon called the Book of Abraham. Said to be translated from ancient papyrus, the scripture broadens the story of the Hebrew Bible’s figure of Abraham. Where did the papyrus come from? What do modern Egyptologists have to say about it? And what do these documents suggest to Latter-day Saint historians about Joseph Smith’s work as a translator? Brian Hauglid and Robin Scott Jensen join us in this episode to talk about the latest scholarship on the Book of Abraham. Jensen is an associate managing historian with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the project archivist for the Joseph Smith Papers. Hauglid is a visiting fellow here at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute. Together they edited Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts, part of the Joseph Smith Papers project. Lucky for you, this material is al