Abraham and the “Promises” of the Temple—Part 2

Welcome back! In Part 1 of this blog series, we began our exploration into the ministry of Abraham and its rich temple-related features. Because of the sheer complexity of this history and its relevance to God’s ongoing efforts to tutor the Prophet Joseph Smith in all things temple-related, I noted in my last post that this exploration would be divided into several parts.

Fragment of Book of Breathing for Horos–B, between 238 and circa 153 BC, JSP, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/fragment-of-book-of-breathing-for-horos-b-between-238-and-circa-153-bc/1

In our first installment, we covered the miraculous journey of the Egyptian papyri and the events that brought them into the Prophet's possession. Today, we are going to tackle the next set of questions I posed in my previous blog: What exactly was in those Egyptian papyri, and how did Joseph translate them?

What did the papyri that were with the mummies consist of? Oliver Cowdery described the writing or characters that prompted the Prophet to seek and receive the revelation that became the Book of Abraham as “beautifully written in papyrus with black, and a small part, red ink or paint, in perfect preservation.”[1]

Eyewitness descriptions of the papyri collection include “‘a long roll of manuscript’ described as the ‘roll of papyrus from which our prophet translated the Book of Abraham;’ . . . ‘another roll’;” and “some papyri ‘preserved under glass,’ described as ‘a number of glazed slides, like picture frames, containing sheets of papyrus, with Egyptian inscriptions and hieroglyphics’” “and ‘two or three other small pieces of papyrus with astronomical calculations, epitaphs, &c.’”[2]

Joseph Smith affirmed that “one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph of Egypt.”[3]

The two rolls, together with two mummies, ended up at Colonel Wood’s Museum in Chicago. Some of the other fragments eventually found their way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which donated them to the Church in 1967. “The Church published the papyri two months later in their official magazine, the Improvement Era.” These fragments, however, did not include any of the roll from which the Book of Abraham was translated, which burned in the Chicago fire of 1871.[4]

Egyptologists who have investigated and even translated the surviving fragments have produced detailed descriptions of the possible size and contents of the papyri.[5] Scholars on all sides of the controversy created by the appearance of these fragments agree that the texts in the fragments come from The Book of Breathings of Hor and The Book of the Dead of Tshemmin.

Reams of paper and uncountable ink cartridges (not to mention electronic media) have been expended by scholars, commentators, bloggers, podcasters[6] and, more seriously, members have lost their testimonies, over the assumptions (as Kerry Mulstein frames it)[7] that Joseph Smith was “translating text and characters [i] that were actually on the papyri” and [ii] that such papyri consisted solely of scrolls scholars have identified from the surviving papyri fragments, that is the Books of Breathings and the Dead. The one thing the scholarly debate does appear to establish, however, is that the record we have does not definitively “prove” either assumption.

But none of this is the focus of my interest in the history of Joseph Smith’s bringing forth the Book of Abraham. My focus, as it has been for my blogs over the past year, is on what the Lord was teaching Joseph Smith about the temple as He inspired and directed him to “translate” the Book of Abraham. Thus, even if, for arguments sake, we were to concede that all Joseph had access to in the papyri were two of the many editions of the Books of Breathings and the Dead that existed in the ancient world, could he have learned from these anything that might have contributed to his appreciation and understanding of temple rites as God revealed and administered them to Adam and Eve? And that were administered in every dispensation that followed by authorized keyholders?

According to Hugh Nibley (and the faithful LDS scholars who were trained by him or otherwise followed in his footsteps), the answer is a resounding yes! “The Egyptian rites,” Nibley wrote, are “an imitation” of temple ordinances that for Latter-day Saints “are as old as the human race and represent a primordial revealed religion.” “Scattered fragments of the original” rite, he shows in his many epic studies,[8] “litter” the world’s civilizations and religions, but especially “Egyptian, beliefs and practices.” As Nibley explained in the introduction to one of his epic studies of the Book of Abraham:

The scholars who have dealt specially with the “Breathings” texts do not hesitate

to recognize in them initiation rituals. What the Egyptians were looking for was not

unlike what the Mormons call an “endowment.”

The word endowment that was chosen to designate the temple ordinances contains, historically and legally, two main ideas: that of the bestowal of something valuable on a person and “the permanent usufruct of such goods in installments and upon the fulfillment of certain specified conditions.” It is the greatest of gifts, but we cannot cash it in this life—it is only for the “spiritual minded,” “having nothing to do with temporal things”; it pays off only at certain times and places and upon the exact fulfillment of certain conditions. No people were more willing to invest their means and energies in obtaining an endowment—a hope and a promise—than the Egyptians. The purpose of the following [609-page] study is to consider what specific steps were involved in the bestowing and receiving of such an endowment according to the Book of Breathings. How closely they resemble the Latter-day Saint endowment the reader must decide for himself, for from this point on we intend to say nothing of the latter.[9]

Egyptian rites are an “imitation” of those first or primordial ordinances, he adds, because, as the Book of Abraham states, Pharaoh, “’a righteous man,’ . . . was ever ‘seeking earnestly

to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of

the first patriarchal reign’ (Abraham 1:26).”[10]

Indeed, Nibley’s (and his successors’) extensive studies of the Book of Breathings (and the Book of the Dead), along with dozens of other apocryphal texts, show us how, as the Church said in its essay on the “Historicity of the Book of Abraham,” “on many particulars, the book of Abraham is consistent with historical knowledge about the ancient world.”[11]

Did Joseph ever describe matters that God revealed to him as he studied the Egyptian papyri that are not contained in the Book of Abraham? Yes. Recall in my previous blog that scholars have concluded that Joseph only published “about one quarter of what Joseph Smith translated.”[12] Various historical accounts of interactions with the Prophet suggest the breadth of subjects that may have been included in these translated but unpublished materials. (Or, indeed, may not have been included if, for example, Joseph “saw” or understood material from the papyri--whether physically present or not--that he chose, or was directed, not to dictate to his scribes).

• “Anson Call saw the Book of Abraham manuscript arrive in Far West in 1838 and helped take it to the Prophet’s office, where the Prophet said, ‘Sit down and we will read to you from the translations of the Book of Abraham’ Oliver Cowdery then read until he was tired when Thomas Marsh read making altogether about two hours.’ [Muhlestein and Hansen note that] the current text of the Book of Abraham can be easily read aloud in under half an hour. Even if half of the ‘reading’ was really discussion, it would still imply that by 1838 they already had twice as much of the Book of Abraham as we now have. Yet Call’s wording indicates they did not discuss but actually read from the text the entire time—connoting that [Joseph] had already translated four times as much as we now have.”[13]

• Oliver Cowdery wrote in 1835 that the papyri contained information about "the Fall," a topic not found in the current text.[14]

• William West, who saw the papyri and mummies in Kirtland reported in 1837 that “the records are those of Abraham and Joseph, and contain important information respecting the creation, the fall of man, the deluge, the Patriarchs, the book of Mormon, the lost tribes, the gathering, the end of the world, the judgment, &c. &c.”[15]

• William Appleby also recalled that the material Joseph translated included an account of the Fall and Creation.[16]

• Albert Brown recalled being told that the "writings of Jacob" were also present on the papyri.[17]

• Josiah Quincy’s recalled that the writings of Moses and Aaron were on the papyri.[18]

Before his death, Joseph entrusted the mummies and papyri to his mother, Lucy Mack Smith, “to free himself from the obligation of exhibiting the papyri and to provide his widowed mother with means to support herself.”[19] Two years after the Prophet’s death, she was reported to have told a party of Quaker visitors, as published in a later account:

We visited the Mother of the Prophet, (a respectable looking old lady) who has four Mummies for exhibition . . .. She produced a black looking roll (which she told us was papyrus) found upon the breast of one of the mummies], part of which the Prophet had unrolled and read; and she had pasted the deciphered sheets on the leaves of a book which she showed us. The roll was as dark as the bones of the Mummies, and bore very much the same appearance; but the opened sheets were exceedingly like thin parchment, and of quite a light color. There were birds, fishes, and fantastic looking people, interspersed amidst hyeroglyphics; but the old lady explained the meaning of them all, as Joseph had interpreted them to her.

The stories appeared to be more particular accounts than our Bible gives us, of Noah, the Ark and the flood—of Abraham and Melchizedec—of Joseph and Pharaoh—and of various other distinguished characters.[20]

Did any eyewitnesses describe how Joseph Smith “translated” the Book of Abraham? Warren Parish, one of Joseph Smith’s scribes who worked with him on the Book of Abraham translation, recorded (after his disaffection with and excommunication from the Church): “I have set by his side and penned down the translation of the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks as he claimed to receive it by direct inspiration of Heaven.”[21]

In their Guide to the Book of Abraham, BYU scholars note that “sources indicate that Joseph professed that the translation of the Book of Abraham came by revelation and the gift and power of God. So, while Joseph appears to have used the word ‘translation’ to describe the Book of Abraham as meaning the conversion of an ancient text into modern English, the means or methods he used to accomplish this translation,” “namely, revelation,” do not coincide with how we normally think of the translation process, that is “utilizing available scholarly tools” to do so.[22]

Kerry Muhlestein and others summarize the various theories adopted to account for Joseph’s dictation of the book—the “missing papyrus theory” (miraculous production of a text that “physically existed on an ancient record he possessed”); the “catalyst theory” (revelation “without the need for text on the papyri” or possibly that he mistakenly assumed was on the text and, if so, which God saw no “need to disabuse him of” ); or a combination of the two.[23]

JSP, Seer Stone," https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/seer-stone.

Did Joseph Smith use his Seer Stone to assist in the translation? Possibly. Stephen O. Smoot has carefully documented the historical accounts of scribes involved in the coming forth of the Book of Abraham, and others with second-hand information from Joseph, who indicated that he may have used his seer stone (referred to in the accounts as the “Urim and Thummim”). He concludes that “the cumulative testimony from sources close to Joseph Smith leads to the conclusion that the Prophet likely used a seer stone as part of his translation of the Egyptian papyri, even if we cannot say definitively how it was used in that effort.”[24]

Recall in previous blogs how the Lord described the product of Joseph’s translation efforts—“that which God had given thee sight and power to translate” (D&C 3:12). As the Prophet told Joseph Knight, he could “see anything” through the Urim and Thummim (which acted in the same manner as his seer stones).[25]

The Prophet’s mother reported that Joseph referred to the Urim and Thummim as a “key,” by which “the angel showed him many things which he saw in vision; by which also he could ascertain, at any time, the approach of danger.” Thus, “he always kept the Urim and Thummim about his person.”[26] According to these and many other historical accounts it appears that Joseph had available to him a divine source of “sight” throughout his life that could have aided him greatly in understanding not only what may have been on the Egyptian papyri, but about the lives of the patriarchs, including Abraham and Joseph.[27]

Stay tuned for the remaining two blog topics, which go to the heart of this study: "What can Abraham's and Sarah's lives and responses to their life expereinces teach us about what it means to be 'endowed with power from on high'"? And "What might Joseph have learned about temple ordinances and doctrine from the task the Lord gave him to translate this ancient record?"

[1] At their initial meeting Michael Chandler presented Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery with a certificate, signed by six medical doctors, which Cowdery later quoted in a letter, dated December 22, 1835, to William Frye. See “Letters of Oliver Cowdery, Doctrine and Covenants Central, https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/history/oliver-cowdery/#:~:text=Public%20Domain%20Image-,LETTERS%20OF%20OLIVER%20COWDERY,Huntington%20Library%20or%20Church%20Archives (“The papyrus covered with black or red ink, or paint, in excellent preservation, are very interesting. The undersigned, unsolicited by any person connected by interest with this exhibition, have voluntarily set their names hereunto, for the simple purpose of calling the attention of the public to an interesting collection, not sufficiently known in this city.”).

The JSP editors add, however, “The precise condition of the papyri at the time of the 1835 purchase is unknown, though evidence suggests that they were deteriorating even before the purchase. While the papyri were in a state of ‘excellent preservation’ when they arrived in America, by March 1835, a Cleveland newspaper stated that the ends of one roll “are somewhat decayed, but at the centre the leaves are in a state of perfect preservation.” JSP, “Introduction to Revelations and Translations: Volume 4,” “Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts,” https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/intro/introduction-to-revelations-and-translations-volume-4#11265721177131929203. [2] Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham, 5. [3] History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, vol. 2 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News, 1948), 236. [4] Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham, 6-9. [5] See Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, eds., A Guide to the Book of Abraham, BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 61: Iss. 4, Article 56 (2022), 13-30 (including images of the fragments) https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol61/iss4/56. The editors of this excellent summary of Book of Abraham research concluded their chapter on “What Egyptian Papyri Did Joseph Smith Possess?” with this observation:

It should be remembered that this Egyptian material is what we currently know Joseph Smith possessed. It is possible, and indeed likely, that Joseph Smith possessed more papyri than have survived. Eyewitness accounts of those who viewed the papyri during Joseph Smith’s lifetime

suggest a substantial portion of papyri is no longer extant. What may have been contained on the portion of missing papyrus (including, potentially, a copy of what modern readers would identify as the Book of Abraham) and exactly how much papyrus is missing are open questions that scholars are still investigating and debating.

See also Gee, An Introduction to the Book of Abraham, 10-14 (chart listing the scrolls and fragments, including the Papyrus of Hor (Book of Breathings Made by Isis) (13 cm x 320 cm or about 10 feet long; 13 cm x 68 cm still extant, remainder destroyed in Chicago fire); Papyrus of Semminis (Book of the Dead chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 53, 54, 57, 63, 65, 67, 70, 72, 74, 75, 76, 77, 83, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 110, 125, and other unidentified texts)(also estimated to be 32 cm x 320 cm, but “early accounts” of which indicated it “may have been extended twice as long” or about 20 feet long, only 32 cm x 117 cm still extant, remainder or inner portion of roll probably destroyed in Chicago fire); Papyrus of Noufianoub (Vignette for the Book of the Dead 125 and other unidentified texts)(also 32 cm x 320 cm; 32 cm x 33 cm extant; remainder perhaps destroyed in Chicago fire); Papyrus of Amenophis (Book of the Dead 45 and other unidentified texts (32 cm x 320 cm; no existing fragments, perhaps destroyed in Chicago fire); Hypocephalus

of Sheshonq (original perhaps destroyed in Chicago fire).

As can be seen from Gee’s summary of the relatively tiny number of fragments that have survived as compared to scholars estimates of the length and breadth of the original papyri Joseph possessed, the Church’s Gospel Topics Essay, “Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham,” notes that “only small fragments of the long papyrus scrolls once in Joseph Smith’s possession exist today. The relationship between those fragments and the text we have today is largely a matter of conjecture.”[6] President Dallin H. Oaks’ recent warning comes to mind: “An abundance of speculation and false information in podcasts and on social media surrounds us. Some may protest or question the truth of Church doctrine without knowing or even understanding the fulness of that doctrine.” (emphasis added, with full awareness that this author’s offerings through “social media” are likewise subject to the high standard President Oaks set for all of us in our study and learning to avoid “speculation” and seek “true” information). Dallin H. Oaks, “Coming Closer to Jesus Christ,” BYU Devotional, February 10, 2026, https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/dallin-h-oaks/coming-closer-to-jesus-christ/. [7] Muhlstein, Let’s Talk About: The Book of Abraham, 41-66. See particularly chapter 7, “How do You Know? and chapter 8, “What does ‘Translating’ Mean?” [8]  See Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, Gary P. Gillum, ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), 2000)(examining the Book of Abraham against the backdrop of Egyptian history, ritual, and kingship); The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, John Gee and Michael D. Rhodes, eds. (Maxwell Institute Publications 2005), https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mi/85/ (showing how the papyri associated with the Book of Abraham, specifically the "Sensen" or Breathings manuscript, contain themes related to temple ordinances and the journey of the soul); An Approach to the Book of Abraham, John Gee, ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2009)( foundational study of the text, addressing the challenges of the translation and the historical setting of Ur of the Chaldees);Hugh Nibley and Michael D. Rhodes, One Eternal Round (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2010)(published posthumously, a deep dive into Facsimile No. 2 (the hypocephalus) from the Book of Abraham, connecting it to global traditions of mathematics, geometry, and cosmology). See also Hugh Nibley, "The Unknown Abraham," Improvement Era 72 (January 1969), 26; Hugh Nibley, "The Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham." Sunstone 4, no. 5/6 (December 1979), 49–51. For a bibliography of all of Nibley’s Abraham commentaries, see A Guide to the Book of Abraham, “Appendix: Book of Abraham Bibliography-- Hugh Nibley (ordered chronologically),” 299-301. [9] Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, xxix. [10] Ibid., xxvii-xxviii. [11] Gospel Topics Essay, “Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham.” [12] Gee, "A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri," 5-6. [13] Muhlestein and Hansen, “The Work of Translating,” 147, citing Anson Call, journal of Anson Call, handwritten copy dated February 1879, MS 270.1 C156L 1987, CHL, Salt Lake City. [14] Ibid., citing “Egyptian Mummies Ancient Records,” Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, December 22, 1835, 236. [15] Ibid. 148, citing William S. West, A Few Interesting Facts Respecting the Rise Progress and Pretensions of the Mormons (Ohio: self-published, 1837), 4–5. [16] Ibid., citing William I. Appleby Autobiography and Journal, July 6, 1848, MS 1401, folder 1, CHL, Salt Lake City, 72–73. [17] Ibid., citing Albert Brown to Mr. James Brown, November 1, 1835, cited in Christopher C. Lund, “A Letter Regarding the Acquisition of the Book of Abraham,” BYU Studies 30, no. 4 (Fall 1990): 1. [18] Ibid., citing, Josiah Quincy, Figures of the Past from the Leaves of Old Journals (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1892), 386. [19] Gee, "A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri," 9. [20] Smoot, “Did Joseph Smith Use a Seer Stone in the Translation of the Book of Abraham?” [21] Warren Parrish, letter to the editor, Painesville Republican, 15 February 1838, http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/OH/painerep.htm#021538, as quoted in Thompson, "We May Not Understand Our Words”, 14-15 & n.35. [22] Smoot, et. al, A Guide to the Book of Abraham, 30.[23] Muhlstein, Let’s Talk About: The Book of Abraham, 54-57. See also Stephen O. Smoot, “Joseph Smith Jr. as a Translator: The Book of Abraham as a Case Study,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, vol. 62 (2025), 345-76, who concluded his analysis of certain “data points” in the text of the Book of Abraham:

Translation is never a purely mechanical process, even under the most ideal circumstances. If we take seriously the possibility that the Book of Abraham reproduces an ancient text in some form, which I believe we should, such expansion becomes not just possible but inevitable—even when the translation is conveyed through revelation. This is because the process necessarily involved a human agent, Joseph Smith, who worked through the constraints of a human brain, expressed himself in a human language, and operated with the cultural and linguistic tools available to him at the time. In this light, the very act of translation—whether by inspiration or by scholarly engagement—is an interpretive endeavor, shaped by the translator’s understanding, experience, and context. . . .

We conclude that the case of the Book of Abraham exemplifies how Joseph Smith’s revelatory synthesis of ancient and modern sources produced a text that transcends simplistic categorizations. Called a “translation” by the Prophet, a term I accept in how I conceptualize the text, the Book of Abraham represents a rich, vibrant, and audacious work—one that seamlessly weaves together ancient truths and modern elements to create something far greater than the sum of its parts. This book offers profound doctrinal and cosmological insights that not only resonate with believers such as myself but also challenge and inspire all who honestly engage with its complexities. [370-74].

[24] Stephen O. Smoot, “Did Joseph Smith Use a Seer Stone in the Translation of the Book of Abraham?” Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel, 23, no. 2 (2022), https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/re/vol23/iss2/7. Among the sources Smoot cites:

• Wilford Woodruff, Journal, February 19, 1842, [134], “Journal (January 1, 1841–December 31, 1842),” Wilford Woodruff Papers, www.wilfordwoodruffpapers.org (“the Lord is Blessing Joseph with Power to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of God; to translate through the Urim & Thummim Ancient records & Hyeroglyphics as old as Abraham”);

• Parley P. Pratt “Editorial Remarks,” Millennial Star 3, no. 3 (July 1842): 46–47 (“The record is now in course of translation by means of the Urim and Thummim, and proves to be a record written partly by the father of the faithful Abraham, and finished by Joseph when in Egypt.”) Pratt also commented about the Lord’s hand in preserving Abraham’s record and bringing it to the Prophet to be translated: “After [Joseph of Egypt’s] death, it is supposed [the records written partly by Abraham] were preserved in the family of the Pharaohs and afterwards hid up with the embalmed body of the female with whom they were found. Thus it is, indeed, true, that the ways of the Lord are not as man’s ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts.”

• “Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt,” 626; compare Orson Pratt, in Journal of Discourses, 20:65 (“The Prophet translated the part of these writings which, as I have said is contained in the Pearl of Great Price, and known as the Book of Abraham. Thus you see one of the first gifts bestowed by the Lord for the benefit of His people, was that of revelation—the gift to translate, by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, the gift of bringing to light old and ancient records.”)

• Conversation with Lucy Mack Smith by a Quaker visitor to Nauvoo in 1846 identified simply as “M”, as reported in “Correspondence of the Friends’ Weekly Intelligencer,” Friends’ Weekly Intelligencer 3, no. 25 (September 19, 1846): 194–95; and “Correspondence of the Friends’ Weekly Intelligencer,” Friends’ Weekly Intelligencer 3, no. 27 (October 3, 1846): 211–12 (Lucy Mack Smith “said, that when Joseph was reading the papyrus, he closed his eyes, and held a hat over his face, and that the revelation came to him; and that where the papyrus was torn, he could read the parts that were destroyed equally as well as those that were there; and that scribes sat by him writing, as he expounded them”).

[25] Stephen L. Fluckiger, “Joseph Smith’s Mind—“The Learning and Wisdom of Heaven,” https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/joseph-smith-s-mind-the-learning-and-wisdom-of-heaven, citing Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 60. In his Master’s Thesis, “A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet,” Master’s Thesis, Utah State University (2000), 145, https://www.academia.edu/67755344/A_Pathway_to_Prophethood_Joseph_Smith_Junior_as_Rodsman_Village_Seer_and_Judeo_Christian_Prophet?auto=download, Mark Ashurst-McGee notes that in describing the urim and thumin, “we could see anything we wished by looking into them.” Ibid. 304 n.491. Further, “David Whitmer stated that when Joseph first put on the spectacles ‘he saw [David’s] entire past history revealed to him." Ibid. 316. See generally, Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, “Firsthand Witness Accounts of the Translation Process,” in The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, edited by Dennis L. Largey, Andrew H. Hedges, John Hilton III, and Kerry Hull (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015), 61–79, https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/firsthand-witness-accounts-translation-process; Michael Hubbard MacKay and Nicholas J. Frederick, Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, BYU; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2016). [26] Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith: By His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1956, 110. [27] See generally the author’s discussion of the seer stones and the process of revelation it involved in “Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery—Translation and the ‘Spirit of Revelation,’” https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/joseph-smith-and-oliver-cowdery-translation-and-the-spirit-of-revelation, and the references therein and other related blogs at https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/blog.