Book of Abraham Translation – The Lord’s Final Tutorial
- Stephen Fluckiger
- 2 days ago
- 14 min read
Updated: 23 hours ago
The Lord’s purposes in commanding Joseph Smith to translate the Bible. To accommodate our Come Follow Me Old Testament study, my past 5 blogs have focused largely on Joseph Smith’s study of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives.
In his reconstruction of the timeline over which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Genesis, Kent P. Jackson notes that in his 1838-39 history, “‘soon after the words of Enoch were given,’ God instructed [the Prophet] to set the translation aside for a while. The date of that revelation is December 30, 1830.” This would have put he and Sidney Rigdon, his scribe at the time, “at the end of Genesis 5,” which Rigdon transcribed “at the top of page 20” in Old Testament Manuscript 1 (OT1) of the Joseph Smith Translaton.[1]
In the beginning of February 1831, the Prophet picked up from the story of Enoch, translating Genesis 5:24-11:32, which covers the ministry of Noah and his sons, including Abraham’s lineage from Noah and Shem. By March 7, 1831, he had translated Genesis 12:1-24:41, which covers the life and ministry of Abraham and Sarah to the beginning of Eliezer’s divinely guided search for Isaac’s wife, Rebekah. “By that time, they had arrived at page 61 of the [OT1]manuscript . . ., which is where OT1 ends.”[2]
On March 7, 1831, the Lord instructed Joseph to begin translating the New Testament (D&C 45:60-61). Joseph began the next day. He did not return to translating Genesis until July 1832. Jackson estimates that he completed Genesis by the beginning of August 1832.[3]
Thus, during July 1832 the Prophet would have studied Issac’s marriage (or sealing, no doubt by his father Abraham) to Rebekah (Genesis 24:42-67); Abraham’s marriage (sealing?) to Keturah (Genesis 25:1-6);[4] Isaac’s (and no doubt Rebekah’s) prayer for children and the birth of twins, Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:19-26); their youth; Jacob’s birthright blessing, endowment, marriage and subsequent calling and election (Genesis 25:27-35:29); and Joseph’s birthright and ministry (Genesis 37-50). These intensive studies were followed by Jospeh Smith’s translation of the Book of Abraham in 1835 and 1842.
By asking Joseph Smith to study (or “translate”) these Bible stories, how was the Lord preparing him to restore the ordinances of the temple? What can we learn from the Lord’s miraculous preservation of the ancient Egyptian papyri containing the Book of Abraham over the millennia? (Or even His commandment that Abraham go to Egypt in the first place, knowing that the Egyptians did not have the priesthood and thus could not have authorized gospel ordinances? Why then have Abraham share the gospel with them?) And His causing Abraham's record to come into Joseph’s possession at this time in Joseph Smith’s ministry? And why direct him to translate and publish it with all else that he had to do?[5]
What was it about the teachings and lives of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that is so relevant to the substance and purpose of the endowment and sealing ordinances?
Hopefully the insights of faithful LDS scholars that I have gleaned on these questions and shared in my previous blogs have provided some food for thought. For me, the evidence in these Bible chapters that God was guiding, protecting and sanctifying Abraham and Sarah and their children and grandchildren through their covenantal relationships with Him helped Joseph understand the central role of temple ordinances and covenants in the lives of God’s people.
Facsimile 2– The Lord’s Final Tutorial. In their insightful article about Facsimile 2, scholars John W. Welch and Michael D. Rhodes shed light on how Joseph Smith’s work with the Egyptian papyri directly influenced his understanding of the temple endowment. The publication of the Book of Abraham and its accompanying facsimiles in March 1842 perfectly coincided with the Prophet's preparations to introduce the endowment ordinance in Nauvoo on May 4, 1842. Welch and Rhodes propose that Joseph drew crucial structural insights “from the sequence of numbers 1 to 23 and the accompanying explanations that Joseph added to the stages,” or sequenced images depicted, in Facsimile 2.[6]
Facsimile 2 is a representation of an ancient Egyptian hypocephalus, a flat, round artifact commonly placed under the heads of mummies to help their spirits find their way into the presence of God in the afterlife. Joseph Smith carefully examined the symbols and pictograms on this artifact. As the authors note, “Joseph was a keen and diligent observer of the specific details, positions, relationships, symbols and purposes that he and others could notice in Facsimile 2.” He recognized that the artifact served as a holy celestial roadmap, charting the soul's postmortal eternal journey back to the divine presence.[7]
A key discovery in Welch and Rhodes's analysis is the deliberate and specific numbering of the figures within the facsimile. When preparing the artifact for publication, Joseph Smith explicitly instructed the engraver, Reuben Hedlock, to insert the numbers 1 through 23 into the printing plate. Rather than being a random catalog of images, “those twenty-three numbers give readers the order in which Joseph Smith read the hypocephalus.” The sequence he established offers a profound key to understanding the artifact's underlying meaning.[8]
By following Joseph's numerical path across the facsimile, a distinct progression emerges that mirrors the stages of the temple endowment. The journey begins with figure 1 at the center, representing “the first creation” nearest to God or our premortal existence. The sequence then moves through various stages, which echo the symbolic journey of Adam and Eve in the endowment, before ultimately returning to the center, where figures 22 and 23 depict glorified beings who have completed their cosmic journey and re-entered the presence of God. Welch and Rhodes argue that there are “several close correspondences that exist between the sequence of stages in Facsimile 2 and the comparable sequence of stages found in the temple endowment.”[9]
This conceptual roadmap had a direct, practical application when Joseph Smith formally introduced the endowment ceremony just a few months later. In May 1842, Joseph divided the upper room of his Red Brick Store into different departments, moving initiates “from one department to another giving [them] signs, tokens . . . with the Key words” of the endowment. Welch and Rhodes suggest that the inspiration for this physical, sequential progression through sacred spaces is largely “to be found in Joseph’s having precisely identified the particular sequential order of the figures in Facsimile 2.”[10]
“Consistent with the sequence of figures in Facsimile 2 as explained above, the floorplan of the attic floor of the Nauvoo Temple was designed to accommodate the ordered sequence of progression found in the endowment itself.” Welch and Rhodes correlate Joseph’s explanation of the figures in Facsimile 2 with Lisle Brown’s listing of the rooms[11] on the upper floor of the Nauvoo Temple (which was patterned after Joseph’s set-up on the upper floor of the Red Brick storehouse).[12]
The following chart sets out (in a highly summarized fashion--for more detail consult their article cited below) the correlations Welch and Rhodes draw between the symbolic journey of the deceased in the Egyptian hypocephalus represented in Facsimile 2 and the “journey” an endowment patron symbolically takes through the ordinance rooms in the Nauvoo Temple (which room configuration was subsequently followed in the St. George, Manti, Logan and Salt Lake Temples):
1 |
| “The faithful entered through the outer and inner welcoming courts of the temple, |
2 |
| into a small examination or recommend station, |
3 |
| on into a booth for washings and anointings, and then |
4 |
| into a waiting station. When ready, the ritual journey continued |
5 |  “Fig. 1. Kolob, signifying the first creationnearest to the celestial, or the residence of God.” Individuals 22 & 23 represent spirit children of God [representative of all God’s faithful spirit children] who begin their spiritual journey in pre-mortality and then “complete their cycle and return there to God and unto exaltation at the end of their journey” | on into the heavenly council, or creation room (compare figure 1 and Abraham 3 [Abraham’s vision of the Divine Council, “foreordination, the creation, the choosing of a Redeemer, and the second estate of man”]), |
6 |  Figure 2 shows an individual “holding the key of power . . . as revealed from God to Abraham, as he offered sacrifice upon an altar, which he had built unto the Lord;” [Explanation 2] “Beside this figure’s left foot is a small sacrificial altar, surrounded by three items (fish? bread? wine?) to be offered. . . . Anciently, altars were typically the first thing one encountered right outside of temples and were part of the preparation for entering therein. Thus, in this stage, [an individual sent from God gives] laws and [the initiate] presumably agrees to observe the laws and ordinances of obedience and sacrifice.” | reliving key events in the Garden of Eden (see Moses 3–4 and figure 2 with its explanation), |
7 |  “In figure 3 the [initiate] progresses . . . moving into a lone and dreary place. Seated on a small private riverboat is a figure that Joseph Smith indicates in his explanation of figure 3 represents “God, sitting upon his throne, clothed with power and authority; with a crown of eternal light [the sun disk] 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, Melchizedek, Abraham, and all to whom the Priesthood was revealed” . . .. Thus, Joseph Smith saw this stage as representing God (or Jesus Christ or possibly his authorized servants) [leading] the way, being “clothed with power and authority; with a crown of eternal light” coming to reveal the [covenants,] symbols and powers of the priesthood to each [initiate]. The goal would be for his followers to be similarly enrobed, crowned, and given holy key words that had been revealed to Adam in the Garden as well as to other ancient patriarchs, prophets, and priests.” | being cast out into the world, or telestial room (see Moses 5 [“Adam and Eve bring forth children—Adam offers sacrifice, serves God . . . Cain rebels . . . The gospel preached from the beginning, or, in other words, the "Law of the Gospel of Jesus Christ"], corresponding with figure 3 with its explanation), |
8 |  “Figure 4 shows what might be seen as the soul taking flight, soaring to a next level as if on outspread wings. ‘Answers to the Hebrew word Raukeeyang, signifying expanse, or the firmament of the heavens . . . ’. (explanation to figure 4). Because the firmament was commonly understood in antiquity as a ceiling boundary in the heavens, rising above it can be seen as passing into a higher level of progression. To an Egyptian, this figure may have represented the soul fully emerging out of its mummy bands of death. . . . At this stage in Joseph’s endowment the initiate is prepared to make a major jump up, from register II [the upper third of Facsimile 2] to register III [the lower third of Facsimile 2—recognizing that because the hypocephalus is a circle, by simply turning it, down becomes up], symbolically moving from one temple level to a higher one. The strong bird here leads or carries the advancing soul on wings of glory forward in its quest. It looks as though this messenger is aiming directly toward the presence of God in figure 1, but first the soul must advance through one more stage of progression” | crossing the firmament into the area representing the terrestrial degree of glory (figure 4), |
9 |  “Register III, containing figures 5, 6, and 7 . . . is positioned immediately below the central figure of the all-seeing God in figure 1. This register . . . depicts an uninterrupted row of twelve figures inviting progressing souls to complete their quest to receive the necessary eternal blessings and higher powers of God, enabling them to [return] to their point of origin with God in figure 1.” The “three small figures stacked up at the far-right end of this panel . . . are, from bottom to top, (1) a ram, (2) a lion, and (3) a lotus. Those three powerful symbols [may represent messengers] sent into this scene by the higher authority of God.” Once scholar suggests the Prophet’s explanations “seems to include an unfolding of the Creation account, mentioning the firmament in regard to figure 4; the sun, moon, and stars in figure 5; and the earth in figure 6, [consistent with ] the temple in Jerusalem." But “before the final return back into God’s presence can occur, two other laws remain to be given in Joseph’s view—namely, the laws of chastity and of consecration in preparation for the ordinance of holy matrimony. Might Joseph have seen anything along these lines within the symbols found in figures 5, 6, and 7?” “The cow [representing] the cow goddess [who] ‘governed over the realms of love, sex, and fertility . . .,’ “the divine mother of Re [the sun god],” who “with her four sons can be seen generally as symbolizing fidelity, genealogy, procreation, family, love, husband and wife relations, child-rearing, posterity, and human life.” The four sons (of Horus), Egyptologists have argued are cosmic representations of “four corners” or “supports” of the universe and the heaven, thus symbolizing “one’s need to remain aligned with each of the four-fold features included in the endowment ceremony—that is, the four signs, four tokens, four names, and four markings on the veil and on temple garments.” | receiving “the grand Key” of “governing power” (figure 5) and “grand Key-words of the priesthood” (figure 7).
Welch and Rhodes suggest that in the “grouping of several figures on the left end of [this figure], Joseph Smith saw a representation of a holy being ‘sitting upon his throne, revealing through the heavens the grand Key-words of the [high] Priesthood; . . .’ (explanation to figure 7). Joseph’s explanation holds out the prospect that the initiate will indeed ultimately be given, by three commissioned messengers, the ‘grand Key-words of the priesthood.’ God has revealed these key words from above, so they have thus come down ‘through the heavens,’ accompanied with symbols through the veil of heaven. Those key words of Joseph Smith’s endowment will ultimately be used to allow the soul to return to the presence of God as will happen in figures 22 and 23, in the end and back at the beginning.” “The main figure obviously raises his left arm to the square. Above that raised arm is a V-shaped compass . . .. Whatever the original meanings might have been, the ‘circle and square motif’ has served covenant-making and spiritual-orientation functions in temples throughout civilizations all over the world.” (See below) |
10 |
| Passage continued through the marked temple veil, or way of Christ, and finally ended in the celestial room, symbolizing the return to the presence of God the Father in the highest degree of eternal glory (figures 1, 22, and 23).”[13] |
“Joseph’s world knew virtually nothing about ancient Egyptian texts and ceremonies.” As Joseph studied the ancient Egyptian rituals that sought to bring the deceased into the presence of God, the Lord opened his mind to His eternal pattern of exaltation. Thus, Joseph’s inspired translation and explanations evidence God’s hand in the restoration of this capstone ordinance of the Gospel, of which “Joseph solemnly testified."[14]
Ultimately, Facsimile 2 served as a divine visual aid that helped Joseph Smith crystallize and systematize the ordinances of the holy temple. “Joseph began to perform the endowment ceremony in May 1842, less than three months after he published Facsimile 2 and the Book of Abraham," Welch and Rhodes observe. The publication of the Book of Abraham and the commencement of temple blessings “go hand in hand on several occasions, moving step-by-step in several notably similar and distinctive ways.” His inspired work on the Book of Abraham provided the final revelations he needed to organize the grand, overarching narrative of the Divine Council in which we all participated, the Creation, Fall, and the soul's upward ascent back to the Father, thereby blessing Latter-day Saints with the ordinances of exaltation.
[1] Kent P. Jackson, “Joseph Smith Translating Genesis,” BYU Studies Quarterly vol. 56, no. 4 (2017), 14-15, https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/joseph-smith-translating-genesis. For a view of page 20 of OT1, see Old Testament Revision 1, p. 20, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 29, 2026, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/old-testament-revision-1/22.
[2] Jackson, “Joseph Smith Translating Genesis,” 16.
[3] Ibid. 18.
[4] In Section 132, which the Lord may have revealed in part in conjunction with Joseph’s study of Old Testament figures who had plural wives, including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and Solomon (D&C 132:1), the Lord states that Hagar and Abraham’s other “concubines” “were given unto him” by commandment and the “law” of God (D&C 132:34-37). The Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual defines a “concubine” as “a woman legally married to a man but who, because of the time and culture in which she lived, had a lower social status and fewer rights than a wife (see Genesis 25:5–6; 2 Samuel 5:13).” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/doctrine-and-covenants-student-manual-2017/chapter-51-doctrine-and-covenants-131-132-1-33?lang=eng .Section 132:37 states that “Abraham received concubines,” meaning he received them by commandment from God. Footnote a in verse 37 refers to Genesis 25:6, which is part of the account of Abraham’s marriage to Keturah and to the sons she bore him (listed in verse 4). The fact that God sanctioned Abraham’s plural marriages to Hagar and Keturah suggests that they were, in effect, “sealed” to him.
[5] According to John Welch and Michael D. Rhodes, “it would take a whole book to describe all that was going on in Joseph’s life early in 1842.” Among other things happening in the Prophet’s Smith’s life at the time he was preparing the Book of Abraham for publication, they list the following: “planning for the building of the Nauvoo Temple and holding ideas of another temple across the river in Montrose, Iowa;” “commencing temple ordinances, including baptisms for the dead;” the opening of “Joseph’s Red Brick Store . . . for business” where the first temple ordinances would be performed; “numerous religious, civic, business, family, and scriptural projects, including re-reading the Book of Mormon in preparation for the publication of a new print run;” sick days; heavy involvement “with the Nauvoo City Council, which met often and passed resolutions almost every week, concerning such matters as the city plat of properties, the council’s rules of order, a city cemetery, a road labor tax, procedures for public auctions of property, and so forth;” a successful lawsuit against “Thomas Shearer for the recovery of one hundred acres of land that Shearer had unlawfully occupied;” the adoption of a city “ordinance allowing marriages of males over 17 years of age and of females over 14 years of age to be performed legally within the city,” thus giving the Church freedom to “define what constituted a legal marriage and . . . perform and record those ordinances in solemnity within the boundaries of the municipality of Nauvoo;” “meetings, organizing the Quorum of the Twelve;” preaching a sermon “at the funeral of an infant and afterwards baptized over sixty people on behalf of deceased individuals;” delivering “a sermon on overcoming death and on the Resurrection,” which “had been strongly portrayed in the Book of Abraham’s Facsimile 1 and guiding the soul successfully into the afterlife was the dominant theme and purpose of the hypocephalus in Egyptian burials and in Facsimile 2;” speaking “to the Relief Society to complete its organization and to begin preparing the women to receive the endowment and temple other ordinances.” John Welch and Michael D. Rhodes, “Approaching Eternal Life: Temple Elements by the Numbers in Facsimile 2,” in Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, John S. Thompson, Matthew L. Bowen, and David R. Seely, eds. (The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books 2025), 68-71, https://interpreterfoundation.org/reprint-approaching-eternal-life-temple-elements-by-the-numbers-in-facsimile-2.
[6] Welch and Rhodes, “Approaching Eternal Life: Temple Elements by the Numbers in Facsimile 2,” 23.
[7] Ibid. 27.
[8] Ibid. 34.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid. 71.
[11] Lisle G. Brown, “The Sacred Departments for Temple Work in Nauvoo: The Assembly Room and the Council Chamber,” BYU Studies 19, no. 3 (1979): 361–74.
[12] “Around 3–4 May, Dimmick Huntington reportedly helped Joseph prepare the upper room in the Red Brick Store for the first endowments. Dimmick remembered Joseph striding ‘up and down the lodge saying “hallahjuh halolujah hallahujah” saying “I have done what king Solamon, King Hiram & Hiram Abif could not do[:] I have set up the Kingdom no more to be thrown down forever nor never to be given to another people.”’ [Devery S. Anderson and Gary James Bergera, eds., Joseph Smith’s Quorum of the Anointed 1842–1845 (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2005), 3–4] The upper room was divided by curtains into a series of spaces or stages. According to Brigham Young’s recorded recollection, after being washed, anointed, and clothed in one small room, the initiates moved to the ‘large room over the store,’ where Joseph had ‘divided up the room,’ and they ‘moved along from one department to another giving us signs, tokens . . . with the Key words’ of the endowment.” Welch and Rhodes, “Approaching Eternal Life: Temple Elements by the Numbers in Facsimile 2,” 70. [13] Ibid. 42-54. [14] Ibid. 56.
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