A Scene from the Garden According to the Book of Joseph

1. Mormonism

The “Book of Joseph” was said to be a mostly-untranslated book of scripture written by Joseph of Egypt upon papyrus. This papyrus was among the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, which also produced the facsimile 1, facsimile 2, facsimile 3, and The Book of Abraham.

A portion that I have always found fascinating from this papyrus is the snake with legs standing next to a person. This graphic was likely a part that was “translated” by Joseph Smith Jr., as there are multiple accounts of what this is meant to depict.

Oliver Cowdery on December 22nd, 1835 said: “The serpent, represented as walking, or formed in a manner to be able to walk, standing in front of, and near a female figure, is to me, one of the greatest representations I have ever seen upon paper, or a writing substance; and must go so far towards convincing the rational mind of the correctness and divine authority of the holy scriptures, and especially that part which has ever been assailed by the infidel community, as being a fiction, as to carry away, with one might sweep, the whole atheistical fabric, without leaving a vestige sufficient for a foundation stone.”

William West in 1837 said: “The Mormons have four mummies, and a quantity of records, written on papyrus, in Egyptian hieroglyphics, which were brought from the catacombs near Thebes, in Egypt. They say that the mummies were Egyptian, but the records are those of Abraham and Joseph, and contain important information respecting the creation, the fall of man…”

William I. Appleby on May 5th, 1841 said: “the serpent when he beguiled Eve. He appears with two legs, erect in the form and appearance of man. But his head in the form, and representing the serpent, with his forked tongue extended.”

Josiah Quincy on January 28th, 1854 recounted his 1844 trip and said: [Joseph Smith Jr.] took us into an interior apartment of his dwellings, and opening a closet, he showed us three mummies, which he said he had procured from Egypt, at an expense of $6000.—One of them he said was Adam, one was Eve, and the third, which was a sort of duck-legged object, he said was the serpent. ‘Why,’ said I, ‘that cannot be a serpent, for that was a snake.’ ‘O, no!’ said the prophet, ‘not before the fall; the serpent walked upon legs like a chicken before the fall. But after he tempted our first mother to eat the forbidden fruit, then God cursed the serpent ‘above every beast of the field, and said, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” For this exhibition be blandly told us that spectators usually paid his mother a quarter of a dollar.”

While the papyrus is said to have been mostly untranslated, clearly this particular portion was widely interpreted to be a depiction of Eve and the snake in Eden. Today apologists look forward to a day when a Prophet will translate it. One fundamentalist, Samuel Warren Shaffer (disclaimer: Shaffer is in jail for child rape), claims to have translated this papyrus, and some reports claim that the RLDS church hid it from the public (which is a complete fabrication).

2. Scholarship

However, scholars have been able to learn how to read ancient Egyptian because of the Rosetta Stone, and we now know that “The Book of Joseph” is actually the Book of the Dead of Ta-sherit-Min (also called “Tshemmin and “Semminis”) and the Book of the Dead of Nefer-ir-nebu. “The Book of the Dead” is essentially a document which contains spells to help the deceased in the afterlife and is buried with their body. The various spells that were common in Books of the Dead have since been catalogued and assigned numbers.

In “The Joseph Smith Papyri: A Complete Edition“, Robert Ritner identifies this as Spell 74. On page 277/422, Ritner says:

“Sokar, god of inertness, is compelled to allow the the deceased free passage to heaven. The vignette shows the deceased standing with a staff before a serpent striding on two legs. [John A.] Wilson notes that the serpent is “a symbol of earth, since snakes live underground.”

Ritner then gives the following as the translation for this spell:

“Spell for striding with the legs and for [going forth from the earth.] Recitation by the Osiris Ta-sherit-Min, the justified, born of Nes-Khonsu, the justified. “May you do what you do to me, Sokar, Sokar who is in his cavern, my impeder in the necropolis. May I shine as the master of this district of heaven. May I ascend the solar rays. O I am weary, weary! I have gone although weary, weary, in the necropolis on the shores of the one who seizes their speech in the necropolis. My ba-spirit is justified in the house of Atum, lord of Heliopolis.”

To contrast with another scholar’s translation, Ritner also gives John A. Wilson’s 1968 translation:

“The speech for stretching the legs [and going forth from earth. Words to be spoken] by the Osiris T-N: ‘You will do what you should do [against him,] O Sokar, Sokar, who is in his cave, who is the obstructor in the necropolis. I shine as the one who is over this district of heaven. I climb upon the sun’s rays, being weary, weary. I have gone, being weary, weary, in the necropolis, upon the banks of taking away their speech in the necropolis. My soul is triumphant in the house of Atum, lord of Heliopolis.’”

In 2010, “Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Neferirnub: Studies in the Book of Abraham“, J. Gee and Brian M. Hauglid translate this spell as:

“A chapter for hurrying the feet and going forth (on the earth words to be spoken) by the Osiris of Tshemmin, justified, born of Eskhons, justified. It is against me that you do the things you do, O Sokar, Sokar who is in his cave, my opponent in the god’s domain. May I shine above that part of the sky. May I sit upon the sunbeams, since I am so weary. I have set out, being so weary, from the god’s domain upon the shores of him who would seize their utterance in the god’s domain. My soul is justified in the house of Atum, the lord of Heliopolis.”

Scholars such as Prof. Dr. Faten Hamdy El Elimi, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sherin Hafez Mohamed, and Mrs. Radwa Wahid Samir, who are all Faculty of Tourism & Hotels, Suez Canal University, Egypt, have gone into more depth as to what this spell means. In short, it is a funerary text designed to liberate the deceased from the restraints of the tomb and the wrappings of mummification and give them the ability to freely move about in the afterlife.

3. Mormonism Revisited

I often say that we need to let scholarship be scholarship and let myth be myth. Nothing any Mormon does can change the past of what Spell 74 meant to the Egyptians. However, Spell 74 has its own myth within Mormonism that is unique and separate from the Ancient Egyptian meaning.

I thought it might be fun to expound upon the Mormon myth in light of the new scholarship that we have.

After the Nephilim lost the War in Heaven and were cast down from the heights of Kolob, their prince, Satan, was consumed with wrath and envy, for he was denied a human form. Seeking to appease him, the Nephilim fashioned for him a dreadful tabernacle: serpentine in form, yet bearing the legs and feet of humanity. Though monstrous, it pleased Satan well enough, and he entered into it. And though clothed in flesh, his mind remained sharp, untouched by the veil of forgetfulness that clouds the minds of humans.

Knowing full well the laws of Eden, Satan know that if Eve were to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, she would be cast forth from her paradisical abode. Still burning with spite and vengeance, he tore a branch from the Tree which bore a fruit and extended it to the woman, promising that its fruit was desirable, sweet to the taste, and filled with the power to make one wise.

But Eve saw beyond the temptation and discerned the motive beneath the serpent’s words. She knew that to eat would be to embrace sorrow, labor, and death. Yet in Eden her progress has stagnated, for she was untouched by grief and therefore untouched by joy. And she understood: without opposition, there is no growth; without the fall, no ascent.

And so Eve, with holy courage, spoke: “O Satan, my opponent, I shall partake of this fruit not as a curse, but so I may shine in the heavens and know freedom and the fullness of joy. I shall stretch forth my legs and go forth over the earth, and though I will grow weary, this fruit shall be a ladder as I climb upon the sun’s rays and grow into exaltation.”