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Approaching Anachronisms in the Book of Abraham
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Approaching Anachronisms in the Book of Abraham
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Summary: Critics have argued that there is no way that Abraham actually wrote the Book of Abraham. To support their arguments, critics have pointed to many anachronisms in the Book of Abraham. An anachronism is something that is out of place for the time it is claimed to exist. Thus, the mention of a cellphone is an anachronism in the sentence "Abraham Lincoln called his wife, Mary-Todd, on his cellphone." This page gives some principles and procedures that interested Book of Abraham students can adopt to resolve the claimed anachronisms.
Deny that the anachronism exists and assert that, although it has not yet been attested in an extant source, the posited characteristic does indeed date back to the Middle Bronze Age.
Acknowledge the anachronism, but assign it to Joseph Smith as a translator’s anachronism, which does not in and of itself compromise the Book of Abraham as a translation of an ancient source
Acknowledge the anachronism but assign it to an ancient redactor or copyist
Acknowledge the anachronism and assign it to Joseph Smith as the modern author of the text. This is generally the stance of our critics
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