Customer Reviews

Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham (Brigham Young University - Studies in the Book of Abraham)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham is a great collection of texts, documents, and translations pertaining to the life of Abraham. These things are presented in an unbiased way, though are obviously intended for an LDS audience, though the book should be interesting to any Christian, Jew, or Muslim, or a member of any Abrahamic faith or anyone who is interested in the life of the Prophet and Patriarch Abraham.

This collection of primary texts from pagan, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sources -- several translated for the very first time -- is absolutely wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and recommend it to anybody at all interested in Abraham, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, folklore, the ancient Near East, Jewish midrashic materials, Mormonism, etc., etc.

This book was written with the purpose of showing that many of the stories about Abraham's early life from the Book of Abraham from the Pearl of Great Price are in fact in alignment with non-biblical traditions. Many of the early criticisms of the Book of Abraham were that the stories contained therein were the product of Joseph Smith's imagination. This book shows that the Book of Abraham was remarkably close to many traditions that Joseph Smith did not have access to.

The above purpose was secondary for my purchase of this book. I hardly ever see criticism of the Book of Abraham for it's historical content any more; most of it is related to how it came about. My main purpose was that I have always had a fascination about the life of Abraham. Three of the world's great religions are considered Abrahamic and I knew that there was a wealth of additional stories about his life. This book has given me full access to everything that the compilers could find about his early life. Many of the traditions appear for the first time in English in this book.

I learned a lot about his life that I didn't know. The stories were entertaining and taught several great principles. After going through this book, I almost feel like an expert on Abraham. You must be warned that there is a lot of repetition in this book, since many of the stories come from common sources. I found the variations between traditions to be fascinating.

The book is broken into 5 major sections. The first is the earliest traditions about the early life of Abraham. This includes excerpts from the Apocrypha and other early writings. The second focuses on Jewish traditions including Philo, Josephus, and the Talmud. The third focuses on Christian traditions including the Clementine Recognitions, Jerome, and Augustine. The forth section focuses on Muslim traditions, which includes the Quran. The final section covers other traditions. There is also a significant set of appendices and several indices by theme, citation, and subject.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the early life of Abraham. I do not know of any other source for so many stories about Abraham. This has compressed several lifetimes of study into a single volume.

Criticisms of the Book of Abraham, such as those from 1912 and since 1967 (e.g., Charles Larson's 1985 and 1992 editions of By hand upon papyrus) have often approached the Book of Abraham in a rather fallacious manner, claiming (incorrectly) that the papyri discovered in 1967 are the same papyri used for the translation of the Book of Abraham. Notwithstanding, many critics have avoided the question of whether the contents of the Book of Abraham, that have many elements of Abrahamic lore non-existant in the Biblical texts, plausibility. This volume by Tvedtnes et al., reveals that all these elements have, in differing gradiants, ancient textual support, texts that could not have possibly been known to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the 1800's. Indeed, this book will long be on the "must ignore" list of all self-respecting anti-Mormons for many years to come. Nevertheless, it is strongly recommended for those wishing to learn the true nature of the Book of Abraham, that of a true scriptural text translated by a true prophet of God, the ignorant protestations of critics notwithstanding.

This book has a lot of valuable information and is truly unique however the book is put together like a lawyer preparing for a court case so at times its very repetitive. Just how many variations of the same story can one read?? Too much time is being wasted by good scholars who can't stop itching and scratching over every little jot and tittle. Is it really nessasary to defend every little thing the prophet Joseph Smith gave to the world?? Must we, like Peter, draw swords to defend ourselves over any who threaten us (LDS FAITH)? Are we overly concerned with showing who is right versus what is right? I'm LDS and instead of bringing the truth to court lets allow the revelations to speak for themselves and let the spirit confirm what is true. Scholarship with their piles traditions will never illuminate the mind as does pure revelation.