Champollion – and Egyptian – aren’t the only influences on the GAEL.
Author: Jonathan Green
Jonathan Green has been described as a scholar of German, master of trivia, and academic vagabond. He is an instructor of German in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at the University of North Dakota. His books include Printing and Prophecy: Prognostication and Media Change, 1450– 1550 (2011), and The Strange and Terrible Visions of Wilhelm Friess: Paths of Prophecy in Reformation Europe (2014).
V. The GAEL’s Degrees and the Structure of Abraham 1:2b-3
Two related features of the GAEL that have been the focus of the most controversy and puzzlement are how one character might represent much longer English texts, and the GAEL’s use of a five-fold system of degrees to expand a character’s potential meaning.
IV. The GAEL and the structure of Abraham 1:1-2a
In his 2009 article, Chris Smith argued for the textual dependence of the Book of Abraham on the GAEL. While Dan Vogel’s recent book about the Book of Abraham and related apologetics strenuously objects to any suggestion that the GAEL was reverse engineered from the translation of Abraham, Vogel nevertheless entirely rejects the basis of Chris Smith’s argument.
III. What Joseph Smith Knew About Champollion
With the preliminary deliberations out of the way, it’s time for a close look at the GAEL.
II. What Joseph Smith Would Have Known About Champollion
Before we get to the heart of my argument – which is coming up next in a long post with a detailed look at what’s in the GAEL – we need to look at what Joseph Smith and his associates would have known about Champollion and the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics by 1835.
I. Putting the grammar back in GAEL
Scholars from seemingly every corner of Mormon Studies agree: While working on the Egyptian papyri, Joseph Smith and his associates were either unaware of Champollion’s recent work to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, or simply unaffected by the recent advances in Egyptology. Not only is this position untenable, it’s demonstrably incorrect.
Firing faculty: some educated guesses
Like most media outlets, Inside Higher Ed isn’t well equipped to report stories about BYU-Idaho – it doesn’t entirely understand that BYU and BYU-Idaho are two different schools, for example. But if I had to read between the lines and make an educated guess, this is what I think is happening.
A Centrist Church in a Polarized Age
On most cultural issues, the Church is situated somewhere between the center left and the center right.
Stranger People
Season 4 of Stranger Things took a detour inside an exotic world it had never explored before: a Latter-day Saint home in mid-80s Utah.
Standing with Babylon
One nice thing about reading the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon together is that it lets us expand our mental geography of Zion into a full cartographic plane.
Thoughts on Ukraine
It’s going to be horrific.
Options for BYU faculty
Over at BCC, John S. has a post that is, overall, not very helpful.
Making Sense of Prophecies (6): Concluding Thoughts
The question “Did Samuel Lutz really write this” is ultimately not as useful as the question of how the prophecy of “Lutius Gratiano” came about, and what function it served for those who kept it in circulation.
Making Sense of Prophecies (5): “Lutius Gratiano” in the 20th and 21st centuries
Making Sense of Prophecies (4): The Origin of “Lutius Gratiano”
With early efforts to locate the text in mind, we can now reconstruct the origin of the prophecy of “Lutius Gratiano.”
Making Sense of Prophecies (3): Reconsidering “Lutius Gratiano”
In the prophecy of “Lutius Gratiano,” we have the unusual opportunity to observe the formation and development of a prophecy in some detail.
Making Sense of Prophecies (2): How to Read a Prophecy
Earlier scholarship has often understood the function of prophetic texts as providing information about the future.
Making Sense of Prophecies (1): Preliminaries
For several years, my academic research has focused on late medieval and early modern prophecies.
A plea for opacity
It’s the ecclesiology, stupid.
The hundred billion dollar question
The stakes in the 2024 election couldn’t be higher.
Ruf aus der Wüste 6: Appendix
Orson Hyde asks people to read his book. Or else.
Ruf aus der Wüste 5.5: Hyde’s police report
Orson Hyde might be protesting too much here.
Ruf aus der Wüste 5.4: Hyde on Illinois
For Hyde, Zion has been displaced, but not deferred.
Paid clergy isn’t priestcraft
But I’m still glad we don’t have one.
Ruf aus der Wüste 5.3: Hyde on Missouri
The experience of persecution in Missouri was not just recent history. For Hyde, it was the literal fulfillment of prophecy about the last days.
We did okay
If you survey the damage left by Donald Trump and Covid-19 in our neighborhood of the American religious landscape, a sigh of relief is warranted.
Ruf aus der Wüste 5.2: Hyde on wealth
Orson Hyde, socialist?
Ruf aus der Wüste 5.1: Hyde on the end time
Hyde touches on his own life and perspective for the first time.
Home MTC is good
At some point in the near future, the Missionary Training Center will likely reopen fully, and in some ways that’s unfortunate, because home MTC is good.
Ruf aus der Wüste 4.15-16: Hyde on washing of feet
I think this is more about foot washing than I’ve ever read anywhere before.