A Touch of Abraham

OK it may be more than a touch of Abraham, more like a bucket load.

I've read a lot of Hugh Nibley lately.  His "An Approach to the Book of Abraham" (ABA) the title is a rip off of his classic "An Approach to the Book of Mormon" but it was an excellent book.  And then I perused his "Message of the Joseph Smith Papyrus Ver 2" or something like that.  The "Papyrus" book is a reference book that talks about Egyptian documents and the application to Mormonism is supposed to be obvious.  I've read parts of it but much of it goes right over my head.And then his "One Eternal Round" which is supposed to be his opus magnus.  How's that for a "touch" of Abraham.

Of course I'm not going to try and review all of these books here, or any where, I'm just going to give the high lights.

The Introduction to ABA was probably the most interesting of all.  In it Hugh Nibley describes how he was reading Icelandic one day because he wanted to stay close to his roots, and decided that it was boring and that he should start learning Egyptian.  So he started taking classes in it.  This was a couple of years before the Joseph Smith Papyrus (JSP) was found in the Chicago Museum, or where ever it was found, so that when it came out Dr. Nibley was ready to start making some comments on it.  And he did make some comments on it.  The first time that I became aware of Dr. Nibley was on my mission.  I was looking through the library of the Chapel in Adelaide WA and I found the series of articles that he wrote in the old Ensigns.  I took all the copies of those Ensigns back to our apartment and read them, then returned them.  They were great then and they were great this time as well.

That is an amazing story about how Dr. Nibley was prepared to be ready for the finding of the JSP, and reading the whole book was worth reading just that story.  I always wondered why Dr. Nibley spent most of the later years of his life studying the Book of Abraham.

When I read "One Eternal Round" the thing that I really got out of it is just how far the Lord revelation goes.  It says in the Book of Mormon that they Lord gives to every nation just as much of his word as they are ready for and Dr. Nibley really makes a case for this.  There is some criticism of his methods, and I've thought that some times he seems to stretch to find his similarities, especially in the Book of Enoch, but the point is that he's amazingly well read and maybe he does just see things that none of the rest of us see.

However I had a cool experience shortly after reading "One Eternal Round", and I think it is "One Eternal Round" where it is talked about.  Dr. Nibley goes to great length to show that there is a hugh amount of  literature that is apocalyptic in nature.  One thing that is common in apocalyptic literature is that the prophet is about to die, or feels he's about to die and calls to be saved and then an angel comes and saves him.  In the JS-H Joseph says that he was "ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction" when he called on the Lord to save him and not an angel but the Father and the Son come to him.  Very similar and I was surprised that Dr. Nibley never mentioned it, but maybe he did somewhere and I missed it, or maybe this was just a chance for me to find an exciting nugget of wonder.