Rating: 
Summary: The book relys upon "facts" that are often in error.
Review: While this book gives the appearance of unbiased scholarship, its approach is an inflexible effort to prove the Book of Abraham (touted as scripture by the Mormon Church) false. That is eminently apparent from its limited selection of "facts" used as the premise for the book. For example, the book fails to discuss the claim that the papyri identified by it as the Book of Abraham is missing some 10-15 feet from its original length. Historical records suggest strongly that this was the portion on which the actual text of the Book of Abraham was written. The book also assumes facts not in evidence in its discussion of certain materials from an "Alphabet & Grammar" allegedly written by Joseph Smith. This is especially true of the translated material from the Book of Abraham that has symbols from the Book of Breathings in the margins. The book treats as fact the assertion that Joseph Smith wrote the symbols in the margins and claimed that the paragraph next to each symbol was a "translation" of that symbol. In fact, Joseph Smith made no such assertion, and research has demonstrated that the marginal notations were made by persons other than Joseph Smith AFTER the supposed translation paragraphs were written. None of these facts are mentioned or discussed in the book. These and many other examples indicate that, although the book uses good reasoning, it applies that reasoning to highly questionable "facts," thus negating any reliability for its conclusions. Its use of LDS scholars include only statements made BEFORE many of the relevant facts were determined. Unfortunately, research that uncovers truth can take longer than the authors of this book allowed before they collected their "facts" and rushed to their conclusions. Thus, the book is also scholastically obsolete.
Rating: 
Summary: Great resource book: primary data and historiography
Review: Larson's book is certainly a "must have." The book contains color pictures of all the papyri which form the "Book of Abraham" (and the untranslated "Book of Joseph" + all of Joseph Smith's (absurd) translations + what the papyri really say. The material is thorough and concise.In addition to this, Larson summarizes the historiography of the "Book of Abraham" question: both the critics and the apologists from the 19th century to the present. Truly, the Mormon apologists are a sad lot, and Hugh Nibley the Archdissembler is their Prophet. The book unfortunately includes a good deal of Christian matter (mostly toward the end) which makes the work appear "anti-Mormon" from a religious perspective. For this reason it disqualifies itself from being the final definitive work on the subject. As a source, however, it will doubtless prove quite useful to many.
Rating: 
Summary: This book convinced me to become an Ex-Mormon
Review: This book shows undeiniable proof that Joseph Smith's translation of "The Book of Abraham" is a fraud. I highly reccomend this to anyone investigating Mormonism or anyone who is having doubts about the Church. It was sufficent evidence for me to have my name removed from the LDS church membership roles and renounce my standing as an Elder.
Rating:
Summary: Put down that book by Hugh Nibley! Read this first!
Review: Although the author has done an excellent job in boiling down the available material on the Book of Abraham controversy to a single book, he has also (quite by accident, it seems,) given a detailed expose of the less than honest tactics employed by LDS apologists when defending a lost cause. Even if you skip everything regarding the papyri, this expose alone is well worth the price of the book. It is my opinion that anyone wishing to read *anything* written by LDS author Hugh Nibley would be very wise to read this book first.
Rating:
Summary: This book is both accurate and compassionate.
Review: Charles Larson does an excellent job of presenting the facts about how drastically different Egyptomologists and Joseph Smith translate the same hyrogliphics, while maintaining an attitude of christian love toward those who have trusted Joseph Smith. His purpose is to spread the knowledge of the truth, and draw all his readers closer to Christ. He's obviously done a tremendous amount of research. I was very impressed with every aspect of this book. The photos are wonderful. The papyrus speak for themselves. I would reccommend this book to anyone who cares if "The Book of Abraham" is truely from God. In the words of Christ, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." May God bless your search for truth.
Rating:
Summary: Established, well documented account of Smith's 'translation
Review: Being a buff on historical accounts of early Christian, the likes of the works of Crossan, Mack and Funk, I have also read several accounts of the early history of the Mormon Church, and that of the life J. Smith. This single book of Larson's, provides a concise account of the historical facts of the case surrounding J. Smith's alleged work. Alone, this book leads most readers to conclude, that J. Smith, the 'prophet' is all but a con artist with much less art than con. The facts stand by themselves, The book of Abraham, appears as nothing more than Mr. Smith's rambling writings, faking an translation (as he said he did) of an old Egyptian papyri text for the dead, as the very writing of Abraham and an account of Joseph. Dozens of Egyptian scholars since the 1850's and continue through now, have examined the papyri and the works of the book of Abraham, and declared that Smith's 'translation' work has nothing to do with the papyri text itself, which is a standa! rd text for the dead, found with most mummies, and that what ever Smith wrote, as a 'translation' of the papyri (in the 1830's when all but one or two Frenchman could translated such a text at that time, since the language of the Egyptians has only then been discovered) Smith's book of Abraham in no way relates to the actual papyrus text. Smith used the papyrus text to makeup, his own version of Abraham's 'writings' declaring to his followers that the Lord has handed him (the prophet) this very papyrus text, upon which Abraham himself had wrote. 'There is no cheese on the moon, sir." The Mormom Church has said nothing to Larson's book, as expected, nor of the numerous other scholar's who have examined the papyrus text and that of the account of Smith's translation of it, as the Book of Abraham. The papyrus text (according to schalors) dates back to just before the BC era, and not to the time of Abraham, which it would have to had, it been written by Abraham'! s own hand. Having said this, religion is often the way ! or path of followers, and come as they do, the path becomes the way. There was a Jesus and there is Christ. Jesus was, and was real, for sure. For followers, Christ is real. Far be it for me to say how to belief or what to follow. But, least ye be fooled, check the tires before you roll down the road. Of course, many of folks drive what they please and seem happy. Just don't tell me the tires are round, when I can seem that they are a bit flat.
Rating:
Summary: Opens the Door to Objective Questioning
Review: The most notable aspect of this book is that the author presents a strong case against the authenticity of the Book of Abraham and the accuracy of Joseph Smith's translation of this papyrus even though he has no formal training in the relevant fields. This suggests that LDS scholars have been less than objective in their research, since the points he brings up would be immediately evident to any scholar confronting this area. Yet before the publication of this book the issues presented were never addressed by them. The decades of silence from the LDS scholarly community on the points Mr. Larson now brings up are nearly as much an indictment for LDS scholarship as this book is for the Book of Abraham. Now, of course, I am sure many in the Mormon Church will nitpick and criticize the book. It will be easy to do, since the book is not written with the authority of scholarship. But the basic arguments of the book are compelling, and I believe will be impossible to refute directly. Mr. Larson has opened the door to what is perhaps the most damaging argument against the divinity of the Mormon Church and the prophetic role of its first prophet. It remains for others with more training to enter and rigorously investigate his findings.
Rating: 
Summary: Author's reaction to response to this book:
Review: Since its initial publication and release, this book has occasionally been criticized by some LDS apologists who do not seem to approve of the conclusions it draws, yet I am pleased to report that it has achieved an excellent reputation for accuracy, reliability, and quality of research among scholarly professionals -- including some who are even members of the LDS Church. I have been gratified to see it become one of the preeminent reference works in the field of LDS studies, and have been deeply moved by the personal accounts of many who have been affected in a positive way by the information it contains. I welcome comments from readers at my E-mail address
Rating:
Summary: A must for any Mormon (LDS) to read.
Review: This book is an excellent account of how the Book of Abraham is a fraud.
It contains beautiful color fold out photographs of the Joseph
Smith Papyri, and it includes photocopies of several letters written by LDS archaeologist Thomas Stuart Ferguson.
http://www.california.com/~rpcman/MO.HTM for more reviews.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor scholarship
Review: The following are excerpts from a review of this book by Dr. John Gee, who has a PhD in Egyptology from Yale University: "He makes fun of the book of Abraham.... Yet, left on his own to translate Egyptian, he gives us gibberish (pp. 97-99). He does not even identify the contents of the various Egyptian texts correctly (pp. 62, 120, 138). Not only is Larson apparently unable to read the original texts to which he refers, but he has misunderstood the translations he himself cites. Contrary to his assertion that the Book of Breathings contains "prayers to pagan Egyptian gods" (pp. 120, 138), the Joseph Smith Book of Breathings is addressed to no Egyptian gods; rather, it is addressed to a human individual and reminds him of promises made to him and things he has experienced. "Larson ... betrays no knowledge of any foreign language, yet offers to guide us through Egyptian.... ([From the review's footnotes:] Larson's statement about vowels on p. 232 n. 3 is not true.) ... he cannot even pull the correct hieratic signs from the papyrus.... ([From the review's footnotes:] E.g., the fourth set of signs on p. 99, far from being the m-ht signs of column 1, line 3, are the w and p signs from irw p3, column 1, line 6.)... "Larson labels facsimile 3 "the single most common form of Egyptian funerary scene known...." For him the scene is just the standard "chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead" (p. 108). This is an important point for critics of the book of Abraham. The facsimiles must be dismissed as just run-of-the-mill pagan nonsense. The University of Chicago's Klaus Baer, however, disagreed: "Facs[imile] No. 3 is not a judgment scene and exact parallels may be hard to find." Much the same might be said of the other facsimiles.... (See Hugh W. Nibley, Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri. Larson never deals with the issues Nibley raises here.) "Larson never deals with what occurs on the Egyptian papyri we have: What do they say? What did they mean to the Egyptians? His only attempt at indicating what any of the papyri mean is an explanation of Joseph Smith Papyrus I (p. 102). But the explanation not only matches no Egyptian text; it makes no sense. How can grandchildren be present at their father's conception? Can Larson produce any Egyptian text where the Egyptians make this mistake?.... "Larson provides what he claims to be a "professional reconstruction" (pp. 62-65), contrasting it with Joseph Smith's reconstruction of missing portions of the papyri, of which he is extremely critical. To restore a lacuna ... careful comparison to parallel texts must be done in order to show that the restorations are even possible. Can Larson produce another papyrus (as opposed to a temple wall) where the figure on the lion couch is ithyphallic? Can he show any authentic Egyptian drawing where anyone wearing breeches is ithyphallic? While Larson has noted that there are some characters above the figures, he has misunderstood the implications. The characters are in vertical columns marked by vertical lines to either side of the text, a practice reserved for cases where there is more than one column of text. Given at least two columns of text, there is no room for the bird hovering over the figure. A hand is the only reasonable restoration. Besides, the artist has already demonstrated how he draws the end of a bird's wing, and it is not in separate strokes. Thus the restoration Larson mocks (pp. 155-56) is possible, whereas his own is not.... "Nearly every attempt at reconstruction of Joseph Smith Papyrus I strenuously tries to avoid the knife in the standing figure's hand. This, the critics say, is a figment of Joseph Smith's imagination.... Nevertheless, an eyewitness account suggests that it was, in fact, present on the original ... "a number of glazed slides, like picture frames, containing sheets of papyrus, with Egyptian inscriptions and hieroglyphs. . . . Pointing to the figure of a man lying on a table, he [the Mormon guide] said, 'That is the picture of Abraham on the point of being sacrificed. That man standing by him with a drawn knife is an idolatrous priest of the Egyptians.' " ... "Larson tries to dismiss the notion that the document from which the book of Abraham was translated was "beautifully written upon papyrus, with black, and a small part red, ink or paint, in perfect preservation" (pp. 129-32). But there is another eyewitness account from the Nauvoo period that supports this statement.... And there is still more evidence that Joseph Smith had additional papyri.... "Larson's discussion of Hugh Nibley's qualifications to deal with the papyri is similarly inaccurate ... Dr. Nibley's first study of Egyptian was in 1927; he used it in his Ph.D. dissertation and in articles published [later]... In 1959 ... Nibley became Klaus Baer's first student in Egyptian.... During the summer of 1964 Nibley studied under both Baer and Wilson at the University of Chicago. When the papyri appeared, it had been forty years since Nibley's first introduction to Egyptian. ... Egyptologists have quoted Nibley in respected Egyptological journals.... "Larson never deals with the contents of the Joseph Smith Papyri. He does not seem to know what is in them ... he condemns the contents outright without ever properly examining them.... "All we have from Larson in his attempted rebuttals is that somebody somewhere does understand the Egyptian material, but that no one (or at least no Bible-believer) should try...." (Review of By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri by Charles M. Larson. Reviewed by John Gee. FARMS Review of Books, Volume 4, Issue 1. Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1992. Pp. 93-119.)
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