Scribe, Egyptian-language project
William W. Phelps
1792–1872
1 topic · 2 dated events · 3 sources
Their part in each topic
The Book of Abraham and the Joseph Smith Papyri
Scribe, Egyptian-language project
Phelps wrote to his wife Sally in July 1835 that Smith 'knew what they were' and intended to 'translate and print them in a book,' and in September that 'nothing has been doing in the translation of the Egyptian Record for a long time.' He inscribed most of the bound Grammar and Alphabet volume, one of the three Egyptian Alphabet documents, and the prefatory material of Book of Abraham Manuscript–C. How much of the Egyptian-language project was his rather than Smith's is itself a live argument.
In the timeline
2 events across 1 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.
'The system of astronomy was unfolded'
Smith's journal records that he 'labored on the Egyptian alphabet, in company with brsr O. Cowdery and W. W. Phelps: The system of astronomy was unfolded.' Gee dates the three Egyptian Alphabet documents to this session on the strength of the entry and the three handwritings.
Three manuscripts of Abraham 1–2 are written outhinge
Williams and Parrish inscribed Manuscripts A and B, apparently simultaneously and at least partly from dictation; Phelps and Parrish produced the fuller Manuscript–C in a bound volume with prefatory material. Each carries Egyptian characters copied into a ruled left margin beside paragraph-length passages of English.
Sources in their own name
Source records in the database whose author line names this person. Each links to the topic that uses it.
Book of Abraham Manuscripts A, B and C, circa July–circa November 1835
Frederick G. Williams, Warren Parrish, William W. Phelps (scribes)
The earliest English text of Abraham 1:1–2:18, with Egyptian characters copied into the left margins beside paragraph-length English passages.
Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, circa July–circa November 1835
William W. Phelps (principal scribe)
What Smith and his scribes actually believed Egyptian characters meant — Kolob, Jah-oh-eh, Zip Zi and the rest — in a system of 'degrees' that corresponds to nothing in Egyptology.
Letter, W. W. Phelps to Brigham Young, 12 August 1861, reporting a revelation of 17 July 1831
William W. Phelps
The claimed 1831 origin of plural marriage, tied to a command to marry Lamanite and Nephite women.
Appears alongside
People who share the most dated events with William W. Phelps.
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