1831–present
A scripture, a scroll, and the one translation that could be checked
20 sources, ordered by evidentiary weight — primary and contemporary first, then documentary editions, then the argument. All of them are held as full text in the Mormon Corpus.
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.
History, 1834–1836 (Kirtland journal-derived history)
Joseph Smith, Warren Parrish, Frederick G. Williams
Day-by-day Kirtland entries: labor on the Egyptian alphabet on 1 October 1835 when 'the system of astronomy was unfolded,' and the 17 November exhibition of 'the Alphabet of the ancient Egyptian Records' to the visitor Erastus Holmes.
History, 1838–1856, volume B-1 [1 September 1834–2 November 1838]
Joseph Smith and clerks
The July 1835 statement that Smith was 'continually engaged in translating an alphabet to the Book of Abraham, and arrangeing a grammar of the Egyptian language as practiced by the ancients.'
Times and Seasons, Volume 3 (1841–1842)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Joseph Smith, editor)
The Book of Abraham as published: Facsimile 1 and Abraham 1:1–2:18 on 1 March, Facsimile 2 and the remainder on 15 March, Facsimile 3 on 16 May, each facsimile with Joseph Smith's own numbered explanation.
Bill of sale, Lewis C. Bidamon and Emma Bidamon to A. Combs, 26 May 1856
Lewis C. Bidamon, Emma Smith Bidamon, Joseph Smith III
That the mummies and records were 'purchased by the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith at the price of twenty four hundred dollars in the year Eighteen hundred thirty-five,' and how the collection left the family.
"Egyptian Mummies—Ancient Records" (Oliver Cowdery to William Frye, 22 December 1835)
Oliver Cowdery
The church's first public account of the acquisition, including the denial that the mummies were Abraham, Abimelech or Joseph, and the disposition of the eleven mummies.
"Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham," Gospel Topics Essays
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Exactly what the institution now concedes about the fragments, the grammar book and the translation process — and exactly what it leaves open.
Joseph Smith, Jr., As a Translator
Franklin S. Spalding
The first organized expert test of the facsimiles, and the exact wording of the judgments by Sayce, Petrie, Breasted, Mace, Peters, Mercer, Meyer and von Bissing.
"The Joseph Smith Papyri: A Preliminary Report," Dialogue 3:2 (Summer 1968)
Richard A. Parker
The first published Egyptological reading of the recovered fragments, identifying Facsimile 1's original as an Osiris-mysteries scene with jackal-headed Anubis and the hovering Isis-falcon.
"The Breathing Permit of Hôr: A Translation of the Apparent Source of the Book of Abraham," Dialogue 3:3 (Autumn 1968)
Klaus Baer
The first complete translation of the surviving Hor Book of Breathings, including the vignettes that bracketed it, and Baer's judgment that Smith took this papyrus to be the Book of Abraham.
"Mormon Mummies 1848–71," Dialogue 16:4 (1983)
Stanley B. Kimball
The route of the collection from Nauvoo through William Smith, Abel Combs, Wyman's St. Louis Museum and the Chicago museums to Wood's Museum and the fire of October 1871.
"The 'Breathing Permit of Hôr' Thirty-four Years Later," Dialogue 33:4 (2000)
Robert K. Ritner
A revised technical edition of the Hor document confirming Baer, and the naming of Facsimile 3's figures as Osiris, Isis, Maat, Anubis and Hor.
"The Original Length of the Scroll of Hôr," Dialogue 43:4 (2010)
Andrew W. Cook and Christopher C. Smith
A scroll-geometry argument that no more than about 56 centimetres of the interior of the Hor roll is missing — the core empirical challenge to the missing-scroll theory.
"Assessing the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Introduction to the Historiography of their Acquisitions, Translations, and Interpretations"
Kerry Muhlestein
The faithful-Egyptological framing: that belief or disbelief in translation by divine gift is a prior faith commitment, and a menu of three permissible faithful theories of the source.
"The Joseph Smith Papers Project Stumbles" (review of Revelations and Translations, Volume 4)
John Gee
That the fight over the Kirtland Egyptian Papers is now internal: a BYU Egyptologist publicly charging the Church's own documentary edition with substandard content and unacknowledged assumptions.
"A Precious Resource with Some Gaps"
Jeffrey D. Lindsay
Brian Hauglid's own statement repudiating his earlier apologetic work — the clearest documentation that the faithful side has split.
Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?
Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner
The counter-cult case and, more usefully, the documentary trail of the 1968 identification of the Small Sensen fragment as the source, largely through Grant Heward's work.
Letter to a CES Director ("the CES Letter")
Jeremy Runnells
How the Book of Abraham functions in contemporary faith crises — Runnells calls it 'the smoking gun that has completely obliterated my testimony of Joseph Smith.'
"Book of Abraham Overview: Translation and Source Materials" and the annotated Gospel Topics essay
LDS Discussions
The line-by-line critical reading of the 2014 essay, including the argument that Abraham 1:12–14 ties the text to Facsimile 1 and so defeats both the missing-scroll and catalyst theories.
