The Book of Abraham

Before I began reading the Book of Abraham, I thought back to a conversation that was mentioned during class about how it is hard to read a text such as the Book of Mormon, and this text included without having some sort of outside thinking coming into the situation.

Something I found interesting throughout the reading that I noticed really early on was that this book is not adding the use of –eth, onto the end of certain words like it did in the Book of Mormon and that to me, makes it seem like this is more of a present day text than the Book of Mormon.

The thing that I would pay attention to the most would be the language and the words that they are using because words can tell you a lot about the historical context of a document. The words in this document appear to be normal everyday language that we would use in today’s society. However, the thing that makes me contemplate the timing of this document is the way the words are arranged and the sentences that it uses. For example, “it came to pass,” which is used multiple times throughout the document, is not something that we would normally say.

Overall, I think it is hard to determine if this context was written when it has been said to be written, because certain aspects allow me to think that it is more of present day writing, like the wording of sentences. However, on the other hand, the way the words are arranged in some passages makes me think that it was written at an earlier date.