The Star Gods Of The Book Of Abraham

[Ntrw]

Few things offend the sensibilities of modern readers more than the blatant polytheism of the Book of Abraham(Abraham 4). When the Prophet Joseph Smith first taught this doctrine publicly, some of his fellow Mormons called him a fallen prophet. While learning Hebrew in Kirtland, Joseph learned that elohim has a plural ending. This opened up new spiritual vistas, reflected in the Book of Abraham. However, the rest of the world is catching up. The earliest Israelite religion was polytheistic and so is the Book of Abraham.

From the perspective of this older theology, "Yahweh did not belong to the top tier of the pantheon. Instead, in early Israel, the god of Israel apparently belonged to the second tier of the pantheon; he was not the presider god, but one of his sons"(Mark S. Smith, pg. 68, Abraham 1:16, Doctrine and Covenants 110:3-4).

"A generation ago, when I was a graduate student, biblical scholars were nearly unanimous in thinking that monotheism had been predominant in ancient Israelite religion from the beginning—not just as an "ideal," but as the reality. Today all that has changed. Virtually all mainstream scholars acknowledge that true monotheism emerged only in the period of the exile in Babylon in the 6th century B.C.E., as the canon of the Hebrew Bible was taking shape"(William G. Dever, pg. 294–95).

The Book of Abraham is clear that the geocentric astronomical model is intended for the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians, like the ancient Semites, had a geocentric view of the cosmos and so does the Book of Abraham. Nothing is described below the earth, the moon rotates above the earth, the stars above the moon, and each celestial body travels a longer circuit than those bodies which travel under them. The greatest and highest star is Kolob and is described as being nearest to the Throne of God. However, the Book of Abraham explicitly equates the stars with the Gods.

The Book of Abraham's equation of Gods with stars is ancient and outside the scope of radical monotheism. The Book of Abraham equates God's family with the stars and so do the Ugaritic texts, which were unearthed in the 1920's. “The Ugaritic texts hint that El’s family was understood as astral in character, although the texts rarely stress this feature. To begin, a category of divinities called 'star gods' is attested... evidently with their own “house”(bt ilim kbkbm)"(Mark S. Smith, pg. 82).

The "intelligences" of the Book of Abraham are Gods in their own right(Abraham 3:22-25, Abraham 4). The stars are governing ones and great ones(Abraham 3:2-3). The intelligences are rulers, noble and great ones(Abraham 3:22-23). There is a hierarchy of stars and a hierarchy of intelligences(Abraham 3:16-19). The "intelligences" or Gods are none other than the sons of God(Abraham 3:22-23, Abraham 1:17, D&C 132:20,29).

“The later religion of Israel may have known a cult of El that included a minimum number of astral deities. Job 38:6-7 may reflect a witness to this notion: Who set it’s cornerstone when the morning stars sang together And all the divine beings(bene elohim) shouted for joy? In this verse Yahweh the creator-god(like old El?) asks Job if he was present when Yahweh set the cornerstone of the world’s foundations an ancient event celebrated by the divine beings, here specified as stars. In this passage, the morning stars are clearly parallel to bene elohim"(Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism, pg. 82).

[BookofMormonLuvr]

Or Elohim (God) as a plural makes perfect sense, because there is the Father 1 + the Son 1 = 2. 2 being more than 1 makes it plural. But by all means:

"But behold, the Jews were a stiff-necked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand."

[stemelbow]

yep. Sounds good/in interesting.

[Ahab]

Plural in persons but there is only one kind of being we refer to as God. I like to try to be politically correct, sometimes.

[The Nehor]

So Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, and Cthulhu are real? Finally I can reconcile my two religions without any dissonance.

[Ahab]

So Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, and Cthulhu are real? Finally I can reconcile my two religions without any dissonance.

Perhaps I used the word "we" too loosely.

God is the kind of being "I" and some other people think of as the most supreme kind of being in all of existence. And I'm including all of the kinds that "really" exist.

[DragonLancer]

Few things offend the sensibilities of modern readers more than the blatant polytheism of the Book of Abraham(Abraham 4). When the Prophet Joseph Smith first taught this doctrine publicly, some of his fellow Mormons called him a fallen prophet. While learning Hebrew in Kirtland, Joseph learned that elohim has a plural ending. This opened up new spiritual vistas, reflected in the Book of Abraham. However, the rest of the world is catching up. The earliest Israelite religion was polytheistic and so is the Book of Abraham.

From the perspective of this older theology, "Yahweh did not belong to the top tier of the pantheon. Instead, in early Israel, the god of Israel apparently belonged to the second tier of the pantheon; he was not the presider god, but one of his sons"(Mark S. Smith, pg. 68, Abraham 1:16, Doctrine and Covenants 110:3-4).

"A generation ago, when I was a graduate student, biblical scholars were nearly unanimous in thinking that monotheism had been predominant in ancient Israelite religion from the beginning—not just as an "ideal," but as the reality. Today all that has changed. Virtually all mainstream scholars acknowledge that true monotheism emerged only in the period of the exile in Babylon in the 6th century B.C.E., as the canon of the Hebrew Bible was taking shape"(William G. Dever, pg. 294–95).

The Book of Abraham is clear that the geocentric astronomical model is intended for the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians, like the ancient Semites, had a geocentric view of the cosmos and so does the Book of Abraham. Nothing is described below the earth, the moon rotates above the earth, the stars above the moon, and each celestial body travels a longer circuit than those bodies which travel under them. The greatest and highest star is Kolob and is described as being nearest to the Throne of God. However, the Book of Abraham explicitly equates the stars with the Gods.

The Book of Abraham's equation of Gods with stars is ancient and outside the scope of radical monotheism. The Book of Abraham equates God's family with the stars and so do the Ugaritic texts, which were unearthed in the 1920's. “The Ugaritic texts hint that El’s family was understood as astral in character, although the texts rarely stress this feature. To begin, a category of divinities called 'star gods' is attested... evidently with their own “house”(bt ilim kbkbm)"(Mark S. Smith, pg. 82).

The "intelligences" of the Book of Abraham are Gods in their own right(Abraham 3:22-25, Abraham 4). The stars are governing ones and great ones(Abraham 3:2-3). The intelligences are rulers, noble and great ones(Abraham 3:22-23). There is a hierarchy of stars and a hierarchy of intelligences(Abraham 3:16-19). The "intelligences" or Gods are none other than the sons of God(Abraham 3:22-23, Abraham 1:17, D&C 132:20,29).

“The later religion of Israel may have known a cult of El that included a minimum number of astral deities. Job 38:6-7 may reflect a witness to this notion: Who set it’s cornerstone when the morning stars sang together And all the divine beings(bene elohim) shouted for joy? In this verse Yahweh the creator-god(like old El?) asks Job if he was present when Yahweh set the cornerstone of the world’s foundations an ancient event celebrated by the divine beings, here specified as stars. In this passage, the morning stars are clearly parallel to bene elohim"(Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism, pg. 82).

 

Many ancient religions had what could be called the "polestar" cult, being geocentric, having all the stars ("gods") rotating around the pole (the presiding "god" on his throne).

This was not limited to the Egyptians, or even the Hebrews, but was known to the Hindus, Chinese, Ancient Americans, etc.

Stars are indeed symbols of gods, greater or lesser.

In fact, facsimile #2, figure 1 of Kolob is the pole star, geocentrically.  But it is also a symbol of the Galactic core.  It is both.

The polestar is actually a symbol for the greater reality.  The Abrahamic Universe was actually ours.  The Lord showed him that the reality was Galactic (that the Sun belongs to a literal system of stars that are gravitationally bound).  So, while the Book of Abraham cosmology does indeed have a "geocentric" cosmology in it, the Geocentric heaven was merely a symbol of a greater reality known to Abraham.  In other words, the polestar was merely the symbol for the galactic hub.  In other words, Abraham was using the geocentric polestar cult as a teaching device to teach a galactic cosmology to the Egyptians, and we have just rediscovered it in the modern day.  So the ancient geocentric cosmologies are actually only half of the puzzle.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Nail-Heaven-Cosmology-Metaphysics-Science/dp/1456508229/

 

I disagree with John Gee, et al, that the Abrahamic cosmology was only geocentric.  Yes, a geocentric model was a part of it, not all of it.

 

Ed Goble

[Robert F. Smith]

Perhaps I used the word "we" too loosely.

God is the kind of being "I" and some other people think of as the most supreme kind of being in all of existence. And I'm including all of the kinds that "really" exist.

Brigham Young stated in April of 1852, in a sermon in Salt Lake City, that, of the various deities which exist, one "is our father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do" (Journal of Discourses, 1:50; cf. Paul in I Cor 8:5-6).

 

Or as Eric Hornung puts it in his Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many, 57-58, quoting Henri Frankfort on the meaning of the name-juggling confusion in ancient Egypt: "'the god' is always 'the god with whom you have to reckon under the circumstances"  (in Hugh Nibley, Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, 132).

[Ahab]

Brigham Young stated in April of 1852, in a sermon in Salt Lake City, that, of the various deities which exist, one "is our father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do" (Journal of Discourses, 1:50; cf. Paul in I Cor 8:5-6).

Or as Eric Hornung puts it in his Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many, 57-58, quoting Henri Frankfort on the meaning of the name-juggling confusion in ancient Egypt: "'the god' is always 'the god with whom you have to reckon under the circumstances" (in Hugh Nibley, Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, 132).

Name-juggling confusion indeed, and it helps me to realize that I have "something to do with" everyone who is the same kind of being I am.

[Robert F. Smith]

.................................................................................   .

The Book of Abraham is clear that the geocentric astronomical model is intended for the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians, like the ancient Semites, had a geocentric view of the cosmos and so does the Book of Abraham. Nothing is described below the earth, the moon rotates above the earth, the stars above the moon, and each celestial body travels a longer circuit than those bodies which travel under them. The greatest and highest star is Kolob and is described as being nearest to the Throne of God. However, the Book of Abraham explicitly equates the stars with the Gods.

.............................................................................................  

As has been shown by Michael Rhodes and Ward Moody, the Book of Abraham is not geocentric at all.  I provide some additional reasons for such a non-geocentric conception in my “A Brief Assessment of the LDS Book of Abraham,” verson 8 online August 18, 2014, at http://www.scribd.com/doc/118810727/A-Brief-Assessment-of-the-LDS-Book-of-Abraham ; cf. Rhodes & Moody, "Astronomy and the Creation in the Book of Abraham," in Gee & Hauglid, eds., Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant (FARMS, 2005), 17-36, online at  http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/book/astronomy-papyrus-and-covenant/ .

 

It is true that, beginning with Hipparchus in the late 2nd century B.C., and capped by Claudius Ptolemy’s codified flat-Earth geocentric theory in the 2nd century A.D. (Almagest), geocentrism remained the established scientific dogma for over 1500 years.  Yet, already in 270 B.C., Aristarchus of Samos assumed that the round earth moved around the sun, and in 240 B.C., Eratosthenes accurately measured the circumference of that round earth.  Later notions were, unfortunately, very regressive.  However, as pointed out by astrophysicist Owen Gingerich of Harvard and the Smithsonian, Nicolaus Copernicus himself argued that the biblical proof texts used by geocentrists were fundamental misinterpretations of poetic texts, e.g., Psalms 102:25, “Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands,” and 104:5, “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever” (1611 KJV note “Hebr. he hath founded the earth upon her bases”), refer not to geocentric foundations, but rather to the foundational nature of Earth as a place for life to thrive until the creation of a new heaven and new Earth.  Moreover, heaven & earth is a merism (and a hendiadys) meaning “everything; the universe,” while “removed” in the second instance refers to not being “shaken.”  In any case, Psalm 104 follows the sequence of the iterative and catechetical poetry of the Genesis 1 narrative, and both poems are intended more as liturgy than history or science.  Advocates for the geocentric Ptolemaic view typically ignore such considerations.

 

See O. Gingerich, “Scientific Cosmology Meets Western Theology: A Historical Perspective,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 950 (2001), 28-38, citing N. Copernicus, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543/1566) = On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.  This applies equally well to forced interpretations of Zech 12:1, Matt 13:35, Hebrews 4:3, I Peter 1:20, Revelation 17:8, PGP Abraham facsimile 1:11-12, facsimile 2:1-5, etc.  Cf. Owen Gingerich & James MacLachlan, Nicolaus Copernicus: Making the Earth a Planet, Oxford portraits in Science (Oxford Univ. Press, 2005).

Edited January 13, 2015 by Robert F. Smith

[DragonLancer]

As has been shown by Michael Rhodes and Ward Moody, the Book of Abraham is not geocentric at all.  I provide some additional reasons for such a non-geocentric conception in my “A Brief Assessment of the LDS Book of Abraham,” verson 8 online August 18, 2014, at http://www.scribd.com/doc/118810727/A-Brief-Assessment-of-the-LDS-Book-of-Abraham ; cf. Rhodes & Moody, "Astronomy and the Creation in the Book of Abraham," in Gee & Hauglid, eds., Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant (FARMS, 2005), 17-36, online at  http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/book/astronomy-papyrus-and-covenant/ .

 

It is true that, beginning with Hipparchus in the late 2nd century B.C., and capped by Claudius Ptolemy’s codified flat-Earth geocentric theory in the 2nd century A.D. (Almagest), geocentrism remained the established scientific dogma for over 1500 years.  Yet, already in 270 B.C., Aristarchus of Samos assumed that the round earth moved around the sun, and in 240 B.C., Eratosthenes accurately measured the circumference of that round earth.  Later notions were, unfortunately, very regressive.  However, as pointed out by astrophysicist Owen Gingerich of Harvard and the Smithsonian, Nicolaus Copernicus himself argued that the biblical proof texts used by geocentrists were fundamental misinterpretations of poetic texts, e.g., Psalms 102:25, “Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands,” and 104:5, “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever” (1611 KJV note “Hebr. he hath founded the earth upon her bases”), refer not to geocentric foundations, but rather to the foundational nature of Earth as a place for life to thrive until the creation of a new heaven and new Earth.  Moreover, heaven & earth is a merism (and a hendiadys) meaning “everything; the universe,” while “removed” in the second instance refers to not being “shaken.”  In any case, Psalm 104 follows the sequence of the iterative and catechetical poetry of the Genesis 1 narrative, and both poems are intended more as liturgy than history or science.  Advocates for the geocentric Ptolemaic view typically ignore such considerations.

 

See O. Gingerich, “Scientific Cosmology Meets Western Theology: A Historical Perspective,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 950 (2001), 28-38, citing N. Copernicus, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543/1566) = On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.  This applies equally well to forced interpretations of Zech 12:1, Matt 13:35, Hebrews 4:3, I Peter 1:20, Revelation 17:8, PGP Abraham facsimile 1:11-12, facsimile 2:1-5, etc.  Cf. Owen Gingerich & James MacLachlan, Nicolaus Copernicus: Making the Earth a Planet, Oxford portraits in Science (Oxford Univ. Press, 2005).

 

Well, I agree and disagree with you at the same time.  I believe it is both.  I believe it is both geocentric and not geocentric.  I believe that both models are evident, and that one is a symbological or figurative model, and the other is literal.  And I believe Abraham knew this, and utilized both.  I believe this is why both Gee, Haugid and Peterson, and Ward and Moody are all correct in varying ways.

Edited January 21, 2015 by DragonLancer

[theplains]

The "intelligences" of the Book of Abraham are Gods in their own right(Abraham 3:22-25, Abraham 4). The stars are governing ones and great ones(Abraham 3:2-3). The intelligences are rulers, noble and great ones(Abraham 3:22-23). There is a hierarchy of stars and a hierarchy of intelligences(Abraham 3:16-19). The "intelligences" or Gods are none other than the sons of God(Abraham 3:22-23, Abraham 1:17, D&C 132:20,29).

 

"And I saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of

God; and there were many great ones which were near unto it;  And the Lord said unto me: These

are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am

the Lord thy God: I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon

which thou standest".

 

In your theology, the great star (Kolob), a star governing other stars, is a God.

 

You are misreading Abraham 3:23. The intelligences are not rulers [present tense].

 

"And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These

I will make my rulers; [future tense) for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they

were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast

born".

 

A few things here.

 

a] Abraham is not a God in that passage.

 

b] intelligences = souls = spirits.  Somewhere else says intelligences are eternal but Jesus was

supposedly the first spirit child procreated of Heavenly Parents.

 

c] Abraham is not a star (unless you view Revelation 12's stars referring to billions of spirit children).

 

d] apparently these intelligences were good but does not say where the bad intelligences are ... if

there is such a thing as a bad eternal intelligence which became good or always remained bad.

 

Thanks,

Jim

[Calm]

never mind

Edited January 22, 2015 by calmoriah