"You cannot prove the Joseph Smith Papyri contained the Book of Abraham, and you can't prove that they didn't," [John Gee] said. A one-for-one dictionary of the letters from the sen-sen piece and paragraphs from the Book of Abraham seem to me to be proof that he did, or thought he did. Why aren't they (proof)? Maybe I had to be there (at the conference. Or better, at the translation! :))

To Jim Bodie: Re the "one-for-one" dictionary (part of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, or KEP. Apparently the facsimile was added by a Hebrew redactor as an illustration to the beginning of the scroll from which the Book of Abraham was taken.

The scroll from which the Book of Abraham was translated is estimated to have been at least ten feet long. It is missing.

"Latter-day Saints generally believe that Joseph translated the Book of Abraham prior to the creation of the KEP and then he, and other early LDS brethren, tried to match the translated text to what they believed were the characters that were used to elicit the translation."

http://fairwiki.org/index.php/Book_of_Abraham_papyri

Tracy Hall Jr
hthalljr'gmail'com

We worked in the church Archies on a mission. My husband was able to see the Papyri. But it was not the part that Joseph Smith translated off of. But it was very exciting to see what was there. There are many interesting things in the archives.