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The Book of Abraham is a purported translation in 1835 by Joseph Smith, Jr. of a set of Egyptian...

The Book of Abraham is a purported translation in 1835 by Joseph Smith, Jr. of a set of Egyptian papyri purchased from a traveling mummy exhibition. According to Smith, the book was "a translation of some ancient records....purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus". Smith's translation of the papyri describes a story of Abraham's early life, including a vision of the cosmos. The complete work was first published serially in the Latter Day Saint movement newspaper Times and Seasons in 1842. and later canonized in 1880 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) as part of their Pearl of Great Price. Thus, it forms a doctrinal foundation for the LDS Church and Mormon fundamentalist denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is not, however, considered to be a religious text by the Community of Christ or other groups deriving from the teachings of Joseph Smith. The Book of Abraham papyri were thought lost in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. However, in 1966 ten fragments of the papyri were found in the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Subsequently,