An excellent Website on the Book of Abraham is Pearl of Great Price Central. One of their wonderful articles is
In endnote 11, we read the following about
the claim (forwarded recently by Paul Nurnberg) that Joseph associated the
crocodile figure in facsimile 1 with “the God of Pharaoh” from Adam Clark’s
Commentary on Exodus:
One
source contemporary to Joseph Smith did report that “the crocodile or
hippopotamus” was “the emblem of Pharaoh and the Egyptians” and “was one of
their principal divinities.” This source also reported that “Pharaoh . . .
signifies a crocodile.” Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments (London:
Thomas Tegg and Son, 1836), 1901, 2148. (This Bible edition with Clarke’s notes
was based on an eight-volume commentary series Clarke published between
1810–1826.) By contrast, the Book of Abraham says nothing about hippopotami and
indicates that “Pharaoh signifies king by royal blood” (Abraham 1:20), not
“crocodile.” Furthermore, none of the archaeological or inscriptional evidence
confirming Sobek’s presence in northern Syria or his association with Egyptian
kingship was available in Joseph Smith’s lifetime.
Kent P. Jackson, Some Notes on Joseph Smith and Adam Clarke