Taken from
Robert F. Smith, Egyptianisms
in the Book of Mormon and Other Studies (Provo, Utah: Deep Forest Green
Books, 2020), 28-29
Autobiography
David Bokovoy objects that the Bible doesn’t exhibit any first-person
accounts such as are found throughout the Book of Mormon. [140] However,
ancient Egyptian literature features a plethora of first-person narrative
accounts, such as the Shipwrecked Sailor, Wenamon Report, Tale
of Sinuhe, [141] Dispute of a Man with His Ba, [142] and
hundreds of autobiographical tomb inscriptions, such as those of Weni the
Elder, [143] Harkhuf, [144] Ahmose son of Ebana, [145] and
Ahmose Pen-Nekhebet, [146] aside from all the first person songs, such
as the Songs of the Harpers, [147] which have their parallel in the
biblical Song of Songs. This was a standard genre in ancient Egypt, which was
certainly part of the world of the Bible. Indeed, first-person accounts were
also quite common in cuneiform literature (Sargon Birth Legend, Idrimi, Azittawada,
etc.). [148] The Book of Abraham is likewise autobiographical, and (as
pointed out by John Gee) the first four phrases of Idrimi’s autobiographical
inscription parallel those of the Book of Abraham. [149]
Notes for the
Above
[140] Bokovoy, Authoring the Old
Testament, 3 vols. (SLC: Kofford, 2013- ), I:193-194, claiming that “we do
not have any type of record from the world of the Bible comparable to the Book
of Mormon in which named narrators present their true history as a type of autobiographical
narrative” – citing K. van der Toorn, Scribal Culture and the Making of the
Hebrew Bible, 117. Cf., however, Ecclesiastes as autobiography.
[141] COS,
I:77-84,89-93.
[142] COS,
III:321-325; cf. TPPI, 17,5; 20,4, and Urkunden VII, 2.9.
[143] Lichtheim, AEL [UC Press,
1973]. I:18ff; 6th dynasty.
[144] Lichtheim, AEL, I:23-27; 6th
dynasty.
[145] Lichtheim, AEL [UC Press,
1975], II:12ff; 18th dynasty. This one also has a heading, which is
characteristic of the Book of Mormon.
[146] Breasted, ARE, II, §§
17ff., 40ff; 18th dynasty.
[147] COS,
I:48-50, of Intef, Neferhotep, etc.
[148] As Assyriologist Paul Hoskisson
has kindly pointed out to me. Cf. Tremper Longman III, Fictional Akkadian
Autobiography: A Generic and Comparative Study (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns,
1991), 53-73.
[149] J. Gee, Introduction to the
Book of Abraham, 100,103.
