Part 1
Part 2
GAEL: Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language
The GAEL surfaced around 1835 during the first translation of the Book of Abraham papyri recently acquired by Joseph Smith. The exact circumstances of the origin of the GAEL are unknown as well as the timeline of its creation. The Joseph Smith Papers, the top resource for all documents concerning the prophet, believes the document to have originated in July-November of 1835.[1] Egyptologist and BYU professor, John Gee, disagrees with this timeline and contends that it was written in 1836 because it utilizes a “transliteration system taught by Josiah Seixas [Joseph Smith’s Hebrew teacher] beginning in January of 1836.”[2]
While there is at least some academic consensus on the general time period to within a year, there is much confusion and debate over how the document was created and to what purpose it was created. The GAEL has a total of 34 pages filled with characters and corresponding explanations. The vast majority are written by William W. Phelps with a few entries by Warren Parrish.
The work is divided into two sections: Part 1 and Part 2, which are each further divided into 5 sections called degrees. The same characters often appear in different degrees having only slightly altered meanings according to the degree in which they appear. Consider character 5.18 which appears in all 5 degrees of part 1.
[5.18]
Degree 1:
Ah brah-aam— a father of many nations a prince of peace, & one who keeps the commandments of God. A patriarch a rightful heir, a highpriest34
Degree 2:
Ahbroam: a follower of righteousness a possesser of greater knowledge—
Degree 3:
Ah-broam. one who possesses great knowlege
Degree 4:
Ah broam— a follower of righteousness
Degree 5:
<The> Father of the faithful. The first right— The elder
It is important to note when studying the GAEL, that there is no record of how this system was invented, neither is it accurate to actual Ancient Egyptian grammar and writing. The GAEL contains many ideas and themes from the Book of Abraham which has led some to propose that the GAEL was used to produce the Book of Abraham. This is unlikely as the Book of Abraham is a much larger and much more complex work than the GAEL. It is more probable that as Joseph Smith translated the Book of Abraham, he and his associates, namely William W. Phelps, attempted to reverse engineer the translation by lining it up to characters they guessed were related. Joseph Smith’s actual level of participation in the creation of the GAEL is unknown. Many explanations have been offered based off of the little historical information we have. I have included here a couple of the most popular theories proposed by scholars and students of the life of Joseph Smith.
Richard L. Bushman: Rough Stone Rolling
Richard L. Bushman is a leading scholar on the life of Joseph Smith. His Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling is the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography of the prophet Joseph Smith. He has a PhD from Harvard and is Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of United States History at Columbia University.
In his biography, he views the GAEL as the product of Oliver Cowdery, William W. Phelps, Warren Parrish, and Frederick G. Williams trying their hand at translation. He compares it to when Joseph Smith invited Oliver Cowdery to translate the Book of Mormon in 1829. Bushman says that the men would meet together throughout the Fall of 1835 and they would write down their ideas, with Joseph Smith maybe even suggesting some ideas of his own. At the same time Joseph Smith had translated by the power of God, Abraham 1 to Abraham 2:18. The would-be-translators took Joseph’s work and lined it up with hieroglyphs from the papyri. In the end, through their secular attempts they would come up with the inaccurate GAEL while Joseph Smith would produce the masterpiece which is the Book of Abraham through divine inspiration.[3]
Fawn M. Brodie: No Man Knows My History
Fawn M. Brodie is the author of No Man Knows My History, a famous and well-written biography antagonistic to the prophet Joseph Smith. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a Master’s degree in English and has written several other major biographies. She was also one of the first women to become a tenured professor at UCLA.
Brodie asserts that once the prophet had received the Egyptian Papyri, he started to formulate an Egyptian alphabet and grammar. She seems to think that Joseph Smith believed after a time that he had developed enough skill to translate languages by virtue of his own intellect and scholarship. He had indeed shown a large interest in language and learning. After some attempts in translating Egyptian and finding it too difficult a task to accomplish, Joseph gave up, sure that Egyptian could not be deciphered. According to her, this is when he went back to his old ways and “dictated a translation by direct inspiration from heaven.”[4]
I must note, that she provides no citations or evidence for these conclusions, only citing Warren Parrish who in 1838 said, “I have set by his side and penned down the Egyptian hieroglypicks as he claimed to receive it by direct inspiration from Heaven”[5] (Note that Parrish was at this time excommunicated and actively opposing Joseph Smith.) This quote is most likely a reference to Parrish’s work as a scribe to Joseph Smith when he was writing manuscripts for the Book of Abraham. Parrish wrote very little in the GAEL and only a bit in the Egyptian Alphabet written by Phelps.
Because Brodie’s claims surrounding the GAEL are not supported by known historical evidence, they must be assumed to be pure conjecture. To her credit, she did publish her book back in 1945, so she had limited access to historical documents about the matter. She does not write anything about the contributions of William W. Phelps or others to the Kirtland Egyptian Papers. This suggests she was perhaps unaware or for some reason did not think it was important to mention. Despite these errors, her theory represents still her well-thought out opinion resulting from much extensive research.
John Gee: Joseph Smith and Ancient Egypt
John Gee is an Egyptologist with a PhD from Yale University. He is a current research professor at Brigham Young University.
Gee supports the position that William W. Phelps is the main person behind the GAEL. He points out that many of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, including the GAEL, were the property of William W. Phelps not Joseph Smith. He makes the additional connection that the format of the GAEL matches the format that William W. Phelps used in his own studies of a “pure language” from before the papyri came to the Saints.[6]
He also puts the date of its creation in early 1836 where others have considered it to be a product of 1835 efforts. His reasoning is that it employs grammar principles that were not taught to them until Josia Seixas, a Jewish Hebrew teacher, gave them instruction in January 1836. Later on in 1843 Joseph Smith also wrote in his journal that he “called again & enquired for. the Egyptian grammar”[7] indicating that it was not his. Two days later, the prophet wrote in the same journal that he “suggested the Idea of preparing a grammar of the Egyptian Language.”[8] Clearly Phelps’s grammar was not sufficient for the prophet’s needs. John Gee ultimately concludes that the GAEL is from William W. Phelps and that to say it is the work of Joseph Smith is an erroneous claim.
References
[1] “Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, circa July–circa November 1835,” The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 7, 2023, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/grammar-and-alphabet-of-the-egyptian-language-circa-july-circa-november-1835/227
[2] John Gee, “Joseph Smith and Ancient Egypt,” in Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, edited by Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey, and Andrew H. Hedges (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015), 427–48.
[3] Bushman Richard L and Jed Woodworth. 2005. Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling. 1st ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, pgs. 290-292
[4] Brodie, Fawn McKay, 1915-1981. 1946. No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet. New York, Alfred A. Knopf.
[5] Warren Parrish, Feb. 5, 1838, Letter to the editor, Painesville Republican, Feb. 15, 1838, [3].
[6] John Gee, “Joseph Smith and Ancient Egypt,” in Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, edited by Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey, and Andrew H. Hedges (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015), 427–48.
[7] “Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 3, 15 July 1843–29 February 1844,” p. [164], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 9, 2023, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-december-1842-june-1844-book-3-15-july-1843-29-february-1844/170
[8] “Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 3, 15 July 1843–29 February 1844,” p. [166], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 9, 2023, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-december-1842-june-1844-book-3-15-july-1843-29-february-1844/172