Two new volumes in the Studies in the Book of Abraham series emphasize the Maxwell Institute's continued interest in advancing research on the Book of Abraham and will offer scholars and others useful tools for their study.

Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Neferirnub: A Translation and Commentary

Volume 4 of the series is the second of two volumes that deal with the surviving Joseph Smith Papyri fragments. The subject of the first volume was The Hor Book of Breathings. This second volume deals with the remaining fragments that consist of Books of the Dead belonging to two women—Tshemmin and Neferirnub.

Books of the Dead contains a detailed description of the papyri as well as a transcription, translation, and commentary of all the surviving text. The appendixes include color plates with hieroglyphic transcriptions of the hieratic text, a glossary of gods, place-names, and a complete glossary of all Egyptian words found in the surviving text.

The editor of this volume, Michael D. Rhodes, is an associate research professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University. He is coauthor of One Eternal Round, the last volume in the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley series.

A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions

In July 1835 at Kirtland, Ohio, a traveling antiquities dealer brought four Egyptian mummies and several rolls of papyri to Joseph Smith. Upon inspection, the Prophet pronounced that one of the rolls contained a lost record of the patriarch Abraham. After purchasing these artifacts for $2,400, he translated the papyri and published five chapters entitled "The Book of Abraham" in March 1842 in the Times and Seasons. These chapters are now canonized scripture found in the Pearl of Great Price.

This volume includes a brief introduction to the Book of Abraham and a detailed record of textual variants from the time it first appeared in the Times and Seasons until its latest edition (1981). In addition, it produces for the first time typographic transcriptions with facing grayscale images of the surviving handwritten manuscripts of the Book of Abraham. Several appendixes offer additional helpful resources such as contemporary accounts related to the translation of the Book of Abraham and a full set of high-resolution color images of the surviving Abraham manuscripts.

Brian M. Hauglid is editor of this volume. He is associate professor of ancient scripture at BYU and coeditor for the Studies in the Book of Abraham series.

Both volumes are available for purchase from the BYU Bookstore.