The Breathing Permit of Hôr or Hor Book of Breathing is a Ptolemaic-era (305–30 BCE) funerary text written for a Theban priest named Hôr. The breathing permit or Book of Breathing assisted its owner in navigating through the afterlife, being judged worthy and living forever.
Hôr (sometimes rendered as Horus or Horos) came from an important family of Theban Priests of Amon-Re in the cult of "Min who massacres his enemies". His family tree can be reliably reconstructed from independent sources to eight generations.
Hôr's mummy and breathing permit were disinterred by Antonio Lebolo in the early 1800s and eventually sold to Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, as part of a larger collection of at least four other funerary documents and three other mummies that came to be known as the Joseph Smith Papyri. The scroll of Hôr is a source that Smith used in what he said was a translation of the Book of Abraham and as such has been highly studied and the source of great controversy.
Background
Sometime in the years after the sale to Joseph Smith in 1835, the first part of the scroll was cut up and placed in picture frames. After the death of Joseph Smith, the papyri collection was eventually split up and parts were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The entire collection was presumed lost, but some segments of the scroll were rediscovered at the New York Metropolitan Museum in 1966. Since that time the remaining papyri, including the first few sections of the Breathing Permit of Hôr, have been owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Relationship with the Book of Abraham This scroll is widely believed by scholars in and outside the LDS Church to be the scroll to which the Book of Abraham was ascribed by Joseph Smith. This is based on the inclusion of Facsimile #1 (JSP I) and #3 from this scroll in the Book of Abraham, and titled by Joseph Smith as "from the Book of Abraham". Further evidence is that characters from this scroll were sequentially copied into the Book of Abraham translation manuscripts.
There is also widespread agreement that the text of the Book of Abraham does not come from the remaining papyri fragments. Some apologists in the LDS Church, notably Hugh Nibley and John Gee, argue that the source of the Book of Abraham was appended to the end of this scroll, after the Breathing Permit.
Reconstruction The papyri fragments from the Joseph Smith Papyri collection known as JSP I, X, XI, and the now missing Facsimile #3 from Smith's published Book of Abraham can be reassembled to partially reconstruct the scroll containing the Breathing Permit belonging to the priest Hôr (also known as Horus). Portions of the papyri from JSP X and XI were damaged, and re-pasted incorrectly into lacunae in JSP IV, but do not belong to JSP IV.
Dating The handwriting was identified as being "of the late Ptolemaic or early Roman Period, about the time of Christ". Jan Quaegebeur has suggested a date in the first half of the second century B.C. Hôr's genealogy can be reliably traced from a variety of ancient sources, including another funerary document belonging to Hôr found in 1998, showing with certainty that Hôr was a member of a prominent priestly family from the Ptolemaic era.
Comparison of Joseph Smith Papyrus I with other similar vignettes As of 1998, there were 29 known examples of the Book of Breathings, of which the Joseph Smith papyri fragment is an example. Of those twenty-nine, eighteen have vignettes associated with them.Marc Coenen, An Introduction to the Document of Breathing Made by Isis, Reveu d'Egyptologie 49 (1998): 38 and n.14. Although no two facsimiles are completely identical, there are common features among all.Vogel, Dan. "Book of Abraham Apologetics: A Review and Critique." Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2021. A comparison of the Book of Abraham facsimiles with these other documents indicates that although the Book of Abraham Facsimile No. 1 (derived from JSP I) is unique,Marc Coenen, An Introduction to the Document of Breathing Made by Isis, Reveu d'Egyptologie 49 (1998): pp 40-41.Kerry Muhlestein, The Book of Abraham in Its Place, The FARMS Review 17/2 (2005) these differences are superficial, and not significant enough to indicate that they are anything other than a representation of an Egyption re-animation scene from the Book of Breathing Made by Isis.
Controversy surrounding the length of the scroll The official position taken by the LDS Church on the papyri is that "Mormon and non-Mormon Egyptologists agree that the characters on the fragments do not match the translation given in the book of Abraham". Given this, some Mormon apologists have postulated that the Book of Abraham manuscript was appended to the end of this scroll, and is no longer extant. The evidence for this claim is 1840s and 1850s accounts from visitors to Nauvoo who viewed the papyri after they had been separated and framed.
The current Book of Abraham in English has about 5,506 words, which would correlate to a length of 5.11 meters of papyri. John Taylor wrote in a church newspaper that Joseph Smith stated he would produce more "extracts from the Book of Abraham".
By taking the length of current fragments, plus estimating how much space would have been taken by the missing section of the Book of Breathing, the size of the scroll has been estimated to be between 150 and 156 cm.Jensen, Robin Scott, and Brian M. Hauglid, eds. Revelations and Translations, Volume 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts. Facsimile edition. Vol. 4 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Ronald K. Esplin, Matthew J. Grow, Matthew C. Godfrey, and R. Eric Smith. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2018. page 3Rhodes, Hor Book of Breathings, 4
If a scroll is damaged while rolled up, and the damage seeps to more than one layer, the length of the scroll can also be estimated by measuring the distance between the damaged sections. By noting the decreasing distance between damaged sections, the length of the scroll can be extrapolated. Using this method, the Horus scroll is corroborated to be around 150 cm.
While funerary texts were sometimes included at the end of funerary compositions, it would be a unique discovery to find a non-funerary text such as the Book of Abraham appended. Egyptologist Marc Coenen stated, "Concluding that a record of Abraham or any other text foreign to Ptolemaic Egyptian funerary and/or liturgical practice was once attached to the Smith papyri is an assertion not based upon widely accepted Egyptological analysis."
After examining the evidence, Egyptologist Robert Ritner said, "There can be no question of any 'lost' section of the papyrus that contained an ancient text composed by Abraham, since [Joseph Smith] claims and depicts the Ptolemaic vignette as his own addition (Facsimile 1)".
Translation The papyri have been translated several times. For the first translation, the editors of an independent quarterly journal, Dialogue, arranged for John A. Wilson and Klaus Baer of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and Richard Anthony Parker, Director of the Department of Egyptology at Brown University to translate the text from the photographs. to translate the Egyptian text on the papyri. Their translations were published in Dialogue in the summer and autumn of 1968. Klaus Baer was an instructor of Hugh Nibley, and the two maintained good relations throughout their careers. For Baer's translation, Nibley arranged for Baer to see the papyri. Baer wrote: "Just before this paper went to press, Professor Nibley was kind enough to show me the original papyri at Brigham Young University."
Nibley himself performed a transliteration in 1975 (revised in 2005 by John Gee and Michael Rhodes). This transliteration was purposefully made without regard to grammar, as such it does not flow well in English, as Nibley himself was aware.Hugh Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 2005). The first edition, published by Deseret Book, appeared in 1975. Other notable translations are a 2002 translation by Mormon Egyptologist Michael RhodesRhodes, Michael D., "The Hor Book of Breathings: A Translation and Commentary (Volume 2) (Studies in the Book of Abraham)", Brigham Young University 2005 and a 2011 translation by non-Mormon Egyptologist Robert Ritner of the University of Chicago (also John Gee's instructor).
The papyri were written in hieratic Egyptian characters (a sort of cursive hieroglyphic), and is read from right to left. (Lacunae in the manuscript are shown with an ellipsis or "[?]"). The translations below were presented side by side, with line breaks for ease of comparison, but were not part of their translation. The Pilcrow symbol (¶) denotes a paragraph that translator added to their translation, but is not part of the Egyptian text.
In Baer's translation, missing text that was inferred from other similar book of breathings were noted in italic. Nibley did not translate missing text, only translating words that were on the papyri. Rhodes and Ritner denoted missing text with brackets []. Text in-between brackets were inferred from other similar book of breathings.
Fragment A
JSP Fragment I, text surrounding the vignette known as facsimile #1. This is an introductory section of the Book of Breathing. Hugh Nibley did not make a translation of this opening vignette.
+ Preamble to the Breathing Document: Address to Hôr from Fragment I Ritner (2010) Rhodes (2002) Baer (1968) (I/1)[Osiris, the god's father], prophet of Amon-Re, King of the Gods, prophet of Min who slaughters his enemies, prophet of Khonsu, the [one who exercises] authority in Thebes, (I/2) [...] ... Hôr, the justified, son of the similarly titled overseer of secrets and purifier of the god, Osorwer, the justified, born by the [housewife and sistrum-player of] (I/3) [Amon]-Re, Taikhibit, the justified!¶ May your ba-spirit live among them, and may you be buried on the west [of Thebes].¶ (I/4) [O Anubis(?) ...] justification?. (I/5) [May you give to him] a good and splendid burial on the west of Thebes as on the mountains of Ma[nu].¶ (1)[The Osiris, God's father] priest of Amon-Re, king of the gods, priest of Min, who massacres his enemies, priest of Khonsu, who is powerful in Thebes. (2)...Hor, justified, the son of one of like titles, master of the secrets, god's priest, Usirwer, justified, born of [the house wife, the musician (3) of Amon-Re,] Taykhebyt. May your soul live in their midst. May you be buried at the head of the West. ... (4) ... (5)[...] May you give to him beautiful and useful things on the west [of Thebes] like the mountains of Manu.¶ (lines 1–3) ... the prophet of Amonrasontêr, prophet [?] of Khons the Governor, ... Hôr, justified, son of the holder of the same titles, master of secrets, and purifier of the gods Osorwêr, justified [?] ... Tikhebyt, justified. May your ba live among them, and may you be buried in the West ... (line 5) May you give him a good, splendid burial on the West of Thebes just like ...¶
JSP Fragment I, Vignette According to Baer, Coenen and Quaegebeur, the scene represents the resurrection of Hor (as Osiris) aided by Anubis. Osiris lies on a lion couch, with Anubis, the jackal headed god standing over him. Four canopic jars are shown below the figures, which have lids representing the four sons of Horus, Imset, Hapi, Qebeh-senuwef, and Duwa-mutef. According to Baer, Osiris was "almost certainly represented as ithyphallic" (with an erection), "ready to beget Horus", grasping his anthropomorphic penis. Michael D. Rhodes says this interpretation is unlikely because in all other conception scenes the reclining figure is nude and in this one he appears to be wearing a kilt.
JSP XI (two columns)