Facsimile No. 1

Dr. Richard Parker, Professor of Egyptology at Brown University states that Smith's Facsimile No.1 "is a well-known scene from the Osiris mysteries, with Anubis, the jackal-headed god, on the left ministering to the dead Osiris on the bier. The pencilled(?) restoration is incorrect. Anubis should be jackal-headed. The left arm of Osiris is in reality lying at his side under him. The apparent upper hand is part of the wing of a second bird which is hovering over the erect phallus of Osirus (now broken away). The second bird is Isis and she is magically impregnated by the dead Osiris and then later gives birth to Horus who avenges his father and takes over the inheritance. The complete bird represents Nephthys, sister to Osiris and Isis. Beneath the bier are four canopic jars with heads representative of the four sons of Horus, human-headed Imseti, baboon-headed Hapy, jackal-headed Duamutef and falcon-headed Kebehsenuf."

In order for the dead to achieve a glorious afterlife, the ancient Egyptians believed the heart of the deceased would be placed on a scale and weighed. Thoth, the scribe of the gods, noted the good and bad which the heart contained. If the heart balanced perfectly against a feather taken from the headdress of the goddess Maat, the deceased was entitled to eternal life. To help them reach the eternal paradise, Egyptian priests put together what is known as The Book of Dead which was placed in the tomb of the deceased.

(Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1968, pg.86.)