In his 1912 publication of "Joseph Smith, Jr., As a Translator," J.S. Spaulding solicited the views of eight scholars regarding Joseph Smith's Book of Abraham translation. Below are excerpts from their comments:
"It is difficult to deal seriously with Joseph Smith's impudent fraud."
Dr. A.H. Sayce, Oxford, England
"I have examined the illustrations given in the 'Pearl of Great Price.' In the first place, they are copies (very badly done) of well known Egyptian subjects of which I have dozens of examples. Secondly, they are all many centuries later than Abraham."
Dr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, London University
"Joseph Smith's interpretation of them as part of a unique revelation through Abraham, therefore, very clearly demonstrates that he was totally unacquainted with the significance of these documents and absolutely ignorant of the simplest facts of Egyptian writing and civilization."
James, H. Breasted, Ph.D., Haskell Oriental Museum, University of Chicago
"The 'Book of Abraham,' it is hardly necessary to say, is a pure fabrication."
Dr. Arthur C. Mace, Assist. Curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, Dept. of Egyptian Art
"The plates contained in the 'Pearl of Great Price' are rather comical and a very poor imitation of Egyptian originals."
Dr. John Peters, Univ. of Pennsylvania
"...the explanatory notes to his facsimiles cannot be taken seriously by any scholar, as they seem to be undoubtedly the work of pure imagination."
Rev. Prof. C.A.B. Mercer, Ph.D., Western Theological Seminary, Custodian Hibbard Collection, Egyptian Reproductions.
"The Egyptian papyrus which Smith declared to be the 'Book of Abraham,' and 'translated' or explained in his fantastical way, and of which are three specimens are published in the 'Pearl of Great Price' are parts of the well known 'Book of the Dead.' Although the reproductions are very bad, one can easily recognize familiar scenes from this book."
Dr. Edward Meyer, University of Berlin
"A careful study has convinced me that Smith probably believed seriously to have deciphered the ancient hieroglyphics, but that he utterly failed. What he calls the 'Book of Abraham' is a funeral Egyptian text, probably not older than the Greek ages."
Dr. Friedrich Freiheer Von Bissing, Professor of Egyptology in the University of Munich