Mormon Dilemma 476

Oliblish and Amun

This is part 2 in our study of Facsimile 2 from the Book of Abraham!  We’re looking at the translation of Joseph Smith’s hypocephalus and comparing it with the translations of Egyptologists.

We’ve listed Smith’s translation first in black font and our findings second with red font.

2. Stands next to Kolob, called by the Egyptians Oliblish, which is the next grand governing creation near to the celestial or the place where God resides; holding the key of power also, pertaining to other planets; as revealed from God to Abraham, as he offered sacrifice upon an altar, which he had built unto the Lord.

First of all, there is no Egyptian word “Oliblish”. 

As shown here on the left, part of this section was missing from Joseph’s hypocephalus. 

This hieroglyph is actually Amun, Ammon-Re or Ammon-Ra depicting him with two human heads one of which represents the sun (Ra) and the other the invisible principle of Ammon. 

The Egyptian gods were typically a personification of nature or animals.  People then and now could see images of him carved and drawn upon Egyptian temple walls depicting him with a human body and at times with a ram’s head.  Since rams were a symbol of virility he was also looked upon as a god of fertility. 

He was self created and supposedly married to Amaunet and collectively they represented the invisibility of air or wind and became the wind deity. 

In Jeremiah 46:25 (Amun – also spelled amn) mentions Amon god of Thebes when God told Israel He was about to bring punishment upon him and Pharaoh.  

In Egypt’s eighteenth dynasty (1353-1334 BC), he was replaced with the god Aten by the Pharaoh Akhenaten because of pharaoh’s dislike for Amun. There was such uproar to the change that eventually this god became Amun-Ra at the pharaoh’s death. 

A curator for the British Museum’s hypocephalus with a similar inscription describes this figure simply as a two-headed deity holding a jackal headed god of Wepwawet scepter. He’s located on the center top row of their hypocephalus.