The characters associated with Figures 21, 20 and 19 read: “You will ever be as that God, the Busirian [Osiris]”. (Michael D. Rhodes, “The Joseph Smith Hypocephalus ... Twenty Years Later”, pp. 4-5)

Figure 18, outer edge or rim, reads: “I am the Provider in the Sun Temple in Heliopolis. [I am] most exalted and very glorious. [I am] a virile bull without equal. [I am] the Mighty God in the Sun Temple in Heliopolis. <May the Osiris Shishaq [Sheshonq] live forever> with the Mighty God in Heliopolis.” <Missing text reconstruction based on British Museum hypocephali> (Michael D. Rhodes, “The Joseph Smith Hypocephalus ... Twenty Years Later”, pp. 2, 4-5)

Figures 17, 16 read: “May this tomb never be desecrated, and may this soul and its lord never be desecrated in the hereafter.” (Michael D. Rhodes, “The Joseph Smith Hypocephalus ... Twenty Years Later”, pp. 2, 4-5)

Figures 12 through 15 are missing hieroglyphs. In the LDS publication of Facsimile 2, the missing hieroglyphs are filled in with hieratic characters copied from the Hor Book of Breathings - a separate funerary work, written in a different type of Egyptian. The presentation comes across, at first, as an unwitting mix of legitimate hieroglyphic text, and commandeered, upside-down, inverted, broken, and redundant Egyptian shorthand; put in place for the sake of appearance.

It would appear that the Prophet Joseph Smith did not read hieratic or hieroglyphic Egyptian as current scholars do. Its true that everything he learned about the Egyptian texts, he learned by way of inspiration/revelation. But notwithstanding the revelations, by the spring of 1842, in the midst of American Egyptomania, Times and Seasons readers were told they would have to wait for “the own due time of the Lord” to understand significant portions of the curious Facsimile 2. The Prophet would not publish made-up meanings for the hieroglyphic text, or for the inserted hieratic characters with the object of catering to an inquiring public.

Recently, LDS scholars have tended to suggest that the Prophet was referring just to the original hieroglyphs of Figures 12 through 15 etc. and their meanings, as the things to be “given in the own due time of the Lord”. But its appears more reasonable, as one examines Joseph’s published Facsimile 2, that he was referring to both hieroglyphs and the supplemented hieratic characters. 

The idea that the Prophet would arbitrarily insert characters in place of missing hieroglyphs for the sake of appearance, becomes more disturbing the more one thinks about it. If the copied hieratic characters don’t make sense - maybe they aren’t being interpreting the way Ah-meh-strah-ans would? As for the missing hieroglyphs; hasn’t some knowledgeable person guessed what they might be, based on a study of other hypocephali?

The answer is yes! Having examined similar hieroglyphs on other hypocephali, LDS Egyptologist Val Sederholm, suggests that the missing hieroglyphs of figures 12 though 15 might read: “j nTr pfy 'A, 'nx m TAw, jw m mw: 'q r' jw [=r] sDm md.t=f. [Mj n] Wsjr”, which translates: “I invoke that special, particular, transcendent god, who lives by breathing, who negotiates the waters: So may Re [the sun god] descend to hear Osiris’ words. Come to Osiris Shoshenq.” Sederholm thus interprets the restored hieroglyphic text (Figures 12 through 15) to be a prayer for rescue - a prayer befitting the resurrection/deliverance of Osiris Hor/Abram as depicted in Facsimile 1. (Recovering the Missing Hieroglyphs on the Right Panels of LDS Book of Abraham Facsimile 2)

There is no question as to who arranged the hieratic writing, inserted in place of the lacunae (missing parts) of the Sheshonq Hypocephalus. The Prophet’s own diary records:

4 March 1842 - Friday

“Exhibiting the Book of Abraham, in the original [i.e. facsimiles, cut from more than one scroll, compiled with the English manuscript], To Bro Reuben Hadlock [Hedlock]. so that he might take the size of the several plates or cuts. & prepare the blocks for the Times & Seasons. & also gave instruction concerning the arrangement of the writing on the Large cut [hypocephalus -  Facsimile 2]. illustrating the principles of Astronomy... ” (Joseph Smith’s Illinois Journal - emphasis added)

Joseph Smith’s redacted hypocephalus accompanied the publication of the Book of Abraham in the Times and Seasons newspaper (15 March 1842).  The hypocephalus features hieratic characters copied from the Hor Book of Breathings inserted in place of missing hieroglyphs. Joseph Smith’s insertions are inverted, or upside-down relative to adjacent hieroglyphs. This raises several questions: If the sole purpose of inserting the characters was to give the appearance of completeness, why copy characters from a separate Egyptian scroll? Why not copy hieroglyphs from the hypocephalus itself? Could the selection and inversion of the hieratic characters be deliberate? Indeed the Prophet “gave instruction concerning the arrangement of the writing”. Is it possible then that the inserted hieratic writing was not intended to represent continuations of the hieroglyphic text? Could the hieratic characters be arranged and interpreted so as to mean something – perhaps relating to Abraham? Like the papyrus and lotus bouquet symbol added next to Figure 2, could the inserted hieratic characters be part of the effort to “Abramize” the pagan hypocephalus?  We are suggesting here that the Prophet was redacting and reinterpreting the hypocephalus Ah-meh-strah-an style. Many of the hieratic characters inserted in the hypocephalus were the same characters used to correlate with the Book of Abraham narrative (1835 manuscripts). These characters are to be interpreted in Ah-meh-strah-an transtextual ways. In other words Joseph Smith adapted the funerary facsimiles (including the hypocephalus), and reinterpreted them in ways that parallel an ancient Ah-meh-strah-an version of the Book of Abram.

Hieratic characters (lines 1 through 4) from the Hor Book of Breathings, transposed into hieroglyphic Egyptian. (Hugh Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri - An Egyptian Endowment, Chapter 2) Note: It is possible that the Hedlock carving of Facsimile 2 (printing block for the Times and Seasons newspaper), confuses a set of characters from line 1 of the Hor Book of Breathings, with a set of similar characters appearing in line 2. In other words, the apparent redundancy (seen on the upper right-hand rim of the hypocephalus) may not be.

For a translation of the Hor Book of Breathings, including parts inserted in the missing portions of the Shishaq Hypocephalus, see Hugh Nibley’s The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri - An Egyptian Endowment, Chapter 2.

For Ah-meh-strah-an styled interpretations of many of these characters, see Esoteric Egyptian in the Margins of the Book of Abraham and Esoteric Egyptian in Facsimile No. 2.

NOTES:

א Joseph Smith, Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian (Ah-meh-strah-an) Language, 5^th Degree pp. 5 - 6, Zub Zoal eh, Zab zoal; 4^th Degree pg. 11, Zub-zaol-eh; 3^rd Degree pg. 14, Auk eh, Zub-zool-eh; 2^nd Degree pg. 18, Ahe, Zubzooleh; 1^st Degree pg. 21, Oan, Zubzool eh; Second part 1^st Degree pg. 33, Bethku-ain-tri-eth.

ב  Joseph Smith’s, Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian (Ah-meh-strah-an) Language, 5^th Degree pg. 6 identifies “Egypt” as “Ah-meh-strah”. Does the word “Ah-meh-strah” relate to the Hebrew “matsor”, suggesting a “limiting boundary, or border”, a “defense”; as in the mighty Nile “streams of defense” (Yesha’Yahu (Is.) 19:6)? Is “Ah-meh-strah” related to “Mitsraymah”, translated “Egypt” in the KJV? Is “Ah-meh-strah” related to “Ahme-as” which means “God without beginning or end”, according to the Prophet (pg. 33). Or does “Ah-meh-strah”relate to “amah - sitrah” (אמה־סתרה), meaning “forearm, mother-city” is “shelter, protection”? (Devarim (Deut.) 32:37-38, Abraham 2:16)