JOSEPH SMITH’S KIRTLAND EGYPTIAN PAPERS: HIEROGLYPHS, THE SACERDOTAL GENEALOGY, AND THE ANTIDOTE TO BABEL The Kirtland Egyptian Papers (KEP) have occasioned considerable controversy but have largely evaded substantive analysis. When properly understood in their historical context, the KEP present a pictographic hermeneutics of primal language (the one spoken in Eden), while they disclose an expanded view of priestly and familial lineage as an organizing principle for the cosmos in Joseph Smith’s distinctive reflex of the Great Chain of Being. The vision of the KEP, consistent with contemporary Mormon theology, unites celestial, priestly, and family hierarchies to connect time, space, and human creation in Smith’s stunning and comprehensive view of the afterlife.

SAMUEL BROWN