Muhlestein argues that eyewitness descriptions support a papyrus source that is now lost, while the surviving language papers need not record Smith’s original translation process. In his coauthored 2022 treatment, he proposes that the language study can be understood as an exploratory attempt to understand Egyptian alongside a revealed Book of Abraham.
- Kerry Muhlestein, “Egyptian Papyri and the Book of Abraham: Some Questions and Answers,” Religious Educator 11, no. 1 (2010): 91–108.
- Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein and John S. Thompson, “The “Kirtland Egyptian Papers” and the Book of Abraham,” BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 45–49.
the Egyptian-language documents were never presented as authoritative revelation.