In the Book of Abraham we read concerning Abraham’s “fathers” and his “father’s house” and his “kinsman” who had “turned their hearts away from [YHWH], to worship the god of Elkenah, and the god of Libnah, and the god of Mahmackrah, and the god of Korash,…”
5 My fathers, having turned from their righteousness, and from the holy commandments which the Lord their God had given unto them, unto the worshiping of the gods of the heathen, utterly refused to hearken to my voice;
6 For their hearts were set to do evil, and were wholly turned to the god of Elkenah, and the god of Libnah, and the god of Mahmackrah, and the god of Korash, and the god of Pharaoh, king of Egypt;
(Abraham 1:5-6)
12 And it came to pass that the priests laid violence upon me, that they might slay me also, as they did those virgins upon this altar; and that you may have a knowledge of this altar, I will refer you to the representation at the commencement of this record.
13 It was made after the form of a bedstead, such as was had among the Chaldeans, and it stood before the gods of Elkenah, Libnah, Mahmackrah, Korash, and also a god like unto that of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
14 That you may have an understanding of these gods, I have given you the fashion of them in the figures at the beginning, which manner of figures is called by the Chaldeans Rahleenos, which signifies hieroglyphics.
(Abraham 1:12-14)
16 And his voice was unto me: Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is Jehovah, and I have heard thee, and have come down to deliver thee, and to take thee away from thy father’s house, and from all thy kinsfolk, into a strange land which thou knowest not of;
17 And this because they have turned their hearts away from me, to worship the god of Elkenah, and the god of Libnah, and the god of Mahmackrah, and the god of Korash, and the god of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; therefore I have come down to visit them, and to destroy him who hath lifted up his hand gainst thee, Abraham, my son, to take away thy life.
(Abraham 1:16-17)
Amazingly the Apocalypse of Abraham, an pseudepigraphal document written in the first person and attributed to Abraham, contains the following about the idolatry of Abraham’s Father and his kinsman:
1 When I, Abraham, heard words like this from my father, I laughed in my mind, and I groaned in the bitterness and anger of my soul.
2 I said, “How then is a figment of a body made by him (Terah) an aid for my father?
3 Or can he have subordinated (his) body to his soul, his soul to a spirit, and the spirit to stupidity and ignorance?”
4 And I said, “It is only proper to endure evil that I may throw my mind to purity and I will expose my thoughts clearly to him.”
5 I answered and said, “Father Terah, whichever of these gods you extol, you err in your thought.
6 Behold, the gods of my brother Nahor standing in the holy sanctuary are more venerable than yours.
7 For behold, Zouchaios, my brother Nahor’s god is more venerable than your god Marumath because he is made of gold, valued by man.
8 And if he grows old with time, he will be remolded, whereas Marumath, if he is changed or broken, will not be renewed, because he is stone.
9 What about Ioav, the god on the other god, who stands with Zouchaios? For he is also more venerable than the god Barisat; he is carved from wood and forged from silver. Because he too is a term of comparison, being valued by man according to external.
(Apocalypse of Abraham 6:1-9)
Unfortunately the Apocalypse of Abraham has only survived in an Old Slavanic version. In this Old Slavanic text, we read that Abraham’s brother Nehor worshiped an idol called “Zouchaios” or “Souzouch” (depending on how one renders the Slavonic into English).
However, many scholars believe that the Apocalypse of Abraham was originally written in Hebrew, later translated into Greek and from Greek into Slavanic and that only the old Slavanic translation has survived.
In Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Volume 1, in the Section on the Apocalypse of Abraham. under the subheading “Original Language”, we read:
A thorough investigation of the original language of the Apocalypse of Abraham has never been undertaken. A. Rubinstein studied only ten passages from the apocalypse and concluded that the document probably was written in Hebrew. The Slavanic text of the Apocalypse of Abraham contains several Hebrew names, words and phrases. The most impressive examples are the following: Ioavan is a Slavonic deformation of Hebrew ywn (Greece); Souzouch is probably a transcription of the name kwrws (Cyrus); and Maroumat is an abbreviation of the Hebrew Marta Roma.
(Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Volume 1; 1983; p. 682)
Hebrw כורש Koresh (Cyrus) is actually Persian kwrws meaning “the Sun”. In the Apocalypse of Abraham we read that Avraham’s brother Nahor worshiped an idolatrous god called (in the Slavonic) “Zouchaios” or “Souzouch” (depending on how one renders the Slavonic into English) (Apoc. Abr. 6:9) “which is probably a transcription of the name kwrws (Cyrus)” (Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Volume 1 page 682).
So the Book of Abraham tells us that Abraham’s “kinsfolk” worshiped idolatrous gods including “the god of Korash” (Identified with figure 8 in Facsimile 1) while the Apocalypse of Abraham, presented as a writing in the first person by Abraham, tells us that Abraham’s brother Nehor worshiped an idolatrous god named “Koresh”! (Remember, there were no written vowels in ancient Hebrew, so no written difference between “Korash” and “Koresh”.) (To my knowledge, this is an absolutely new discovery, I have not seen it written of anywhere else prior to this blog).
The Apocalypse of Abraham was not published until 1863, and then only in Slavonic. The first English translation was not published until 1898. And Rubinstein’s reconstruction of the Hebrew/Persian “Koresh” behind “Zouchaios” or “Souzouch” was not published until 1953! How could Joseph Smith have known that Abraham’s kinsfolk worshiped an idolatrous “god of Korash”?!
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