Book of Abraham. A book found in the Pearl of Great Price that Joseph Smith supposedly translated from a papyrus he purchased in Ohio from a traveling salesman. Although the original papyri were thought to have been lost, they were rediscovered in 1967 and are now in the possession of the LDS Church. While the papyri was thought to have been lost to the great Chicago Fire in the 19th century, it reappeared in 1967. Egyptologists who have examined it say that Joseph Smith did not know how to translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.