Growing up in a home with uncles, cousins, a father and brother whom would become Freemasons, Joseph Smith would have been particularly interested in Egypt. (Literski, 2011) Local Masonic newspapers commonly reprinted in serial form Brewster and Lawrie's The History of Freemasonry that claimed to be derived from "authentic sources of information". This Masonic history claimed "in Egypt, and those countries of Asia which lie contiguous to that favored kingdom, the arts and sciences were cultivated with success, while other nations were involved in ignorance: It is here, therefore, that Free Masonry would flourish". (Brewster, 12) However, while Freemasons commonly believed that the Egyptian priests had been Freemasons, others traced the ultimate origin of Freemasonry further back in time.
The well respected Masonic scholar George Oliver published his views of Masonic history. In his first book Antiquities of Freemasonry (AoF) first published in 1823, George Oliver retells the story of biblical history from the time of the creation to the time of King Solomon. George Oliver claimed that there had been not one, but two, Masonic traditions throughout history. The first tradition was the pure legitimate tradition which he termed - Speculative Masonry. According to AoF the Speculative tradition had its genesis with God himself before the creation of the Universe; and Adam was Speculative Masonry's first initiate in the Garden of Eden. Oliver carefully chronicled the propagation of the authentic divine line of Masonry from Adam to his righteous posterity: Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem/Melchizedek and finally to Abraham the his progeny down to the time of King Solomon. The second impure and illegitimate brach was termed - Spurious Masonry, and rather than a divine origin, it source was downright diabolic. Satan was its originator and his first initiate was Cain who propagated Spurious Masonry to his progeny. This tradition in part survived the flood to be reborn in Egypt whose priests spread it throughout the world.
Oliver's rewriting of biblical history and his assertion that the early biblical patriarchs were Freemasons was disturbing to non-Masons living in New England and New York; however, amongst Freemason's such a view was common. The Constitutions of Freemasonry compiled by James Anderson in 1723 claimed Adam, Noah, Abraham and his successors were Freemasons. (Anderson, 1723 p. 7-23) In New York the claims of expanded biblical history secretly preserved by Freemasons would have been even more likely believed due to a popular Masonic book published in 1818 entitled A System of Speculative Masonry written by the Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of New York by a man named Salem Town. In a chapter entitled "Evidences that Masonry has been the Medium through which the Pentateuch, of five Books of Moses, have been preserved to the World" the Reverend Salem Town argued that Freemasons had secretly preserved the original text of the Old Testament from the time of Moses till its recovery after the Babylonian captivity. (Town, 1818 p. 207-238) Thus New York Masons such as the Smith family would likely not have been surprised at the claims made in AoF.
In particular AoF added extensively to the story of Abraham noting that during Abraham's years in the Ur of the Chaldees that the Spurious Masonic tradition run by the Egyptians was largely in charge of the religious institutions of the state. According to AoF Abraham had fought against the idolatrous practices of the Spurious Masonic tradition launching a one man missionary campaign to convert the Chaldeans back to the worship of the one true God and to reinstitute the principles of Speculative Masonry. This enraged the citizens and the Egyptian priests who sought to have Abraham killed. AoF also talked extensively about Abraham's life long interest in astronomy and cosmology and how during his trip to Egypt that he sought to teach the Egyptians both astronomy and the truths of Speculative Masonry.
It is in this context that we must examine the arrival of Egyptian papyri in Kirtland. Joseph Smith would have unrolled the scroll he believed was the Book of Abraham and perched at the beginning would have been what Joseph Smith instantly perceived to be the attempted sacrifice of Abraham at the hands of the Egyptian priests; and at the end of the scroll was what he interpreted as Abraham in pharaoh's court teaching the principles of Astronomy to the Egyptians. For Joseph whom believed the Masonic traditions were authentic, God had delivered the original scriptural stories of Abraham into his hands, and all he needed to do was translate the Egyptian on the papyrus. Joseph Smith believed his translation would be aided by the true biblical history as preserved by the Masonic traditions contained in his copy of Antiquities of Freemasonry, which he had previously acquired sometime between its publication in 1823 and 1829.
