Abraham Facsimile 2

Kolob and the Governing Ones

A round plate whose explanation names Kolob, the measuring of time, and things that “cannot be revealed unto the world.”

Last revised October 7, 2026

Goes with Abraham 3 See it in the Gospel Library

About this facsimile

The explanation of this plate speaks of Kolob and of the reckoning of time, as the Lord does to Abraham in chapter 3. There “the name of the great one is Kolob” (Abr. 3:3), one of its revolutions is a day to the Lord and a thousand years where Abraham stands (Abr. 3:4), and it “is set nigh unto the throne of God” (Abr. 3:9). The Church’s footnote to “Kolob” in verse 3 sends the reader to figures 1 to 5 of this plate.

The plate is a kind of Egyptian object called a hypocephalus: a disc of funerary equipment from the Late Period and Ptolemaic times (about 664–30 BC), laid with the dead, of which 158 are known today.

Some of the explanations are withheld: figure 8 “is to be had in the Holy Temple of God,” and figures 12 to 20 “will be given in the own due time of the Lord.”

Like the other two facsimiles, this one was printed with the book in 1842 with Joseph Smith’s explanation of it. Most of the explanations differ from what Egyptologists say of the figures, though some parallels have been noted, and how the plates relate to Abraham’s text is not known; the page for Facsimile 1 gives the Church’s words.

A circular line drawing divided into panels, with numbered figures: seated and standing figures, boats, a cow, and rows of written characters, ringed by a band of characters around the edge. — The plate as printed in *The Pearl of Great Price*, 1921 edition (1929 printing; public domain), scanned at the Internet Archive.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its figurein the margin.

Joseph Smith’s explanation, by figure

Explanation of the Foregoing Cut

1 Kolob, signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God. First in government, the last pertaining to the measurement of time. The measurement according to celestial time, which celestial time signifies one day to a cubit. One day in Kolob is equal to a thousand years according to the measurement of this earth, which is called by the Egyptians Jah-oh-eh.

Language #

Proposals for the name Kolob

Semitic sources have been proposed for the name Kolob; many uncertainties are acknowledged, though a few points in favor of the name’s being ancient are held to be reasonably certain.

Semitic sources have been proposed for the name Kolob; many uncertainties are acknowledged, though a few points in favor of the name’s being ancient are held to be reasonably certain. One proposal derives it from a root qlb, “heart, center, middle,” related to qrb, “to be near, close.” It is attractive because chapter 3 ties Kolob to nearness to God: “the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me” (Abr. 3:3; compare Abr. 3:9, Abr. 3:16). Its drawback is that qlb in this sense is attested only as far back as Arabic, considerably later than Abraham. In answer, some scholars derive both words from a reconstructed older root with relatives in Egyptian, Akkadian and Hebrew (qereb, “inside, middle”), and this is said to strengthen the etymology.

A second proposal derives the name from Semitic klb, “dog,” and this has prompted some to identify Kolob with Sirius, the dog-star, whose rising marked the ideal Egyptian new year and the onset of the Nile flood. The two share traits: each is tied to the throne of God, counted the greatest of stars, said to govern other stars, and linked with creation and the measuring of time. But most of these traits of Sirius are attested in Egyptian sources of the Greco-Roman period, long after Abraham (though that, it is remarked, is the period of the Joseph Smith Papyri); the Egyptian word for “dog” is quite different from the Semitic one; and it is unclear which constellation the Mesopotamian “Dog” was. The identification “should therefore be accepted cautiously.”

Kolob has also been set beside Egyptian thought about the sun: in the book’s account Kolob encircles, and so governs, the sun, which stood at the head of the Egyptian gods. The conclusion drawn is modest. Questions about the identification of Kolob remain, and the pieces of evidence, taken together, are held to reinforce the plausibility that the idea is ancient. For Kolob in the vision, see the note on Abr. 3:3; for the Lord’s time, the note on Abr. 5:13.

Sources: Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “Kolob, the Governing One”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 142.

Language #

“One day to a cubit” as a measure of angle

A cubit measures length, not time, so this phrase has left Latter-day Saint commentators largely at a loss.

A cubit measures length, not time, so this phrase has left Latter-day Saint commentators largely at a loss. One proposal, made by a Latter-day Saint scientist, is that it describes the motion of a heavenly body across the sky as an angle. Some ancient astronomers did measure angles in cubits: a Mesopotamian text of the fourth century BC records the moon’s position relative to stars of Gemini and Leo in cubits, other Mesopotamian texts place the planets the same way, and the Egyptians likewise measured angles in cubits. A finger held out at arm’s length covers about a degree of sky, and that angle is what the ancients are said to have called a cubit. On this proposal the phrase gives a rate of turning, not of distance, and describes the motion of Kolob among the stars. The proposal is judged plausible, since chapter 3 places Kolob relative to other bodies that can be observed (Abr. 3:9, Abr. 3:12–13), though the precise meaning of the phrase “remains elusive.” For the day of a thousand years in the vision, see the note on Abr. 3:3.

Sources: Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “One Day to a Cubit (Facsimile 2, Figure 1)”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 247.

2 Stands next to Kolob, called by the Egyptians Oliblish, which is the next grand governing creation near to the celestial or the place where God resides; holding the key of power also, pertaining to other planets; as revealed from God to Abraham, as he offered sacrifice upon an altar, which he had built unto the Lord.

3 Is made to represent God, sitting upon his throne, clothed with power and authority; with a crown of eternal light upon his head; representing also the grand Key-words of the Holy Priesthood, as revealed to Adam in the Garden of Eden, as also to Seth, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, and all to whom the Priesthood was revealed.

4 Answers to the Hebrew word Raukeeyang, signifying expanse, or the firmament of the heavens; also a numerical figure, in Egyptian signifying one thousand; answering to the measuring of the time of Oliblish, which is equal with Kolob in its revolution and in its measuring of time.

5 Is called in Egyptian Enish-go-on-dosh; this is one of the governing planets also, and is said by the Egyptians to be the Sun, and to borrow its light from Kolob through the medium of Kae-e-vanrash, which is the grand Key, or, in other words, the governing power, which governs fifteen other fixed planets or stars, as also Floeese or the Moon, the Earth and the Sun in their annual revolutions. This planet receives its power through the medium of Kli-flos-is-es, or Hah-ko-kau-beam, the stars represented by numbers 22 and 23, receiving light from the revolutions of Kolob.

Context #

What a hypocephalus was for

The whole plate is, in Egyptian terms, an image of the sun: a hypocephalus was an amulet in the form of a disc, made to emulate the sun’s disc and placed with a mummy.

The whole plate is, in Egyptian terms, an image of the sun: a hypocephalus was an amulet in the form of a disc, made to emulate the sun’s disc and placed with a mummy. The name is modern Egyptologists’, Greek for “under the head,” which is how the direction in spell 162 of the Book of the Dead about where to put the amulet has widely been rendered. That spell gives its purposes: to protect the dead in the afterlife, to give them light and heat, to make them appear again as one who is on earth (that is, to raise them), and at last to make them divine. Hypocephali were also thought of as the eye of the sun god Re, which consumed enemies with fire. They never came into wide use, remaining with the priests and their families, especially at the temples of Amun at Karnak, Min at Akhmim and Ptah at Memphis.

Hypocephali, or objects that served the same purpose, may also have been used for divination in the temple and as astronomical documents. They shared ideas with temple gates, which kept enemies out and let friends into sacred space, and with creation: they picture all that the sun encircles, the world of the living above and the underworld below. Because the figures and texts on them are obscure, scholars using different methods have reached different results, and room is to be left for more than one approach. What the object was for bears directly, it is argued, on how Joseph Smith’s explanation of Facsimile 2 is to be weighed.

Sources: Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “The Purpose and Function of the Egyptian Hypocephalus”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 234.

6 Represents this earth in its four quarters.

Imagery #

Figure 6 and the four creatures of the Apocalypse of Abraham

The four figures of figure 6 have been compared with four creatures in the Apocalypse of Abraham, an apocryphal writing in which what appear to be possible allusions to a…

The four figures of figure 6 have been compared with four creatures in the Apocalypse of Abraham, an apocryphal writing in which what appear to be possible allusions to a hypocephalus have been pointed out. It is dated to about the beginning of the Christian era and tells of a vision Abraham saw while offering sacrifice. In it he is shown what is in the heavens, on the earth, in the sea and in the abyss, which is reported to be almost the wording of the left middle part of this plate, and the fullness of the world and its circle, in a picture with two sides. It also describes four fiery living creatures, each with four faces: a lion’s, a man’s, an ox’s and an eagle’s. These have been taken to be the four figures numbered 6 on the plate, and to be, almost certainly, a Semitic reworking of the four sons of Horus by way of Ezekiel 1–2. The weight placed on the comparison is that the writing is roughly of an age with the hypocephalus and tells of Abraham things that Joseph Smith’s explanation finds in the plate.

Sources: Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “The Purpose and Function of the Egyptian Hypocephalus”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 234. Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “A Semitic View of the Facsimiles”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 215.

7 Represents God sitting upon his throne, revealing through the heavens the grand Key-words of the Priesthood; as, also, the sign of the Holy Ghost unto Abraham, in the form of a dove.

Imagery #

Figure 7 on other hypocephali, a seated god and the wedjat-eye

The seated figure of figure 7 appears on other hypocephali, where the Egyptians themselves in some cases label him “the great god,” “Lord of Life” or “Lord of All.”

The seated figure of figure 7 appears on other hypocephali, where the Egyptians themselves in some cases label him “the great god,” “Lord of Life” or “Lord of All.” The first of these titles is counted significant for Joseph Smith’s explanation, since one ancient Egyptian text gives the same title to Iaho Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. Some Egyptologists have suggested that the figure is the god Min, or Amun, though the Egyptians did not themselves name him so. Min was one of Egypt’s oldest gods, a god of the life-giving powers of nature and regarded as a creator, often shown with an arm raised and holding a flail, both signs of kingship. On this plate the figure was drawn or copied somewhat crudely. Egyptologists have tended to see it drawn in the manner usual for Min, and that seems to be how it is drawn, though Min is not always shown so on hypocephali.

Before the seated god a falcon- or snake-headed figure, perhaps the minor god Nehebkau, offers the wedjat-eye. This is the “whole” or “sound” eye of Horus, a sign of good gifts and of the body restored and renewed; in Coptic the same word came to mean “salvation, saved.” This fuller picture is offered as helping to make sense of Joseph Smith’s explanation of the figure and placing it in an Egyptian setting. There also appear to have been ancient connections between Abraham and objects of this kind: one Egyptian papyrus calls him “the pupil of the wedjat-eye.”

Sources: Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “God Sitting upon His Throne (Facsimile 2, Figure 7)”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 259. Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “The Purpose and Function of the Egyptian Hypocephalus”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 234.

8 Contains writing that cannot be revealed unto the world; but is to be had in the Holy Temple of God.

The current edition reads “Contains writings.”

9 Ought not to be revealed at the present time.

10 Also.

11 Also. If the world can find out these numbers, so let it be. Amen.

12–20 Figures 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, will be given in the own due time of the Lord.

The current edition adds “and 21.”

The above translation is given as far as we have any right to give at the present time.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Origins of the Book of Abraham”, Topics and Questions, Gospel Library.
Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “Kolob, the Governing One”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 142.
Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “One Day to a Cubit (Facsimile 2, Figure 1)”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 247.
Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “The Purpose and Function of the Egyptian Hypocephalus”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 234.
Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “A Semitic View of the Facsimiles”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 215.
Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “God Sitting upon His Throne (Facsimile 2, Figure 7)”, BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022): 259.