Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life: Chapter I: The Belief in God Almighty
A STUDY of ancient Egyptian religious texts will convince the reader that the Egyptians believed in One God, who was self-existent, immortal, invisible, eternal, omniscient, almighty, and inscrutable; the maker of the heavens, earth, and underworld; the creator of the sky and the sea, men and women, animals and birds, fish and creeping-things, trees and plants, and the incorporeal beings who were the messengers that fulfilled his wish and word, It is necessary to place this definition of the first part of the belief of the Egyptian at the beginning of the first chapter of this brief account of the principal religious ideas which he held, for the whole of his theology and religion was based upon it; and it is also necessary to add that, however
Here it will be objected by those who declare that the ancient Egyptian idea of God is on a level with that evolved by peoples and tribes who stand comparatively little removed from very intelligent animals, that such high conceptions as self-existence and immortality belong to a people who are already on a
1 in the same text we read, "Behold, Teta hath arrived in the height of heaven, and the henmemet beings have seen him; the Semketet 2 boat knoweth him, and it is Teta who saileth it, and the Mântchet 3 boat calleth unto him, and it is Teta who bringeth it to a standstill. Teta hath seen his body in the Semketet boat, he knoweth the uraeus which is in the Mântchet boat, and God hath called him in his name . . . and hath taken him in to Râ' And again 4 we have: "Thou hast received the form (or attribute) of God, and thou hast become great therewith before the gods"; and of Pepi I., who reigned about B.C. 3000, it is said, "This Pepi is God, the son of God." 5 Now in these passages the allusion is to the supreme Being in the next world, the Being who has the power to invoke and to obtain a favourable reception for the deceased king, by Râ, the Sun-god, the type and symbol of God. It may, of course, be urged that the word neter here refers to Osiris, but it is not customary to speak of this god in such a way in the texts; and even if we admit that it does, it only shows that the powers of God have been attributed to Osiris, and that he was believed to occupy the position in
Passing from religious texts to works containing moral precepts, we find much light thrown upon the idea of God by the writings of the early sages of Egypt. First and foremost among these are the "Precepts of Kaqemna" and the "Precepts of Ptah-hetep," works which were composed as far back as B.C. 3000. The oldest copy of them which we possess is, unfortunately, not older than B.C. 2500, but this fact in no way affects our argument. These "precepts" are intended to form a work of direction and guidance for a young man in the performance of his duty towards the society in which he lived and towards his God. It is only fair to say that the reader will look in vain in them for the advice which is found in writings of a similar character composed at a later period; but as a work intended to demonstrate the "whole duty of man" to the youth of the time when the Great Pyramid was still a new building, these "precepts" are very remarkable. The idea of God held by Ptah-hetep is illustrated by the following passages:-- 2. "As for the nobleman who possesseth abundance of goods, he may act according to his own dictates; and he may do with himself that which he pleaseth; if he will do nothing at all, that also is as he pleaseth. The nobleman by merely stretching out his hand doeth that which mankind (or a person) cannot attain to; but inasmuch as the eating of bread is according to the plan of God, this cannot be gainsaid." 3. "If thou hast ground to till, labour in the field which God hath given thee; rather than fill thy mouth with that which belongeth to thy neighbours it is better to terrify him that hath possessions [to give them unto thee]." 4. "If thou abasest thyself in the service of a perfect man, thy conduct shall be fair before God." 5. "If thou wouldst be a wise man, make thou thy son to be pleasing unto God." 6. "Satisfy those who depend upon thee as far as thou art able so to do; this should be done by those whom God hath favoured." 7. "If, having been of no account, thou hast become great; and if, having been poor, thou hast become rich; and if thou hast become governor of the city, be not hard-headed on account of thy advancement, because 8 "What is loved of God is obedience; God hateth disobedience." 9. "Verily a good son is of the gifts of God." 1 The same idea of God, but considerably amplified in some respects, may be found in the Maxims of Khensit-hetep, a work which was probably composed during the XVIIIth dynasty. This work has been studied in detail by a number of eminent Egyptologists, and though considerable difference of opinion has existed among them in respect of details and grammatical niceties, the general sense of the maxims has been clearly established. To illustrate the use of the word neter, the following passages have been chosen from it: 2-- 1. "God magnifieth his name." 2. "What the house of God hateth is much speaking. Pray thou with a loving heart all the petitions which are in secret. He will perform thy business, he will hear that which thou sayest and will accept thine offerings." 3. "God decreeth the right."
5. "If thy mother raise her hands to God he will hear her prayers [and rebuke thee]." 7. "Give thyself to God, and keep thou thyself daily for God." Now, although the above passages prove the exalted idea which the Egyptians held of the supreme Being, they do not supply us with any of the titles and epithets which they applied to him; for these we must have recourse to the fine hymns and religious meditations which form so important a part of the "Book of the Dead." But before we quote from them, mention must be made of the neteru, i.e., the beings or existences which in some way partake of the nature or character of God, and are usually called "gods." The early nations that came in contact with the Egyptians usually misunderstood the nature of these beings, and several modern Western writers have done the same. When we examine these "gods" closely, they are found to be nothing more nor less than forms, or manifestations, or phases, or attributes, of one god, that god being Râ the Sun-god, who, it must be remembered, was the type and symbol of God. Nevertheless, the
Osiris-Nepra, with wheat growing from his body. From a bas-relief at Philae. The cow-headed Isis pouring out a libation in honor of the soul of Osiris, which rises in the form of a man-headed hawk from the plants growing in a sacred lake. From the bas-relief at Philae.
Homage to thee, O Hâpi! Thou comest forth in this land, and dost come in peace to make Egypt to live, O thou hidden one, thou guide of the darkness whensoever it is thy pleasure to be its guide. Thou waterest the fields which Râ hath created, thou makest all animals to live, thou makest the land to drink After praising him for what he does for mankind and beasts, and for making the herb to grow for the use of all men, the text says:-- "He cannot be figured in stone; he is not to be seen in the sculptured images upon which men place the united crowns of the South and the North furnished with uraei; neither works nor offerings can be made to him; and he cannot be made to come forth from his secret place. The place where he liveth is unknown; he is not to be found in inscribed shrines; there existeth no habitation which can contain him; and thou canst not conceive his form in thy heart." First we notice that Hâpi is addressed by the names of Ptah and Khnemu, not because the writer thought these three gods were one, but because Hâpi as the great supplier of water to Egypt became, as it were, "God is One and alone, and none other existeth
"God is from the beginning and He hath been from the beginning; He hath existed from of old and was when nothing else had being. He existed when nothing else existed, and what existeth He created after He had come into being. He is the father of beginnings. "God is the eternal One, He is eternal and infinite; and endureth for ever and aye; He hath endured for countless ages, and He shall endure to all eternity. "God is the hidden Being, and no man hath known His form. No man hath been able to seek out His likeness; He is hidden from gods and men, and He is a mystery unto His creatures. "No man knoweth how to know Him. His name remaineth hidden; His name is a mystery unto His children. His names are innumerable, they are manifold and none knoweth their number. "God is truth, and He liveth by truth, and He feedeth thereon. He is the King of truth, He resteth upon truth, He fashioneth truth, and He executeth truth throughout all the world. "God is life, and through Him only man liveth. He giveth life to man, and He breatheth the breath of life into his nostrils. "God is father and mother, the father of fathers, "God hath made the universe, and He hath created all that therein is: He is the Creator of what is in this world, of what was, of what is, and of what shall be. He is the Creator of the world, and it was He Who fashioned it with His hands before there was any beginning; and He stablished it with that which went forth from Him. He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth; the Creator of the heavens, and the earth, and the deep; the Creator of the heavens, and the earth, and the deep, and the waters, and the mountains. God hath stretched out the heavens and founded the earth. What His heart conceived came to pass straightway, and when He had spoken His word came to pass, and it shall endure for ever. "God is the father of the gods, and the father of the father of all deities; He made His voice to sound, and the deities came into being, and the gods sprang into existence after He had spoken with His mouth. He "God is merciful unto those who reverence Him, and He heareth him that calleth upon Him. He protecteth the weak against the strong, and He heareth the cry of him that is bound in fetters; He judgeth between the mighty and the weak. God knoweth him that knoweth Him, He rewardeth him that serveth Him, and He protecteth him that followeth Him." We have now to consider the visible emblem, and the type and symbol of God, namely the Sun-god Râ, who was worshipped in Egypt in prehistoric times. According to the writings of the Egyptians, there was a time when neither heaven nor earth existed, and when nothing had being except the boundless primeval 1 water, which was, however, shrouded with thick darkness. In this condition the primeval water remained for a considerable time, notwithstanding that it contained within it the germs of the things which afterwards
"I evolved the evolving of evolutions. I evolved myself under the form of the evolutions of the god Khepera, which were evolved at the beginning of all time. I evolved with the evolutions of the god Khepera; I evolved by the evolution of evolutions--
The Creation. The god Nu rising out of the primeval water and bearing in his hands the boat of Râ, the Sun-god, who is accompanied by a number of deities . In the upper portion of the scene is the region of the underworld which is enclosed by the body of Osiris, on whose head stands the goddess Nut with arms stretched out to receive the disk of the sun. Osiris seated on his throne by, or above a lake of water. From the Papyrus of Hunefer. The fact of the existence of two versions of this remarkable Chapter proves that the composition -is much older than the papyrus 1 in which it is found, and the variant readings which occur in each make it certain that the Egyptian scribes had difficulty in understanding what they were writing. It may be said that this version of the cosmogony is incomplete, because it does not account for the origin of any of the gods except those who belong to the cycle of Osiris, and this objection is a valid one; but in this place we are only concerned to shew that Râ, the Sun-god, was evolved from the primeval abyss of water by the agency of the god Khepera, who brought this result about by pronouncing his own name. The great cosmic gods, such as Ptah and Khnemu, of whom mention will be made later, are the offspring of another set of religious views, and the cosmogony in which these play the leading parts is entirely different. We must notice, in passing, that the god whose words we have quoted above declares that he evolved himself under the form of Khepera, and that his name is Osiris, "the primeval matter of primeval matter," and that, as a result, Osiris is identical with Khepera in respect of his evolutions
We have seen how Râ has become the visible type and symbol of God, and the creator of the world and of all that is therein; we may now consider the position which he held with respect to the dead. As far back as the period of the IVth dynasty,--about B.C. 3700, he was regarded as the great god of heaven, and the king of all the gods, and divine beings, and of the beatified dead who dwelt therein. The position of the beatified in heaven is decided by Râ, and of all the gods there Osiris only appears to have the power to claim protection for his followers; the offerings which the deceased would make to Râ, are actually presented to him by Osiris. At one time the Egyptian's greatest hope seems to have been that he might not only become "God, the son of God," by adoption, but that Râ would become actually his father. For in the text of Pepi. I., 1 it is said: "Pepi is the son of Râ who loveth him; and he goeth forth and raiseth himself
I. FROM THE PAPYRUS OF ANI. 1 Homage to thee, O thou who hast come as Khepera, Khepera the creator of the gods. Thou risest and thou shinest, and thou makest light to be in thy mother Nut (i.e., the sky); thou art crowned king of the gods. Thy mother Nut doeth an act of homage unto thee with both her hands. The land of Manu (i.e., the land where the sun sets) receiveth thee with satisfaction, and the goddess Maât embraceth thee both at morn and at eve. 2 Hail, all ye gods of the
"O Râ, those who dwell in the heights and those who dwell in the depths adore thee. The god Thoth and the goddess Maât have marked out for thee [thy course] for each and every day. Thine enemy the Serpent hath been given over to the fire, the serpent-fiend Sebau hath fallen down headlong; his arms have been bound in chains, and thou hast hacked off his legs; and the sons of impotent revolt shall nevermore rise up against thee. The Temple of the Aged One 2 (i.e., Râ) keepeth festival, and the voice of those who rejoice is in the mighty dwelling. The gods exult when they see thy rising, O Râ, and when thy beams flood the world with light. The Majesty of the holy god goeth forth and advanceth even unto the land of Manu; he maketh brilliant the earth at his birth each day; he journeyeth on to the place where he was yesterday."
"Homage to thee, O thou who art Râ when thou risest and Temu when thou settest. Thou risest, thou risest, thou shinest, thou shinest, O thou who art crowned king of the gods. Thou art the lord of heaven, thou art the lord of earth; thou art the creator of those who dwell in the heights, and of those who dwell in the depths. Thou art the One God who came into being in the beginning of time. Thou didst create the earth, thou didst fashion man, thou didst make the watery abyss of the sky, thou didst form Hâpi (i.e., the Nile), thou didst create the great deep, and thou dost give life unto all that therein is. Thou hast knit together the mountains, thou hast made mankind and the beasts of the field to come into being, thou hast made the heavens and the earth. Worshipped be thou whom the goddess Maât embraceth at morn and at eve. Thou dost travel across the sky with thy heart swelling with joy; the great deep of heaven is content thereat. The serpent-fiend Nak 2 hath fallen, and his arms are cut off. The Sektet 3 boat receiveth fair winds, and the heart of him that is in the shrine thereof rejoiceth. "Thou art crowned Prince of heaven, and thou art
Homage to thee, O Amen-Râ, 2 who dost rest upon Maât 3 thou passest over heaven and every face seeth thee. Thou dost wax great as thy Majesty doth advance, and thy rays are upon all faces. Thou art unknown, and no tongue can declare thy likeness; thou thyself alone [canst do this]. Thou art One . . . Men praise thee in thy name, and they swear by thee, for thou art lord over them. Thou hearest with thine ears, and thou seest with thine eyes. Millions of years have gone over the world. I cannot tell the number of those through which thou hast passed. Thy heart hath decreed a day of happiness in thy name of 'Traveller.' Thou dost pass over and dost travel through untold spaces [requiring] millions and hundreds
III. FROM THE PAPYRUS OF ANI. 1 The following beautiful composition, part hymn and part prayer, is of exceptional interest. "Hail, thou Disk, thou lord of rays, who risest on the horizon day by day! Shine thou with thy beams of light upon the face of Osiris Ani, who is true of voice; for he singeth hymns of praise unto thee at dawn, and he maketh thee to set at eventide with words of adoration. May the soul of Ani come forth with thee into heaven, may he go forth in the Mâtet boat. May he come into port in the Sektet boat, and may he cleave his path among the never-resting stars in the heavens. "Osiris Ani, being in peace and triumph, adoreth his lord, the lord of eternity, saying, 'Homage to thee, O Heru-khuti (Harmachis), who art the god Khepera, the self-created one; when thou risest on the horizon and sheddest thy beams of light upon the lands of the North and of the South, thou art
"Osiris, the scribe Ani, declareth his praise of thee when thou shinest, and when thou risest at dawn be crieth in his joy at thy birth, saying:-- "I Thou art crowned with the majesty of thy beauties; thou mouldest thy limbs as thou dost advance, and thou bringest them forth without birth-pangs in the form of Râ, as thou dost rise up in the celestial height, Grant thou thalt I may come unto the heaven which
"A hymn of praise to thee, O thou who risest like unto gold, and who dost flood the world with light on the day of thy birth. Thy mother giveth thee birth, and straightway thou dost give light upon the path of [thy] Disk, O thou great Light who shinest in the heavens. Thou makest the generations of men to flourish through the Nile-flood, and thou dost cause gladness to exist in all lands, and in all cities, and in all temples. Thou art glorious by reason of thy splendours, and thou makest strong thy KA (i.e. Double) with divine foods, O thou mighty one of victories, thou Power of Powers, who dost make strong thy throne against evil fiends-thou who art glorious in Majesty in the Sektet boat, and most mighty in the Âtet 2 boat!"
Osiris in the character of Menu, the "god of the uplifted arm,'' and Harpokrates as they sat in the disk of the moon. Below is the Crocodile-god Sebek bearing the mummy of the god on his back. To the left stands Isis. From a bas-relief at Philae. Osiris standing between Isis and Nephthys. Homage to thee, O thou glorious Being, thou who art dowered [with all sovereignty]. O Temu-Harmachis, 2 when thou risest in the horizon of heaven, a cry of joy cometh forth to thee from the mouth of all peoples. O thou beautiful Being, thou dost renew thyself in thy season in the form of the Disk within thy mother Hathor; 3 therefore in every place every heart swelleth with joy at thy rising for ever. The regions of the North and South come to thee with homage, and send forth acclamations at thy rising in the horizon of heaven; thou illuminest the two lands with rays of turquoise light. Hail, Râ, thou who art Râ-Harmachis, thou divine man-child, heir of eternity, self-begotten and self-born, king of the earth, prince of the underworld, governor of the regions of Aukert (i.e., the underworld)! Thou didst come forth from the water, thou hast sprung from the god Nu, who cberisheth thee and ordereth thy members. Hail, god of life, thou lord of love, all men live when thou shinest; thou art crowned king of the gods. The goddess Nut doeth homage unto thee, and the goddess
From the considerations set forth in the preceding pages, and from the extracts from religious texts of various periods, and from the hymns quoted, the reader may himself judge the views which the ancient Egyptian held concerning God Almighty and his visible type and symbol Râ, the Sun-god. Egyptologists differ in their interpretations of certain passages, but agree as to general facts. In dealing with the facts it cannot be too clearly understood that the religious ideas of the prehistoric Egyptian were very different from those of the cultured priest of Memphis in the IInd dynasty, or those of the worshippers of Temu or Atum, the god of the setting sun, in the IVth dynasty. The editors of religious texts of all periods have retained many grossly superstitious and coarse beliefs, which they knew well to be the products of the imaginations of their savage, or semi-savage ancestors, not because they themselves believed in them, or thought that the laity to whom they ministered would accept them, but because of their reverence for inherited traditions. The followers of every great religion in the world have never wholly shaken off all the superstitions which they have in all generations inherited from their ancestors; and what is true of the peoples of the past is true, in a degree, of the peoples of to-day. In the East the older the ideas, and beliefs, 19:1 There is no e in Egyptian, and this vowel is added merely to make the word pronounceable. 20:1 The letter r has dropped out in Coptic through phonetic decay. 21:1 Religion und Mythologie, p. 93. 22:1 La Mythologie Égyptienne, p. 215. 24:1 Ed. Maspero, Pyramides de Saqqarah, p. 25. 24:2 Ibid., p. 113. 25:1 Ed. Maspero, Pyramides de Saqqarah, p. 111. 25:2 The morning boat of the sun. 25:3 The evening boat of the sun. 25:4 Ibid., p. 150. 25:5 Ibid., p. 222. 28:1 The text was published by Prisse d'Avennes, entitled Facsimile d'un papyrus Égyptien en caractères hiératiques, Paris, 1847. For a translation of the whole work, see Virey, Attudes sur le Papyrus Prisse, Paris, 1887. 28:2 They are given with interlinear transliteration and translation in my Papyrus of Ani, p. lxxxv. ff., where references to the older literature on the subject will be found. 30:1 Geschiedenis van den Godsdienst in de Oudheid, Amsterdam, 1893, p. 25. A number of valuable remarks on this subject are given by Lieblein in Egyptian Religion, p. 10. 33:1 Le Livre des Morts (Review in Muséon, Tom. xiii. 1893). 34:1 Juvenal, Satire XV. (Evans' translation in Bohn's Series, p. 180). Led astray by Juvenal, our own good George Herbert (Church Militant) wrote:-- At first he (i.e., Sin) got to Egypt, and did sow 40:1 See Brugsch, Religion, p. 101. 41:1 No. 10,188. See my transcript and translation of the whole papyrus in Archæologia, vol. 52, London, 1891. 45:1 About B.C. 300. 46:1 Ed. Maspero, line 576. 47:1 See The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day, p. 3. 47:2 I.e., Maât, the goddess of law, order, regularity, and the like, maketh the sun to rise each day in his appointed place and at his appointed time with absolute and unfailing regularity. 48:1 I.e., the soul referred to above in the account of the creation. 48:2 I.e., Râ of Heliopolis. 49:1 From the Papyrus of Hunefer (Brit. Mus. No. 9901). 49:2 A name of the serpent of darkness which Râ slew daily. 49:3 The boat in which Râ sailed from noon to sunset. 50:1 I.e., whatsoever Râ commandeth taketh place straightway; see the Chapter on the Judgment of the Dead. 50:2 On the god Amen, see the chapter, "The Gods of the Egyptians." 50:3 I.e. "thy existence, and thy risings and settings are ordered and defined by fixed, unchanging, and unalterable law." 51:1 Plate 20. 52:1 I.e., unchanging and unalterable law. 53:1 I.e., the east and west coasts of the Red Sea, and the north-east coast of Africa. 53:2 I am doubtful about the meaning of this passage. 54:1 I.e., "because when thou settest thou dost not die." 54:2 The Sun's evening and morning boats respectively. 57:1 From the Papyrus of Nekht (Brit. Mus. No. 10,471). 57:2 The evening and morning sun respectively. 57:3 Like Nut, a goddess of the sky, but particularly of that portion of it in which the sun rises.CHAPTER I.
THE BELIEF IN GOD ALMIGHTY.
From a bas-relief at Philae.
Gardens of gods, which every year did grow
