The Scriptures of Mankind: An Introduction by Charles Samuel Braden
Chapter 3: Egyptian Sacred Literature
In a strict sense, Egypt has no sacred book. The Egyptian people never reached the stage at which they formed a definitive canon of writings which served as the basis of their faith. But they did have a very extensive sacred literature which was highly influential in the expression of their faith, and to some extent in the determination of that faith. Why she never reached the point of canonization of her scripture can be a matter of conjecture only. Certainly she had materials of the sort that compose sacred scriptures in other faiths, and certainly she had a priesthood who might have been thought of as interested in crystallizing Egypt’s religion by means of a preferred set of sacred books. Possibly the shifting of capitals, due to the political changes, and the corresponding shifts in the centers of religious authority, may have played some part in the prevention of the crystallization of a true sacred book.
Egypt has had perhaps as long a period of literacy as any area in the world. Even before the dynastic period she had achieved the art of writing, using the picture or hieroglyphic method.
She had immediately at hand a most durable medium on which to record her thought, and both political and climatic conditions were unusually favorable to the preservation of her writings.
Politically, she was relatively isolated from the rest of the world for many, many centuries of her earlier history. There was a brief invasion in about 1700 B.C. by the Hyksos kings, and there were imperial wars fought with the nascent Babylonian and Assyrian empires at a later time; but few cultures have enjoyed a longer, more uninterrupted period of development than did Egypt.
Furthermore, her climate because of its extreme aridity was highly favorable to the preservation of what was written. For, of course, Egypt would be completely desert were it not for the Nile which furnishes irrigation for her fields. This climate makes anything written in Egypt almost eternal in its enduring quality, particularly if it has become covered over so as to escape the cutting effect of sand storms.
For many centuries there lay side by side in one of the famous archaeological sites two enormous obelisks, cut with great skill out of the living rock of Egypt, dressed down to the proper shape, then deeply inscribed with hieroglyphic characters. In the course of time, these were overturned and became at least partly covered by the sand. Something over seventy years ago it occurred to certain Americans to bring one of these obelisks to America so that it could be seen by those who could not make the journey to Egypt. Accordingly, at no small cost in money and effort, it was towed across the Atlantic Ocean on a specially constructed barge, unloaded, and transported through the streets of New York City on a specially built, very wide- tired truck, to its present site in Central Park near the Metropolitan Art Museum. There it was mounted, and has stood for roughly seven decades only, but already the eroding effect of cold and heat, moisture and dryness, has taken its toll, and the sharply cut figures have begun to lose their edges. It is certain that within a comparatively short time the inscription on the obelisk will become practically illegible. Meanwhile, a like monument in Egypt is said to be the same as it was the day the New York obelisk was borne away. Even writings on so perishable a medium as papyrus, the ancestor of paper, have survived for nearly three thousand years with almost no serious deterioration, a thing which could never happen in a climate like our own.
But there was a third factor which made for the preservation of Egypt’s writings which must be considered; namely, the fact that much of the material was written on the inside of, or deposited within tombs. During most of Egypt’s history it was customary, for important people at least, to be buried in rock-hewn tombs. On the interior walls of these burial places were carved religious texts as well as many other things that tell of the life and thought of the ancient Egyptians. Once sealed, the tombs were perhaps the least likely of all places to be disturbed, for in Egypt as elsewhere, there was a superstitious dread of the dead and anything connected with them. On the walls of some tombs were written words to this effect: "Cursed be he who does damage to this tomb." Egyptians believed very definitely in the spirit world, and only the most courageous would venture to violate such a tabu. One has only to recall the dread which modern people have of cemeteries, particularly at night, to understand how the Egyptians felt about this.
Some years ago an, unusually rich find was made in the rock cliffs along the Nile Valley. It was obviously a royal tomb. Naturally there was a great deal of interest in its discovery and in its opening. The sensational press wove a fabric of unbelievable but dramatic tales about the affair.
Lord Carnarvon, the financial backer of the work of excavation, was said to have been stung by something that darted out of the tomb when the closed opening was finally broken through.
Much was made of the fact that on the face of the mummy there was a mark similar to that on Lord Carnarvon’s cheek -- and that the latter suddenly died. Furthermore, it has been frequently alleged that one after another of those who had either directly or indirectly had anything to do with the affair died, some naturally, some tragically, all as a result of an implied curse.
The facts are that Lord Carnarvon was stung by a mosquito not there, but at another site, that the wound became infected and that he died some five months later, at the end of twenty years of invalidism, at the age of fifty-seven. Responsible scholars, checking on the facts, assert that
of eight persons in the working party that opened the tomb, six were still alive fourteen years later, while two were still living twenty-eight years after the event, which was longer than the period of their average life expectancy. Howard Carter, who was in charge of the excavation, lived to be about seventy years of age and died only shortly before World War II. No wonder an Egyptologist cried, "We all die ultimately. How long does a curse take anyhow?"
While, therefore, the popular stories have no solid basis in fact, they do, nevertheless, illustrate in some measure the feeling people have about tombs; and to a considerable degree, help
account for the preservation of so much that was placed in the burial places of the Egyptians. To this fact we owe a great deal, for much of Egyptian literature, particularly concerning their religion, has come to us from the tombs.
It may be, of course, that just because so much of the religious literature was from this origin, so much attention was focused upon death and the after life. No other single idea seemed so to preoccupy the mind of the Egyptians as this. Possibly if we had more general preservation of the writings which, lacking the protection of the tombs, have been lost or destroyed, we might have a better balance of interest. Certain it is that no people in the world, seemingly, have been so deeply concerned about what was to happen to them after death. It was a near obsession with them. Kings spent much of their time and effort, as well as the economic resources of their country, in building burial places that would defy the ravages of time, and so guarantee to them immortality. It was for this that the pyramids were built, hundreds of them, and literally
thousands of mastabas, which were the more primitive forms of the developed pyramid. These latter served as the burial places of the wealthy and powerful who could not aspire to truly great pyramids, as their bid for immortality.
It is with this concept of the life hereafter that a great deal of the literature has to do. The very oldest writings known in Egypt, and indeed in all the world, were certain writings found on the inner passages of a group of pyramids at Sakkara, along the Nile, which date from about 2700 to 2600 B.C. They are known as the pyramid texts. At the present time nothing older than these in written form is certainly known. Yet, that these were not the earliest writings of Egypt is apparent from the fact that in the course of writing these pyramid texts, their authors quote from books written much earlier, perhaps many hundreds of years previously.
The purpose of the pyramid texts was to enable the king to reach the realm of the dead (at that early time not in the underworld, but in the sky, and in the East rather than the West, as in later times) and to insure his happiness there. To reach that abode it was necessary to ferry over certain bodies of water. Charms were therefore furnished to compel the ferryman, called "Look- behind," to bear him over the waters. Sometimes if he proved obdurate, the god Re was
besought to command the boatman to serve him: "O Re, Commend King Teti to Look-behind, the ferryman of the Lily-Lake, that he may bring that ferry-boat for King Teti, in which he ferries the gods to yonder side of the Lily-Lake, to the east side of the sky."1
If these means fail he may fly to the sky. A charm is provided for this: "Thy two wings are spread out like a falcon with thick plumage, like the hawk seen in the evening traversing the sky."2 Or men and gods are called on to lift him to the sky. "O men and gods! Your arms are under King Pepi! Raise him, lift ye him to the sky, as the arms of Shu are under the sky and he raises it. To the sky! To the sky! To the greatest seat among the gods!"3
Then there were the doors of the celestial fields to be opened and for this also charms were required. As he faces the gates he cries: "O lofty one (gate) , whom no one names! Gate of Nut!
King Teti is Shu who came forth from Atum. O Nun (the primeval waters) , cause that this gate be opened for King Teti."4
At last, of course, the Pharaoh is admitted and becomes one with the gods.
This literature is fairly extensive, running to something over two hundred printed pages in translation. It contains rituals for the funerary offerings at the tomb, charms, very old rituals for use in worship, hymns, myths and prayers. "The chief note," says Breasted, "in all this mass of material is that of protest against death." He calls it "humanity’s earliest supreme revolt against the great darkness and silence from which none returns."5 Again and again is repeated the
assurance that the dead lives: "King Teti has not died the death, he has become a glorious one in the horizon."6
Although primarily of the character thus indicated, pyramid texts are highly revealing as to the general outlook of the people of that time, particularly with reference to the life hereafter. In the earlier period, it should be noted, this seemed to be chiefly the prerogative of kings, at least there is no comparable literature as expressive of the hopes of the common man. There are, however, indications that go far back of any of the pyramids, in the simple burials found in the desert sands, that there was a hope of an after life, and that one would evidently need there very much the same kind of things he needed here. This at any rate appears to be the case, from the sort of utensils and tools and other objects found in the graves.
The funerary literature, of which the pyramid texts are simply the earliest phase, was a constant element in Egyptian literature from the time of the pyramid texts until very late in the pre- Christian era. At a somewhat later time the writing was done, not on the walls of pyramids, but on the inside of coffins in which the mummies were placed. In this form the writings were known as the coffin texts, their purpose being essentially that of the pyramid texts, only there are now evidences that the after life is a concern, not alone of rulers, but also of people of lesser social stature.
The final phase of this literature is what is known as The Book of the Dead, a very extensive literature which is found written on papyrus rolls and placed within the coffins. At this stage it is quite clear that "Everyman" entertains the hope of immortality, and these numerous texts are
the means by which the soul is supposed to be able to make its way through the nether world.
The Book of the Dead is sometimes called the Bible of the Egyptians. It is true that it is the one book which does have some semblance of a canon, but, aside from this, it would be a mistake to regard it as a Bible. As a matter of fact, there are various recensions of the book which are similar, but by no means identical, either in the number of the chapters included or in the content of the chapters. It is true also that it does form what, perhaps, for the first time, may be called a book, but it was certainly never the fixed and unchanging kind of a book that most Bibles have become.
The writing was done on long papyrus rolls, some of them reaching a length of something like 150 feet. They are written very much as the Hebrew scrolls are written, in columns a few inches wide. Some of them were written with great care, some of the chapters being headed by
illustrations in color indicating the content of the chapter.
But even in death there is a difference among people. The wealthy and powerful were able to employ able scribes and use high-grade materials, while the poor had to content themselves with cruder, cheaper work of less capable scribes, some of it written almost illegibly. Dr. John A. Wilson says that probably the really poor (the great mass of the people) could afford no Book of the Dead at all. "Such privilege may have run down through the merchants, artisans and minor priests, but not to servants and peasants."7 Toward the close of Egypt’s history, the book grows shorter and shorter, possibly due to a changed view of its value, or to a conviction that it was primarily magic, and that a token book would work quite as effectively as a much more elaborate and expensive one. The result is that in lesser burials, the book comes to be only a small, single sheet of papyrus written in demotic script.
Each chapter as translated and published by Budge has a title, and from a study of these titles the general purposes of The Book of the Dead may be gathered. Chapter XV, for example, is a group of hymns to various gods, a hymn of praise to Ra8 at rising; a hymn and litany to Osiris; a second hymn to Ra at rising, followed by
three hymns to Ra at setting. These are similar to, but yet different from, the several hymns to Ra at rising which form part of the Introduction to The Book of the Dead. Other chapter titles are: "Of not letting the deceased do work in the underworld"; "Of making the Shabti figure to do work," the Shabti (Ushebti) being a molded figure of a slave placed in the tomb to serve the deceased. This was a late substitute for the earlier actual slaying of a slave to serve his master in the other world. Others are: "Of giving a mouth to the deceased"; "Of giving a heart to the
deceased in the underworld"; "Of not letting the heart of the deceased be driven away from him in the underworld"; "Of not letting the deceased be bitten by serpents"; "Of not suffering
corruption in the underworld"; "Of sitting among the great gods"; "Of causing the Soul to be united to the body in the underworld"; "Of providing the deceased with food in the
underworld"; "Of forcing an entrance into heaven"; "Of not dying a second time"; "Of entering
in the company of the Gods." These are but a few, but they furnish something of an indication as to the value of The Book of the Dead to the deceased.
Many of the chapters are quite lengthy and there is not space to quote them at great length, but a few excerpts will give an idea of their general nature. Here is part of Chapter 68, "Of Coming Forth by Day."
The overseer of the house of the overseer of the seal, Nu, triumphant, saith:
"The doors of heaven are opened for me, the doors of earth are opened for me, and the first temple hath been unfastened for me by the god Petra. Behold, I was guarded and watched, (but now) I am released; behold, his hand had tied cords round me and his hand had darted upon me in the earth. Re-hent9 hath been opened for me and Re-hent hath been unfastened before me, Re-hent hath been given unto me, and I shall come forth by day into whatsoever place I please; I have gained the mastery over my heart; I have gained the mastery over my breast C?) ; I have gained the mastery over my hands; I have gained the mastery over my two feet; I have gained the mastery over my mouth; I have gained the mastery over my whole body; I have gained the mastery over sepulchral offerings; I have gained the mastery over the waters; I have gained the mastery over the air; I have gained the mastery over the canal; I have gained the mastery over the river and over the land; I have gained the mastery over the furrows; I have gained the mastery over the male workers for me; I have gained the mastery over the female workers for me in the underworld; I have gained the mastery over the things which were ordered to be done for me upon the earth, according to the entreaty which ye spake for me (saying) ,
‘Behold, let him live upon the bread of Seb.’ That which is an abomination unto me, I shall not eat, (nay) I shall live upon cakes (made) of white grain, and my ale shall be (made) of the red grain of Hapi.10 In a clean place I shall sit on the ground beneath the foliage of the date palm of the goddess Hathor, who dwelleth in the spacious Disk as it advanceth to Annu (Heliopolis) , having the books of the divine words of the writings of the god Thoth."11 ...
"I shall lift myself up on my left side, and I shall place myself up on my right side, and I shall place myself (on my left side) . I shall sit down, I shall stand up, and I shall place myself in (the path of) the wind like a guide who is well prepared."
"Rubiuc: If this composition be known (by the deceased) he shall come forth by day, and he shall be in a position to journey about over the earth among the living, and he shall never suffer diminution, never, never."12
Also part of Chapter 154: