Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life

Wallis Budge E. A.

Description

In the pursuit of their amazingly complex vision of the afterlife, the ancient Egyptians created some of the most remarkable structures ever built by human hands. In Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life, famed Egyptologist and philologist E.A. Wallis Budge sets forth a comprehensive overview of the ancient culture's conception of the afterlife and the profound influence it exerted on virtually every aspect of Egyptian life.

Sujets

• Histoire
• History

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781775413509
• Langue: English

Extrait

EGYPTIAN IDEAS OF THE FUTURE LIFE
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E. A. WALLIS BUDGE
 
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Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life From a 1899 edition.
ISBN 978-1-775413-50-9
© 2009 THE FLOATING PRESS.
While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike.
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Contents
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Publishers' Note Preface Chapter I - The Belief in God Almighty Chapter II - Osiris the God of the Resurrection Chapter III - The "Gods" Of the Egyptians Chapter IV - The Judgment of the Dead Chapter V - The Resurrection and Immortality Endnotes
Publishers' Note
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In the year 1894, Dr. Wallis Budge prepared for Messrs. Kegan Paul,Trench, Trübner & Co. an elementary work on the Egyptian language,entitled "First Steps in Egyptian," and two years later the companionvolume, "An Egyptian Reading Book," with transliterations of all thetexts printed in it, and a full vocabulary. The success of these worksproved that they had helped to satisfy a want long felt by students ofthe Egyptian language, and as a similar want existed among students ofthe languages written in the cuneiform character, Mr. L.W. King, of theBritish Museum, prepared, on the same lines as the two books mentionedabove, an elementary work on the Assyrian and Babylonian languages("First Steps in Assyrian"), which appeared in 1898. These works,however, dealt mainly with the philological branch of Egyptology andAssyriology, and it was impossible in the space allowed to explain muchthat needed explanation in the other branches of those subjects—that isto say, matters relating to the archaeology, history, religion, etc., ofthe Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. In answer to the numerousrequests which have been made, a series of short, popular handbooks onthe most important branches of Egyptology and Assyriology have beenprepared, and it is hoped that these will serve as introductions to thelarger works on these subjects. The present is the first volume of theseries, and the succeeding volumes will be published at short intervals,and at moderate prices.
Preface
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The following pages are intended to place before the reader in a handyform an account of the principal ideas and beliefs held by the ancientEgyptians concerning the resurrection and the future life, which isderived wholly from native religious works. The literature of Egyptwhich deals with these subjects is large and, as was to be expected, theproduct of different periods which, taken together, cover severalthousands of years; and it is exceedingly difficult at times toreconcile the statements and beliefs of a writer of one period withthose of a writer of another. Up to the present no systematic account ofthe doctrine of the resurrection and of the future life has beendiscovered, and there is no reason for hoping that such a thing willever be found, for the Egyptians do not appear to have thought that itwas necessary to write a work of the kind. The inherent difficulty ofthe subject, and the natural impossibility that different men living indifferent places and at different times should think alike on matterswhich must, after all, belong always to the region of faith, render itmore than probable that no college of priests, however powerful, wasable to formulate a system of beliefs which would be received throughoutEgypt by the clergy and the laity alike, and would be copied by thescribes as a final and authoritative work on Egyptian eschatology.Besides this, the genius and structure of the Egyptian language are suchas to preclude the possibility of composing in it works of aphilosophical or metaphysical character in the true sense of the words.In spite of these difficulties, however, it is possible to collect agreat deal of important information on the subject from the funereal andreligious works which have come down to us, especially concerning thegreat central idea of immortality, which existed unchanged for thousandsof years, and formed the pivot upon which the religious and social lifeof the ancient Egyptians actually turned. From the beginning to the endof his life the Egyptian's chief thought was of the life beyond thegrave, and the hewing of his tomb in the rock, and the providing of itsfurniture, every detail of which was prescribed by the custom of thecountry, absorbed the best thoughts of his mind and a large share of hisworldly goods, and kept him ever mindful of the time when his mummifiedbody would be borne to his "everlasting house" in the limestone plateauor hill.
The chief source of our information concerning the doctrine of theresurrection and of the future life as held by the Egyptians is, ofcourse, the great collection of religious texts generally known by thename of "Book of the Dead." The various recensions of these wonderfulcompositions cover a period of more than five thousand years, and theyreflect faithfully not only the sublime beliefs, and the high ideals,and the noble aspirations of the educated Egyptians, but also thevarious superstitions and childish reverence for amulets, and magicalrites, and charms, which they probably inherited from their pre-dynasticancestors, and regarded as essentials for their salvation. It must bedistinctly understood that many passages and allusions in the Book ofthe Dead still remain obscure, and that in some places any translatorwill be at a difficulty in attempting to render certain, important wordsinto any modern European language. But it is absurd to talk of almostthe whole text of the Book of the Dead as being utterly corrupt, forroyal personages, and priests, and scribes, to say nothing of theordinary educated folk, would not have caused costly copies of a verylengthy work to be multiplied, and illustrated by artists possessing thehighest skill, unless it had some meaning to them, and was necessary forthe attainment by them of the life which is beyond the grave. The"finds" of recent years in Egypt have resulted in the recovery ofvaluable texts whereby numerous difficulties have been cleared away; andwe must hope that the faults made in translating to-day may be correctedby the discoveries of to-morrow. In spite of all difficulties, bothtextual and grammatical, sufficient is now known of the Egyptianreligion to prove, with certainty, that the Egyptians possessed, somesix thousand years ago, a religion and a system of morality which, whenstripped of all corrupt accretions, stand second to none among thosewhich have been developed by the greatest nations of the world.
E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.LONDON, August 21st , 1899.
Chapter I - The Belief in God Almighty
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A study of ancient Egyptian religious texts will convince the readerthat the Egyptians believed in One God, who was self-existent, immortal,invisible, eternal, omniscient, almighty, and inscrutable; the maker ofthe heavens, earth, and underworld; the creator of the sky and the sea,men and women, animals and birds, fish and creeping things, trees andplants, and the incorporeal beings who were the messengers thatfulfilled his wish and word. It is necessary to place this definition ofthe first part of the belief of the Egyptian at the beginning of thefirst chapter of this brief account of the principal religious ideaswhich he held, for the whole of his theology and religion was based uponit; and it is also necessary to add that, however far back we follow hisliterature, we never seem to approach a time when he was without thisremarkable belief. It is true that he also developed polytheistic ideasand beliefs, and that he cultivated them at certain periods of hishistory with diligence, and to such a degree that the nations around,and even the stranger in his country, were misled by his actions, anddescribed him as a polytheistic idolater. But notwithstanding all suchdepartures from observances, the keeping of which befitted those whobelieved in God and his unity, this sublime idea was never lost sightof; on the contrary, it is reproduced in the religious literature of allperiods. Whence came this remarkable characteristic of the Egyptianreligion no man can say, and there is no evidence whatsoever to guide usin formulating the theory that it was brought into Egypt by immigrantsfrom the East, as some have said, or that it was a natural product ofthe indigenous peoples who formed the population of the valley of theNile some ten thousand years ago, according to the opinion of others.All that is known is that it existed there at a period so remote that itis useless to attempt to measure by years the interval of time which haselapsed since it grew up and established itself in the minds of men, andthat it is exceedingly doubtful if we shall ever have any very definiteknowledge on this interesting point.
But though we know nothing about the period of the origin in Egypt ofthe belief in the existence of an almighty God who was One, theinscriptions show us that this Being was called by a name which wassomething like Neter , [1] the picture signfor which was an axe-head, made probably of stone, let into a longwooden handle. The coloured picture character shews that the axe-headwas fastened into the handle by thongs of leather or string, and judgingby the general look of the object it must have been a formidable weaponin strong, skilled hands. A theory has recently been put forward to theeffect that the picture character represents a stick with a bit ofcoloured rag tied to the, but it will hardly commend itself to anyarchaeologist. The lines which cross the side of the axe-head representstring or strips of leather, and indicate that it was made of stonewhich, being brittle, was