we find the most fascinating similarities between the egyptians and Christ in the second coming and the Day of Judgment. In Judgment Day the dead will face the presiding judge Osiris and make confessions as follows:
I never took away anything by force from any man
I never did an act of oppression to any man
I was beloved by my father, praised by my mother, well disposed toward my brother, sweet-tempered with my sister
I never spake evil of any kind
I gave bread to the hungry man and clothes to the naked
I never gave a verdict in a case between two brothers
The confession and the judgment takes place in the Hall of the Two Maat (Truth and Justice) whereby Goddesses are seated by the doors and holding the scepter of ‘serenity’ in the right hand and ‘ankh’ (life) in the left. Also in the Hall is present the symbolic scale of Maat and two-and-forty gods (42 gods) or spirits to whom the confessor declares his innocence. Incidentally, the 42 gods could find parallel to 44 spirit saints in the Ethiopian context. Gonder, for instance, is famous for its forty-four Adbarat (abode of the spirits).
The Declaration of Innocence, as documented in the Papyrus of Ani or the Book of the Dead (18th Dynasty, 1550-1305 B. C.) is an elaborate version of the confessions enumerated above and sequentially runs as follows:
I have not done iniquity
I have not robbed with violence
I have not stolen
I have done no murder
I have not defrauded offerings
I have not diminished oblations
I have not plundered the gods
I have spoken no lies
I have not snatched away food
I have not caused pain
I have not committed fornication
I have not caused shedding of tears
I have not dealt deceitfully
I have not transgressed
I have not acted guilefully
I have not laid waste the ploughed land
I have not been an eavesdropper
I have not set my lips in motion against any man
I have not been angry and wrathful except for a just cause
I have not defiled the wife of any man
I have not defiled the wife of any man*
I have not polluted myself
I have not caused terror
I have not transgressed**
I have not burned with rage
I have not stopped my ears against the words of Right and Truth
I have not worked grief
I have not acted with insolence
I have not stirred up strife
I have not judged hastily
I have not been eavesdropper***
I have not multiplied words exceedingly
I have done neither harm nor ill
I have never cursed the king
I have not worked treason
I have never befouled the water
I have not spoken scornfully
I have not cursed God
I have not acted with arrogance
I have not been overweeningly proud
I have never magnified my condition beyond what was fitting
I have never slighted the god in my town.6
Any intelligent person who reads the Bible in general and the Ten Commandments in particular could be perplexed by the input of Egyptian theology in Christian dogma although believers generally tend to deny any plausible logical deduction that may unseat the foundation of their respective religions. The fact, however, remains steadfast. After all Moses was Egyptian and the disciple of Amenhotep (Akhenaten) who popularized (not invented) monotheism in Egypt. Although the Egyptian mystery system was predominantly polytheistic, early on during the course of the Egyptian civilization monotheism was pretty much established with a low profile. Thus, the Jews, Christians and Moslems borrowed the idea of one god from the Egyptians.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Monday, October 6th 2014 at 3:51PM
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