THE RELIGION OF EGYPT.
“Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am the Lord.”
THE question may naturally be asked, Why, when the Israelites besought Aaron to make them gods, did he make a god in the shape of a calf, rather than in any other form?
Of course we cannot pretend to say what led Aaron to make a god of this form; but we can say that in doing so he was only following the example of the Egyptians in this respect; for although they had "gods many," perhaps none were so well known to the Israelites as the sacred heifer—the god APIS.
Yea, more than this. The Israelites were not only familiar with the gods of Egypt, but they had worshipped them. Joshua in his farewell address thus exhorts them: "Fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord." (Josh. 24:1414Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. (Joshua 24:14).)
There would appear to have been an innate idea of God in all mankind. Few are sunk so low but have some idea of a superior unseen Being who has to do with man in one way or another; or perhaps rather Beings, both good and bad. The good have to be pleased and served; and the bad have to be propitiated, that they may do the worshippers no harm. But how low has even this sunk when man thinks he can make his god out of a tree or a lump of stone!
Where the people have been enlightened and the mind has been in a measure developed, the systems of Polytheism and Pantheism have been more elaborated; but the system itself is not improved; it is incapable of being improved, for it is fundamentally false. It may be elaborated and adorned; but it remains nothing more nor less than idolatry. And as to the idols, "they have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them: so is everyone that trusteth in them." (Psa. 115:5-85They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 6They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 7They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 8They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. (Psalm 115:5‑8).)
Scripture tells us that it is because man turns his back upon his Creator, that he sets to work to worship the creature; "for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Because, that, when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.... Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.... They did not like to retain God in their knowledge." (Rom. 1:20-2820For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: 25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (Romans 1:20‑28).)
It is not easy to arrive at a definite theory as to the religion of Egypt; still somewhat is known of it. It is probable that the theory did not agree with the practice; for the theory would be known only to the few initiated—the priests—whereas the practice was that of the people also. We must not be surprised, too, if the theory was not always consistent with itself, or varied at different times and in different places.
The Gods.
According to the monuments the Egyptians held with the unity of their deity. A stele at Berlin, of the nineteenth dynasty speaks of "The only living in substance;" another, of about the same date, has "the only eternal substance;" "the only generation in heaven and on earth that is not begotten.”
Along with this there was the doctrine of one God in a double personage preserved at Thebes and Memphis. The same stele at Berlin, from Memphis, calls it "God making himself god; existing by himself; the double being; generator from the beginning." Though two—father and son, as some interpret—yet it did not destroy the unity of their god: he is called by them UA EN UA, the one of one.'
The Egyptians, however, do not appear to have made any effort to worship their ideal god in his unity; but they represented each of his attributes as a separate god. They only thought of the unity of a supreme Being as they thought of him as inactive. Directly they attributed to him any action then each of his attributes was like a god: as goodness, mercy, wisdom, power, eternity, creation, generation, &c.
However far the intention, in theory, may have been from treating these as separate and distinct gods, they were certainly so looked upon by the common people. Each god had more or less a district over which he presided, or where he was more particularly worshipped.
As we know from scripture, the Egyptians were a learned people—if such a term can apply to any who know not God—and, as we might expect, their system of religion was elaborate, with gods arranged in various classes, with subtle distinctions which none but the initiated could be expected to fathom. The number of gods was so great that a proud Greek said that in Egypt it was easier to find a god than a man! and there is in existence the copy of a treaty of peace made between Rameses II and the Khita (supposed to be the Hittites) which is declared or substantiated by "the thousand gods-the gods male and the gods female-of Egypt.”
The Egyptians are supposed to differ from other idolatrous nations in teaching the people to love the gods. Love to a particular god is named in several of the inscriptions; and at times the kings are represented embracing their gods.
In enumerating the principal of those worshipped by the Egyptians, it will be at once seen that they are not treated as the attributes of one only god, but as so many distinct gods.
There were eight principal gods: from which the others emanated.
1. AMUN, or Amnon, the king of the gods,' or the concealed god.' He was the great god of Thebes.
2. MAUT, or Mut, the mother' of all. The temple consort of Amun and Khem.
3. NOUM, the ram-headed god of the Thebaid. Called also Nu, Noub, Nef, Kneph, Cnuphis, or Chnubis. The Ethiopians often gave the name of Amun to this god.
4. SETI, the companion of Noum. The god of the cataracts, of Ethiopia, and of the Oases. The ram was his emblem.
5. PTHAH, or Phtah, the creative' power. He was the god of Memphis.
6. NEITH, or Net. She was self-born: I came from myself.' Was the goddess of Sais, in the Delta.
7. KHEM, or Chemnus. The 'generative' principle of nature. He is addressed, Thy title is, Father of thine own father.' He was god of the Thebaid, called also the Pan of Thebes.
8. PASHT. The cat-headed goddess of Bubastis. She answered to Artemis or Diana. (Some place Ra as the eighth of the great gods.)
From these eight there were descended twelve gods of the second order; but it is not easy to select them with certainty.
There was RA, the sun,' the father of many deities. SEB, the earth.' The goose was his emblem: he was the father of Osiris and was termed father of the gods.' NETPE, the vault of heaven:' she was the wife of Seb, and 'mother of the gods.' KHONS represented the moon.' ANOUKE, a goddess, the third person of the triad of the cataracts. ATMOU, or Atum, darkness.' Morn, 'splendor,' a son of Ra. TAFNE, a lion-headed goddess. THOTH, the intellect.' SAVAK, the crocodile-headed god.
Of the above we give the representation of AMUN-RA, the chief god of Upper Egypt. He holds in one hand the emblem of life and in the other the emblem of power or purity His name is given in hieroglyphics.
Also PTHAH, the chief god of Lower Egypt. He is represented as a mummy, but holds the emblem of power combined with the water-plant of Lower Egypt.
Then there was a third order: the children of Seb and Netpe: Osiris, Seth, Aroeris, Isis, and Nepthys. And Horus and Anubis, the children of Osiris and Isis, and others. Isis is often confounded with Athor.
Also four Genii of the dead: Amset, Hapi, Tuautmutf, and Kabhsenuf.
It is remarkable that in placing the gods they often classed them into triads. Thus the great Triad of Thebes was Amun, Maut, and Khons, their son.
The gods OSIRIS, ISIS, and their offspring HORUS and ANUBIS were perhaps the only ones which were worshipped alike in all Egypt: and though they were technically only of the third order of gods they thus assumed a prominence that many of the others did not. Of these OSIRIS is the most remarkable because of his supposed control over the dead as well as the living. He holds the flail or whip and crook, which are said to be emblems of majesty and dominion. His consort Isis holds the emblem of life and the plant of Lower Egypt. She is sometimes called Queen of Heaven.'
HOURS is represented with a hawk's head, with the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Sometimes he is represented with a sun on his head, and then he is HORUS-RA. He holds the emblems of life and of power (or purity).
ANUBIS has the head of a jackal, he also is crowned with the double crown. His chief office was to preside over the dead and see that the body was laid out and embalmed. He holds the same emblems as HORUS. Of the many gods, perhaps SETH (answering to Typhon) was the only evil god. And it is supposed that the Egyptians did not at first associate 'wickedness' with `evil,' but rather restricted the evil to war, famine, pestilence, and such like. SETH, being brother to OSIRIS, was placed in honorable position with the latter. He is seen instructing a monarch in the use of the bow, but as a cause of evil. He is also seen with HORUS pouring the emblems of life and power over a king, to show that good and evil necessarily affected the world conjointly.
But the Egyptians afterwards associated moral evil with this god, for his name and figure were hammered out of many of the monuments. As to when this was done is not known, but it is supposed to have resulted from foreign influence.
He is represented in a grosser form than the other gods, inasmuch as he has not simply the head of an animal, but is represented entirely as a hippopotamus, but with an elaborate crown.
The gods of Egypt were in such renown that, as a tablet records, the king of Bakhtan sent to Rameses XII. requesting the assistance of the god KHONS in chasing from his daughter an evil spirit with which she was supposed to be possessed. The presence of the god was followed by a cure, and the king retained the god in his country for more than three years, until warned in a dream he returned it to Egypt.
Sacred Animals.
The next step downward was to recognize certain things as symbols of the gods; as the goose was the symbol of SEB; and in a remarkable way the calf Apis represented the god OSIRIS. And thus there became a number of sacred animals.
Wilkinson enumerates the following sacred animals, &c. The cynocephalus ape, green monkey, shrew mouse, dog, wolf, fox, jackal, ichneumon, cat, lion, hippopotamus, goat, sheep, ram, cow, bull, crocodile, asp, the beetle, and five sorts of fish. Most of these have been found embalmed—principally at Thebes.
One animal was sacred in one place, and another in another. Where held sacred no such animal was allowed to be killed, and if one was killed accidentally, some punishment and absolution were enjoined. They were reared, fed, and taken great care of when alive, and embalmed when they died. An animal being sacred in one place, and not in another often led to disputes and conflicts. Some were killing the very gods of their neighbors!
The tradition respecting OSIRIS is the most remarkable of all the gods of Egypt: " His coming upon earth for the benefit of mankind, with the titles of manifester of good and truth;' his being put to death by the malice of the evil one; his burial and resurrection, and his becoming the judge of the dead, are the most interesting features of the Egyptian religion. This was the great mystery; and this myth and his worship were of the earliest times, and universal in Egypt.... OSIRIS was to every Egyptian the great deity of a future state; and though different gods enjoyed particular honors in their respective cities, the importance of OSIRIS was admitted throughout the country."
OSIRIS was, as we have said, represented by the bull Apis, or by a bull-headed man, and was worshipped under either form. The live Apis was said to be the image of, or to represent the soul of OSIRIS. In the representations of it, the sun was often placed between its horns, and in this one the serpent may be seen at its forehead.
Great care was taken in selecting an animal with peculiar marks. Herodotus says, "He is black, with a square spot of white upon his forehead, and on his back the figure of an eagle; the hairs in his tail are double, and there is a beetle upon his tongue;" other writers describe the marks differently.
When the right animal was found great rejoicings were made, and he was conducted to Memphis, in solemn procession, where he was kept with great care, It was regarded as a favor of their god that he was again come to dwell with them.
A house was erected for him at Memphis, with an enclosed promenade; away from which he was not allowed to go, except on his annual festival, when he was taken in procession through the city with great rejoicing. Children who were able to smell his breath were supposed to foretell future events.
Every care was taken of Apis, as to his food, &c., so as to preserve him in health. He was not, however, allowed to drink of the water of the Nile, as we have seen, lest it should make him too fat.
Apis was resorted to as an oracle. Pausanias says that the person desiring to consult this god, burnt incense on the altar, filled the lamps full of oil, and deposited a piece of money on an altar beside the statue of the god. He then whispered his question in the ear of the bull Apis, and withdrew from the sacred enclosure, carefully covering his ears from any sound until he was outside the building; and then the first expression that fell on his ear was considered to be the omen.
The bull's house was divided into two compartments; and another way of obtaining an answer was to watch which door he first entered after the question had been asked.
Apis was not allowed to live more than twenty-five years. He was then put to death, and another was searched for. When dead, he was embalmed, and buried in a tomb set apart for the purpose.
Their burial place has comparatively lately been discovered near Memphis. It is thus described. "It consists of an arched gallery hewn in the rock, about twenty feet in height and breadth, and three thousand feet in length, besides a lateral gallery. On each side are a series of chambers or recesses, which might be called sepulchral stalls; every one containing a large sarcophagus of granite, fifteen feet by eight, in which the body of a sacred bull was deposited." In 1852, thirty of these had been found. Mention was made of the birth, death, and burial of the bulls. They mostly lived from seventeen to twenty years.
“Before this is a paved road, with lions ranged on each side, about eight feet high, which forms the approach; and before this again is a temple."
A visit to the tomb of the Apis bulls by two ladies is thus described: “We halted again at the entrance of the newly excavated tombs of the sacred bull Apis... At first it was all dark, but by-and-by a little star of light seemed to rise from the bottom, and advance towards us. It looked so pretty and mysterious, that I was almost sorry when I was obliged to acknowledge to myself that it was only Hassan with a torch in his hand come to tell us that Mr. H. had lighted the candles in the tombs below, and that we must make haste or the lights would be burned out before we had seen all. We got up and followed the guide down a short steep descent, till we came to a vast underground gallery—I cannot call it anything else. The roof was arched and high, and it seemed to stretch on, and on, and on, to an immense distance. One could fancy oneself beginning a journey to the opposite end of the world, as one looked away from one feeble struggling light, placed in a niche in the wall, to another, a foot or two beyond, till the last light was swallowed up in thick darkness.
“When our eyes had become a little accustomed to the obscurity, we discovered that there were recesses on each side of this great gallery, and that in each recess or vast closet cut in the solid rock, there was a sarcophagus of black stone, holding, as we were told, the remains of one of the sacred bulls. As one after another of these sacred animals died, fresh tombs were excavated for them in the solid rock, till this underground burial place grew to the size which we now see.... Each sarcophagus had on one side of it a small granite oval, called a cartouche, with the name written on it of the king in whose reign the sacred Apis died.
“When we came back to the entrance, our guide skewed us some tablets of stone with inscriptions on them, let into the wall. They record visits paid by kings and other great people from Memphis, to the burial place of the bulls, and the offerings they brought with them. It seems that when a sacred bull died, and had been buried here, it was customary during a certain period after his death, perhaps till his successor was found, for people to come here, to pay respects to him in his coffin, and when they had done so, they had a stone let into the wall that everybody might know they had performed their duty.
“How strange, I fancy you are saying to yourselves, that people—wise people like the Egyptians—should come out here into the desert to worship a dead god. It is strange, but, like most other strange things, when we come to know more about it, the marvel becomes a little less inconceivable. The Egyptians believed that in the form of the bull Apis dwelt the pure soul of their god Pthah Sokar Osiris."
In Egypt, "the bull" became an ideal of one of the attributes of their deity. Thus, among such titles as, "Beloved of Truth, Lord of Diadems, Protector of Egypt," &c., we find "The Strong Bull." From the gods it passed to the kings, and in the "Stele of Coronation," a king is described "like unto a young bull.”
Besides the gods represented as men, with their appropriate heads of some of the sacred animals or birds, and besides the sacred animals and birds themselves, there were singular combinations: such as, birds with human hands and arms'; beetles with human heads; men, with serpents' tails instead of feet; a serpent with five heads; and in one place are found two serpents erect-one with the head of a man, and the other that of a woman, with human arms and hands. Belzoni found a calf with the head of a hippopotamus. Alas, for the wisdom of Egypt which led to such anomalies There were three things prominently exhibited among the Egyptians in connection with their gods. The first is, THE 'SACRED BEETLE, Or Scarabæus, This was sacred to the sun and to PTHAH. Some of the images of the beetle were made of stone and were of immense size, apparently as mementoes of the kings. One of these is in the British Museum. Small ones were very numerous in the tombs, wrapped in the folds of the mummy, or worn on the fingers. A beautiful and remarkable one of king Sebakemsaf, of the thirteenth dynasty, is in the British Museum (No. 7876).
They were very common in jewelry. Rings and other ornaments were often shaped like beetles. Sometimes they are represented with immense wings, sometimes with human heads. One monument skews a large beetle, attended by two priestesses or goddesses. It is often represented with a ball between its legs.
THE WINGED SUN. The sun, called RA, was among the gods of the Egyptians, and one of the most general of the kings' titles was "Son of the Sun." Over the entrances to buildings, and in many other places, is to be seen a resemblance of the sun with large wings, [illustration] often in combination with the serpent. On an Egyptian obelisk at Rome the sun is called the Great God, the Lord of the Heavens; and yet it does not appear that they worshipped the literal sun as a separate god, but rather as a representative of some ideal god; for when the worship of the literal sun was introduced, it was treated as an innovation.
The various phases of the sun led to different titles and attributes, thus:—
The rising sun was HORUS, or HAR, typical of Birth.
Its daily course, PURA, “ Life.
The setting sun, TOUM, or ATMOU, “ Old age and death.
Nocturnal course, NOUM, associated with OSIRIS—existence beyond the grave.
But from a long text which is found at the entrance of several tombs, it would appear that all the gods are embodied in RA. Thus, one sentence reads, "Homage to thee, RA! Supreme power.... He who sends forth the plants in their season; his form is that of Seb." Another similar sentence ends with, "its form is that of HORUS." And so of many other gods. This would seem to favor the thought that the Egyptians were Pantheists rather than Polytheists.
In Heliopolis RA is addressed, "Glory to thee, O RA, Touts, universal lord, creator of those who exist," &c. From this and similar addresses, it is difficult to see how RA could be distinguished, except in theory, from being an individual god.
Another strange thing is that the reigning monarch of the day was regarded as the living image and vicegerent of the sun and was addressed as god.
HYMN, OR ODE TO PHARAOH.
“Give thy attention to me, thou Sun that risest
To enlighten the earth with this (his) goodness.
Thou hast millions of ears:
Bright is thine eye above the stars of heaven,
able to gaze at the solar orb.
If anything be spoken by the mouth in the cavern,
It ascends into thine ears.
'Whatsoever is done in secret, thine eye seeth it,
O! BA-EN-RA MERIAMEN, merciful Lord, creator of breath.”
Here the king is addressed as the sun, and divine attributes assigned to him; and yet he is described as distinct from the literal sun; his eyes are so strong that he can "gaze at the solar orb.”
The worship of the sun itself is supposed to have been introduced by Amenophis IV., towards the close of the eighteenth dynasty. Being treated as an innovation, the representations of it were afterwards obliterated. It was represented as having a hand at the end of every ray, with which it directed all things on earth. It will be seen that it has an emblem of life in one of its hands. It was called ADON-RA. Rawlinson says a representation of it is found as early as the time of Sethi, the father of Rameses II.
THE SERPENT. The species commonly represented is the naje, or haje, sacred to the goddess RANNO, who presided over the garden. It has a thick neck, and is represented erect. The winged sun has often a serpent on each side of it. Being an emblem of regal authority, many of the gods and the kings have the head of a serpent attached to the head-dress, and standing out from the forehead; indeed the serpent is one of the most common objects among the emblems of godhead; and the Rosetta stone mentions asp-formed crowns, which would be a garland of serpents. It was also used as one of their standards, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
There are also representations of the serpent being put to death; but this appears to be quite a different species.
Herodotus says, “In the neighborhood of Thebes there are some sacred serpents, which are perfectly harmless. They are of small size, and have two horns growing out of the top of the head. These snakes, when they die, are buried in the temple of Jupiter, the god to whom they are sacred." The cerastes, or horned serpent, is said to be venomous, perhaps those that Herodotus had seen had been rendered harmless by the extraction of their fangs. But this account of Herodotus, which is confirmed by other evidence, shows that the serpent itself was worshipped.
The worship of the serpent is one of the most striking in the annals of idolatry; and it is not only in Egypt that this was the case, but it was worshipped more or less, all over the world. When we remember that it was in the form of a serpent that Satan succeeded in ruining our first parents, and that he is called "that old serpent" in Rev. 12:9,9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:9) it reveals a startling fact as to the power he attained over mankind, so as to ensure the worship of that which symbolized himself, from one end of the earth to the other. It was not simply man left to his own ingenuity to form and fashion a god for himself; but there was, and is, one arch-enemy of souls who was directing all, and who only too well succeeded in obliterating from the mind of man a knowledge of the only true God, and in supplanting His place with the image of that which symbolizes himself.
Priests.
Next to the king and his family, the priests held the place of influence and power in Egypt. According to Diodorus, the priests in Ethiopia had even despotic power over the kings—a power that cannot be traced in Egypt. There, says the historian, when the priests thought proper, they sent a message to the king, with orders for him to die. The gods, they said, had communicated their pleasure, and no mortal should dispute their commands. This is believed to have existed for generations, until a king, Ergamenes, with some knowledge of Greek philosophy, in the time of the second Ptolemy, refused to obey, and slew the priests.
Except the kings, no one was allowed to enter the innermost chambers of the temples but the priests. This, with the ordering of all religious festivals, and offering sacrifices, added to their having the power to refuse the sacred offices for the dead, shutting anyone out from eternal happiness, and their holding the offices of judges, sacred scribes, &c., gave them great power over the people.
There was an order of holy women who assisted in the temple service. They sang the praises of their deity, and performed on musical instruments. Queens are also represented as presenting offerings to the gods. Some have absurd titles as "god's wife," "god's mother," &c.
There were different orders of priests with a supreme pontiff, called SEM. Some are seen clothed simply in the skin of a leopard, and others with a full ornamented dress, but these were perhaps of the higher order; for Herodotus says that the priests were dressed in linen only, and that freshly washed. They bathed twice every day in cold water, and shaved off all their hair every other day. They were not allowed to eat fish, but had plenty of beef and geese, game and wild-fowl, with wine to drink. All was provided for them out of the public funds. It will be remembered that when a sort of tax was laid upon the land in the time of Joseph the priests were exempt.
The principal of the priests had also a code of mysteries into which the lower class of priests were not initiated.
From all this we learn that in the religion of Egypt, as in every other false religion, the common people were kept in profound ignorance: a class of priests held power over the minds and bodies of the people, by which means they could be the more easily led in the paths of darkness and delusion.
Herodotus says that the priests of Egypt practiced circumcision, and some of the modern writers on Egypt declare that it is proved that it was not confined to the priests, and that it was practiced very early. From this has arisen the question as to where did the Egyptians learn the rite, seeing that scripture taught it to Abraham as a distinctive mark of His covenant with the patriarch and his descendants? (Gen. 17:1111And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. (Genesis 17:11); John 7:22, 2322Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. 23If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? (John 7:22‑23).) It is absurd to suppose that God adopted a mere heathen rite in His covenant with Abraham: it is far safer to suppose that the Egyptologers are deceived in placing it before Abraham's time, and that the Egyptians learnt it from some of the descendants or servants of Abraham. Satan would foster any mere imitation of that which was intended as a distinctive mark of the people of God. Scripture classes Egypt along with the other nations as the uncircumcised.' (Jer. 9:25, 2625Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; 26Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. (Jeremiah 9:25‑26).)
Sacrifices and Festivals.
Sacrifices were offered to the gods by the Egyptians; but there is no proof of their having human sacrifices, though such has been stated by some writers. Oxen were reckoned to belong to Apis, and were tested as follows according to Herodotus: "One of the priests appointed for the purpose searches to see if there is a single black hair on the whole body, since in that case the beast is unclean." Then the animal's tongue was examined. If all were satisfactory, the animal was declared to be clean and fit for sacrifice.
“They lead the victim, marked with their signet, to the altar where they are about to offer it, and setting the wood alight, pour a libation of wine upon the altar in front of the victim, and at the same time invoke the god. Then they slay the animal, and cutting off his head, proceed to flay the body. Next they take the head, and heaping imprecations on it, if there is a market-place, and a body of Greek traders in the city, they carry it there and sell it instantly; if however, there are no Greeks among them, they throw the head into the river. The invocation is to this effect:-They pray that if any evil is impending either over those who sacrifice, or over universal Egypt, it may be made to fall upon that head. These practices, the imprecations upon the heads, and the libations of wine, prevail all over Egypt, and extend to victims of all sorts; and hence the Egyptians will never eat the head of any animal.”
This is supposed to refer to some particular sacrifice, for at times the heads of the animals with other parts are seen in the monuments placed on the altar.
The above extract does not say what was eventually done with the parts laid on the altar, whether they were eaten or burnt.
The same writer describes another sacrifice either to Isis or Athor, to a "goddess whom they regard as the greatest, and honor with the chiefest festival. When they have flayed their steer they pray, and when their prayer is ended, they take the paunch of the animal out entire, leaving the intestines and the fat inside the body; they then cut off the legs, the ends of the loins, the shoulders, and the neck; and having so done, they fill the body of the steer with clean bread, honey, raisins, figs, frankincense, myrrh, and other aromatics. Thus filled, they burn the body, pouring over it great quantities of oil. Before offering the sacrifice, they fast, and while the bodies of the victims are being consumed they beat themselves. Afterwards, when they have concluded this part of the ceremony, they have the other parts of the victim served up to them for a repast.”
In one of Dümichen's volumes is a series of plates representing the whole process of slaying an animal for sacrifice-a duty distributed among several priests.
As the Egyptians had many gods, so they had numerous religious festivals; and all great events in the nation-such as the coronation of a king, the appointment of any man to high office, the return of the army from battle-were interwoven with appropriate sacrifices.
Besides certain fixed festivals in the year, they had a daily sacrifice offered in the temple by the chief priest, accompanied by a prayer for the welfare of the monarch, in the presence of the people.
One can but lament that such ordinances were not directed to the one true and only God, rather than to some imaginative being represented by a figure of stone or a living animal I Among their yearly festivals, one of the most prominent was that connected with the rise of the river Nile. As their harvest, and indeed almost their existence, depended upon the rising of the Nile, it is not surprising that among their many gods,' one of them should represent the Nile.
His name was HAPI, or HAPIMON, god of the Nile. He is crowned with the two water-plants, representing Upper and Lower Egypt, and carries them also in one of his hands. In the other he carries vases of the fruits of the earth as being produced by the waters of the river over which he presides.
The festival was held when the river began to rise, and was looked upon as a propitiatory service; the neglect of which would surely be followed by an inadequate supply of water. The general belief in the efficacy of the sacrifice secured its due performance. "Men and women assembled from all parts of the country in the towns of their respective names, grand festivities were proclaimed, and all the enjoyments of the table were united with the solemnity of a holy festival. Music, the dance, and appropriate hymns, marked the respect they felt for the deity; and a wooden statue of the river god was carried by the priests through the village in solemn procession, that all might appear to be honored by his presence, while invoking the blessings he was about to confer.”
To the reader of scripture will doubtless be recalled by the above, that which is recorded of the worship of the golden calf made by Aaron: "the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play:" they sat down to eat of the sacrifices, and rose up to enjoy the music and the dance. They had learnt it all in Egypt.
We give the first stanza of a hymn to the Nile, in a papyrus, now in the British Museum, as interpreted by Mr. Birch.
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Sha en Hapi
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A hymn to the Nile.
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nether ek Hapi
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Incline thy face, O Nile,
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shem em to an'
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coming safe out of the land
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or sankhu Kam
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vivifying Egypt,
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amen sam kek em hru
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hiding his dark sources from the light.
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hes nu sem
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ordering his sources,
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au shau ammeh
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the streams of his bed
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kam am Ra
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are made by the sun,
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er sankh hu abu neb
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to give life to all animals,
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s'hur set bu tem
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to water the lands which are destitute,
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nau pe haa
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coming all along the heaven,
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mer en tufa kherp nefra
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loving fragrance, offering grain,
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shut teba en Phah
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rendering verdant every sacred place of Phtha
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It is held that in ancient Egypt men were not treated as gods; but in later years their kings were added to their gods, as is proved by the famous Rosetta stone and other inscriptions.
This stone contains a decree of the priests that because of the benefits Epiphanes had conferred upon Egypt—remitting taxes, and reserving to the temples, and their gods, certain emoluments, forgiving revolters, and making many gifts to Apis, to Mnevis, and to the other sacred animals of Egypt—a statue of the god Epiphanes' was to be erected in each temple near the principal god of the temple. That the priests were to perform, three times a day, religious service to these statues, and render them due honor as to the other deities. That a gilded chapel' should be set apart to the worship of this god. That an annual festival be held to his honor ' on the first day of the month Thoth' with due honors, and should last five days.
There were numerous other religious festivals, or `assemblies' among the Egyptians. Processions were formed and proceeded to the various temples, in the large halls of which was ample room for a great concourse of priests. A Sacred Ark with shrines of the gods, was sometimes carried in these processions; at other times the Sacred Boat which contained a sort of ark with sacred emblems of the gods. In the British Museum is a portion of a sacred ark and boat in which it was carried. It was in one of these sacred boats that the god Khons was carried to the land of Bakhtan, to heal the daughter of the king, as already related. Perhaps the same boat was also used for conveying mummies, as seen above.
Rameses III. thus describes the sacred boat he made for one of his gods: "I constructed for thee thy grand barge Userha, of a hundred and thirty cubits, on the river, [made] of great cedar trees and rivets of brass, plated with gold, moving through the water like the boat of the sun, going to the land of Bakh, giving life to all who have sight at its appearance: its great cabin within of good gold, [adorned] with settings and all kinds of precious stones, like the place of the god whose face is terrible,' of good gold from front to back, having a cornice of urœi, bearing the atf crown."
The same king also provided gardens for his gods and gardeners from the captives. Oxen, sheep, and goats were supplied in abundance. "Geese, cranes, ducklings, water fowl, turtle doves, birds and pigeons." Good bread and ornamental pastry. Fruits, vegetables, and flowers of all sorts. Fish of all kinds. Spirits, wine, beer, honey, olive oil, wax, "white fat," incense, and frankincense.
Thus the gods—or rather the priests—of Egypt did not lack the good things of this life. That the Egyptians appealed to their gods as oracles is proved by the "Coronation" inscription concerning Ramerka Aspalut, king of Ethiopia. Eighteen of the chief officers of state repaired to the temple of AMEN-RA, saying, "Let us go to him! let us not tell a word in ignorance of him, for it is not good the word told in ignorance of him.
Let us put the case to the god who is the god of Kush.” which well agrees with what follows. After pouring libations of water, wine, and perfumes the officers enter the temple, saying, " We come to thee, AMEN-RA, lord of the seats of both worlds in Dû-uâb, that thou mayest give us a lord to vivify us, to build temples for the gods of southern and northern lands, to make offerings, and all the munificent exertions of thy hands, which thou givest unto thy son whom thou lovest.”
Then they put the royal brothers before this god, but a selection was not made until a second presentation; as to how the choice of the god was made known we are quite in the dark. When the selection was made, the officers fell upon their faces and "smelt the earth," as they expressed their reverence and submission.
The newly appointed king then addressed the god, “Come to me, AMEN-RA..... give me all the beneficent virtues which are not in my heart, that I may love thee. Give me the crown that I may love thee, together with the scepter.”
The god granted him the crown, the diadem, and the scepter of his royal brother, but the name is erased.
The king then placed the crown upon his head, fell upon the ground, saying, "Come to me, AMEN-RA... grant me life, stability and power all, health and joy all, even like unto RA, forever a good old age....”
The remaining part of the tablet is defective, but among other things that the king grants to AMEN is "one hundred and forty barrels of beer"!
Ritual of the Dead.
It is an interesting inquiry as to how the Egyptians looked upon the question of salvation. How could man be just with God? But we know but little of the theology of the Egyptians.
“The inhabitants of this country," says Diodorus (Book i. 51, Wess, in the language of Booth, p. 26), "little value the short time of this present life; but put a high esteem upon the name and reputation of a virtuous life after death; and they call the houses of the living inns because they stay in them but a little while; but the sepulchers of the dead they call everlasting habitations, because they abide in the graves to infinite generations. Therefore they are not very curious in the buildings of their houses, but in beautifying their sepulchers they leave nothing undone." Most of the tombs were on the west of the Nile-the west being called the abode of the dead,' the land of darkness where the sun ended his course. The west was called EMENT; and the ' lower regions' AMENTI.
On the other hand, it has been thought that the Egyptians taught the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. They represented the soul by a burning censer, and then by a bird with a human head, accompanied by the censer A. It could take its flight, and be gone; and the following illustration has been interpreted as shewing the soul returning with the emblems of life and breath, while the god Anubis, who superintended the embalming of the body, is preparing unwrap the bandages.
They believed in a future state, and in the immortality and transmigration of the soul, and as far as has been ascertained, their theology had more to do with the dead than with the living. Respecting the dead they had an elaborate system of theology, if such it may be called. The soul was tried after death; and if it could answer all the questions put to it by its examiners, and declare that it had not been guilty of any sin in a list of forty-two—which, everyone must know, no one could answer truthfully—it was allowed to pass into Elysium, after being purged in a purgatorial fire, and was in some mysterious way absorbed in the god Osiris.
That persons should be reminded of death, Herodotus (ii. 78) says that at the social meetings among the rich, a servant carried round a coffin in which there was a wooden image of a corpse, carved and painted to resemble nature as nearly as possible. As he showed it to each guest in turn, he said, "Gaze here, and drink and be merry; for when you die, such will you be.”
In agreement with this, we quote from a manuscript of the eighteenth dynasty, but ascribed to King Autuf of the eleventh dynasty, styled
A FESTAL DIRGE.
“After all what is prosperity?
Their fenced walls are dilapidated,
Their houses are as that which has never existed.
No man comes from thence
who tells of their sayings,
who tells of their affairs,
who encourages our hearts.
Ye go to the place whence they return not.
Strengthen thy heart to forget how thou hast enjoyed thyself,
fulfill thy desire whilst thou livest.
Put oils upon thy head,
Clothe thyself with fine linen adorned
with precious metals, with the gifts of God.
Multiply thy good things,
Yield to thy desire,
fulfill thy desire with thy good things
(whilst thou art) upon earth,
according to the dictation of thy heart.
The day will come to thee
when one hears not the voice,
when the one who is at rest hears not
their voices.
Lamentations deliver not him who is in the tomb.
Feast in tranquility seeing that there is no one who carries away his goods with him, yea, behold, none who goes thither comes back again.”
One can but regret that a people who saw so clearly the vanity of all things here, knew not the true God who could give them a good hope beyond the grave. The above dirge reminds one of some parts of the Book of Ecclesiastes—the utmost to which man can reach who looks only "under the sun." The sun was their god—they soared not to its Creator, the true God.
The papyri give illustrations of the judgment of the dead, varying in detail, but the same in substance. In the above, the deceased—probably a woman—is seen to the right with uplifted hands, introduced by two goddesses. Her heart is being weighed against a figure of the goddess of truth in the opposite scale. Two gods—the hawk-headed Horns and the jackal-headed Anubis -superintend the weighing. The ibis-headed Thoth, the god of letters, stands with tablet in hand, recording the result. Next to him is a representation of the god Typhon, as a hippopotamus—the Cerberus of the Greeks —accusing the deceased of evil, and demanding her punishment. The presiding judge is Osiris, with his crook and whip. Four small gods are also represented who assist the judge. Some represent forty-two as sessors, the complete number named by Diodorus, who also assist the judge. If the trial is satisfactory, the soul passes to other scenes; but if the soul cannot satisfy its judges it is sent into one of the lower animals. The monuments portray one thus sent into a pig, and an ape drives away the pig. Herodotus says, the Egyptians held that a soul thus banished from the abodes of bliss passed from one creature to another until it had dwelt in all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the air; after a period of three thousand years it again enters a human frame, and is born anew.
The ritual for the dead became a set literary composition prepared beforehand. "In memory of—" leaving a blank for the name; and it is supposed that these were sometimes stolen, and the name erased, ready for another person; for in the ritual the deceased is made to say, "I have not stolen from a mummy its papyrus roll nor any portion of it." It was buried with the dead, being rolled up and sometimes placed under the arms or other parts of the body before the corpse was enwrapped with mummy cloths. Copies may be seen exhibited in the British and other Museums.
The work was divided into chapters, and each chapter had an illustration, which was done in colors, the leading words of each chapter being in red ink. The fullest copy known is contained in a papyrus at Turin, and consists of a hundred and sixty-five chapters. Others were much shorter for the common people. By comparing existing copies together, they appear to have been hastily written, and contain many mistakes.
Part I. consisted of sixteen chapters, probably the prayers recited by the priests during the funeral. The prayers were to the sun and other gods, to ensure the deceased a favorable reception in the future state. The illustrations of Part i. represent funeral ceremonies.
II. contains the part requisite to be known in order to let the blessed out of Hades, to enter the service of Osiris, and to enable him to make the requisite transformation or transmigration. This part contains a number of singular mystic interpretations, which the deceased had to answer when asked—a kind of theological examination of his knowledge and faith.”
III. This contained the eleven litanies of Thoth, or Mercury, "calling upon the god to make good the words of the deceased against accusers before the gods of as many regions. This was called, the crown of truth.'”
IV., V. Chapters enabling the deceased to protect his head and mouth from demons or accusers, and to stop the serpent, tortoise, or crocodiles, which came to devour him.
VI., VII. The deceased has the appearance of certain gods given him to protect him from being wounded in the infernal strife, and preserve him from various disasters.
Chapters referring to the deceased arriving at the Sun.
The transformations made by the deceased into various forms, some earthly, commencing with a goose, and some connected with the gods.
X.-XIII. On the union of soul and body, ascending the boat of the Egyptian Charon, knowing the names of -the various mystical spirits, &c.
The arrival at the Hall of the Two Truths, and the final judgment before Osiris; the denial of forty-two sins: and the weighing of the heart.
The parts of the Hall call on the deceased to tell them their mystic names, or they will not let him pass.
The basin of purgatorial fire, guarded by four apes.
XVII.-XXI. Chapters on adoring the gods, knowing the names of the keepers of certain gateways, and other matters.
In one part the soul is represented addressing OSIRIS and the forty-two judges assisting him in the tribunal of Hades, "the Lords of Truth.”
“Oh, ye Lords of Truth! Oh, thou great god, Lord of Truth! I have come to thee, my Lord. I have brought myself to see thy blessings. I have known thee. I have known thy name. I have known the names of the forty-two of the gods who" are with thee in the Hall of Two Truths, living by catching the wicked, fed off their blood. The day of reckoning words, before the Good Being, the justified. Placer of Spirits, Lord of Truth is thy name.
“Oh, ye Lords of Truth! Let me know ye. I have brought ye truth. Rub ye away my faults." And then follows a long list of deeds the soul has not done. We select a few: "I have not done privily evil against mankind. I have not done any wicked thing. I have not made the laboring man do more than his task daily. I have not done what is hateful to the gods. I have not changed the measures of my country. I have not injured the images of the gods. I have not taken scraps of the bandages of the dead. I have not spat against the priest of the god of my country. I have not netted sacred birds. I have not caught the fish which typify them. I have not robbed the gods of their offered haunches. I have not turned away the cattle of the gods. I have not stopped a god from his manifestation. I am pure, I am pure!
“I have not stolen the things of the gods. I have not been inattentive to the words of truth. I have not clipped the skins of the sacred beasts. I have not reviled the face of the king, or of my father. I have not defiled the river. I have not blasphemed a god. I have not taken the clothes of the dead. I have not despised a god in my heart, or to his face, or in things.”
Among the many things which we have omitted, there are some very curious—their allusion is not known—such as, "I have not burned my mouth. I have not hastened my heart. I have not multiplied words in speaking. I have not listened," &c.
Another extract represents the soul saying, "I have won for myself god by my love: I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked; I have ordered refuge to the forsaken.”
Such is a slight sketch of the religion of the ancient Egyptians. Some parts of it do not agree with others; -it may never have been consistent with itself, and during long ages have had many variations. It was a religion based, in theory, on the oneness of the deity, but as we have seen from scripture, where men did not like to retain God in their knowledge, He gave them over to a reprobate mind. And "When they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened: professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." This we have found to be exactly what took place in Egypt, accompanied with all its attendant debasing evils.
It is so found also among the heathen of our own day. Moffat tells of one tribe among the Caffres where the word for God, or a Supreme Being, had wholly dropped out of their language, and they were sunk more deeply into a gross and savage state. Other savage people there are, whose language is rich in words to express cruel actions, intense hatred and depravity of the basest kind, who have no word whatever to designate "God," or "love.”
According to Egyptian theology, salvation was one of works. Living, they knew they were sinners; but in death they are represented as declaring they were almost perfect, and a purgatorial fire did the rest. And then they were fit to be united to and be absorbed in Osiris.
Scripture, as we have seen, explains all. Man turns his back upon God his Creator, and then he is ready to receive Satan's lie; and it is as much of Satan when worked up into an elaborate theory of "gods many" for the living, and an interminable ritual concerning the dead, as it is in the most unenlightened heathendom. It may be expressed in one short sentence: It shuts out the one only true God, the Lord God Almighty, and then it matters little what man worships; it will culminate, as we have seen, in the worship of that one who is emblematical of Satan himself—the old serpent, who is yet one day to have such frightful control over the men of the earth. (2 Thess. 2:3-123Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:3‑12).)