101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

4 101 Myths of the Bible
ditions, was appointed by Jacob to be Joseph’s heir. Also, Heliopolis, at a time not much
before Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, was the center of a monotheistic religious cult that
challenged traditional Egyptian religious beliefs and stirred up much passion and
political turmoil.
P, on the other hand, adopted the Creation philosophy associated with the Egyptian
city of Thebes, the political and religious capitol of Egypt during the time Israel
resided in that country. The Theban viewpoint, however, was itself an attempt to integrate
conflicting Egyptian traditions from other major Egyptian cult centers with that
of its own local religious beliefs, including that of Heliopolis.
For the most part, Egyptians shared certain common ideas about Creation. In the
beginning, they believed, there was a universal flood known as the Nun or Nu.
Through some sort of initiatory act by a single Creator deity, a flaming primeval
mountain emerged out of the Nun and on this mountain the process of Creation
moved forward. The chief difference among the main cult centers concerned who was
the deity responsible for the first acts and how did the Creation process begin. The
four most important cult centers were in Heliopolis, Hermopolis, Memphis, and
Thebes, and each city associated its own local chief deity with the first acts of Creation.
In Heliopolis, the first deity was Atum, a solar deity who was either the primeval
mountain itself or appeared on the mountain in the form of a flaming serpent. Atum,
who appeared to be a male with some female characteristics, gave birth by himself to a
son and a daughter, Shu and Tefnut, who represented air and moisture, who, in turn,
gave birth to their own son and daughter, Geb and Nut, who signified Earth and
Heaven. These four children, in the Heliopolitan tradition, corresponded to the basic
elements of the universe. Geb and Nut had four children of their own, Osiris, Isis, Set,
and Nephthys, and collectively these first nine deities (counting Atum) were known as
the Ennead (i.e., group of nine).
In the city of Memphis, which served as the first capitol of Egypt for almost one
thousand years (c. 3100 B.C.—2100 B.C.), the chief deity was Ptah, a crafts god. The
Memphites, who were close neighbors of Heliopolis, claimed that it was Ptah, through
the spoken word, who summoned forth Atum from the Nun. In all other respects, the
Memphites generally adopted the Heliopolitan traditions.