the Book of the Dead ( PDF )

The Egyptians' Ideas Of God.
included the great cosmic powers and the beings who, although held to be supernatural, were yet finite
and mortal, and were endowed by the Egyptians with love, hatred, and passions of every sort and kind.
The difference between the conceptions of neter the one supreme God and the neteru is best shown by an
appeal to Egyptian texts.
In the pyramid of Unas it is said to the deceased,
un-k ar kes neter
Thou existest at the side of God.[3]
In the pyramid of Teta it is said of the deceased,
ut'a-f met neter as set'em-nef metu
He weigheth words, and, behold, God hearkeneth unto the words.[3]
nas en Teta neter
God hath called Teta[4] (in his name, etc.).
[1. Die thätige Kraft, welche in periodischer Wiederkehr die Dinge erzeugt und erschafft, ihnen neues Leben verleiht und
die Jugendfrische zurückgiebt." Religion und Mythologie, p. 93.
2. Maspero, Recueil de Travaux, t. iii., p. 202 (l. 209).
3. Ibid., t. v., 27 (ll. 231, 232).
4. Ibid., p. 26 (l. 223).]
{p. lxxxiv}
Views held in the first six dynasties.
In the pyramid of Pepi I. an address to the deceased king says,
sesep-nek aru neter aaa-k am xer neteru
Thou hast received the form of God, thou hast become great therewith before the gods.[1]
ta en mut-k Nut un-nek em neter en xeft-k em ren-k en nefer
Hath placed thy mother Nut thee to be as God to thine enemy in thy name of God.[2]
tua Pepi pen neter
Adoreth this Pepi God.[3]
Pepi pu ar neter sa neter
Pepi this is then God, the son of God.[4]
All these extracts are from texts of the Vth and VIth dynasties. It may be urged that we might as well
translate neter by "a god" or "the god," but other evidence of the conception of neter at that early date is
afforded by the following passages from the Prisse papyrus,[5] which, although belonging at the earliest
http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ebod/ebod06.htm (2 of 7) [8/10/2001 11:23:29 AM]