the Book of the Dead ( PDF )

The Legend Of RA And Isis.
created; He is the maker of his own form, and the fashioner of His own body--God Himself is existence,
He endureth without increase or diminution, He multiplieth Himself millions of times, and He is
manifold in forms and in members--God hath made the universe, and He hath created all that therein is;
He is the Creator of what is in this world, and of what was, of what is, and of what shall be. He is the
Creator of the heavens, and of the earth, and of the deep, and of the water, and of the mountains. God
hath stretched out the heavens and founded the earth-What His heart conceived straightway came to pass,
and when He hath spoken, it cometh to pass and endureth for ever--God is the father of the gods; He
fashioned men and formed the gods--God is merciful unto those who reverence Him, and He heareth him
that calleth upon Him. God knoweth him that acknowledgeth Him, He rewardeth him that serveth Him,
and He protecteth him that followeth Him.[1]
Monotheism and polytheism coexistent.
Because, however, polytheism existed side by side with monotheism in Egypt, M. Maspero believes that
the words "God One" do not mean "One God" in our sense of the words; and Mr. Renouf thinks that the
"Egyptian nutar never became a proper name."[2] Whether polytheism grew from monotheism in Egypt,
or monotheism from polytheism we will not venture to say, for the evidence of the pyramid texts shows
that already in the Vth dynasty monotheism and polytheism were flourishing side by side. The opinion of
Tiele is that the religion of Egypt was from the beginning polytheistic, but that it developed in two
opposite directions: in the one direction gods were multiplied by the addition of local gods, and in the
other the Egyptians drew nearer and nearer to monotheism.[3]
The sun the emblem of God.
From a number of passages drawn from texts of all periods it is clear that the form in which God made
himself manifest to man upon earth was the sun, which the Egyptians called Ra and that all other gods
and goddesses were forms of him. The principal authorities for epithets applied to God and to His visible
emblem the sun are the hymns and litanies which are found inscribed upon
[1. Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie, pp. 96-99. The whole chapter on the ancient Egyptian conception of God should be
read with M. Maspero's comments upon it in La Mythologie Égyptienne (Études de Mythologie, t. ii., p. 189 ff.).
2. Hibbert Lectures, p. 99.
3. Hypothezen omtrent de wording van den Egyptischen Godsdienst (in Geschiedenis van den Godsdienst in de Oudheid,
Amsterdam, 1893, p. 25); and see Lieblein, Egyptian Religion, Leipzig, 1884, p. 10.
4 See the chapter "Dieu se manifestant par le soleil," in Pierret, Essai sur la Mythologie Égyptienne, pp. 18, 19.]
{p. xciv}
Confusion of gods.
the walls of tombs,[1] stelæ, and papyri[2] of the XVIIIth dynasty; and these prove that the Egyptians
ascribed the attributes of the Creator to the creature. The religious ideas which we find in these writings
in the XVIIIth dynasty are, no doubt, the outcome of the religion of earlier times, for all the evidence
now available shows that the Egyptians of the later periods invented comparatively little in the way of
religious literature. Where, how, and in what way they succeeded in preserving their most ancient texts,
are matters about which little, unfortunately, is known. In course of time we find that the attributes of a
certain god in one period are applied to other gods in another; a new god is formed by the fusion of two
or more gods; local gods, through the favourable help of political circumstances, or the fortune of war,
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