Book of the Dead

This article is about the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Other articles deal with the Tibetan Book of the Dead, H.P. Lovecraft's fictional Book of the Dead, E.Hoffman Price's collection of memoirs Book of the Dead, and the Japanese film The Book of the Dead.

The Book of the Dead is the common name for ancient Egyptian funerary texts known as The Book of Coming [or Going] Forth By Day. The name "Book of the Dead" was the invention of the German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius, who published a selection of the texts in 1842.

According to R.O. Faulkner, The Book of the Dead was used by the ancient Egyptians as a set of instructions for the afterlife. Not all the spells were used for every burial, but a selection depending on wealth and status. Some spells were gifts to the gods, while other were used so the person could walk, a spell for not dying again in the afterlife, and even a spell 'For preventing a man from going upside down and from eating feces'(chapter 189)

The book is therefore not, contrary to popular belief, spells to raise the dead, but rather teachings on what the afterlife would contain and how to overcome the obstacles which stood in the way of reaching the field of reeds (or field of peace), the ultimate goal for an Egyptian in the afterlife.

The text can also be seen as initiation literature into the mystery of the afterlife. The afterlife is mostly a mystery to the average Egyptian, but by obtaining a Book of the Dead, he would be able to read it and would be part of the elite group which knew what the afterlife contained.

A Section of Plate 3 from the Papyrus of Ani. Plate 3 contains half of the first (and longer) instance of chapter 30B in Ani's Book of the Dead, which is titled: Chapter for not letting Ani's heart create opposition against him in the God's Domain. This vignette shows Ani's heart being weighed against a feather of Maat (Truth, Rightful Order). Thoth (baboon) is overseeing, and Anubis (Jackal headed god) is the "Guardian of the Scales." The three standing figures to the left are the three aspects of fate. The rectangular stone with a woman's head is one of the three aspects of fate. Ani's Ba (the human headed bird and one aspect of the soul) is perched on a shrine and is looking over the event which will determine his fate. This vignette is similar to vignettes that would be found associated with chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, and an abbreviated version is, in fact, found in chapter 125 of the Papyrus of Ani.

Versions

The earliest known versions date from the 16th century BCE during the New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty (ca. 1550-1292 BCE). It partly incorporated two previous collections of Egyptian religious literature, known as the Coffin Texts (ca. 2000 BC) and the Pyramid Texts (ca. 2600 BC-2300 BC), both of which were eventually superseded by the Book of the Dead. The Book of the Dead for Scribe Ani, the Papyrus of Ani, was originally 78 ft (28 m), and was separated into thirty seven sheets at appropriate chapter and topical divisions.

The text was often individualized for the deceased person, so no two copies contain the same text. However, "book" versions containing similar features are generally categorized into four main divisions – the Heliopolitan version, which was edited by the priests of the college of Annu (used from the 5th to the 11th dynasty and on walls of tombs until about 200); the Theban version, which contained hieroglyphics only (20th to the 28th dynasty); a hieroglyphic and hieratic character version, closely related to the Theban version, which had no fixed order of chapters (used mainly in the 20th dynasty); and the Saite version which has strict order (used after the 26th dynasty).

Sample of a Book of the Dead of the scribe Nebqed, around 1300 BC

Chapter 125

Chapter 125 is probably the best-known segment of the Book of the Dead. It deals with the dead soul's judgment by Osiris and his 42 judge deities.

The deceased soul must recite the "declaration of innocence" which is addressed to Osiris and consists of the denial of a series of wrong-doings in order to assure Osiris that he has lived a decent life. The deceased must then address the 42 judges by name and deny a further 42 transgressions (one per judge). If the deceased is subsequently found worthy he will be taken before Osiris who will lead him to the realm of the blessed.

The content of some of the statements of denial or the 'negative confession' (I have done no falsehood, I have not robbed, I have not killed men) has led some scholars to hypothesis that Chapter 125 may be the basis for the Biblical Ten Commandments[1] or that Chapter 125 were based on the Ten Commandments.

External links

• Egyptian Book of the Dead - Aldokkan

• Budge, E. A. Wallis, "Book of the Dead, The Papyrus of Ani". (sacred-texts.com)
• Online Readable Text, with several images and reproductions of Egyptian papyri

• http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_10cl.htm, The possible origin of the Ten Commandments (religioustolerance.org)

References

• Thomas George Allen, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: Documents in the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, Thomas George Allen, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago), c 1960.

• Thomas George Allen, The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day. Ideas of the Ancient Egyptians Concerning the Hereafter as Expressed in Their Own Terms, Thomas George Allen, (SAOC vol. 37; University of Chicago Press, Chicago), c 1974.

• E. A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead,(The Papyrus of Ani), Egyptian Text, Transliteration, and Translation, E.A.Wallis Budge, (Dover Publications Inc, New York), c 1895, Dover Ed., 1967. (Note: 240 pages of running hieroglyphic text. NB: Budge's translations and transliterations are extremely outdated and are not generally cited by modern Egyptologists)

• Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, translated by Raymond Faulkner, edited by Carol Andrews (University of Texas Press, Austin), c 1972.

• Raymond O. Faulkner, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Book of Going forth by Day. The First Authentic Presentation of the Complete Papyrus of Ani translated by Raymond Faulkner, edited by Eva von Dassow, with contributions by Carol Andrews and Ogden Goelet (Chronicle Books, San Francisco), c 1994.

• Gunther Lapp, The Papyrus of Nu (Catalogue of Books of the Dead in the British Museum), by Gunther Lapp, (British Museum Press, London), c 1997.

• Andrzej Niwinski, Studies on the Illustrated Theban Funerary Papyri of the 11th and 10th Centuries B.C., by Andrzej Niwinski, (OBO vol. 86; Universitätsverlag, Freiburg), c 1989.