FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   >>  
er_), and without fault in pronunciation (_an-uh_). The Egyptian of old kept this fact in his mind, and determined to procure the resurrection of his friends and relatives by the same means as Isis employed, _i.e._, the formulae of Thoth; with this object in view each dead person, was provided with a series of texts, either written upon his coffin, or upon papyri and amulets, which would have the same effect as the words of Thoth which were spoken by Isis. But the relatives of the deceased had also a duty to perform in this matter, and that was to provide for the recital of certain prayers, and for the performance of a number of symbolical ceremonies over the dead body before It was laid to rest finally in the tomb. A sacrifice had to be offered up, and the deceased and his friends and relatives assisted at it, and each ceremony was accompanied by its proper prayers; when all had been done and said according to the ordinances of the priests, the body was taken, to its place in the mummy chamber. But the words of Thoth and the prayers of the priests caused the body to become changed into a "S[=A]HU," or incorruptible, spiritual body, which passed straightway out of the tomb and made its way to heaven where it dwelt with the gods. When, in the Book of the Dead the deceased says, "I exist, I exist; I live, I live; I germinate, I germinate," [Footnote: See Chap. cliv.] and again, "I germinate like the plants," [Footnote: See Chap. lxxxviii. 3.] the deceased does not mean that his physical body is putting forth the beginnings of another body like the old one, but a spiritual body which "hath neither defect nor, like R[=a], shall suffer diminution for ever." Into the S[=A]HU passed the soul which had lived in the body of a man upon earth, and it seems as if the new, incorruptible body formed the dwelling-place of the soul in heaven just as the physical body had been its earthly abode. The reasons why the Egyptians continued to mummify their dead is thus apparent; they did not do so believing that their physical bodies would rise again, but because they wished the spiritual body to "sprout" or "germinate" from them, and if possible--at least it seems so--to be in the form of the physical body. In this way did the dead rise according to the Egyptians, and in this body did they come. From what has been said above, it will be seen that there is no reason for doubting the antiquity of the Egyptian belief in the resurrection of the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   >>  



Top keywords:

germinate

 

physical

 

deceased

 
prayers
 
spiritual
 

relatives

 
Egyptians
 

Egyptian

 

friends

 

priests


resurrection
 

incorruptible

 

heaven

 

passed

 

Footnote

 
lxxxviii
 

plants

 

defect

 

reason

 
beginnings

belief

 
putting
 

antiquity

 

doubting

 

wished

 

sprout

 

bodies

 
believing
 

apparent

 

suffer


diminution

 

formed

 

continued

 

mummify

 

reasons

 

dwelling

 

earthly

 

coffin

 

papyri

 

amulets


written

 

provided

 

series

 

effect

 

matter

 

provide

 
recital
 

perform

 

spoken

 

person