Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life by E. A. Wallis Budge
page 129 of 150 (86%)
page 129 of 150 (86%)
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read the names of those who were buried in them was a most meritorious
act. On the other hand, if the deceased knew the names of divine beings, whether friends or foes, and could pronounce them, he at once obtained power over them, and was able to make them perform his will. We have seen that the entity of a man consisted of body, double, soul, heart, spiritual intelligence or spirit, power, shadow, and name. These eight parts may be reduced to three by leaving out of consideration the double, heart, power, shadow and name as representing beliefs which were produced by the Egyptian as he was slowly ascending the scale of civilization, and as being the peculiar product of his race; we may then say that a man consisted of body, soul, and spirit. But did all three rise, and live in the world beyond the grave? The Egyptian texts answer this question definitely; the soul and the spirit of the righteous passed from the body and lived with the beatified and the gods in heaven; but the physical body did not rise again, and it was believed never to leave the tomb. There were ignorant people in Egypt who, no doubt, believed in the resurrection of the corruptible body, and who imagined that the new life would be, after all, something very much like a continuation of that which they were living in this world; but the Egyptian who followed the teaching of his sacred writings knew that such beliefs were not consistent with the views of their priests and of educated people in general. Already in the Vth dynasty, about B.C. 3400, it is stated definitely:-- "The soul to heaven, the body to earth;" [Footnote: _Recueil de Travaux_, tom. iv. p. 71 (l. 582).] and three thousand years later the Egyptian writer declared the same thing, but in different words, when he wrote:--[Footnote: Horrack, _Lamentations d' Isis_, Paris, 1866, p. 6.] "Heaven hath thy soul, and earth thy body." |
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