The Thebian Theology
Finally, let us look at one aspect of another Egyptian theology, that from Uaset, or Thebes, which was the dominant city in Egypt throughout the New Kingdom (1551-1070 B.C.) The Thebian theology is expressed in priestly hymns found in documents stored at the museum in Leiden. They date to the restoration period of Amunism following the Akhenaton interlude. (Adolf Erman, “Der Lydener Amons-hymus,” Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie Wissenshaften 11 (1923) 81)
In this theology, the priests of Thebes extolled their city god, Amun (Amon), who is referred to as “He who hides his name from the gods.” Other inscriptions proclaim, “Amun is one! He who hides himself from the gods...whose nature is unknown, too mysterious, too great, and too immense to be perceived. One would fall dead suddenly, in fear, if one were to pronounce the god’s mysterious name.” Indeed, Amun in Egyptian is not a name. In Thebian theology God’s nature is described as “He who hides his name behind the word Amun, Ra at his head, Ptah at his body.” Again we see a political motivation here, the upgrading of Amun to the status of the Heliopolitan Ra and the Memphite Ptah. And again we see this theology taking the opportunity, like the Memphite, to raise its conception of the godhead to a superior, all encompassing position, the one god with many natures or manifestations.
The Thebian theology is interesting with respect to the Mosaic tradition. Moses was raised in the royal house of Egypt during the New Kingdom. He would certainly have been familiar with Egyptian religion in general and the Amun theology in particular. Brought up by Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses must have studied Amun theology and knew that the Egyptian God Amun was the god whose name is unknown and cannot be spoken. In Hebraic literature Moses says to god, “When I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them?” “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shall you say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Exodus 3:13-14
The Hebraic literature makes clear that, like Amun, god hides his name behind the word YHWH -- Yahweh (I am who I am). Yahweh means the self-existing one, also to become, signifying a continuous and increasing self-revelation, like the Egyptian concept.
Kurt Sethe, in Amun und die acht Urgotter von Hermopolis, (1929), asserted a close parallel in these theologies, and even finds in Amun similarities to the Genesis god moving upon the face of the waters initiating the activity of creation.
Henri Frankfort suggested that whatever the extent of Egyptian influence on Hebraic theology or cosmogony, the principle point is not the origin and creation of god, but the fact of a transcendent god, which was not known to the Egyptians. But were not the Egyptians, in the many manifestations of what they clearly called the All-God, merely playing on the common theme of ka and ba, life soul and phenomenal manifestation of the soul? Is pure transcendence really a distinguishing aspect of Mosaic monotheism? Is the burning bush, God appearing as a cloud, or a pillar of fire really transcendent, a non-corporeal reality? (Exodus 13:21, 19:18)
The Exodus religion of Moses may be a reaction to Egyptian civilization, but it is not a repudiation of Egyptian religious theology. Judaism, after all, was not always monotheistic, and was henotheistic during the time of Moses. The influence of Sumer and Mesopotamian civilization, of Gilgamish flood stories, and of the Indo-European Persian (Zoroastrian) ethics and eschatology may be important to the creation and development of Judaism, but the creation story of Egypt seems of greater importance.
In the Mesopotamian creation story Marduk drew his sword and split the goddess Tiamat in two: heaven (upper half) and earth (lower half). Humans were created from the blood of a criminal deity, King, to serve the gods, who asked for the people sprouting from the ground as serfs. This is a hunter-warrior theology, not a fertility theology. Mesopotamian theology shows creation by the sword; Egyptian creation by the phallus, and later by the word. It is much more developed, abstract, and a clearer antecedent to the Hebrew theology.
It is not surprising that many aspects of Judaism are taken from Sumerian (Mesopotamian) culture, Persian Zoroastrianism, and the religious theology of ancient Egypt. Abraham, after all, was from the city of Ur in Mesopotamia, just as Moses was from Egypt. Indeed, it is not surprising that all three great western religions were created between Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Finally, there are these inscriptions from a monarch’s tombs, dated at about 2800-2700 B.C.:
I gave bread to the hungry
I never oppressed anyone in the possession of his property
I spoke and told that which was good
I spoke no lie
I have done no violence toward any person
These demonstrate the shift toward morality as the basis for entrance into the afterlife, as noted previously in this chapter. The idea of a judgment of one’s soul is mentioned as far back as the IV dynasty and is mentioned in the later inscriptions found in the Book of the Dead:
I did no evil
I did no murder
I did no adultery
I did not covet, self-pollute, blaspheme
I honored my father and mother
We could find similar representations of an ethically based religion among the Indo-European Zoroastrians. Indeed, a thorough historical, geographical, and intellectual analysis should lead to the conclusion that it is not correct to speak of a polytheistic Near Eastern world in opposition to a Hebraic/Christian monotheism, nor to speak of a Hebraic/Christian concept of God, creation, and salvation, as if it were somehow distinct from the civilizations that nurtured and influenced the theology. As we look to the primary civilizations of Egypt and Sumer for the inspiration of our Western civilization, we should acknowledge that this heritage includes the religious aspects of these first civilizations as well.
| Section 17 | Section 19 |