The Egyptian Book of the Dead has, as its original title, Reu nu pert em hru; translated to English, it means The Chapters of coming forth by day.
This book is, essentially, a series of chapters that consist of magic spells and special formulas, which are all written in papyrus. Such collection of texts for funerary purposes began to be found around 1600 BC in Egyptian tombs.
It is suppose that these texts, that gathered such spells and formulas, would be used by the deceased ones, throughout their Underworld journey. While in this journey in the Underworld, the dead would face multiple perils and obstacles that they should be able to overcome and those spells and formulas would be the key and tool to achieve such thing. Furthermore, they should also guide the dead, so that they would not be lost in the Underworld and would follow the correct path all the way to the end of such voyage. They would provide secret passwords, clues and routes to take, together with a power of protection from the gods and providing with their identity to the same gods.
Beliefs
The Egyptians had very strong and complex beliefs about what would happen in life after death and about all that should be done in life, so that one could try to make this world’s life as good as it could be, for in favor weighing when in the afterlife final judgment.
As concluded by the statement above, for the Egyptians, death would not be the end of the existence; rather than this, it would become a mere process that would be necessary to endure, in order to be able to achieve the stage of eternal life and bliss. Being seen as such, however, this would not be a linear and direct process, since the person would have to prove herself to be worthy of such dimension; and those proofs would be held by the type of life that person had before death. And each person, regarding its social class, function and other more traits, would have their one judgment accordingly, as the Egyptians believed. Such judgment’s final decision would then reveal the person’s destiny in the afterlife: if worthy of eternal life and state of bliss, or not.
The afterlife, per se, was defined by Egyptians by means of different names, which could be, for example, "Field of Offerings" or "Rushes". In order to have the biggest probabilities of a good death, journey and judgment in the afterlife, the Egyptians would spend all their life in preparation for such moment and for such period: of life after death.
After dying, the person, according to their ancient mythology, would enter the Underworld, which would be a very intimidating and scary place of huge dimensions that every one that entered it dreaded. In the Underworld and throughout the journey, the dead person would undergo several tests that the gods had created on the Underworld to be overcome, in order to proceed forward, in search for the blissful and eternal afterlife.
As said before, religion had a major role in every aspect of the Egyptians’ life. They believed in multiple gods – polytheists – and their deities all had different functions on their specific area of domain and creation. Thus, they also had their own system of classification. In this specific matter, of course, there were also gods responsible for the Underworld, that would govern it and would participate in the phases and challenges the dead would have to overcome. Stories about these deities and about what happened in the Underworld constituted several myths and legends that priests would tell and that would reinforce the Egyptian’s beliefs.
The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul still had perishable traits and, thus, in the Underworld’s journey, would keep being at risk, together with a need for the person’s body preservation. That is why they had such complex funerary arrangements, mummifying and preserving the body in order to ensure the soul’s good state also, in all its elements – Ka, Ba and Ahk –, in a tomb that was specially built and structured, with funerary masks and in a ritual of spells’ casting. In the soul’s judgment, the worth that it had would be evaluated on a set of scales, where the heart would be weighed. All the good things together with the bad things would be put on the scales and judged by a specific criterion – Ma’at. She was the goddess of justice, whose symbol was a feather. It would be analyzed how much the good and bad deeds would weigh on the scales and depending on the result, the soul’s fate or destination would be decided. If the good deeds’ weight would surpass the bad deeds’, the soul would be granted with eternal life and bliss; if not, and the bad deeds were the heaviest, the soul would be given to the Devourer of the Dead – hell for the Egyptian.
Gods and Goddesses involved
Egyptians considered some animals to be sacred – the bull, the cat, or the crocodile, for example – and so, their gods and goddesses often had the form of such animals. From among them, Amon-Ra, the sun god and lord of the entire universe and Osiris were the main rulers.
This last one, Osiris, was considered to be the god of the mentioned Underworld, who had the power of making possible for the afterlife to be peaceful and blissful.
On the soul’s judgment day, this would occur in the Hall of Two Truths, in an event presided by Anubis – a jackal headed god – the god of the dead, together with other forty two deities; one of those deities would be Ma’at, the feather-symbolized deity.
Osiris was also the embodiment of the Egyptians’ hope in life after death and the wag-festival, which is mentioned in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts for the first time, was a celebration in his honor, being that he was the first of the Westerners – which means the dead - who died and was able to resurrect.
Comparison between Egyptian beliefs about death and the after-life and the Christian beliefs depicted in medieval art
When comparing Egyptian religious beliefs with Christian medieval beliefs about death and the afterlife, when can find similarities among then, although these were very different from its basis – one being polytheist and the other monotheist, respectively.
One of those similarities is the basic concept about divine creation of the world, a creation of a system of creation by a deity that would help explain the existence of the physical world an its origin, together with the creation and maintenance of a concept well implanted on the human beings’ mind about the existence of a Creator that was the sovereign of all things.
Life after death is another one and the majorly depicted one on both beliefs.
Ancient Egyptians and Christians in the medieval times both believed that there was life after death of one’s body; that the soul would continue its life in another dimension, even after the physical death. On both of these beliefs, also, there was the idea of a “trial of the soul”, or judgment day. Just like depicted by the ancient Egyptian, the Christian medieval images also portray a world to come, in which the soul will be judged and sentenced, according to the terrain life – if filled with good deeds, or in sin.
Such judgment and posterior decision is made by God, analyzing that soul’s relation with Christ and the divine teachings throughout life on Earth. If having lived a life filled with sin, God would then, similarly to the final judgment of ancient Egyptians, condemn the soul to eternal perdition, punishment and spiritual death. There are many records, but of pictures and of rich, detailed texts, describing the horrors and grotesque tortures that the souls having lived in sin would eternally suffer in hell.
Therefore, and once again, juxtaposing this belief with the ancient Egyptian one, the medieval Christians were devoted all their life in following the religious rules for a good life, pursuing a guarantee for salvation of their soul once they died and faced their final judgment. This is also fully described and depicted, emphasizing God’s power to punish the ones in sin and inflicting fear of it on the believers. If living a life that followed the Christian rules and guidelines for what is good and right, the soul would then be granted by God to have eternal life and bliss, coexisting beside His presence.
Conclusion
In conclusion, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, or better, The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day, are a collection of precious manuscripts in papyrus that contain a series of guidelines, paths, magic formulas, spells, passwords and clues to be used by the dead, in their journey throughout the Underworld to finally face their judgment by Anubis, Ma’at and other deities, and their sentence, based on the scaling between the good and the bad deeds. This is very similar to what has been exhaustively depicted and described in medieval Christianity, about the souls’ final judgment made by God, after one dies on their physical, and facing their final destiny – heaven (bliss) or hell (eternal damnation) – according to their good or sinful terrain life.
References
Budge, Wallace. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, n.d. Web. 3rd of March 2013.
Davies-Stofka, Beth. Afterlife and Salvation, n.d . Web. 4th of March 2013.
Egyptian Afterlife Beliefs. Kwintessential, March 29th 2010. Web. 3rd of March 2013.
Egyptian Gods - Universal Truth. All About History, 2002. Web. 4th of March 2013.
Teeter, Emily, Brewer, Douglas. Religion in the Lives of the Ancient Egyptians. Fathom Archive, 2004. Web. 4th of March 2013.
