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Plate XXXII., read aloud

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Egyptian Book of the Dead · 36 of 41

Plate XXXII.

(34) "Hail, Tmu in thine hour, who comest forth from Tattu, I have never cursed the king."

(35) "Hail, thou who workest with thy will, who comest forth from Tebu, I have never fouled the water."

(36) "Hail, thou bearer of the sistrum, who comest forth from Nu, I have not spoken scornfully."

(37) "Hail, thou who makest mankind to flourish, who comest forth from Saïs, I have never cursed God."

(38) "Flail, Neheb-ka, who comest forth from thy hiding place, I have not stolen."

(39) "Hail, Neheb-nefert, who comest forth from thy hiding place, I have not defrauded the offerings of the gods."

(40) "Hail, thou who dost set in order the head, who comest forth from thy shrine, I have not plundered the offerings to the blessed dead."

(40 "Hail, thou who bringest thy arm, who comest forth from the city of Maati, I have not filched the food of the infant, neither have I sinned against the god of my native town."

(42) "Hail, thou whose teeth are white, why comest forth from Ta-she, I have not slaughtered with evil intent the cattle of the god."

Insight

The forty-second and final confession — "I have not slaughtered with evil intent the cattle of the god" — closes the list with what may strike a modern reader as an oddly specific offense. It is not. The bull-cult was central to Egyptian religion (the Apis bull at Memphis, the Mnevis at Heliopolis, the Buchis at Hermonthis — each a specific living animal worshipped as the god's earthly manifestation), and "the cattle of the god" included the herds dedicated to specific temples whose milk, meat, and offspring were the temple's economic base. To slaughter such cattle without proper sanction was both sacrilege and economic predation on the divine household. Reading this in the context of contemporary debates about animal sacrifice and food ethics — the Pythagorean prohibition, the Buddhist first precept, the Jain vow of ahimsa — is interesting. The Egyptians did not abstain from animal slaughter; they ritualized it. The crime was not killing animals but killing them outside the proper sacred frame.Sacred animals in Egyptian religion: Smelik & Hemelrijk, "Who Knows What Monsters the Demented Egypt Worships?"; Apis bull cult: Vercoutter, The Bucheum.

Appendix: The following version of the Negative Confession is given in the Nebseni Papyrus (Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. I., Bll. 134, 135), showing important variations in the text and in the order in which the gods are addressed.

"(1) Hail, thou whose strides are long, who comest forth from Annu, I have not done iniquity. (2) Hail, thou who art embraced by flame, who comest forth from Kher-aba, I have not robbed with violence. (3) Hail Fenti who comest forth from Khemennu, I have not made any to suffer pain. (4) Hail, Devourer of Shades, who comest forth from [thy] retreat, I have not robbed. (5) Hail, thou whose limbs are terrible to look upon, who comest forth from Restau, I have done no murder. (6) Hail, thou god who art in the form of two lions, who comest forth from heaven, I have not defrauded offerings. (7) Hail, thou god whose two eyes are of fire, who comest forth from Sekhem, I have not done harm. (8) Hail, Fiery god, who comest and goest, I have not robbed God. (9) Hail, Crusher of Bones, who comest forth from Suten-henen, I have told no lies. (10) Hail, thou who shootest thyself forth from the flame, who comest forth from Het-Ptah-ka, I have not snatched away food.

(11) Hail, Qerti, who comest forth from Amentet, I have not worked affliction. (12) Hail, thou whose teeth are white, who comest forth from Ta-she, I have not transgressed. (13) Hail, Devourer of blood, who comest forth from the block, I have not slaughtered the cattle which are set apart for the gods. (14) Hail, Devourer of the inward parts, who comest forth from Mabit, I have done no evil. (15) Hail, lord of Right and Truth, who comest forth from Maati, I have not laid waste the ploughed lands. (16) Hail, Strider, who comest forth from Bast, I have not been an eavesdropper. (17) Hail, Aaati, who comest forth from Annu, I have not set my lips in motion against any man. (18) Hail, thou god of two-fold evil, who comest forth from Ati, I have not been angry without a cause.

(19) Hail, thou god who art in the likeness of a serpent, who comest forth from the torture-chamber, I have not committed adultery with the wife of any man. (20) Hail, thou who regardest that which is brought before thee, who comest forth from Pa-Amsu, I have not polluted myself (21) Hail, thou mighty Chief, who comest forth from the city of acacia trees, I have not caused terror. (22) Hail, Khemi, who comest forth from Kesui, I have not done that which is abominable. (23) Hail, thou who orderest speech, who comest forth from Urib, I have never uttered fiery words. (24) Hail, thou Babe, who comest forth from the Heq-at nome, I have not stopped my ears against the words of Right and Truth. (25) Hail, thou who orderest speech, who comest forth from Unes, I have not stirred up strife.

(26) Hail, Bast, who comest forth from the secret city, I have not caused [any] to weep. (27) Hail, thou whose face is turned behind thee, I have not lusted, nor have I committed fornication, nor have I done any other abominable thing. (28) Hail, Blazing feet, who comest forth from the darkness, I have not avenged myself (29) Hail, Kenemti, who comest forth from Kenemti, I have never worked grief. (30) Hail, thou who bringest thy offering, who comest forth from Sau, I have not acted insolently. (31) Hail, lord of faces, who comest forth from Tchefet, I have never judged hastily. (32) Hail, Sekheriu, who comest forth from Unth, I have not transgressed, nor have I vexed or angered God. (33) Hail, lord of the two horns, who comest forth from Saui, I have not multiplied my speech overmuch.

(34) Hail, Nefer-Tmu, who comest forth from Het-Ptah-ka, I have done no harm nor have I done

[1. Var. "I have or worked deceit in the place of Right and Truth." See Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. II., p. 292.

2. One variant has, "who comest forth from Seshet" and another, "who comest forth from Annu"; see Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. II., Bl. 292; Lepsius, Todtenbuch, Bl. 47, 1. 21.]

evil. (35) Hail, Tmu in thine hour, who comest forth from Tattu, I have not worked treason. (36) Hail, thou who workest in thy heart, who comest forth from Tebtu, I have never befouled the water. (37) Hail, thou bearer of the sistrum, who comest forth from Nu, I have not spoken scornfully. (38) Hail, thou who dost make mankind to flourish, who comest forth from thy hall, I have not cursed God. (39) Hail, Neheb-nefert, who comest forth from . . . . . . . I have not behaved myself with arrogance (?). (40) Hail, Neheb-kau, who comest forth from thy city, I have not been overweeningly proud. (40) Hail, Tcheser-tep, who comest forth from thy hiding place, I have never magnified my condition beyond what was fitting. (42) Hail, thou who bringest thine arm, who comest forth from Aukert, I have never slighted the god in my town."

In the Nebseni papyrus (Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. I., Bll. 137, 138), the CXXVth Chapter ends as follows:--

(2) "Homage to you, O ye gods, I know You, (3) and I know your names. Cast me not down to your (4) knives of slaughter, and bring not my wickedness into the presence of the god whom ye follow, (5) and let not the time of my failings come before you. I pray you, declare me right and true in the presence of the (6) universal God, because I have done that which is right and true in Ta-mera; I have not cursed the god . . . . . . .

"Homage to you, O ye gods who live in your hall Of (7) Right and Truth, and who have no evil in your bodies, who feed on your own substance in (8) the presence of Horus who liveth in his disk, deliver ye me from Baabi, who feedeth on the inwards of the mighty ones on the day of the great judgment which shall be holden by you. (9) I have come unto you; I have committed no faults; I have not sinned; I have done no evil; I have accused no man falsely; therefore let nothing be done against me. I live in right and truth, (10) and I feed my heart upon right and truth. That which men have bidden I have done, and the gods are satisfied thereat. I have pacified the god, for I have done his (11) will.

I have given bread unto the hungry and water unto those who thirst, clothing unto the naked, and a boat unto the shipwrecked mariner. (12) I have made holy offerings unto the gods; and I have given meals of the tomb to the sainted dead. O, then, deliver ye me, and protect me; accuse me not before the great god. (13) I am pure of mouth, and I am pure of hands. May those who see me say, 'Come in peace, come in peace.' For I have heard the speech which the Ass held with the Cat in the House of Hept-re. (14) 1 have borne witness before him [the god] and he hath given judgment. I have beheld the dividing of the persea trees (15) within Re-stau. I offer up prayers in the presence of the gods, knowing that which concerneth them.

Insight

After the Negative Confession denies all wrong, the deceased turns to a positive declaration: "I have given bread unto the hungry and water unto those who thirst, clothing unto the naked, and a boat unto the shipwrecked mariner. I have made holy offerings unto the gods, and I have given meals of the tomb to the sainted dead." This is the earliest known formulation of what Christian tradition will eventually call the corporal works of mercy. Matthew 25:35-40 — "I was hungry and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me drink, I was a stranger and ye took me in, naked and ye clothed me" — is structurally a positive confession in exactly the Egyptian mode. The chronological priority is clear (Spell 125 antedates the Sermon on the Mount by at least 1500 years), but causal influence is not — this is more likely a structural parallel arising from the universal moral logic of obligation to the vulnerable than direct textual borrowing. The same pattern appears in the Stoic theory of oikeiōsis, in Confucian ren (humaneness), and in the bodhisattva vow.Positive declaration of merit: Matthew 25:35-40; Lichtheim, Maat in Egyptian Autobiographies; corporal works of mercy as universal pattern: Nussbaum, Frontiers of Justice.

I have come forward to make a declaration of right and truth, and to place (16) the balance upon its supports within the groves of amaranth. Hail, thou who art exalted upon thy resting place, thou lord of the atef crown, who declarest thy name as the lord of the (17) winds, deliver thou me from thine angels of destruction, who make dire deeds to happen and calamities to arise, and (18) who have no covering upon their faces, because I have done right and truth, O thou Lord of right and truth. I am pure, in my fore-parts have I been made clean, and in my hinder parts have I (19) been purified; my reins have been bathed in the Pool of right and truth, and no member of my body was wanting. I have been purified in the pool of the south. I have rested in Hemet, on the north of the (20) field of the grasshoppers, wherein the holy mariners do purify themselves in the night season, that they may pacify (?) the heart of the gods after I have passed over it (21) by night and by day. May the gods say unto me, 'We let him come,' and they say unto me, 'Who art thou, and what is thy name?' My name is 'I grew among (22) the flowers, dwelling in the olive tree.' Then shall they say unto me, 'Pass on straightway.' I have passed by the city on the north of the groves, and the gods say, 'What didst thou see there?' [I saw] the Leg and the Thigh. (23) 'What hadst thou to do with them?' I saw rejoicings in the lands of the Fenkhu.

'What did they give thee?' They gave me a (24) flame of fire together with a crystal tablet. 'What didst thou therewith?' I burned it at the place of Maati together with the things of the night. 'What didst thou (25) find there at the place of Maati?' A sceptre of flint which maketh a man to prevail. 'What then is [the name] of this sceptre of flint?' 'Giver of winds' is its name. 'What then didst thou unto the flame of fire with the tablet of (26) crystal after thou didst bury it?' I uttered words over it, I made (27) adjuration thereby, I quenched the fire, and I used the tablet to create (28) a pool of water.

'Come, then, pass through the door of this Hall of two-fold Maati, for thou (29) knowest us.' 'I will not let thee enter in over me,' saith the bolt of the door, (30) 'unless thou tell my name.' 'Weight of the place of right and truth' is thy name. I will not let thee (31) pass in by me,' saith the right post of the door, 'unless thou tell my name.' (32) 'Weigher of the labours of right and truth' is thy name. 'I will not let thee enter in by me,' saith the left Post (33) of the door, 'unless thou tell my name.' 'judge of (34) wine' (?) is thy name. 'I will not let thee pass,' saith the threshold of the door, (35) unless thou tell my name.' 'Ox of Seb' is thy name.

Insight

What follows the positive confession is a ritual catechism — the deceased is challenged at successive doors of the Hall of Double Right and Truth and must speak the secret name of each architectural feature: the bolt, the bolt-socket, the lock, the floor, his own feet. "I will not let thee enter," says the bolt of the door, "unless thou tell my name." This is the most archaic stratum of Egyptian afterlife magic showing through. The doctrine that knowing the names is what gets you across the threshold runs all the way down through later esoteric tradition: the Mithraic password-formulas at each planetary gate; the Hekhalot Rabbati's catalogue of doorkeeper-angel names in the seven palaces; the Pistis Sophia's list of archonic names; the Tibetan Bardo Thödol's precise instructions for what to recite in each post-mortem state; the Sufi dhikr of the ninety-nine names of God. The Egyptian funerary catechism is the ancestor of all such catalogues, and the underlying intuition — that consciousness in extremis is structured by the words it can still speak — keeps recurring in human religious imagination across three thousand years.Catalogues of names as afterlife passport: Couliano, Out of This World; Hekhalot parallels: Schäfer, The Hidden and Manifest God.

'I will not open unto thee,' (36) saith the bolt-socket of the door, 'unless thou tell my name.' 'Flesh of his (37) mother' is thy name. I will not open unto thee,' saith the lock of the door, 'unless thou tell my name.' The utchat of Sebek, the Lord of Bakhan, liveth' is thy name. (38) 'I will not open unto thee, and I will not let thee pass over me,' saith the dweller at the door, 'unless thou tell my name.' 'Arm of Shu that placeth itself to protect Osiris' (39) is thy name. 'We will not let thee pass by us,' say the posts of the door, 'unless thou tell our names.' 'Serpent children of Rennut' are your names.

'Thou (40) knowest us, pass thou by us.' 'Thou shalt not tread upon me,' saith the floor of the hall, I unless thou tell my name.' 'I am silent, I am pure.' 'I know not (41) [the names of] thy two feet with which thou wouldst walk upon me; tell them unto me.' '. . . . . before Amsu' is the name of my right foot, 'Grief of Nephthys' is the name Of (42) my left foot. 'Tread thou upon me, for thou knowest me.' 'I will not question thee,' saith the warder of the door of the hall, unless thou tell my name.' 'Discerner of hearts, (43) searcher of reins' is thy name. I will question thee now. Who is the god that liveth in his hour? Say thou.' The teller of the two lands. 'Who then is the teller (44) of the two lands?' It is Thoth.

'Come then,' saith Thoth, 'come hither (?).' And I come forward to the test. 'What, now, is thy condition?' I am pure from (45) all evil, I am shielded from the baleful acts of those who live in their days, and I am not among them. 'I have tried thee. (46) Who is he that goeth down into the fire, the walls whereof are [crowned]

with uræi, and whose paths are in the lake [of fire]?' He who passeth through it (47) is Osiris. 'Advance thou, in very truth thou hast been tested. Thy bread is in the utchat, thine ale is in the utchat, and meals of the tomb are brought forth unto thee upon earth from the utchat. This hath been decreed for thee.'"