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  • The Egyptian Book of The Dead-A Manual For The Dead

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    The Egyptian Book of the Dead was a manual to help the dead achieve eternal life in the afterlife. It contained hymns, prayers and rituals to be performed for judgment after death. The excerpt is from the scene of judgment where the dead person confesses to Osiris and other gods that they did not commit any sins while alive such as harming others, blasphemy, violence, killing or damaging food and resources. The moral code expressed in the confession shows what behaviors were considered evil by ancient Egyptians.

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    Book of the Dead

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    Reading EgyptianBookoftheDead

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    The Egyptian Book of the Dead was a manual to help the dead achieve eternal life in the afterlife. It contained hymns, prayers and rituals to be performed for judgment after death. The excerpt is from the scene of judgment where the dead person confesses to Osiris and other gods that they did not commit any sins while alive such as harming others, blasphemy, violence, killing or damaging food and resources. The moral code expressed in the confession shows what behaviors were considered evil by ancient Egyptians.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    4 views1 page

    The Egyptian Book of The Dead-A Manual For The Dead

    Uploaded by

    Korey Bradley
    The Egyptian Book of the Dead was a manual to help the dead achieve eternal life in the afterlife. It contained hymns, prayers and rituals to be performed for judgment after death. The excerpt is from the scene of judgment where the dead person confesses to Osiris and other gods that they did not commit any sins while alive such as harming others, blasphemy, violence, killing or damaging food and resources. The moral code expressed in the confession shows what behaviors were considered evil by ancient Egyptians.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 1

    Name ______________________________

    Mod ____

    Global Studies

    Ms. Pojer

    HGHS

    The Egyptian Book of the Dead- A Manual for the Dead


    The death of the body, according to Egyptian belief, was the beginning of eternal life. It was essential,
    therefore, that careful preparation be made to assure a happy state of immortality for the individual. In the early
    days of Egyptian history, only the pharaoh and the men of wealth could receive the necessary funeral rites
    administered by the priests to assure eternal life. After hundreds of years, al people, regardless of wealth, were
    granted this right. Eventually this approach to the afterlife through ritual evolved into a system of rewards and
    punishments for behavior on earth. The dead were thought to be judged soon after death by Osiris and other
    gods.
    The Book of the Dead is a collection of hymns, prayers, and petitions. The following excerpt is from the
    scene of judgment. This confession, which the dead were supposed to utter, gives us a good idea of the
    Egyptian moral code.
    -------------------------------------------------Hail to thee, O great god.I have come to thee, my lord, I have been brought that I might see thy
    beauty. I know thee; I know thy name and the names of the forty-two gods who are with thee in the Broad-Hall
    of the Two Justices, who live on them who preserve evil and who drink their blood on that day of reckoning up
    character in the presence of Wennofer. Behold, Sati-Mertifi, Lord of Justice, is thy name. I have come to thee;
    I have brought thee justice; I have expelled deceit for thee.
    I have not committed evil against men.
    I have not committed sin in the place of truth.
    I have not seen evil.
    I have not blasphemed a god.
    I have not done violence to a poor man.
    I have not done that which the gods abominate.
    I have not defamed a slave to his superior.
    I have not made anyone sick.
    I have not killed.
    I have given no order to a killer.
    I have not caused anyone suffering.
    I have not cut down on the food in the temples.
    I have not damaged the bread of the gods.
    I have not taken milk from the mouths of children.
    I have not driven cattle away from their pasturage.
    I have not built a dam against running water.
    st

    SOURCE: J. B. Pritchard, editor, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1 ed., 1950, p. 34. Reprinted by
    permission of the publishers.

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