DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30604#0019
THE VERSIONS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
XI
dead by various processes of embalming. The deposit of the body in the tomb
was accompanied by ceremonies of a symbolic nature, in the course of which certain
compositions comprising prayers, short litanies, etc., having reference to the future
life, were recited or chanted by priests and relatives on behalf of the dead. The
greatest importance was attached to such compositions, in the belief that their
recital would secure for the dead an unhindered passage to God in the next world,
would enable him to overcome the opposition of all ghostly foes, would endow his
body in the tomb with power to resist corruption, and would ensure him a new
life in a glorified body in heaven. At a very remote period certain groups of
sections or chapters had already become associated with some of the ceremonies
which preceded actual burial, and these eventually became a distinct ritual with
clearly defined limits. Side by side, however, with this ritual there seems to have
existed another and larger work, which was divided into an indefinite number of
sections or chapters comprising chiefly prayers, and which dealt on a larger scale
with the welfare of the departed in the next world, and described the state of
existence therein and the dangers which must be passed successfully before it
could be reached, and was founded generally on the religious dogmas and my-
thology of the Egyptians. The title of “ Book of the Dead ” is usuaily given by
Egyptologists to the editions of the larger work which were made in the XVIIIth
and following dynasties, but in this Introduction the term is intended to include
the general body of texts which have reference to the burial of the deacl and to
the new life in the world beyond the grave, and which are known to have existed
in revised editions and to have been in use among the Egyptians from about
B.c. 4500 to the early centuries of the Christian era.
The home, origin, and early history of the collection of ancient religious
texts which have aescended to us are, at present, unknown, and all working
theories regarding them, however strongly supported by apparently well-ascertained
facts, must be carefully distinguished as theories only, so long as a single ancient
necropolis in Egypt remains unexplored and its inscriptions are untranslated.
Whether they were composed by the inhabitants of Egypt, who recorded them in
hieroglyphic characters, and who have left the monuments which are the only
trustworthy sources of information on the subject, or whether they were brought
into Egypt by the early immigrants from the Asiatic continent whence they
came, or whether they represent the religious books of the Egyptians incorporated
with the funeral texts of some prehistoric dwellers on the banks of the Nile, are
all questions which the possible discovery of inscriptions belonging to the first
dynasties of the Early Empire can alone decide. The evidence derived from the
b 2
Early forms of thc
Book of the Dead.
The Book of thc
Dead.
Uncertainty of the
history of its sources.
XI
dead by various processes of embalming. The deposit of the body in the tomb
was accompanied by ceremonies of a symbolic nature, in the course of which certain
compositions comprising prayers, short litanies, etc., having reference to the future
life, were recited or chanted by priests and relatives on behalf of the dead. The
greatest importance was attached to such compositions, in the belief that their
recital would secure for the dead an unhindered passage to God in the next world,
would enable him to overcome the opposition of all ghostly foes, would endow his
body in the tomb with power to resist corruption, and would ensure him a new
life in a glorified body in heaven. At a very remote period certain groups of
sections or chapters had already become associated with some of the ceremonies
which preceded actual burial, and these eventually became a distinct ritual with
clearly defined limits. Side by side, however, with this ritual there seems to have
existed another and larger work, which was divided into an indefinite number of
sections or chapters comprising chiefly prayers, and which dealt on a larger scale
with the welfare of the departed in the next world, and described the state of
existence therein and the dangers which must be passed successfully before it
could be reached, and was founded generally on the religious dogmas and my-
thology of the Egyptians. The title of “ Book of the Dead ” is usuaily given by
Egyptologists to the editions of the larger work which were made in the XVIIIth
and following dynasties, but in this Introduction the term is intended to include
the general body of texts which have reference to the burial of the deacl and to
the new life in the world beyond the grave, and which are known to have existed
in revised editions and to have been in use among the Egyptians from about
B.c. 4500 to the early centuries of the Christian era.
The home, origin, and early history of the collection of ancient religious
texts which have aescended to us are, at present, unknown, and all working
theories regarding them, however strongly supported by apparently well-ascertained
facts, must be carefully distinguished as theories only, so long as a single ancient
necropolis in Egypt remains unexplored and its inscriptions are untranslated.
Whether they were composed by the inhabitants of Egypt, who recorded them in
hieroglyphic characters, and who have left the monuments which are the only
trustworthy sources of information on the subject, or whether they were brought
into Egypt by the early immigrants from the Asiatic continent whence they
came, or whether they represent the religious books of the Egyptians incorporated
with the funeral texts of some prehistoric dwellers on the banks of the Nile, are
all questions which the possible discovery of inscriptions belonging to the first
dynasties of the Early Empire can alone decide. The evidence derived from the
b 2
Early forms of thc
Book of the Dead.
The Book of thc
Dead.
Uncertainty of the
history of its sources.