DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0037
history ûf tue Pyramids. ιη
have had much influence on them. It was a dis-
tinguished member of the family, the patriarch
Abraham, who said : ' I have lifted up mine hand
unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of
heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread
even to a shoe-latchet, and that I will not take
anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I
have made Abram rich.' Vain would all the
promises and all the threats of Cheops have been
to men of this spirit. Such men might help him
in his plans, suggested, as the history shows, by
teachings of their own, but it must be on their own
conditions, and those conditions would most cer-
tainly include the utter rejection of idolatrous wor-
ship by the king in whose behalf they worked, as
well as by all who shared in their labours. It
seems probable that they convinced both Cheops
and Chephren, that unless these kings gave up
idolatry, the purpose, whatever it was, which the
pyramid was erected to promote, would not be
fulfilled. The mere fact that the Great Pyramid
was built either directly at the suggestion of these
visitors, or because they had persuaded Cheops of
the truth of some important doctrine, shows that
they must have gained great influence over his
mind. Rather we may say that he must have been
so convinced of their knowledge and power as to
have had much influence on them. It was a dis-
tinguished member of the family, the patriarch
Abraham, who said : ' I have lifted up mine hand
unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of
heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread
even to a shoe-latchet, and that I will not take
anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I
have made Abram rich.' Vain would all the
promises and all the threats of Cheops have been
to men of this spirit. Such men might help him
in his plans, suggested, as the history shows, by
teachings of their own, but it must be on their own
conditions, and those conditions would most cer-
tainly include the utter rejection of idolatrous wor-
ship by the king in whose behalf they worked, as
well as by all who shared in their labours. It
seems probable that they convinced both Cheops
and Chephren, that unless these kings gave up
idolatry, the purpose, whatever it was, which the
pyramid was erected to promote, would not be
fulfilled. The mere fact that the Great Pyramid
was built either directly at the suggestion of these
visitors, or because they had persuaded Cheops of
the truth of some important doctrine, shows that
they must have gained great influence over his
mind. Rather we may say that he must have been
so convinced of their knowledge and power as to