Ancient Egypt: "like a childish Christianity ?

The religion of Ancient Egypt: "like a childish Christianity"

This religion is described in the Book of Wisdom in an unflattering manner: “They even adore the most odious beasts; for as far as stupidity, they are worse than the others” (Wis 15: 18). Beyond the popular superstitions deifying animals, the religion of ancient Egypt has proven itself to be astonishingly beautiful and close to Christianity. “It is somewhat like a childish Christianity, told in the form of animal characters.” It is so apt to be put in parallel with the Christian faith that we can affirm these two things with confidence: we received the faith in an only God from Judaism, and almost all the rest from the religion of ancient Egypt.

Here is a reconstitution of the Egyptian creed imitating the Christian Nicene Creed:

• God: as early as 3000 B.C., the Egyptians believed in the creation of the world by a unique principle, the Absolute Spirit Ra.
• The imitation of the Messiah-Savior: like Christians, they believed that an eternal reward would be granted to them if they faithfully imitated the love and righteousness of their two principal models, Isis and Osiris. These gods being married and faithful, the ancient Egyptians, out of imitation and hope of salvation, were the only ancient people to practice and respect monogamy and to respect women in the status of equality and love. They lived this way in the midst of polygamous nations who were harsh toward their women.: regarding death, they believed in the afterlife of their own spirit (called bah) and of their psychic double (the ka).
• The last judgment: the angel of death, in the form of the jackal Anubis, would come to get them. He helped them to cross the great passage of death (Apophis). He then introduced them, for the last judgment by Osiris and Isis, in the celestial court of the gods.
• Salvation through a righteous heart: here, their past actions would be weighted on the scale and their heart must be found lighter than a feather of the goddess Maat, whose name signifies “Righteousness”.
• Heaven and hell, the communion of saints: the just soul entered heaven, the “Fields of Life” where it was reunited with its loved ones. The pervert was delivered to the “Devouring one”, the god of hell and doom.
• The resurrection of the flesh: finally, they trusted that at the end of the world there would be a resurrection, like that of the scarab god who died and came out of its hole each spring. They simply believed all this without nuances, building for themselves tombs more beautiful than their houses to await this resurrection and avoid boredom in the process. They were a people possessing a child’s faith.

Osiris and Isis, prefigure Jesus and Mary

The strut of all the religious thinking and of the moral uprightness of the Egyptian people lays in the story of Osiris and Isis and its highly spiritual content.  With the passing of centuries, it has become clouded under the accumulation of fragmentary and contradictory episodes. It can be summarized through a few clear events:

"When the god Ra had begotten many gods and goddesses, all brothers and sisters, he proudly noticed among them the goddess Isis and her beloved husband and brother Osiris. Their unity was such that it caused the earth to become green and blossom (Thus Osiris is the "green" god, resembling springtime grass). Seth, their brother, lived in arid deserts. His face was red like the burning wind.

He was the most cunning god. With his companion Nephtis, he moped with bitter jealousy because of the beauty and success of Osiris, as well as the rest of her qualities that united her to Isis. So he meditated a ruse. He made a magnificent golden sarcophagus just right for Osiris, and invited all his brother gods to a great feast. He then promised to give the casket to the god it would fit the best. Trusting, Osiris laid in it.

Seth closed the lid, sealed it and dropped it in the waters of the Nile. After three days, he fished it out, cut the body of Osiris into 12 pieces which he dispersed far and wide, in all of Egypt. When Isis realized that her husband was dead, her sorrow covered the land. She never ceased to roam the earth, looking for the dislocated body.

She gathered the pieces and embalmed them. As her cries filled the earth, she started to flap her wings. Immediately, Osiris came back to life. They embraced and from their union Pharaoh and all humanity were born."

 

An allegory of Jesus and Mary, and of Christian salvation through the Covenant

This story impressed many generations of Egyptians. They drew from it the certainty of a rebirth to eternal life through an imitation of this powerful love. This is why, after his death, the body of an Egyptian was mummified in the position of Osiris before his resurrection. Any Christian will recognize in this story a close allegory of Jesus and Mary. On many points, it helps us understand better some mysteries that are specifically Catholic and Orthodox, like the co-redeeming unity of Jesus and Mary in their communion of love. Indeed, Christian salvation isn't the mere unilateral gesture of the Savior. It is a covenant, a marriage between two spouses, God and the soul. It is truly the act of two people.

Delivered to death by Satan (Seth), Jesus died. Wasn't it Mary's irresistible supplication that brought him out of the tomb alive? And doesn’t the Church (Pharaoh's and humanity's) owe her life to the fruitfulness of Jesus and Mary’s united hearts...? It comes hardly as a surprise that Egypt is the first country to be won over to Christianity. In the midst of its desert places monastic life was born, with an unparalleled fervor. This country received a perfect spiritual preparation, in a unique manner, for the Gospel’s revelation.

On that account the Council Vatican II could have written in reference to Egypt (cf.Lumen Gentium 16): “The peoples who haven't yet accepted the Gospel are closely associated with the People of God… The design of salvation envelops them in their shadows and through images. In fact, all that is good and true in their midst, the Church considers to be an evangelical preparation and a gift from He who illumines each man, so that, in the end, he may have life.” Such was the prophecy of the goddess Isis, an image of the virgin of Nazareth.

Arnaud Dumouch