Egyptian-Hebrew stream·Egyptian Book of the Dead·Preface

Source context

Theme

nature and function of the Egyptian Book of the Dead as a record of mystery wisdom concerning death, the afterlife, and initiation

Soul-faculty

Sentient Soul

Steiner

• GA 8, chapter 6Steiner treats the Book of the Dead as a primary document of Egyptian mystery wisdom, citing chapter 125 of the Papyrus of Nu and referencing the Lepsius edition as the scholarly transmission of this material.
• GA 87, 1902-02-22Steiner identifies the Book of the Dead as the key source through which the initiatory teachings of the Egyptian priests — their doctrines on the soul's transition at death — can still be penetrated today.
• GA 87, 1901-11-30Steiner notes that the Book of the Dead was considerably better known in antiquity than in later periods, and that awareness of its deeper contents diminished over time.
• GA 250, 1905-01-02Steiner characterises the Book of the Dead as a product of the culture of Hermes and a fruit of the wider Egyptian spiritual civilisation.
• GA 57, 1909-04-29Steiner draws on the Book of the Dead to illustrate the Egyptian teaching that the soul, while in the body, is under the rulership of Horus, but upon leaving the body enters a different realm.
• GA 300c, 1924-09-03Steiner connects the Book of the Dead to the Egyptian capacity for clairvoyant perception of the astral regions of the etheric body, expressed through its imagery of sun, moon, and stars.

Cross-tradition

• Tibetan Buddhist traditionThe Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead) exhibits cross-tradition congruence with the Egyptian text in its function as a guide for the soul navigating post-mortem states, though the cosmological and initiatory frameworks differ substantially.
• Orphic traditionOrphic gold tablets prescribing navigational instructions for the soul in the underworld show structural cross-tradition congruence with the judgment and declaratory sequences of the Book of the Dead.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

by E. A. WALLIS BUDGE (1895)

Preface

The Papyrus of Ani, which was acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum in the year 1888, is the largest, the most perfect, the best preserved, and the best illuminated of all the papyri which date from the second half of the XVIIIth dynasty (about B.C. 1500 to 1400). Its rare vignettes, and hymns, and chapters, and its descriptive and introductory rubrics render it of unique importance for the study of the Book of the Dead, and it takes a high place among the authoritative texts of the Theban version of that remarkable work. Although it contains less than one-half of the chapters which are commonly assigned to that version, we may conclude that Ani's exalted official position as Chancellor of the ecclesiastical revenues and endowments of Abydos and Thebes would have ensured a selection of such chapters as would suffice for his spiritual welfare in the future life. We may therefore regard the Papyrus of Ani as typical of the funeral book in vogue among the Theban nobles of his time.

The first edition of the Facsimile of the Papyrus was issued in 1890, and was accompanied by a valuable Introduction by Mr. Le Page Renouf, then Keeper of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities. But, in order to satisfy a widely expressed demand for a translation of the text, the present volume has been prepared to be issued with the second edition of the Facsimile. It contains the hieroglyphic text of the Papyrus with interlinear transliteration and word for word translation, a full description of the vignettes, and a running translation; and in the Introduction an attempt has been made to illustrate from native

{p. vi}

Egyptian sources the religious views of the wonderful people who more than five thousand years ago proclaimed the resurrection of a spiritual body and the immortality of the soul.

The passages which supply omissions, and vignettes which contain important variations either in subject matter or arrangement, as well as supplementary texts which appear in the appendixes, have been, as far as possible, drawn from other contemporary papyri in the British Museum.

The second edition of the Facsimile has been executed by Mr. F. C. Price.

E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.

BRITISH MUSEUM.

*

January* 25, 1895.

Title Page

*

The Papyrus of Ani

*

IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

THE EGYPTIAN TEXT WITH INTERLINEAR

TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION,

A RUNNING TRANSLATION, INTRODUCTION, ETC.

# by

E. A. WALLIS BUDGE

Late keeper of Assyrian and Egyptian Antiquities

in the British Museum

[1895]

scanned at www.public-domain archive, Oct-Dec 2000.

JSON: /api/sources/book-of-the-dead/00-the-book-of-the-dead.json