BIBLICAL CONSTRUCTS: EGYPT

Or:

A CULT OF ME

I was wandering around my local library, when I spied with my little eye, a book entitled ‘The Cult of Ra’

As many may surmise, I am somewhat simpatico with the name, as my initials are the same. When I originally took the title, the Reluctant Atheist, I had no idea people would be abbreviating it. Hence, it was inadvertent.

While a cult following would be nice, I’ve never been much of a leader. I’ve worked management before, and hated it, because I had a no-nonsense, you’re-an-adult attitude towards people. In short, I was an asshole. Unless the job description says ‘babysitter’, unless I’m dealing with children (I happen to be wonderful with kids, BTW), you get three explanations and that’s about it (unless I’m teaching Tai Chi: that’s WAY harder than most items to learn, trust you me).

Onwards.

Anyways, began leafing through the book. Paraphrasing here: “Ra is the Egyptian god who is said to have created himself.” Needless to say, THAT raised an eyebrow. Also: “Ra is said to be contained within all things.” (again, paraphrased).

From: Sacred texts – “in the XVIIth Chapter he says: "I am Tem in his rising. I was the Only One [when] I came into existence in Nenu (or Nu). I am Ra when he rose for the first time. I am the Great God who created himself [from] Nenu, and who made his names to become the gods of his company.”

Any of this sounding at least semi-familiar?

From here: “From the fifth dynasty (ca. 2400 BC) onward he was elevated to the status of a national deity, and much later was combined with the Theban god Amun to become Amun-Ra, the foremost deity of the Egyptian pantheon.”

Also, same source: “Ra (sometimes spelled Rê) is the sun-god of Heliopolis in ancient Egypt. Ra originally meant "mouth" in the Egyptian language, and was a reference to his creation of the deities of the Ogdoad system, excluding the 8 concepts which created him, by the power of speech (compare how Yahweh was said to have created the world). In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was subsumed into the god Horus, as Re-Horakhty (and many variant spellings).”

Fascinating.

Compare the dating from here: “Hyksos [Egyptian,=rulers of foreign lands], invaders of ancient Egypt, now substantiated as the XV–XVIII dynasties. They were a northwestern Semitic (Canaanite or Amorite) people who entered Egypt sometime between 1720 and 1710 B.C. and subdued the pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom.”

(For those of you who may get confused: pre-CE, dates are counted forwards: so 1710-1720 came LATER than 2400. ‘Salright, I get it mixed up on occasion)

I am of course making a case for parallelism here. Since there is no archeological proof of the Exodus (or that THREE MILLION people wandered the desert for set amount of years), it’s fairly obvious that the Hyksos took and held Egypt for approximately a century, and then were ousted, taking with them a flavoring of said culture.

Of course, being that there’s a strong oral culture that precludes there being any records whatsoever (in the case of the Israelites, that is), history is very much a game of speculation and conjecture. The Egyptians were, on the other hand, fanatical about recording everything, down to particular minutiae.

So, in short, the Hyksos borrowed from Egypt. Other constructs borrowed from are Sumerian, Babylonian, etc. I will address these on separate occasions.

So feel free to worship me, an it please you.

Be prepared, however, to be yanked off your knees, and have your feet planted on Terra Firma.

I am just a man.

Worship no one, no thing.

Be free.