The Afterlife Court

The main articles are:

• History of Ancient Egypt
• Christianity

1900 BC: The idea of an afterlife judgment of the gods with weighing the heart - psychostasis - in Egypt

Since the First Transitional Period in ancient Egypt, the proportion of elements of ethics in funeral texts has become more and more significant. This problem is devoted to the work of the German Egyptologist Grishammer, who collected and studied all the data on the afterlife court contained in the Texts of Sarcophagi (starting from the First Transitional Period and ending with the time of the Middle Kingdom). These texts do not yet have a detailed picture of the afterlife, but the development of this idea is clearly planned. This court takes place in one of the following places:

• in heaven,
• in the divine rook of the sun god,
• on the otherworldly island of Fire, in the habitat of the dead,
• oddly enough, in Heliopolis or Abju (Abydos).

Judges are gods Ra, Atum, Geb, Shu, Toth, Anubis and a number of others, but most often Ra and Osiris. "Sarcophagus Texts" already mentions psychostasis (weighing the heart) as a way of determining a person's moral appearance in his earthly life. In one of the texts (CT, ІV, 298a-301a), the scales personify the deity, in the other (CT, І, 181a-e) the scales, referring to the deceased, pronounce: "Your evil is expelled [from you], your sins are destroyed by those who weigh on the scales on the day of accounting for the properties of [a person]," in other words, the result of psychostasis in favor of the deceased is, as it were, a foregone conclusion (the outcome, which received a complete and final consolidation later, in the 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead).

In the First Transitional Period, the idea of ​ ​ an afterlife court also penetrated didactic literature. In The Teaching of Merikar, a short paragraph is devoted to the afterlife: "Judges who judge sinners will not be lenient on the day of the judgment of the unfortunate (54) at the hour of departure of their duties. Woe to one who will be accused of being conscious [of his sin?]. Do not hope for many years (55), for they observe the time of all life as [one] hour, and he (man - M. Korostovtsev) remains [to live] after burial - his actions are formed next to him as [his] property, and (56) forever stay there. Insane is the one who took it lightly. But he who has achieved this [everlasting life] without having done bad will reside there as God (57), acting boldly as the lord of eternity. "

The discrepancies of a difficult place ("as [his] property") do not interfere with the understanding of the meaning of the paragraph as a whole; the idea of ​ ​ an afterlife court is firmly rooted in the ideas of the Egyptians of that time (the end of the ІІ millennium BC). One cannot but agree with D. Muller that in the religious views of the Egyptians two primitive views on posthumous being as a semblance and continuation of earthly life and a belief in the existence of an afterlife court combined.

How could this conflicting unity arise? Just as the ideas of Christians about the afterlife built on the contradiction, requiring the observance of the funeral ritual (funeral service of the deceased, funeral service, prayers for the granting of eternal life, etc.) and at the same time suggesting that God gives the deceased according to his merits in earthly life and in accordance with his divine mercy.

In fact, we have a spontaneous struggle between two religious principles that exclude each other - the principle of continuing physical life in the tomb and the principle of the afterlife. These principles go back to two different levels of religious thinking, and the displacement of the first by the second in the process of struggle is quite natural.

1500 BC: Full development of the idea of afterlife judgment and heart weighing in chapter 125th of the Egyptian "Book of the Dead"

The most complete expression of the idea of ​ ​ an afterlife court in ancient Egypt was found in the 125th chapter of the "Book of the Dead," a large composition of magical and ritual texts (its first scrolls date back to the XVІ dynasty). It is quite understandable that a chapter based largely on moral principles stands out sharply in the collection of texts of magical purpose. This chapter and its significance in the history of Egyptian culture are devoted to many scientific and popular science works.

The 125th chapter of the "Book of the Dead" "in the image and word represents the great drama of the afterlife judgment and weighing of the heart: it contains the speeches of the judged, the judges, and the gods present, and depicts the very action (the so-called psychostasis) in the big picture... Now, along with magical means of achieving afterlife benefits, as if moral requirements are considered necessary, an impeccable earthly life. The deceased enters the thistle of Justice and pronounces first before Ra and his Enneada, and subsequently, before Osiris, a speech in which he assures that he did not do such and such and such sins, then he does the same in front of 42 judges, of whom everyone knows a special sin, finally, for the third time, already being justified, he insists on his righteousness when leaving the hall and conducts dialogues of a strange magical nature with gatekeepers, doors and speakers.. The deceased, citing knowledge of the names of the judges, makes them safe for himself and turns his excuses into magical formulas that force him to plead not guilty. Every Egyptian with this chapter in his hands and on his lips turned out to be sinless and holy, and the 30th chapter he magically forced his heart not to speak badly against him, that is, he raped his conscience.

Thus, the whole chapter was simply a mascot against the afterlife judgment and after it, as after many other chapters, there is a postscript recipe for how to prepare it and what advantages it will communicate if you have it with you: and according to the title, it liberates from all sins. So the high acquisitions of moral order were destroyed, and the Book of the Dead turns out to be a testament to both their cash and their sad fate. This is a magical book, mainly overflowing not only with texts, but also with recipe postscripts, sometimes very long, sometimes giving only incomprehensible words, - the predecessors of Gnostic and later mysterious names, which Abyssinia is especially rich in (in the XX century), where there is even its own Book of the Dead, despite the Christian appearance, very close in tone, spirit and purpose to Egyptian, "wrote B. A. Turaev.

If in the 125th chapter of the "Book of the Dead" it is very important, one can say the main one, the role is played by an afterlife court based on the moral principle, then the magic that permeates the entire "Book of the Dead" in this chapter is designed to prevent harsh afterlife judges from unfavorable for the deceased sentence. But magic does not cancel the court, as such: the deceased is somehow obliged to appear before the court and declare that he did not commit such and such sins. This so-called negative confession in science. Let's limit ourselves to the shortest description of this court according to the lists of the 125th chapter of the "Book of the Dead" of the XVІІІ dynasty (in subsequent times this chapter becomes canonical).

The trial takes place in the Thistle of the Two Truths (Two Ma'ats). The deceased enters this Chertog, where the entire afterlife court sits, led by the "great god," that is, Ra. Here, the king of the underworld, the god Osiris, and 42 other supernatural creatures are silently and passively present. Each of these demonic beings "knows" one sin or another, it is they who "expose" the defendant. Having entered the Thistle of the Two Truths, the deceased greets the "great god" and then pronounces his "negative confession." She is so interesting that she must be brought in completely.

• "I did not commit injustices against people;
• I wasn't tough on animals;
• I did not commit sins in the Place of Truth;
• I wasn't trying to find out what wasn't there yet;
• I was not indifferent to seeing evil;
• I wasn't... my name was not reported to Rook's driver;
• I did not blasphemy;
• I took [nothing] from the poor man;
• I did not break the divine taboo;
• I did not harm the servant in the eyes of his master;
• I didn't poison;
• I didn't make [anyone] cry;
• I didn't kill;
• I did not order to kill;
• I did not cause suffering to anyone;
• I did not downplay the food income of the temple;
• I did not spoil bread for the gods;
• I didn't steal cookies [served] for the dead;
• I wasn't a bugger;
• I did not indulge in adultery in the sanctuary of my city god;
• I did not increase or decrease any measures;
• I didn't change [the area] of the arura;
• I didn't cheat on half-arura either;
• I didn't increase the weights of weights;
• I did not inflate on the scales;
• I didn't take milk away from babies "mouths;
• I did not deprive small cattle of pasture;
• I did not catch birds [destined for] gods;
• I didn't fish them;
• I did not install barriers for [diverting] water;
• I did not extinguish the fire burning [on the altar];
• I didn't break the meat fast;
• I didn't stop the cattle...
• I did not delay the exit of God [from the temple]. "

This "negative confession" contains a whole moral code, violations of which were punishable by an afterlife court. This is a typical list of sins for that time - ritual and proper moral, which the Egyptian of the New Kingdom had to avoid, for they prevented the achievement of eternal life.

After a "negative confession," the defendant addresses each of the 42 demon deities, solemnly declaring that he did not commit the sin that the given deity "knows." Armed with magical knowledge of the names of these demonic beings, the defendant disarms them and they dare not turn against him. The result of the weigh-in is recorded by the god Thoth or the god Anubis, proclaiming an acquittal that frees the deceased from a possible terrible execution - to be finally exterminated by the terrible monster ("farmer") present here, next to the divine scales.

The fear of individual members of the court to be exposed to the defendant due to his magical knowledge seems to reduce the moral level of the court. However, this is not entirely true. The French Egyptologist P. Barge, translator and researcher of the Book of the Dead, writes in the introduction to its French translation: "For the Egyptian, it must be assumed that the court was quite fair: assessing the power of protective magic, he was at the same time afraid of malicious magic, dangerous magic. If in the large scene of the court (ch. 125) the scales, on one of which there is a heart, and on the other - Truth (the image of the goddess Maat or her symbol), are placed on the same level, then by no means in order to force the court by the magical force of the image to impose an acquittal on the deceased; this image means to magically protect the deceased from an unfair court, which can make a negative decision as a result of the intrigues of a malicious enemy. "

In support of his conclusion, the author refers to the 90th and 14th chapters, in which the deceased asks for the "Lord of Truth" (i.e. the great god Ra) to protect him from slander. In chapter 30 of the Book of the Dead, the deceased admonishes his heart not to give negative testimony against him: "Do not invent slander against me before the great god, the lord of the West! After all, it depends on your nobility to recognize me as righteous. "

The idea of ​ ​ an afterlife court was undoubtedly left with the imprint of real earthly mores, including judicial ones - corruption flourishing among judges. This is evidenced by a wonderful prayer to the supreme god Amun (papyrus Anastasi ІІ, KhІІІ century BC): "Amon, open your ear (8, 6) to someone who is alone in court, who is poor, not rich. When the court takes silver and gold (8, 7) from him for scribes, mat and robes for officials, Amon may be incarnated into vezira (9, 1) to free the poor man, and the poor man may be freed: poverty may surpass wealth. "

IV in BC: The belief in Egypt that there is no distinction between rich and poor after death and the court of Thoth for human affairs during life

Main article: History of Egypt

At the very beginning of the rule of the Lagids in Egypt, during the reign of Ptolemy І Soter, the high priest of the god Thoth lived in Hermopolis Petosiris (ІV century BC). His tomb contains many magical funeral texts. The text of N 81, lines 18-22, states: "There (i.e. in the otherworldly world, - M. Korostovtsev) there is no distinction between poor and rich... there is no one spared a court verdict. When the great dog - headed [god] He sits on the throne, he prepares to judge each man according to his works on earth. " These words testify to very significant changes in the views of the Egyptians on the afterlife: wealth and the ritual of burial associated with it to one degree or another lose their meaning, become something secondary, because after death "there is no distinction between rich and poor" and all are equally responsible to God for their earthly life.

The Egyptians "belief in justice, if not on earth, so in the afterlife, undoubtedly anticipates one of the main ideas of Christianity about the fate of people after death.

... "Christianity... wanted to carry out social reorganization not in this world, but in an otherworldly world, in heaven, in eternal life after death..., "Engels pointed out. As you can see, this idea matured among Egyptian theologians, reflecting, of course, the aspirations of the masses. During the course of history, this idea developed and strengthened.

47 AD: The tale of Sa-Osiris showing his father Satni Hemuas the judgment of Osiris and its transformation into a parable of Lazarus in the Gospel of Luke

The famous English Egyptologist F. Griffis owns the translation of the manuscript, first published by him under the title "Tales of the High Priests of Memphis." There are two narratives in "Tales":

• in the first, dating back to the ІІ century. BC e., tells about the eldest son of Ramesses ІІ Satni-Haemuas, the high priest of the god Pt, and his extraordinary adventures;
• in the second, relating to 46-47 AD. e., - about the son of Satni-Haemuas, Sa-Osiris (translated this name means "son of Osiris"). We are interested in the second narrative.

For the extraordinary abilities of Sa-Osiris (as well as the young Christ) as a child, see Christianity.

Let's give part of the text of the tale in the Russian translation: "And so Satni-Hemuas heard sorrowful screams and laments. He looked down from the terrace of his house and saw that the rich man was burying it. He was taken towards the desert with all kinds of honors, to loud laments. Then he glanced down a second time from the terrace of his house and saw the funeral of the poor man. He was carried from Memphis to the city of the dead, wrapped in a simple mat, and no one saw him off.

Satni-Hemuas said then: "May Osiris, lord of Amenti, do so that they may give me in Amenti how they will give to that rich man who is buried with loud lamentations, and let me pass the share of that poor man who is carried to the city of the dead without any honors and ceremonies!" But his little son Sa-Osiris answered him: "You will receive in Amenti what the poor will receive in Amenti, and will pass you in Amenti the share that is destined for the rich in Amenti."

When Satni-Hemois heard these words of his son Sa-Osiris, his heart was saddened and he said: 'What do I hear? Are these the words of a son who loves his father? " But his young son Sa-Osiris answered him: "If you wish, I will show you what is destined in the kingdom of the dead for that poor man about whom no one grieves, and that rich man whom everyone mourns." Then Satni-Hemois asked him: "How will you do this, my son Sa-Osiris?" And Sa-Osiris answered him: "Follow me, and I will show you everyone's share in the kingdom of the dead."

And so he took his father Satni-Hemuas by the hand and brought him to the city of the dead behind Memphis. He brought him to an unfamiliar place, stopped and cast a spell. The earth parted under their feet, and they entered an unknown tomb carved into a rock. There were seven large halls, and different people of all ranks filled them.

Sa-Osiris led his father Satni-Hemuas through the first three halls, and no one stopped them. When they reached the fourth hall, they saw in it Satni-Hemois a lot of people who were pulling the ropes, and the donkeys behind them were eating these ropes. There were also people there who stretched up and tried to get water and bread suspended above their heads. But other people at the same time dug holes under their feet so that they could not reach food.

Following his son Sa-Osiris, Satni-Hemuas went to the fifth hall and saw pure souls there in his places of honor. Those who committed some kind of atrocity crowded at the door of the fifth hall and begged for forgiveness. And the lower spike of that door was sticking out in the right eye of some person who prayed and moaned loudly when the door opened and closed and the spike turned in his eye.

Then they entered the sixth hall, and here Satni-Hemois saw the judgment of the gods in the kingdom of the dead. Each god sat in his place, and the gatekeepers of the kingdom of the dead announced the sentences.

Following his son Sa-Osiris, Satni Hemuas went further, to the seventh hall, and saw the great god Osiris there. He sat on a throne of pure gold, crowned with the crown of Atef. Anubis, the great god, stood on his left hand, and That great god stood on his right hand, and all the gods of the judgment of the kingdom of the dead crowded to their right and left. In front of them were scales on which the gods of the judgment of the kingdom of the dead weighed the good and evil done by people. The great god Toth recorded what the scales showed, and Anubis announced the judgments of the gods.

If the gods decided that the atrocities of a person were more numerous than his good deeds, they put him in the power of the Reaper-dog of the lord of the kingdom of the dead, who torn his soul and body apart, so that the breath of life never returned to him. But if they found that man's good works were more numerous than his atrocities, they brought him into the council of the gods of the kingdom of the dead and his soul went to heaven and stayed there among pure souls. If they found that the atrocities of man were equal to his good deeds, they placed him among the penitent souls who serve the god Sokar-Osiris.

And Satney also noticed a man of noble appearance, dressed in robes from the thinnest canvas. He stood near Osiris in one of the most honorable places. So Satni-Hemuas watched and was surprised at everything he saw in the kingdom of the dead.

But his son Sa-Osiris stood before him and told him: "My father Satni! Do you see a noble man dressed in robes made of the finest canvas that stands near Osiris? This is the poor man you noticed when he was carried out of Memphis, wrapped in a simple mat, and who was not seen off by anyone. It's him. He was brought to the judgment of the kingdom of the dead, weighed the good and evil deeds he had done on earth, and found that the good he had done outweighed the evil he had done. However, for the share of his earthly life, the term of which was determined in his records by Toth, he got too few happy days. And so the gods commanded before the face of Osiris to give the poor the burial decoration of the rich man whom you noticed when he was carried out of Memphis with great honors. And they placed the poor man among the pure souls that serve Sokar-Osiris, near the throne of the great god Osiris.

And the rich man you noticed was also brought to the judgment of the kingdom of the dead. The gods weighed up the good and evil works he had done on earth and found that the evil he had done outweighed the good he had done. And then the gods commanded him to repent in the kingdom of the dead. You saw him! The thorn of the door sticks out in his right eye... Look, my father Satney! Their souls come to the judgment of the kingdom of the dead, and if they did good on earth, here they give them good, but if they did evil, here they give them evil. This is done forever and will never change. "

As M.A. Korostovtsev wrote, this extremely interesting and instructive place contains the last link in the chain of development of the Egyptian idea of ​ ​ the afterlife. We see a complete devaluation of ritual and magic, a complete victory of moral principles, the transfer of the desired justice in earthly life to the otherworldly world. It must be emphasized that this is the result of the natural development of Egyptian ideas and ideas set forth in chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, which arose fifteen centuries earlier: scales, Osiris, Anubis, Toth, etc.

The influence of Christian ideology on these ideas is excluded: their Egyptian roots date back to ancient times, moreover, at the time when this demotic papyrus was written (46-47 AD). e.), the Gospels did not yet exist.

The Gospel of Λuki (chapters 16, 19-25) contains a very curious narrative similar to the Egyptian one just cited: "Some man was rich, dressed in porphyry and wisson and feast brilliantly every day. There was also some beggar, the name Lazarus, who lay at his gate in scabs and wished to be drunk with crumbs falling from the rich man's table, and the dogs, passing, licked his scabs. The beggar died and was taken by angels to the bosom of Abraham. Both the rich man died and he was buried. And in hell, being in torment, he looked up his eyes, saw Abraham and Lazarus in the distance on his bosom, and, crying out, said: "Father Abraham! Have mercy on me, and Lazarus went, that he might soak the end of his finger in the water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. " But Abraham said, 'Chado! Remember that you have already received your good in your life, and Lazarus is evil; now he is comforted here, and you suffer. "

The situation and the flavor in the narratives are different, but the idea is the same. How could she get from Egypt to the Gospel of Luke? Gressman, the author of a special study on the Egyptian tale and its parallels in the Gospel of Luke, cites a number of Jewish medieval legends that go back undoubtedly to the Egyptian original, and quite reasonably asserts: "It is safe to say that the Jewish legend of the death of a righteous man and a publican goes back to the Egyptian tale of the descent of the royal son into the underworld. The Egyptian Jews moved it, perhaps from Alexandria to Jerusalem, closely associated with Alexandria, maybe from Memphis, where Jews and other Semites lived along with the Greeks. "

Dividing the afterlife into heaven and hell, and punishing sins

M.A. Korostovtsev draws attention to another very significant circumstance. With the development and final formation of the idea of ​ ​ a just afterlife court, the underworld is divided into spheres - a bright and happy space near the gods for the righteous and hell for sinners, where everything dangerous and malicious for man is concentrated as a deserved punishment, determined by the verdict of the divine court. In the most developed form, this division is represented in the tale of descent into the underworld of Satni-Haemuas and his son Sa-Osiris. It even mentions something like purgatory, which there is no hint of in earlier Egyptian texts.

One of the plots of the tale (punishment of sinners) echoes the Greek myth of the torment of Tantalus, the son of Zeus, in the underworld. The presence of Greek influence cannot be categorically denied, but it cannot be proved. In any case, this in no way refutes the undoubted Egyptian origin of the tale of Sa-Osiris.

The idea of ​ ​ hell, arising from the formation of the idea of ​ ​ an afterlife court, as well as the idea of ​ ​ the most afterlife court, has undergone an evolution on which it is necessary to briefly dwell.

A description of the various punishments resulting from an afterlife trial is contained in three texts of the time of the New Kingdom:

• the so-called "Book of Amduats,"
• in a composition about the afterlife, which has no Egyptian name, known in science as the "Book of Gates," and finally,
• in "The Book of Caves."

It should be noted that if the 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead contains a "catalog" of sins, then these three compositions talk about punishing sinners without any connection with a particular sin. The focus is on the sinner as such.

Deprivation of burial and clothing

There are various punishments for sins. First of all, this is the deprivation of the deceased burial. The "Book of Amduats" (10th hour) refers to sinners from whom eight gods tear down funeral veils and expose "enemies sentenced to punishment in the Date." This moment echoes the tale of Sa-Osiris: in the underworld, the poor man is dressed in a robe from the thinnest canvas belonging to the rich man, while the rich man appears without a robe.

Deprivation of light and heat

Condemned sinners are deprived of all that is necessary for eternal life, deprived of the warmth and light that the god Ra emits every night, appearing in the underworld - light and warmth are intended for the righteous. But only dark chaos awaits sinners. They are deprived of any opportunity to communicate with the gods.

Linking and Conclusion

The widespread punishment of sinners in the afterlife is binding and imprisonment. So, in the "Book of Gates" (І, 213) it is said that the "enemies of Osiris" are connected by four and three and the god Choir announces to them: "You are connected from behind, villains, in order to be beheaded and cease to exist." In the Book of Caves (119, 3), the underworld is described as a prison from which sinners cannot leave.

Decapitation or burning

The most formidable punishment of a sinner in the otherworld was considered the final destruction of his entire being - not only the body, but also the soul and shadow. The souls of sinners, in the view of the Egyptians, existed independently of the body in an upside-down position; they could not reunite with the body in order to live a full-fledged afterlife of the righteous deceased, and therefore they had to be completely and finally destroyed. One way of such destruction was by beheading the deceased as well as burning.

Various options for execution by fire are described: in the "Book of Amduats" (11th hour) sinners are burned in pits. In "Books of Caves" (51), execution by fire is carried out in special cauldrons, into which the heads, hearts, bodies, souls and shadows of sinners are thrown. It resembles medieval Christian beliefs. As M.A. Korostovtsev wrote, the execution by fire was undoubtedly transferred to the otherworldly world from real earthly life (the time of the New Kingdom and later).