Egyptian Religion & Mythology

Egyptian Religion & Mythology

Understanding the gods the plagues challenged, the afterlife the Book of the Dead described, and the traditions that preserved Abraham's name for millennia

Egyptian religion was not a monolithic system imposed from above. It was a living, evolving tradition that developed over three thousand years, absorbing local cults, reinterpreting ancient myths, and adapting to new political realities. Yet certain core themes persisted from the Old Kingdom through the Roman period: the centrality of ma'at (cosmic order), the divine kingship of Pharaoh, the hope for eternal life, and the power of ritual to bridge the gap between human and divine.

For Latter-day Saint scripture students, Egyptian religion provides the essential background for understanding the plagues narrative, the Book of Abraham, and the funerary documents that would eventually reach Joseph Smith.

The Major Gods

Egypt had over two thousand named deities — but a smaller group dominated the theological landscape across the centuries. Understanding these gods is essential for reading the Exodus narrative, where each plague targets specific Egyptian religious claims.

Creation Myths

Egypt had multiple creation accounts, each associated with a different city and theological tradition. This multiplicity was not seen as contradictory — Egyptians were comfortable holding multiple perspectives simultaneously, viewing each as illuminating a different aspect of creation:

The Heliopolitan Tradition: Atum and the Ennead

In the oldest and most widely attested tradition, Atum (later merged with Ra as Re-Atum) emerged from the primeval waters of Nun and stood on the first mound of land — the ben-ben, the primordial hillock that rose from the waters of chaos. Through his own creative power, he brought forth Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), who gave birth to Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), who in turn produced Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys — the nine gods of the Ennead. This cosmogony is preserved in the Pyramid Texts (c. 2400–2300 BC), the oldest religious literature in the world.

The Memphite Tradition: Ptah and the Shabaka Stone

The most intellectually striking Egyptian creation theology comes from Memphis. Ptah, the craftsman god, created the world not through physical emanation or fashioning, but through thought and speech — conceiving creation in his heart (the seat of thought in Egyptian understanding) and bringing it into being through the power of his tongue (the spoken word).

This theology is preserved on the Shabaka Stone (now in the British Museum), a basalt slab inscribed around 710 BC by Pharaoh Shabaka, who claimed to be copying a much older worm-eaten papyrus. The text declares that Ptah "gave birth to the gods" and that "every divine word came into being through what the heart devised and the tongue commanded."

The parallels to the biblical creation account are remarkable:

The Hermopolitan Tradition: The Ogdoad

At Hermopolis (Khemenu, "City of Eight"), creation began with eight primordial deities — the Ogdoad — existing before creation in four male-female pairs representing the raw forces of pre-creation chaos:

• Nun / Naunet — the primeval waters (cf. Genesis 1:2, "the deep")
• Heh / Hauhet — infinity, boundlessness
• Kek / Kauket — darkness (cf. Genesis 1:2, "darkness was upon the face of the deep")
• Amun / Amaunet — hiddenness, the unseen

These forces interacted to produce the first mound rising from the waters and the first sunrise — light emerging from darkness over the face of the deep. The verbal parallels with Genesis 1:1–3 are striking, though the theological frameworks differ fundamentally: the Ogdoad are impersonal forces, not a personal Creator.

The Afterlife: Judgment and the Journey Home

Egyptian afterlife theology was not simply about "going to heaven." It was a detailed, dangerous journey through the underworld (Duat) that required knowledge, ritual power, and moral purity to complete. The goal was to reach the Field of Reeds (Aaru) — an idealized version of Egypt where the blessed dead lived eternally in the presence of Osiris.

The Weighing of the Heart

The climax of the afterlife journey was the Hall of Two Truths, where the deceased's heart was weighed on a scale against the feather of Ma'at (truth/justice/cosmic order). Anubis supervised the weighing. Thoth recorded the result. If the heart balanced with the feather, the deceased was declared maa-kheru ("true of voice" or "justified") and admitted to the presence of Osiris. If the heart was heavy with sin, it was devoured by Ammit — a terrifying composite creature (part crocodile, part lion, part hippopotamus) — and the person ceased to exist.

The Judgment of the Dead — from the Papyrus of Hunefer (19th Dynasty, c. 1275 BC). Anubis leads the deceased to the scales, where the heart is weighed against the feather of Ma'at. Thoth records the result. Osiris presides. British Museum. PD.

Before the weighing, the deceased recited the Negative Confession (Book of the Dead, Chapter 125) — a declaration of innocence listing sins they had not committed: "I have not stolen. I have not killed. I have not told lies. I have not committed adultery." This confession, addressed to 42 divine judges, represents one of the earliest codified ethical traditions in human history.

The Cosmic Journey

Kerry Muhlestein describes the Egyptian afterlife as fundamentally a cosmic journey — "a journey that takes place in the cosmos but mirrors what is happening for everybody." The sun's daily cycle became the master metaphor: Ra traveled across the sky by day, descended into the underworld at night, was reborn at dawn, and returned home. Every soul followed the same pattern — leaving the presence of the divine, passing through darkness and danger, and seeking to return to a glorified state.

The Book of the Dead

Despite its dramatic name, the Book of the Dead is not a single book and is not really about death. The Egyptian name is Reu nu pert em heru — the "Book of Going Forth by Day" — a collection of spells, prayers, hymns, and ritual instructions designed to help the deceased navigate the afterlife and emerge triumphant into eternal life.

What It Actually Is

• Not a canonical text: There was no single, fixed "Book of the Dead." Each copy was assembled from a menu of available spells, tailored to the individual who purchased it. Wealthy patrons got longer, more elaborate versions; others received shorter, standardized selections.
• Written on papyrus scrolls placed in the burial, often in hieratic script (though some prestigious versions used hieroglyphs).
• Developed over time: The tradition began with the Pyramid Texts (Old Kingdom, carved on tomb walls), evolved into the Coffin Texts (Middle Kingdom, painted on coffins), and reached its most elaborate form as the Book of the Dead from the New Kingdom onward.
• Chapter 125 (the weighing of the heart and Negative Confession) appears in most copies and is the best-known section.
• Chapter 162 contains instructions for creating a hypocephalus — the type of object that Facsimile 2 in the Book of Abraham represents.

The Joseph Smith Papyri collection included a Book of the Dead belonging to a woman named Tasherit-Min, along with the Book of Breathings belonging to the priest Hor. Both date to the Ptolemaic period (c. 200 BC).

Hypocephalus of Tasheritkhons (Ptolemaic period, c. 305–30 BC), British Museum — the same type of funerary object as Book of Abraham Facsimile 2. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The Book of Breathings

The Book of Breathings (Document of Breathing) is a later Egyptian funerary text that emerged alongside — and sometimes replaced — the Book of the Dead. Hor's copy, part of the Joseph Smith Papyri collection, is one of the earliest known examples.

• Purpose: To help the deceased "breathe again" — to receive the breath of life in the afterlife. The text focuses on enabling the deceased to live, breathe, and function in the next world.
• John Gee's alternative translation: Gee has suggested "Book of Fellowship" as a more accurate rendering, emphasizing the text's focus on the deceased's relationship with and acceptance by the gods.
• Instructions: The text specifies that it should be placed "under the head" of the mummy to "illuminate" the deceased — instructions that parallel the purpose of the hypocephalus (Facsimile 2), which was also placed under the head.
• Shorter than the Book of the Dead but sharing similar themes of creation, protection, and journey to the divine presence.

Biblical Figures in Egyptian Religious Texts

One of the most significant findings from Egyptian studies is that biblical figures appear in Egyptian religious texts from approximately 200 BC to AD 700. Muhlestein's research documents this phenomenon extensively:

• Most mentioned biblical figures in Egyptian texts:
  1. Jehovah (most mentioned overall)
  2. Abraham (most mentioned mortal, tied with Moses)
  3. Moses (tied with Abraham)
• Abraham's appearances include love spells (which make sense given the Sarah story), ritual invocations, and various eclectic uses. Egyptians had access to both biblical stories about Abraham and extra-biblical Abraham traditions that circulated independently.
• Abraham-Osiris equivalence: In some texts, Abraham and Osiris become interchangeable. Scenes that typically depict Osiris sometimes show Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob instead. The spell "May his soul live in the presence of Osiris" is replaced in some versions by "May the rest of his soul be in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Muhlestein notes that Jesus used exactly this formulation in the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:22) — "the bosom of Abraham" — echoing an expression that had Egyptian parallels.
• An early Christian Egyptian papyrus calls Abraham "the pupil of the wedjat eye." The wedjat eye is connected to Chapter 162 of the Book of the Dead, which contains instructions for creating a hypocephalus — the very type of object that Facsimile 2 represents. Muhlestein observes: "So here we have Christian Egyptians associating this kind of drawing with Abraham, which turns out to be the case with all three facsimiles."

Egyptian Religion and the Exodus

The Exodus narrative makes far more sense when read against the backdrop of Egyptian theology:

Pharaoh's divine status: The pharaoh was not merely a powerful king. He was the living Horus, the son of Ra, the embodiment of ma'at on earth. When Moses demanded that Pharaoh release the Israelites, he was asking a god to submit to a foreign deity. Pharaoh's repeated refusal was not just political stubbornness — it was theological: to yield to YHWH would be to admit that the entire Egyptian religious system was false.

The plagues as theological argument: Each plague systematically dismantled Egyptian religious claims. When the Nile turned to blood, it demonstrated YHWH's power over the source of Egyptian life. When darkness covered the land for three days, it silenced Ra, the sun god. When the firstborn died, it struck at the heart of Pharaoh's divine lineage. The message was not simply "let my people go" but "there is no god besides Me."

The hardening of Pharaoh's heart: The Hebrew verb used varies between chazaq (to strengthen/stiffen) and kaved (to make heavy). The imagery of a "heavy heart" is deeply Egyptian — in the afterlife judgment, a heart heavy with sin was devoured by Ammit. By hardening Pharaoh's heart, the text may be saying that Pharaoh's heart grew heavier and heavier with each act of defiance, echoing the very Egyptian judgment that his own theology proclaimed.

Ma'at: The Foundation of Everything

No concept is more central to Egyptian civilization than ma'at — a word that encompasses truth, justice, cosmic order, balance, and righteousness. Ma'at was both a principle and a goddess, depicted as a woman wearing an ostrich feather (the same feather against which the heart was weighed in the afterlife judgment).

Ma'at governed everything:

• Pharaoh's primary duty was to maintain ma'at — keeping the cosmos in order, the gods satisfied, and society functioning justly.
• Temple rituals were performed to sustain ma'at. Every offering, every hymn, every ritual act performed by the temple's religious specialists was understood as maintaining the cosmic balance.
• Personal ethics were measured against ma'at. The Negative Confession in the Book of the Dead is essentially a declaration that the deceased lived according to ma'at.
• Chaos (isfet) was ma'at's opposite — the constant threat of disorder that could overwhelm the world if the rituals ceased and the gods were neglected.

The concept of ma'at resonates in interesting ways with biblical concepts of righteousness (tsedaqah) and justice (mishpat), though the theological frameworks are different. In Egyptian thought, ma'at was maintained by human ritual action; in biblical thought, righteousness flows from God's character and covenant.

Symbol Literacy and Multiple Meanings

Muhlestein emphasizes a principle that is essential for understanding Egyptian religion: Egyptians loved symbols with multiple meanings, and they intended this multiplicity. A single image could mean one thing in one context and something different in another — and both meanings could be "correct" simultaneously.

This has profound implications for interpreting the facsimiles in the Book of Abraham. Modern readers tend to assume that a symbol should have one meaning — what Muhlestein calls "legalistic" thinking. But Egyptian symbolic practice was precisely the opposite: richness of meaning was the goal, not precision of definition.

Temple walls could be "read" going in with one set of meanings and coming out with another. Pyramid texts meant something ascending and something different descending. This multi-directional, multi-layered approach to symbolism is foreign to modern Western thinking but was natural to the ancient Egyptians.

Muhlestein observes that this same symbolic richness exists in Latter-day Saint temple worship, and that modern struggles with temple symbolism may reflect "symbol illiteracy" — a broader cultural loss of the ability to hold multiple meanings simultaneously.

Egyptian Religion's Legacy

Egyptian religious thought influenced the ancient world far beyond Egypt's borders:

• Greek religion: The Greeks identified Egyptian gods with their own (Osiris = Dionysus, Thoth = Hermes, Amun = Zeus). The cult of Isis spread throughout the Mediterranean and competed with Christianity into the 4th century AD.
• Jewish thought: While direct theological borrowing is debated, the wisdom literature tradition (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes) shows Egyptian literary influence. The Instruction of Amenemope (c. 1100 BC) shares striking parallels with Proverbs 22:17–24:22.
• Christian theology: The death-and-resurrection pattern of Osiris, the mother-and-child imagery of Isis and Horus, and the concept of postmortem judgment all find echoes (though not necessarily origins) in Christian thought. Early Christians in Egypt readily adopted and reinterpreted Egyptian religious motifs.
• The Joseph Smith Papyri: The funerary documents that reached Joseph Smith — a Book of Breathings, a Book of the Dead, and a hypocephalus — were products of this religious tradition at its Ptolemaic stage, when Egyptian, Greek, and Jewish religious ideas were all actively interacting.

"The Egyptians loved symbols with multiple interpretations... We're becoming more and more a symbol illiterate people. We have this legalistic mindset where we think one thing should mean one thing."

— Kerry Muhlestein, "Book of Abraham: Egyptian Funerary Literature and Abraham Traditions," lecture, Springville, Utah, September 12, 2025

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