The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) · 314 of 357 · tr. E.A. Wallis Budge

Chapter 43 (part 75)

heaven nor earth, and when neither gods had been born, nor men created, the god Tmu was the father of human beings, even before death came into the world.

The first act of Tmu was to create from his own body the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut; and afterwards Seb the earth and Nut the sky came into being.

These were followed by Osiris and Isis, Set and Nephthys.

Dr.

Brugsch's version of the origin of the gods as put forth in his last work on the subject is somewhat different.

According to him there was in the beginning neither heaven nor earth, and nothing existed except a boundless primeval mass of water which was shrouded in darkness and which contained within itself the germs or beginnings, male and female, of everything which was to be in the future world.

The divine primeval spirit which formed an essential part of the primeval matter felt within itself the desire to begin the work of creation, and its word woke to life the world, the form and shape of which it had already depicted to itself.

The first act of creation began with the formation of an egg out of the primeval water, from which broke forth Ra, the immediate cause of all life upon earth.

The almighty power of the divine spirit embodied itself in its most brilliant form in the rising sun.

When the inert mass of primeval matter felt the desire of the primeval spirit to begin the work of creation, it began to move, and the creatures which were to constitute the future world were formed [1.

Recueil de Travaux , t.

viii., p.

104 (l.

664).

The passage reads:-- mes Pepi pen au atf Tem an xepert pet an Gave birth to Pepi this father Tmu [when] not was created heaven, not xepert ta an xepert reth an mest neteru an xepert met was created earth, not were created men, not were born the gods, not was created death.

2.

Recueil de Travaux , I.

vii., p.

170 (l.

466).

3.

Religion und Mythologie , p.

101.

4 A number of valuable facts concerning the place of the egg in the Egyptian Religion have been collected by Lefébure, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions , t.

xvi., Paris, 1887, p.

16 ff.] according to the divine intelligence Maa .

Under the influence of Thoth, or that form of the divine intelligence which created the world by a word, eight elements, four male and four female, arose out of the primeval Nu , which possessed the properties of the male and female.

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Themes

Anthropomorphismtheology

Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.

[auto] The text attributes human characteristics such as having a 'heart', being a 'king', and being 'princely' to the divine figure.

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Cosmogonycosmology

Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.

The entire passage is a cosmogonic narrative describing how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities came into being from a primeval state, including both the Tmu-generation account and Brugsch's egg-from-primeval-water version.

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Divine Hiddennesstheology

The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.

The text explicitly refers to a 'hidden god' who makes decrees for millions of men.

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Emanation Hierarchycosmology

A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.

The text implies a hierarchy by distinguishing the supreme god as 'more princely than all the gods of the first company thereof.'

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Gendercosmology

The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).

The passage repeatedly structures creation through male-female pairs (Shu/Tefnut, Seb/Nut, Osiris/Isis, Set/Nephthys, and 'eight elements, four male and four female'), expressing the masculine-feminine generative principle as a structural feature of creation itself.

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Living Godtheology

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

[auto] The passage describes the deity as actively appearing, making decrees, giving life, and protecting individuals, emphasizing a dynamic personal reality.

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Logoscosmology

The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.

The passage describes divine decrees that abide forever and fulfill their purpose, acting as an ordering principle for existence.

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Maat Cosmic Ordercosmology

The Egyptian principle of truth, balance, and right order underlying both the cosmos and human conduct; the parallel to Zoroastrian asha and Greek dike.

The passage explicitly names 'the divine intelligence Maa' as the principle according to which the creatures of the future world were formed, identifying Maat as the ordering principle of creation.

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Monadcosmology

The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.

Tmu is presented as the singular, undivided first principle from which all subsequent multiplicity (gods, heaven, earth, death) flows, fitting the definition of a monad.

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Sacred Namestheology

Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.

The passage invokes specific divine names such as 'Nu' and 'Amen-Ra' within a liturgical context.

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Related passages · 15 of 25 parallels

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