Egyptian Cosmogony

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Dominate Egypt The world-views of Ancient Egyptian texts and the biblical text come together to give a similar but a diverse account of the creation. Although the Egyptian cosmologies and the biblical text both have a superior being who creates the world, there are various differences in the cosmogony and its purpose, foundation of relationships, and the characteristics of God or gods that aid in understanding the biblical text through the Egyptian texts. In the Memphite Theology and in Genesis, both texts have a God/god who creates all things. Ptah, the god in the Egyptian text, gives life to “all the gods, all people, all animals, and all crawling things that live” by his heart and tongue (Memphite Theology). Similarly, in Genesis, God …show more content…
They have always existed (Theban Theology, Genesis 1). This attribute describes the preeminence of God/god as having no beginning, that nothing in the universe has created them. In combination with the pre-existing state of the God/god, no one knew their true appearance (Theban Theology, Exodus 33:20). Even in the pre-existent state, there is a flaw with the gods in the text of the Egyptian cosmologies. Memphite Theology and Theban Theology consistently stress the word “evolve” throughout the texts. Evolve means to slowly change to another form. The god from these passages evolved- “evolution of evolution, model of birth (Theban Theology)”- over time, but the God of the Bible never changes as He is already perfect in everything from the beginning “for I the Lord do not change (…) (Malachi 3:6). Further description of Amun as being a “wonderful god of many evolutions” (Theban Theology) tells the gradual changes this god went through. He boasts about his ability to evolve, whereas, God remains the same forever (Psalm 102:25-27). If the gods evolved, then one can imply that they were constantly shifting from one form to another to attain the desired state. The relationship and the purpose of God is more complex than the simplicity of the Egyptian …show more content…
First, seeing the parallels helps to explain the reason behind God’s constant reminder to His people as to why they needed to destroy all pagan nations and their religions (Judges 1-2). Because the surrounding nations believe in many gods and worship everything from the sun to the ocean, God wants to protect the Israelites from going astray. These polytheistic beliefs and the similar creation stories could easily blend in with the biblical account, confusing the people to believe all the stories are one and the same. The biblical text, instead, demythologizes the ANE passages through the contrasts found in the larger

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