Christians did you know that the 10 commandments comes from the Egyptian book of the dead?

Answer 1

And since God created Egyptians, what does that tell you?
It should tell you that God is consistent in what He says to every culture throughout time.

Answer 2

Wow. I bet now all the Jews will run out and revive the long-dead Egyptian religion. Why is the questions adressed only to Christians,by the way? They primarily emphasize the Christian scripture. I thought the ten commandments was in the the hebrew scriptures - which indeed are a grab-bag of beg/borrowed/stolen myths and Hammurabi laws. So take it up with Chabad or some other jewish group. Perhaps you will succeed in alarming them. You don't alarm this Christian,since I don't have any regard for the jewish "OT" anyway. Oh but that would mean criticising jews,wouldn't it? Ah! And the fact is the main thing ( of many) that the atheist has in common with the fundie is a profound adoration of the jews. Let not a word be said against them.

Answer 3

There is quite a bit of difference between the 42 Negative Confessions and the 10 Commandments. The 42 Confessions are in regards to sin against MAN where as the Commandments are sins again GOD. Egyptians felt that the gods would be angrier if we committed sins against one another rather than mistreating each other in the name of the gods. Concept is similar but was popular through a wide variety of pre-Christian religions. Romans had something similar and more than likely that's where the Christians adopted that idea.

Answer 4

I assume you're referring to chapter CXXV of the Book of the Dead, in which the deceased makes 10 declarations of his moral state to several different gods (42 by some estimates). These declarations do bear some similarity to certain of the Ten Commandments (e.g. murder, robbery, etc.)

What you may not have realized is that the Ten Commandments do not "come from" the Bible, as the Bible readily admits (cf. Exo 20:1). The Commandments are *recorded* in the Bible, but they originate with God.

That certain of the Commandments bear resemblance to declarations in the Book of the Dead simply reinforces the content of the first chapter of Romans -- namely that God has equipped every human being with an innate sense of moral right and wrong. The similarities in the two undermine the misconception that moral concepts are relative.

Instead, I think it interesting that it lends credence to moral absolutes which have a common source in God.

But moral declarations are where the similarities end. If you'll examine the Ten Commandments, the first 4 concern the relationship with God Himself. There are no equivalents in chapter CXXV of the Book of the Dead.

Answer 5

At first I was not going to answer this, but it really has made me stop and think. Let us look at this "fact" from many standpoints. First, you say Christians when in fact it comes to us from the Jews. Now let us speculate. When was the Book of the Dead (BOD) written? When did Joseph come to Egypt? Perhaps the reason the BOD has these rules is due to his influence when he was second to the Pharoh himself. After he died and the Jewish people lost favor they could have stole the good idea and made it their own.

But, let us say that the BOD predates Joseph. Well we know from the Bible that the world was destroyed and only Noah and his family survived. God was still speaking with his creation then and who knows what conversations were about. Many descendants pleased God and later their people fell away and became detestable to God. Nimrod was a mighty warrior before God and later his people became the Assyrians. What I am getting at is everyone had a common start after the Flood and God through Noah and perhaps directly told them what he expected of them. Some believed and others did not but realized Godly principles make for a more subserviant people. How many times have you heard people here tell us that the Bible was used to control the common man?

I know what you really are trying to say and I find it funny still. By saying Moses who was raised an Egyptian and thus knew the BOD and later used it to rule the people he got out of slavery. This is funny because one man gaining his peoples freedom and then making stories about it taking away the credit is unknown in history. Second, too many people say Moses never existed.

Answer 6

The ten commandments that God gave to Moses are recorded in two books of the Bible:

The books of Deuteronomy chapter 4 and Exodus chapter 20.

Answer 7

No, I was not aware of that. Modern scholars maintain that the 10 commandments come from 9th century BC Judaism, and that they were originally ceremonial regulations. Have you read anything by Richard Friedman? I'm really curious to know where you got that information! The authors of Exodus and Deuteronomy had no connection to Egypt whatsoever.

Answer 8

OMG, Hisglory....You didn't just try to turn MY Gods, Lord Osiris and Lady Isis, into your Christian God, did you? It's bad enough that Christians in the past took everything from the Pagans in order to convert them easier, but claiming the Gods the Egyptians worshiped were really just the Christian God is crazy.

Answer 9

Some. Not all.
Some of the Psalms of David can Also be traced to the Egyptian book of the dead.
Even the Lords Prayer can be traced.

Answer 10

That would only mean that the book was written post exodus.
Did you know all those faceless nameless statues are of Moses, destroyed by Pharaoh out of jealousy. Oh gee but that would be proof , lets find some other silly thing to point at.

Answer 11

No I didn't know that, but I would believe it. Just cause a message has been repeated in many different ways doesn't mean that the way it was delivered could have changed. I think that the same message has been attempted through many different civilizations, beliefs, and documents.