Egypt’s ancient civilization was already over 3,000 years old when Christianity was first preached in Alexandria. Some have suggested that Egypt’s cultural heritage contributed to the rather rapid spread of Christianity among its inhabitants. In this essay, we attempt to outline some of ancient Egypt’s religious beliefs and cultural practices, placing them in their broader historical context and sociopolitical milieu.
Egypt’s Geography and People
Egypt’s geography has defined its boundaries since time immemorial. Located in the Northeastern corner of the African continent, Egypt is bordered to the North and the East by the Mediterranean and Red Seas, respectively (see Map 2). Additionally, two series of mountain ranges further define Egypt’s Eastern and Western borders. Within the Eastern and Western mountain ranges lies a stretch of narrow, flat land, known as the Valley. Dissecting this narrow valley is the river Nile flowing from the heights of Lake Victoria in Uganda, through the Sudan, and into Egypt before reaching the Mediterranean in the North.
The Nile’s origins in the African highlands impacted the Egyptian mindset. Thus, ta-resy, or “Upper Egypt,” denoted the South from whence the Nile flowed, while ta-mehou, or “Lower Egypt,” referred to the Delta in the Egyptian North. Reflecting this southward orientation are the Egyptian words for East and West. In Egyptian, Imentet denoted both the West and the right-hand side, while Iabty was both the East and the left-hand side.
An Egyptian Highway
In ancient times, the Nile formed the major “highway” of Egypt, facilitating the transport of goods and people from North to South and linking Egypt’s longitudinal thousand miles from the Mediterranean to Aswan. Flowing from the African heartland in the South, the strong river current carried ships and boats northward. The north wind blowing from the Mediterranean propelled those same ships and boats southward. In fact, Egypt’s earliest temples were portable shrines that were placed on boats and travelled upstream and downstream stopping at various villages and towns.
Along its course, the Nile created a lush green oasis in Egypt. In ancient times, the annual Nile inundation (flood) brought water and rich soil from the African heartland. Over the years, this rich mud alluvium deposited in the North, along the Mediterranean coast, creating the flat, fertile Egyptian Delta. Two main branches of the Nile bordered the Delta on its Eastern and Western sides, while to the North the Mediterranean Sea hemmed the base of its inverted triangle, at whose vertex lay Egypt’s ancient capital, Memphis, a few miles to the South of Cairo.
In ancient times, seven branches of the Nile flowed through the Delta and irrigated its lands, making it one of the most fertile parts of Egypt. In several ways, Herodotus’ famous statement, “Egypt is the Gift of the Nile,” is not far off the mark. For if it were not for the Nile, the Egyptian landscape would have been very similar to the dry desert landscape characteristic of the rest of the North African Mediterranean coast just to the West of the Egyptian Delta and Nile Valley.
The Earliest Inhabitants
Along its banks, communities of hunters and gathers were able to find easy access to a variety of food sources: the fish in the river, the berries sprouting wild along the riverbanks, and small game to hunt for protein. These earliest cultures soon learned to cultivate the land and domesticate animals, moving from a subsistence economy to the relative ease of village life in ever-expanding settlements. The cultures that flourished on these sites are known as “Pre-dynastic,” as they predate the unification of Egypt into one country, the establishment of a centralized government, and the emergence of successive ruling houses, or dynasties.
The Egyptian Calendar
The annual flood created a certain annual rhythm that evolved into a regular agricultural cycle. The Nile’s annual flood defined the seasons for the Egyptians and gave rise to the Egyptian calendar (which remained in use in Coptic times, and continues to be used in Egypt today for agricultural purposes). The Egyptians divided their civil, or solar, calendar into three seasons, each comprising four months of thirty days each. Five epagomenal days completed the 365-day calendar. Literally meaning “above the year,” these five days comprised the shortest month of the year, and were considered magically charged.
The Egyptian New Year coincided with the first day of the first month of Akhet. Literally meaning “horizon,” Akhet was the flood season, when the entire land was covered with water. As the water receded, Egyptians sowed their seeds and waited for them to sprout. The sprouting season coincided with the winter months. Its Egyptian name, Peret, literally means the “coming forth” and reflects their understanding of how vegetation grew out of dry seeds buried deep in the soil. The last season of the year, Shemou, was the harvest season.
Maat and Egyptian History
The constant tension between Isfet and Maat was a central theme of Egyptian culture, both on a national level as well as on a personal one. Nationally, the space between the two extremes defined, to the Egyptian mind, periods of stability and instability. Thus, periods of political stability and national unity were times when Maat prevailed, when rulers had successfully fulfilled their traditional role in expelling/subduing Egypt’s enemies, an act that represented the ultimate defeat of the forces of chaos. By contrast, periods marked by the disintegration or fragmentation of centralized government were times when Maat was eclipsed by the greater forces of Isfet. In Egyptian literature such periods are portrayed as being plagued by civil war, disunity, drought, or famine. Historians and Egyptologists have come to call periods of prosperity “Kingdoms,” while dubbing periods of civil unrest or foreign invasion/domination “Intermediate Periods.”
The earliest Kingdom was the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC) comprising the third to the sixth dynasties (Kuhrt 1995: 124, 135–60). The idea of dividing Egypt’s long history into discrete dynasties dates back to the second century BC, when the Egyptian priest-turned-historian Manetho wrote a history of Egypt for Ptolemy II (Redford 1986: 297–317). In his account, Manetho organized Egypt’s rulers into thirty dynasties. While in some cases Manetho’s dynasties make sense, in other cases Manetho lumped together unrelated rulers and his divisions seem random.
The Old Kingdom was the age of the pyramid-builders, the establishment and expansion of centralized government under the rule of a king-god. The Old Kingdom witnessed the emergence of the king’s full titulary, comprised of five titles; and the development of Pyramid Texts, the earliest genre of funerary literature whose purpose was to aid the deceased king achieve/attain an afterlife. The period also witnessed the initial administrative organization of Egypt into forty-two districts (nomes). The Old Kingdom also saw the earliest Egyptian expeditions into Nubia.
The First Intermediate Period (c. 2180–2040 BC) followed soon after the long reign of King Pepi II (Kuhrt 1995: 124, 158–60). His reign caused stagnation in the Egyptian administration, which led to the rise in the power of the local rulers (nomarchs), or rulers of the Egyptian nome, the smallest administrative unit, who eventually ceased to be royal appointees. Instead, their positions became hereditary. This situation, combined with a series of low Niles, which caused drought and a subsequent famine, led to the fragmentation of the state. A group of compositions, known collectively as “pessimistic literature,” paint a very grim picture of the conditions prevalent during the First Intermediate Period.
The Middle Kingdom (c. 2040–1730 BC) comprises the latter half of the Theban eleventh dynasty and the twelfth dynasty (ibid. 124, 161–73). This period is known for its great literary works, such as the stories of the Eloquent Peasant, Sinuhe, and the Shipwrecked Sailor. It also witnessed the emergence of the Theban god Amun, who was to become the most prominent Egyptian national deity in later periods. The Middle Kingdom also witnessed the expansion of funerary literature, which became more widely available to members of the Egyptian elite, who chose to inscribe its spells and utterances on their coffins—hence, the term Coffin Texts.
The Second Intermediate Period (c. 1730–1550 BC) was another time of weakened central power compounded by the infiltration of groups of western Asiatic tribes into the Nile Delta (ibid. 124, 173–82). Collectively known as the Hyksos, the Hellenized version of their Egyptian name heqaw khasout (literally, “rulers of foreign lands”), these groups appear in Manetho’s account of Egyptian history as dynasties XIV–XV. In the Egyptian artistic repertoire they assume traditional modes of representation, although their names seem foreign. Although there has been some effort to link these groups to the Biblical narrative of the Hebrew sojourn in Egypt, the links seem tenuous at best. At the same time, a line of native rulers continued to reside in Thebes (Manetho’s dynasty XVII). It was the last rulers of the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty, Sekenenre and Kamose, who initiated the effort to expel the Hyksos from Egypt. Ahmose, brother of Kamose, was able to drive the Hyksos out of the Egyptian Delta, and chased them across the Sinai and Gaza. Ahmose is credited with the founding of the Eighteenth Dynasty and restoring order to Egypt. As such, he is also considered the founder of Egypt’s New Kingdom.
The New Kingdom (c. 1550–1069 BC) was the Age of Empire, when Egypt expanded South and Northeast (ibid. 124, 185–224). The Thutmoside rulers launched several expeditions into Nubia and managed to expand Egypt’s southern border to the Second Cataract and, on occasion, pushed it as far South as the Fourth Cataract. It was also during the New Kingdom that Queen Hatshepsut (c. 1503–1482 BC) sent a mercantile expedition down the Red Sea to the land of Punt, which was probably located near the African horn (ibid. 186). The New Kingdom was an age of religious innovation. During the short reign of Akhenaton (c. 1353–1335 BC), Egypt’s national deity became the solar disk, known in Egyptian as the Aten. It was the only time in Egyptian history that the state actively prevented the worship of other gods. The New Kingdom was the age of international diplomacy and international power struggles. The Egyptians and Hittites signed the earliest recorded peace treaty (ibid. 207). The New Kingdom was the age of the great temples and the great victories.
The First Millennium BC
The start of the first millennium BC witnessed a much-weakened Egypt. Gone were the days of the grand pyramids, lavish temples, and empire builders. A series of short-lived reigns, marked by internal turmoil, corruption, and economic decline marred the end of Egypt’s Twentieth Dynasty. For instance, during the reign of Ramses IX (c. 1127–1108 BC), royal tombs were violated. When the tomb robbers were eventually caught and tried, the investigation revealed extensive corruption and neglect that extended to the highest level of the administration. Economic decline is also evident under the reign of Ramses X (c. 1108–1104 BC), whose administration failed to deliver the wages of the workmen and artisans responsible for excavating and decorating the royal tombs on time. Papyri from the workmen’s settlement at Deir el-Medina detail the workers’ resentment and discontent and their subsequent strike (Kitchen 1995: 243–48).
At the same time, the king’s influence and power declined vis-à-vis the powers of his senior administrators, especially the vizier, his second in command. Effective power shifted to the South, where the Viceroy of Kush, Nubia’s main administrator, and the High Priest of Amun at Karnak acquired progressively increasing power. As a sign of their increasing influence, holders of these two positions ceased to be royal appointees. Instead, their positions became hereditary. Inevitably, these powerful and ambitious individuals vied for power. During the last reign of the Twentieth Dynasty, a military conflict erupted between the High Priest of Amun and the Viceroy of Kush, who now controlled a sizeable portion of Egypt’s military forces. Shortly afterwards, another High Priest of Amun, Herihor, effectively became the ruler of Upper Egypt, having combined military powers with his earlier religious responsibilities (ibid. 248–54). In Lower Egypt, Ramses XI abdicated all effective power to his vizier, Smendes. When an emissary was sent to Lebanon to purchase wood for the sacred barque of Amnu, it was Smendes, not the king, who supplied him with the requisite documents (ibid. 254–57).
Egypt During the Libyan Period
The rulers of the Twenty-first Dynasty (1069–945 BC), which marks the beginning of t...
