The ancients possessed a consciousness of sin, an awareness of what was morally right and wrong, that did not differ materially from more modern concepts. They also had some knowledge of a judgment in the hereafter, believing that after this earthly life they would face a divine tribunal that would decide their weal or woe in the afterlife.
Discovering that the ancients knew what sin was and that they feared a divine judgment either in this world or in the hereafter, we see that the apostle Paul was justified in his remarks about the pagans of his time. He said that they "do by nature what the law requires," without having the law, and that "they show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness" and either accuses or excuses them (Rom. 2:14, 15, R.S.V.).*
While the truth of these words can easily be attested by a study of Roman and Greek religious beliefs, we will, in this article, go further back in history to show that the ancient Babylonians (including also the Sumerians and Assyrians) and the Egyptians recognized the maxims of a divinely instituted moral law known to the Judeo-Christian believers as the Decalogue.
Sin among the Babylonians
Numerous prayers, hymns, and texts of admonition have come to light during the last century and a half among literally thousands of cuneiform tablets written by the ancient people of the Mesopotamian valley. These religious texts give us a rather comprehensive insight into their feelings, hopes, and fears. They tried to find answers to such universal questions as why some men suffer more than others from misfortunes or calamities, considered by them to be divine punishments. In one such Babylonian text the following questions are raised:
"Has he committed a sin against a god or against a goddess?
"Has he done violence to one older than himself?
"Has he said yes for no, or no for yes?
"Has he used false scales?
"Has he accepted a wrong account?
"Has he set up a false landmark?
"Has he broken into his neighbor's house?
"Has he come near his neighbor's wife?
"Has he shed his neighbor's blood?" 1
These questions indicate that the ancient Babylonians considered not only that sins committed against gods produced punishment in this life, but also that sins against society called for divine retribution. It is obvious to anyone who knows his Bible that these sins are the same as those listed in the second half of the Biblical Ten Commandments. This text shows clearly that the ancient Babylonians knew what was morally right and wrong.
In fact, the ancient people of Mesopotamia were so conscious of their sinful nature and the need for forgiveness that they frequently included in their prayers Urgent requests for pardon. An old Sumerian prayer, for example, includes even pleas for forgiveness of sins commit ted in ignorance:
"O god whom I know or do not know, (my) transgressions are many; great are (my) sins.
"O goddess whom I know or do not know, (my) transgressions are many; great are (my) sins. "The transgressions which I have committed, indeed I do not know; "The sins which I have done, indeed I do not know. . . .
"The transgressions which I have committed, let the wind carry away;
"My many misdeeds strip off like a garment.
"O my god, (my) transgressions are seven times seven; remove my transgress ions;
"O my goddess, (my) transgressions are seven times seven; remove my transgress ions." 2
Another ancient prayer, which carries a label showing that it can be used by priests or penitents, reminds us strongly in its supplications of similar expressions used in some of the psalms of David. In fact, if we did not know that this prayer came from the lips and pen of an ancient polytheist and therefore was addressed to a god and a goddess, it could easily be mistaken as a quotation from the Biblical psalter:
"O my god, who art angry, accept my prayer; O my goddess, who art angry, receive my supplication. . . . Look with pity on me and accept my supplication. Let my sins be forgiven, let my transgressions be blotted out. Let the ban be torn away, let the bonds be loosened. Let the seven winds carry away my sighs. I will send away my wickedness, let the bird bear it to the heavens. Let the fish carry off my misery, let the river sweep it away. Let the beast of the field take it from me. Let the flowing waters of the river wash me clean." 3
Judgment in the afterlife
The Babylonians had a very pessimistic outlook about the hereafter. Their under world, the realm of the deceased, was a dark land, full of dust, where the bread was bitter and the water brackish and where the dead wore garments of feathers to protect them from the cold. During the night their needs for light, food, and drink were thought to be supplied by the sun god.
However, detailed descriptions of a belief in a judgment after death have not been found in the cuneiform literature of the ancient Mesopotamian people, although several gods are called judges in their texts. They believed that Ereshkigal, the sister of Inanna (Ishtar), was the goddess of the underworld, and that seven judges sitting in front of her pronounced the sentence of death over the deceased person when he entered their realm. The nature of this sentence is never stated in the available texts, but it is said that the names of the dead would be registered by Geshtinanna, the scribe of the under world, on the tablets of records, so that they would become legitimate dwellers in the underworld.
The twelfth tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic, which unfortunately is preserved only in fragments, as well as certain other texts, contains hints that the well-being of the dead person in the hereafter was thought to depend on the way he died, whether his body received a decent burial, and whether his surviving relatives continued to offer the prescribed mortuary sacrifices for him. Whether the fate of the righteous dead was considered to be the same as that of a criminal is never clearly stated. In fact, one finds in reading the cuneiform records of ancient Mesopotamia that the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians seem to have had a rather fuzzy belief regarding their expected life in the hereafter. 4
Sin among the Egyptians
In contrast to the people of Mesopotamia, who threw themselves on the mercy of the gods to secure forgiveness for their sins, the ancient Egyptians believed that it was possible to convince the gods of their innocence. The means to do this was the use of magic and correct formulas giving asseverations of innocence. These solemn declarations of innocence, many of which have come into our hands, contain specific lists of wrongdoings that the owner of the documents denied having committed. They show unmistakably that the ancient Egyptians knew quite well what was right or wrong.
Such statements of innocence, generally called "negative confessions," are found in the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, a document that describes the experiences that the deceased would have upon reaching the underworld. It also contains the formulas to use in facing one's judges upon entering the underworld. The following are examples:
"I have not blasphemed a god.
"I have not done violence to a poor man.
"I have not done that which the gods abominate.
"I have not killed.
"I have neither increased nor diminished the grain-measure.
"I have not added to the weight of the balance.
"I have not committed evil.
"I have not stolen.
"I have not been covetous.
"I have not told lies.
"I have not committed adultery."5
We smile at their naivete for thinking that they would appease their divine judges by having the right answers ready when they were to give an account of their life on earth. Yet, whether or not we accept their claims to have always been law-abiding citizens who followed well-doing and shunned evil, one thing is clear: the ancient Egyptians knew what was right and wrong, and they expected punishment in the afterlife if records of wrongdoings such as adultery, lies, thefts, or even covetousness could be brought against them.
Only a few cases are known in which an ancient Egyptian admitted to having done something wrong. Such admissions were made only if some calamity, which was considered to be a divine punishment, had fallen on a person. The following portion of a mortuary text contains such an admission of guilt. It deals with one who had become blind and attributed his misfortune to a false oath he had earlier made:
"I am a man who swore falsely by Ptah, lord of truth; and he caused me to behold darkness by day. I will declare his might to him that knows him not, And to him that knows him, to little and great: Be ye ware of Ptah, lord of truth!" 6
These examples, negative as well as positive confessions, show clearly that the ancient Egyptians, like their contemporaries in Mesopotamia, were familiar with right and wrong and knew that sin would not commend them to the gods who, they believed, controlled their well-being in this life and would determine their eternal condition in the hereafter.
The Book of the Dead
There is a marked difference between the Egyptians and Babylonians regarding judgment in the hereafter. While we know little of what the Babylonians thought concerning their fate in the hereafter, the Egyptians have left numerous records of their beliefs. These mortuary texts range from the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom via the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom to the Books of the Dead of the New Kingdom. In the course of nearly 3,000 years their beliefs did change in some respects, as illustrated by these various texts. However, we will limit our brief discussion to the later periods from which some elaborate copies of the Boole of the Dead have survived. These describe in great detail, both in word and picture, what a person could expect to experience after death and how he could ensure a favorable outcome of his trial before his divine judges.
According to the Book of the Dead, the deceased would have to appear before Osiris, the god of the underworld, the great judge who was assisted by forty-two assessors, or judges of the dead. The dead person is shown being led by Anubis, a jackal-headed god, to face his judges. There his heart was placed on one pan of a balance and weighed against truth, represented by a feather lying on the opposite pan. The ibis-headed god Thoth super vised the whole procedure and recorded its results on a tablet. Then the dead person had to recite his negative confessions, referred to above, first in general terms to the whole assembled tribunal, and next to each of the forty-two judges individually. At the foot of the balance sat a monster, half hippopotamus and half crocodile, awaiting the outcome of the trial. Should the deceased fail to convince the judges of his innocence, the monster would devour him, thus depriving him of eternal life. On the other hand, if he was vindicated, he was admitted to the other world to continue his life without end in most pleasant circumstances, although similar to those he was accustomed to on earth.
In case the dead person could not recall the right formulas, a copy of the Book of the Dead would be put in the coffin with his mummified body. Those who could not afford to take a complete copy of that lengthy document had to be satisfied with shorter excerpts or summaries. Sometimes a large stone scarab was placed on his heart, the only internal organ that was left in the mummy, and this beetle-like amulet contained an inspiration that read in part: "O my heart, the most intimate part of my being! Do not stand up against me as a witness before the tribunal." 7
Thus, while we have discovered great differences in the way the people of the Mesopotamian and Nile valleys thought they could escape future divine retributions for earthly wrongdoings, we note one common factor. They all knew there were sins that sooner or later, either in this world or in the life to come, would bring punishment upon the transgressor. The Babylonians pleaded for mercy, while the Egyptians put their trust in magic formulas. The Babylonians believed in some kind of judgment in the hereafter, although we know little about their specific beliefs. On the other hand, we know almost every detail of the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians regarding the divine trial they expected to face after this life.
Notes:
1 Leonard W. King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology (London, 1899), pp. 218, 219.
2 Ferris J. Stephens in J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, 1950), pp. 391, 392.
3 King, op. cit., p. 212.
4 For a discussion of the Babylonians' belief in death and an afterlife see Alexander Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels (Chicago, 1946), pp. 137-223; Dietz O. Edzard m H. W. Haussig, ed., Cotter und Mythen im Vorderen Orient (Stuttgart, 1965), pp. 130-132.
5 John A. Wilson in Pritchard, op. at,, pp. 34, 35.
6 This is part of an inscription on an ancient Egyptian tombstone, Stele 589 in the British Museum. Battiscombe Gunn, "The Religion of the Poor in Ancient Egypt," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 3 (1916), 88.
7 Georges Posener, A Dictionary of Egyptian Civilization (London, 1962), p. 253.
* Bible texts credited to R.S.V. are from the Revised Standard Version. Thomas Nelson, Inc., publisher.