Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of Nout or Neith, the Divine Mother, or overhanging firmament:— “ Falling down to the earth as it were, away from the etherial or blue figure (Nout), is the body of a man painted in the usual red colour, under which the Egyptians chose to represent themselves, while, standing up, is another figure of a man, but painted blue, extending his arms as if rising toward the firmament above. This most rare and interesting picture not only seems to bear the direct allusion to the dogma of immortality of the soul, but also to embody the very idea of the manner of the resurrection of the dead, as conveyed by the words in verse 44 of the 15th chapter of the First of Corinthians. ‘ It is sown a natural body (signified by the red figure falling to the earth), it is raised a spiritual body ’ (signi- fied by the blue figure and its position).” The resurrection of the body with the Egyptians was a doctrine having its phases. There can be no doubt that, though pure at one time, it was pantheistic at the era of almost universal pantheism, just as Christianity arose to revive the old dogma, which some regard as a portion of primitive revealed truth. That pleasing expounder of myths, Mr. Baring-Gould, has some thoughtful remarks on this subject. “The doc- trine,” says he, “ of the soul being transported to heaven, and of its happiness being completed at death, finds no place in the Bible, nor in the liturgies of any brand— Greek, Roman, or Anglican—of the Church Catholic. Yet this was the tenet of our Keltic forefathers, and it has maintained itself in English Protestantism, so as to divest the doctrine of the resurrection of the body of its grasp on the popular mind.” It may be added that, while some moderns are so un- scientific, and so un-Pauline, as to contend for the resurrec-