The popular and critical Bible encyclopædia and Scriptural dictionary, fully defining and explaining all religious terms, including biographical, geographical, historical, archaeological and doctrinal themes . ually perished, but the key to the deciphermentof its writings was supposed to be irrevocably hieroglyphic characters were looked uponas symbols under which the mysteries ofthe religion had been concealed from the vulgar,and several attempts had been made to explainthem. All efforts however were destitute of anyscientific basis until the discovery of the Rosettastone. See cut on
The popular and critical Bible encyclopædia and Scriptural dictionary, fully defining and explaining all religious terms, including biographical, geographical, historical, archaeological and doctrinal themes . ually perished, but the key to the deciphermentof its writings was supposed to be irrevocably hieroglyphic characters were looked uponas symbols under which the mysteries ofthe religion had been concealed from the vulgar,and several attempts had been made to explainthem. All efforts however were destitute of anyscientific basis until the discovery of the Rosettastone. See cut on page 568. 2. Religious Wor%s. On the basis of thethree different kinds of script we obtain the threefollowing main classes into which we may dividethe entire Egyptian literature: Religious, Scien-tific, and Belletristic matter. The religious partof the Egyptian literature throws all the othersdeeply into the shade, not only because The Booksof the Dead, which were put into the graves ofthe deceased, were best guarded against destruc-tion, and were therefore preserved in a thousand-fold larger numbers than writings of a secularcharacter, but because religion permeated the en-tire life of the Scarabaeus with a part of the Ritual of the Dead. (1) Book of the Dead. The Book of the Deadis the starting point of the study of the Egyptianreligion and acquaints us with the God-idea ofthe Egyptians, with many of their dogmas andtheir interpretations, with their mythology, theirmorals and their faith in immortality. It alsoteaches us their forms of calling upon the divinepowers in prayers and hymns. It was put intothe graves with the dead, and parts of it werewritten on many a tomb and on the inner sides EGYPTIANS, LITERATURE OE ANCIENT 571 EGYPTIANS, LITERATURE OF ANCIENT of the sarcophagi, to point out to the deceasedthe road through the other world and servehim as an aid to memory. He had to know theright word, to use it as a magic weapon againstthe demons, which would me
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbible, bookyear1904
