BibleFacts

Egyptian Gods

On Legends

The early church fathers trace back the histories of the Egyptian gods and goddesses back to their humble beginnings. They were great kings and queens who ruled after the flood but the legends of the preflood fallen angels/nephilim were added to their histories to the point that they were worshiped as gods.

Osiris
Originally called Oswiris, he was the son of Anom, and the last king of Egypt before their rulers began being called Pharaoh. During his time a man named Rikayon came to Egypt from Babylon and through subtlety took over Egypt becoming the first pharaoh. Pharaoh means lord of the dead, or one who taxes the dead. See Jasher 14 for the full story.

Isis
Jupiter seduces a woman names Io, and when she finds out she is pregnant she flees to Egypt to save her child. She later became known as Isis, with her child. The rites of Isis seeking her lost child is very similar to the rites of Ceres, Jupiter's sister, in Sicily.
The priests of Isis shave, making themselves smooth, and bewail the loss of her child. Afterward the boy is brought forth as found, then there is a great rejoicing.
The Eleusinian rites of Ceres are like that of the lost Osiris except that it is  Proserpnie who is abducted by Jupiter so he could commit incest with her. Ceres sought for Proserpnie in Sicily by torches lighted from the top of Etna, which is why the rites in Sicily involve throwing torches into the sea.
Some of the rites of Isis with Serapis come from the rites of Venus and Attis. There are other forms that contain variants bases of the rites of Ceres. Venus was originally a princess that was born and died on the island of Cyprus. She was a very lewd woman and taught the women of Cyprus to practice prostitution for gain. The rites of Venus also involved a procession of a phallus symbol.

Serapis
Originally the name the Egyptians gave to the Hebrew Joseph who interpreted dreams for pharaoh. The libraries, later becoming temples, housed other prophecies and teachings about the one true god of the Hebrews. As time went on Sarapis became synonymous with the god Oiris. When worshiped under the figure of a bull he is called Apis.

The great Serapian Temple
Socrates in his Ecclesiastical history 5.17 says...
When the Temple of Serapis was torn down and laid bare, there were found in it, engraven on stones, certain characters which they call hieroglyphics, having the forms of crosses. After the hieroglyphics had been deciphered it was found that it contained a prediction that ‘When the cross should appear,’—for this was ‘life to come,’—‘the Temple of Serapis would be destroyed,’ a very great number of the pagans embraced Christianity, and confessing their sins, were baptized ...

The pagan temple contained some prophecy and history from Joseph mixed with the paganism of Egypt and Greece (Isis and Osiris). So we can see most myths have a basis in historical fact, and when  there is something supernatural about it it always comes from the one true god. there are similar stories from the druids and other groups as well. Paul preaching at Mars hill, about the unknown god is another such example..

The Egyptian Book of the Dead
This ancient document, dating from at least 250 BC, shows that in the earliest times the Egyptians worshiped only one god, Ra. All the others were kings that were added at a later time. We can even see Osiris' father, called Anom in the book of Jasher, being added to Ra, making it Amon-Ra. The following is a partial description about Ra.

"president of all the gods ... Lord of the heavens ... Lord of Truth ... maker of men; creator of beasts ... Ra, whose word is truth, the Governor of the world, the mighty one of valour, the chief who made the world as he made himself. ... Maker of the Gods, who hast stretched out the heavens and founded the earth! ... Lord of eternity, maker of the everlastingness ... creator of light ... "

taken from the Egyptian book of the dead -
Hymn To Amen-Ra
 

 

Facts taken from church fathers Arnobius (Against the Heathen, Ad Nations 2.9) and Lactantius 1.18,21 and Jasher 7-27


 


www.biblefacts.org Date: 2-2004