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Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt
Discover how the ancient Egyptians controlled their immortal destiny! This book, edited by Foy Scalf, explores what the Book of the Dead was believed to do, how it worked, how it was made, and what happened to it. Presenting the newest research on the Book of the Dead through text and elaborate imagery, one learns what the Book of the Dead meant to ancient Egyptians and how they sought to live forever as gods. There are nearly 400 illustrations, including the famous Papyrus Milbank.
376 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 21, 2023
The catalog of an exhibition of the Oriental Institute Museum in Chicago, in 2017-2018. So, again a very visually oriented book, because the thousands of versions of this Book of the Dead are also visually hyper-interesting and amazing to look at. On top of that this book also offers various substantive articles that make clear the context and the specific perspective of the ancient Egyptian view on life and death. In that respect, the preface to this book contains the most relevant statement that is possible: the Egyptian Book of the Dead says much more about life than about death. A little more explanation in my history account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Note: a free download of this gorgeous book can be found on the site of the Oriental Institute of Chicago: https://isac-idb-static.uchicago.edu/....
Note: a free download of this gorgeous book can be found on the site of the Oriental Institute of Chicago: https://isac-idb-static.uchicago.edu/....
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October 22, 2024(review containing some preliminary conclusions after my temporary reading program on Ancient-Egyptian history)
I previously read Barry Kemp's excellent introduction to the ancient-Egyptian Book of the Dead (How to Read the "Egyptian Book of the Dead", so inevitably this contained a lot that I already knew. But in addition to the stunning visual aspects of this book, it still offers some additional interesting views. For example, Foy Scalf emphasizes how dangerous it is to view the Book of the Dead (and by expanding the whole old Egyptian culture) through purely modern/modernist glasses: “This demonstrates the Elusiveness of Defining is Exactly What a Book of the Dead. It is one of those objects that seems to confirm the rule: we know it when we see it. Looking closely at the format and contents of the book of the dead reveals a complexity glossed in most popular notions of it and the necessity of nuance when trying to separate our modern interpretations of what it meant and how it produces produced it. Both approaches can be useful, but it is easy to be led astray by our modern bias and the confusion that can often result from the complexity of the scholarly device erected to buttress our conclusions. "
One of those aspects is that this Book of the Dead clearly illustrates that for the ancient Egyptians the dividing line between the earthly and the divine cannot be drawn unambiguously, on the contrary. As they are constantly surrounded by a pleïade of constantly changeable, small and great gods, goddesses and divine concepts, they also appear to have seen the period after death as a possible transition from the mortal to the divine. The whole purpose of the Books of the Dead is to make that transition, - seen as a rebirth -, possible, through the transfer of knowledge, and through the repulsion of threats. Also this deification should not be seen too simplistic: "Deification need not be singular but can be multiple and composite". And so it appears that the ancient Egyptian culture, spread over more than three millennia, has caught life in an extremely complex web of earthly and divine interconnections, a universe in itself that will undoubtedly have offered identity and security, as attempts to control life. But perhaps the latter too much is an estimation based on modern concepts?
When I started my intensive reading program on ancient Egypt six months ago, I still was convinced than that culture was extremely static and simplistic. Now, almost at the end of my process, I know that nothing is less true. Among others this book made me flabbergasted by the variegated, ever-evolving and complicated ancient-Egyptian visual take on life and reality. In the end it is this heritage that makes the Nile valley stand out. But at the same time one should not underestimate the endlessly entangled interaction of this region with neighboring cultures, an element that unfortunately still is underrated by classic, academic Egyptology.
I previously read Barry Kemp's excellent introduction to the ancient-Egyptian Book of the Dead (How to Read the "Egyptian Book of the Dead", so inevitably this contained a lot that I already knew. But in addition to the stunning visual aspects of this book, it still offers some additional interesting views. For example, Foy Scalf emphasizes how dangerous it is to view the Book of the Dead (and by expanding the whole old Egyptian culture) through purely modern/modernist glasses: “This demonstrates the Elusiveness of Defining is Exactly What a Book of the Dead. It is one of those objects that seems to confirm the rule: we know it when we see it. Looking closely at the format and contents of the book of the dead reveals a complexity glossed in most popular notions of it and the necessity of nuance when trying to separate our modern interpretations of what it meant and how it produces produced it. Both approaches can be useful, but it is easy to be led astray by our modern bias and the confusion that can often result from the complexity of the scholarly device erected to buttress our conclusions. "
One of those aspects is that this Book of the Dead clearly illustrates that for the ancient Egyptians the dividing line between the earthly and the divine cannot be drawn unambiguously, on the contrary. As they are constantly surrounded by a pleïade of constantly changeable, small and great gods, goddesses and divine concepts, they also appear to have seen the period after death as a possible transition from the mortal to the divine. The whole purpose of the Books of the Dead is to make that transition, - seen as a rebirth -, possible, through the transfer of knowledge, and through the repulsion of threats. Also this deification should not be seen too simplistic: "Deification need not be singular but can be multiple and composite". And so it appears that the ancient Egyptian culture, spread over more than three millennia, has caught life in an extremely complex web of earthly and divine interconnections, a universe in itself that will undoubtedly have offered identity and security, as attempts to control life. But perhaps the latter too much is an estimation based on modern concepts?
When I started my intensive reading program on ancient Egypt six months ago, I still was convinced than that culture was extremely static and simplistic. Now, almost at the end of my process, I know that nothing is less true. Among others this book made me flabbergasted by the variegated, ever-evolving and complicated ancient-Egyptian visual take on life and reality. In the end it is this heritage that makes the Nile valley stand out. But at the same time one should not underestimate the endlessly entangled interaction of this region with neighboring cultures, an element that unfortunately still is underrated by classic, academic Egyptology.
May 3, 2018
This book comes very close to having everything you will need to understand what the "Book of the Dead" is and its importance to understanding the Egyptian view of death and the afterlife. Scalf brings together much of the latest research in original articles by many authors as well as his own considerable scholarship. He is to be commended and I hope this will spur you on to getting a copy of this prolific and well illustrated publication.
July 19, 2023
This book is a lot like one from a few years earlier, Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Both are multiple-author volumes made to accompany museum exhibitions, and both discuss the Book of the Dead and, to a lesser extent, Egyptian funerary artifacts in general. The major differences are that this one is even more in-depth and, like all Oriental Institute books, is available as a free PDF download from the publisher.
Neither book contains a full translation of the text; for that the best option is the Chronicle edition of the Papyrus of Ani. Instead, Journey through the Afterlife and Becoming God discuss how the Book of the Dead evolved out of earlier funerary texts, how copies were produced and organized, the role of heka (magic) in the book, the rituals surrounding death, the demon-filled otherworldly landscape the book describes, and the modern rediscovery and study of the text. Something unique to Becoming God is the essay on "(Mis)appropriations of the Book of the Dead", describing how the book, or at least the idea of it, influenced religious movements and pop culture beginning in the late 19th century. On most subjects, particularly the evolution and study of the funerary text, Becoming God is more detailed, although the text may not be quite as accessible to the lay reader. Journey through the Afterlife does spend more time on funerary rituals and afterlife beliefs—that is, more general subjects that are covered in other sources—than Becoming God does. If you want to seriously study the Book of the Dead, I recommend getting both. But if you only want one book analyzing the Book of the Dead, this is the one to get.
Neither book contains a full translation of the text; for that the best option is the Chronicle edition of the Papyrus of Ani. Instead, Journey through the Afterlife and Becoming God discuss how the Book of the Dead evolved out of earlier funerary texts, how copies were produced and organized, the role of heka (magic) in the book, the rituals surrounding death, the demon-filled otherworldly landscape the book describes, and the modern rediscovery and study of the text. Something unique to Becoming God is the essay on "(Mis)appropriations of the Book of the Dead", describing how the book, or at least the idea of it, influenced religious movements and pop culture beginning in the late 19th century. On most subjects, particularly the evolution and study of the funerary text, Becoming God is more detailed, although the text may not be quite as accessible to the lay reader. Journey through the Afterlife does spend more time on funerary rituals and afterlife beliefs—that is, more general subjects that are covered in other sources—than Becoming God does. If you want to seriously study the Book of the Dead, I recommend getting both. But if you only want one book analyzing the Book of the Dead, this is the one to get.
December 1, 2020
I feel like I just read about a bunch of old obituaries.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews