Return of the Storm God - Appendix XI: The Wisdom That Was Already Ours:

Including Pre-Christian Sources of the Sayings Attributed to Jesus

Introduction

Chapter 10 hopefully completes the evidence for the entire Biblical theology having derived from Egyptian sources, with elements of Mesopotamian and related borrowings. What remains of Christianity that is truly original? Perhaps some of the most poignant and profound truths and moral philosophy ever written.

In the process of restoring the original authorship back to our Egyptian ancestors, we are not attempting to dismantle religious morality. The other side of this equation is what is most sacred to the Christian laity and clergy: what gives religion its true worth is the moral philosophy taught within its mythic framework.

The following appendix is offered as an aid to reflection rather than a challenge to faith. Its purpose is to present, as clearly and gently as possible, evidence that the moral and philosophical teachings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth were already present in the ethical and sapiential traditions of the ancient world. These ideas are ancient because they are human; they arise wherever people observe life with honesty and compassion.

Nothing in this collection is intended to diminish the beauty of the Gospel teachings or the sincerity of those who live by them. It is instead a reminder that goodness, empathy, and reason pre-date scripture and do not depend upon belief in any supernatural revelation. The insight we call ‘Christian morality’ is the natural inheritance of humankind, expressed through many cultures and languages long before the compilation of the New Testament.

If one finds comfort in the figure of Christ, this need not be disturbed; yet it is liberating to know that the wisdom attributed to him was already ours - shared across nations, refined through experience, and carried forward by countless voices. To see this continuity is not to lose faith but to enlarge it: to place trust in the enduring moral capacity of humanity itself.

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The Common Tradition of Moral Philosophy

From Egypt to China, from the Indus to the Aegean, the same ethical maxims appear: compassion toward the weak, moderation in appetite, restraint in anger, honesty in word and deed, and goodwill toward others. These were the cornerstones of every advanced civilisation. The Egyptians called this principle Ma’at - truth, balance, and right relationship. The Greeks named it Sophrosyne - self-control and harmony. The Indians called it Dharma, the Chinese Tao. In each case the ideal was proportion: to live in accord with measure, neither in excess nor in deficiency.

When the early Christian authors gathered the sayings and parables that became the Gospels, they were drawing upon this existing reservoir of moral wisdom. Many phrases in the Sermon on the Mount are direct reflections of Stoic, Cynic, and Eastern ethical teaching, as well as of the Jewish wisdom literature that itself had absorbed Egyptian and Mesopotamian ideas. The tradition of Ptahhotep and Amenemope continued through the Hellenistic era into the Bible, and very little remains that is original.

We have already examined those teachings in the Gospels that cast obedience as morality - where Roman authority was reframed as divine observance. This confusion of moral observation with submission to empire must be recognised for what it is: an attempt by Roman redactors to insert edicts that positioned themselves as the earthly agents of God, thereby controlling and exploiting the laity. Such interpolations stand outside the continuum of human truth that was recognised and living long before the Bible was compiled.

To demonstrate this continuity, the following section lists several well-known Gospel sayings beside their established antecedents. It provides further evidence of the transmission of the wisdom tradition already observed in the texts of Ptahhotep and Amenemope, as well as in the Westcar Papyrus. Each example is presented for comparison so that readers may trace the lineage of ideas and see that what we call Christian morality was indeed the wisdom that was already ours.

1. The Golden Rule
New Testament: ‘Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.’ – Matthew 7:12 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.’ – Confucius, Analects XV:23 (c. 500 BCE)
Note: The principle of reciprocity appears independently in Chinese, Greek, and Judaic ethics centuries before the Christian era.

2. Love Your Enemies
New Testament: ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ – Matthew 5:44 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Hatred is never appeased by hatred; by love alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law.’ – Dhammapada 1.5 (3rd cent. BCE)
Note: Non-retaliation through compassion was already a cornerstone of Buddhist teaching and Stoic ethics.

3. Turn the Other Cheek
New Testament: ‘If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’ – Matthew 5:39 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Requite injury with virtue.’ – Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching 63 (6th cent. BCE)
Note: The Taoist sage and later Stoic writers held meek endurance to be proof of inner strength.

4. Do Not Judge Others
New Testament: ‘Judge not, that you be not judged.’ – Matthew 7:1 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Do not think of the faults of others, or what they have done or left undone, but of what you yourself have done or left undone.’ – Dhammapada 4.50 (3rd cent. BCE)
Note: Self-examination as the basis of moral life is a constant in Eastern and Hellenic philosophy.

5. Forgive Without Limit
New Testament: ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.’ – Matthew 18:22 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The wise man will not let the sun go down upon his anger; he will forgive as often as he is injured.’ – Seneca, De Ira II.34 (1st cent. CE, pre-Gospel)*
Note: The Roman Stoics elevated clemency and forgiveness into civic and personal duty long before the Gospels circulated.

6. Charity in Secret
New Testament: ‘When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.’ – Matthew 6:3 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘He who gives bread with a kind heart, his gifts will be blessed; God loves him who gives secretly.’ – Instruction of Amenemope (1300 BCE)
Note: Egyptian wisdom literature anticipated the virtue of unobtrusive generosity more than a millennium before Christianity.

7. Lay Not Up Treasures on Earth
New Testament: ‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume.’ – Matthew 6:19 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants.’ – Epictetus, Discourses III.9 (1st cent. CE, contemporaneous but pre-canonical)*
Note: Detachment from material wealth was central to Cynic and Stoic schools.

8. The Eye as the Lamp of the Body
New Testament: ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.’ – Matthew 6:22 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The lamp of the body is understanding; if the mind be enlightened, all is light.’ – Plato, Republic 508 (4th cent. BCE)
Note: The Platonic identification of moral insight with inner illumination predates the Christian metaphor.

9. Do Not Be Anxious for Tomorrow
New Testament: ‘Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.’ – Matthew 6:34 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘He who knows contentment meets with no disgrace; he who knows when to stop runs no risk.’ – Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching 44 (6th cent. BCE)
Note: Tranquillity through acceptance is an ancient Taoist and Stoic theme.

10. The Kingdom of God Is Within You
New Testament: ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ – Luke 17:21 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The Self which dwells in the heart is smaller than a grain of rice, yet greater than the earth.’ – Chandogya Upanishad VIII.1 (c. 700 BCE)
Note: The idea of the divine or ultimate reality residing within the human heart was central to the Vedic and Stoic world-view.

11. Physician, Heal Thyself
New Testament: ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ – Luke 4:23 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Physician, cure your own disease.’ – Greek proverb recorded by Aesop, Fables 130 (6th cent. BCE).
Note: A popular Hellenic maxim warning moralists to practise what they preach, long current before the Christian era.

12. Remove the Beam from Your Own Eye
New Testament: ‘Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?’ – Matthew 7:3 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘It is easy to see the faults of others but hard to see your own.’ – Dhammapada 18.252 (3rd cent. BCE).
Note: The Buddhist and Greek moralists alike taught self-correction before criticism of others.

13. The Labourer Is Worthy of His Wages
New Testament: ‘The labourer deserves his wages.’ – Luke 10:7 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.’ – Deuteronomy 25:4 (7th cent. BCE).
Note: The Hebrew law already affirmed the right of the worker to just reward centuries before the Gospels.

14. Render unto Caesar
New Testament: ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ – Mark 12:17 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Pay to all their due, taxes to whom taxes are due, honour to whom honour.’ – Seneca, De Beneficiis IV.32 (1st cent. CE, pre-Gospel).
Note: The Stoic distinction between civic duty and inner freedom predates the Christian formulation.

15. He Who Lives by the Sword Shall Perish by the Sword
New Testament: ‘All who take the sword will perish by the sword.’ – Matthew 26:52 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘By what things a man sins, by these he is tormented.’ – Wisdom of Solomon 11:16 (1st cent. BCE); cf. Greek tragic law of Nemesis.
Note: The moral of retributive consequence was well established in Jewish and Greek literature.

16. The Last Shall Be First
New Testament: ‘Many that are first will be last, and the last first.’ – Matthew 19:30 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The meek shall possess the earth.’ – Psalms 37:11 (5th cent. BCE); and ‘The exalted are brought low, the humble lifted up.’ – Homeric Hymn to Demeter (7th cent. BCE).
Note: The inversion of worldly rank in favour of humility is a universal ancient theme.

17. Blessed Are the Meek / the Peacemakers
New Testament: ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth… Blessed are the peacemakers.’ – Matthew 5:5, 9 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The man of quiet heart, who walks softly, he is beloved of God.’ – Instruction of Ptah-Hotep (2400 BCE).
Note: Egyptian ethical texts enjoined gentleness and reconciliation two millennia before the Gospels.

18. The Narrow Gate
New Testament: ‘Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.’ – Matthew 7:13–14 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Hercules, standing where two roads meet, chose the steep path of Virtue rather than the smooth road of Pleasure.’ – Xenophon, Memorabilia II.1 (4th cent. BCE).
Note: The allegory of the hard but righteous road was a classical moral image centuries earlier.

19. Let the Dead Bury Their Dead
New Testament: ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead.’ – Luke 9:60 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The wise man cares not for the cries of the crowd nor for the rites of the foolish.’ – Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers VI.63 (citing Diogenes of Sinope, 4th cent. BCE).
Note: Cynic and Stoic teachers urged freedom from convention to pursue truth.

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20. Love Thy Neighbour / The Good Samaritan
New Testament: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ – Matthew 22:39 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, and clothing to the naked.’ – Egyptian Book of the Dead (1250 BCE); cf. Zeno, Republic – ‘Human beings are fellow-citizens.’
Note: Compassion toward the stranger and universal brotherhood were long-established precepts of Egyptian and Stoic morality.

21. Pray in Secret
New Testament: ‘When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.’ – Matthew 6:6 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.’ – Psalm 4:4 (5th cent. BCE); cf. Plato, Alcibiades I 134 – ‘Let the prayer be within yourself.’
Note: The inward and private act of devotion was a feature of Hebrew and Greek spirituality long before Christianity.

22. Celibacy and Singleness of Heart
New Testament: ‘There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.’ – Matthew 19:12 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Control of the senses brings tranquillity; self-restraint is the highest law.’ – Manu Smriti 2.93 (2nd cent. BCE); see also the Cynic Diogenes on freedom from sexual passion.
Note: Ascetic discipline as a path to purity was long established in Indian and Greek philosophies.

23. With the Measure You Use It Will Be Measured to You
New Testament: ‘For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.’ – Matthew 7:2 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘As you measure, so shall it be measured to you.’ – Instruction of Amenemope ch. 21 (1300 BCE).
Note: The Egyptian concept of Ma’at taught that justice was reciprocal and balanced – a law of measure itself.

24. Let Your Light Shine Before Men
New Testament: ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.’ – Matthew 5:16 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The light of the Self shines in the heart of every man.’ – Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.10 (c. 700 BCE); cf. Plato, Republic 518 – ‘The mind’s eye is illumined by the light of truth.’
Note: Inner illumination as moral example was a shared metaphor of Greek and Indian thought.

25. Reconcile Quickly with Your Adversary
New Testament: ‘Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court.’ – Matthew 5:25 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘It is better to make peace than to bring a lawsuit.’ – Instruction of Ptah-Hotep § 33 (2400 BCE).
Note: Practical wisdom favoured conciliation over litigation two millennia before the Gospels.

26. Bless Those Who Persecute You
New Testament: ‘Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.’ – Luke 6:28 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Return blessing for evil; overcome the greedy with generosity.’ – Dhammapada 223 (3rd cent. BCE).
Note: Non-retaliation through compassion is central to the Buddhist and Stoic codes of conduct.

27. Seek and You Will Find
New Testament: ‘Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.’ – Matthew 7:7 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘He who seeks truth shall find it; to the earnest the hidden is revealed.’ – Heraclitus, Fragments 18 (5th cent. BCE).
Note: Faith in the discoverability of truth through diligent seeking is a universal philosophical maxim.

28. Do to Others as You Would Have Them Do to You – Negative Form
New Testament: (The Golden Rule re-stated positively.)
Earlier Source: ‘That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the whole Law; the rest is commentary.’ – Hillel the Elder, Talmud: Shabbat 31a (1st cent. BCE).
Note: Direct Jewish precedent for the core Christian ethical maxim.

29. Do Not Swear Oaths
New Testament: ‘Do not swear at all … Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.’ – Matthew 5:34, 37 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Swear not at all; the word of the good man is his oath.’ – Pythagoras, Golden Verses 47 (6th cent. BCE).
Note: Integrity of speech over ritual oath was a Greek and Oriental ethical principle.

30. The Tree and Its Fruit
New Testament: ‘Every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit.’ – Matthew 7:17 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘As a tree is known by its fruit, so a man by his deeds.’ – Aesop, Fables 221 (6th cent. BCE); cf. Proverbs 20:11.
Note: The metaphor of conduct revealing character is a classical and Semitic commonplace.

31. Build on Rock, Not on Sand
New Testament: ‘Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock.’ – Matthew 7:24 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Lay thy foundation on a rock; the house built on sand perishes before the wind.’ – Instruction of Amenemope ch. 27 (1300 BCE).
Note: The identical metaphor of moral steadfastness occurs in Egyptian wisdom literature more than a millennium earlier.

32. The Spirit Is Willing but the Flesh Is Weak
New Testament: ‘The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ – Matthew 26:41 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘I see the better and approve it, yet I follow the worse.’ – Ovid, Metamorphoses VII (1st cent. BCE); cf. Plato, Phaedrus 246.
Note: The conflict between moral intention and bodily impulse was a classical theme long before Christianity.

33. Man Shall Not Live by Bread Alone
New Testament: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ – Matthew 4:4 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The people live not by bread only, but by the will of the gods.’ – Instruction of Ptah-Hotep § 100 (2400 BCE).
Note: Egyptian and Hebrew moralists alike saw spiritual order, not sustenance, as life’s true support.

34. The Harvest Is Plentiful but the Labourers Are Few
New Testament: ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.’ – Luke 10:2 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Many reap where few have sown, yet the wise husbandman gathers in due season.’ – Hesiod, Works and Days 42 (8th cent. BCE).
Note: Agricultural imagery for moral duty and diligence is widespread in early Greek and Near-Eastern teaching.

35. The Blind Leading the Blind
New Testament: ‘If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.’ – Matthew 15:14 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch.’ – Upanishadic proverb cited in Chandogya Upanishad VIII (700 BCE).
Note: The proverbial warning against ignorant leadership appears centuries before in Indian and Greek usage.

36. Do Not Cast Pearls Before Swine
New Testament: ‘Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine.’ – Matthew 7:6 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Give not wisdom to the foolish; pearls are not for the mouths of swine.’ – Pythagoras, Golden Verses 57 (6th cent. BCE).
Note: A direct precursor in Greek proverbial teaching using the same imagery.

37. You Cannot Serve Two Masters
New Testament: ‘No one can serve two masters … You cannot serve God and mammon.’ – Matthew 6:24 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘You cannot follow two paths; the double-minded fail in both.’ – Instruction of Amenemope ch. 8 (1300 BCE); cf. Plato, Republic 436.
Note: Moral single-mindedness was a consistent principle in both Egyptian and Greek ethics.

38. Beware of False Prophets in Sheep’s Clothing
New Testament: ‘Beware of false prophets … who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.’ – Matthew 7:15 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Many wear the cloak of virtue, but their hearts are wolves.’ – Aesop, Fables 225 (6th cent. BCE).
Note: The image of the disguised predator is a staple of Aesopic and Near-Eastern moral tales.

39. The Light of the World
New Testament: ‘You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.’ – Matthew 5:14 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The wise man is a lamp to mankind, a city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.’ – Book of Enoch 92:1 (2nd cent. BCE).
Note: The simile was familiar in inter-testamental Jewish literature well before the Gospel era.

40. Greater Love Has No Man
New Testament: ‘Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ – John 15:13 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘It is a noble thing to die for one’s friend.’ – Homer, Iliad XVIII (8th cent. BCE).
Note: The exaltation of self-sacrifice for comradeship was central to Greek heroic and philosophical ideals.

41. The Poor You Always Have with You
New Testament: ‘For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.’ – Matthew 26 :11 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘There will never cease to be poor in the land; therefore I command you, you shall open your hand to your brother.’ – Deuteronomy 15 :11 (7th cent. BCE)
Note: The Gospel repeats a Hebrew recognition of enduring inequality coupled with a moral duty of generosity.

42. The Harvest of What One Sows
New Testament: ‘Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.’ – Galatians 6 :7 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘They that plough iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.’ – Job 4 :8 (6th cent. BCE); cf. Hosea 8 :7 – ‘They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.’
Note: The moral law of cause and effect is already formulated in early Hebrew poetry and wisdom texts.

43. Blessed Are the Merciful
New Testament: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.’ – Matthew 5 :7 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘He who is kind to others has pity on himself.’ – Proverbs 11 :17 (5th cent. BCE); cf. Instruction of Amenemope, ch. 15 (1300 BCE) – ‘Show mercy that you may receive it.’
Note: Reciprocal mercy was a core ethical law in Egypt and Israel long before the Beatitudes.

44. Do Not Fear Those Who Kill the Body
New Testament: ‘Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.’ – Matthew 10 :28 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘No man can slay the soul, nor can fire burn it.’ – Bhagavad Gita 2 :23 (c. 500 BCE)
Note: The immortality of the soul and fearlessness before death are ancient Vedic doctrines.

45. The Light Shines in the Darkness
New Testament: ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ – John 1 :5 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The righteous is an eternal light that shines in the dark place.’ – Book of Wisdom 7 :10 (1st cent. BCE); cf. Zoroastrian Avesta, Yasna 43.
Note: Dual imagery of light against darkness pervades Persian, Egyptian, and Jewish mysticism.

46. Let Your Yes Be Yes and Your No Be No
New Testament: ‘Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more comes from evil.’ – Matthew 5 :37 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Let thy mouth be free from craft; let thy word be straight before men.’ – Instruction of Ptah-Hotep § 62 (2400 BCE)
Note: Verbal honesty and plain speech were established canons of Egyptian ethics two millennia earlier.

47. The Spirit as Living Water
New Testament: ‘Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.’ – John 4 :14 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘He who drinks of wisdom shall thirst no more.’ – *Proverbs 9 :5 (5th cent. BCE); cf. Egyptian Book of the Dead – ‘The waters of life are given to the justified.’
Note: Water as a symbol of spiritual renewal is a shared image of Hebrew, Egyptian, and Greek thought.

48. The Good Shepherd
New Testament: ‘I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’ – John 10 :11 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The king is the shepherd of his people; he guards them with his life.’ – Homer, Iliad II (8th cent. BCE); cf. Psalm 23 :1 – ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’
Note: The shepherd-king ideal runs from Sumer and Egypt through Israel and Greece long before Christianity.

49. The Lost Sheep
New Testament: ‘If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go in search of the one that went astray?’ – Matthew 18 :12 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘The gods watch over him who has lost his way, and the shepherd finds again his sheep.’ – Sumerian Hymn to Dumuzi (3rd millennium BCE).
Note: The pastoral image of divine compassion appears first in Mesopotamian mythology.

50. The Pure in Heart Shall See God
New Testament: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ – Matthew 5 :8 (RSV)
Earlier Source: ‘Blessed is the man whose heart is pure, for he shall behold the divine.’ – Upanishads, Brihadaranyaka 4.4.6 (c. 700 BCE); cf. Psalm 24 :4 – ‘He who has clean hands and a pure heart.’
Note: Purity of heart as the condition for divine vision is among the oldest recorded spiritual doctrines.

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The Sermon on the Mount

Perhaps the most beloved example of moral philosophy in the New Testament is the discourse in Matthew. When Jesus speaks from the mount, he echoes a very old Egyptian way of staging truth. A teacher upon a height, a ring of twelve immediately about him, and the multitude below is the natural geometry of a cosmology where ethics, truth, and order are woven into the fabric of the heavens. In Egypt, that fabric is Ma’at. The mount is not scenery. It is a ritual axis – the place where heaven touches earth and where right order is affirmed.

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The Egyptian structure behind the scene

In Egyptian cosmography the horizon, akhet, is drawn as a double-peaked mount with the sun disc rising between the peaks. It is the benben in landscape, the djed in profile – a vertical of alignment where the word is uttered and the measure is set. Foundation and enthronement scenes show the king measuring by cord and plumb at this same axial interface. A teacher on a mount is the humanised form of the solar word at the horizon, speaking law as measure.

The twelve surrounding disciples recall the twelve hours of the Duat – the underworld through which Ra travels by night. In each hour the sun god is attended by twelve deities or guardians, who sustain the passage of light through the darkness. By day, these same divisions become the twelve hours of sunlight, the measures by which the world is ordered. The ring of twelve therefore represents the cosmic perimeter – the zodiacal band or hour-circle within which the light of truth is maintained.

Beneath the ring of twelve in the Amduat texts stand the many – the host of the blessed and the unblessed souls of the Duat, the ‘people’ for whom the passage of the light is salvation. The solar bark brings illumination to them and raises the justified. In temple and tomb art the divine discourse is always concentric: the central teaching is addressed to the circle of powers, and the result of that alignment is received by the multitude below as life, bread, and breath. The Sermon’s crowds in the plain beneath the mount are the narrative equivalent of that human horizon – the field of souls.

The Amduat describes the night journey of the sun through twelve hours whose gates are kept by twelve guardian deities. These same gates became the model for the ordering of priests, rituals, and processions in twelve parts. Egyptian numerology repeats these measures: the seventy or seventy-two assistants of the hours, the decans and stars beneath the twelve, the framework of cosmic service. The Gospel’s twelve disciples and the later ‘seventy sent forth’ follow that celestial arithmetic.

Even the eight Beatitudes at the opening of the Sermon recall an older Egyptian pattern – the eight deities of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, the primordial company that preceded the twelve of the finished sky. The Beatitudes, eight utterances of blessing before the following sections of law and judgment, mirror that cosmogony: eight to found, twelve to complete, then the passage into judgment and renewal.

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The Gnostic rendering

In later Gnostic writings such as the Pistis Sophia and the Books of the Saviour, this geometry is made explicit. Jesus is described as seated upon the Mount of Olives, encircled by the twelve powers, while concentric rings of light and emanations surround him. The discourse proceeds through the ‘hours of the light’ – the very pattern of the Amduat. These texts show how the old Egyptian ritual structure was still the invisible grammar of revelation, even in Hellenistic Egypt.

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What Matthew uses – and what he leaves unsaid

Matthew does not describe the cosmology. He uses its stagecraft. His mount is the cosmological mount; his twelve are the ritual band; his multitude below is the field of hearers in the plain. The story’s shape evokes a law older than the hills, uttered from the place where heaven touches earth. The moral content that fills this form – humility, purity of heart, right measure, mercy, and peace, and the insistence that intention is weighed at the heart – is itself Egyptian in tone, the ethic of Ma’at recast in a Galilean idiom.

The mount in Matthew is not a scenic hill but the old ritual axis. In Egypt, the horizon mount - akhet - is the place where the sun disc rises between the twin peaks, the benben and the djed in landscape. Yet the ascent to the mount is not only the image of sunrise; it is also the descent of the setting sun. It marks both completion and renewal. In Egyptian liturgy the soul climbs the western mountain at the close of its journey, having passed through the twelve hours of the Duat, weighed in the scales of Ma’at, and found true. To stand upon the mount is therefore to stand justified - the moment when the initiate, having traversed darkness and trial, reaches the light again. It is the culmination of the cycle, the proof that the heart is balanced, that wisdom has been won. This is the at-one-ment - the reconciliation of the human with the divine order, the perfect equality with the law of truth. The later Jewish festival called the Day of Atonement preserves only the moral surface of this ancient pattern: a single day of forgiveness recalling what was once the cosmic moment when the justified soul, or the sun itself, was re-united with the eternal order at the summit of the world.

There the word is uttered and measure is set by cord and plumb. Around the sun stands the ring of twelve – the hours of the Amduat by night and of the sun by day, the same twelve that later give the zodiac. Beneath that ring stand the many – the souls in the Duat who receive life from the passage of the light. The Sermon’s teacher on the mount, the twelve seated about him, and the multitude below is that geometry in narrative.

In the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur and in the later Christian doctrines of repentance and the forgiveness of sin, we can still recognise the older pattern of the judgement in the Duat. Both faiths preserve, in ritualised form, the Egyptian conviction that moral order is the condition of eternal life. Perhaps this is the quintessence of the promise that religion offers – the assurance that the just have a place in heaven. In this context, Jesus is not the forgiver but the archetype of the journey itself: the soul that descends into death and rises justified. The Sermon on the Mount therefore speaks from within that continuum – the transition from the Egyptian and Judaic understanding of justification to the Christian vision of spiritual resurrection.

Here, Jesus embodies the fulfilment of Jewish theology, the bridge between the ancestral code and its universal expression. In his teaching that we are all Ius – all ‘Jews’ in the older sense of the word meaning the justified or chosen – he extends the promise to all humanity: that each soul, measured in truth, has its place in the divine order. We are all one in Jesus, and Jesus is one in God. He is not the gatekeeper of belief but the archetype of alignment – ‘the Way, the Truth, and the Light’ – through whom every being passes in the process of purification and return. The saying that ‘no one comes to the Father but through me’ is not a call to sectarian obedience but an affirmation of this universal law: that all come to the Source through the absolution of error, the restoration of right measure.

This is precisely what the Egyptian initiate would have understood. The weighing of the heart, the confession of truth, and the passage through the western gates were never about dogma but about proportion, sincerity, and alignment with Ma’at. In the same way, the moral code later called ‘Christian’ is not confined to creed or church. It is the expression of a universal principle – that harmony with truth is salvation. No priest, pope, or institution can grant that alignment. It must be sought and realised within each individual, in truth, in Ma’at. Religion, at its deepest, should not divide us; it continues to reveals that we are one humanity, each carrying within the heart the measure by which we are justified and the light by which we ascend, but must be interpreted through the clearest lens, without the dark glass that organised religion places before our eyes.

Matthew does not state the cosmology, but he borrows its stage. The eight Beatitudes sit with the Egyptian eight of the Ogdoad as a founding octave before the full twelve; the numbers of ministry follow the sky – twelve, and the seventy. Later Gnostic texts such as the Pistis Sophia make this diagram explicit – Jesus in the midst, twelve powers around, aeons beneath, and discourse by hours – but they are late echoes of an Egyptian way of enacting truth. The result is a moral law spoken in an Egyptian key: humility, purity of heart, right measure, mercy, and peace, uttered from the axis where heaven and earth meet.

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The Sermon

1. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain … and taught them.
   In Egypt, every moral ‘Instruction’ begins upon elevation – the teacher or king on the platform of Ma’at. The judge or pharaoh ‘rises upon the height of truth to instruct his children in righteousness.’ The ‘mountain’ is the literal mound of Ma’at’s temple and the symbolic horizon where wisdom is uttered.

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The Beatitudes (Mt 5 .3 – 12)

2. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
   The Eloquent Peasant exalts the humble petitioner who trusts the just order: ‘The poor man’s prayer reaches heaven; the god hears the cry of the lowly.’

3. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
   Egyptian laments associate grief with purification. In the Book of the Dead the justified soul confesses, ‘I have made lament for wrongs I have seen,’ and is received among the ‘Blessed Dead whose hearts are light.’

4. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
   Ptahhotep: ‘Do not be proud because of your knowledge; consult the ignorant as the wise. The meek man prospers upon earth; the violent man perishes.’

5. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
   In the Negative Confession: ‘I have not lessened the corn-measure; I have not shortened the hand-measure; I have not tampered with the balance.’ Righteousness is literal right-measure – the bread of Ma’at.

6. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
   The just judge in The Eloquent Peasant is praised as ‘father to the fatherless, husband to the widow.’ His mercy restores balance: ‘He gives bread to the hungry and sets the wronged man in his house again.’

7. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
   At judgment the heart is weighed against Ma’at’s feather; only the pure heart, ‘neither too heavy nor too light,’ beholds Osiris in the Fields of Aaru.

8. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
   The king, ‘beloved of Ma’at,’ is lauded as ‘good friend of poor men, enemy of the wrongdoer, maker of peace throughout the Two Lands.’

9. Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness’ sake …
    The Peasant endures beating and delay yet continues to speak truth; at last the oppressor’s goods are confiscated and returned – vindication through steadfast justice.

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Salt and Light (Mt 5 .13 – 16)

10. You are the salt of the earth … the light of the world.
    Egyptian virtue must be visible in deeds. ‘A man is known by what he does,’ says Ptahhotep; ‘right conduct is the lamp of the house.’ The justified dead are ‘those whose light shines in the West.’

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Fulfilment of the Law (Mt 5 .17 – 20)

11. I have not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it.
    To live in Ma’at is to ‘fulfil every ordinance: I have done Ma’at, I have not diminished it.’ The law of Egypt is truth itself, not statute but proportion.

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Anger and Reconciliation (Mt 5 .21 – 26)

12. Be reconciled to your brother … agree with your adversary quickly.
    Egyptian court ritual begins with hearing and settlement: ‘We must first hear evidence to confirm what is said.’ Delay breeds disorder; swift restoration of balance is the rule of Ma’at.

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Lust and Adultery (Mt 5 .27 – 30)

13. Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart.
    Negative Confession: ‘I have not committed adultery; I have not defiled myself; my heart has not gone after another’s wife.’ Purity is an inward state proved by the heart’s lightness on the scales.

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Divorce (Mt 5 .31 – 32)

14. Whoever divorces his wife …
    Household instruction: ‘Love your wife; feed her, clothe her; gladden her heart. Do not cause her sorrow. Kindness binds more firmly than harshness.’ Fidelity is the domestic form of Ma’at.

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Oaths and Speech (Mt 5 .33 – 37)

15. Let your ‘Yes’ be Yes and your ‘No’ be No.
    Ptahhotep: ‘Speak only when you can give answer that is exact; falsehood confuses the ear. Silence is better than idle speech.’ Measured words are the sign of truth.

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Non-retaliation (Mt 5 .38 – 42)

16. Turn the other cheek.
    The patient petitioner of The Eloquent Peasant suffers blows yet trusts the court of Ma’at; vengeance would destroy his claim. Justice, not reprisal, restores order.

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Love of Enemies (Mt 5 .43 – 48)

17. Love your enemies … your Father makes his sun rise on the evil and the good.
    Egyptian equity: the governor ‘gives bread alike to the hungry and the sated; he makes no distinction of rich or poor.’ The pharaoh is ‘protector of all his subjects great and small.’

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Almsgiving (Mt 6 .1 – 4)

18. When you give alms, do not sound a trumpet.
    The just king feeds the petitioner’s family quietly while judgment is pending; virtue done unseen is its own witness: ‘He provided for him without his knowing whence it came.’

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Prayer (Mt 6 .5 – 15)

19. When you pray, go into your room …
    True piety in Egypt is interior: ‘The god hears the prayer of him who is silent.’ Before Osiris the heart prays, not the lips; ‘May my heart not witness against me.’
    Forgive us our debts … parallels the royal command in the Peasant: restoration, not retribution – the divine pattern of remission.

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Fasting (Mt 6 .16 – 18)

20. Do not look dismal … but wash your face.
    Ma’at abhors display. Ptahhotep: ‘Let your heart be generous and your face shining; the sullen man is odious to the god.’

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Treasures (Mt 6 .19 – 21)

21. Lay up treasures in heaven.
    The Egyptian heaven is the Field of Offerings where the justified ‘reap their barley and wheat forever.’ Wealth laid in Ma’at, not in barns, endures beyond death.

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The Sound Eye (Mt 6 .22 – 23)

22. The eye is the lamp of the body.
    The Wedjat eye of Horus is health and right-sight; when whole, the person is whole. The blind eye is moral blindness – the same polarity of light and darkness used in Egyptian judgment scenes.

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God and Mammon (Mt 6 .24)

23. You cannot serve God and Mammon.
    Ptahhotep warns: ‘If you become rich, let not your heart be puffed up; you are steward of what the god has given.’ Service to gain corrupts the balance of the heart.

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Do Not Worry (Mt 6 .25 – 34)

24. Consider the lilies … seek first the kingdom of God.
    Egyptian serenity under Ma’at: ‘Do not be anxious concerning tomorrow; the god provides for the Nile in its season.’ The just ruler plans granaries so ‘none hunger when the Nile is low.’ The ‘kingdom’ is ordered balance itself.

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Judge Not (Mt 7 .1 – 5)

25. Judge not, that you be not judged; with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
    Justice in Egypt is literal measure: scales, cords, and recorded weights. ‘I have not falsified the balance’ stands beside ‘I have not borne false witness.’ The same measure that tests grain tests the heart.

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Pearls Before Swine (Mt 7 .6)

26. Do not give dogs what is holy.
    Ptahhotep: ‘Do not instruct one who will not listen; words fall wasted. Keep knowledge for him who will profit.’

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Ask, Seek, Knock (Mt 7 .7 – 11)

27. Ask, and it will be given you.
    The Peasant asks nine times; the king hears, praises his eloquence, and grants full justice. Persistence under truth is answered.

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The Golden Rule (Mt 7 .12)

28. Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.
    Ma’at’s reciprocity: ‘He who does good receives good. He who sows Ma’at reaps Ma’at.’ Judges are exhorted: ‘Be father to the orphan, husband to the widow, so the god may do the same for you.’

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The Two Ways and the Two Foundations (Mt 7 .13 – 27)

29. Enter by the narrow gate … every sound tree bears good fruit … not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ … the wise man built his house on the rock.
     Egyptian equivalents:
     – The narrow path of the justified leads through the Hall of Truth; the wide path leads to the devourer of hearts.
     – ‘By their fruits’ = ‘By his deeds a man is known; his measure is in his works.’
     – Lip service is void: ‘Not the words of the mouth but the deeds of the hands make Ma’at.’
     – The house on rock is the house built on true measure; builders and masons in ritual align foundation lines to the north with plumb and cord so the structure endures. The fool builds without measure and it falls.

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Summary

The Sermon on the Mount restates in Aramaic-Greek idiom the complete ethical field already articulated in Egypt:
– Ma’at as righteousness, right-measure, and peace.
– The heart weighed against truth.
– Mercy, humility, and just speech as the path to vindication.
– The judge or ruler as ‘father to the orphan.’
– Justice as literal and moral balance.

Every clause of the Sermon has its precedent in the Egyptian moral universe where salvation is measure and light is truth.

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Instruction of Kagemni - Moral and Truth Parallels

As well as the Middle Kingdom Instruction of Ptahhotep texts, the same Prisse Papyrus contains fragments of the Instruction of Kagemni text. Again, such ‘wisdom texts’ predate the sayings of Jesus by two millennia. It was a common formal device within these priestly orders to express moral and spiritual wisdom through the attributed voices of revered ancestors. These teachings were not mere etiquette but reflections of Ma’at – the divine principle of truth, balance, and order – the same structural morality later mirrored in the Gospel sayings.

They are exactly the kind of sayings to be expected in any Egyptian-derived body of wisdom literature, and would naturally be placed in the mouth of the highest authority. That similar sayings were placed in the mouth of Jesus in the Gospels is therefore typically Egyptian. They are also to be expected as the utterances of God if the divine mouthpiece were represented as a man, prince, or king – the son of God, or Iusa / Joseph / Yeshua. Therefore, as we have seen, the Ptah-Atum figure of ancient Saqqara, later known as Imhotep (from im-htp, ‘he who comes in peace’), would be expected to transmit wisdom in precisely this way.

In the case of the Bible, the appropriate ‘revered ancestor’ simply became known as Jesus – not as an historical man, but as a literary and initiatic device for symbol, allegory, and transmission of wisdom. The figure is only metaphorically ‘human,’ serving as the narrative vessel through which the old Egyptian moral law of Ma’at is restated for a later age.

Below are the principal ethical maxims of Kagemni compared with their close Christian equivalents, showing how the Egyptian idea of Ma’at as the measure of right conduct finds renewed expression in the teachings attributed to Christ.

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1. Humility and Quietness
   ‘The timid man prospers; the open-mouthed man creates trouble for himself.
   The modest man flourishes; the arrogant man is hated.’
   Christian parallel: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5); Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11).

2. Self-Control and Moderation
   ‘The man of quiet heart is loved by the people; the glutton is an abomination.
   Follow your heart as long as you live, but do not commit excess beyond what is ordered.’
   Christian parallel: Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or drink (Matthew 6:25); Let your moderation be known to all men (Philippians 4:5).

3. Truth in Speech
   ‘The man who walks straightly, his path is bright.
   Do not repeat slander; guard your tongue from causing strife.’
   Christian parallel: Let your ‘Yes’ be Yes and your ‘No’ be No (Matthew 5:37); Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (Matthew 5:9).

4. Justice and Fairness
   ‘Do not bend the scale nor falsify the weight; justice is the breath of the nose.
   A man’s measure is his deeds, not his wealth.’
   Christian parallel: With the measure you use it will be measured to you (Matthew 7:2); The measure you give will be the measure you get (Luke 6:38).

5. Kindness and Generosity
   ‘Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, and make not the widow to weep.’
   Christian parallel: I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink (Matthew 25:35); Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matthew 5:7).

6. Avoidance of Anger and Pride
   ‘Do not be hot of heart; a hot heart scatters families.
   Better a good-tempered man than a strong man.’
   Christian parallel: Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment (Matthew 5:22); Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29).

7. Peace and Reconciliation
   ‘A man who loves peace will prosper.’
   Christian parallel: Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).

8. Integrity Before the Unseen Judge
   ‘Do right for the Lord of Truth [Ma’at]; when you reach the West you will find it of more profit than treasures.’
   Christian parallel: Lay up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes (Matthew 6:19–20).

9. Charity Without Ostentation
   ‘Let your good deeds be in secret; make no boast of them, for the god loves the modest giver.’
   Christian parallel: When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3).

10. Judgment and Accountability
    ‘When you come to the Hall of the Two Truths, your mouth will answer for your heart.’
    Christian parallel: On the day of judgment men will give account for every careless word they utter (Matthew 12:36).

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Summary

The Instruction of Kagemni articulates the same moral architecture that underlies later Christian ethics:

• Humility and moderation as the foundation of wisdom.

• Truth and restraint in speech.

• Mercy, equity, and peace as divine virtues.

• Justice as literal and moral measure.

• Accountability before a higher, unseen order.

Together with Ptahhotep, Kagemni’s teaching represents the earliest known written code of personal conduct based on Ma’at. It expresses in Egyptian idiom the same balanced moral field later re-emerging in the sayings of Jesus - a timeless ethic of measured heart, truthful speech, and compassionate action.

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Concluding Observation

Across these many examples, the moral and metaphysical statements ascribed to Jesus emerge as the flowering of a vast and ancient ethical continuum. From Egypt’s Ma’at to India’s Dharma, from the Stoic Logos to the Tao, the same truths were spoken in many tongues long before the New Testament. Their recurrence is not evidence of plagiarism but of universality: humankind, reflecting on experience, arrived at the same moral geometry.

To know this is to see that moral insight does not depend on dogma. The teachings commonly called ‘Christian’ are the distilled wisdom of civilisation itself - the voice of humanity learning to measure, to balance, and to love.

The Sermon on the Mount - by Cosimo Rosselli, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.