2. Small Kingdoms and Mighty Empires in the Near East, 1200

Thinking Like a Historian: The Moral Life

The Moral Life

Ancient peoples developed various codes of behavior and morality, which included how they were to treat other humans and often also how they were to act toward the gods. What similarities and differences do you see in the ideas of a moral life for New Kingdom Egyptians, Hebrews, and Zoroastrian Persians?

The Egyptian Book of the Dead. During the New Kingdom and afterward, well-to-do Egyptians were buried with papyrus scrolls on which were written magical and religious texts, now known as the Book of the Dead, designed to help the deceased make the crossing to the afterlife. These included a standardized list of things the deceased had not done during life, what modern scholars have called a “negative confession.”

To be said on reaching the Hall of the Two Truths

so as to purge N [here the name of the deceased

was written] of any sins committed and to see the

face of every god:

Hail to you, great God, Lord of the Two Truths!

I have come to you, my Lord,

I was brought to see your beauty. . . .

I have not done crimes against people,

I have not mistreated cattle,

I have not sinned in the Place of Truth.

I have not known what should not be known,

I have not done any harm.

I did not begin a day by exacting more than my due,

My name did not reach the bark of the mighty ruler.

I have not blasphemed a god,

I have not robbed the poor.

I have not done what the god abhors,

I have not maligned a servant to his master.

I have not caused pain,

I have not caused tears.

I have not killed,

I have not ordered to kill,

I have not made anyone suffer.

I have not damaged the offerings in the temples,

I have not depleted the loaves of the gods,

I have not stolen the cakes of the dead [food left for the deceased].

I have not copulated nor defiled myself.

I have not increased nor reduced the measure,

I have not diminished the arura [arable land],

I have not cheated in the fields.

I have not added to the weight of the balance,

I have not falsified the plummet of the scales.

I have not taken milk from the mouth of children,

I have not deprived cattle of their pasture.

I have not snared birds in the reeds of the gods,

I have not caught fish in their ponds.

I have not held back water in its season,

I have not dammed a flowing stream,

I have not quenched a needed fire.

I have not neglected the days of meat offerings,

I have not detained cattle belonging to the god,

I have not stopped a god in his procession.

I am pure, I am pure, I am pure, I am pure!

2	The Ten Commandments. According to Hebrew Scripture, where they appear twice, the Ten Commandments were given by Yahweh to Moses. HaShem (which means “the Name”) is one of the names of God in Judaism, used as a sign of reverence and respect, as is writing “G-d.”

EXODUS 20

And G-d spoke all these words, saying:
I am HaShem thy G-d, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I HaShem thy G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me;
and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of HaShem thy G-d in vain; for HaShem will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;
but the seventh day is a sabbath unto HaShem thy G-d, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;
in six days HaShem made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore HaShem blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which HaShem thy G-d giveth thee.
Thou shalt not murder; Thou shalt not commit adultery; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

Zoroaster’s teachings in the Avesta. The sacred texts of the Zoroastrians, collected in the Avesta, include some written by Zoroaster himself as liturgical poems that priests were to recite during divine services. This one tells believers about aspects of Ahuramazda they should understand, such as Right and Good Thought, as they decide what to do in their lives.

Now I will speak, O proselytes, of what ye may bring to the attention even of one who knows,

praises for the Lord [Ahuramazda] and Good Thought’s acts of worship

well considered, and for Right; the gladness beheld by the daylight.

Hear with your ears the best message, behold with lucid mind

the two choices in the decision each man makes for his own person

before the great Supplication, as ye look ahead to the declaration to Him.

They are the two Wills, the twins who in the beginning made themselves heard through dreaming,

those two kinds of thought, of speech, of deed, the better and the evil;

and between them well-doers discriminate rightly, but ill-doers do not.

Once those two Wills join battle, a man adopts

life or non-life, the way of existence that will be his at the last:

that of the wrongful the worst kind, but for the righteous one, best thought.

Of these two Wills, the Wrongful one chooses to do the worst things,

but the most Bounteous Will (chooses) Right, he who clothes himself in adamant;

as do those also who committedly please the Lord with genuine actions, the Mindful One.

Between those two the very Daevas [the traditional gods of Iran] fail to discriminate rightly, because delusion

comes over them as they deliberate, when they choose worst thought;

they scurry together to the violence with which mortals blight the world.

But suppose one comes with dominion for Him, with good thought and right,

then vitality informs the body, piety the soul:

their ringleader Thou wilt have as if in irons:

and when the requital comes for their misdeeds,

for Thee, Mindful One [Ahuramazda], together with Good Thought, will be found dominion

to proclaim to those, Lord, who deliver Wrong into the hands of Right.

May we be the ones who will make this world splendid,

Mindful One and Ye Lords, bringers of change, and Right,

as our minds come together where insight is fluctuating.

For then destruction will come down upon Wrong’s prosperity,

and the swiftest (steeds) will be yoked from the fair dwelling of Good Thought,

of the Mindful One, and of Right, and they will be the winners in good repute.

When ye grasp those rules that the Mindful One lays down, O mortals,

through success and failure, and the lasting harm that is for the wrongful

as furtherance is for the righteous, then thereafter desire will be fulfilled.

ANALYZING THE EVIDENCE

In Source 1, what religious duties and personal actions does the negative confession suggest were important to Egyptians?
In Source 2, the Ten Commandments, what actions were required of or forbidden to Hebrews?
What does Zoroaster call on believers to do in Source 3?
In these moral codes, what will be the rewards of those who do what they’re supposed to do? What will be the fate of those who do not?
What seems to be the most important moral duty in each of these codes?

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Using the sources above, along with what you have learned in class and in Chapters 1 and 2, write a short essay that discusses similarities and differences in ideas about the moral life for New Kingdom Egyptians, Hebrews, and Zoroastrian Persians. What is the basis of morality for these three groups, and how does this shape how people are supposed to act?

Sources: (1) Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings, vol. 2, The New Kingdom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), pp. 124–126. © 2006 by the Regents of the University of California. Published by the University of California Press; (2) The Tanakh, JPS Electronic Edition, based on the 1917 JPS translation, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Bible/Exodus20.html; (3) M. L. West, The Hymns of Zoroaster: A New Translation of the Most Ancient Sacred Texts of Iran (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010), pp. 51, 53, 55. Used by permission.