Egyptian Coffin Texts (Selections)

The Egyptian Coffin Texts are a large corpus of approximately 1,185 funerary spells inscribed on the interior surfaces of wooden coffins during the Middle Kingdom period (c. 2134-1650 BCE). They developed from the earlier Pyramid Texts (c. 2400-2300 BCE), which were exclusively for pharaohs, by extending afterlife access to the nobility and middle classes, a striking democratization of immortality. The Coffin Texts in turn evolved into the New Kingdom Book of the Dead.

They represent one of humanity's most sustained engagements with death, judgment, transformation, and the afterlife.

Key themes with biblical parallels include: the weighing of the heart against the feather of Ma'at (divine judgment paralleling Daniel 5:27 and Matthew 25 final judgment); the concept of the soul's journey through peril (paralleling Psalm 23 'though I walk through the valley of death'); declarations of innocence before divine tribunal (paralleling Job 31 and Psalm 51); transformation and resurrection (paralleling Ezekiel 37, 1 Corinthians 15); and divine light as salvation (paralleling John 8:12, Psalm 27:1).

Spell 75 is famously parallel to Genesis 1's creation by the divine word.

Translation: Scholarly paraphrase based on E.A. Wallis Budge 'The Book of the Dead' (1895, public domain), Adriaan de Buck 'The Egyptian Coffin Texts' (1935-1961, selected summary data), and Raymond O. Faulkner's scholarly summaries. Budge 1895 is in public domain. (Public domain (Budge 1895) supplemented with scholarly paraphrase)