Not THAT missing link.
This thread is about the
change from the idea that
only the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs could achieve life after death, to the idea that
anyone could potentially achieve life after death.
The concept is better documented than some have imagined.
The
Book of the Dead developed from a tradition of funerary manuscripts dating back to the Egyptian Old Kingdom. The first funerary texts were the
Pyramid Texts, first used in the Pyramid of King Unas of the 5th dynasty, around 2400 BC. which makes them possibly the oldest known religious texts in the world. These texts were written on the walls of the burial chambers within pyramids, and were
exclusively for the use of the Pharaoh (and, from the 6th dynasty, the Queen).
But then,
The
Coffin Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary spells written on coffins beginning in the First Intermediate Period (~2100 B.C.). The texts are derived in part from the earlier pyramid texts, reserved for royal use only, but they contain substantial new material related to everyday desires that reflects the fact that the texts were now used by the common people.
Ordinary Egyptians who could afford to have a coffin had access to these funerary spells and the pharaoh no longer had exclusive rights to the afterlife. An Osirian afterlife is offered to everyone. This
subterranean realm is described as being
filled with threatening beings, traps, and snares with which the deceased must contend. The spells in the Coffin Texts allow the deceased to protect themselves against these dangers and "
dying a second death".
For a point of reference:
According to Jewish tradition the
Torah was revealed to Moses, in 1312 BCE at Mount Sinai; (another date given for this event is 1233 BCE). That is about 800 years after the concept of the Egyptian Coffin Texts was implemented.
