Egyptian Beliefs
A short history of the religious beliefs and movements of Egypt.
Worship and Ritual in Dynastic Egypt
For the people of dynastic Egypt, religion permeated every aspect of society. Their belief system emphasized harmony, continuity, and peace. According to the Ancient Egyptians, social order and prosperity are derived from maat or ma’at, a divine set of ethics encouraging moral behavior. By acting within the scope of maat, including the performance of religious rites, the Egyptians hoped to ward off isfet, or chaos. Isfet might mean the Nile failing to flood one year, war, or the premature death of a pharaoh. Maat was often represented as a goddess, Ma’at, bearing an ostrich feather.
The responsibility of maat can be viewed as a pyramidal structure. At its peak, the pharaoh acted as a mediary between gods and humans. His actions decided the fate of his people, and so the pharaohs exercised enormous control over Egypt. Beneath the pharaoh, a priestly class administered rites in temples across the kingdom. At the base of the pyramid, the lower classes of Egypt conducted themselves in accordance to the principles of maat. In the afterlife, Ancient Egyptians believed that their heart would be weighed against the ostrich feather of Maat. A light heart, signifying a life pursued under maat, gained its owner access to the next world.
The religious dynamics of Ancient Egypt were not static. They evolved over thousands of years, including periods of revolution and suppression. Specific deities could be worshipped widely or on a local basis. Their names and seats of worship shifted over the centuries, as did their relationships to each other. The primary Egyptian pantheon developed in Heliopolis. It was headed by Ra, the sun god, who brought order out of the initial, formless chaos of the world. Ra is closely associated with other solar deities like Khepri and Atum. Later, another sun god worshipped at Thebes, Amun, merged with Ra to form Amun-Ra. During a brief period of monotheism, the sun disc Aten represented a singular deity.
The Osiris Myth
Besides the central figure of the sun, many other gods were recognized within the Egyptian pantheon. Most important of these were the deities Isis, Osiris, Horus, and Set. Osiris, a ruler of the gods, represented the fertile soils of the Nile. His brother, Set, was a god of the desert and foreign invaders. In the standard version of the myth, Set murders Osiris and scatters his body parts throughout Egypt, claiming his throne in the process. Osiris’s wife and sister, Isis, collects them again but cannot find the last piece, his penis. She fashions a new one out of gold, reassembles her husband, and brings him back to life long enough to conceive a son, Horus.
Isis raises Horus among the common people of Egypt, despite the constant threat of his uncle, Set. At last, Horus challenges Set for the throne of Osiris. They struggle against each other in a variety of ways, eventually resulting in the victory of Horus. Horus takes his father’s throne, Set is relegated to the fringes of civilization, and Osiris becomes the lord of the dead, the first mummy. This myth established the divine authority of the pharaohs and formed the basis of Egypt’s identity as the kingdom of the fertile Nile.
Coptic Christianity and Judaism in Egypt
Despite its state religion, Ancient Egypt was a multicultural society. Its most famous religious minority were the Jews. The story of Moses and his deliverance of the Jews from bondage in Egypt is one of the formative tales of both Judaism and Christianity. The fall of the Egyptian pharaohs by the 3rd century BCE led to the decline of their religion as well. Christianity came to Egypt shortly after the death of Christ. By tradition, the Church of Alexandria was founded by Mark the Evangelist, of the Gospel of Mark. Within a few centuries, it had become the majority religion of Egypt.
Coptic Christianity, as it came to be known, was one of the most influential early branches of Christianity. Alexandria grew as a center of wealth and knowledge, including early studies by Christian scholars. Egypt saw the first Christian monasteries, secluded communities of the desert that would prove especially popular in medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire.
Islamic Worship and Modern Egypt
The religious makeup of Egypt changed again in the 7th century. Islam, an Abrahamic faith founded by the Prophet Muhammad, overwhelmed the fading grip of the Byzantine Greeks. While Islam replaced Christianity as the favored religion of the ruling classes, Egypt’s Coptic populations have survived to the present day. The Islamic leaders of Egypt tolerated their fellow Abrahamic beliefs, though they imposed upon them a jizya tax and certain restrictions. During the 20th century, conflicts between Egypt and the Jewish state of Israel led to increasing violence against its Jewish communities. This caused the emigration of many Jewish Egyptians to Israel and other nations.
Islam in Egypt has grown into a diverse religious practice over many centuries. It contains populations of Sunni and Shia believers, with Sunni being most common. Sufism, a mystic branch of Islam, is also popular. The role of Islam in Egypt and its government has been a subject of public debate for decades. The state already combines elements of Sharia within its legal system, but it is not a theocracy. The question of whether to embrace a more secular or religiously conservative society sits at the heart of its recent political unrest.
According to the CIA World Factbook, the current religious status of Egypt is as follows:
Muslim (predominantly Sunni): 90%
Christian (majority Coptic Orthodox, other Christians include Armenian Apostolic, Catholic, Maronite, Orthodox, and Anglican): 10% (2015 est.)
References
Armour, Robert A. Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt. The American University in Cairo Press. 2011.
Asante, Molefi Kete. Culture and Customs of Egypt. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2002.
Baines, John, Leonard H. Lesko, and David P. Silverman. Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice. Cornell University Press. 1991.
Brier, Bob and A. Hoyt Hobbs. Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2008.
Goldschmidt Jr., Arthur. A Brief History of Egypt. Infobase Publishing. 2008.
Johnson, Toni, and Dina Shehata. “Islam and Politics in Egypt.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/interview/islam-and-politics-egypt.
Kamil, Jill. Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs: The Coptic Orthodox Church. Routledge. 2013.
Quirke, Stephen. Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt. John Wiley & Sons. 2014.
“The World Factbook: Egypt.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 30 Oct. 2018, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html.
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