The Adaptation of a Preexisting Egyptian Source in Luke 16:19-31

In his excellent article The Facsimiles and Semitic Adaptation of Existing Sources, Kevin L. Barney wrote the following about the use of the narrative of Si-Osiris being reworked in Luke 16:16-31:

Osiris-Abraham

Another example of Egyptian material being refracted through a Semitic lens is provided by the story of the rich man and Lazarus, which is recounted in Luke 16:19—31:

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

In his important study of this passage, Hugo Gressmann⁴⁴ suggested that Luke’s account was based on a popular Jewish version, perhaps written in Hebrew, of an Egyptian story. Neither the Egyptian original nor the Jewish version of that original has survived; nevertheless, their existence can be inferred from other documents that do exist. The popular Jewish version can be deduced from seven late rabbinic splinters; these texts almost certainly do not derive directly from the Gospel of Luke. The Egyptian original is hypothesized based on the Demotic story of Setna, described below.⁴⁵ To analogize the relationship among these texts in genealogical terms, the Egyptian original is like a grandfather, and the popular Jewish version a father, to the account in Luke. The story of Setna is a kind of uncle to the Lucan account, and the seven rabbinic splinters are nieces and nephews of sorts.

The Demotic story of Setna is known from a single papyrus manuscript in the British Museum (Pap. DCIV).⁴⁶ It was written on the back of two Greek business documents, one of which was dated in the seventh year of Claudius (A.D. 46—47). We can therefore suggest that the Demotic story was written sometime during the next half century, or roughly A.D. 50—100. According to the story, the magicians of Egypt were challenged by an Ethiopian sorcerer, but no Egyptian was able to best the challenger. So an Egyptian in Amnte, the abode of the dead, prayed in the presence of Osiris, the ruler of Amnte, to return to the land of the living. Osiris commanded that he should, and so the man, though dead for centuries, was reincarnated as the miraculous offspring of a childless couple and given the name Si-Osiris (“Son of Osiris”). Eventually, when the boy turned twelve, he dealt with the foreign sorcerer and then vanished from Earth.

The part of the story that is relevant to Luke 16 takes place while the boy is growing up. One day the boy and his father see two funerals: first, that of a rich man, shrouded in fine linen, loudly lamented and abundantly honored; then, that of a poor man, wrapped in a straw mat, unaccompanied and unmourned. The father says that he would rather have the lot of the rich man than that of the pauper. Little Si-Osiris, however, impertinently contradicts his father’s wish with an opposite one: “May it be done to you in Amnte as it is done in Amnte to this pauper and not as it is done to this rich man in Amnte!” In order to justify himself, the boy takes his earthly father on a tour of Amnte.

Si-Osiris leads his father through the seven classified halls of Amnte. The dead are assigned to one of the halls depending on the merits and demerits of their mortal lives. In the fifth hall they see a man in torment, the pivot of the door being fixed in his right eye socket, because of which he grievously laments. In the seventh they see Osiris enthroned, the ruler of Amnte, and near him a man clothed in fine linen and evidently of very high rank. Si-Osiris identifies the finely clad man as the miserably buried pauper and the tormented one as the sumptuously buried rich man. The reason for this disparate treatment is that, at the judgment, the good deeds of the pauper outweighed the bad, but with the rich man the opposite was true. Now the father is able to understand the filial wish of Si-Osiris.

Once again we are able to see how the Egyptian story has been transformed in Semitic dress. The angels of the Lucan account appear to be an instrumentality substituted for Horus (or the falcon of Horus).⁴⁷ The “bosom of Abraham” represents Amnte, the Egyptian abode of the dead. And, most remarkably, Abraham is a Jewish substitute for the pagan god Osiris—just as is the case in Facsimiles 1 and 3. These relationships are summarized in a chart following the article.

Notes for the Above

44.     Hugo Gressmann, Vom reichen Mann und armen Lazarus: Eine literargeschichtliche Studie (Berlin: Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1918); K. Grobel, “‘. . . Whose Name Was Neves,'” New Testament Studies 10 (1963—1964): 373—82. LDS scholars have begun to cite Grobel, as in H. Donl Peterson, “Book of Abraham: Origin of the Book of Abraham,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1:134. We should note that the first LDS scholar to recognize the significance of Gressmann’s and Grobel’s work to the Book of Abraham was Blake T. Ostler, “Abraham: An Egyptian Connection” (FARMS paper, 1981). For the original text see Francis Llewellyn Griffith, Stories of the High Priests of Memphis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900), 142—207, and plates.

45.     See Grobel’s chart, which is also reproduced in Ostler, “An Egyptian Connection,” 18.

46.     My description of the text closely follows that of Grobel, “Neves.”

47.     Grobel, “Neves,” 378.

I think readers would appreciate the translation of the narrative of Si-Osiris’ visit to Hades in “The Tale of Khamuas and His Son Si-Osiri” as provided by Griffith:

a wailing, . . .and he looked [from the upper chambers] of his dwelling [and behold! He saw a rich man] whom they were carrying out to the desert-necropolis, he wailing being [loud exceedingly], . . . [his condition] being more (?) glorious than his own (?). He gazed] again he [looked] at his feet (?), behold! he saw [a poor man being arid out from Memphis to the cemetery] . . . he being wrapped [in] a man, there being . . . and [none] walking [after him.
aid] Setme, ‘By [Ptah, the great god, how much better it shall be in Amenti for great men (?)] for whom [they make glory (?) with] the voice of [wailing] than for poor men whom they take to the desert-necropolis [without glory of funeral]! [But Si-Osiri said, ‘There shall be done unto thee in Amenti] like [that which] shall be done to the poor man in Amenti; [there shall not be done unto thee that which shall be gone to  this rich man in Amenti]. Thou shalt [go (?)] into Amenti
[and thou shalt see . . .

[They entered the fourth hall] . . . [And Setme saw some men that were scattered and apart, they being also ravenous (?)]; there being others whose food, water, and bread were hung over it.

II

them, and they were hastening to take it down, but other dug pits at their feet to prevent their reaching it. They entered the fifth hall and behold! Setme aw the noble spirits standing in their places, and those who had charges of violence standing at the entrance praying; [and] one made in whose  right eye the bolt of the door of the fifth hall was fixed, he praying, he uttering great lamentation. They entered a sixth hall, and behold! Setme saw the gods of the [council (?)] of the dwellers in Amenti, standing in their places, the attendants (?) of Amenti standing and making proclamation. They entered the seventh hall and behold! Setme saw the figure of Osiris the great god, seated upon his throne of fine gold, and crowned with the atef crown, Anubis the great god being on his left and the great god Thoth on his right; and the gods of the council of the dwells in Amenti were standing to lift and right of him. The balance was set in the midst before them, and they were weighing the evil deeds against the good deeds, the great god Thoth recording, And Anubis giving the word to his colleague. For he of whom it shall be found that his evil deeds are more numerous than his good deeds is delivered (?) to Ama of the Lord of Amenti; his soul and his body are destroyed and she (?) does not permit him to live again for ever. But as or him of whom it shall be found that his good deeds are more numerous than his evil deeds, he is taken among the gods of the council of the Lord of Amenti, his soul going to haven with the noble spirits. And he of whom is shall be found that his good deeds are equal to his evil deeds, he is taken amongst the excellent (?) spirits that serve Sokari-Osiris. And Setme saw (there) a great man clothed in raiment of byssus, near to the place in which Osiris was, he being of exceeding high position (?). Setme marvelled at those thing which he saw in Amenti. And Si-Osiri walked in front of (?) him; and he said to him, ‘My father Setme, dost thou not see this great man who is clothed in raiment of royal linen, standing near to the place in which Osiris is? He is that poor man whom thou sawest being carried out from Memphis, with no man following him, and wrapped in a mat. He was brought to the Tê and his evil deeds were weighed against his good deeds that he did upon earth, and it was found that his good deeds were more numerous than his evil deeds, considering (?) the life destiny which Thoth had written for him . . . considering his magnanimity (?) upon earth. And it was commanded before Osiris that the burial outfit of that rich man whom thou sawest carried forth from Mephis with great laudation, should be given to this same poor man, and that he should be taken among the noble spirits as a man of God that follows Sokaris Osiris, his place being near to the person of Osiris. (But) that great man whom thou didst see, he was taken to the Tê, his evil deeds were weighed against his good deeds, and his evil deeds were found more numerous than his good deeds that he did upon earth. It was commanded that he should be requited in Amenti, and he [is that man] whom [thou didst see], in whose right eye the pivot (?) of the gate of Amenti was fixed, shutting and opening upon it, and whose mouth was open in great lamentation. By Osiris the great god, Lord of Amenti, behold! I spake to thee on earth [saying, “There shall be done] to thee even as is done to this poor man; there shall not be done unto thee that which is done to that great man,” for I knew that which would become of him.’ Said Setme, ‘My son So-Osiri, many are the marvels that I have seen in Amenti. In due time let me learn [what hath  happened] to those men which are scattered (?) and apart (?), they being also gluttonous; there being others whose food, water, and bread is hung above them, they hastening to take it down while others are digging pits at their feet to prevent their reaching it.’ Said Si-Osiri, ‘It is just my father Setme. These men that thou sawest scattered (?) and apart (?), they being also ravenous (?), they are the kind of men on earth who are under the curse of God, and do work night and day for their living, while moreover their women rob them and they find not bread to eat. They came to Amenti: their evil deeds were found to move numerous than their good deeds; and they found that which happened to them on earth happened to them in Amenti—both to them and to those other men whom thou sawest whose food, water, and bread is hung over them, they running to take it down while others dig a pit at their feet to prevent them reaching it they are the kind of men on earth whose life is before them, but God diggeth a pit at their feet to prevent them finding it. They came to Amenti and they found (?) that that which befell them on earth befell them again [in Amenti]; behold! their souls were taken into the Tê. Find I at thy heart, my father Setme, that he who is good upon the earth they are good to him in Amenti, while he ha is evil, they are evil to him. These things are established (?), [they shall not be changed] for ever. The things that thou sawest in the Tê in Memphis, they happen in the forty-two names in which [are the assessors (?)] of Osiris the great god, [whose seat is in] Abydos, the place of Oracle (?), the dwellings of princes, . . . Philae.’ (Francis Llewellyn Griffith, Stories of the High Priest of Memphis: The Dethon of Herodotus and the Demotic Tales of Khamuas [Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1900], 44-50)