. . . the idea of universal salvation was around far earlier than
this. Some of our earliest extant writings attest to it. Carved on the wall of
the tomb of Nefer-hotep at Thebes (Tomb No. 50), dating to the reign of
Hor-em-heb (about 1349-1319 B.C.), is a text that sets forth the ancient
Egyptian belief that, upon death, all find a fulfillment of the good
things of this life. (Martin S. Tanner, “Is There Nephite
Anti-Universalist Rhetoric in the Book of Mormon?,” FARMS Review of
Books on the Book of Mormon 6, no. 1 [1994]: 432)
The Good Fortune
of the Dead
The Egyptians looked upon death as a continuation of this life and a
fulfillment of the good things of this life. The following text sets forth the
quietude which is the happy lot of the dead.
Carved on the wall of the tomb of Nefer-hotep at Thebes (Tomb No. 50)
and dated to the reign of Hor-em-heb (about 1349–1319 b.c.). From the same tomb
comes the Song of the Harper (p. 467 below). Published by A. H. Gardiner in PSBA, xxxv (1913), 165–70, and by M.
Lichtheim, with translation and bibliography, in JNES, iv (1945), 197–98, 212. The setting and significance of the
text are discussed by Gardiner, The
Attitude of the Ancient Egyptians to Death and the Dead (Cambridge, 1935),
32.
The Singer with the Harp of the God’s Father of Amon, Nefer-hotep, the
triumphant, said:
All ye excellent nobles, the Ennead of the Mistress of Life,
Hear ye how praises are made to the God’s Father,
With homage paid to the excellent noble’s efficacious soul,
Now that he is a god living forever,
Magnified in the West.
May they become a remembrance for the future,
For all who come to pass by.
I have heard those songs which are in the ancient tombs
And what they tell in magnifying (life) on earth
And in belittling the necropolis.
Why is it that such is done to the land of eternity,
The right and true, without terrors?
Quarreling is its abomination,
And there is no one who arrays himself against his fellow.
This land which has no opponent—
All our kinsfolk rest in it since the first day of time.
They who are to be, for millions of millions,
Will all have come to it.
There exists none who may tarry in the land of Egypt;
There is not one who fails to reach yon place.
As for the duration of what is done on earth,
It is a kind of a dream;
(But) they say: “Welcome, safe and sound!”
To him who reaches the West. (The Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, ed. James Bennett Pritchard [3d ed.;
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969], 33-34, emphasis in bold added)
