Neter: The Egyptian Word For God
Neter: The Egyptian Word For God
Neter: The Egyptian Word For God
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THE MONIST
NETER.
common word
given by the Egyptians to God, and god,
THE and spirits of every kind, and being of all sorts, and kinds,
and forms,which were supposed to possess any superhuman, super
natural power, was neter, , and the hieroglyph which is used
both as the determinative of this word and also as an ideograph is
Thuswe have or "god," and^ or or
^or ^ *]^, *]f, Ifl^ ,
the plural is sometimes written out in full, for
'TT] !, "gods";
instance, v ^1 1*^e common wor^ for "goddess" is netert,
0
which is either written T , or T ,or I| <~>; sometimes the
IO. I * <? O
determinative of the word is a woman, and at others a serpent,
J|,
e. g., The plural is neterit,
C]<?>^. ^<^^?j^!
Wehave now to consider what object is supposed to be repre
sented by and what the word neter means.
^,
In Bunsen's Egypt's Place (I., Nos. 556, 557, 623) the late
Dr. Birch described as a hatchet; in 1872 Dr. Brugsch placed1
^
among "objects tranchants armes" in his classified list of hiero
1 2Proc. Bibl.
Griffith, Hieroglyphs, p. 46. Soc. Arch., 1899, p. 310.
ting edge at each end, and was tied by leather thongs to the end of
a stick by the middle, thus becoming a double axe ; examples of
such a weapon appear to be given on the green slate object of the
archaic period which is preserved in the British Museum1 (Nos.
20,790, 20,792), where, however, the axe-heads appear to be fixed
in forked wooden handles. In its next form the axe-head has only
one cutting edge, and the back of it is shaped for fastening to a
handle by means of leather thongs.
When we consider the importance that the axe, whether as a
weapon or tool, was to primitive man, we need not wonder that it
became to him first the symbol of physical force, or strength, and
then of divinity or dominion. By means of the axe the predynastic
glyphic suggests that the head was made of metal when the
^
Egyptians first began to use the character as the symbol of divin
ity, and it is clear that this change in the material of which the axe
head was made would make the weapon more effective than ever.
Brugsch was
entirely different, for he thought that the fundamental
meaning of the word was "the operative power which created and
The first part of the work fromwhich these words are quoted
appeared in 1885, but that Dr. Brugsch held much the same views
six years later is evident from the following extract from his volume
"Es liegt auf der Hand, dass der Gottesname im Sinne von Starker, M?ch
tiger, vieles f?r sich hat, um so mehr als selbst leblose Gegenst?nde, wie z. B. ein
werden. Aber so vieles diese Erkl?rung f?r sich zu haben scheint, so wenig stimmt
sie zu der Thatsache, dass in den Texten aus der besten Zeit (XVIII. Dynastie)
das Wort nutr als ein Synonym f?r die Vorstellung der Verj?ngung oder Erneue
1 "Der
Inbegriff dieses Wortes deckt sich daher vollst?ndig mit der urspr?ng
"
lichen Bedeutung des griechischen physis und des lateinischen natura (p. 93).
oneself,' for nuteri is applied to the resuscitated soul which clothes itself in its im
mortal form."
The Sanskrit word deva is identical with the Latin deus, and the northern tivi
tivar ; as now the word in Latin and northern language signifies God itmust also
in Sanskrit from the beginning have had the same signification. That is to say,
the Arians, or Indo-Europeans, must have combined the idea of God with this
word, as early as when they still lived together in their original home. Because,
if the word in their prehistoric home had had another more primitive significa
tion, the wonder would have happened, that the word had accidentally gone through
the same development of signification with all these people after their separation.
As this is quite improbable, the word must have had the signification of God in the
original Indo-European language. One could go even farther and presume that,
in this language also, it was a word derived from others, and consequently origi
nated from a still earlier prehistoric language. All things considered it is possible,
even probable, that the idea of God has developed itself in an earlier period of lan
guages than the Indo-European. The future will perhaps be able to supply evi
dence for this. The science of languages has been able partly to reconstruct an
historic Semitic, and a prehistoric Hamitic, and of these three prehistoric lan
guages, whose original connection it not only guesses, but even commences to prove
gradually, it will, we trust in time, be able to extract a still earlier prehistoric lan
guage, which according to analogy might be called Noahitic. When we have come
so far, we shall most likely in this prehistoric language, also find words expressing
the idea of God. But it is even possible that the idea of God has not come into
existence in this prehistoric language either. It may be the first dawning of. the
idea, and the word God should be ascribed to still earlier languages, to layers of
tween the time of inhabiting caves in the quaternian period, and the historical
kingdoms, there is such a long space of time, that it is difficult to entertain the
idea, that itwas quite devoid of any conception of divinity, so that this should first
have sprung up in the historical time. In any case we shall not be able to prove
historically where and when the question first arose, who are the superhuman
powers whose activity we see daily in nature and in human life. Although the
Egyptians are the earliest civilised people known in history, and just therefore
especially important for the science of religion, yet it is even there impossible to
point out the origin of the conception of the deity. The oldest monuments of
Egypt bring before us the gods of nature chiefly, and among these especially the
sun. They mention, however, already early (in the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties)
now and then the great power, or the great God, it being uncertain whether this
refers to the sun, or another god of nature, or if it was a general appellation of the
probably this great God indicated on the monuments, from the Fourth Dynasty,
and later on, who has given occasion to the false belief that the oldest religion of
the Egyptians was pure monotheism. But firstly, it must be observed, that he
is not mentioned alone but alongside of the other gods, secondly, that he is merely
'
called The great God,' being otherwise without distinguishing appellations, and a
God of whom nothing else is mentioned, has, so to speak, to use Hegel's language,
ing, and he prefers to declare that the word is so old that its earliest
signification is unknown. In other words, it has the meaning of
to-day, for an Egyptian god is a being who is born and dies, like
man, and is finite, imperfect, and corporeal, and is endowed with
1
Egyptian Religion, by J. Lieblein, Leipzig, 1884.
2Za de Mythologie, torn, ii., p. 215).
Mythologie ?gyptienne p. 216 {?tudes
newal," and that others think its original meaning is not only un
known, but that it is impossible to find it out. But although we
may not be able to discover the exact meaning which the word had
in pre-dynastic times, we may gain some idea of the meaning which
was attached to it in the dynastic period by an examination of a
few passages from the hymns and Chapters which are found in the
various of the Book of theDead.
versions In the text of Pepi I.
- =*
?IP ~A?~ @J).1 ek?
-
nr
er neteru
more than the gods.
weter - tea
I have become neter.
? flETi Is Ti-
-
U?l
at tea weter tea hhu, - tea
I have become pure, I have become neter, I have become a
spirit (khu),
"IPSTi *VlTi6
user ? te? -
ia tea
I have become strong, I have become a soul (?a).
? m
i^i
unen-f neter m? neteru em Net erSchertet
this being neter with the gods in the Neter-khertet.
(or, he shall be)
1See
my Chapters of Coming" Forth by Day, Text, p. n, 1. 10.
8.
O :<*
cm & 2
9.
I
ba - k em Sebut
per
They make thy soul in the house of Sebut.
10.
- - k
n mir
ne tri f m? neteru
He makes net er thy soul like the gods.
11.
IS 1?H
w
neter netri kheper tchesef pant
God netri, self-produced, primeval matter.
say that he has acquired the quality of neter, and a spirit, and a
1See Forth
my Chapters of Coming by Day, Text, p. 419, 1. 7.
E. A. Wallis Budge.
London, England.