The 10 Commandments are viewed by Jews and Christians as the origin of morality. This is the height of arrogance and conceit.

The Truth Is…

Long before Moses presented the 10 commandments (See “The Bible is Wrong About The 10 Commandments) to the Children of Israel, the Egyptians had developed a much more refined and complete set of laws.

For those who believe that the 10 commandments initiated morality we introduce what is known about ancient Egyptian law.

Evidence of ancient Egyptian Law can be found in many biographical texts of dead Egyptians. Biographical texts include two declarations of innocence in which the deceased denies having committed various crimes. These are many, known as The Negative Confessionin, such as “I have done no injustice to people, nor have I maltreated an animal” or “I have done no wrong” It also records some very specific faults:

Crimes of a cultic nature: blasphemy, stealing from temple offerings or offerings to the dead, defiling the purity of a sacred place.

Crimes of an economic nature: tampering with the grain measure, the boundaries of fields, or the plummet of the balance

Criminal acts: theft and murder

Exploitation of the weak and causing injury: depriving orphans of their property, causing pain or grief, doing injury, causing hunger.

Moral and social failings: lying, committing adultery, ignoring the truth, slandering servants before their master, being aggressive, eavesdropping, losing one’s temper, speaking without thinking.

 Thus, the 10 commandments were revealed long after the Egyptians had developed a far superior moral code. As in the Christian Bible, most Egyptians loved their gods, and the ancient Egyptian believed that looking out for his neighbors was a high point in his life. Other early texts, we find lines such as “Never did I take the property of any person”; “Never did I say a bad thing about anyone to the king (or) to a potentate because I desired that I might be honored before the god”; and “Never did I do anything evil against any person”, all of which are recognizable ethical standards to most of the modern world. The ideals expressed in biographies, including justice, honesty, fairness, mercy, kindness and generosity, and reflect the central concept of Ma’at, the cosmic and social order of the universe as established by their creator god.