The Egyptian Book of the dead by P. Le Page Renouf and Edouard Naville

doctrine of _Nomina Numina_; and that more than 3000 years before Christ. The _Names_ of Râ, the Sun-god, are said, when taken together, to compose ‘the cycle of the gods.’ ⁂⁂. Or the names which he has created, to which he has given rise, that is the names of all the solar phenomena, recurring as they do, day after day, to the eyes of all beholders, compose “the cycle of the gods,” who are also called the limbs or members of Râ. The scholia contained in the papyri of the XVIIIth and later dynasties explain the text as follows:— “It is Râ as he creates the _names_ of his _limbs_ (⁂) which _become_ the gods who accompany him.” And the present chapter later on says of Chepera, the rising Sun, that the “cycle of the gods is his body.” The god who has hitherto been spoken of is Râ. In glaring contradiction to the whole text, a later note states that the resistless god is “the Water, which is _Nu_”; that is Heaven.[29] ⁂⁂⁂ _Nu_ is not alluded to at all in the primitive text, but the papyrus of Nebseni already exhibits the corruption of the fine passage, “I am he who closeth and he who openeth, and I am but One.” This is itself an addition, the true meaning of which was afterwards destroyed by the interpolation of the words ⁂⁂⁂⁂. These are ambiguous. They might mean that the god was alone ‘in heaven,’ or that he was alone ‘_as_ Heaven.’ The papyrus of Ani has ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, “I was born from Nu.” These attempted improvements do not give a favourable impression of the exegetical acumen of Egyptian theologians. But the mention of ‘Water’ in the scholion has nothing whatever to do with the doctrine of Thales, and to suppose that it has implies a confusion between two very different realms of human thought.