Law of the Maat

The law of Maat

Maat was the spirit in which justice was applied rather than the detailed legalistic exposition of rules.

The doctrine of Maat is represented in the declarations to Rekhti-merti-f-ent-Maat and the 42 Negative Confessions listed in the Papyrus of Ani.

The following are taken from public domain translations made by E. A. Wallis Budge in the early part of the 20th century; more recent translations may differ.

42 Negative Confessions

Papyrus of Ani

1. I have not committed sin.
2. I have not committed robbery with violence.
3. I have not stolen.
4. I have not slain men and women.
5. I have not stolen grain.
6. I have not purloined offerings.
7. I have not stolen the property of the gods.
8. I have not uttered lies.
9. I have not carried away food.
10. I have not uttered curses.
11. I have not committed adultery, I have not lain with men.
12. I have made none to weep.
13. I have not eaten the heart [i.e., I have not grieved uselessly, or felt remorse].
14. I have not attacked any man.
15. I am not a man of deceit.
16. I have not stolen cultivated land.
17. I have not been an eavesdropper.
18. I have slandered [no man].
19. I have not been angry without just cause.
20. I have not debauched the wife of any man.
21. I have not debauched the wife of [any] man. (repeats the previous affirmation but addressed to a different god).
22. I have not polluted myself.
23. I have terrorized none.
24. I have not transgressed [the Law].
25. I have not been wroth.
26. I have not shut my ears to the words of truth.
27. I have not blasphemed.
28. I am not a man of violence.
29. I am not a stirrer up of strife (or a disturber of the peace).
30. I have not acted (or judged) with undue haste.
31. I have not pried into matters.
32. I have not multiplied my words in speaking.
33. I have wronged none, I have done no evil.
34. I have not worked witchcraft against the King (or blasphemed against the King).
35. I have never stopped [the flow of] water.
36. I have never raised my voice (spoken arrogantly, or in anger).
37. I have not cursed (or blasphemed) God.
38. I have not acted with evil rage.
39. I have not stolen the bread of the gods.
40. I have not carried away the khenfu cakes from the spirits of the dead.
41. I have not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city.
42. I have not slain the cattle belonging to the god.

The Ten and their difference

In the Decalogue parchment by Jekuthiel Sofer 1768. We see the Ten Commandments listed off in the Old Testament.

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What was the function, means and method of these statements on stone and how did they differ from the civil laws of Egyptian Maat at the time that Israel departed from the bondage of Egypt?

Originally the Maat written for the common man may have had a good intent. It is said that Egyptians believed their hearts would be weighed against the feather of Ma'at.

Under the corruption of the power of the corvee funded social welfare State of Egypt which had snared the people during the great famine and the degenerating effects of the free bread from the civil temples of Egypt the Maat and the people's relationship to it changed.

The Ten Commandments were unique in not only their number but in what they did and did not do.

In the Egyptian Book Of The Dead the role of Maat was to allow for the close relationship between law and religion. But the means and the method for implement them were as different as their Altars.

There was no Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite and New Babylonian law collections in ancient Egypt and they used common language defining their legal concepts in the Maat.

It was the purpose of law of Maat to achieve order, and justice through the seven principles of Truth, Justice, Harmony, Balance, Order, Propriety, and Reciprocity.

It was tied up with a religious world view and represented the rules regulating the behaviour of members of society.

The Maat was different than the Ten Commandments in that besides number 10 and 42 in the Maat the king upheld the law and maintained the maat in society as his duty. There was no king in Israel.

He was therefore expected to "rule by maat" and in order to attain maat on earth he had to make law.

The word for law and the plural form of that gyptian word was translated to include "regulations" and "statutes". It was essentially that the maat necessitated or was enforced by the king who was justified by their understanding there was a religious origin.

This allowed the king, the vizier or "prime minister" to have jurisdiction over crimes against the state. The king was the head of the judicial administration.

The "Instruction of the Vizier", Rekhmire (ca 1479-1425 BCE), read as:

"I judge both (the insignificant) and the influential. I rescue the weak man from the strong man; I deflected the fury of the evil man and subdued the greedy man in his hour ... I succoured the widow who has no husband; I established the son and heir on the seat of his father. I gave (bread to the hungry), water to the thirsty, and meat, oil and clothes to him who had nothing ... I was not at all deaf to the indigent. Indeed, I never took a bribe from anyone."

The purpose of this law in ancient Egypt was to link law and maat through Kingship as the effective power of the order by the king's authority over other. Neither Moses nor Jesus did that.

The king was seen as a source of law and therefore the ancient Egyptians regarded him as a god. His word therefore had the force of law and was the primary source of law where only he could literally be "putting maat in place of injustice" as the king's duty.

In the Ten Commandments God remained the source of law and it's Reciprocity, through the wrath of God. The people held the Proprietor rights or property.

Everyman was held responsible for attending to the !!weightier matters]] of law, which under the guidance of the precedence of Moses and a spirit of a Harmony lead conscience included "judgment, mercy, and faith" which provided , Balance and Order within society.

The Hammurabi codes which included a set of 282 laws written by Hammurabi, the king of Babylon circa 1792 BCE, that established a civil law under his courts and rule.