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the
BIG UESTION:
Where did the idea
ofan"immortal souf' come from?
F
EW BELIEFS
are more
widely held than that of
the "immortal sou
l. "
Virtually eve ryone is
familiar with the concept. The
ave r age rel igious person, i f
asked, would state
it
something
like this:
A human person is both
body
and
soul.
The body is the physical
fl esh-and-blood "shell" temporarily
housi ng the soul. The soul is the
nonmaterial aspect, made of spirit.
At death the soul leaves the body,
and lives on consciously forever in
heaven or in hell. (Sorne hold that
liberated souls are reborn in new
bodies in a series of " reincarna–
tions" or " transmigrations. " )
Sorne form of this concept is
found among virtually aJ I peoples
and religions in the world today.
The average religious person gener–
aJ ly takes the idea for granted.
Science, which deals with the
material universe, cannot verify or
deny the existence of any such soul.
How, then, can one
know
wheth–
er or not man really has an " im–
mortal soul "?
Few have stopped to ask
where
the concept carne from. Many sim–
ply
assume
it is found in the
Bible.
So prepare yourself for what
could be one of the big surprises of
your Iife!
Back to Egypt
The idea of an "irnmortal soul ' '
10
by
Keith W. Stump
long predates the founding of
today's majar religions. The an–
cient Greek histo ri an Herodotus
(5 th century B.C.) tells us in his
History
that the ancient Egyptians
were the first to teach that the soul
of man is separable from the body,
and imrnortal. This Egyptian idea
was centuries before Judaisrn, or
Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity
and Islam carne onto the scene.
Nowhere in the ancient world
was tbe afterlife of more concern
than in Egy pt. T he countless tombs
uneartbed by archaeologists aJong
the N ile provide eloquent testirno–
ny to the Egyptian belief that man
possessed a spirituaJ aspect extend–
ing beyond his physical life.
To the east, the ancient Babylo–
nians aJso held a belief in a future
life of the soul in a "Iower world."
But Babylonian beliefs were no–
where so elaborate as the Egyp–
tian.
A person, the Egyptians be–
lieved, consisted of a physical body
and not one but
two
souls that lived
on after bis dea th : a
ka
soul and a
ba
soul.
The
ka
was said to be a spirit
replica of a man, containing the
"vital force" given to him at birth.
At death, the
ka
was believed to
take up residence in a statue or pic–
ture of the deceased. The statue or
picture was placed in the tornb for
that very purpose. As the tomb was
to be the eterna! home of the
ka,
it
was provided with everything the
ka
would need for a happy after-
life- food, furniture, games, read–
ing material, g rooming aids and the
Jike.
The other soul, the
ba,
was held
to be that part of man that enjoyed
an eterna) existence in heaven. It
was believed to ft y from the body
with the last breath. The
ba
was
often depicted on tomb paintings as
a huma n-headed hawk hovering
over th e deceased' s body. T he
ancient Egyptians believed t he
ba
occasionally carne back to "visit"
the body in the tomb and to partake
of the food and drink offeri ngs
there.
The famous
Book of The
Dead-a
collection of a ncient
Egypti an funerary and ritu a l
texts- lays out in great detail the
many Egyptian beliefs about the
afterlife. In one version of the
work, dating from the 15th centu ry
B.C., the
ba
of a deceased person is
pictured as asking one of the Egyp–
tian gods, " How long have 1 to
live?" To which the god replied:
"T hou shalt exist for millions of
millions of years, a period of millions
of years." What better depiction of
the concept of immortaJity?
Passed on to Greeks
The idea of the soul's immortality
did not cease with a ncient Egyptian
civilization. Notice again the testi–
mony of the histor ian Herodotus:
"The Egyptians were the first
that asserted that the soul of man is
immortal. ... This opinion
sorne
among the Greeks
have at different
The
PLAIN TRUTH