An eye opening realization
If there's one thing that separates modern religious folk from othern moderns it's a great concern with the afterlife
I’m beginning to wonder whether Maimonides exploration of ancient Egypt had a noticable influence on his understanding of ancient Judaism.
The afterlife is too important a subject to just drop here in a mini-note but I’ll do it anyway. If only by chapter headings as Maimonides himself did.
Ancient Egypt built a lasting empire unlike any other. If Jesus is still worshipped in 1,500 years the length of his reign will reach that of Horus.
The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest building of its time. It was also the tallest building of Moses time. And of Maimonides time. In fact, it was the tallest building on Earth for 4,000 years.
The fuel of Egyptian “greatness” was enslavement of the soul. Enslavement of the body takes no effort at all once a man’s soul is sold.
They sold their living souls to the promise of an afterlife. The Pharoahs were not the only people to be mummified. In fact, people were not the only dead to be mummified. There may have been over a million animals mummified for eternal life.
Compare and Contrast everything in the 5 Books of Moses to the world of ancient Egypt. [You can start with Genesis 3:19 and Ecclesiastes 12:7 (at one time the penultimate verse of the Bible.]
Horus and all of the other symbols and sillinesses of ancient Egypt were known to be silly by many of the “Living God” Pharoahs and their Chartumim (usually imprecisely defined as “magicians”) but they held on to them all religiously (including their many uncomfortable nonsensical royal clothes, such as fake beards and serpent hats) such that only once did a Divine Pharoah invoke his absolute power to refashion God as intelligent monotheists understand God today. That's because Monotheism is a liberating force that leads to upheavals that are not only bad for the Rulers but dangerous for all of society. The rejection of tradition opens the way for more fools than philosophers. Witness the sudden overwhelming sacrilization of Transgenderism over only the past 10 years.
This being the case, those knowledgeable, wise, and in love with The Emes v’Shalom (The Truth and The Goodness, a.ka. YHWH) would do well to understand the ancient religions that Judaism is - more than anything else - a wholesale rejection of. For only through that understanding can modern Judaism and the religions it bore be purified of their pharaonic remains and liberation be achieved, and death conquered, as our Prophets promised.
As Maimonides repeatedly stresses regarding the afterlife, עַ֣יִן לֹֽא־רָאָ֗תָה אֱלֹהִים֙ זוּלָ֣תְךָ֔ - No eye but God’s has, should, or can comprehend the reward of the righteous.