Dr. Einar C. Erickson
Ancient Document Mormon Scholar
Main Menu
Search
Statistics
Articles View Hits
2047958

Quote

Those, Lord, who have come into knowledge but have turned away, what will happen to them? To that place they go to which the angels of poverty will go. They will be received of that place, the place which is without repentance and they will be kept until the day when they shall be tortured. Those who have spoken blasphemy against the spirit they will be punished with eternal punishment.

INTRODUCTION: 

We start with CHERUBIM in this entry even though it is a Biblical name. As before, mention will be made of each name in the Book of Mormon alphabetically, but emphasize and discuss only names for this series of studies that are essentially unique to the Book of Mormon or established as ancient and especially in Jaredite times, using as the basic text the AKKADIAN DICTIONARY  compiled from ancient clay tablets and inscriptions found in Mesopotamia,  with references to contemporary dictionaries or sources.  Most of these sources have only become available during the past fifteen years.  As before, the name on the left is from the Book of Mormon, on the right are those names found to be related to or similar to,  or can be confirmed as precisely like Book of Mormon names.  It is amazing how many names are found in the ancient dictionaries originally coming from clay tablets dug from the mounds of ancient ruins in Mesopotamia and surround regions, assembled and translated at this time.                             

CHERUBIM: 

A biblical name. See BIBLE DICTIONARY and TOPICAL GUIDE

The guardian of the Tree of Life was Cherubim.  "God placed Cherubim  (Angels) and flaming sword east of Eden." (Alma 12: 30 (42: 2-3); Genesis 3:24.

CHERUBIM begins with a C.  In the Akkadian language there is no C.  There is also no C in the Assyrian, Neo-Assyrian, Phoenician or Eblaitic of the same time period as the Jaredites,  or other languages of the region. Among other languages, Hebrew, which came much later than Akkadian, and  Hittite, did adopt use of  C and J . Hittite names were discussed in PART 12 of this series confirming some kind of contact between the Jaredites and the Hittites. Something akin to CHERUBIM may exist in the ancient Epic sagas as guardian Gods and Angels, that may be recognized in translation, since these ancient sagas may preserve elements from the time of Adam and other earlier patriarchs.  Some  sagas so clearly parallel the Biblical stories that some scholars are adamant that the Bible got its stories from the sagas,  ancient epic stories and accounts  and embellished them with the details now found in the Bible, which of course is  nonsense, it was the other way around, as new studies, including these series, confirm.

COHOR:  KA, KUM, HOR, HUR- HORUS

Largey prepared a 44 generation genealogical table. (Largey p . 431) But there are some gaps in it.  It seems to trace Ether, the final surviving Jaredite and prophet,  back to Jared.  Peterson prepared a similar chart on the basis of the incomplete king list. (Peterson pp. 67-70) One of the greatest men ever born on earth was Jared's brother MAHORNI MORIANCUMER,  but about him we have very little and only a few of his descendants are even mentioned in the book of Ether and the one descendant that did rule is not even mentioned by name, he is just identified as a warrior. Some have assumed that the 44 generations of those born to this particular lineage that are mentioned in the record could be the genealogy of Ether, but there are many breaks; there is an unknown amount of generations missing during the time of Morianton (Ether 10),  and several other places in the record.  For instance there are unknown kings not listed after the accounting of those  killed in battles. Then there were unnamed kings following Kim.  And there are names missing during the reign of Lib and his son Hearthrom , which was a Zion period in Jaredite history,  for there  "never could be a people more blessed than they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord." (Ether 10:28)  Then Hearthrom was captured by an unnamed king and unnamed kings followed for nearly five generations when COM re-established the kingdom. It was the same following Shiblom, a reign of unknown kings until the grandson of Shiblom, Ahah, became king. Ahah was evil, so was his son Ethem and so was his grandson Moron, but MORON is identified as an ancestor of Ether the prophet.  Then there was an unnamed warrior who was a descendant of the brother of Jared,  MAHONRI MORIANCUMER, who for a time ruled as king; he was followed by unnamed kings again. 

Evidently there were significant descendents of the brother of Jared among the Jaredite population,  but they played little role in politics or the ruling of the people.  MORON, who was king  just before the warrior king entered the picture, was the grandfather of  ETHER  the prophet who was writing the record. (Peterson pp. 69-70 ) Either Moroni in his abridgement did not mention the names of these other kings, or the records Ether had lacked them.

The people had become numerous and, for some reason that escapes us, they wanted a king. The list could also be just an old record, incomplete as it may be, of the kings in the line of Jared.  However, the first candidate for the job of king wanted by the people, was PAGAG, the first born of MAHONRI MORIANCUMER. He declined. The people tried to get his father to constrain him but his father would not.  PAGAG  had many brothers, both MAHONRI  and Jared had many wives and many sons and daughters, but none of the brothers of PAGAG  would accept the kingdom, so they tried to get one of the sons of Jared to be their king. We don't know how many brothers there were but all declined except ORIHAH, who appears,  according to the chart, to be the fourth son of Jared.  (Largey p. 431)  ORIHAH was a man of God, under his kingship the people prospered and "they became exceedingly rich." (Ether 6:28)

ORIHAH had thirty-one children of which 23 were sons, certainly evidence that he had more than one wife, and many were maturing about the same time.  It is evident that most of the Jaredites had multiple wives.  One of those sons was KIB, and of the sons of KIB, two are mentioned in the record, one was CORIHOR, who was the father of COHOR and NOAH. There were other sons. For NOAH only his son COHOR is given in the list. This second COHOR was the grandson of CORIHOR and the nephew of the first  COHOR. This feature of naming sons and nephews with the same name, papponymy , is an ancient practice and occurs frequently in the Book of Mormon.  It is a rather technical but important evidence Joseph was working on an authentic ancient document with ancient rules and practices. NIMROD was the only son of COHOR mentioned in the record, then the king line passed to the descendants of SHULE  (Ether 7:22) the brother of CORIHOR.  (Largey p. 430; Peterson pp. 67-70)  Most of those  named will be discussed in the future, one of the reasons for listing them is to help make readers aware of the baggage of ancient names carried by the Jaredite record.          

MAHONRI  MORIACUMER, THE BROTHER OF JARED

There is no suggestion by Moroni as to why the chief character of the Book of Ether  narrative  did not have his name given and was simply known as "the brother of Jared."  Daniel H. Ludlow suggested that reasons why the actual name was not used is that the brother of Jared himself, out of modesty, may have intentionally had his name omitted, something like John did in writing his gospel. Or the final writer, Ether, a direct descendant of Jared, wanted to emphasize the names of his progenitors, but he left out names in numerous places, or the original records Ether was working with was deficient in some parts of the history and names were not recorded, or Moroni took a short cut because the name was too difficult to adequately translate into the Nephite language.  If the last is true, it may be difficult to find much information on the complex name.

This was one of the greatest of men born on earth, few had a record of divine relationships than he. "In 1893 George Reynolds wrote that Joseph Smith revealed the name of the brother of Jared: "While residing in Kirtland Elder Reynolds Cahoon had a son born to him. One day when President Joseph Smith was passing his door he called the Prophet in and asked him to bless and name the baby.  Joseph did so and gave the boy the name of MAHONRI MORIACUMER. When he had finished the blessing he laid the child on the bed, and turning to Elder Cahoon he said, the name I have given your son is the name of the Brother of Jared; the Lord has just shown (or revealed) it to me. Elder William F. Cahoon, who was standing near, heard the Prophet make this statement to his father; and this was the first time the name of the brother of Jared was known in the Church in this dispensation." (Ogden p. 256)  Incidentally , the younger sister of my wife married into the Cahoon family.  

COHOR,  a seemingly short and simple name, it is anything but that.  Remember in the Akkadian Dictionary, there is no C. and there is also no J.  Think about that for a moment.  How could they  formulate the name for the Lord, CHRIST, and also in Akkadian there could not be written the name Jesus for the Savior . Why in the confusion of languages would a language be so confounded as to be unable to express the names of the Lord? Or even JOSEPH.  Was it to      deprive a certain people for a certain time period the inability to correctly refer to the CHRIST and to JESUS, or even JOSEPH? Even some of the ancients knew about the GREAT JOSEPH that would come in the last days. (Odberg, pp. 144-147) 

In Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian languages there is also no C or J, (Parpola, Simo p. 19, 44) and in certain other Semitic languages, and several others such as Phoenician where consonantal elements are used without vowels, there is no C or J.  In ancient Egyptian there is also no C or J.  But about 1200 BC when Hebrew was being developed they included  C and J. (Mandel pp. 96,228)  The Greeks got around it by using K for C and H for J.  (KRISTOS, HESUS) Some Semitic languages use a Y instead of a J in the name of the Lord, YAHWEH, THAT DIVINE BEING WHOM ISRAEL HAD KNOWN FROM ITS ORIGINS. (Sabourin p. ix)

Important also, is in old Akkadian the language had no 'O', (Black p. 260)  so in Akkadian COHOR  would have been written with a KI-, KU-, or KA-  prefix.   To get a vocal sound similar to CO-  the KI or KU would come the closest, (Black  pp. 139, 155, 162) but all meaning  "to, to be, you, yours, like."  The ending suffix is -HOR, an abbreviation for the great Egyptian god, about which we will say more.  The usage most likely meaning  "to be like HORUS."  Latter Day Saints are admonished all the time "to be like the Savior, to be like the Father."  We will even ask: is there some connection between HORUS and JESUS CHRIST?

Because COHOR is in the Jaredite language it is likely the original Adamic retained the C and J.  So research on the name needs to examine the two main elements, the prefix  CO-and suffix -HOR.  In the Akkadian language there are such elements as:  KA, which would pass for CO,  meaning "you," and HOR  the suffix, an abbreviation for a very important Egyptian God, HORUS.  (Black p. 391)  HOR seems to mean "to be," meaning  "you are or are like HORUS." (the implication here being you are a God or can become a God)

In Neo-Assyrian and Akkadian  there is KI, (as in KIRI-AHE), meaning "to awaken" (Parpola  p. 474).  KI would pass for CO. (Black p. 139)  And HOR, the suffix, is a hypocoristicon, abbreviation for HORUS, a prominent early Egyptian God, the  Sun God, he was known from primeval times by the names for the Sun God, RA, ATUM and HERAKHTY. (Shorter p. 109)  Nine Gods made up the GREAT ENNAED  at HELIOPOLIS, the most important   body of gods in the Egyptian pantheon, with HORUS, the SUN GOD leading the list. (Ibid p. 7)  Most likely the prefix CO, reflects an Egyptian influence. In the great temple built by SETI 1 with its seven sanctuaries  dedicated to the great gods, HORUS was one of these by name, and some of the others of the seven sanctuaries were dedicated to HORUS under one of the other names by which HORUS was also known,  such as Amen-Ra and Herakhty.  (Ibid p. 21)  The Title, HERAKHTY, is simply "Horus of the horizon," (Shorter p. 109)  meaning "the rising sun at dawn."   After death and the fixed rituals HORUS,  providing the initiate as part of the ceremony, bread and drink, introduces, the initiate to his father OSIRIS that he may exist in the presence of OSIRIS like the followers of HORUS  forever. [The cult of OSIRIS will be the subject of a future study]. The followers of HORUS were the legendary heroes who fought with Horus during his time upon earth both as the SOLAR HORUS and as the SON OF OSIRIS. (Ibid p. 57)  Are you noticing the parallels to Jesus Christ?  

The prefix CO-equivalent in Egyptian could also be: KA, meaning "the spirit residing in the body."  (Budge, Vol. 11,  p. 783)  The meaning for COHOR  might then be  "you have the spirit of HORUS residing in you."  But we need to know more about Egyptian names, Gods, and history, even if only sketched out briefly, in order to understand the name  COHOR  a little more.  The linkage to Egypt becomes stronger when we find the name HUR-ASU, the prefix here of HUR is the same as HOR. The name  HUR-ASU "may contain the Egyptian theophoric element HORUS."  (Baker p. 481)  "The name HUR-ASI is Akkadian and refers to "the Golden One,"  It would mean "HORUS" is the "golden one." (Parpola p. 480)  Because there are a number of Book of Mormon names ending in HOR, we will present a little more information as a foundation in the discussion of COHOR and future  discussions of  other names with the HOR ending with more details when we get to them alphabetically. 

EDFU, THE TEMPLE OF HORUS

Thomas Shaw, an early intrepid explorer, visited Alexandria and Gizeh sometime between 1720 and 1733 and wrote: "In our journeys between Kairo [today's Cairo, they were using the K back then instead of a C] and Mount Sinai, the heavens were every night our covering; the sand, with a carpet spread over it, was our bed, and a change of raiment made up into a bundle was our pillow."  The party traveled in two dahibeyehs, -the sailing boat used in Egypt on the Nile. On board one of them was the Anglican clergyman Richard Pocke, an enthusiastic artist who eagerly sketched the magnificent monuments which he saw and described.  He was an artist who had already visited many major sites and was now traveling to Aswan,  in southern Egypt, visiting many places on route--Philae, Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, where a great deal of  Egypt's past is located, then Denderah and EDFU, the ancient TEMPLE OF HORUS. (David pp. 46-47)  Because of the sand covering the ancient temple he could only draw the upper porticos and pillars. There are many before and after pictures of this famous temple of the famous god. EDFU,  was one if the first urban towns.  It was a major town surrounded  by thick walls, and is dated to the Old Kingdom (2675-2130),  (Sasson p. 687) This time spans the area of the Jaredite epic migration and so is of particular interest.  It was situated on the west bank of the Nile River several miles south of the great religious complex HIERAKONPOLIS and about 40 miles north of ASWAN. (Sassons p. 667)  Ancient records including the SHABAKA STONE, itself a copy of a much earlier document, tells of the defeat of evil by HORUS, chasing evil to the Delta, "concludes, HORUS stood over the land; he is the uniter of this land." (Sasson p. 680)

THE CULTUR TEMPLE AND THE MORTUARY TEMPLE IN EGYPT

The CULTUS TEMPLE  was an isolated structure where the resident god was worshiped by means of rituals and festivals, of which HORUS had many.  The MORTUARY TEMPLE  was the next major type of temple, often it was attached to a royal tomb or in the time of the Old Kingdom, to a pyramid. The main function was to provide a place where the dead king could receive worship and the funerary cult Doctrines . But things changed by New Kingdom times, then the  ritual temple and the tomb were no longer close. Later most kings would be buried in the Valley of the Kings, but his temple would be elsewhere. There were times when the mortuary and cultus functions were combined in the same building. One area would be reserved for the ritual and festivals of the deity, while the cult of the dead king would be celebrated elsewhere in the same temple.  (David p. 85) 

The walls of every Egyptian temple are covered with registers of scenes in which the reigning pharaoh performs a series of religious rites on behalf of the various deities. In the mortuary temples the gods sometimes perform certain required rites for the king. The reliefs are carved with great skill and are one of the best examples of Egyptian art. They were not intended to beautify the temple or tomb or to inspire the worshiper, their purpose was functional in the same way that the tomb rites were functional. The whole object was to get the dead person into heaven and to help him  pass safely those set there who might hinder him, and to actually introduce him to god; (David p. 85) the father of the Gods.  The Temple of Horus at EDFU, was an ancient structure and went into disrepair centuries after the high point of the worship of HORUS, then much later, in Ptolemaic times, the temple was  rebuilt along lines recapturing the original grandeur of the  temple.  The illustration provided shows the plan view of the temple as now excavated, with the great pylons facing east, they are like two witnesses,  guardians by which one must pass,  then the  forecourt, next are the great pillars of the hypostyle halls, and then the many small roomed area enclosing the holy of Holies with its altar or pedestal for a statue of the God. This is called the sanctuary where there would have been a statue of HORUS.  The implication is that one is arriving from the great somewhere and makes his entrance into the earthly existence. Next is the greatly restricted Hypostle Hall, then a even more restricted or limited third hall with its hypostle pillars. This chamber leads to and opens to the sanctuary, the most sacred area [perhaps the Celestial Room]. Is there a similarity to a Mormon Temple?  A close examination of the plan view provided for this PART will show a remarkable similarity to the temple of Herod built during the time of Jesus more than two thousand  years later. . Jesus would have been familiar with a temple like this one. Also compare the temple with a plan view of the ancient Tabernacle of Moses, carried in the wilderness more than  thousand years later.  Many temples have similarities to one another, but the Temple of HORUS is unique.  It will be interesting to watch and see if archaeologists dig deep enough to recover a temple, such as the one at Bountiful, built at the time of the account of Christ's visit in 3 Nephi.  What will that  plan view look like?  When the temple of EDFU was rebuilt nearly twenty-five hundred years ago after a long use, it was covered nearly completely with sand, and was drawn in that condition again in 1838. (David p.  94) about the time Joseph Smith was enduring the  'Temple' of Liberty Jail. 

EGYPTIAN GODS, ANCIENT HISTORY AND THE KING LISTS

What was historically going on in upper Mesopotamia about 2300 BC that could  reflect a Jaredite adsorption  of some Egyptian names? Because there are in the Book of Ether a number of Egyptian names or names with Egyptian elements in them, an Egyptian influence, politically, culturally, militarily or trade-business had to have been present. By some means or other, the Jeradites  had contact with Egyptians for more than one generation.  The abbreviated suffix for HORUS is HOR and forms the suffix in the name of COHOR which really does take us down a road less traveled.  So, who, what and when, was HORUS?  "The God HORUS,  symbolized by a falcon, [or a Black Hawk] was in the beginning an exception to the general rule that the chief gods were associated with fertility or creation...he was originally the god of a hunting people...a war god...after the unification of Egypt by Menes he began to be identified with sun cult."  (Ions p. 21)  The sun god himself.

Available lists of kings and Pharaohs, with a few gaps, and starting with the pre-dynastic  kings and rulers of Lower and Upper Egypt, could  be mentioned.  Great efforts have been made by many Chronologists, trying to develop a STANDARD CHRONOLOGY  of Biblical times. (Anstey p. 9)  But the details confuse the issue. We will try to simplify the chronology in this PART 13,  perhaps in later PARTS we will add  more. There were nine such early rulers in lower Egypt until NAR-MER,  who was the  first to be called PHARAOH. He was  No. 10 in the list of early kings. He was the  first king of Upper Egypt.  Even before NAR-MER the hieroglyphic for the ancient God HORUS was a Blawk Hawk  (or Falcon,)  perched with swept back wing and body and head facing to the left, the beak prominent.  The  earliest hieroglyphic used by the Pre-dynastic Kings for  HORUS was the Black Hawk  (or Falcon) with the body facing to the left but the head facing forward so both eyes could be seen (Owl?)  Including the Pre-Dynastic periods, this ancient list has 439 names of kings and pharaohs.  For Egypt there were 387 Dynastic kings named down to the 30th dynasty when five kings finished the list.  (Budge Vol 11, p. 917)

Then there were three Kings under the Macedonians, 18 in the list of Ptolemies, who rebuilt the Temple at EDFU, then 13 more Ptolemaic Queens and Princesses, then 21 Roman Rulers in which Augustus (BC 30 to 14 BC) was the first ruler, Gaius Caesar Germanius Caligula (AD 37-41) was third in the list.  Decius (AD 249-251),  was the last ruler listed for Egypt. (Budge p. 946) Rulers from elsewhere were to follow for decades, but HORUS  does not appear in their names.  But almost 30 %  of all the kings on the list included HORUS under one or another of his names or titles.  Christ is known by more than 110 names and titles, each one helps to more accurately identify his person and his mission. (Sabourin p. vi)  In a brief check of HORUS' names and titles there are nearly 160 by which HORUS is known or referred to, many showing  an amazing parallel in identity to the person and mission of Jesus Christ,  Hopefully someone might get around to making a detailed comparison. In the Religious beliefs of the Egyptians the God HORUS played a critical and pervasive  role but his origins are concealed in the mists of the ancient past. No doubt a historical study will confirm the origins are based on the true religion of a previous dispensation, when the gospel was present, and that HORUS was incorporated to transmit forward the doctrines of and the life of, Jesus Christ.  The stunning thing is that there are many names in the Book of Mormon for JESUS. Ten different prophets referred to Jesus Christ by one title or name more than 2024 times in the Book of Mormon.  They used more than 67 names, many familiar to any New Testament reader, but many are superlatives found only in the Book of Mormon and Mormon literature that rise to great heights of glory and awesome magnificence and significance, (Welch pp. 44-46) , some of which parallel the names and titles of HORUS.  But we have already digressed a long way, HORUS is certainly worthy of a future study.  We will study him in more detail as we encounter other names ending in HOR.

ANCIENT EGYPT

The ancient Pharaohs called Egypt "The Red Land  and the Black Land," so startling was the contrast between the bands of black soil along th e banks of the Nile and the reddish desert scrub that rose to the valley cliffs beyond. (Payne p. 26) The ancients also called the valley "The Land of Kem." For Kemi was the Egyptians' name for the river-borne silt on which their very lives depended.  (Payne p. 26) Then irrigation changed all this, they were released from the relentless, age-old daily struggle to survive.  (Payne p. 17)

Around 3200 years BC the long Nile River valley was divided into three kingdoms. The first kingdom was in the Delta of Lower Egypt.  Here ruled the Bee King. He ruled from the Red Palace and wore a Red crown. The second kingdom was in Middle Egypt, near present-day Cairo. The domain of the Red King, symbolized by the papyrus plant, he wore a white  crown, his palace was the White House (Walls). The third king dominated Upper Egypt near the First Cataract, which separated Egypt from the Nubians. This kingdom was ruled by the Hawk- King (or Falcon, called HORUS) whose standard was copied from the falcons soaring high in the cloudless Egyptian sky. (Payne pp. 30-31) About 2000 years later Manetho, the high priest of Heliopolis about 300 BC, and an Egyptian historian, (Thorne p. 878) like all Egyptians, believed the kings were half-mortal and half divine, divided the kingdoms and king lists into 31 dynasties determined in years by rulers of a certain family. (Budge Vol. 11, pp. 917-946)

The Hawk-King (Horus)  marched northward and conquered the Red King and then the Bee King, uniting for the first time the  Nile valley under one ruler. His name was Menes, the first Pharaoh of ancient Egypt. There are some scholars who think that NAR-MER, in his later years was called Menes. With Menes, Egyptian history officially begins. (Payne p. 31), even though  before the official Dynasties there had been nine kings of lower Egypt.  King No. 8 in that early king list was Mekka. In his identifying cartouche, which nearly all kings and Pharaohs had inscribed somewhere on their tombs or memorials, there is the falcon symbol with the head (Owl) facing the reader. (Budge Vol. 11, p. 917)  But there were nine kings in this Pre-dynastic period, all in Lower Egypt.  During this time only two kings ruled in Upper Egypt, NAR-MER and TCHAR, they are 10 and11 on the king lists tabulated by Budge.   

THE TWO KINGS OF THE PRE-DYNASTIC PERIOD

So the origins of HORUS and his identifying symbols date back into the mists of the earliest history of Egypt. The two kings of Upper Egypt, NAR-MER, and TCHAR (the Scorpion) ruled in  the Thinite Period of the Predynastic times. (Budge, Vol . 11,  p. 917). Sometimes these 11 kings are included in the so called ARCHAIC PERIOD, which includes the lst and 2nd Dynasties, 3100 to 2686 BC.  The lst Dynasty of  Pharaohs succeeded NAR-MER who may have even in his time consolidated rule over the Egyptian territories before the conquests of Menes. (David p. 13) NAR-MER is just emerging from the mists of the past, and Egyptian history in that ancient period remains obscure, probably because nearly 700 years of that history was before the  flood, the after-the-flood resettlement of Egypt was abrupt and is still debated, a great deal of what Abraham said about that resettlement of  Egypt has not been considered by scholars. (Abraham l:20-27)  NAR-MER, is the most important ruler of the Archaic kings that preceded Menes and the lst Dynasty.  But it was HORUS NAR-MER, or HORUS AHA who wear the crowns of both the North and the South, whose tomb (or Cenotaph) is the oldest known royal monument at Saqqara, the great necropolis of Memphis. (Posener p. 167) The Doctrines and ordinances conveyed and exhibited by HORUS predate all the recorded rulers, some will be discussed below. These are the fragments of doctrines of the ancient gospel restored again in these last days. We should expect to find references to similar doctrines in all religious texts from ancient times, and we do. But over time those ancient doctrines became distorted and altered with bizarre embellishments. The use of the falcon side-view symbol goes back as far as any mention of Horus is made. 

A PALETTE AND A MACE HEAD

The art and writing style of Egypt was evolving. Egyptian history  seems suddenly to have matured very quickly (the so called Pro-Historic Period). Famous examples  are the inscribed Palette of NAR-MER and the votive mace-head of King Scorpion (TCHAR).  On these objects, which bear the earliest known hieroglyphs, is commemorated the conquest of the Delta, the victory over evil,  marking the beginning of the short Thinite Period, after Thinis in the South where the kings that preceded those of lst and 2nd Dynasty came from,  (David p. 14) the period  of the two major kings. (Posener p. 222)  On both of those early artifacts of early Egypt, the symbol of the left facing Hawk-Falcon was carved and it would not change in character for more than 2500 years. On the NAR-MER slate Palette it depicts him wearing both the red and white crowns of Egypt. He may have gained the crown of lower Egypt by marrying a princess of that Kingdom.  (Rosalie p. 13) On the upper right part of one side of the palette there is the dominant Hawk-king left facing symbol of Horus. (David p. 13) He is perched on one foot, the other extended clutching the ureaus, the Cobra or serpent, the  symbol of power.  The divine patroness of the  Delta was the cobra goddess her rearing head worn by nearly every PHAROAH thereafter, and select rulers honored by the including of HORUS, the  Falcon God,  in their names.  

On the Stella of Djet, an early Pharaoh of the First Dynasty, there is a left facing Horus Falcon, which had become the symbol of royalty, it surmounts the SEREKH, a representation of the royal personal emblem which is a rearing serpent, the uraeus, the menacing-flared cobra,  the falcon and serpent form the emblem of all pharaoh's power. (Lons p. 22)  I do not know of any country in the world where there were kingdoms for which a king list was initiated and maintained for 3700 years.  Egypt is an oddity and rare but until the Islamic conquests it maintained much of its integrity regardless who ruled.

THE DOME OF THE ROCK OR TEMPLE MOUNT

The Dome of the Rock was started by Caliph Muawiyya, which was completed by Caliph Ad al Malik and dedicated in August  691 AD, (Galbraith p, 281), became the so called Abomination of Desolation, after which the evening sacrifices by the Jews ceased. Varied constructions during the Saladin Dynasty (1193-1250) resulted in changes on the Mount and to the Dome of the Rock, the Mosque of Omar was built by Afdal, others modified the Mount, by 1201 the desecrations of the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem, was complete and they are still there. (Montefiore  pp. 274-276)

The Umayyad Empire reached its greatest extant, reaching from Spain to Mongolia by 715 AD. The split between the Sunni and Shiites was complete by then with extremists in both camps.  The Shiites would follow only those who could claim being descendants of Muhammad. (Kagan p. 115)  Those who do not align themselves with these two groups simply call themselves Muslims. Today the  Near and Middle East is essentially a war between the Sunni and Shites and their perceived destinies, (Kagan pp. 132-135)  with most Muslims just looking on.

It is the OLD KINGDOM from the 3rd to the 6th Dynasties (c. 2686 to 2181 BC) that interests us the most. (David p. 14) Egypt had established influence in the lower Mesopotamian area, Abraham was involved with the Hittites and Akkadians.  During this period of time after the flood, the Tower of Babel was attempted and failed, languages were confused, having the gospel, the believing Jaredites were led out of the country.  What happened in Egypt during that period included the rise and establishment of HORUS as an all important God, the repeated use of the HORUS, the Hawk-Falcon Symbol with its head and body left facing, the HIEROGLYPHIC was extravagant, appearing in the names of more than 150 kings afterwards, but mostly during that early period. (Budge Vol 11, p. 918)

The first official Dynasty consisted of 12  kings, the first was Menes who reigned for sixty-two years and then perished from a wound from a hippopotamus.  Ka  was the last Pharaoh of the Egyptian First Dynasty. The last four Kings were HORUS NAMES,  many of the other names had the HORUS element in them. (Budge p. 917)  As noted, the first five dynasties are of most interest to us. They bridge the Jaredite times.  Manetho, the Egyptian priest-historian, may have flaws in his record, but historians and archaeologist continue to use his king lists for 32 Dynasties, as a matter of convenience, but they have fleshed out certain parts with considerable detail. 

About 3000 BC, marked the rise of the first dynasty of pharaohs.  (Constable p. 57) At that time the people  of Egypt were divided into the Rich-Rulers, the craftsman,  a group that grew into great power, tillers of the soil and the priests.  All of the land, the people, produce and livestock, were Pharaoh's private property.  (Payne p.36)  Only Pharaoh could be absolutely sure of immortality, as a god he would rejoin his fellow gods in the heavens after the death of his mortal body. Pharaoh would need the services in after life of those who had served him on earth, and herein lay the hope of immortality for all the Egyptian  people themselves. (Ibid p. 35; 36  )  After all, they were a people chosen of the Gods and the Gods had created the valley just for them. Because they had retained a belief in life after death,  they expected life would go on there as it had on earth, provided certain precautions were taken. No one could enter the next world unless his earthly body was preserved after death. Everything depends on this life.  His spirit, or Ka, would be condemned to wander the deserts as a lonely ghost for all eternity if the body was not preserved from decay. The Egyptians became expert embalmers early on, for the rich and powerful, their bodies were immersed for seventy days in special salt baths, then wrapped in yards of resin-soaked strips of  linen, inserting pads here and there to make the body look as life like as possible.  (Ibid pp. 34-35) So skilled were they, their mummies from the ancient past can yield a great deal about the well being and health of the individual under a modern autopsy and imaging.                                                                     

REDISCOVERY OF, AND ACQUISITION OF, THE JOSEPH SMITH PAPYRI

Of all the papyri scrolls and fragments along with four Egyptian mummies,  acquired by Joseph Smith and the Church in 1835, the scrolls of Abraham and of Joseph of old,  have not as yet been recovered, some papyri were brought west by Brigham  Young, now in the archives of the Church.  Some fragments were retained by Emma Smith, these disappeared for a long time.  Dr. Aziz Atiyah,  who had been doing research at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, on Egyptian History, was visiting the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1966. While reviewing some papyri  he recognized that one document seemed to have  Facsimile No. l at the beginning and Facsimile no. 3 at the end, that were in the LDS scriptures in the Book of Abraham. He drew the attention of officials of the Museum to his observation.  At an official presentation the Museum returned eleven fragments of Papyri to the Church and sales receipts showing the trail from Emma Smith to the museum. These were later proved to have come from three documents.  Fragments l, X, and X1 were found to be from the HOR BOOK OF BREATHINGS,  named after and belonging to an Egyptian Priest, HOR, (Hr), the son of Usirwer (Wiser-wr), "justified, born of Tay khebyt..." (Nibley p. 43) which, more than 35 years later was translated by Rhodes. (Rhodes p. 1)  It does not appear that anyone recognized the HOR ending of a number of Book of Mormon names and the possible relationships of the names to HORUS, an important god of ancient Egypt.

The suffix abbreviation of HOR in the name COHOR is therefore an authentic Egyptian name.  The HOR BOOK OF BREATHINGS is titled after HOR,  the name of the Egyptian priest who had it placed with his funeral offerings as a guarantee he would obtain life eternal.  Sometimes the documents prepared to assist and guarantee the journey to eternal life were summarized on a scroll and placed near the arm pit or over the heart under the left hand or crossed hands, or prepared on a special round object, placed under the head or feet of the initiate, called a hypocephalus, (Nibley p. 599, Abraham Facsimile 2)  containing temple related information. (Nibley pp. 26-30)  What the Egyptians were expecting and looking for were what Mormons call "The Endowment,"  The Egyptian effort, though imitative, (Abraham l:26-27) was unauthorized and corrupt nonetheless,  began as an earnest and devout imitation of the order of the "first generation" which order and priesthood the Egyptians venerated  and sought earnestly to imitate. (Abraham l:5-27; Nibley pp. 30-31)  Nibley discusses in great detail the relationship of the HOR documents, the role of  HORUS, and the details of the Egyptian endowment so like the Mormon ceremony, so no need to discuss it here. (Nibley pp. 598-599)

Joseph Smith, himself, stated that there were two scrolls with the Egyptian materials, in addition to papyri fragments.  Joseph stated that one of the papyrus scrolls contained the writings of Joseph, the other scroll contained the writings of Abraham.  (Hunter p. 36) "Oliver Cowdery wrote a letter...pointed out that the record of Joseph contained at least the following four items: first, the correct doctrine of the Godhead; second, an excellent presentation of the fall; third, a copy of Enoch's Pillar; and fourth,  a vivid description of the final judgment."  (Hunter pp. 36-37)  The twp scrolls have not been found and the eleven fragments from the Museum were too short and of a different content than the historical records give us cause to believe. Those non-Mormons who try to suggest otherwise, make no head way. (See in this Web Site, 25 Jan 2006, Refuting the book: By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus,  and other publications of  FARMS on Abraham.)          

HORUS THE FALCON GOD

Falcon-gods, such as Sokar, Anty, Soped or Mekhemt-irtyk were among the numerous Egyptian gods, but the most famous are still the gods called HORUS.  While several gods bear his name, or a form thereof, their cults were inextricably mixed.

In the beginning Horus was undoubtedly a great sky god the magnificent bird, the falcon which  was his emblem. Sometimes he remained the god of aerial space, with the sun and moon as his two eyes. Sometimes he himself  became the sun, under the name HERAKHTY. But always he continued to be a god ruling over the sky and the stars.  (Posener  p. 129)

Through his early connection with the kings who united Upper and Lower Egypt, HORUS was ordained by fate to become the royal god  par excellence.

After the victory of the beginning of the  lst DYNASTY, HORUS became the divine falcon,protector of the king, and into a certain extension the king himself. The royal name was in fact written inside a representation of an arch, or gateway to eternity, on which was perched a falcon. This is the so-called "Horus -name." His was the story of the eternal struggle between the gods HORUS  and Seth (Set) . whose conflict was necessary for maintaining the balance of forces in the universe.   For a long time this struggle was incarnate in the royal person.  From the first dynasty, the king was considered to have inherited , at one and the same time, his power and his throne from the "two Lords." The queen was called "She who sees HORUS and Seth.

In the course of time Seth disappeared entirely from the royal partnership.  HORUS with a legendary double, namely the Osirian cycle, which the Heliopolitan theologians had finally devised,  became the son of Osiris and Isis, and nephew of Seth. HORUS was hence forth the young heir to his father's terrestrial kingdom from which he had been dispossessed by his wicked uncle Seth.  HORUS sought vengeance to recover his inheritance. In the new Kingdom mythology, the triumphant HORUS  was proclaimed the eternal and universal king of the earth and Seth went to thunder in the sky.  (Posener p. 129-130)

HORUS , the just,  was recompensed and became master of Egypt and its sole native king. As indicated by his early names as the god of Hierakonopolis and the sky god HORUS -of- EDFU (EDFU WAS HIS TEMPLE), went about conquering the world for Re. (Posener p.130)

THE PYRAMID TEXTS

By 1969, Raymond Faulkner, and others, found the ancient PYRAMID TEXTS, the oldest large body of religious writing to survive, fall readily and completely in to six main categories, (l) The importance of primordial written documents, old and very ancient, Temple Texts, on which the rites are based; (2) Purification, anointing, lustrations, and clothing texts: (3) creation, resurrection and awakening texts; (4) paradisical  garden, tree and ritual meal motifs (5) journey or travel, [passing the gods who are set there, needed is ritual washing, the sign, the new name; [Jonas p.  Forester p. ] (6) ascension texts, coronation, admission to the heavenly company, and Horus texts. (Nibley p. xxvi)  It is "knowledge of the way...of  the sacraments to be performed now, of the 'names' to be employed later when the ascending spirit meets the powers after leaving the body at death, and whatever ritual or ethical preparation may assure this future passage...the secrets of the way...the ascent doctrine in its details...the itinerary and adventure of the soul on this occasion lead through the complete order in reversal of the primordial fall." (Jonas pp. 271-272)  HORUS knew the 'way,' he is a guide, the intercessor on behalf of the dead. The texts prepared anciently and copied all through history, even preserving early errors, provide the dead with the basis for a request for permission to enter into the holy of holies of the temple of Heliopolis, on the grounds that as an elder he has been initiated into the deepest secrets of the temple. (Nibley p. 14)  Abraham chose from existing documents, evidently all Egyptian, available to him, vignettes (Abraham 1:114; Facsimile 1& 3) to represent events that occurred to him.  Facsimiles 1 illustrates an "important episode from the life of Abraham, described in the book of Abraham but not found in the Bible or in any of the sources available to Joseph Smith or his contemporaries...[his] involvement in rituals of royal succession in which he had the honor of serving as a sacrificial substitute for a king or pharaoh.  There is much traditional evidence that Abraham actually did find himself in such a situation and there is no dearth of evidence to show that the Egyptians did engage in such practices. " (Nibley p. 28)  Anciently, the Egyptians and other Middle and Near Eastern societies had their "'

"ASCENT OF THE SOUL CEREMONIES...consists of the actual...rite in... water which involves a threefold self-immersion of the neophyte, who wears his white sacral dress throughout...a threefold signing of the forehead...with water...the crowning ...a laying on of hands...anointing with oil, the offering of a sacrament of bread ...and...water, and the 'sealing' of the neophyte ...the extension of the right hand between the priest and the neophyte...known as...('truth,' 'justice' ...) performed at all ceremonies and has a special sanctity...the soul is released from the body and sets off on its...journey...the journey of the soul leads through dangerous demonic spheres certain guarantees are required which involve more than those things  which accompany the soul ...the sign, the name, and good works...never certain that he will attain the next world and fears punishment and imprisonment in the infernal regions or 'places of detention'...the creation of a 'soul-body' and the unification of the soul and the spirit." (Foerster pp. 131-134)  Read the explanation of  the FACSIMLE NO. 1 in the Book of Abraham.  The rise in importance of  HORUS was especially developed during the pre- dynastic periods and the first five dynasties. "Egyptian cosmogonies  [There were at six major accounts of the creation']  were basically identified as divinities of nature..[Their great CREATION OF THE WORLD account was centered at HELIOPOLIS, one of the great cult centers. Why would a creational account be essential for the ceremonies for the living and especially for the dead?]  When the sun climbed to its zenith [HORUS]... was called RA, supreme god of Heliopolis; and as he set as an old man he was ATUM... he was also called Horus... when this aspect was combined with that of RA as RA-HARAKHT he was seen as the 'youthful sun of the horizon'....Whatever  details the Egyptians may have ascribed to the events and sequence of creation--and they tended to regard  it as a slow development...they shared the view [with]  what they called the 'FIRST TIME.'" (Ions p. 24) That is an unusual expression. Especially in regard to the creation there are  "Divinities of the 'First Time.'" (Ions p. 39) Note how, in Chapter 4 of Abraham, the creation references described the  activities as The FIRST TIME. (Abraham 4:5;   SECOND TIME  4:8; THIRD TIME 4:13; FOURTH TIME 4:19; FIFTH TIME 4:23; SIXTH TIME 4:31.  Note in Chapter 4 Abraham stipulates that when  matter was ordered, they, the Gods,  watched to see until they were obeyed. As in Genesis and Moses' accounts, the Abrahamic account is in error on chronology of creational events, and no way can it correlate or be reconciled with the discoveries of astronomy,  geology and Cosmology, the only place to get a correct sequence and chronology and a knowledge of how long each time duration was, one needs to go to the Temple and experience the ceremony there, and visit this web site on MORMON DOCTRINES AND COSMOLOGY  PART 1. Or get a degree in advanced geochronology.  Those time phrases clearly place the Egyptians of the OLD KINGDOM (2686 to 2181 BC, (David p. 14)  in Upper and Lower Mesopotamia at the time of the Jaredites. The Egyptians were established and had great influence in the region before the time of Abraham (2052 BC), fitting into the Jaredite record very neatly, confirming that Joseph Smith in his work on the Book of Abraham was dealing with a genuine Egyptian milieu as well as an ancient document or copy of one. It also means further archaeological work in Upper and Middle Mesopotamia will confirm the presence of Egyptian influence in the region during Jaredite times more than it has so far.                    

Constable provides a photo of  a gold EGYPTIAN HEAD OF HORUS where he is wearing the white feathered crown and serpent or ureaus (flared cobra head) of the two kingdoms. (Constable p. 180;  See chart of the various crowns worn by the Pharaohs, each representing the divisions of the land).  Most of what happened to HORUS after the first six dynasties is interesting and worth studying, but  there is too much bizarre, perverted, and embellished additions in later dynasties for our purposes here.  COHOR is certainly one of the names that confirm the Book of Mormon to be authentic and only a prophetic calling as the head of a dispensation can account for Joseph Smith getting names correct the first time and always.

OTHER HORUS NAMES:  HUR-SI-SU, HUR-SIA, HUR-SI-ESU AND THE EGYPTIAN CONNECTION

Realizing that in Akkadian and Neo-Assyrian languages without  C and O, the use of K for C,   I, A, or U, for O, should provide other confirmations of the Egyptian connection and extend our scope in finding HORUS equivalents. The names above demonstrate this nicely, a philologist would have no difficulty in making the connection, all are Egyptian, all refer to HORUS, they  define a relationship of a unique son with the Mother Goddess, ISIS.  Now the name  HURSISU,  in Egyptian it would be written HUR-IS-ISU, the meaning unknown, but is related to the following two names. HUR-SIA, meaning "HORUS [IS] SON, likely a shortened form of, "HORUS, SON OF ISIS." (Baker p. 481) . The name HUR-SI-ESU is the more formal designation "HORUS THE SON OF ISIS." (Baker p. 481)  The theophoric element, HOR,  identifying HORUS, is clearly Egyptian.   Recall, again, that the suffix in the form of  HOR,  will not appear in  AKKADIAN, because there is no O in Akkadian, so the HUR element satisfies the need for confirmation of the antiquity of the name of COHOR.

There is also the name HURU, meaning HORUS.  HURU is "a short form of the name containing the theophoric element." (Baker p. 481)  There are also such names as HUR-TIBU meaning "Horus of the Tree," and HURU-WASI, meaning "Horus is sound."  (Baker p. 481)

Early in the religious development of early Egypt,  there was the name KHONS HOR. This was an amalgamation of  HORUS, son of RA, the 'living HORUS' or Pharaoh.  KHONS, was the son of AMON, whose son the pharaohs were said to be from.  This was mostly in the Eighteenth Dynasty onwards.  Beautiful sculptors of a sitting human form with the hawk-falcon head were recovered in the Twenty-Second Dynasty, about 850 BC, showing the persistence of HORUS. KHONS HOR was a form particularly worshipped at OMBOS (KOM OMBO) , Set's ancient cult center. KHON helped HORUS overcome Set (evil). (Ions p. 92) 

There will be more about HORUS in future PARTS of this study.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANSTEY, Martin, The Chronology of the Old Testament, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids Michigan, 1973

BAKER, Heather D., Ed. The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Vol. 2/1, University of Helsinki, 2000

BLACK, Heather, Ed. The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Vol. 2, Par 1, The Neo-  Assyrian  Text Corpus Project, University of Helsinki, 2000

BLACK, Jeremy, A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian,  Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2000

BUDGE,  E. A., Wallis, The Egyptian Heaven and Hell, Open Court, La Salle, Illinois, 1974

............ An Egyptian  Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Vol. l - 11, Cosmo Classic, New York,  2010

CONSTABLE,  George, Time Frame 3000 - 1500  BC, the Age of God - Kings, Time Life Books, Time, Inc, Richmond, Virginia , 1988

DAVID, A. Rosalie,  The Egyptian Kingdoms, Pelsevier-Phaidon, New York, 1975

FAULKNER, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, Aris & Phillips Ltd, Warminster,  England, 1978

FOERSTER, Werner,  Gnosis, Vol. 2, Coptic and Mandaic Sources, Oxford at the Clarendon       Press, 1974

GALBRAITH, David, D. Kelly Ogden, Andrew C. Skinner, Jerusalem The Eternal City, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah,  1996

HUNTER. Milton R., Pearl of Great Price Commentary, Stevens and Wallis, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, 1948

IONA, Veronica, Egyptian Mythology, Paul Hamlyn Publishing House, Middlesex, UK, 1978

JONAS, Hans, Philosophical Essays, Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1974

KAGAN, Neil, Ed., National Geographic Concise History of the World, National Geographic,      Washington, 2005

MANDEL, David, Who's Who in the Tanakh, Aeril Books, Savyon, Israel, 2004

MONTEFIORE, Simon Sebag, Jerusalem, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2012

NIBLEY, Hugh,  The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, an Egyptian Endowment,  Second       Edition, FARMS, Vol. 10, BYU, Provo, Utah,  Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City,  Utah, 2005

OGDEN, D. Kelly, Andrew C. SKINNER,  Verse by Verse The Book of Mormon Vol. Two,        Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2011

ODEBERG, Hugo, 3 Enoch, The Hebrew Book of Enoch, KTAV Publishing House, Inc., New York, 1973

RHODES, Michael D., The Hor Book of Breathings, a Translation and Commentary, FARMS, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 2002

PAYNE,  Elizabeth, The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, Random House, New York, 1964

PARPOLA, Simo,  Assyrian-English-Assyrian Dictionary, Vol. 2, Part l, H-K,University of Helsinki, 2007

POSENER, Georges, A Dictionary of Egyptian Civilization, Methuen and Co. Ltd.,London. 1962

SABOURIN, Leopold, The Names and Titles of Jesus, Macmillan Co., New York, 1967

SASSON, Jack M., Vol. 1-4, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Mass.,  2000

WELCH, John W., & J. Gregory Welch, Charting the Book of Mormon, FARMES, BYU, Provo,Utah 1999

All research and opionions presented on this site are the sole responsibility of Dr. Einar C. Erickson, and should not be interpreted as official statements of the LDS doctrine, beliefs or practice.
To find out more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, please see their offical websites at LDS.org and Mormon.org