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Coffin Texts

Egyptian Funerary Spells

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Chapter Spell 714

I extended everywhere, in accordance with what was to come into existence.⁠ I know, as the One, alone, majestic, the indwelling Soul, the most potent of the gods. An amulet of serpent skin would add to a person’s craftiness and cunning. The serpent was revered for its ability to discover whatever was hidden or concealed, including knowledge of the past, present, and future. Lidless eyes that never closed were thought to see in the darkness of the underground. This ability may have been related to the view that the serpent inspired nighttime dreams and the prophetic daytime visions of human beings.

Texts in conversation

Compare Coffin Texts Spell 714 and Genesis 3:1

Ancient Near East, Egyptian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Genesis 3 describes a serpent that claims to know what God knows and offers this knowledge to humans. The Egyptian Coffin Texts give the primeval serpent a similar role, declaring itself all-knowing, majestic, and the most potent of the gods.

Passages

Coffin Texts Spell 714

Ancient Near East, Egyptian · Egyptian Funerary Spells
I extended everywhere, in accordance with what was to come into existence. I know, as the One, alone, majestic, the indwelling Soul, the most potent of the gods.
2100 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Coffin Texts

Genesis 3:1

Hebrew Bible
1 Now the serpent was shrewder than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; 3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, 5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

References

“... The serpent was believed to be a positive figure of knowledge and wisdom. The coffin Texts from Egypt have the primeval serpent saying: ‘I extended everywhere, in accordance with what was to come into existence, I know, as the One, alone, majestic, the indwelling Soul, the most potent of the gods.’ The Egyptians also believed that ‘an amulet of serpent skin would add to man’s craftiness and cunning.’ The serpent was usually revered for its ability to discover whatever was hidden or concealed, including knowledge of the past, present, and future. Lidless eyes that never closed were thought to see in the darkness of the underground. This ability may have been related to the view that the serpent inspired nighttime dreams and the prophetic daytime visions of human beings. ...”
Jude Thaddeus Okonkwo, The Seed in Genesis 3:15: An Exegetical and Intertextual Study (Andrews University, 2010), 362.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Coffin Texts Spell 714 and Genesis 3:1

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