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Compare Psalm 24:3 and Papyrus Salt 825

Hebrew Bible · Ancient Near East, Egyptian

Summary

Psalm 24 and the Egyptian text Papyrus Salt list conditions for entering sacred space. Both exclude liars, thieves, and the impure, following ancient Near Eastern tradition that the temple is a "heaven on earth," that requires purity to access.

Passages

Psalm 24:3

Hebrew Bible

3 Who is allowed to ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may go up to his holy dwelling place? 4 The one whose deeds are blameless who has clean hands and a pure heart^*, who does not lie, or make promises with no intention of keeping them. 5 Such godly people are rewarded by the Lord, and vindicated by the God who delivers them. 6 Such purity characterizes the people who seek his favor, Jacob’s descendants, who pray to him. (Selah)

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

Papyrus Salt 825

Ancient Near East, Egyptian · Egyptian Ritual to Protect the House of Life

He shall guard the divine images and the sacred objects within the temple. Regarding the priest who enters this temple, he must be pure. He must not enter after having eaten something impure, nor after having had contact with an impure thing. He who has spoken falsehood to harm his neighbor, he shall not enter into this temple, just as he shall not enter into heaven. He who has committed an act of rebellion against the god or the goddess of this town, he shall not enter into this temple. He who has misappropriated an offering belonging to the god, he shall not enter. He who has had relations with a consecrated woman within the temple precinct, he shall not enter. He who has stolen anything from the temple or from any man in it, he shall not enter into this temple. He who has struck or killed a man wrongfully, he shall not enter into this temple. He who has revealed the secret rituals of the temple, he shall not enter.

400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Papyrus Salt

References

"... In the semantics of an Egyptian temple, there is a contradiction that is probably based in the structure of the sacred. Viewed from the outside the temple is a highly protected area, an enclave of the sacred in a profane world, a tightly sealed vessel of radiant divine power that has mysteriously taken up earthly residence on this very spot. But viewed from within, this vessel of holiness separated from the world is itself the entire world. The temple represents a cosmos beyond which there is nothing more. The cult image filled the temple with an emanation of divine presence, while at the same time, the god filled the entire cosmos with the radiance of his manifestation. Certain Egyptian hymns lend perfect expression to this paradoxical structure ... At the same time, however, the temple as a whole is a "'heaven' on earth" ... "The form of the temple is like the sky with the sun," as it is put in a text of the Ramesside Period ..."

Jan Assmann, The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, trans. David Lorton (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001), 35–36.

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

Compare Psalm 24:3 and Papyrus Salt 825

Summary

Passages

Psalm 24:3

Papyrus Salt 825

References

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