doctrine of _Nomina Numina_; and that more than 3000 years before
Christ.
The _Names_ of Râ, the Sun-god, are said, when taken together, to
compose ‘the cycle of the gods.’ ⁂⁂. Or the names which he has
created, to which he has given rise, that is the names of all the solar
phenomena, recurring as they do, day after day, to the eyes of all
beholders, compose “the cycle of the gods,” who are also called the
limbs or members of Râ.
The scholia contained in the papyri of the XVIIIth and later dynasties
explain the text as follows:—
“It is Râ as he creates the _names_ of his _limbs_ (⁂) which _become_
the gods who accompany him.”
And the present chapter later on says of Chepera, the rising Sun, that
the “cycle of the gods is his body.”
The god who has hitherto been spoken of is Râ. In glaring contradiction
to the whole text, a later note states that the resistless god is “the
Water, which is _Nu_”; that is Heaven.[29] ⁂⁂⁂ _Nu_ is not
alluded to at all in the primitive text, but the papyrus of Nebseni
already exhibits the corruption of the fine passage, “I am he who
closeth and he who openeth, and I am but One.” This is itself an
addition, the true meaning of which was afterwards destroyed by the
interpolation of the words ⁂⁂⁂⁂. These are ambiguous. They
might mean that the god was alone ‘in heaven,’ or that he was alone
‘_as_ Heaven.’ The papyrus of Ani has ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, “I was
born from Nu.” These attempted improvements do not give a favourable
impression of the exegetical acumen of Egyptian theologians.
But the mention of ‘Water’ in the scholion has nothing whatever to do
with the doctrine of Thales, and to suppose that it has implies a
confusion between two very different realms of human thought.