The main extant text concerning Egyptian notions
of Creation comes from a very well preserved papyrus now in the possession
of the British Museum. The papyrus (from the Greek word "papuros"
that names an aquatic plant, Cyperus papyrus, from the pithy stems of which
paper, our word is from the same root, was made) was one of a batch given
to A. H. Rhind by the British Consul at Luxor, Mustafa Agha, in 1862 in
an exchange of gifts shortly before Rhind left Egypt.
The papyrus is enormous -- 16 feet 8 inches in length and 9 and a quarter
inches wide, and written in a style which puts it somewhere between the
26th Dynasty and the end of the Ptolemaic Period, between 664 and 30 BCE.
Dating the various dynasties is an absolute nightmare for Egyptologists.
Recently substantial revisions have been made based on solid astronomical
as well as other scientific evidence.
A colophon (from the Greek "kolophon" meaning a summit, or finishing
touch) is appended to the papyrus, and gives details of the scribe, the
priest who commissioned the papyrus, and the date that the work was completed
-- "the first day of the fourth month of the twelfth year of the Pharaoh
Alexander, son of Alexander", namely 311 BCE. The contents of the papyrus,
however date back to the very beginning of Egyptian civilisation, and would
have handed down from priest to priest, from the First Dynasty almost 3000
years previously, in 3100 BCE.
The story of Creation is told by the god Neb-er-tcher whose name means "Lord
to the uttermost limit". Neb-er-tcher was regarded as the ultimate
god whose "limit" refers to space and time in all dimensions.
Another of his names was "Everlasting God of the Universe" and
shows his dominant position as the Originator of Everything. He filled all
of the Universe, and after some indeterminate time he decided to create
the Earth, and took upon himself the form of the god Khepera, the Creator-god.
Before he transformed himself into Khepera, all that existed was water,
a world ocean called Nu. The transformation took place in Nu, which also
contained the germ, the seed, of all living things. However, there was no
life in Nu. Everything, though in germinal state, was also in a state of
total inertia and helplessness. Khepera rose from Nu, and as he did so he
made the first transition from inertia to life, from helplessness to activity.
Above Nu, the ocean, was nothing -- a vast, empty space. At the instant
of transformation Neb-er-tcher, the All-Powerful, had only to address a
command to his heart and it came into being. He spoke the word "Khepera"
and Khepera was; when he rose from Nu and needed a place to stand, he spoke
the place's name, and it immediately came into being. Compare this to the
Judaeo-Christian and Muslim theology --
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth
was without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let
there be light': and there was light......." (Genesis ch1 vv1-3)
"Allah is the Originator of the Heavens and the Earth, and when He
decides a thing, He only says to it 'Be', and it is." (Meaning of the
Qur'an ch.2 v.117)
"I laid the foundations of things in my own heart, and there came into
being multitudes of created things......." (The Book of Knowing the
Evolutions of Ra, and of Overthrowing Apep)