326 
therefore like unto ourselves, who was beneficent as He was 
great, and wise as He was both, came home to every heart 
and satisfied the desires of every living soul at a time when 
no clearer revelation had been revealed to man, since, letit 
not be forgotten, these hymns and proscvnemata to Ra cannot 
be later than the XIXth dynasty, and that period in turn 
cannot well be brought lower than the fifteenth century before 
Christ,* * * § an era when, if it be admitted that some of the Old 
Testament Scriptures had been revealed to the patriarchs, yet 
it is nevertheless certain that very little if any part of them bad 
been committed to writing ; or if even that be conceded, then 
that such writings had reached the wonderful land of Upper 
Egypt, where these rituals and addresses had been composed, 
would have been impossible. Hence to us as Christians the 
“ immense” importance of a right understanding of the Myth of 
Ra, and the necessity' for examining, even at a tedious length, 
whatever authentic materials may yet exist for its better 
reconstruction and analysis. . 
20. The last hymn which it is our intention to cite is one of 
the very latest of hieroglyphic texts, being a long inscription in 
honour of Ra Amen or Amen Ra, in the famous temple of 
Amen, which exists in the oasis of El Kargeh, and which was 
a chief centre of pilgrimage during the period of the Greek and 
Persian domination of Egypt. f According to Dr. Birch, who 
has only recently translated it,J this hymn “is the most Pan- 
theistic of those yet found, and the nearest approach to the idea 
of the monotheism of one deity manifested by different types 
in the chief cities of Egypt, the ultimate or leading first mani- 
festations being that of the god Amen. It is, therefore, no 
wonder that the Persians accepted his worship and honoured 
his fane; the more so as the attempt to reach the oasis by 
their armies under Cambyses had signally failed.” 1 his was 
the temple also which was visited by Alexander the Great, 
when, fascinated by the splendour of the Egyptian my r ths, and 
willing to establish his authority over the people by a recog- 
nition according to their theology', he caused himself to be 
declared the son of Ammon, as the Greeks pronounced the 
name of Amen Ra;§ although to his own personal friends and 
* According to Lenormant, 1462 B.C. 
■f See Edmondson, Journey to the Oasis of JE1 Karejeh, for an account 
of the present condition of the ruins of this and the adjoining temples. 
+ Tram. Soc. Bib. Arc., vol. v. p. 291. _ 
§ Very probably the Ra, being a determinative suffix, was not sounded. 
