all sides of the belief orientations. Whereas the
Christian community stretched across both the
Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, the Coptic
Church, impacted by Nile Valley traditions,
refused to consider the son of the creator as a
human. Such a discordant and chaotic concept
was considered profane for these monophysites,
from a culture rich with speculation of spiritual
manifestations.
Egyptian OriginsRulersEmbodyGod
Nile Valley civilizations were acquainted with
deity incarnations more than three millennia prior
to Christianity. These civilizations had divine
rulers who were incarnations of the creator deity,
and that deity often became part of the ruler’s
name. Examples include the following:
Mena(Menes): Mn-a: I establish (transposed as Amn)
Maat-ka-Ra(Hatshepsut): maet-ka-Ra: true spirit
of Ra–or–Ra’s true spiritAkhenaton:akh-n-Atn|: spirit of Aton–or–Aton’s
spirit
Ramesses: Re-mss: Born of Ra–or–Ra is bornTutankhamen: tw.t-ankh-Amn: this [is the] life of
Amen–or–this Amen livesThe name of each of these rulers, with the excep-
tions of Mena and Akhenaton, was often preceded
by the epithet, “son of Ra (God).”
HumansBecomeDeities
Africans in Nile Valley civilizations were also
familiar with the incarnation of extraordinary
human beings to the elevated status of a deity—or,
in Christian-speak, a “patron saint.” This act is
known as deification. Imhotep, the multitalented
genius of the Old Kingdom, gained some of the
patron characteristics of Ptah and was included in
that Ptah’s family. In this case, Imhotep became
the son of Ptah and Sekmet, replacing Nefertem
and adjusting the trinity of Mn-Nfr (called
Memphis by the Greeks). Imhotep’s incarnation as
a holy life in the realm of deities probably owes its
existence to the revolutionary social development
following the end of the Old Kingdom.
Written records of Kemet’s (called Egypt by the
Greeks) Middle Kingdom show that mummifica-
tion was common during that era and represented
a distinct break with exclusive royal access of the
Old Kingdom. The masses in Kemet employed
veneration, prayer, and wise oaths, along with
mummification to ensure their incarnation in the
next life. The Neb-Ankh and the body contained
therein was only returned to the soul after the
plaintiff successfully testified that his or her loved
actions outweighed the hated actions, making his
or her heart as light as the feather of Maat.
Preparation operations for incarnation on a
mass level affected the chemical and biological
sciences as well as the arts of communication
and graphics. Literacy was expanded, and Coffin
Texts accompanied the Neb-Ankhs (coffins) of the
classes that could afford them. Although material
culture may have experienced a revolution, the
change in the cosmogony of the people may have
been an evolution of a previous development.Ancestral Connections
Mass access into the next life may have evolved from
a deeper African belief that ancestral life is a border
realm between the present life and the next life. The
Nile Valley concepts of Ba, Ka, and Akh—soul,
collective spirit, and divine spirit, respectively—
prescribed the type of fluidity to life that made
incarnation an expectation. It surely became a
preferable expectation to the eternal nothingness
that the concept of death evoked. This broad
African wisdom probably ushered in the practice
of divination and the function of mediums.
Those living in the visibly manifested world
communicated with ancestors through a skin—or
a body—in this world: the medium. All incarna-
tions required sensory titillation, usually in the
form of dance, music, and incantations developed
as elaborate processes of divination. Precise meth-
ods and training of mediums were required by
some diviners, and strict discipline went into the
preparation of a person serving in such a role.
Diviners and mediums remain important
elements of the religious order in many African
societies. The incarnations that they cause are for
short durations but are incarnations nonetheless.Incarnation 339