The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

TRADITIONS REGARDING THE BUILDERS

(following Manetho and Herodotus) to infer that the Great Pyramid was erected during the reign of a Hyksos monarch, and it must be admitted the similarity of circumstances is striking.

1. Like the Hyksos after them, they suppressed the native religion and closed the temples, though the Hyksos invaders did more than this ; they profaned and overthrew them (Sayce).

2. They were likewise accused of reducing the people to slavery, though it is more probable that this was a calumny invented by the priests after their departure.

3. As a consequence of this, like the Shepherd-kings, the pyramid-builders of the fourth dynasty were held in such disfavour that, according to Herodotus, “ they (the Egyptians) do not much like even to mention their names. Hence they commonly call the pyramids after Philition, a shepherd who at that time fed his flocks about the place.” This statement by Herodotus seems to imply that the pyramid kings were themselves shepherds like the Hyksos.

To identify the builder, as many have suggested, with Shem is to put the date of the Great Pyramid too late, while that of the dynasty of Seth (Josephus)—3870 B.c, to 2958 B.C., g12 years (see Gen. v, 6-7)—is somewhat anterior to it.

If we are to seek in a Biblical character for the architect of the Great Pyramid—and its characteristics suggest such a source—the present writer inclines to the view that Melchizedek might have been its founder ; not, however, that Melchizedek whom Abram met after his victory over the confederated kings (Gen. xiv), but an earlier member of this same priestly order. For the Messianic prophecies revealed in the Great Pyramid clearly indicate its architect was divinely inspired, just as those prophets were who committed them to writing in the Hebrew Scriptures,

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