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

(pagans) ”” (Ps. cx, 2); hence the suppression of the Egyptian paganism and the closing of their temples, combined with the ability to organize the carrying out of great public works. Another attribute of this order is the title “ King of Peace, or Righteousness”, and tradition says—as already quoted—that the race responsible for the erection of the Great Pyramid did conquer that country without a battle, while the Egyptian god Iemhotep, whose name, according to Sir Wallis Budge, has the same meaning, a national hero under King Zoser (Third Dynasty), and deified for his skill as an architect, was invested by tradition with the attributes of Sesostris—the Chaldean Xisuthrus (see above, p. 17)—the traditional designer of the first true pyramid—the Great.

Manetho also tells us that this race ‘“‘ eventually quitted Egypt by capitulation, with all their families and effects, and proceeded to Judaea—numbering some 240,000 soulswhere they built a city sufficient to contain this multitude and called it Jerusalem”. (Seiss quoting from Cory’s Fragments, p. 173.) Jewish tradition also attributes the founding of Jerusalem to the order of Melchisedec whose members were “kings of Salem”, that is Jerusalem. (See Note J.)

Dr. Seiss makes out an interesting argument, under the heading “Who was Melchisedec?”, identifying this personage with the patriarch Job.

There is no clue in the Book of Job to say when he lived, though, indirectly, the great length of his life—well over two hundred years (248 according to the LXX) 1—would place him long anterior to the time of Abraham who, dying at the age of 175, is described as “ an old man and full of

1 He lived 140 years after his affliction—Job, xlii, 16—which came upon him when his family—seven sons and three daughters—were all grown up and settled in life.

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