Having been brought up in a Judeo-Christian society, most of us, if not all of us, have been strongly influenced to believe in the teachings of the Bible, and those interpretations authority figures purport come from the Bible. One example is the fact that we were taught that Moses went up to Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments directly from ‘the hand of God.’ The interpretation conveyed to us is that before that time neither he nor any other Egyptian or Hebrew had seen the likes of such laws. We were lead to believe that the 10 Commandments represented a brand new blessing from God to man. Unfortunately, under the cloud of cultural interpretation we are often unable to see what should be a plain and simple truth.

What follows is an introduction to knowledge preachers and the promoters of Christendom would rather you not know. It represents incontrovertible PROOF that both Moses and the Egyptian people knew such laws long before his trek to Sinai, and his subsequent encounter with ‘the buring bush.’ More specifically, it shows that these so-called ‘unique laws’ written by the ‘hand of God,’ in fact, come directly from very ancient principles revered by early Kemetic (Egyptian) people; and that people for thousands of years before Moses, before Hebraic culture, and even before Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation, adhered to these principles.

As you are about to see, the tenets from which Moses extracted the core ten that became known as The Ten Commandments. were taken from ancient principles we now know as the Admonitions of Ma’at. If you have problems with this idea, just remember Moses was raised by the sister of Pharoah and thus grew up as a prince of Egypt (Kemet). In this capacity, he undoubtedly knew and lived by Ma’ati spiritual principles or laws. Laws that for thousands of years before his time, served as the moral foundation of long enduring Black civilizations. In the English translation of the text called the Metu Neter, Ma’ati principles are referred to as The Negative Confessions, as well as the 42 Admonitions of Ma’at. The principles as shown below, were taken directly from the ancient ‘stones,’ from the walls of ancient pyramids and temples.

The following 42 principles are taken directly from PLATES XXXI and XXXII of the Metu Neter (See Pages 198-203); called by E.A. Wallis Budge et. al., The Egyptian Book of the Dead.) They represent the foundation of ancient wisdom and moral values.

In an effort to be thorough, I now present 17 unreconciled admonitions that were taken from the Introduction to the section containing the 42 Admonitions or Confessions of Ma’at (see Budge, pg. 193-197). In effect, they show how these essential principles have undergone revisions over the centuries before Judism began. Although it too speaks of 42, Budge only includes 38 admonitions in the introductory section. When compared directly against the 42 admonitions contained in the main body of the text, most of those in the Introduction match up identically. The 17 that differ are most likely variant, semantic forms of the original 42 admonitions. In other words, the seventeen (17) variant admonitions or Ma’ati Commandments probably indicate how local or colloquial language might have interjected profound, yet culturally specific meanings into these simple principles. Linguists generically call this evocative feature of a language, idiom.

In contrast to the traditional Christian version of ‘Divine Law,’ which expresses itself as commandments, ancient law presents its precepts as affirmations. In other words, instead of God telling us NOT to do something, in Afrikan tradition, we solemnly stand before God and the agents of God (angels, neters, etc.) to affirm that we/I have not transgressed the law. So, where the Judeo-Christians are told not to commit a moral sin, ancient Afrikans affirm and take personal responsibilitiy not to transgress moral law.

Further, as we compare the 10 tenets or commandments of the Judeo-Christian faith, their similarity with the ancient Ma’ati principles should be clear. Again, it is important to note that the tenets of Ma’at were written thousands of years prior to 1400 BCE—the time of the Biblical Moses. This logically means that the Ten Commandments were recorded long after the Admonitions of Ma’at had been carved into the walls of temples and pyramids, written on coffins and in books, and thereafter spread to emerging societies like those in Chaldea, Sumeria, Elam, and later to Babylon and Assyria. It should be unquestionable, based on this historical fact, that the real story of how Moses came up with those ‘new divine laws’ was likely very different than what we are taught on Sundays.

This apparent discrepency does not, however, undermine the fact that the One God has always provided a way for man to stay in a state of moral order, or blessing. It also demonstrates the continuity of divine law. That is, rather than there being two or more ‘creators of the universe,’ with each having a need to institute its own, distinct body of tenets, there is only one. Whether it be for Afrikans, Hebrews, or endo-Europeans, ultimately there is only one Creator. Thus, we should expect to see only one divine law. Though expressed by different societies in a myriad of ways reflecting their cultural differences, the essence of the law, as you can see, remains perpetually consistent.

You are invited to review the Admonitions of Ma’at, study them, compare them to the Ten Commandments. The best way to understand them, however, is by integrating the values they project into your personal value system. Because only through moral and spiritual elevation can hu+manity ever rise to greatness again.

— I.M. Nur

10/2003