The Ancient Tradition

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Music

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You’re listening to The Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production. Music provided by Joseph McDade. He is your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

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Welcome to The Ancient Tradition. I’m your host, Jack Logan. Glad to have all of you listening in. Before I jump into today’s episode, I wanna let you know that you can listen to the second half of the book of Joseph and Azanath. It’s available on our sister podcast, The Ancient Tradition Audio Rit. Yesterday, I was getting ready to head up to campus to teach a class and it suddenly occurred to me that I made an error in something that I said in episode number 26.

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cosmic kingdom. Towards the end of that episode I said that according to estimates by astronomers that there are some four trillion planets in the known universe. But what I meant to say was that according to estimates by astronomers there could be as many as four trillion planets in our galaxy, in the Milky Way galaxy, not in the known universe. That’s a big, big difference. I think God was pricking my mind being like, hey you’re low balling it there.

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So according to current estimates, astronomers estimate that there are between 100 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. And they estimate that there are somewhere between two and 25 times as many planets as there are stars. So if we take the middle estimate of around 250 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and we times that by four, which is kind of a conservative estimate, which represents

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the average of four planets per star, we’d estimate that there are around one trillion planets in the Milky Way galaxy. But of course there could be trillions and trillions more. Now, if we take an estimate of one trillion planets in each galaxy and we times that by the number of estimated galaxies in the known universe, which astronomers now place at around two trillion, two trillion galaxies.

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then we have to times one trillion planets by two trillion galaxies to get the number of estimated planets in the known universe. And that works out to be two quadrillion planets in the known universe, two quadrillion. That’s two with 15 zeros behind it. But even that is an extremely conservative estimate. There’s this astrophysicist by the name of Eric Zacharison.

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who simulated the evolution of the universe on his computer and he found that according to the laws of physics, there should be seven times 10 to the 20th power planets in the universe. That’s seven followed by 20 zeros or 70 quintillion planets, quintillion. Now that’s a cosmic kingdom.

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In other words, there are literally more planets in the known universe than there are grains of sand on planet Earth. Think on that the next time you’re at the beach. Put a little single grain of sand on the tip of your finger and contemplate that there are more planets in the universe than all of the grains of sand on planet Earth. Speaking of grains of sand, at the outset of the podcast, I noted that the ancients placed an extraordinary amount of importance on the creation.

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and that because of that, we’d start the podcast there, which we did after we finished up the episodes on the coronation of King Charles. But I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but we haven’t even gotten to the creation of a single grain of sand yet. And that’s because we learned from the ancients that a lot of really important events took place in the heavens before the creation took place, events that we needed to discuss in order to fully understand how and why the creation took place.

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Which brings me to today’s episode. We still need to cover a little more ground before we get to the creation of that single green of sand. And in order to do that, we need to learn more about God, who God is and how the cosmos operate. The knowledge we gain from the ancients about who God is will be critical to our understanding of how the universe and our beautiful marble of a planet was formed. So,

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what did the ancients teach about who God is? For some of you long time listeners, it will probably come as no surprise to you that the ancients, be they ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Canaanites, Hittites or Israelites, describe God and who God is in a remarkably similar way. So over the next couple of months, as the occasions arise, I’m gonna add an episode here and there as part of a

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Who is God series, a mini series within the podcast. In that series, we’ll hone in again on the stubborn bits, the characteristics of God that we see show up time and time and time again in the ancient record. The ancient texts give us some of the most comprehensive, detailed and consistent descriptions of who God is that can be found anywhere in the world. And it’s the consistency with which the ancient texts describe God that attests

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yet again to the notion that a single religious tradition, the ancient tradition, was revealed to human beings in the beginning, and that that tradition served as the fount from which all of the other religious traditions sprung. So let’s get started. Today’s episode is Who is God? Lord of Mott, King of Zedek. I’m pretty excited about this episode.

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because I’ve been wanting to talk about the ancient Egyptian concept of Maat for a little while now. And we’re at that point in the podcast that it’s critical that we do so. In ancient Egypt, the gods, Rae, Ptah, Osiris, Horus, Thoth, and a bunch of others were given the very important epitaph, Lord of Maat. For example, in the pyramid texts,

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in pyramid text 577, which is found in King Pepe the first’s pyramid. It says the following of Osiris. Quote, Osiris appears, the Lord of Maat goes on high. We also learn from a text known as the Hymn of Osiris. It’s dated to the 18th dynasty, which is around 1500 BC.

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that the Egyptians referred to the assembly of the gods as the, quote, lords of Maat. The hymn of Osiris says the following, speaking of the god Horus, who’s Osiris’ son, quote, the assessors of Maat gather together unto him, and with them are assembled the company of the gods, the lords of Maat. Right after this,

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We learned something very interesting about the concept of Ma’at. We learned that it’s directly connected to divine utterance. Listen to what the text says. It says, quote, the voice of Horus hath found the power of Ma’at. We’re going to talk about that in our next episode. But since we were already here, I thought I’d point it out. Keep the connection between Ma’at and the power to divinely utter in your back pocket.

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So what is this Ma’at that the ancient Egyptians are talking about? This concept that the divine council of gods and the god Osiris are the Lord of? Well, without question it’s the most foundational principle in the ancient Egyptian religion. And as you’re going to see in virtually all of the other major religious traditions across the world, there really isn’t a way to overstate the importance of Ma’at if we want to truly understand.

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pretty much everything. How the earth was created, how wounds are healed, how human beings are resurrected, what constitutes evil, what constitutes sin, how one becomes like God, how universes are created, how the cosmos operate. It all starts with Ma’at. Ma’at is the very foundation of the cosmos. So let’s start with the word itself.

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The word ma’at, and this is according to scholars, is connected to the idea of straightness, levelness, and measure. And it may be linguistically derived from the words meaning direction and sacrifice. If I have time, I’ll come back to the connection between ma’at and sacrifice, but for now, let’s focus on its meaning as straightness and direction. Ma’at means

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fundamentally to go in a straight direction. In Latin, the word for straight is rectus, which in late Latin is rectitudo, or as we would say it in English today, rectitude, rightness. In modern day vernacular, we’d refer to this concept as righteousness. But righteousness doesn’t exactly capture the magnitude of what the ancient Egyptians meant by the concept ma’a.

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When most of us think of righteousness, we think of it in terms of personal ethical behavior. And yes, the ancient Egyptians meant that too, but the concept implies so, so much more than righteousness for righteousness sake. The rightness or righteousness the ancient Egyptians are talking about here is righteousness on a cosmic level. It’s the notion that the very foundation of the cosmos is governed by a

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principle of rightness. So we aren’t just talking about an ethical system of morality here. We’re talking about a concept with profound metaphysical implications. Ma’ad is the notion that the very fabric of the cosmos, including everybody and everything in it, operates according to a grand principle of rightness. And it’s only by upholding, adhering to, following, or doing

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rightness or ma’at that any type and I mean any type of true order is established be that cosmic order, political order, social order, family order, marital order, or the order of the natural world itself. Adherence to the cosmic law of ma’at produces order. Rebellion against ma’at produces

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Cosmic disorder, political disorder, social disorder, family disorder, marital disorder, and the disorder of the natural world itself. The ancient Egyptians referred to this disorder as Isfet, I-S-F-E-T, Isfet, which means chaos, injustice, violence, or to quote, do evil. So Isfet is the antithesis of Ma’ad. Now,

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It’s probably pretty easy for most of us to see how rightness or as the ancient Egyptians would say, doing ma’at, like not stealing from our neighbor, not cheating on our spouse or not telling lies, can lead to greater social, family, and marital order. Pretty easy to see. Or we can see how not accepting bribes, not conspiring to usurp power, or not attacking another country unprovoked.

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can lead to greater political order. The connection between doing right and ma’at and greater social, political, and marital order is pretty easy to see. But what about doing right or ma’at and the natural order? Well, the ancient Egyptians are teaching us that just like how adhering to ma’at produces social, political, and marital order, so too doing right produces order in the natural world.

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And this is a little more difficult for most of us to conceive, but it actually might not be as difficult as you think. We know, for example, that when factories fail to uphold Ma’at, by dumping toxins in their fields and streams, that crops can’t grow and bacteria and viruses thrive. Cells mutate, children get cancer, entire ecosystems get destroyed. When human beings don’t uphold Ma’at, the entire natural order suffers.

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The ancient Egyptians aren’t just saying this though. They’re also telling us that it’s doing right or conforming to the cosmic law of Ma’at that’s keeping the natural order today, right now in a state of order. It’s upholding Ma’at that’s keeping the elements from returning to a dark amorphous, lifeless mass of chaos like they were before the earth was formed.

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The ancients are teaching us that it’s the upholding of ma’at that’s keeping the natural elements in their proper ordered positions as a world, a moon, a tree, a cup, or even a pencil. Now that’s a little more difficult for most of us to conceive, but this is what the ancients are teaching us. They’re teaching us that the effect of right living extends to the very depths of subatomic particles.

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and reaches to the very heights of solar systems and galaxies and universes. If you’re beginning to see how Ma’at is connected to the creation, then you’re right on target. To create a world, the elements have to be placed in their proper order. That’s how worlds are made. And as we just noted, it’s only by adhering to Ma’at that anything in the cosmos takes on a true ordered state. So a world can only be formed by someone who…

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perfectly adheres to the cosmic law of Ma’at. Which is why we see in ancient world that only beings who have conquered the enemy, the sea serpent, the one who epitomizes everything contrary to Ma’at, has the power to create a world. It’s because only they can create a world. Worlds can only be brought about by rightness. So even if the sea serpent had been told he had the permission to form a world, he still wouldn’t be able to do it.

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Because according to the law of the cosmos, only adherence to rightness can produce order, including the ordering of the elements. And since the sea serpent perfectly rebelled against rightness, he’s completely powerless to bring about any type of order, ever, including the ordering of a world. For a couple of decades now, astrophysicists have been searching for a grand, unifying theory, a theory of everything.

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theory that could encompass all known physical phenomena in a single comprehensive framework. So far, a grand theory of everything has eluded them. But as we can see here in the world’s oldest corpus of religious writings, the pyramid texts, that the ancient Egyptians already knew what that grand unifying theory was. They knew some 5,000 years ago that the entire

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overarching cosmic law, rightness, the law of Ma’at. They realized that Ma’at governed every single aspect of the cosmos. They realized that all things functioned according to Ma’at, and they realized that nothing and that no one could escape its demands. That last statement that no one can escape the demands of Ma’at takes us into some really interesting territory.

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Because what does this mean? Does this mean that even God is subject to or subordinate to Ma’at? Yes, that’s exactly what the ancient Egyptians are telling us. Miriam Lichtheim, an Egyptologist out of Switzerland who has written extensively on Ma’at says this, quote, Ma’at is the Egyptian term for the moral order that governed men.

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and gods. The ancient Egyptians are telling us that just as men and earthly kings are bound by the cosmic law of rightness, so too is God. They’re telling us that not even God has the power to change, circumvent, alter, or destroy the law that governs the cosmos. Dr. Lickheim writes,

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moral precepts. See, the reason that God can’t change, alter, or formulate Ma’at is because Ma’at didn’t originate with him. It was not created by him. Rather, Ma’at is an intrinsic characteristic of the fabric of the cosmos. As one author expressed it, it’s an, quote, all-encompassing impersonal order.

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which is built into the fabric of the cosmos itself. It’s eternal. Nobody or nothing can change it. It’s the law that has always governed the cosmos and will always govern the cosmos, regardless of anyone’s attempt to alter, eliminate or circumvent it. This is why in ancient Egyptian texts, the king or God is always described as being an upholder or a lover of Ma’at.

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For example, in the ancient Egyptian texts, the god Thoth is given these epitaphs, quote, the one who loves Maat and the one who makes great Maat in Egypt and the prince of Maat. Listen to this tomb inscription of a priest and judge from Saqqara, who gives us a couple of examples of how he has complied with Maat, Maat, which the gods love. Quote.

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I have made this tomb from my rightful means and never took the property of anyone. I never did anything by force against anyone as the God loves a true thing. Here the priest is letting us know that he’s never stolen or forced another, which are examples of him doing ma’at, behavior which God loves. God is a lover of rightness.

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In another tomb inscription, this time of a nomarch, a nomarch is a chief magistrate of a gnome in Egypt, the text says, quote, I have made this tomb for my rightful means and did not take the property of anyone. I am a lover of goodness, a hater of crookedness. Doing the right thing is what the God desires.

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In this inscription, we see the nomarch expressing his love of Maat, just as he knows the gods love it. We can see from many, many, many more texts, just like these, that God loves rightness. God loves Maat, God loves doing right. God loves truth, justice and righteousness. God loves upholding the law that governs the cosmos. For that reason, God is a, quote,

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Lord of Maat. Let’s take a minute here and outline a few of the things that we know about Maat from the ancient Egyptians. Number one, Maat is eternal. We learned from the ancient Egyptians that Maat is built into the fabric of the cosmos itself. The cosmos have always operated according to rightness and will always operate according to rightness forever and ever. Nothing and no one will alter its permanence.

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text known as the instruction of Ptahotepe, Ptahotepe was a visor in ancient Egypt, says it like this, quote, great is Maat lasting in effect, undisturbed since the time of Osiris. In the end, it is Maat that lasts. Dr. Lickthime says this of that text, she says, quote, these verses convey

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primordial condition, one firmly founded and lasting. Number two, Maat governs everything in the cosmos, every single thing, every electron, every photon, every quark, every blade of grass, every fish, every bird, every antelope, elephant and cheetah, every human being who ever lived. Nothing can circumvent Maat’s

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grasp. It is the eternal law by which all things in the cosmos operate. So if I were to put this in an actual law form, in its simplest form, the law of Maat states that

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The greater the rightness, the greater the order. That is the law of the cosmos. It is the cosmic constant. According to this cosmic law, there’s absolutely no other way to produce true order in the cosmos than by abiding by the precepts of rightness. The law of righteousness is the law of the cosmos. Number three, not even God can escape Ma’at’s grasp.

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For a lot of us, this might be difficult to conceive of. To conceive of an omniscient, omnipotent God being bound by a force greater than himself. Especially when the word omnipotent means all powerful. If God is all powerful, couldn’t he just change or alter the fabric of the cosmos? Well, according to the law of Maat, he may be able to do that, but he never would.

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It was by following the law of righteousness that he became a God in the first place. According to the law of Ma’at, only rightness can produce a human being of perfect order. Only rightness can produce a God. So to alter the law of Ma’at would be to alter himself. And when he altered himself, he would no longer be a God. And so he would no longer have the power to circumvent or alter.

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the law of Ma’at. I know that what I just said requires a lot of mental gymnastics, but just keep in mind that according to the cosmic law of the universe, the only way to produce a God is through Ma’at, rightness. For one to become a God, one must love rightness, rectitude, and righteousness. A person who doesn’t love those things will never become a God. The law of Ma’at prohibits it.

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So those who are made gods deeply love rightness and would never destroy it. It wouldn’t be in their nature. Thus, the law of Maat would never be under threat or destroyed by a true God. This brings us to an interesting possibility, however. Could a God choose to stop adhering to Maat? And if he did, would he cease to be a God?

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Well, according to the law of Maat, yes and yes. Theoretically, if a God chose to forsake rightness, he would change too. His essence would become less and less ordered, and he would lose the associated power of his ordered state, and he would cease to be a God. Now, I say theoretically, because I don’t think any true God would ever choose to stray from Maat.

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It’s not in their nature. See, to become a god, one must first conquer the enemy, must first show that they will choose maat over istaf or rightness over evil. One who has been made a god has already shown that he will make that choice. So it doesn’t seem very likely that once one is made a god, one would suddenly rebel against maat because God is a lover of maat. Now, having said that,

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The ancient record is pretty clear from all of the combat narratives we read that one of the high gods sons, one who seems to have been pretty darn close to becoming a god, though he hadn’t been given a kingdom yet. And so that’s something we’ll talk about in a couple weeks. Chose to forsake rightness and conspire to usurp his father’s throne. As a consequence, he was thrown out of the divine realm and he fell from the heights to the depths of the realm of chaos

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the primordial ocean. So this is clearly an example of someone who was close to becoming a full-fledged god, but who chose to rebel against Maat and lost his nearly divine stature. No matter how you spin it, the ancients taught that not even God could break the law of Maat without experiencing the consequences. Upholding Maat was the supreme responsibility of…

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a god and of earthly kings. Number four, this one’s interesting. Ma’at is a force. We’ll get to this a lot more in our next episode, but ma’at is a force that governs the cosmos. It’s a power, a power that causes things to happen. For example, we learn in Pyramid Text 249, it’s a text that’s found in King Unus’s Pyramid,

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used rightness to remove disorder and to create the world. Atum says, quote, I have come from the Isle of Flame. Now the Isle of Flame refers to the birth of the universe or the earth, having put Ma’at in it, in place of disorder. He’s telling us that he placed righteousness in the primordial waters in the place of disorder.

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and that it was that rightness that caused the birth of the universe. That’s remarkable. It was through the power of righteousness that Atum caused the chaotic elements to form into a universe or a world. That’s power. In our modern day vernacular, we’d refer to this power as the power of God. You may have never thought about this.

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But why does God have power and you and I don’t? And where did God get his power, his power to create the world? Well, here we learn from the ancient Egyptians that God got his power from upholding rightness, from his righteousness. And why did God’s rightness give him power? Well, because the entire cosmos operate according to a law, the law of Ma’at.

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where rightness is the principle that causes and maintains order in the cosmos. So as one conforms more and more to the principle of rightness, the greater and greater power they will obtain. And since God loves Maat and perfectly upholds rightness, He has perfect power. He has the power to order all things. Number five, Maat is universal and impartial.

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What this means is that the law of Ma’at has the same implications for all things and all people. When it comes to human beings, this means that Ma’at doesn’t care, whether you’re male or female, black or white, tall or short, rich or poor, Chinese or Norwegian. The effects of adhering or not adhering to the law of Ma’at are the same for everyone. The implications of this are quite profound. See,

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What this means is that the more and more you and I align our lives with the principle of rightness, the more and more ordered our lives will become, and the more and more power we’ll obtain, and the more and more we’ll become like God. But don’t forget that God has the power that he does, and that God is a God, precisely because he perfectly upholds rightness, because he embodies Maat, righteousness. Maat is God’s way.

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and God’s way is Ma’at. Mythologist David Leming said it like this, quote, Ma’at was essentially an all Egyptian gods and goddesses as the principle of divinity itself. In other words, God is the incarnation of Ma’at. What the widespread implication of this for you and me is, is that any one of us, if we chose to uphold rightness, can also become like God.

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And if rightness becomes the very essence of who we are, we can become a God. The effects of adhering or not adhering to the law of Ma’at are the same for everyone. Adhere to rightness and become like God. Don’t adhere to rightness and don’t become like God. That’s the law of Ma’at. That’s the law of the cosmos. So amazingly, what this means is that the path to Godhood

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is built right into the very fabric of the cosmos. It’s crazy. Okay, so what does this rightness look like? You might be thinking to yourself, okay, I’d like to do that. I’d like more power and more order to come into my life. I’d like to become more like God. I want to uphold rightness, but I don’t know exactly how to do it or what that means.

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So let’s take a look at a couple of ancient Egyptian texts to see if we can get a better feel for what upholding Ma’at meant. For starters, we don’t have a comparable word in English for Ma’at, but in general it seems to be associated with three distinct concepts in English, truth, justice, and righteousness. The ancient Egyptians often spoke of, quote, doing Ma’at and, quote, saying Ma’at, or doing right and speaking truth.

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Inscribed on the entrance of Vizier Kegomenid’s tomb in Saqqara is a reference to his speaking and doing Ma’at. The inscription reads, quote, O you, do what is right for the king, and right which the God loves. Speak what is true to the king. What the king loves is truth. Dr. Lichtheim?

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wrote an entire book on how Ma’at was expressed and understood in ancient Egypt. And she found that doing and speaking Ma’at were the most prevalent expressions. Doing right still seems a little vague. Are there any more details in the Egyptian tombs or texts that tell us what this doing looks like? Yes. Listen to this inscription found in Suet tomb number four of Kedi, an ancient Egyptian nomarch of the 10th dynasty.

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Listen closely, you may hear some incredible similarities to other religious texts you may be familiar with. Here is Kedi’s description of his having done Ma’at. Quote, I have come from my town, I have descended from my gnome, having done what people love and God’s praise. I have given bread to the hungry, clothes to the naked. I listen to the plea of the widow.

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I give a home to the orphan. I answered evil with good.” This description in ancient Egyptian of how Ma’at is done is not an unusual one. It’s actually a standard description. Dr. Lichtheim found similar descriptions in the instruction of Ptahotep, maxim number five, and in several other texts. Some of you may have heard in this description a similarity to what Christ said in Matthew chapter 25.

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when Christ commanded his followers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the sick. In verse 46, Christ tells his followers that those who don’t do these things will quote, go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous unto eternal life. See, one who loves rightness will do these things. They’ll naturally seek to ease the suffering and the burdens of others because rightness is the very essence

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of who they are. The ancient Egyptians used a large white ostrich feather to symbolize Ma’at. If you search up a picture of Osiris, you’ll find that he’s often depicted wearing what’s referred to as the Ateph crown, which is the white conical crown of Upper Egypt, and it’s flanked by two large ostrich feathers whose tips curl downwards, which is something that ostrich feathers naturally do. The feathers represent Ma’at.

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So why did the ancient Egyptians choose to use a feather to represent Ma’at? For the answer to that, we need to turn to the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, also known as the Papyrus of Annie. On plate 31 of this papyrus, we read of a ceremony that took place called the weighing of the heart. In this ceremony, the heart of the deceased person is placed on one end of a balance, and it’s weighed against the feather of Ma’at on the other end of the balance.

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If the deceased’s heart proves heavier than the feather, it signifies that the deceased has not lived his life or her life in accordance with Ma’at. And because of that, he or she has then denied entrance into the afterlife. As part of the ceremony, the deceased stands before the court of Osiris and declares his or her conformity with Ma’at. It’s known as the negative confession.

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In the confession, the deceased confesses to what he or she did not do rather than what he or she did. So here’s a taste from Plate 31, and this comes from the E.A. Wallace Budge translation.

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Hail Fentiu, who cometh forth from Cheminu, I have not stolen. The negative confession goes on to declare the deceased innocent of a total of 42 violations of Ma, including not having committed fornication, not having caused others to shed tears, not having acted with guile, not having lied, not having burned with rage, and not having judged hastily.

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It’s from these declarations that we get a much clearer picture of what constituted Ma’at, or doing right and speaking right. But don’t lose sight of the larger theological picture the ancient Egyptians are painting here. See, Ma’at isn’t just some man-made moral code socially constructed to keep human beings in line. And it’s not even understood to be a God-made moral code. It’s more than that. It’s a cosmic law built…

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right into the fabric of the cosmos itself. A law that if adhered to can imbue the adherent with power. The power to produce order. Marital order, family order, social order, political order, natural order, and cosmic order. That’s powerful stuff. At this point, you might be wondering, okay, but is this just an ancient Egyptian conception?

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or do we find the same conception of the fabric of the cosmos in other ancient cultures and religions? This far into the podcast, you know the answer is yes. Nearly all of the major ancient civilizations and religious traditions either make the assumption that the cosmos are operating in accordance to a concept similar to Ma’at or they develop an actual cosmic concept that’s nearly identical to Ma’at.

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Scholars have written a number of papers on this subject, so know that the cross-cultural counterparts I’m gonna give to you are coming out of a large body of literature on the subject. And I don’t have time to go into each of these examples in detail, but know that scholars see a number of very important correspondences between Ma’at and other cosmic concepts, which of course speaks to me of a common source. For example, in the Vedic tradition,

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The Hindu believe in the cosmic concept of rita, which is R-T-A. The Sanskrit for rita is translated as, quote, order, rule, and truth. Maurice Bloomfield refers to rita as, quote, the most important concept, not only of the

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Barbara Holdridge, a professor of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, describes Rita like this, quote, the principle in the natural order, which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything in it. In the hymns of the Vedas, Rita is described as being responsible for the natural, moral and sacrificial orders. In the Phoenician tradition, in Zoroastrianism,

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The Zoroastrians believe in the concept of Asha, A-S-H-A. Similar to Ma’at and Rita, it’s a concept that’s pretty difficult to translate into a single English word. Asha means something akin to truth, right, righteousness, order, and sometimes right working. And like with Ma’at and Rita, Asha plays a cardinal role in the theology and doctrine of Zoroastrianism.

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One interesting note here is that Asha, which is often translated as truth, is derived from the Indo-Iranian word Sūtya, which means being or existing, suggesting the Zoroastrians saw a connection between truth and really existing or being brought into full realization. And we’re going to talk about that much more in our next episode.

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In the Chinese tradition, in Taoism, Tao is, and this comes from the dictionary, quote, the absolute principle underlying the universe, signifying the way or code of behavior that is in harmony with the natural order. Among the Sumerians, Akkadians, Canaanites and Hittites, we don’t necessarily find an explicit concept or principle similar to Ma’at like we do in other cultures, but the combat narratives that we find among these peoples

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which are based on the combat between chaos and order, the enthronement of kings who conquer chaos, and the power of those kings to create worlds, all depend on an underlying belief in a cosmic principle similar to Ma’at. Other scholars have connected Ma’at to the Greek concept of Metis, the Native American concept of Orenda or Hosso, and the Australian Aboriginal concept of Chukoraw.

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To me, however, the most fascinating parallel is found among Judeo-Christians in a concept known as tzedek, T-Z-E-D-E-K. Like with Maat, Rita, and Asha, we don’t exactly have a word for word equivalent in English for tzedek. English translators of the Bible have translated tzedek into a number of English words, rightness, righteousness, just, justice, fair,

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quote, what is right. In the biblical canon, the concept of tzedek, similar to what we see in ancient Egypt, is most often associated with kings, rulers, seats of government, and sovereigns, most of whom must uphold maat or tzedek if the kingdom is to have any chance of flourishing. Of greatest interest to me and to this podcast is the use of tzedek as part of an epitaph or title.

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If you recall, we mentioned earlier in today’s episode that in ancient Egypt, Ma’at was sometimes used as a title or epitaph of God, like Lord of Ma’at or Prince of Ma’at. We see the same thing in the biblical canon. In Hebrews chapter 5 verse 6, Paul teaches the Hebrews that Christ was ordained a high priest after, quote, the order of Melchizedek.

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order here refers to a priesthood order. And we’ll talk a lot more about this priesthood order in another episode, but for this episode, I wanna focus on the meaning of the word itself. Did you notice that the word tzedek is in the name, Melchizedek? Melchizedek. When we look at Melchizedek in Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, we learn that Melchizedek is a compound word, Melchi and tzedek.

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We already know that tzedek means righteousness and rightness, like ma’at. But what does the word malki mean? Well, considering everything we’ve talked about on this program regarding kingship, heavenly kingship and earthly kingship, it should come as no surprise here that the word malki means king in Hebrew. So when you put them together, the words malki and tzedek mean king of righteousness or king of righteousness.

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Al-Quedzadeq. Anyone out there find it interesting that Christ was ordained a priest after an order that includes kingship right in the title? Well, we’ll have a lot more to say about that down the line. King of righteousness is obviously being used here as a title or an epitaph for Christ. The text is talking about Christ’s order of priesthood. But it’s the emphasis on Christ’s rightness or righteousness that I want to emphasize here.

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This is just like what we see in ancient Egypt where the god Osiris is given the epitaph or title Lord of Ma’at, Lord of Righteousness. Here Christ is given the epitaph, King of Tzedek, King of Righteousness. We began this episode by asking the question, who is God? From today’s episode, it’s clear. The ancient texts attest.

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that the God of heaven at his core is a being of tzedek, a being of righteousness. There is no istef as the ancient Egyptians would say in him. Earlier in today’s episode we noted that the ancient Egyptian texts don’t just say that the gods are lords of Ma’at. They also tell us that they are lovers of Ma’at. They don’t just do

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A similar thing is said of Christ in Psalm 33 verses 4 and 5. Listen to how these verses first speak of Christ’s Zedek, both speaking and doing Zedek, and then his love of Zedek. The text reads, quote, For the word of the Lord is right, and all of his works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness.

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God isn’t just just, he loves justice. God isn’t just true, he loves truth. God isn’t just honest, he loves honesty. God isn’t just faithful, he loves faithfulness. God isn’t just kind, he loves kindness. God isn’t just virtuous, he loves virtue. God is

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God perfectly conforms to the cosmic standard of right. We can take comfort in knowing that he is perfectly just. He will never judge us unfairly, never. And we can take comfort in knowing that he is perfectly kind. He will never do us harm, never. And we can take comfort in knowing that he is perfectly faithful. He will never fail us, never.

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is the very essence of who God is. We have to start there, because without this knowledge of who God is, nothing else in the ancient tradition makes sense. God is a God because He upheld and continues to uphold the cosmic law of righteousness. God’s laws and commands are the laws and commands of righteousness.

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God’s power is a witness to and a product of his righteousness. As I close out this episode, I hope you have a much better understanding of who God is. And I especially hope you have a much better understanding of the constitution of the cosmos and the cosmic law of righteousness that underpins every aspect of it. Without it, there is no order. There is no world.

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No trees, no you, no me, no happy marriages, no functioning governments, no meaningful relationships, no children, no peace, and no light. The Cosmic Law of Righteousness is the grand unifying law that explains every single thing in the cosmos. All of you astrophysicists out there may just wanna give it a look. That’s it for me.

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I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare, knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. I’m Jack Logan.

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You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production.