Behind | Workbook: Psalms and an Egyptian Funerary Stele, Part 1

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Grab your Workbook Journal!

[Record your answers in the workbook provided at the beginning of this course.]

Let’s compare several Psalms with an ancient Egyptian text:

His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the LORD of all the earth.
– Psalm 97:4-5 (ESV)

May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works,
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!
– Psalm 104:31-32 (ESV)

Beware the Mountaintop,
for there is a lion at the pinnacle,
she strikes, like a wild lion strikes,
and pursues whoever sins against her.
– Funerary Stele of Nefer-Abet (20^th Dynasty/ thirteenth century BC).

Source: Bernd U. Schipper, “Egyptian Backgrounds to the Psalms,” The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms, Ed. William P. Brown, 2014, p. 64

Now reflect on the Psalms above, along with an inscription from an Egyptian funerary stele from the 13th century BC. What do they have in common?

Psalms and Song of Songs

Participants 8

Behind | Workbook: Psalms and an Egyptian Funerary Stele, Part 1

Grab your Workbook Journal!

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