Regarding the apparent takeover of the Egyptian religion by Christianity, as concerns Isis and Horus in particular, Budge further remarks: And the bulk of the masses in Egypt and Nubia who professed Christianity transferred to Mary the Virgin the attributes of Isis the Everlasting Mother, and to the Babe Jesus those of Horus.[518]

And once more Budge says, "When the Egyptians embraced Christianity they saw nothing strange in identifying [Isis] with the Virgin Mary, and her son Horus with the Babe Christ."[519] Validating Budge's impression, Hornung also comments on the similarities between Isis and Mary, as well as Jesus and Horus: There was an obvious analogy between the Horus child and the baby Jesus and the care they received from their sacred mothers; long before Christianity, Isis had borne the epithet "mother of the god."[520]

As can be seen from these candid remarks by some of the world's foremost experts on Egyptian culture, there is much good reason to make both an Isis-Mary and a Horus-Jesus connection.

Since Isis was one of the most popular deities of the Roman Empire by the time of Christ's alleged advent, many instances of borrowing are probable, including not only iconography but also numerous attributes, such as Isis's virgin-mother status and epithets. As one obvious example of borrowing, there are numerous pre-Christian images of Isis and Horus in the "Madonna and Child" pose precisely as echoed later in depictions of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.[521] Thus, it has been asserted by not a few people, quite logically, that the Christian iconography is based directly upon this extremely popular Egyptian image. Concerning this development, Witt states: "The historians of ecclesiastical pictorial art need to bear in mind that the holy pair of Mother and Son had been in vogue for many centuries in the temples of Egypt before the genius of Christendom developed fresh treatments of an age-old subject."[522]

The Beloved Mother of God.

In addition to the Egyptian "Madonna and Child" imagery prefiguring its Christian counterpart by centuries to millennia, the Egyptian and Christian Divine Mothers even share the same name, with Jesus's mother named "Mary," of course, while Horus's mother possessed the epithet of "Meri," or "Mery," as the Egyptian word...[523] is transliterated by several scholars, including Egyptologists Drs. W.M. Flinders Petrie and Erik Hornung.[524] In addition to the fact that there have been pre-Christian goddesses named "Mari," such as on the Greek island of Cyprus,[525] as well as in the Middle East,[526] in India,[527] and among the Basques,[528] this epithet of "Meri" or "Mery" in Egyptian simply means "beloved," "desired,"[529] "delight"[530] "loving,"[531] "lover"[532] and the "loving one,"[533] and we would thus expect it to have been applied many times in some form or another to the highly esteemed, loving mother Isis during the long history of her reverence by millions of people around the Mediterranean.

Demonstrating that the appellation "Mary" is not unique to the Jewish Mother of God, the important sacred epithet meri/mery/mry was attached to numerous figures in ancient Egypt, such as deities, kings, priests, government officials and others. Even Egypt itself is called Ta-Meri or tA mry-"beloved land."[534] As stated by Dr. Denise M. Doxey of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, "Among the most common epithets found in the Middle Kingdom inscriptions are those introduced by a form of the verb mri, 'love,'"[535] which is defined also as "want," "wish" and "desire."[536] So important was love or mrwt to the Egyptians that they regarded it as "the means by which one achieved a venerated state in the afterlife."[537]

Before the New Kingdom, the bestowal of "divine love" occurred by a "superior" deity upon a human, a subordination that extended down the chain of authority, passed from gods to royals, from royals to non-royal officials, from officials to their wives and relatives, etc.[538] In this regard, Doxey further relates: [Egyptologist] W.K. Simpson has studied the concept of divine love, asserting that prior to the New Kingdom, love was always bestowed by a superior upon a subordinate. Simpson's view is certainly correct with regard to the love of gods. During the Middle Kingdom, humans always receive divine love; they are never described as "loving" a god.[539]

On some occasions, such as when the king was "beloved by the people," such love or mri could apparently be "reciprocated between superiors and subordinates" as well.[540] The clarification of the Middle and New Kingdoms indicates that this custom changed during the New Kingdom, with the use of the mry epithet becoming increasingly popular even as applied to deities. It is evident that, especially after the Hellenization of the Ptolemaic and Greco-Roman periods, various Egyptian deities became the objects of "divine love" and were themselves invoked as "beloved" or Mery. In reality, this ability to bestow mry upon even the "chief of all gods" is demonstrated as early as the New Kingdom in a hymn from the Papyrus Kairo CG 58038 (Boulaq 17), parts of which may date to the late Middle Kingdom,[541] such as the 18th Dynasty (1550-1292 BCE), and in which we find the combined god Amun-Re praised as "the good god beloved."[542] Indeed, at P. Boulaq 17, 3.4, we find Amun-Re deemed Mry, as part of the epithet "Beloved of the Upper Egyptian and Lower Egyptian Crowns."[543] Amun-Re is also called "beloved" in Budge's rendering of the Book of the Dead created for the Egyptian princess and priestess Nesi-Khonsu (c. 1070-945 BCE).[544]

Concerning the pairing of "Mery" with deities, Doxey comments, "Mry, followed by the name of a god or goddess, is the second most common form of epithet referring to deities..."[545] Along with the most common epithet, "venerated by" (imAh(y) hr), these terms represent part of "offering formulas"[546] seen as "referring to deities."[547] In fact, there are various "offering formulas" that end each line with the epithet Meri,[548] making the word highly noticeable. Moreover, when Doxey speaks of the mry epithet, she discusses it as "referring to superiors, gods, esteemed ancestors and elder family members."[549] In other words, although technically an epithet may be applied to a king, it nevertheless constitutes a reference to the deity as well, a subtlety that needs to be kept in mind when examining the possibility of this epithet's influence on Christianity.

Loved by the Gods.

Qualifying its recipient as "beloved" of one god or another, the epithet of Meri/Mery was commonly applied to Egyptian kings and authorities, such as Meri-ab-taui, Meri-Amen-setep, Meri-Aten, Meri-ka-Ra, Meri-mes, Meri-neter and so on.[550] At the Abydos temple, Seti I is called "Mer-n-Ptah," as well as "Mer-Sokar," "Mer-Horus" and "Mery-Osiris."[551] Some of these royal epithets represent "Horus names," while Horus himself is called "beloved"-in other words, mery-in the Book of the Dead and elsewhere.[552]

In any event, the epithets "served to link the official" to the "divine and royal superiors" named therein.[553] In this way, many gods had attached to their names the word meri/mery, such as Ra-Meri or Mery-Re and Amun-Mery or Meri-Amen, meaning "beloved of Re" and "beloved of Amen," respectively. The combination of the word Mery with the god's name, i.e., Amun, therefore, constitutes an epithet itself, which is distinctly set apart in cartouches sometimes containing only the very simple symbols of the god's name and mry. In the case of Meri-Ra, the cartouche merely contains the minimal symbols for the two words in the order of ra and mry or Re-Mery.[554] Furthermore, the symbol for "Mery" in a cartouche may also be the even simpler...,[555] meaning that it can be inserted easily into a hieroglyph, especially a cartouche containing a name. In a chart sampling some Middle Kingdom sites, Doxey lists the following deities, among others, as being "named with mry/mrrw": Anuket, Hathor, Hekat, Heqaib, Horus, Khnum, Ptah-Sokar, Satet, Sekhet, Sopedu, Tayet, Thoth and Wepwawet.[556] The list of deities with the epithet Mery attached to their names also includes: Amun, Maat,[557] Onuris, Amun-Re, Isis, Tefnut, Shu,[558] Atum/Atmu, Montu-Re,[559] Ptah,[560] etc.

In addition to nuances of meaning, the order of the epithet can be switched, as we have already seen with Meri-Ra being also Re-Mery, as in Pepi I's Horus name.[561] In this regard, James Allen relates that "when the king is called the 'beloved' of a god, the god's name is often put first...'"[562] In Middle Egyptian, Allen further explains: Kings are often described as "beloved" of a particular god by means of the perfective relative form...mry with the god's name as subject (often in honorary transposition)...[563]

As other examples of honorary transposition, Dr. Mark Collier, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and Dr. William Manley, a professor of Egyptology at the University of Glasgow, show Egyptian phrases with the god's name first, such as "Amun Mery."[564]

As further evidence of this honorary transposition, in which the god's name appears first in a cartouche, several pharaohs and Roman Emperors had as part of their names "Auset Meri"[565] and "Ast Meri"[566]-Isis Mery. As one instance of a beloved dignitary, the mother of the "high official" Het-hert-sa or Sa-Hathor (c. 1922-1878 BCE) was named "Ast-meri" or Isis Meri.[567] The pharaoh Thekeleth/Takeleth/ Takeloth/Takelot II (837-813) was also called "Amen-meri Auset-Meri."[568] In addition, the cartouche of Caesar Augustus (63 BCE-14 AD/CE) likewise contained the epithet "Ptah Auset-Meri" or "Ptah and Isis Beloved,"[569] just before the common era. This mry popularity would mean that when someone was called "beloved of Isis" Egyptian speakers would essentially hear "Mery Isis" or "Isis Mery."

Merry Deities.

As an important development over the centuries, Isis's son, Horus, is said frequently to be "beloved," revealing once more that deities were included in those who received this epithet of mry, especially in the case of "subordinate" gods and goddesses. Indeed, under entries in his hieroglyphic dictionary for Merr and meri , meaning "beloved one," Budge notes the terms represent "a title of several gods,"[570] as distinguished by the final symbol/determinative of a male god.[571]

In reality, one of Horus's common titles in the Book of the Dead (e.g., BD 18) is Se-meri-f: "the Beloved Son,"[572] precisely as was said of Jesus. In the Coffin Texts, Horus is also called "beloved," as at CT Sp. 251, where the deceased is deemed, "beloved of my father,"[573] and at CT Sp. 397, in which Horus is "one beloved of my father, whom my father greatly loves."[574] In CT Sp. 784, the deceased is likewise "our son, our beloved."[575] In an inscription regarding one of the Greek rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemies, we find a reference to "Horus, son of Isis, beloved," the word for "beloved" being meri/mery.[576] In the hymns at Philae appears a lively dialogue between Isis and the king, in which the goddess is depicted as addressing the ruler as "my son, Horus, my beloved."[577] In the later Greek magical papyri, Horus continues to be deemed "your beloved son."[578]

The important god Osiris too is labeled with the Mery epithet, as in CT Sp. 404 and 405, where Osiris is called the "Well-beloved."[579] In CT Sp. 104, we find a deity labeled as the "Beloved" or "Well-beloved," using the term mry, about which Faulkner notes, "The 'Beloved' may be Osiris."[580] In a hymn to Osiris at Philae the god is deemed "beloved of his father..."[581] As another example, BD 69 refers to "the Osiris" as the son of "Nu" and as "her beloved."[582] Osiris has also "come out beloved" at BD 127.[583] In the fifth staircase or portal of BD 148, the speaker says, "...I am the Sun or Osiris the beloved..."[584] In another hymn to Osiris, the god is addressed as "thou gracious one who are beloved..."[585] Moreover, Osiris provides an example of a god clearly loved by subordinate humans during the Middle Kingdom, as at CT Sp. 317, in which the speaker identifies himself as the "Nile-god, whom men love..."[586]

Isis the Loving and Loved.

As we have seen, the epithet Mery Isis or Isis Mery was commonly applied to important dignitaries from an early age into the Greco-Roman era. Anyone who was said to be "loved by Isis" would thus carry the epithet "Meri n Iset," "Merniset," "Mer Ast" or "Meri Iset,"[587] etc., by which the title mry in connection with Isis would be frequently invoked. The epithet "Mery Isis" or "Isis Mery" might be understood by the Egyptians as referring to the subject, often a king, as not only "beloved of Isis," but also "loved by Isis"[588] or "whom Isis loves."[589] Additionally, wherever Isis was deemed "loving," she would likewise be called Mer.[590] As James Allen relates, the Egyptian word mr also means "the loving one."[591] In her hymns at Philae, Isis is said to be "great of love,"[592] and "Isis the loving," i.e., "Mery," emerges in a relief also at Philae regarding the evemerized princess Arsinoe, in the phrase nTrt mry(t), which Dr. abkar translates as "the goddess who loves..."[593] It is apparent from their fervor that Isis's devoted followers felt and evoked love for their beloved goddess. From the evidence, it also appears that the bestowal of the epithet of Mery upon Isis may have been emphasized as part of the Hellenization during the Greco-Roman period, leading into the common era.

The association of Isis with the epithet Mery or Mer can also be demonstrated by the fact that she and her sister-goddess Nephthys were called the two "Merti" or "Mertae," as all these terms begin with the same Egyptian symbols: QK.[594] Indeed, these etymological connections provide an interesting thesis concerning the Mary and Martha of the New Testament as well: Mary is the Egyptian Meri, in its plural form Merti, in Latin Mertae, in Hebrew and German Martha, in Italian Marta.... All irrefutable evidence that the Gospels were merely a re-script of ancient Egyptian literature.[595]

The term "Merti" in reference to "the primeval gods and goddesses" is in fact a plural word beginning with the same signs as Mery.[596] As Renouf remarks, "Merta...is the name given to the goddess pair Isis and Nephthys."[597] While the Egyptian word in BD 58, for example, is mrti/mrty or mrt, Faulkner labels this pair as the "two Songstress-serpents."[598] "Merti" means "two eyes" as well, and one of Horus's epithets is "Harmerti" or "Horus of the Two Eyes."[599] His father too was named "Osiris Mrty"[600] or Osiris Merty. Indeed, concerning the "Merty" addressed in CT Sp. 103, Faulkner notes that it is a "male deity."[601] In the Coptic, the plural of merit is merate or merate,[602] a word that with two letters transposed would be mertae.

Concerning the use of Mery to describe deities, in the Proceedings of Birch's Society of Biblical Archaeology, Egyptologist Dr. Alfred Wiedemann (1856-1936), a professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Bonn, states: The Egyptian word Meri means, very generally, "the loving or the beloved," and serves in this sense as a title of goddesses, and is as often used as a proper name... [603]

The ever-important Isis was in fact one of these goddesses known by the title of Meri/Mery, especially a few centuries before and into the common era. That goddesses were beloved or mery is obvious from an enigmatic spell (BD 141) that invokes "the Goddess greatly beloved with red hair"[604] or "Her who is greatly beloved, the red-haired..."[605] Birch renders this phrase "the Greatly beloved, red-haired [Mystical Cow]."[606] The "red of hair," as Faulkner translates the epithet, represents "the Much Beloved," referring to cows,[607] who are undoubtedly representative of Hathor, another "mistress of the gods"[608] and sometime mother of Horus.[609]

In this regard, Massey refers several times to "Hathor-Meri or Isis." After relating that in BD 17 "Osiris-Ani is found in Annu with the hair of Isis spread over him," Massey further states that elsewhere "the hair is assigned to Hathor-one of whose names is Meri."[610] He also discusses "Hathor, who is Meri, the beloved by name in the Ritual,"[611] while, in examining the various Marys in the New Testament, further remarking: The Egyptian goddess Meri is a form of Hathor.... The name of Meri denotes love, the beloved. Hathor=Meri was the Egyptian goddess of love; and the Virgin Mary is, or was, worshipped by the Kypriotes under the name of Aphroditissa.[612]

Massey again says: "To this day the sycamore-fig of Hathor, one of whose characters and names is Meri...is pointed to at Maturea as the tree of Mary and her child."[613] In addition, in numerous of the various hymns inscribed at Dendera appears the phrase "beloved of Hathor"-mry @t-Hr or "Mery Hathor"-including as concerns Horus, who is also called mry @r-sA-Ast[614] or "Mery Horus son of Isis." In her chart entitled, "Deities Named with mry/mrrw," Doxey lists Hathor as receiving the epithet in nine inscriptions found at the Middle Kingdom sites of Beni Hassan, Serabit el Khadim and the West Nubian Desert alone.[615] Hathor is, in fact, "frequently named in the epithets of women throughout Egypt,"[616] and hers is a name commonly associated with Mery.

Increasingly in the Greco-Roman period onward, Hathor is also associated or identified with Isis, as Isis-Hathor,[617] who had her temple at Dendera[618] and who was identified with the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite,[619] as was purportedly also the Virgin Mary on the Greek island of Cyprus, not far from Egypt.[620] Isis is thus strongly associated with love, which is mri in Egyptian. Moreover, shortly before the common era, Isis had "completely assimilated" Hathor,[621] presumably absorbing her epithets as well.

As examples of the increasing use of "beloved," "loving" or "lover" as an epithet for Isis during the Greco-Roman period, in The Isis-Book (Metamorphoses, Book XI), Griffiths discusses an inscription from Thessalonica, Greece, in which "Osiris is said to 'make the beloved Isis rejoice'..."[622] In a Greek magical papyrus (PGM IV.2785-2890), the moon goddess Selene-the Greek equivalent of Isis who is combined at times as "Isis-Selene,"[623] a "very popular figure" in the Roman Empire[624]-is invoked as "O beloved mistress."[625] In the common era, Plutarch (2, 351E) termed Isis "wise and wisdom-loving" or "lover of wisdom,"[626] the Greek word being or philosophos, serving as an epithet. By the time of the Latin writer Lucius Apuleius (c. 123/125-180 AD/CE), Isis was the "All-Loving Mother,"[627] a name that would also bestow upon her the meri epithet in Egyptian.

In consideration of the popularity of the mry epithet and its prominence in cartouches, it would be understandable for non-native Egyptian-speaking followers of the religion to be struck by the association of Mery with various gods and goddesses, including the much loved Isis, and to view the term as an epithet of the deity him or herself. This increasing association during the Greco-Roman period would explain the epithet's presence in Greek texts representing "beloved Isis," as well as how Isis eventually morphed into Mary. The non-native speakers who were responsible for the creation of Christianity would likely not be interested in any finer points of Egyptian grammar-some of which evidently had not been adhered to strictly for several centuries-but would merely emulate the longstanding epithet of divine love mry in determining the name of their heroine.

The question of whether or not Isis herself was the recipient of divine love is addressed briefly by abkar, who raises the Greek phrase by which she is called in a papyrus at Oxyrhynchus (1380): , meaning "the love of the gods"[628] and thereby reflecting the development of labeling her Mery. In his discussion of this subject, abkar states: As to the possible meaning of the phrase "the love of the gods" as "beloved by the gods," implying that Isis herself is the object of divine love, one recalls that in Hymn V at Philae the goddess is said to be "beloved of the Great Horus"...[629]

We have seen that by the Greco-Roman period Isis was esteemed as "beloved" and "loving" in Greek. From the hymns in her temple at Philae, we discover that in the Ptolemaic period Isis was definitely deemed Mery in Egyptian as well, such as in Hymn V, in which Isis is called "beloved"-Mry(t)-twice, using the single hieroglyph H.[630] In one stanza of this hymn, Isis is labeled, "The female Horus, beloved of the Great Horus," while in another she is the "daughter of Re, beloved of his very heart."[631] In Hymn IV, found in Room X above the main text, Isis is called "the Great, God's mother, Lady of Philae, Lady of Heaven, Mistress of all gods, the beloved, giving life like Re..."[632] In the transliteration, therefore, appears the word mry(t).[633] Again, in a hymn in Room VII, Isis is labeled "Beloved of Re"-Mry(t) Ra- as she is also in Hymn VIII, using the same hieroglyph as in Hymn V.[634]

In the transliteration Mry(t) or merit, the feminine suffix "t" is used to emphasize that it is Isis who is the subject of the epithet: She herself is the beloved. However, the final "t" was eventually unwritten and unspoken, as Wiedemann relates: "In later times the pronunciation of the t was dropped..."[635] We are told by Serge Rosmorduc from Universite Paris VIII that leaving the final "t" in a word silent began occurring as early as the Middle Kingdom and that by the Late Kingdom, "it was no longer useful to write it." In the original Egyptian passage, therefore, appears no "t," which is why the transliteration places the letter in parentheses. In the end, it is evident that Isis was simply called by the epithet of Mery.

Whether she was deemed "Isis the Beloved" or "Isis the Loving," the goddess was nevertheless associated frequently with the epithet of mry, as Mery Isis/Isis Mery. An individual in Egypt may have heard or read the epithet "Mery Isis" or "Isis Mery" many times, regardless of whether it was applied to a mortal or to the goddess herself. Since "beloved of Isis," mry Ast, or "Mery Isis/Isis Mery," was a common epithet, anyone wanting to usurp Isis's power would likely wish to incorporate this popular "loving" title.

In addition, the title of "beloved" lasted long into the common era, and the word merit appears over 50 times in the Coptic translation of the New Testament.[636] Jesus himself is called "beloved" or Merit in the Coptic NT, as at Matthew 3:17, 17:5; Mark 1:11, 9:7; and Luke 3:22.[637] In the Gnostic texts, it is Mary Magdalene who is repeatedly referred to as "the beloved" and "the beloved disciple," likely reflecting her role as one aspect of the "triple goddess," also identified with Isis. From all of the evidence, it is clear that early Christians made the identification between the Egyptian Mother of God Mery and the Jewish Mother of God Mary.

Mery, Miriam and Mary.

Naturally, the connection between Mery and Mary has been noted many times in the past and into the present. In the original Greek of the New Testament, the name for Jesus's mother is "Maria." However, one must ask why the name was shortened to "Mary"-was it because, centuries into the common era, Isis remained a beloved goddess dubbed "Mery?" When was Maria first called "Mary," and by what mechanism did this change occur? Early Christians noted the similarity between Maria and "mare" or "mari," meaning "sea" in Latin, as in "stella maris." Thus, it appears that Mary was called as such fairly early, certainly long before the time Isis worship had disappeared openly. In any event, it would be beyond "coincidence" that an Egyptian virgin mother of God was evidently called Mery centuries before the Jewish virgin mother of God was likewise named.

The accepted opinion concerning the origin of the name Mary is that it comes from the Hebrew "Miriam," which means "rebellion." However, as is frequently the case within the field of etymology, this point is debatable, since the New Testament Mary certainly does not epitomize "rebellion," in reality representing utter submission to God, and the epithet "beloved" would be much more suitable, especially in consideration of our discussion of "superiority" and "subordination."

In Faiths of Man, Major-General James G.R. Forlong (18241904) remarks in his entry about "Mary. Miriam": "As a Semitic name this has no true derivative, though it has been connected with Marah 'bitter.'"[638] Moreover, Forlong's editor notes, "As Egyptian, however, Meri-amu may mean 'mother's love,' and Miriam the sister of Moses, after whom Mary was called, has been thought to bear an Egyptian name."[639] In this same manner, under the entry "Virgin Mary," the Catholic Encyclopedia relates: Fr. von Hummelauer...mentions the possibility that miryam may be of Egyptian origin. Moses, Aaron, and their sister were born in Egypt.... hence, it is possible that their sister's name Mary was also of Egyptian origin....[640]

In an article in The Contemporary Review under the entry for "Miriam," Rev. Dr. William Robertson Smith (1846-1894), a professor at the University of Cambridge and editor for the Encyclopedia Britannica, ventures a derivation of the name as "probably the Egyptian Meri-(t)," meaning, "beloved, a woman's name..."[641] The same logical association of Meri and Mary is posited by Rev. Henry Tompkins in Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute: "May not Miriam be one of the many Egyptian names beginning with Meri?"[642]

Thus, research has indicated that "Miriam" is "probably of Egyptian derivation," explaining that the name may be equivalent to meri-amu or to "mer Amon (Amun), 'beloved of Amon'..."[643] As also proposed in Faith and Thought, "Was the name of Miriam Egyptian-Meri-Ammon, "the Beloved of Ammon?"[644] In addition, the goddess name "Mari-amma" appears in Dravidian (Indian) mythology,[645] providing another mythical precedent for the Lady Mary or Miriam.

This obvious Mary-Mery connection has been duly noted and carried into the current scholarship as well. Under his entry of "Miriam," Dr. James Karl Hoffmeier, a professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern History and Archaeology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, states: ...The sister of Moses and a prophetess, like her brother, appears to have an Egyptian name. Although there are different linguistic explanations for the second mem, there is agreement that mary is the writing for the root mry, meaning "love" or "beloved," just as was proposed with Miriam's ancestor, Merari. This is behind the name Mary in the New Testament, and of course continues to be used in the twenty-first century. Alan Gardiner considered this to be one of several ancient Egyptian names that has survived into English.[646]

In his article in the Journal of American Oriental Society entitled "The Egyptian Origin of Some English Personal Names," Gardiner discusses the origins of certain biblical names: The majority of scholars...have settled down to the comfortable belief that Moses is really an Egyptian name.[647]

Gardiner further states, "The best argument in favour of the derivation of Msheh-Moses from the Egyptian Mse is that there is no other derivation as good."[648] But, he also notes, "And, on due reflection, would it not be more scientific to admit that we have no satisfactory evidence for choosing any derivation at all?" He continues to aver that "at least as good a case can be made out for an Egyptian derivation of Miriam as has been made for Moses."[649] In presenting the case, Gardiner also refers to receiving "warm approval" for various of his theses,[650] as well as that the Egyptian derivation of the biblical name Potiphera is admitted by "all sensible scholars."[651]

In his discussion of the Egyptian derivation of the name Miriam, which is alleged to be the origin of "Mary," Gardiner says: No Egyptian personal names are commoner than what the hieroglyphs write as Mry or the masculine and as Mryt for the feminine, meaning either "The-beloved" absolutely or "The-beloved" as shortening of some theophorous name like Imn-mryt (doubtless to be read Mryt-Imn) "The-beloved-of-Amn." At some time or other Mryt was doubtless vocalized Marye, since we have in Coptic a well-authenticated perfect passive particle from another verb... [652]

In a note addressing the order of the epithet Imn-mryt or Amun-Meryt, Gardiner says that "[d]ivine names were often written honoris causa in front of words which they followed in actual speech."[653] In other words, here is another instance of honorary transposition. Again, Gardiner remarks: ...It seems impossible not to think of the Egyptian goddesses and priestesses who were called Mrt, i.e., in all probability Marye "the-beloved..."[654]

Gardiner's remarks reveal that it is often scholarly consensus based on serious study, as opposed to a pristine "smoking gun" artifact, that determines an accepted fact. Such educated speculation constitutes, in reality, the reason for scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles in the first place. In this same manner, Gardiner presents his convincing and "comfortable" case that Mary is Miriam is Mery, revealing that the Mrt-Mery-Marye-Mary connection constitutes a scientifically sound thesis.[655]

In the end, the assertion that "Isis was never called Mery" remains unsustainable and erroneous, as not only was the Great Lady much beloved by many millions of people over a period of centuries to millennia but also, as we have seen, she was most definitely labeled many times during that period with the epithet of Mery in the Egyptian, centuries prior to the common era.

Perpetual Virginity.

The assertion that Horus's mother was called "Mery" is sound and important, as is the claim that, like her Christian counterpart, the Egyptian Mother of God was deemed an "immaculate virgin."[656] As we have already seen, Church father Epiphanius related that the Egyptians did indeed celebrate a virgin mother, although in his account these were Greek followers of the goddess Kore at Alexandria. This information was evidently too threatening to the Church, however, such that it was expurgated from at least one edition of Epiphanius's work. Nevertheless, this virgin mother, says Campbell, is a "Hellenized transformation of Isis," and, during the first century BCE, Diodorus equated Isis with Demeter, Kore's virgin mother.[657] Like Diodorus, the poet Apuleius likewise identified Isis with Demeter in his famous work The Golden Ass (11.2).[658] As we have also seen, Cosmas of Jerusalem speaks of the same festival as Epiphanius, with "Hellenes" (Greeks) shouting that "the virgin has brought forth, the light grows."[659] Combining these and other testimonies with the fact of various goddesses such as Isis being called "virgin" in ancient Egyptian texts, and it is obvious that in Egypt existed pre-Christian precedents of the virgin mother.

The Paschal Chronicle.

Another Christian source for the theme of the Egyptian virgin-mother goddess and her babe in a manger is the Chronicon Paschale or Paschal Chronicle, also known as the Chronicle of Alexandria, compiled beginning in the third century AD/CE and ending in the sixth to seventh centuries. In The Origin of All Religious Worship, French Abbe Charles Francois Dupuis (1742-1809), a professor at the College de France, describes the Chronicon: ...the author of the Chronicle of Alexandria...expresses himself in the following words: "The Egyptians have consecrated up to this day the child-birth of a virgin and the nativity of her son, who is exposed in a 'crib' to the adoration of the people. King Ptolemy, having asked the reason of this custom, he was answered that it was a mystery, taught by a respectable prophet to their fathers."[660]

Also verifying these assertions, Arthur Thomson states: The Chronicle of Alexandria has preserved the tradition of the practice of exhibiting the sun on the supposed day of his birth as a new-born infant as being held sacred in the mysteries of Egypt... "Up to the present time Egypt has held sacred the delivery of a virgin and the birth of her son, who is exposed in a cradle to the adoration of the people. King Ptolemy having asked the reason of this practice, the Egyptians told him that it was a mystery taught to their ancestors by a venerable prophet."[661]

The original Greek of the Chronicon Paschale first discusses the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah and then the motif of the virgin mother and divine babe in a manger: , . .[662]

This passage is translated quite literally by me thus: This Jeremiah gave a sign to the Egyptian priests that their idols would be shaken, and it would come to pass by a child-savior born from a virgin, lying in a manger. Therefore, for some time now they deify a virgin child-bearer and worship a newborn child placed in a manger.

"This Jeremiah," of course, refers to the biblical prophet, who supposedly lived in the seventh century BCE. It seems that the Chronicle author(s) was attempting to explain why the Egyptians worshipped a virgin-mother and her babe in a manger centuries before the Christian era, when Christ's identical circumstances were supposed to be unique. However, Isis and Horus were revered long before even the time of Jeremiah, and the evidence points to the motif of the virgin-mother and babe predating the common era and being usurped by the creators of the Christ myth.

As noted previously, the Chronicle author next relates that after "King Ptolemy" inquired as to the reason for this tradition, he was informed it was a mystery handed down by a "holy prophet" to "their forefathers." Hence, we possess a Christian account admitting that this Egyptian tradition and mystery of the virgin-born divine son in a manger dates to at least a century before the common era, with the Chronicle author's apology regarding Jeremiah pushing it centuries farther back! It is clear from his remarks, including the comment that this tradition had been going on for "some time now," that the Chronicle author believed it to be many centuries old by his time. Indeed, if the tradition did in fact emanate from Jeremiah's time, by the final Chronicle author's era, it would be over 1,000 years old.

To emphasize, this part about Ptolemy and the mysteries is important for a couple of reasons: Firstly, it means that this custom of bringing forth the newborn sun of the virgin mother dated back at least to the time of the Ptolemies, centuries prior to the common era; and secondly, the custom being a mystery indicates it was not necessarily stressed to the masses, such that we do not find it recorded in numerous sources from the pertinent period. Nevertheless, as we have seen here the virgin-mother motif constituted an important religious concept well known enough in antiquity to those movers and shakers who create religions, i.e., the priesthoods, which in Egypt and elsewhere included the rulers themselves.

In addition, the "manger" or "crib" aspect of the solar hero's birth is reflected in the Book of the Dead: In chapter 69, the speaker identifies himself as several of the gods-such as Osiris, Horus and Anubis-once again demonstrating their interchangeability, and reference here is made to the "cradle of Osiris," which Renouf identifies as "where Osiris renews his birth."[663] Osiris's "renewed birth," of course, would be his son Horus.

Son of Neith.

Combining all of these factors, including Plutarch and Macrobius, we receive the impression of Horus being the son of the virgin mother celebrated in Egypt centuries before the common era. Moreover, the assertion that Horus's mother was a virgin can likewise be found in BD 66, in which the deceased identifies himself as Horus and says: "I know that I have been conceived by Sechit and that I am born of Neith."[664] Birch renders the pertinent part, "I know that I was begotten [said] by Pasht, brought forth [said] by Neith. I am Horus..."[665] Budge's translation of the same passage is as follows: "I was conceived by the goddess Sekhet, and the goddess Neith gave birth to me. I am Horus..."[666]

Sechit, Sekhet or Sekhmet is the wife of Ptah and mother of the god Atum, representing the "second personage of the Memphis triad,"[667] one of the Egyptian "holy trinities." Identified with the goddess Hathor,[668] who in turn is identified with Isis, Sekhet represents another form of the Dawn goddess.[669] Not surprisingly, in the mythology of other cultures, such as the Indian and Greek, appears the same theme of the personified and deified Dawn giving birth to the sun, as the inviolable or virgin mother.[670] While "Pasht" is a different goddess from Sechit, she is equivalent to the goddess Bubastis, who is identified with the Greek goddess Artemis or the Roman Diana,[671] famed for being a virgin goddess.

In this ancient text the Egyptian Book of the Dead, we also possess an identification of the mother of Horus as the goddess Neith, who in turn is represented as a virgin mother from thousands of years prior to the common era. In fact, certain scholarship provides for estimates of the pre-historic Neith's worship dating back some 7,000 years.[672] In his analysis of archaic creation stories, anthropologist Dr. Wim van Binsbergen (b. 1947), chairman of the Foundations of Intercultural Philosophy at Erasmus University, discusses the Egyptian Neith tale as an example of "female parthenogenetic cosmogenesis."[673] In other words, Neith is a virgin-mother goddess-and, per Dr. van Binsbergen's study, such parthenogenesis or virgin birth constitutes a common cosmogonic theme dating to at least as early as the Neolithic period, some 5,000 to 8,000 years ago.

Another example of a virgin mother who predated Christianity by millennia is the goddess Anat or Anath, popular in the Middle East from Ugaritic times into the Roman era. Anat/Anath is called the "Mother of Gods" and the "wetnurse of the gods"; yet, in the epic of Keret, she is deemed the "Virgin Anat"[674]: "Although she is regarded as the mother of gods, the most common epithet at Ugarit is batulat, Virgin or Maiden,"[675] a term related to the Hebrew word bethulah.[676] As stated by Dr. Barbara S. Lesko of the Department of Egyptology at Brown University, "Indeed, Anath is often referred to as a virgin."[677] According to Dr. Karel van der Toorn (b. 1956), President of the University of Amsterdam, who along with Drs. Bob Becking and Pieter W. van der Horst of the University of Utrecht edited the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, the "predominant view among scholars is that the Ugaritic texts present Anat as a 'fertility goddess' who is the consort of Baal. It is also stated that she is the mother of Baal's offspring."[678]

In Egypt, we find a similar role as that of Anat representing the virgin as well as a wetnurse: The Egyptian word renen-t or rnnt (K J J V) means "wetnurse,"[679] for one. However, changing the determinative-the symbol placed at the end of the word imparting further meaning-creates other words such as "a girl, virgin, young woman,"[680] similar to the Hebrew term almah. With different determinatives, rnnt can also mean Amun[681] and "the nurse-goddess."[682] That the Egyptians valued virginity is indicated also by the word "Nefrit," nefer-t or nfrt (@HKVb), which means "the good, or beautiful, goddess, the virgin-goddess,"[683] as well as "virgin."[684] Avoiding the word "virgin," Faulkner renders the same Egyptian term as "fair woman."[685]

In any case, Anat was likewise worshipped in Egypt and may have been identified with the goddess Neith, which would be appropriate in consideration of her role as Virgin Mother.[686] In Egyptian, Neith is "NT," also transliterated as "Nat" or "Net," and she has further been identified as and/or with the goddess Nut, Nout or Mut, mother of Osiris and Horus the Elder (Haroeris).[687]

Concerning Nut, James Allen remarks: As the sky itself, the goddess Nut was not merely the surface across which the sun traveled by day but also the Sun's mother. The solar god was thought to gestate at night within her womb and to be born at dawn from between her thighs.[688]

Hence, in the sky-goddess Nut we possess yet another mother of the sun god, the traditional role of the dawn goddess as well, whom, we have noted, was considered "inviolable" and "virginal." Indeed, Osiris and Horus's mother, Nut, has likewise been asserted to have been a virgin, also remaining "inviolable," as related by Dr. Schmidt: Thus we find Seb, the father, Nut, the virgin, and Osiris, the son, in the Pyramid texts, just as we afterwards find Amen, the father, Muth, the mother, and Chons, the son...

Virgo, who now lends her name to this sign of the zodiac, is the heavenly Nut, the virgin mother of Osiris, who was called the "perfect one" and "the ancient one," and symbolized light and goodness, concord or harmony, peace and happiness. This virgin, the "great mother," the "queen of heaven," the "inscrutable Neith, whose veil no mortal could lift and live," had such a hold on the minds of the inhabitants of Lower Egypt, that the Theban notions of Amen, Muth, and Chons were never able to supplant it.[689]

Whether or not Neith and Nut are associated, as is so common with Egyptian deities, if Nut is also an inviolable and virginal entity, then her sons Osiris and Horus both would be deemed "born of a virgin."

Another virgin was the "Mother goddess of all Egypt," Muth or Mut, who was represented by a vulture and whose name means simply "Mother," an epithet applied to other goddesses as well. Interestingly, the vulture is "a symbol of parthenogenesis,"[690] as discussed by Church father Origen (Contr. Cels., 1.37),[691] and the "virgin vulture bringing forth" may have constituted part of the mysteries.[692] Concerning the mother goddess, Budge relates that "in late times [Mut] was said to possess, like Neith, the power of parthenogenesis"[693]-in other words, virgin birth.

Regarding the important and ancient goddess Neith, from whom in the Book of the Dead Horus is said to have been born, Budge also states: And the priests of the goddess Net (Neith) of Sais...held the view that she was self-begotten and self-produced, that she was the mother of the Sun-god, and at the same time a perpetual virgin-goddess.[694]

Under the entry for the goddess "Net," Budge gives her Greek name, -Neith-and then defines the term as "a self-produced perpetually virgin-goddess, who gave birth to the Sun-god..."[695] Moreover, in a series of admissions concerning Isis, sincere Christian Budge further remarks: ...it is clear that early Christians bestowed some of her attributes upon the Virgin Mary. There is little doubt that in her character of the loving and protecting mother she appealed strongly to the imagination of all the Eastern peoples among whom her cult came, and that the pictures and sculptures wherein she is represented in the act of suckling her child Horus formed the foundation for the Christian figures and paintings of the Madonna and Child. Several of the incidents of the wanderings of the Virgin with the Child in Egypt as recorded in the Apocryphal Gospels reflect scenes in the life of Isis as described in the texts found on the Metternich Stele, and many of the attributes of Isis, the God-mother, the mother of Horus, and of Neith, the goddess of Sais, are identical with those of Mary the Mother of Christ. The writers of the Apocryphal Gospels intended to pay additional honour to Mary the Virgin by ascribing to her the attributes which up to the time of the advent of Christianity they had regarded as the peculiar property of Isis and Neith and other great indigenous goddesses, and if the parallels between the mythology history of Isis and Horus and the history of Mary and the Child be considered, it is difficult to see how they could possibly avoid perceiving in the teachings of Christianity reflections of the best and most spiritual doctrines of the Egyptian religion. The doctrine of partheno-genesis was well known in Egypt in connexion with the goddess Neith of Sais centuries before the birth of Christ; and the belief in the conception of Horus by Isis through the power given her by Thoth, the Intelligence or Mind of the God of the universe, and in the resurrection of the body and of everlasting life, is coeval with the beginnings of history in Egypt. We may note too in passing the probability that many of the heresies of the early Christian Church in Egypt were caused by the survival of ideas and beliefs connected with the old native gods which the converts to Christianity wished to adapt to their new creed.[696]

Essentially Budge is indicating that much of the Christian religion and tradition is related to the Egyptian religion, including direct lifts of attributes from Egyptian goddesses later ascribed to the Virgin Mary. Like Dr. van Binsbergen, Budge states definitively that parthenogenesis-again, virgin birth-was known in Egypt centuries prior to the common era, specifically in regard to the goddess Neith.

Bonwick likewise states, "Neith or Nout is neither more nor less than the Great Mother, and yet the Immaculate Virgin, or female god, from whose bosom all things has [sic] proceeded."[697] And once more, Budge says, "She was the Virgin-mother of the Sun-god, and the 'Mother-goddess' of the Western Delta."[698]