The Nativity Scene of Amenhotep III at Luxor

Adapted from an Excerpt from

Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection

by D.M. Murdock aka Acharya S

In this picture we have the Anunciation, the Conception, the Birth, and the Adoration, as described in the First and Second Chapters of Luke's Gospel; and as we have historical assurance that the chapters in Matthew's Gospel which contain the Miraculous Birth of Jesus are an after addition not in the earliest manuscripts, it seems probable that these two poetical chapters in Luke may also be unhistorical, and be borrowed from the Egyptian accounts of the miraculous birth of their kings.

Dr. Samuel C. Sharpe, Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum (19)

The Nativity Scene of Amenhotep III in the Temple of Amun at Luxor, Egypt, represents a significant image demonstrating pre-Christian motifs later found within Christianity. Because of its appearance in the internet movie "ZEITGEIST, Part 1," millions of people have now seen this image, which means that examining it closely becomes imperative. In my book Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection, I examine this birth scene in the Luxor temple in detail, in over 30 pages. This article is adapted from the section of CIE and also serves as a response to a critical article by historian Richard Carrier.

In my previous book The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (115-116), which includes a great detail of comparisons between the Christian and Pagan religions, I included an engraving of some of the scenes from the Luxor birth cycle, with the description as follows:

Furthermore, inscribed about 3,500 years ago on the walls of the Temple at Luxor were images of the Annunciation, Immaculate Conception, Birth and Adoration of Horus, with Thoth announcing to the Virgin Isis that she will conceive Horus; with Kneph, the "Holy Ghost," impregnating the virgin; and with the infant being attended by three kings, or magi, bearing gifts.

This paragraph appears on my website along with a drawing of the engraving reproduced from The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ by Gerald Massey, an English mythologist and lay Egyptologist of the 19th century. However, Massey himself studied the work of many top scholars of the day and, in this particular instance, adopted the data from noted Dr. Samuel Sharpe (1799-1881), an Egyptologist and translator of the Bible.

This image and my text were reproduced around the internet and attempts hav been made to discredit the thesis of similarities between the Egyptian and Christian nativities. Carrier's reply was posted on a Christian apologist website. With its inclusion in the ZEITGEIST movie, I was prompted to look more closely at this subject, to discover if there is more to the subject than meets the eye. Carrier picked apart my description for a number of issues, including whether or not the "annunciation" of the birth precedes the conception, as it does in the Christian story; could this birth be considered a "virgin birth" or "miraculous conception"; whether or not the king's mother could be deemed a "virgin" after conception; and the use of the term "magi" to describe those adoring the newborn babe. However, it should be understood that these contentions did not originate with me but were paraphrased from Massey, who in turn evidently adapted them from Dr. Sharpe.

Background of the Egyptian Birth Cycle

In the temple of Amun at the site of Luxor appears a series of scenes depicting the divine birth of the king/pharaoh of the 18^th Dynasty (c. 1570-1293 BCE), Amenhotep/Amenhotpe or Amenophis III, who reigned during the 14^th century BCE (c. 1390-c. 1352 BCE). The precise nature of these scenes has been the subject of much debate since they were first analyzed by Western scholars in the 19^th century, beginning most prominently with Champollion. In consideration of the magnitude of the Luxor-Karnak temple complex, it is apparent that Amenhotep III was a highly noteworthy king. In fact, Amenhotep III is so important that he is deemed the initiator of the "new concept" of "a divine living king."^1...

The birth scenes at Luxor were not the first to have been created, as similar depictions existed earlier concerning the birth of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut (15^th century BCE) in her temple at Deir el Bahari. Birth scenes were also commonly used in "the Mamisi of the later periods," mamisi or mammisis constituting "birth rooms" or "birth houses." As stated by Dr. Eric H. Cline, Chair of the Department of Classical and Semitic Languages and Literatures at George Washington University, "The worship of the child born of divine parents finds an ultimate expression in the 'birth houses,' or mammisis, of the Greco-Roman period."...

This fact means that these birth scenes or "nativity templates," so to speak, were popular and in the minds of Egyptians beginning at least 3,400 years ago and continuing into the second century of the common era, with its eventual creation of Christianity...

The Amenhotep Birth Cycle

At Luxor, the pertinent scenes regarding Amenhotep III's birth appear in the temple of Amun "in the first chamber on the east of the holy of holies, on the west wall." In The Nile: Notes for Travellers in Egypt, Sir Budge provides a synopsis of the Luxor panels:

First or Lowest Row. 1. Khnemu [Khnum, Kneph], seated opposite Isis, fashioning the body of the young king and his ka or double upon a potter's wheel; he predicts that the child shall be king of Egypt. 2. Amen and Khnemu holding converse. 3. Amen and Mut-em-ua [Mutemuia or Ahmose], wife of Thothmes IV., and mother of Amenophis III., holding converse in the presence of the goddess Selq, or Serq [Selkit], and Neith. In the text the god Amen declares that he had taken the form of the husband of Mut-em-ua and that he is the father of the child who is to be born. 4. Amen and Thothmes IV. 5. Mut-em-ua being embraced by the goddess Isis in the presence of Amen. Second or Middle Row. 1. Thoth telling the queen that Amen has given her a son. 2. The queen being great with child, is being sustained by Khnemu and Isis, who make her to breathe "life." 3. The child is born in the presence of Thoueris, the goddess of children, and Bes, the driver away of evil spirits from the bed of birth. 4. Isis offering the child to Amen, who addresses him as "son of the Sun." 5. The child Amenophis III, seated on the knees of Amen, whilst his destiny is being decreed in the presence of Isis or Hathor; Mut offers to him a palm branch, at the end of which is the emblem of festivals. Amen declares that he will give him "millions of years, like the Sun." Third or Top Row. 1. The queen seated on the bed of birth, and the child being suckled by Hathor in the form of cow. 2. The seven Hathors (?) and two goddesses. 3 The Niles of the South and North purifying the child. 4. Horus presenting the king and his ka to Amen. 5. The gods Khnemu and Anubis. 6. The king and his ka seated and also standing before Amen. 7. Amenophis seated on his throne….

For our present analysis we will explore only a few of these images in any depth, especially scene 3 in row 1, in which we find the god Amun "holding converse" with the virgin queen—it is presumably at this point that the queen conceives....

It is noteworthy that, in the critical scene 3 (or 4, as elsewhere), Budge delicately describes the god and queen merely as "holding converse," while Dr. Baikie elegantly opines that the mother is impregnated by the ankh, "the divine breath of life, which is held to her nose." Neither of these scholars indicates anything sexual about the scene, the implications of which represent the greatest matter of debate about these birth scenes....

In his description of the Egyptian royal birth scenes, Dr. Breasted mainly confines his analysis to the earlier ones from Deir el Bahari, asserting that Amenhotep's birth narrative is essentially the same, with the differences highlighted and his narrative consulted where Hatshepsut's is lacking or too damaged. Breasted begins at the south end and proceeds to the north of the colonade of Hatshepsut's temple, describing essentially the same scenes as Dr. King. In a footnote to the second panel with Thoth and Amun, Breasted remarks that the Luxor version includes the queen and the goddess Hathor standing between the two gods, with Hathor embracing Ahmose/Aahmes and evidently "informing the queen of what is to befall her." Hence, while Budge places the embrace by Isis (Hathor) after the "converse" by Amun and the queen, according to Breasted the "annunciation" to the virgin queen that she is going to be impregnated by a god occurs before the conception.

Confirming Breasted's order, Dr. Murnane also tells us that, rather than starting with Khnum or the council of 12 gods, the very first scene in the Luxor birth narrative represents the god Amun-Re watching as the "King's Chief Wife," MUTEMWIA, is embraced by the goddess Hathor. The inscription relates that the god became very excited by the "chief wife," or "queen," and "went to impregnate her." In other words, again, there is an apparent transmission to the queen that Amun-Re would fecundate her, constituting an annunciation before the conception. Per Dr. Murnane, the next scene (2) depicts the god with the queen's husband, who asks Amun what he wants with his wife. Amun-Re seems to command the king to "the Mansion of the Prince…in heaven," apparently to get him out of the way. Again, this scene represents another announcement of the intent of the god to mate with the queen....

The Egyptian birth narrative incorporates much beyond what is portrayed in the Christian nativity. Of course, the obvious correspondences between the Egyptian narratives and the story of Christ include: The god essentially fecundating a mortal woman; an announcement of the conception; an adoration of the divine child by a number of personages; a pronouncement of the divine child as the god's "beloved"; and the declaration that this son of God would reign forever. These correlations in themselves rank as enough evidence that the Christian divine birth narrative is neither original nor unique.

The Christ Connection

When it comes to older scholarship, we discover a distinct trend of writers who had little problem seeing correspondences between the Egyptian nativity narrative and that of Jesus Christ. For example, Gerald Massey's summary of the Luxor images and inscriptions appears in his book The Historical Jesus and The Mythical Christ:

We shall find that the gospel history was "written before" from beginning to end. The story of the divine Annunciation, the miraculous Conception (or incarnation), the Birth, and the Adoration of the Messianic child, had already been engraved in hieroglyphics and represented in four consecutive scenes upon the innermost walls of the holy of holies in the temple of Luxor which was built by Amenhept III., a Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty. In these the maiden queen Mut-em-Ua, the mother of Amenhept, her future child, impersonates the virgin mother who bore without the fatherhood, the mother as the solar boat, the mother of the Only One...

The first scene on the left hand shows the god Taht [Thoth], the lunar Mercury, the divine Word or Logos, in the act of hailing the virgin queen, announcing to her that she is to give birth to the coming son. In the next scene the god Kneph (in conjunction with Hathor) gives life to her. This is the Holy Ghost or Spirit that causes conception; Kneph being the spirit. Impregnation and conception are made apparent in the virgin's fuller form. Next the mother is seated on the midwife's stool, and the child is supported in the hands of one of the nurses. The fourth scene is that of the adoration. Here the child is enthroned, receiving homage from the gods and gifts from men. Behind the deity Kneph, on the right three men are kneeling and offering gifts with the right hand and life with the left. The child thus announced, incarnated, born, and worshipped was the Pharaonic representative of the Aten sun, the Adon of Syria, and Hebrew Adonai, the child-Christ of the Aten cult, the miraculous conception of the ever-virgin mother personated by Mut-em-Ua.

...Massey ends the lecture edition of his analysis thus:

These scenes, which were mythical in Egypt, have been copied or reproduced as historical in the Canonical Gospels, where they stand like four corner-stones to the Historic Structure, and prove that the foundations are mythical.

In Ancient Egypt: The Light of the Word, Massey likewise describes the Luxor birth narrative, remarking:

In these scenes the maiden queen Mut-em-Ua, the mother of Amen-hetep, her future child, impersonates the virgin-mother, who conceived and brought forth without the fatherhood....

Massey then goes on to describe the scenes as in his other works, but, regarding the panel with Taht/Thoth "announcing" to the "virgin queen" that she is "to give birth to the coming son," he adds, "That is, to bring forth the royal Repa in the character of Horus or Aten, the divine heir." Thus, the divine child is identified with Horus, as we would expect, since the pharaoh/king is Horus. From Massey's interpretation of the scenes we can see a number of important correspondences to Christianity....

The depiction of the Luxor scene in terms of its relationship to Christianity emanates not originally from Massey but earlier from Dr. Samuel Sharpe, who presents the last two panels and then makes some surprising remarks:

In this picture we have the Anunciation, the Conception, the Birth, and the Adoration, as described in the First and Second Chapters of Luke's Gospel; and as we have historical assurance that the chapters in Matthew's Gospel which contain the Miraculous Birth of Jesus are an after addition not in the earliest manuscripts, it seems probable that these two poetical chapters in Luke may also be unhistorical, and be borrowed from the Egyptian accounts of the miraculous birth of their kings.

Like Dr. Sharpe, we would do well to suspect that the miraculous nativity scene in the gospels is no more "historical" than that of the Egyptian pharaohs. In fact, as we will continue to see in Christ in Egypt, there is good reason to believe that, despite any differences, the gospel birth narrative was in reality a continuation of this old and ongoing Egyptian nativity tradition.

Egyptologist Rev. Dr. A.H. Sayce evidently concurred with some of Dr. Sharpe's conclusions:

Yet more striking is the belief in the virgin-birth of the god Pharaoh, which goes back at least to the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty. On the western wall of one of the chambers in the southern portion of the temple of Luxor, Champollion first noticed that the birth of Amon-hotep III. is portrayed. The inscriptions and scenes which describe it have since been copied, and we learn from them that he had no human father; Amon himself descended from heaven and became the father of the future king. His mother was still a virgin when the god of Thebes "incarnated himself," so that she might "behold him in his divine form."

The learned Dr. Sayce's notes indicate that he had before him the inscriptions and was translating them himself. In discussing the age of this virgin-birth concept, Dr. Sayce raises the birth scenes of Hatshepsut and remarks:

How much further back in Egyptian history the belief may go we do not know: the kings of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties called themselves sons of the sun-god, and the Theban monarchs whose virgin-mothers were wedded to Amon, incarnate in the flesh, did but work out the old conception in a more detailed and definite way.

Citing Rev. Sayce, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia—a respected Christian publication—relates: "The birth of Amenophis III. of Egypt is described on the walls of the temple of Luxor as from a virgin and the god of Thebes, i.e., Ammon-Ra..." Thus, in Dr. Sayce's work we possess a qualified authority using primary sources and interpreting them to represent the birth of the sun god and his proxy on Earth, the pharaoh, from a virgin mother and a god as father, a concept dating to very ancient times....

Naturally, the pronouncements of Drs. Sharpe and Sayce were met with all sorts of "skepticism" because of their implication of the unoriginality of the Christian nativity scene. It is interesting, however, that such profound skepticism rarely seems to be applied to the improbable divine birth of Jesus Christ, while impossible standards of proof for the existence of the virgin-birth motif within Paganism are often demanded....

"Soft-Core Porn?"

In his extensive and oft-cited study of the birth scenes of the Egyptian pharaohs, Die Geburt des Gottkönigs, Egyptologist Dr. Hellmut Brunner (1913-1997), a professor of Theology, Archaeology and Egyptology at the University of Tübingen, presents the scenes at Luxor in the following order: