<論説>古代エジプトの「無罪の宜言」再考 --第一八王朝時代の『死者の書』を手掛かりとして--

Abstract

古代エジプトの『死者の書』には「死者の審判」と呼ばれる固有の復活思想が描写される。この思想において、死者は冥界の旅を経て冥界の主神オシリスと面会し、審判を受けることで死後の復活と安寧が認められた。オシリスのもとへ到達するため、死者には四二柱の冥界の判事に対する生前の身の潔白の証明が求められた。この一連の宣言の場面は「無罪の宣言」と呼ばれ、古代エジプト人の来世観や倫理観を示す重要史料に位置づけられる。しかし、千五百年にわたり記述された「無罪の宣言」の内容には変化がないと認識され、同場面を詳細に分析する研究は行われていない。本稿では、従来の見解を再検討し、古代エジプト新王国時代第一八王朝の複数の写本に記述された「無罪の宣言」の内容とその差異を考察する。これにより、冥界の判事の名称やその出自との関係性を明らかにし、古代エジプト人の思想の変化を解明する新たな「無罪の宣言」研究の基礎を確立する。

In the ancient Egyptian underworld, a group of judges known as the Forty-two Judges presided over the “Declaration of Innocence.” This declaration, in Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, also referred to as Chapter 125B, is one of the most well-known concepts in ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife; it describes a critical stage in the deceased's final judgment by Osiris. In this belief, the deceased denies having committed specific misdeeds during his or her lifetime. The deceased addresses each of the forty-two judges, seated or standing on columns, by name and place of origin, and denies committing sins. For example, the deceased might say: “O, Broad of Steps, who comes from Heliopolis, I have not done evil things.” This series of declarations demonstrate the ethical ideals of ancient Egyptians, and with the varied names, origins, and sins denied, they offer insights into their morality. Each judge has a different name, origin, and iconography, showing the diverse images of ancient Egyptian netherworlds, including its inhabitants and topography. The “Declaration of Innocence” was used extensively from the 18th Dynasty to the Greco-Roman period. Scholars recognized its importance, particularly the consistency of its content, which reflects the enduring traditions of Egyptian culture. Since the format and content of the scene are “apparently” unchanged, scholars have regarded it as an essential source reflecting unchanging Egyptian ethics and images of the ancient Egyptian afterlife, which remained static throughout the period of the use of the Book of the Dead. For that reason, the tradition and transitions of the “Declaration of Innocence” and the Forty-two Judges have not been extensively studied in the history of religion in Ancient Egypt. However, given that the manuscripts of the Book of the Dead were initially prepared for the privileged class population, the contents of the spells, including the individual components of the scene, which are classified by judges' names, origins, and deceased's misdeeds, are presumed to differ even among the manuscripts from the same period. To improve our understanding of the same scene and its protagonists, this paper reconsiders the “Declaration of Innocence” based on a comparative analysis of manuscripts of the Book of the Dead from the 18th Dynasty. Establishing the Papyrus of Amenhotep in the British Museum (BM EA 10489) from the end of Thutmose III's reign as a standard for comparison, this paper numbers the declarations in order, dividing each declaration into three components: names of the judges (N), their places of origin (P), and the misdeeds that are denied (D). Contents of the manuscript that differ from the standard are marked in the comparative table. A comparative study of seventeen manuscripts reveals the following points. First, there is diversity in the composition of scenes of the “Declaration of Innocence” across the period. No manuscript matches the standard manuscript, the Papyrus of Amenhotep and the changes in the order of the declaration are evident. Remarkably, the number of declarations and judges is not always forty-two. Second, the lack of places of origin, frequently seen in the later part of the declaration in many manuscripts, indicates that the scribes prioritized placing the names of the judges on the columns and the sins while their origins were less prioritized. Duplications of the origin of judges, such as iwnw and ḥwt-k-Ptḥ, and the appearance of general terms for the origins (niwt, town; imnt, the west) support this idea. Third, this incomplete set of the origins of the Forty-two Judges disagrees with the traditional notion that the number forty-two is derived from administrative towns in Egypt. There are no manuscripts that have forty-two different origins for the judges. Further detailed examination, iconographical analysis, and comparison with later sources will clarify the relationship between the characteristics of the Forty-two Judges and the concept of the “Declaration of Innocence.”