To: Brumar89 who wrote (52172 ) 4/14/2014 10:45:15 PM From: 2MAR$ Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 69300 Not just Persian day of judgment, there are influences coming in from all over when one is looking at the bigger picture. Divine pardon & weighing of sins at judgement day was always a central concern for the Ancient Egyptians going back 6000yrs. So out the window goes your idea that the Buddhist, Hindus & Persians were all borrowing from old testament prophets, and we see very few of them (none) really for over 400 strategic years anyways while Alexander is out conquering Palestine, Egypt, Persia & the rest of the world. Osiris Judgement[ edit ]The idea of divine justice being exercised after death for wrongdoing during life is first encountered during the Old Kingdom , in a 6th dynasty tomb containing fragments of what would be described later as the Negative Confessions . [26] Judgment scene from the Book of the Dead . In the three scenes from the Book of the Dead (version from ~1375 BC) the dead man ( Hunefer ) is taken into the judgement hall by the jackal-headed Anubis . The next scene is the weighing of his heart against the feather of Ma'at , with Ammut waiting the result, and Thoth recording. Next, the triumphant Henefer, having passed the test, is presented by the falcon-headed Horus to Osiris, seated in his shrine with Isis and Nephthys . (British Museum) With the rise of the cult of Osiris during the Middle Kingdom the “democratization of religion ” offered to even his humblest followers the prospect of eternal life, with moral fitness becoming the dominant factor in determining a person's suitability. At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Ma'at , who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris. If found guilty, the person was thrown to a "devourer " and didn't share in eternal life. [27] The person who is taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts. [28] The cult of Osiris continued until the 6th century AD on the island of Philae in Upper Nile. The Theodosian decrees of the 390s, to destroy all pagan temples, were not enforced there. The worship of Isis and Osiris was allowed to continue at Philae until the time of Justinian , by treaty between the Blemmyes-Nobadae and Diocletian . Every year they visited Elephantine, and at certain intervals took the image of Isis up river to the land of the Blemmyes for oracular purposes. The practices ended when Justinian I sent Narses to destroy sanctuaries, arrest priests, and seize divine images, which were taken to Constantinople. [33]