An Analysis of The Teachings of Ptahhotep

An Analysis of The Teachings of Ptahhotep: The Oldest Book in the World

Edited by Dr. Asa Hilliard, Larry Williams, and Nia Damali

(I will use the words Afrikan and Black interchangeably for people of African descent)

The late Dr. John Henrik Clarke, the legendary Africana Studies Professor, and respected Pan Africanist, once said, “Afrikan history is the missing pages of world history.” With the live streamed broadcast of the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man from Minneapolis, Minnesota, by a racist white police officer, masses of Afrikan people, and many people in humanity, became outrage over his killing. Floyd’s death became the continued impetus for a millennial “woke” (Black consciousness) and social justice movement in the Afrikan American community since the murder of another unarmed Afrikan American named Trayvon Martin was killed by a racist white Hispanic named George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012. Many Afrikan people are now discovering “new” facts in Afrikan history and culture, such as Afrika being the birthplace of civilization, the early presence of Afrikan people before Christopher Columbus, 1619 being start date of the enslavement of Afrikan people in America, United States Democracy was made a reality for all people through Black freedom struggles, the massacre of a thriving Afrikan American community in Tulsa, Oklahoma called Black Wall Street by white racists on June 1, 1921, the building of the White House by enslaved Black Labor in America, the word Hotep as the oldest ancient Afrkan Kemetic (Egyptian) word for peace, the assassination of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton by the FBI, and an old Afrikan American holiday called Juneteenth. One of the things we must also “discover” on our path of being “woke” is an Afrikan sage named Ptahhotep. His text reflects the original knowledge of Afrikan spirituality and philosophy before the rise of white supremacy’s vicious and fictitious justification of Black people being labeled uncivilized and subhuman. The Teachings of Ptahhotep is a powerful book filled with the wisdom and the analysis of the spiritualism and philosophy of the Medu Neter and the 42 Laws of Ma’at. Medu Neter is the original Afrikan language of Kemet. When European and Arab invaders of Afrika conquered Kemet (Egypt), they changed the Afrikan name of Kemet nation to a foreign name. In fact, Afrika’s conquerors changed the names of Kemet’s (Egypt’s) cities, holy sites, architectural structures, leaders, scientists, and philosophers. The name Kemet was changed to Egypt. Kemet means the land of the Blacks. The conquers (i.e., Europeans and Arabs) of Kemet (Egypt) renamed its language of Medu Neter to the hieroglyphics. Afrika's invaders made Kemet's spirituality illegal. They closed all the faith temples of Kemet for hundred years. Kemetic spirituality and the 42 laws of Ma’at existed thousands of years before Judaism, Christianity, and Al-Islam came into existence. In fact, many respected theologians, Egyptologist, and history scholars have written books presenting to humanity that the world’s western religions plagiarized Kemetic spiritual cosmogony and Ma’at to develop their own versions of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cosmogony and ethics and moral codes. Like many people that have exploited Afrika of its people, land, treasures, and resources, so too were her religious traditions plundered. Unfortunately, the world’s major religions did not give credit back to Afrika for helping them find their pathway to faith and a code of ethics and morality. During slave trade of the European and Arab world, they had to justify the enslavement of Black people in Afrika by fabricating a myth that Afrikan culture and spirituality were subhuman, savage, uncivilized, satanic, and polytheistic. Although Kemet was taken over by colonizers, the Medu Neter still exists. It documents the recorded history of Kemet, its culture, its spirituality, its sciences, its theology, and its philosophical traditions. Ma'at comes from ancient Kemetic spirituality. The Teachings of Ptahhotep points to the spirituality of Medu Neter and Ma’at. It is considered by Egyptologists and historians as the oldest written text in the world.

The Teachings of Ptahhotep were found in Kemet (Egypt). However, in that same country, there exists a book older than the Teachings of Ptahhotep. It was called-the incomplete instructions to Kagame. In the book, The Teachings of Ptahhotep: The Oldest Book in the World, Dr. Asa Hilliard, Larry Williams, and Nia Damali discuss this ancestor’s text. They write on page 12 and 13, “a vizier who served both Huni and Seneferu of the Third and Fourth Dynasties respectively. This is followed by the instructions of Hardjedef, the prince, for his son Auilbre. Hardjedef was the son of Khufu of the 4th Dynasty, and grandson of Senefuru.”

But Dr. Hilliard, Williams, and Damali explain in their book that the text to Kagame is not finished. They write, “however, these instructions are very short and incomplete. So the oldest complete set of instructions is the 37 Teachings or Instructions of Ptahhotep the oldest textbook in the world.”

Dr. Hilliard, Williams, and Damali also explain, in their book, that the spirituality of the Medu Neter is the basis for humanity’s concepts of the oneness of God, faith, prayers, the afterlife, fasting, charity, morals, and ethics. They write on page 11, “the earliest Mdw Netcher (Medu Neter) writings describe Offering lists to the deity or to its manifestations and powers. Later prayers of offerings were substituted for the Offering list. These writings as with almost all writings in ancient Kmt (Kemet) , emerged out of a profound religious orientation toward the world. This religious orientation found its expression in preparation for life after death or for the resurrection. However, lost to many analysts is the fact that in the preparation for life after death or for the resurrection, the supplicant was actually articulating a set of values and a code of behavior by which to live one’s life in the world before death. No higher human behavioral code has been found anywhere in human history than the earliest code of the ancient Kamites.”

The following are the 42 laws of Ma’at. They are also called-the Negative Confessions or Declarations of Innocence :

1) I have not committed sin.

2) I have not committed robbery with violence.

3) I have not stolen.

4) I have not slain men or women.

5) I have not stolen food.

6) I have not swindled offerings.

7) I have not stolen from God/Goddess.

8) I have not told lies.

9) I have not carried away food.

10) I have not cursed.

11) I have not closed my ears to truth.

12) I have not committed adultery.

13) I have not made anyone cry.

14) I have not felt sorrow without reason.

15) I have not assaulted anyone.

16) I am not deceitful.

17) I have not stolen anyone’s land.

18) I have not been an eavesdropper.

19) I have not falsely accused anyone.

20) I have not been angry without reason.

21) I have not seduced anyone’s wife.

22) I have not polluted myself.

23) I have not terrorized anyone.

24) I have not disobeyed the Law.

25) I have not been exclusively angry.

26) I have not cursed God/Goddess.

27) I have not behaved with violence.

28) I have not caused disruption of peace.

29) I have not acted hastily or without thought.

30) I have not overstepped my boundaries of concern.

31) I have not exaggerated my words when speaking.

32) I have not worked evil.

33) I have not used evil thoughts, words, or deeds.

34) I have not polluted the water.

35) I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly.

36) I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds.

37) I have not placed myself on a pedestal.

38) I have not stolen what belongs to God/Goddess.

39) I have not stolen from or disrespected the deceased.

40) I have not taken food from a child.

41) I have not acted with insolence.

42) I have not destroyed property belonging to God/Goddess

They further write on page 11 and 12, “following the list of offerings and prayers, another form of writing appeared in the early dynastic period in Kmt (Kemet). In the temples and tombs prepared for decease persons, we find that there was concern that the deceased be able to say, on Judgement Day, that he or she had followed God’s will. Therefore, there emerged in the old kingdom the practice of writing down declarations of virtues. These declarations of virtues appear in the new kingdom, the 18th Dynastic Period, as the “Negative Confessions.” In popular form there were 42 of these “Negative Confessions” or the “Declarations of Virtues.” According to Biblical history, Moses was an Egyptian priest who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, a wisdom literature that included the Per-em-Hru (the Book of Coming Forth From Darkness Into Light) or as it popularly called, The Book of the Dead.” “Forty-two “Negative Confessions” or “Declarations of Virtues” are found in the book, and bear a striking resemblance to the much shorter list of virtues which are stated as “Commandants” in the Old Testament.”

The Ten Commandments:(Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)

1) "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.”

2) "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.”

3) "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

4) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six Days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

5) "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”

6) "You shall not murder.”

7) “You shall not commit adultery.”

8) "You shall not steal.”

9) "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

10) "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”

The 42 laws of Ma'at are the oldest moral and ethical codes known to human beings. Ma'at, when translated from the Medu Neter into english, means for truth, justice, harmony, righteousness, order, balance, reciprocity, and propriety). Ma'at was found in the Pert Em Heru (The Book Coming Forth By Day), which the invaders of Afrika (i.e. Europeans and Arabs) call this text, "The Book of the Dead." If you compare the Ten Commandments with the 42 Laws of Ma’at, you can clearly see similarities between the two. In the book, Nile Valley Contributions to Civilizations, Egyptologist Anthony Browder writes on page 92, “by conservative estimates, the 42 Declarations of Ma’at were written approximately 1, 500 years before the writing of the Ten Commandments. By comparing the two documents, one will find striking comparisons. The following list reflects the numbering most commonly used in English-language references to the Ten Commandments, and those which are similar to the Declarations (Ma’at) are highlighted by parenthesis.

1) I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (41)

2) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images…..

3) Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy God in vain…. (7, 37, 41)

4) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy……

5) Honor thy father and mother. (1, 12, 28)

6) Thou shall not kill. (4)

7) Thou shall not commit adultery. (11, 20, 21)

8) Thou shall not steal. (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 39, 40)

9) Though shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. (8, 13, 18, 29)

10) Thou shalt not covert thy neighbor’s house or wife. (13, 20, 21, 29, 33)”

After reading the 37 points of wisdom from the teachings of Ptahhotep, he brings his knowledge full circle back to Ma’at in the end. He writes, “the wise person who acts with Ma’at is free of falsehood and disorder.”

We must remember that if Afrika is the birthplace of humanity, and it is, then the first people to create a high level of civilization were Black people of the Nile Valley. Out of the many societies of the Nile Valley, Kemet emerges as the greatest recorded civilization known to men and women in the history of the planet earth. And their culture influenced the cultures of Afrika, Europe, Asia, West Asia (the Middle East), the United States, Judaism, Christianity, Al-Islam, and the world. Kemetic people (Egyptian people) were the first people to explain the spiritual and secular world. Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop, the great Afrikan Muslim Egyptologist, scientist, and historian, wrote in his remarkable book called, “The African Origins Civilizations: Myth or Reality, in 1976 the contributions Kemetic people (Egyptian people) made to human civilizations. He writes on page 14 of his introduction, “the ancient Egyptians were Negroes. The moral fruit of their civilization is to be counted among the assets of the Black world. Instead of presenting itself to history as an insolvent debtor, that Black world is the very initiator of the “western” civilization flaunted before our eyes today. Pythagorean mathematics, the theory of the four elements of Thales of Miletus, Epicurean materialism, Platonic idealism, Judaism, Islam, and modern science are rooted in Egyptian cosmogony and science. One needs only to meditate on Osiris, the redeemer-god, who sacrifices himself, dies, and is resurrected to save mankind, a figure essentially identifiable with Christ.

A visitor to Thebes in the Valley of the Kings can view the Moslem inferno in detail (in the tomb of Set I, of the Nineteenth Dynasty), 1700 years before the Koran. Osiris at the tribunal of the dead is indeed the “lord” of revealed religions, sitting enthroned on Judgement Day, and we know that certain Bible passages are practically copies of Egyptian moral text."

In summation, as we seek out “new” facts about Afrikan history and culture to develop our own “woke,” (conscious) mind, please check out the teachings of Ptahhotep. They are one of many ancient Afrikan spiritual and philosophical texts in the world that exist to act as a guidance to mankind and womankind. If we read and study the wisdom of our ancestors, and if this knowledge is applied correctly to our daily lives, they could be a foundation for Black liberation and human perfection.

Hotep (Medu Neter for Peace)!

Bashir Muhammad Akinyele is a History and Africana Studies teacher. He is also the co-coordinator for ASCAC's (the Association for Study of Classical African Civilizations) Study Group Chapter in Newark, NJ. (https://ascac.org/)

Note: Spelling Afrika with a k is not a typo. Using the k in Afrika is the Kiswahili way of writing Africa. Kiswahili is a Pan -Afrikan language. It is spoken in many countries in Africa. Kiswahili is the language used in Kwanzaa. The holiday of Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26 to January 1.