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Who Built the Great Pyramid and Why?
By Robert L. Smith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza,
which dominates the Giza Necropolis near
Conventional Egyptologists date the Great Pyramid to the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu, [Cheops to the Greeks], estimating its completion around 2560 BC. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, some of the alternative theories regarding the Pyramid’s mysterious origins were discussed as follows:
“Traditionally, the evidence for dating the Great Pyramid by Egyptologists has been based primarily on fragmented summaries of early Christian writings gleaned from the work of the Hellenistic Period Egyptian priest Manethô who compiled the now lost Egyptian history Aegyptika. These Christian works, and to a lesser degree earlier Egyptian sources, mainly the Turin Canon and Table of Abydos among others, combine to form the main body of historical reference for Egyptologists giving a timeline by popular consensus of rulers known as the "King's List", found in the reference archive; the Cambridge Ancient History [30][31][32]. As a result, given Egyptologists have ascribed the pyramid to Khufu, establishing the time he reigned by default subsequently dates the monument as well as the confines for its completion of construction.”
However,
alternative theories abound, including those by authors Graham Hancock and
Robert Bauval, and geologists
John Anthony West and Robert Schoch, associate Professor of Natural
Science at the
“A
theme found in some of the alternative theories put forward concerning the
The a
priori existence of such a civilization is postulated by such theorists
who believe this is the only reasonable explanation for how advanced ancient
cultures, such as Egypt and Sumer, were able to reach high levels of
technological advancement with what they claim is little or no local precedent.
This precedent they argue exists in the form of megalithic ruins found all over
the globe that are claimed to be too complex to have been constructed by the
cultures they are typically ascribed to. As one of these theorists, John Anthony
West writes in reference to
Another alternative theory, pyramidology,
includes the claim that the Pyramid is a divine revelation, planned by prophets
who influenced Pharaoh Khufu. The founder of this group, Adam Rutherford, author
of the four-volume set Pyramidology,
drew from two primal texts,
which brought the attention of the
Great Pyramid in the West: Pyramidographia 1646 by Oxford astronomy
professor John Greaves, and John Taylor's The Great Pyramid: Why Was It Built
and Who Built It? (1859). Rutherford, Charles
Piazzi Smyth, Eugene
Scott, Larry Pahl [2],
and others in this group claimed that the Pyramid passage systems, when measured
with the ‘Pyramid inch, contained a prophetic timeline which revealed the date
of creation, the building of the Pyramid, the Hebrew exodus from Egypt, and the
birth and crucifixion of Christ.”
Stephen G. Morgan, author of Hidden Treasures of Knowledge (2006), based on the writings of Hugh Nibley, proposes the theory that the Great Pyramid, built during the rein of the Pharaoh Cheops, when Egypt was invaded by the Shepherd Kings from the North, was built under the inspiration of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, who, according to the Bible, lived in Egypt at that time. Morgan quotes George Riffert, from Great Pyramid –Proof of God (1960) for further evidence:
“During
the time of
Morgan also quotes George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, from their 1965 work Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price, who state:
“About this time, as near as can be told, a great change was effected in the religion of the Egyptians, which we ascribe to the preaching in their midst of the Father of the Faithful. It appears from Herodotus that according to the story of the idolatrous Egyptian priests of his day, that when Cheops ascended the throne he ‘closed all of the temples of the false gods, and prohibited their sacrifices.’ Cheops is said to have reigned for fifty years and was succeeded by his brother, Chepren, who also kept the temples closed. In the succeeding reign, the temples were opened again, and the people returned to their old modes of worship. So hated were these two monarchs by the heathen worshippers who dwelt by the River Nile, of later years, that Herodotus states that they would not even mention their names” (Morgan 2006:103).
The Great Pyramid is located in Lower Egypt near the Delta (by Cairo today), which is near the ancient city named On to the Egyptians, Beth Shemish (House of Shem) to the Hebrews, and Heliopolis to the Greeks. Morgan explains that the name On is an abbreviation of the name Zioan, which is a combination of Zi, which means virgin, and Oan, which means ‘the whole of anything, the whole earth’. A virgin awaiting the Bridegroom (Morgan 2006: 86).
The Bible
tells the following story about Abraham in
10.
And there was a famine in the land:
and Abram went down into
11. And it came to pass, when he was come
near to enter into
unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
12. Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they
shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
13. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake;
and my soul shall live because of thee.
14. And it came to pass,
that, when Abram was come into
beheld the woman that she was very fair.
15. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
16. And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
17. And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.
18. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
19. Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.
20. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
However, the Genesis Apocryphon, discovered in the Nag Hammadi Library in 1945, tells the story a little differently. Hugh Nibley, in The Sacrifice of Sarah (2000), states:
The
story of how Sarah ended up in the royal palace is now available in the recently
discovered Genesis Apocryphon, and the account is a thoroughly plausible
one. Pharaoh's regular title in this document, ‘Pharaoh Zoan, King of
Egypt,’ shows him to be one of those many Asiatics who ruled in the Delta from
time to time while claiming, and sometimes holding, the legitimate crown of all
Egypt. The short journey from Canaan into his Egyptian domain is described in
significant terms: ‘now we crossed (the border of) our land and entered the
land of the sons of Ham, the
A
report of the Pharaoh’s agent to the king “contained a glowing account of
Abraham's dazzling wife. Her beauty had already caused a sensation at the custom
house, according to a famous legend.9
If nothing else, her blondness would have attracted attention among the dark
Egyptians: the Midrash reports, in fact, that Abraham had warned her against
this very thing: "We are now about to enter a country whose inhabitants are
dark-complexioned—say that you are my sister wherever we go!"10
This admonition was given as the family passed from Abraham's homeland in
northern Mesopotamia (Aram Naharaim and Aram Nahor) into
Asiatic pharaohs were polygamous and aggressive: "Sarah was taken from me by force"16 without further ado the king "took her to him to wife and sought to slay me."17 Josephus says that this pharaoh deserved the punishment he got because of his high-handed manner towards the wife of a stranger.18 But as we all know, Abraham was saved when Pharaoh was assured by Sarah herself that he was her brother and would thus not stand in the way of their marriage; instead of being liquidated, he was, therefore, as the brother of the favorite wife, "entreated . . . well for her sake" (Genesis 12:16).
The story of Sarah's delivery from her plight follows the same order as the stories of Abraham and Isaac. First of all, being brought to the royal bed "by force," she weeps and calls upon the Lord to save her, at which time Abraham also "prayed and entreated and begged . . . as my tears fell."19 As he had prayed for himself, so the patriarch "prayed the Lord to save her from the hands of Pharaoh."20
And though
experience may have rendered him perfectly confident in the results, it
was the less-experienced Sarah who was being tested. The prayer for deliverance
closely matches that on the first lion couch: "Blessed art thou, Most High
God, Lord of all the worlds, because Thou art Lord and master of all and ruler
of all the kings of the earth, and of whom thou judgest. Behold now I cry before
Thee, my Lord, against Pharaoh Zoan, king of
So while all "that night Sarah lay upon her face," calling upon God, Abraham "without the prison" also prayed24 "that he may not this night defile my wife."25 It was, as one might by now expect, just at the moment that Pharaoh assayed to seize Sarah that an angel came to the rescue, whip in hand: "As Pharaoh was about to possess Sarah, she turned to the angel who stood at her side (visible only to her) and immediately Pharaoh fell to the ground; all his house was then smitten with plague, with leprosy on the walls, the pillars, and furniture."26 Whenever Pharaoh would make a move toward Sarah, the invisible angel would strike him down.27 To justify such rough treatment of the poor unsuspecting Pharaoh, the Midrash explains that he was not unsuspecting at all: "an angel stood with a whip" to defend her, because she told Pharaoh that she was a married woman, and he still would not leave her alone.28 According to all other accounts, however, that is exactly what she did not tell him, having her husband's safety in mind. The almost comical humiliation of the mighty king in the very moment of his triumph is an exact counterpart of the crushing overthrow of "Nimrod" at the instant of his supreme triumph over Abraham. "His illicit lust was checked," says Josephus, "by disease and stasis—revolution,"29 suggesting that his kingly authority was overthrown along with his royal dignity and prowess.
The smiting
of all of Pharaoh's house simultaneously with his own affliction is insisted on
by all sources …. And just as the king in the Abraham story, when he is faced
with the undeniable evidence of a power greater than his own, admits the
superiority of Abraham's God and even offers to worship him, so he tells the
woman Hagar when Sarah is saved, "It is better to be a maid in Sarah's
house than to be Queen in my house!"32
The showdown between the two religions is staged in both stories by the king
himself when he pits his own priests and diviners against the wisdom of the
stranger and his God, the test being which of the two is able to cure him and
his house. An early writer quoted by Eusebius says, "Abraham went to
Though Pharaoh's doctors and soothsayers gave him useful advice, as they do "Nimrod" in his dealings with Abraham, it is the healing that is the real test: "And he sent and called of all the wise men of Egypt and all the wizards and all the physicians of Egypt, if perchance they might heal him from that pestilence, him and his house. And all the physicians and wizards and wise men could not heal him, for the wind [spirit, angel] smote them all and they fled"35… All the wisdom and divinity of Egypt having failed, Pharaoh's agent …went straight to Abraham "and besought [him] to come and to pray for the king and to lay [his] hands upon him that he might live."36 To this request Abraham magnanimously complied after Sarah was returned to him: "I laid my hand upon his head and the plague departed from him and the evil [wind spirit] was gone and he was cured [lived]."37 When the healing power of Abraham's God, in contrast to the weakness of his own, became apparent, Pharaoh forthwith recognized Abraham by the bestowal of royal honors...38
These ‘royal honors’ are corroborated by Josephus, who writes:
1. …And when he
[Pharaoh] had found out the truth, he excused himself to Abram, that supposing
the woman to be his sister, and not his wife, he set his affections on her, as
desiring an affinity with him by marrying her, but not as incited by lust to
abuse her. He also made him [Abram] a large present in money, and gave him leave
to enter into conversation with the most learned among the Egyptians; from which
conversation his virtue and his reputation became more conspicuous than they had
been before.
2. For whereas the
Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one
another's sacred and accustomed rites, and were very angry one with another on
that account, Abram conferred with each of them, and, confuting the reasonings
they made use of, every one for their own practices, demonstrated that such
reasonings were vain and void of truth: whereupon he was admired by them in
those conferences as a very wise man, and one of great sagacity, when he
discoursed on any subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding it,
but in persuading other men also to assent to him. He communicated to them
arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy; for before Abram
came into
These ancient texts show that Abraham
had great influence in the house of the Pharaoh, and that he taught the
Egyptians mathematics and astronomy. But
how did Abraham become such an expert in astronomy?
This can be explained by another ancient document, named The
Book of Abraham, translated from papyrus scrolls by the Mormon Prophet
Joseph Smith.
Smith, in the introduction to The
Book of Abraham, states: A
translation of some ancient Records, that have fallen into our hands from the
catacombs of
These scrolls were acquired by Joseph
Smith in July of 1835 from Michael Chandler, who was exhibiting mummies and the
scrolls he acquired from the family of Antonio Lebolo, an antiquities dealer
working under the consul general of
In The Book of Abraham, Abraham describes the genealogy of the Egyptian
Pharaohs in Abraham 1:25-28 and 31:
25.
Now the first government of
26. Pharaoh, being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood.
27. Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry;
28. But I shall endeavor, hereafter, to delineate the chronology running back from myself to the beginning of the creation, for the records have come into my hands, which I hold unto this present time.
31. But the records of the fathers, even the patriarchs, concerning the right of Priesthood, the Lord my God preserved in mine own hands; therefore a knowledge of the beginning of the creation, and also of the planets, and of the stars, as they were made known unto the fathers, have I kept even unto this day, and I shall endeavor to write some of these things upon this record, for the benefit of my posterity that shall come after me.
Here, Abraham explains that because of the curse of God upon Cain and his seed, the descendents of Ham, who married Egyptus, a descendent of Cain, could not hold the Priesthood, but that the first Pharaoh was a righteous man, who attempted to copy the ordinances of the Priesthood, which included covenants performed in temples, even in the days of Abraham.
Abraham 3:11-15:
11. Thus I, Abraham, talked with the Lord, face to face, as one man talketh with another; and he told me of the works which his hands had made;
12. And he said unto me: My son, my son (and his hand was stretched out), behold I will show you all these. And he put his hand upon mine eyes, and I saw those things which his hands had made, which were many; and they multiplied before mine eyes, and I could not see the end thereof.
13. And he said unto me: This is Shinehah, which is the sun. And he said unto me: Kokob, which is star. And he said unto me: Olea, which is the moon. And he said unto me: Kokaubeam, which signifies stars, or all the great lights, which were in the firmament of heaven.
14. And it was in the night time when the Lord spake these words unto me: I will multiply thee, and thy seed after thee, like unto these; and if thou canst count the number of sands, so shall be the number of thy seeds.
15.
And the Lord said unto me: Abraham, I show these things unto thee before ye go
into
So Abraham
was commanded by the Lord to teach these things about astronomy to the
Egyptians. The historical fact that
Cheops commanded the secession of idolatry and the worship of only One God
indicates the influence of Abraham at a time when idolatry was the common form
of worship in
“[T]here was not even the smallest resemblance of anything pertaining to the dead. The departed need no air for breathing, yet the Great Pyramid has ventilating tubes leading from the King’s and Queen’s Chambers to the outside.
…What the discoverers of the Great Pyramid found when they entered the King’s Chamber was an open “coffer,” symbolizing the open tomb of a risen king.
…The Book of the Dead repeatedly speaks of the Messiah as the Lord of the Pyramid and presents the salvation of mankind in the account of the pagan god Osiris, the dying and reviving god whom the Egyptians substituted for Jesus Christ. Osiris is depicted as wearing a white garment and holding the shepherd’s crook in one hand, symbolizing mercy, and the flail in the other hand, symbolizing justice. An Egyptian god holding a shepherd’s crook is puzzling because the Egyptians hated sheep.
…It would not be unusual for Jesus Christ to be holding a shepherd’s cork, symbolic of mercy. It would be unusual for the Egyptian god Osiris to hold a shepherd’s crook, unless it is understood that the resurrected god of the Egyptians, Osiris, was an imitation of Jesus Christ” (Morgan 2006: 99 & 101 - 102).
So what then was the purpose for the building of the Great Pyramid, if not as a tomb for the Pharaoh Cheops? Morgan quotes Hugh Nibley who hypothesizes that the Egyptian Temple Endowment, as described in the Egyptian Book of Breathing, has stunning parallels to the Endowment ceremony performed in modern Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints (Morgan 2006: 161), indicating that the Pharaohs of Egypt, lacking the true Priesthood held by Abraham, tried to copy the Temple Endowment that may have been performed by Abraham in the Great Pyramid while he was in Egypt. Evidence to support this theory is beyond the scope of this article, but may be reviewed in Stephen G. Morgan’s 2006 Hidden Treasures of Knowledge.
Given the above mentioned evidence, the origins and purpose of the Great Pyramid becomes clear, in an age where scientific orthodoxy often succeeds in obscuring alternative sources. The Great Pyramid’s continued existence becomes a significant message, one we are closer to understanding.
Works Cited
Josephus. AD 93-94. Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter 8, para. 1 – 2.
Morgan, S.G 2006.
Hidden Treasures of Knowledge.
Nibley, H.W. 2000. The Sacrifice of
Sarah (Chapter 8): In Abraham in
http://farms.byu.edu/publications/bookschapter.php?bookid=&chapid=293#11#11
Reynolds,
G. and Sjodahl, JM. 1965. Commentary on
the
Riffert, George R. Great Pyramid –Proof of God, Merimac, Mass: Destiny Publishers, 1960.
Smith, J. 1842. The Book of Abraham. Translated from the Papyrus by Joseph Smith.
Websites accessed as of 07.04.08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramid_construction_techniques