The Book of the Dead as canon
John Gee
It is a common dictum in Egyptology that the ancient Egyptians had no scripture and no canon. This idea seems to come from a narrow Protestant view of the canon, and also appears to be an effort to marginalize study of the Book of the Dead. I will examine the concept of canon in a wider circle than Protestant Christianity and use those concepts to argue that the Book of the Dead is canonical for the ancient Egyptians.
To reference this article we suggest:
Gee, J. 2010. The Book of the Dead as canon. BMSAES 15, 23–33. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/online_journals/bmsaes/issue_15/gee.aspx