There are many recensions, or editions, in the various libraries of
Europe and also in the East, and no two of them are identical in the
text. Lepsius translated from the Turin papyrus; Budge bases his
translations on what is called the Theban recension. But in all the text
is exceedingly corrupt, and translation is often no more than a guess.
Owing to the number of proper names and technical terms which we have no
means of understanding, it is often quite impossible to know the drift
of large paragraphs, and even of whole chapters. Since many of the
chapters were treated merely as having a magical efficacy either when
recited or when inscribed on something buried with the body, it was of
small consequence whether or not the words were understood. The bare
recital or writing of names of gods, etc., had a magical efficacy
according to the people who counted the Book of the Dead their sacred
scriptures.

As regards date, the greater number of the hymns and prayers were
recited by the people of Egypt on behalf of their deceased friends
before the first dynasty had begun to reign. Birch says before 3000 B.C.
The hymns and prayers were first of all preserved in the memory only,
and their number was at an early time but small. They were written down
when the priests had doubts with regard to the meaning of certain terms,
and wished to hand them on unimpaired to posterity, being influenced by
the belief that the words of this sacred book were, as such, magically
potent. The oldest extant papyrus containing the Book of the Dead
belongs to the 18th Dynasty, _i.e._, about 1500 B.C.; but we do not come
across a complete copy, with the chapters collected and set in order
much as they are to-day, until the 26th Dynasty (about the 7th century
B.C.). Previous to this the chapters seem to have been put together with
no regard to order; probably they existed on different papyri, which