Csevár Nóra. A titkos tudás jog- és vallásrendszere, avagy

The legal and religious system of secret knowledge, or the role of oracles in state administration In the history of religion, and even in world history, it can be
observed that the gods shape and influence the human world in some form. As a manifestation of this influence, in many religions there is one or more  intermediaries, mediators, between the human and divine worlds, who communicate the will of the divine world to people. These persons sometimes have special, supernatural qualities or abilities. They are selected by a specific and regulated procedure or are predestined to rise from among people. They can perform specific activities that can entail various legal effects, usually at a higher level of society or belonging to a completely separate and independent order.
In most major and well-known religions, these special persons are none other than, for example, the apostles or priests in Christianity, the imams in Islam, and in ancient Greece, for example, those chosen at the Panathenaia festival, i.e. the divine initiates (at a festival with a political religious atmosphere) expressed their loyalty to a god by receiving a secret mystery through specific rites and related education in a secret ceremony. In ancient Rome, the various priestly bodies
(for example, the flamens were the high priests of the ancient Roman gods, the pontiflex maximus was the high priest and pontifexes, who were the executors of the sacrificial cult, or the haruspexes, who were fortune tellers). The oracles, i.e. those who were the holders of secret knowledge, were most characteristic of ancient Egypt. Individuals or institutions with secret knowledge controlled and developed the religious practice and life of society, took on a role in advising rulers, established religious offices, followed specific behavioral norms, and exercised their activities in a regulated procedural order (ritual, ceremony, discipline,
regulations). Examining the impact of secret knowledge on the legal system, it can be stated that although no laws have survived from ancient Egypt, it can be concluded from court documents that ancient Egyptian law was based on the interpretation of good and evil, which emphasized oral consensus agreements,
rather than creating various decrees to solve problems. Thus, religious leaders also applied the principle of orality. While this practice cannot be said of religious law (mortuary cult), since both written and pictorial representation were typical there, and religious legal texts played a particularly important role in
the mortuary cult. At the top of the legal system was the pharaoh, who was responsible for promulgating laws, administering justice, and maintaining legal order. The local council of elders, the Kenebet in the New Kingdom, was responsible for administering the territory and handling court cases that dealt with minor
complaints and disputes. The Kenebet was solely responsible to the vizier, who was directly subordinate to the pharaoh. In the case of more serious cases, such as murder, land purchase disputes, and tomb robbery, it fell under the jurisdiction of the Great Kenebet, where the pharaoh presided. In these lawsuits, both plaintiffs and defendants represented themselves and were required to take an oath to tell the truth. In addition to oracles, soothsayers also played a major role
in the legal system at the beginning of the New Kingdom. In this manuscript, I have examined these special institutions, organizations, or individuals,  lighlighting the oracle, who was the defining legal and prophetic figure of ancient Egypt. The special characteristic of oracles was that they mediated both at
the lower and higher levels of communication, since they not only expressed the divine will, but also allowed people to ask questions of the gods.
The lack of this latter feedback also distinguished them from fortune-telling. From now on, I consider it important to separate prophecies from oracles, since prophecies are ex nunc (future) predictions that will necessarily come true, and if they are not followed, they could entail significant sanctions. In this manuscript, I would like to draw conclusions (even by setting up a tentative hypothesis) from the available sources – mainly based on the Book of the Dead – and try to outline who possessed secret knowledge in the New Kingdom, what its role and significance was, what the difference was between prophecy and oracle, and what legal or political role the persons or institutions possessing secret knowledge could have played. Furthermore, what relationship these roles and responsibilities
could have with the persons or organizations that created, directed, or operated the social and state order, and their tasks.

Keywords: law, religion, ancient Egyptian legal system, oracular validity and effect