Aren't the Ten Commandments Based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead?
No.
Many skeptics point out that seven of the Bible's ten commandments also appeared in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which preceded the book of Exodus by several centuries. The part of the Book of the Dead in question is the Papyrus of Ani, where a "negative confession" is given. That is, a person who has died and is entering the underworld is listing sinful things that they have refrained from doing, and thus declaring themselves worthy to enter the underworld. These aren't commandments being given here, simply statements the person is saying about themselves, though they are declaring these things to be sinful, as the ten commandments are doing.
The points of comparison are these:
1)
Commandment: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain"
Negative confession: "I have not cursed God."
2)
Commandment: "Honor your father and your mother"
Negative confession: "I have not opposed my family and kinsfolk."
3)
Commandment: "You shall not kill (murder)."
Negative confession: "I have not committed murder."
4)
Commandment: "You shall not commit adultery."
Negative confession: "I have not committed adultery."
5)
Commandment: "You shall not steal."
Negative confession: "I have not stolen."
6)
Commandment: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."
Negative confession: "I have not uttered lies."
7)
Commandment: "You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s."
Negative confession: "I have not defrauded the humble man of his property."
However, what these skeptics almost always fail to point out is that the "negative confession" includes about a hundred sins, including stopping the flow of water, homosexuality, causing hunger, raising your voice, acting with arrogance, acting with undue haste, stirring up strife, cursing men, eating hearts, and many others. So, essentially, whoever wrote the Papyrus of Ani has listed one hundred things that they found to be sinful, including over ninety sins that weren't included in the Ten Commandments.
Think about this - suppose that I ask one person to list around a hundred things that they find to be sinful, and then ask another person to list ten things that they find to be sinful. Is it going to be at all unusual if both lists contain about seven of the same sins? Just about everyone is going to include murder, robbery, adultery and lying (four of the sins in common between Ani and Exodus). Those who believe in honoring gods (as the writers of both books did) are probably going to include blasphemy.
For the other two sins, the comparisons are really rather weak.
The sixth item that skeptics claim is copied is "coveting", but, in reality, the Papyrus of Ani doesn't say that coveting itself is a sin, as the Ten Commandments do, but only call it a sin when it is acted upon, when one defrauds another out of his property, so this is a pretty weak comparison. In fact, the Papyrus of Ani confession really goes along with "thou shalt not steal", and coveting itself (that is, simply desiring what doesn't belong to you) isn't in the Papyrus of Ani at all.
The seventh is the comparison of the Ten Commandments saying to "honor your mother and father" while the Papyrus of Ani says "I have not opposed my family and kinsfolk." Opposing and dishonoring are not exactly the same thing, though both are forms of disrespect. Is there anything unusual about two different people considering it a sin to direspect one's family? Not at all.
So the fact that some of the same sins are included in both lists aren't a sign of copycatting at all, but only signify that different people in different places consider many of the same things to be sinful.
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The Ten Commandments are (I've italicized the ones relevant to this issue):
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 graven 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 or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of 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 a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and 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 in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
6) You shall not kill (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 wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.
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The Papyrus of Ani, from the Egyptian Book of the Dead (full text here) says (in part):
1) I have not committed sins against men.
2) I have not opposed my family and kinsfolk.
3) I have not acted fraudulently in the Seat of Truth.
4) I have not known men who were of no account.
5) I have not wrought evil.
6) I have not made it to be the first [consideration daily that unnecessary] work should be done for me.
7) I have not brought forward my name for dignities.
8) I have not [attempted] to direct servants [I have not belittled God].
9) I have not defrauded the humble man of his property.
10) I have not done what the gods abominate.
11) I have not vilified a slave to his master.
12) I have not inflicted pain.
13) I have not caused anyone to go hungry.
14) I have not made any man to weep.
15) I have not committed murder.
16) I have not given the order for murder to be committed.
17) I have not caused calamities to befall men and women.
18) I have not plundered the offerings in the temples.
19) I have not defrauded the gods of their cake-offerings.
20) I have not carried off the fenkhu cakes [offered to] the Spirits.
21) I have not committed fornication.
22) I have not masturbated [in the sanctuaries of the god of my city].
23) I have not diminished from the bushel.
24) I have not filched [land from my neighbour's estate and] added it to my own acre.
25) I have not encroached upon the fields [of others].
26) I have not added to the weights of the scales.
27) I have not depressed the pointer of the balance.
28) I have not carried away the milk from the mouths of children.
29) I have not driven the cattle away from their pastures.
30) I have not snared the geese in the goose-pens of the gods.
31) I have not caught fish with bait made of the bodies of the same kind of fish.
32) I have not stopped water when it should flow.
33) I have not made a cutting in a canal of running water.
34) I have not extinguished a fire when it should burn.
35) I have not violated the times [of offering] the chosen meat offerings.
36) I have not driven away the cattle on the estates of the gods.
37) I have not turned back the god at his appearances.
38) I have not committed sin.
39) I have not committed robbery with violence.
40) I have not stolen.
41) I have not slain men and women.
42) I have not stolen grain.
43) I have not purloined offerings.
44) I have not stolen the property of God.
45) I have not uttered lies.
46) I have not carried away food.
47) I have not uttered curses.
48) I have not committed adultery.
49) I have not lain with men.
50) I have made none to weep.
51) I have not eaten the heart.
52) I have not attacked any man.
53) I am not a man of deceit.
54) I have not stolen cultivated land.
55) I have not been an eavesdropper.
56) I have not slandered [no man].
57) I have not been angry without just cause.
58) I have not debauched the wife of any man.
59) I have not polluted myself.
60) I have terrorized none.
61) I have not transgressed [the law].
62) I have not been wroth.
63) I have not shut my ears to the words of truth.
64) I have not blasphemed.
65) I am not a man of violence.
66) I have not been a stirrer up of strife.
67) I have not acted with undue haste.
68) I have not pried into matters.
69) I have not multiplied my words in speaking.
70) I have wronged none.
71) I have done no evil.
72) I have not worked witchcraft against the king.
73) I have never raised my voice.
74) I have not cursed God.
75) I have not acted with arrogance.
76) I have not stolen the bread of the gods.
77) I have not carried away the khenfu cakes from the Spirits of the dead.
78) I have not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city.
79) I have not slain the cattle belonging to the god.
80) I have not made light the bushel.
81) I have not acted deceitfully.
82) I have not uttered evil words.
83) I have not slain a bull which was the property of the god.
84) I have not pillaged the lands which have been ploughed.
85) I have never pried into matters [to make mischief].
86) I have not set my mouth in motion.
87) I have not been wroth except with reason.
88) I have not been a man of anger.
89) I have not turned a deaf ear to the words of truth.
90) I have not stirred up strife.
91) I have not committed acts of sexual impurity, or lain with men.
92) I have cursed no man.
93) I have not acted in a violent or oppressive manner.
94) I have not acted [or judged] hastily.
95) I have not done things to effect the cursing of [the king].
96) I have not acted with insufferable insolence.
97) I have not sought to make myself unduly distinguished.
98) I have not increased my wealth except through such things are [justly] my own possessions.
99) I have not scorned [or treated with contempt] the god of my town.
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