The 42 Nomes or cities (territories) of Pre-Dynastic Egypt, which when merged into the Egyptian First Dynasty, each previous 42 nome deities were given a place in the judgment hall, one nome god presiding over each of the 42 negative confessions, were read and the weight of the soul determined.

“The learned have also been much tormented by the difference between the two genealogies of Jesus Christ St. Matthew makes Joseph the son of Jacob, Jacob of Matthan, Matthan of Eleazar [Matt 1:16-17]. St. Luke, on the contrary, says that Joseph was the son of Heli, Heli of Matthat, Matthat of Levi, Levi of Melchi, etc. [Luke 3:24] They will not reconcile the fifty-six progenitors up to Abraham, given to Jesus by Luke, with the forty-two other forefathers up to the same Abraham, given hint by Matthew; and they are quite staggered by Matthew's giving only forty-one generations, while he speaks of forty-two.”

— Voltaire (1764), Philosophical Dictionary (§Christianity)

“During the predynastic period in Egypt every village and town or settlement possessed its god, whose worship and the glory of whose shrine increased or declined according to the increase or decrease of the prosperity of the community in which he lived. When the country was divided into sections which the Egyptians called ḥespu , or “nomes,” a certain god, or group of allied gods, became the representative, or representatives, of each nome, and so obtained the pre-eminence over all the other gods of the nome ; and sometimes one god would represent two nomes. In this way the whole country of Egypt, from the Mediterranean Sea to Elephantine, was divided among the gods, and it became customary in each nome to regard the god of that nome as the “great god,” or “god”, and to endow him with all the powers and attributes possible.”

— Wallis Budge (1904), The Gods of Egypt, Volume One [1]