Did ancient Egypt really believe the sarcophagus to be a literal womb of the goddess, or symbolically so?
I am reading a paper, connecting Job 1:21
,,Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there.”
to the Egyptian understanding that the deceased are in the goddess‘s womb for the creating of their body, and then rebirthing for the afterlife.
But at times, this paper seems to suggest that the Egyptians literally thought that the coffin to be a literal womb of the goddess, which I think is quite absurd:
"the sarcophagus and/or tomb are described as the womb of the goddess in which the deceased undergoes a rebirth into the blessed afterlife."
"...the entrance into the sarcophagus (and perhaps also into the tomb itself )8 is viewed as an entrance into the mother goddess, who then births the deceased into the afterlife"
These sentence right here could mean that the coffin is literally the goddess's womb, or symbolically so. It is vague.
So, did they Egyptians think the coffin as a literal womb, or symbolic for a womb?