Akhenaten
akhenaten and the hymn to the aten
As awesome as the relics of Ancient Egypt seem to us today, the very minds that worked those monuments were shaped not by dead stone. Those tongues that seem muted by their remoteness in time are still preserved in scattered writings, whether upon carved inscription (official or graffiti) or else upon the rarer papyri.
Among the multitude of perceptions of gods and god-claimed Pharaohs that walked Egypt’s long gone past, few can be as exclusively fascinating as the one who was named Amenhotep IV, but who is perhaps more famous to us by his self-proclaimed named of Akhenaten. Erased from the official records of Ancient Egypt, his names and some measure of his deeds and thinking come down to us by flukes of circumstance and nature.
His capital of El-Armana lies destroyed by his own people, his cartouche chipped out from regal monuments, his very existence almost erased by the priest and scribes of later generations.
Providence indeed that the only mostly intact tomb of a Pharaoh ever found was that of his murdered son, Tutankhamun – and thus provides an invaluable source for the father of all heretics.
Existing near contemporaneously with both Zoroastra and Moses (or Solomon, depending upon the dating preferred) Akhenaten in one lifetime attempted to destroy the proscribed religion of mighty polytheistic Egypt, and renew it in the waters of his own astonishing monotheism – and was painfully despised by all his fellow countrymen who not merely followed, but who reinstituted their former kingdom of the gods and near destroyed the entire extant philosophy of the one who would dare to be not merely a god but a prophet too.
Akhenaten’s memory is one beheld with amazement by many in the modern world, for here is a king who dared to prescribe a form of monotheism upon a people and time utterly unprepared for it, despite our modern familiarity with it.
Akhenaten dared to challenge, and his entire family died for his efforts …
The only surviving literature of note concerning Akhenaten’s spiritual outlook is contained in the piece known as the Hymn to the Aten, which follows .
NOTE – An American English spelling (used in the following translation) prefers Akhen-aton to the British Akhenaten.
Hymn to the Aten
Praise of Re Har-akhti, Rejoicing on the Horizon, in His Name as Shu Who Is in the Aton-disc, living forever and ever; the living great Aton who is in jubilee, lord of all that the Aton encircles, lord of heaven, lord of earth, lord of the House of Aton in Akhet-Aton; (and praise of) the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on truth, the Lord of the Two Lands: Nefer-kheperu-Re Wa-en-Re; the Son of Re, who lives on truth, the Lord of Diadems: Akh-en-Aton, long in his lifetime; (and praise of) the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands: Nefer-neferu-Aton Nefert-iti, living, healthy, and youthful forever and ever; (by) the Fan-Bearer on the Right Hand of the King … Eye.
He says:
Thou appearest beautifully on the horizon of heaven,
Thou living Aton, the beginning of life!
When thou art risen on the eastern horizon,
Thou hast filled every land with thy beauty.
Thou art gracious, great, glistening, and high over every land;
Thy rays encompass the lands to the limit of all that thou hast made:
As thou art Re, thou reachest to the end of them;
(Thou) subduest them (for) thy beloved son.
Though thou art far away, thy rays are on earth;
Though thou art in their faces, no one knows thy going.
When thou settest in the western horizon,
The land is in darkness, in the manner of death.
They sleep in a room, with heads wrapped up,
Nor sees one eye the other.
All their goods which are under their heads might be stolen,
(But) they would not perceive (it).
Every lion is come forth from his den;
All creeping things, they sting.
Darkness is a shroud, and the earth is in stillness,
For he who made them rests in his horizon.
At daybreak, when thou arisest on the horizon,
When thou shinest as the Aton by day,
Thou drivest away the darkness and givest thy rays.
The Two Lands are in festivity every day,
Awake and standing upon (their) feet,
For thou hast raised them up.
Washing their bodies, taking (their) clothing,
Their arms are (raised) in praise at thy appearance.
All the world, they do their work.
All beasts are content with their pasturage;
Trees and plants are flourishing.
The birds which fly from their nests,
Their wings are (stretched out) in praise to thy ka.
All beasts spring upon (their) feeet.
Whatever flies and alights,
They live when thou hast risen (for) them.
The ships are sailing north and south as well,
For every way is open at thy appearance.
The fish in the river dart before thy face;
Thy rays are in the midst of the great green sea.
Creator of seed in women,
Thou who makest fluid into man,
Who maintainest the son in the womb of his mother,
Who soothest him with that which stills his weeping,
Thou nurse (even) in the womb,
Who givest breath to sustain all that he has made!
When he descends from the womb to breathe
On the day when he is born,
Thou openest his mouth completely,
Thou suppliest his necessities.
When the chick in the egg speaks within the shell,
Thou givest him breath within it to maintain him.
When thou hast made him his fulfillment within the egg, to break it,
He comes forth from the egg to speak at his COMPLETED (time);
He walks upon his legs when he comes forth from it.
How manifold it is, what thou hast made!
They are hidden from the face (of man).
O sole god, like whom there is no other!
Thou didst create the world according to thy desire,
Whilst thou wert alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts,
Whatever is on earth, going upon (its) feet,
And what is on high, flying with its wings.
The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt,
Thou settest every man in his place,
Thou suppliest their necessities:
Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned.
Their tongues are separate in speech,
And their natures as well;
Their skins are distinguished,
As thou distinguishest the foreign peoples.
Thou makest a Nile in the underworld,
Thou bringest forth as thou desirest
To maintain the people (of Egypt)
According as thou madest them for thyself,
The lord of all of them, wearying (himself) with them,
The lord of every land, rising for them,
The Aton of the day, great of majesty.
All distant foreign countries, thou makest their life (also),
For thou hast set a Nile in heaven,
That it may descend for them and make waves upon the mountains,
Like the great green sea,
To water their fields in their towns.
How effective they are, thy plans, O lord of eternity!
The Nile in heaven, it is for the foreign peoples
And for the beasts of every desert that go upon (their) feet;
(While the true) Nile comes from the underworld for Egypt.
Thy rays suckle every meadow.
When thou risest, they live, they grow for thee.
Thou makest the seasons in order to rear all that thou hast made,
The winter to cool them,
And the heat that they may taste thee.
Thou hast made the distant sky in order to rise therein,
In order to see all that thou dost make.
Whilst thou wert alone,
Rising in thy form as the living Aton,
Appearing, shining, withdrawing or aproaching,
Thou madest millions of forms of thyself alone.
Cities, towns, fields, road, and river –
Every eye beholds thee over against them,
For thou art the Aton of the day over the earth….
Thou are in my heart,
And there is no other that knows thee
Save thy son Nefer-kheperu-Re Wa-en-Re,
For thou hast made him well-versed in thy plans and in thy strength.
The world came into being by thy hand,
According as thou hast made them.
When thou hast risen they live,
When thou settest they die.
Thou art lifetime thy own self,
For one lives (only) through thee.
Eyes are (fixed) on beauty until thou settest.
All work is laid aside when thou settest in the west.
(But) when (thou) risest (again),
[Everything is] made to flourish for the king,…
Since thou didst found the earth
And raise them up for thy son,
Who came forth from thy body: the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, … Ak-en-Aton, … and the Chief Wife of the King … Nefert-iti, living and youthful forever and ever.
Source: Pritchard, James B., ed., The Ancient Near East – Volume 1: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1958, pp. 227-230.
Moses and The Israelites
One of the most troubling problems for biblical archaeologists was the lack of archaeological evidence for Moses and the Israelites in Egypt. Prior to the Exodus, there were hundreds of thousands of Israelites in Egypt, yet little or no evidence of their existence has been found, even though the sojourn is recorded as lasting for centuries in the Scriptures!
Aaron is an older brother of Moses, a Levite and the first high priest. The Islamic sources have very scant details of Aaron, but from the Bible, we know that Aaron was the eldest son of Amram and Jochebed, a daughter of Levi (Exodus 6:20). Aaron is three years older than Moses but younger than Miriam (Exodus 2:1,4; 7:7).
The biblical chronology dates the birth of Moses to around 1527 BC. In the new chronology of Egypt, the pharaoh on the throne of Egypt was Neferhotep I of the 13th Dynasty.
Ar: Musa, Heb: Mosheh ( ). Corresponds to the Biblical Moses who brought the Taurat (Torah). Moses is called the Speaker with God in Islam; the name of Moses occurs 136 times in the Qur'an, the highest among all the prophets.
Artapanus writes that a pharaoh named Palmanothes was persecuting the Israelites. His daughter Merris adopted a Hebrew child who grew up to be called prince Mousos. Merris married a pharaoh Khenephres. Prince Mousos grew up to administer the land on behalf of this pharaoh. He led a military campaign against the Ethiopians who were invading Egypt; however, upon his return, Khenephres grew jealous of his popularity. Mousos then fled to Arabia to return when Khenephres died and lead the Israelites to freedom. It may be only a Mosaic story with similarities to the biblical account, yet the only pharaoh with the name Khenephres was Sobekhotep IV, who took the name Khaneferre at his coronation. He reigned soon after Neferhotep I of the 13th Dynasty, as mentioned above, the pharaoh in power at Moses' birth!
Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews', with access to very old manuscripts and writing in AD 93, also mentioned Moses' Ethiopian or Kushite war. Here, Moses led an Egyptian army down the Nile valley, past the Third Cataract, deep into Kush (modern Ethiopia). In the British Museum is a stela (page 261, fig. 289) which tells of a 13th Dynasty pharaoh undertaking a campaign south into the region of Kush. That pharaoh is none other than Khaneferre, the step-father of Moses according to Artapanus. He is the only 13th Dynasty pharaoh who is recorded as having campaigned into Upper Nubia or Ethiopia. At Kerma on the Nile an official Egyptian building was found, outside of which was discovered a statue of Khaneferre, so dating this building to the 13th Dynasty. This is many hundreds of kilometers south of the known boundaries of 13th Dynasty Egypt and may have been a governor's RESIDENCE'. It would have been built to secure Egyptian interests in the area after the military victory of the Egyptians led by Moses, as this was the only Kushite war at that time with Egypt. As Moses was a prince of Egypt and was 40 years old according to the Bible when he fled to Arabia, he could certainly have led this military operation - an Israelite leading an Egyptian army to war! If this part of Josephus' account is true then it adds weight to the rest of his account of the life of Moses and also gives us some firmer evidence of the existence of this charismatic leader!
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The scholar and Genealogist of the Holy Bloodline of Jesus, Laurence Gardner, has this to say in his book "Bloodline of the Holy Grail"
Chapter I: The Bloodline Begins:
It is now generally acknowledged that the opening chapters of the Old Testament do not accurately represent the early history of the world, as they appear to suggest. More precisely, the tell the story of a family - a family that in time became a race comprising various tribes; a race that in turn became the Hebrew nation. If Adam can ever be said to have been the first of a type (notwithstanding the whole of human evolution behind him), then he was certainly the progenitor of the Hebrews and the tribes of Israel.
Two of the most intriguing characters of the Old Testament are Joseph and Moses. Each played an important role in the formation of the Hebrew Nation, and both have historical identities that can be examined quite independently of the Bible. Genesis 41:39-43 tells how Joseph was made Governor of Egypt.
And Pharoah said unto Joseph...Thou shalt be over my HOUSE, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled; only in that throne will I be greater than thou...and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Referring to Moses, Exodus 11:3 informs us similarly that:
Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharoah's servants, and in the sight of the people.
Yet for all of this status and prominence neither Joseph nor Moses appear in any Egyptian record under either of those names.
The annals of Rameses II (1304-1237 BC) specify that Semitic people were settled in the land of Goshen. It is further explained that they went there from Canaan for want of food. But why should Rameses' scribes mention this settlement at Goshen? According to standard Bible chronology the Hebrews went to Egypt some three centuries before the time of Rameses, and made their Exodus in about 1491 BC, long before he came to the throne. So, by virtue of this first-hand scribal record, the standard Bible chronology as generally promotes is seen to be incorrect.
It is traditionally presumed that Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt in the 1720's BC, and was made Governor by the Pharoah a decade or so later. Afterwards, his father Jacob (Israel) and 70 family members followed him into Goshen to escape the famine in Canaan. Notwithstanding this, Genesis 47:11, Exodus 1:11 and Number 33:3 all refer to 'the land of Rameses' (in Egyptian, 'the HOUSE of Rameses'). This was a complex of grain storehouses built by the Israelites for Rameses II in Goshen some 300 after they were supposed to be there!
It transpires, therefore, that the alternative 'Jewish Reckoning' is more accurate that the 'Standard Chronology'; Joseph went to Egypt not in the early 18th Century BC but in the early 15th Century BC. There he was appointed Chief MInister to Tuthmosis IV (ruled c. 1413-1405 BC). To the Egyptians, however, Joseph the Vizir was known as Yuya, and his story is particularly revealing not just in relation to the Biblical account of Joseph but also in respect of Moses. The Cairo-born historian and linguist Ahmed Osman has made an in-depth study of these personalities in their contemporary Egyptian environment, and his findings are of great significance.
When Pharoah Tuthmosis died, his son married his sibling sister Sitamun (as was the Pharonic tradition) so that he could inherit the throne as Pharoah Amenhotep III. Shortly afterwards he also married Tiye, daughter of the Chief Minister (Joseph/Yuya). It was decreed, however, that no son born to Tiye could inherit the throne. Because of the overall length of her father Joseph's governorship there was a general fear that the Israelites were gaining too much power in Egypt. So when Tiye became pregnant, the edict was given that her child should be killed at birth if a son. Tiye's Jewish relatives lived at Goshen, and she herself owned a summer palace a little upstream at Sarw, where she went to have her baby. She did INDEED bear a son but the royal midwives conspired with Tiye to float the child downstream in a reed basket to the HOUSE of her father's half-brother Levi.
The boy, Aminadab (born around 1394 BC), was duly educated in the eastern delta country by the Egyptian priests of Ra. In his teenage years he went to live at Thebes. By that time, his mother had acquired more influence than the senior queen, Sitamun, who had never borne a son and heir to the Pharoah, only a daughter who was called Nefertiti. In Thebes, Aminadab could not accept the notion of Aten, an omnipresent God who had no image. Aten was thus an equivalent of the Hebrew "Adonai" (a title borrowed from the Phoenician and meaning 'Lord') in line with Israelite teachings. At that time Aminadab (Hebrew equivalent of Amenhotep - 'Amun is pleased') changed his name to Akhenaten (servant of Aten).
Pharoah Amenhotep then suffered a period of ill health. Because there was no direct male heir to the royal house, Akhenaten married his half-sister Nefertiti in order to rule as co-regent during this difficult time. When in due course Amenhotep III died, Akhenaten was able to succeed as Pharoah - officially called Amenhotep IV.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti had six daughters and a son, Tutankhaten. Pharoah Akhenaten closed all the temples of the Egyptian gods and built new temples to Aten. He also ran a household that was distinctly domestic - quite different from the kingly norm in ancient Egypt. One many fronts he became unpopular - particularly with the priests of the former national deity Amun (or Amen) and of the sun god Ra (or Re). Plots against his life proliferated. Loud were the threats of armed insurrection if he did not allow the traditional gods to be worshipped alongside the faceless Aten. but Akhenaten refused, and was eventually forced to abdicate in short-term favour of his cousin Smenkhkare, who was succeeded by Akhenaten's son Tutankhaten. On taking the throne at the age of about 11, Tutankhaten was obliged to change his name to Tutankhamun. He, in turn, was only to live and rule for a further nine or ten years, meeting his death while still comparatively young.
Akhenaten, meanwhile, was banished from Egypt. He fled with some retainers to the remote safety of Sanai, taking with him his royal sceptre topped with a brass serpent. To his supporters he remained very much the rightful monarch, the heir to the throne from which he had been ousted, and he was still regarded by them as the Mose, Meses or Mosis (heir/born of) - as in Tuthmosis (born of Tuth) and Rameses (fashioned of Ra).
Evidence from Egypt indicates that Moses (Akhenaten led his people from Pi-Rameses (near modern Kantra) southward, through Sanai, towards Lake Timash. This was extremely marshy territory and, although manageable on foot with some difficulty, any pursuing horses and chariots would have foundered disastrously.
Among the retainers who fled with Moses were the sons and families of Jacob (Israel). Then at the instigation of their leader, they constructed the tabernacle at the foot of Mount Sanai. Once Moses had died, they began their invasion of the country left by their forefathers so long before. But Canaan (Palestine) had changed considerably in the meantime, having been infiltrated by waves of Philistines and Phoenicians. The records tell of great sea battles, and of massive armies marching to war. At length, the Hebrews (under their new leader, Joshua) were successful and, once across the Jordan, they took Jericho from the Canaanites, gaining a real foothold in their traditional Promised Land.
Following Joshua's death, the ensuing period of rule by appointed 'judges' was a catalogue of Jewish disaster until the disparate Hebrew tribes united under their first king, Saul, in about 1055 BC. with the conquest of Palestine (Canaan) as COMPLETE as possible, David of Bethlehem - a descendant of Abraham - married Saul's daughter to become King of Judah (corresponding to half the Palestinian territory). By 1048 BC, he had also acquired Israel (the balance of the territory) becoming overall King of the Jews. The Bloodline of the Holy Grail had begun.
As Moses grew to adulthood in Egypt, he assumed the title of Tutmoses II as heir to the throne of Egypt, but when he left Egypt after committing murder, he was replaced, and another man assumed that title. But statues of Moses as an adult apparently do still exist! On the left below is Moses as a child, and on the right is Moses as an adult, as Thutmoses II, prince of Egypt, before he left Egypt for Midian! (Images of statues in various museums support this relationship)
