Here we learn of a very different deity from either Re-Herakhte or the Aten, as they had previously been perceived. Indeed, it is unlike any Egyptian god: an all powerful, heavenly father who demands that his children live in 'truth'. Precisely what this reference to truth implies is hard to say. One can only assume that Akhenaten's followers were encouraged to behave candidly and live an honest life. The word Mat, 'Truth', appears again and again at Amarna, and the phrase, 'living in truth', seems almost to have been a motto of the new religion.
The same struggle to convey his religious thought is also evident on the Boundary Stelae, when Akhenaten describes his personal relationship with the Aten:
And may the Horus [the king] live, strong bull beloved of the Aten; he of the two ladies, great of kingship in Akhetaten; Horus of gold, upholding the name of the Aten; the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, living in truth, lord of the two lands, god like the forms of Re, the only one of Re; the son of Re, living in truth, lord of crowns, Akhenaten, great in his duration, living for ever and always. The good god, unique one of Re, whose beauty the Aten created, truly excellent in mind to his maker, contenting him with what his spirit desires, doing service to him who begot him, administering the land for him who put him upon his throne, provisioning his eternal home with very many things, upholding the Aten and magnifying his name, causing the earth to belong to its maker. . . .
Here it is Horus with whom Akhenaten associates himself. He has gone back to the gods of a much younger Egypt, before the cult of Amun-Re, when Re was the supreme deity in his own right and the pharaoh was seen as Horus, Re's incarnation on earth. It is quite evident from everything we know about Atenism that Akhenaten did not personally regard Re as his god or himself as Horus. Indeed, within a few years he proscribed all reference to Re, Horus or any other god. It would appear, therefore, that Akhenaten is appealing to the religious sympathies of the ancient cult of Re. It still survived in northern Egypt, principally at Heliopolis, and it may have been from here that many of Akhenaten's devotees originated.
During the Old Kingdom the myth developed that Re once ruled Egypt personally but, wearied by the affairs of mankind, retired to the heavens, leaving his son the pharaoh to rule in his stead. This notion had been initiated and nurtured by the priesthood in Heliopolis, who had remained the primary influence in Egyptian religious affairs until the conquest of northern Egypt by the Hyksos at the end of the Middle Kingdom. During the Hyksos period, though, the cult of the Theban god Amun, in unoccupied southern Egypt, rose to prominence.
When he expelled the Hyksos, the first New Kingdom pharaoh Amosis, thinking himself especially favoured by the god of Thebes, heaped vast wealth upon the Temple at Karnak and appointed Amun priests as his four chief prophets – the most important religious officials. The institution of the Chief Wife began at this time too, when Amosis married Ahmose-Nefertari, the chief priestess of Amun, in the belief that Amun would thereafter incarnate in him. Of course, after one and a half thousand years of existence, the Heliopolis Re cult had not died out, so to appease them and unify the country, Re had been assimilated with Amun. However, an independent cult of Re continued to exist at Heliopolis, no doubt resenting the wealth and power of the Amun priests in Thebes. It was to them that Akhenaten seems to have been appealing. Indeed, he seems actually to have been influenced by the cult of Re, as there are a number of uniquely Heliopolitan traits in Atenism:
The Aten temple at Karnak was built in the ben-ben style (a truncated pyramid on a square base), which had been unique to the solar temples at Heliopolis.
The chief priest of the Aten, Meryre, was given same title as the high priest of Heliopolis – 'Greatest of Seers'.
Akhenaten ordered that the Mnevis bull, the sacred animal of Heliopolis, should be moved to Amarna so that its worship could continue there.
It seems very likely, therfore, that Akhenaten's ideas were formulated in Heliopolis before he became king. However, as we have seen, it is not the Heliopolitan god Re that he is exalting. Akhenaten's god – despite all the early references to Horus, Re and Re-Herakhte – is something so different from any former Egyptian deity that Akhenaten invented a new symbol to represent it: the sun disc from which shone rays holding the glyph for life, the ankh. The sun had previously been represented by a winged disc, but from the very begining of Akhenaten's reign, the Aten is represented as the rayed disc. A scene in the Theban tomb of the steward and king's cupbearer, Parennefer, for instance (which must date from the first regnal years, as the king and queen are unaccompanied by children), shows the royal couple standing below this new symbol.
Akhenaten seems to have abandoned his attempt to fit his god into an orthodox context by his ninth year, when .he prohibited any further association of his god with Re-Herakhte. Moreover, he ordered the removal of the plural form of the word 'god' from all inscriptions. Akhenaten's god was the only god, as the pharaoh had spent years trying to convey. Presumably his belief in a 'good god' – as he describes both himself and the Aten – had made him reluctant to resort to such coercion previously.
One of the chief difficulties Akhenaten must have encountered in expounding his religion is that a nation used to visible gods – in the form of idols – could not grasp the idea of an invisible god: Akhenaten forbade the making of any image of his god. If the Aten had simply been the sun disc, as it had previously been, and Atenism had merely been sun worship – as the first visitors to Amarna had thought – then it would have been a very simple concept to convey. Akhenaten could have continued to use the winged disc symbol to represent his god. However, he chose a glyph that represented sunlight, just as he had initially chosen the sunlight aspect of Re-Herakhte to represent his god. It seems clear that sunshine – which brings warmth, light and life, yet cannot be seen in its own right – was the nearest Akhenaten could come to comprehending and conveying the idea of an invisible, omnipresent, all-providing god. The Aten – a word that simply means 'sun disc' – does not actually, therefore, appear to be the god's name, rather the nearest written word that previously existed for life-giving sunlight. In conclusion, Akhenaten seems to have been inspired by the idea of a universal god – something which was impossible to fit into an established Egyptian context. Accordingly, this would seem to imply that the thinking behind Atenism was a foreign concept.
There are three essential aspects of Akhenaten's god which sets it apart from all other Egyptian deities:
It is the one and only universal god.
It appears to have had no name.
It cannot be represented by a graven image.
How did Akhenaten conceive these innovative ideas? As there is only one brief reference to Akhenaten before he becomes pharaoh – a wine-jar seal from Malkata referring to 'the estate of the true king's son Amonhotep' – there are no records to go by. However, to help us solve this ancient riddle, perhaps we should rephrase the question: Where did Akhenaten conceive these innovative ideas? What are normally seen as political or religious innovations are usually concepts that have been around for years before being adopted as anyone's state policy. Marxism had already existed for half a century before the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia; Christianity had existed for almost three hundred years before the Roman Empire embraced it as the state religion; and the political ideal of a written constitution had been around for two thousand years before it was implemented during the French Revolution. Could Atenism really have sprung into existence overnight? Or did Akhenaten take his religion from others?
If we look at the above list again, we see an exact description of another god – the God of the Hebrews. Like the Aten, God, as represented in the Old Testament, is the only god; he cannot be addressed by name, and cannot be represented by a graven image. Could there be a connection? Each one of these unique characteristics it shares with Atenism:
Repeatedly, the Old Testament makes it abundantly clear that God was the sole universal creator: the Bible actually starts with the words, 'In the beginning God created t
he heaven and the earth.' He is the only god that the Hebrews can worship. In Exodus: 20.3, God commands the Hebrews: 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.'
The name of God is written in Hebrew as Yhwh (pronounced 'yahveh' and later rendered as Jahweh or Jehovah) and is understood to mean 'I AM', coming from the biblical account of Moses speaking to God within the burning bush. When Moses asks God his name, God replies, 'I AM THAT I AM . . . Thus shall thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you'. (Exodus: 3.14.) The biblical Hebrews do not even use this term when addressing God; rather they use the word Adonai, meaning 'Lord', or Elohim, meaning simply 'God'.
When Moses returns from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, he tells his people that God has forbidden them to make, 'any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above'. (Exodus:20.4.)
There is another remarkable similarity between the two religions: Both the Hebrew God and the Aten are regarded as heavenly kings. The Aten's titles are enclosed in a royal cartouche and a pharaonic serpent hangs from its sun disc symbol. The God of Israel is also spoken of as a king. For example, in Isaiah: 44. 6 – 'Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel' – and Psalm 47 which tells us that, 'God is the King of all the earth'.
Is there a link between Atenism and the Hebrews? The Hebrews are certainly the only people on earth who are known to have conceived of monotheism so early. In fact, as the other two great monotheistic religions – Christianity and Islam – did not develop until well over a millennium later, the Hebrews were years ahead of their time. They were also apparently in Egypt, perhaps during Akhenaten's reign. The Bible does not provide dates, but it does tell us that the Hebrews were held captive in Egypt before they escaped in the Exodus. Although no historical record has been found outside the Old Testament concerning the bondage in Egypt, most biblical scholars consider that the Hebrews were in the country some time prior to the tenth century BC. It would therefore seem to have been possible for Akhenaten to have been influenced by the early Israelites. But is there hard evidence?
The surest way to tell if there was a connection between the two religions would be to compare their religious texts. Although we have plenty of Hebrew texts, as the faith has survived to the present day, no such works of long-forgotten Atenism remain. Its religious texts, if there were any, would have been preserved on papyrus and would long ago have perished. The nearest thing, however, is a prayer, surviving in fragmented form in a number of Amarna reliefs, which seems to be the Atenist equivalent of a 'Lord's Prayer'. Known as 'The Hymn to the Aten', it was seen by the American Egyptologist James Breasted in 1909 as strikingly similar to Psalm 104 in the Old Testament. The longest extract appears in the tomb prepared for Ay at Amarna:
Thou arisest fair in the horizon of heaven, O living Aten, beginner of life. When thou dawnest in the East, thou fillest every land with thy beauty. Thou art indeed comely, great, radiant and high over every land. Thy rays embrace the lands to the full extent of all that thou hast made, for thou art Re and thou attainest their limits and subduest them for thy beloved son (Akhenaten). Thou art remote yet thy rays are upon the earth. Thou art in the sight of men, yet thy ways are not known.
When thou setest in the western horizon, the earth is in darkness after the manner of death. Men spend the night indoors with the head covered, the eye not seeing its fellow. Their possessions might be stolen, even when under their heads, and they would be unaware of it. Every lion comes forth from its lair and all snakes bite. Darkness lurks, and the earth is silent when their creator rests in his habitation.
The earth brightens when thou arisest in the eastern horizon and shinest forth as Aten in the daytime. Thou drivest away the night when thou givest forth thy beams. The Two Lands are in festival. They awake and stand upon their feet for thou hast raised them up. They wash their limbs, they put on raiment and raise their arms in adoration at thy appearance. The entire earth performs its labours. All cattle are at peace in their pastures. The trees and herbage grow green. The birds fly from their nests, their wings raised in praise of thy spirit. All animals gambol on their feet, all the winged creation live when thou hast risen for them. The boats sail upstream, and likewise downstream. All ways open at thy dawning. The fish in the river leap in thy presence. Thy rays are in the midst of the sea.
Thou it is who causest women to conceive and makest seed into man who givest life to the child in the womb of its mother, who comfortest him so that he cries not therein, nurse that thou art, even in the womb, who givest breath to quicken all that he hath made. When the child comes forth from the body on the day of his birth, then thou openest his mouth completely and thou furnishest his sustenance. When the chick in the egg chirps within the shell thou givest him the breath within it to sustain him. Thou createst for him his proper term within the egg, so that he shall break it and come forth from it to testify to his completion as he runs about on his two feet when he emergeth.
How manifold are thy works! They are hidden from the sight of men, O Sole God, like unto whom there is no other! Thou didst fashion the earth according to thy desire when thou wast alone – all men, all cattle great and small, all that are upon the earth that run upon their feet or rise up on high flying with their wings. And the lands of Syria and Kush and Egypt – thou appointest every man to his place and satisfiest his needs. Everyone receives his sustenance and his days are numbered. Their tongues are diverse in speech and their qualities are likewise, and their colour is differentiated for thou hast distinguished the nations.
Thou makest waters under the earth and thou bringest them forth at thy pleasure to sustain the people of Egypt even as thou hast made them live for thee, O Divine Lord of them all, toiling for them, the Lord of every land, shining forth for them, the Aten Disc of the daytime, great in majesty!
All distant foreign lands also, thou createst their life. Thou hast placed a Nile in heaven to come forth for them and make a flood upon the mountains like the sea in order to water the fields of their villages. How excellent are thy plans, O Lord of Eternity! A Nile in the sky is thy gift to foreigners and to the beasts of their lands; but the true Nile flows from under the earth for Egypt.
Thy beams nourish every field and when thou shinest they live and grow for thee. Thou makest the seasons in order to sustain all that thou hast made, the winter to cool them, the summer heat that they may taste thy glory. Thou hast made heaven afar off that thou mayest behold all that thou hast made when thou wast alone, appearing in thy aspect of the Living Aten, rising and shining forth. Thou makest millions of forms out of thyself, towns, villages, fields, roads, the river. All eyes behold thee before them, for thou art the Aten of the daytime, above all that thou hast created.
Thou art in my heart, but there is none other who knows thee save thy son Akhenaten. Thou hast made him wise in thy plans and thy power.
Psalm 104, although obviously not concerning Akhenaten or the Aten, does appear to have a number of correlations suggesting a common source:
Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with thy honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain; who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters; who maketh the clouds his chariot; who walketh upon the wings of the ",.rind; who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire. Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they must not pass over; that they should turn not again to cover the earth.
He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches. He watere
th the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart. The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon that he has planted; where the birds make their nests; as for the stork, the fir trees are her house. The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies. He appointed the moon for seasons; the sun knoweth his going down.
Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens. Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening. O Lord how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. So is the great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships; there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather; thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever; the Lord shall rejoice in his works. He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills, and they smoke. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my god while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord. Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.
Atlantis and the Ten Plagues of Egypt: The Secret History Hidden in the Valley of the Kings Page 15