Did Atenism somehow influence the historical monotheism of Judaism?

[1137]

Bonus question for religious discussion:

What exactly happened with Atenism in ancient Egypt? A former professor of mine stated that it was the "true god's" first attempt to break through. The rise of the religion is certainly strange, but I'm not sure I hold any such theory. Either way, I'd be grateful to hear.

 

[Politesse]

I think such a view is a bit ethnocentric, even supercessionist; just because monotheism is dominant now, does not mean that every monolatrous tradition of the past or present is a mere "precursor" to the faiths of Abraham's children.

 

[Sees]

I think such a view is a bit ethnocentric, even supercessionist; just because monotheism is dominant now, does not mean that every monolatrous tradition of the past or present is a mere "precursor" to the faiths of Abraham's children.

It does make some exciting theories pop up, that the geographical region is....right there. Monotheism in the Amazonian jungles would seem much less related. It makes sense when dealing with something rare, that if its next location is right next door, there was some influence. That or the region just naturally harbors the most attention-seeking deities...or perhaps a bit of both.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

Akhenaten lived ca 1330 BC ("Sothic" chronology) or 1070 ("new chronology") and his teachings were abandoned after his death.
Hosea (Israel) advocated exclusive worship of Yahweh ca 730 BC
So what happened in between?

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

Akhenaten lived ca 1330 BC ("Sothic" chronology) or 1070 ("new chronology") and his teachings were abandoned after his death.
Hosea (Israel) advocated exclusive worship of Yahweh ca 730 BC
So what happened in between?

Monotheists in Israel could have been advocating the same thing but weren't gaining much ground. Look at Christianity's history; it took roughly 300 years to get off the ground.

 

[HekaMa'atRa]

Bonus question for religious discussion:

What exactly happened with Atenism in ancient Egypt? A former professor of mine stated that it was the "true god's" first attempt to break through. The rise of the religion is certainly strange, but I'm not sure I hold any such theory. Either way, I'd be grateful to hear.

The rise of the Aten religion was a result of Akhenaten trying to remove all the power from the Amun cult which at the time had more power and wealth than the Pharaohs. And even though there are striking similarities in Aten hymns with biblical texts (almost to the point of complete plagiarism on the Bible's part), the Aten religion revolved around Akhenaten forcing his subjects to worship him and his family foremost. His subjects were to appease and "reach" Aten by worshiping Akhenaten and his family. From what we know, ideologically, there's nothing similar between the two religions. Aten didn't have any original mythology as he was a Sun God and so adopted most of the symbolism and concepts from other Egyptian Sun Gods. After Akhenaten died, his son Tutankhamun abolished his father's religion and reestablished the old religion (probably due to pressure from the Amun priests).

So no, I don't think your professor's claims that Atenism was the "true god's" first attempt to be known are true or worth considering. Was this a Christian Professor in some Christian school or something? Because I don't see how an educated person in a high academic position could make such comments about the "true God."

But nonetheless, Atenism was the first true documented form of monotheism and perhaps could be the originator of Judaic monotheism - but we don't know for sure.

 

[Politesse]

It does make some exciting theories pop up, that the geographical region is....right there. Monotheism in the Amazonian jungles would seem much less related. It makes sense when dealing with something rare, that if its next location is right next door, there was some influence. That or the region just naturally harbors the most attention-seeking deities...or perhaps a bit of both.

Several centuries later? Even if there was a direct link, I would consider it ethnocentric to name one religion as a mere precursor to another, much less to claim that Atenism was the result of the Christian God spreading his wings in disguise. Whatever happpened after, you don't understand Aten's cult until you understand its circumstances from the perspective of those who were there at the time. It's like claiming that David existed only to "prefigure" Christ, a claim that has indeed often been made by Christian thoelogians but one that always offended my sense of historical accuracy, even when I was otherwise much more orthodox in my attitudes.

 

[outhouse]

Bonus question for religious discussion:

What exactly happened with Atenism in ancient Egypt? A former professor of mine stated that it was the "true god's" first attempt to break through. The rise of the religion is certainly strange, but I'm not sure I hold any such theory. Either way, I'd be grateful to hear.

It had nothing to do with the evolution of monotheism in early Israelite cultures.

Nothing at all.

 

[outhouse]

But nonetheless, Atenism was the first true documented form of monotheism and perhaps could be the originator of Judaic monotheism - but we don't know for sure.

We know for sure. He had nothing to do with loyalty to Yahweh alone.


There is a clear picture of how monotheism evolved in Israelites cultures from the native Canaanite pantheon of polytheistic deities, with no tie to Egypt what so ever in any way shape or form.

 

[outhouse]

It does make some exciting theories pop up, that the geographical region is....right there. Monotheism in the Amazonian jungles would seem much less related. It makes sense when dealing with something rare, that if its next location is right next door, there was some influence. That or the region just naturally harbors the most attention-seeking deities...or perhaps a bit of both.

The problem with this, is that El had been a major deity in the stronger Mesopotamian cultures for thousands of years.


Lets focus on this being a Egypt issue or a possible Mesopotamian one. El was not Egyptian, and El was factually Israelites father god of Yahweh with Mesopotamian origins.


El and Yahweh were compiled by a few people together as one god as early as 800 BC, but this was not the birth of monotheism, and many cultures still worshipped El as his own deity.


Monotheism evolved for a long time, and despite King Josiahs reforms after 622BC, many of the different cultures were still not onboard.


The mistake most are making here is that monotheism in Judaism did not take hold until the Hellenistic period roughly 200-400 BC.