What do you think was going on with the Egyptian Pharaoh that started believing in just 1 sun God?

Question

Was he being inspired by the Holy Spirit and just didn't get the message right?

Answer 1

Akhenaten (original pronunciation ʔxnʔtn, vowels unknown; modern pronunciation axɛnatɛn), known as Amenhotep IV at the start of his reign, was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, especially notable for single-handedly restructuring the Egyptian religion to monotheistically worship the Aten. He was born to Amenhotep III and his Chief Queen Tiye and was his father's younger son. Akhenaten was not originally designated as the successor to the throne until the untimely death of his older brother, Thutmose. Amenhotep IV succeeded his father after Amenhotep III's death at the end of his 38-year reign, possibly after a coregency lasting between either 1 to 2 or 12 years. Suggested dates for Akhenaten's reign (subject to the debates surrounding Egyptian chronology) are from 1353 BC-1336 BC or 1351 BC–1334 BC. Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti, who has been made famous by her exquisitely painted bust in the Altes Museum of Berlin.

A religious revolutionary, Amenhotep IV introduced Atenism in the fourth year of his reign, raising the previously obscure god Aten (sometimes spelled Aton) to the position of supreme deity. The early stage of Atenism appears to be a kind of henotheism familiar in Egyptian religion, but the later form suggests a proto-monotheism. Aten was the name for the sun-disk itself — hence the fact that it is often referred to in English in the impersonal form "the Aten". The Aten was by this point in Egyptian history considered to be an aspect of the composite deity Ra-Amun-Horus. These previously separate deities had been merged with each other. Amun was identified with Ra, who was also identified with Horus. Akhenaten simplified this syncretism by proclaiming the visible sun itself to be the sole deity, thus introducing a type of monotheism. Some commentators interpret this as a proto-scientific naturalism, based on the observation that the sun's energy is the ultimate source of all life. Others consider it to be a way of cutting through the previously ritualistic emphasis of Egyptian religion to allow for a new "personal relationship" with god; this interpretation is hampered by the fact that only the Royal family was able to interact with and perform rituals pertaining to the Aten. Others interpret it as a pragmatic political move designed to further centralise power by crushing the independent authority of the traditional Amun priesthood who controlled Egypt's wealth and produce. However, Akhenaten did not formally break with the Amun priests and still used his old Amun inspired royal name--Amenhotep IV--until Fourth Year when the latter defied his authority, according to the text on one of his Amarna border stela.

This religious reformation appears to have begun with his decision to celebrate a Sed festival in his third regnal year — a highly unusual step, since a Sed-festival, a sort of royal jubilee intended to reinforce the Pharaoh's divine powers of kingship, was traditionally held in the thirtieth year of a Pharaoh's reign.

Year 5 marked the beginning of his construction of a new capital, Akhetaten ('Horizon of Aten'), at the site known today as Amarna. In the same year, Amenhotep IV officially changed his name to Akhenaten ('Effective Spirit of Aten') as evidence of his new worship. Very soon afterward he centralized Egyptian religious practices in Akhetaten, though construction of the city seems to have continued for several more years. In honor of Aten, Akhenaten also oversaw the construction of some of the most massive temple complexes in ancient Egypt, including one at Karnak, close to the old temple of Amun. In these new temples, Aten was worshipped in the open sunlight, rather than in dark temple enclosures, as had been the previous custom. Akhenaten is also believed to have composed the Great Hymn to the Aten.

Initially, Akhenaten presented Aten as a variant of the familiar supreme deity Amun-Ra (itself the result of an earlier rise to prominence of the cult of Amun, resulting in Amun becoming merged with the sun god Ra), in an attempt to put his ideas in a familiar Egyptian religious context. However, by Year 9 of his reign Akhenaten declared that Aten was not merely the supreme god, but the only god, and that he, Akhenaten, was the only intermediary between Aten and his people. He ordered the defacing of Amun's temples throughout Egypt, and in a number of instances inscriptions of the plural 'gods' were also removed.

Aten's name is also written differently after Year 9, to emphasise the radicalism of the new regime, which included a ban on idols, with the exception of a rayed solar disc, in which the rays (commonly depicted ending in hands) appear to represent the unseen spirit of Aten, who by then was evidently considered not merely a sun god, but rather a universal deity. It is important to note, however, that representations of the Aten were always accompanied with a sort of "hieroglyphic footnote", stating that the representation of the sun as All-encompassing Creator was to be taken as just that: a representation of something that, by its very nature as something transcending creation, cannot be fully or adequately represented by any one part of that creation.


Hope that help!!!

Answer 2

What an impact that must have had on the land of Egypt and its Pharaoh’s when one died in the Red Sea.
For the Egyptian belief system, to have your named mention by a living person, meant immortality for the one who had died because they were loved enough to be remembered.
Sound reasons for keeping this Pharaoh nameless.
Using the Biblical calendar instead of the Gregorian or Julian, it may have been his father or Grandfather who died, leaving such an impact on a young heart.
Jealous priest who had for generations, ripped off the royal treasury, would have seen this new religion as a financial threat too.
More reason to kill the Pharaoh and his Consort.

Answer 3

What Egyptian Pharaoh? If the Holy Spirit is making a point to you , you will get it. If you are speaking about the Pharaoh in Moses' day, He was a pagan.

Answer 4

It is not true that Pharaoh believed in just one God. In fact he himself was considered a god. Note what God said before bringing the last plague upon Egypt: "And I must pass through the land of Egypt on this night and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man to beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I shall execute judgments. I am Jehovah." (Exodus 12:12) The plagues not only brought down Pharaoh as a God, all of the gods of Egypt as none were able to reverse the plagues brought upon them.

Answer 5

Sure why not...
But didn't he live before Moses and Ramses? Akenaton?
Maybe he got the message first.
Seek and ye shall find...
Knock and the door will be opened...
For those with ears let them hear.
I think Socrates found thru reason that if there was a God then there was only one God over all rather than the various Gods of thunder, volcanoes, sore backs etc.

Answer 6

The evidence of God's handwork is plain for all to see according to Paul in the Book of Romans. The wonders in nature that are in full harmony and yet so complex in there simplicity is just one of the many ways that God reveals Himself to man through the work of His hand. As Pharaoh, Achnaton?, was open minded and questioned the accepted ritual and reason for the truth of life. He may have been handicapped by the limited truths according to man versus the truths of God that are revealed to man by God in the Bible. However, even man has recognized some of the universal truths that are established by God. For example whether you believe in God or not the "principle" of you reap what you sow also known the world over as "what goes around comes around" is accepted as a "truth" all over the world.

Religions all over the world recognize the hand of a creator on the world around them. Even Abraham to whom God reached out to and revealed Himself to recognized that the hand of a creator was involved before God ever spoke to Him. I believe that when God reached out to Abram it was confirmation of God in person not the revelation of a brand new concept.

Answer 7

Why do Christians think that every religious revelation that has an inkling of Christian-like appearance is automatically, by default, a message from the Holy Spirit? Maybe he just had a unique idea! Jeez.

Answer 8

It's strange how the founder of monotheism, Akhenaten, should be considered to have gotten the message wrong. Perhaps he got it right and it is Christianity that got it wrong.

The Sun gives you light, warmth, all of the chemistry available on Earth, and drives all the processes of life. Without the Sun, we wouldn't exist. What's so wrong about giving thanks to that? An invisible being in the sky didn't do any of the above.

Answer 9

I've wondered before if Akenaten was influenced by the Hebrews.

Answer 10

Which pharaoh was that?