Why do you think that Egyptian Pharaoh stopped believing in so many Gods and went to only one?

Answer 1

For political reasons, but no one followed him. Akhenaten was a Ruler of Egypt during the period known as the 18th Dynasty. He ascended to the throne as Amenhotep IV, succeeding his father Amenhotep III. Akhenaten's brief reign, only about 16 years, happened at a difficult time in Egyptian history and many scholars maintain that Akhenaten was responsible for this decline, but evidence suggests that it had already started. Akhenaten, possibly in a move to lessen the political power of the Priests, introduced the worship of one god, the Aten, or Sun disk. This meant that the Pharaoh, not the priesthood, was the sole link between the population and the Aten which effectively ended the power of the various temples. It is interesting to note that when Akhenaten's successors, the generals Ay and Horemheb re- established the temples of Amun they selected their priests from the military, enabling the Pharaoh to keep tighter controls over the religious orders. The cult of the Aten is considered by some to be a predecessor of modern monotheism.

Answer 2

Some people say because that Pharoah (called Akenaten) was actually Moses or Joseph - Jews who worship only one God. However there does not seem to be any evidence for this.

If he did change the religion to help improve the economy, he was far ahead of his time. His son in law, Tutenkhamen changed everything back to the old ways - and then he died rather suddenly as well.

Answer 3

Yes there was one and if memory serves me well, the Egyptians reverted to polytheism after his death but his belief inspired the early Hebrews to practice monotheism. This occurred long before the Tribes of Israel united to form their kingdom after defeating their competitors in what is now Israel.

Answer 4

It is not known why Akhenaten gave up polytheism, took up worshipping the sun god Ra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten

One intriguing theory is that this cult may have been the seed of the idea for the Hebrews monotheism, and that the Israelites may in fact have been the descendants of this banned religion, who intermarried with Semitic nomads.

Answer 5

Monotheism is linked from many gods. Eventually a lot of cultures went to believing in one god. It was just easier, made sense to some of the people, and it's just so cool to just have one huge deity to look up to, rather than a bunch of different ones that must not be that powerful.

Answer 6

Well, if God could harden his heart and make him do things he wouldn't have done had he been given the benefit of free will in those decisions - things that resulted in children dying for no good reason, then perhaps he was possessed in some similar way.

Then again, is there some evidence other than the Bible that the Pharoah did any such thing?

Answer 7

I don't know of any pharaoh that did that, the only ruler I know of is Constantine it was he that stoped believing in all the Gods, and inforced Christianity as we know it today.

Answer 8

Perhaps when Pharoah sent his army after Isreal, and they were totally destroyed by the Red Sea incident, this caused someone to open their eyes...just a thought, I'm not really sure what went down, as history is written by the victors.

Answer 9

He probably had the mystical experience of Unity and realized that we are all one anyway, and for the average person it's easier to worship one god.

Answer 10

Well, it is kind of easy when you declare yourself to be that one God to be worshiped and obeyed by the whole Egyptian Empire.

hey, thanks for the thumbs downs. Only one other answer got it right.
Akhenaten lovely!