Egypt During the New Kingdom, the cult of the sun god Ra became increasingly important until it evolved into the uncompromising monotheism of Pharaoh Akhenaten /Amenhotep.
Why do we say Amen after all of our prayers?
2007-03-20 20:39:40 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
rhsaunders: Many Jews claim to be the First Monotheist.
2007-03-20 20:49:20 · update #1
The cult of Ra did not "evolve" into monotheism as you put it. Instead it was Akhenaten that decreed that the Aten (a manifestation of the composite deity, Ra-Amun-Horus), was the Supreme God.
Akhenaten is considered by historians to be the first monotheist in history. He was clearly a devout man. He even changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten and built a new city, in honour of the his God, the Aten.
It is not clear that Jews and Christians owe the concept of monotheism to him. This is an ongoing debate.
2007-03-20 20:58:22 · answer #1 · answered by Taharqa 3 · 4⤊ 1⤋
worshipping the sun and only the sun as a god is monotheism, but it is a far cry from biblical monotheism in which G-d is not an object in the universe. as for the relationship between the words amun and amen, there is none. firstly, the word amun is a theoretical construct of what the egyptian word represented by the hieroglyphs '-m-n might sound like, since there are no vowels in egyptian. egyptologists generally agree by comparing egyptian texts with other ancient texts that with vowel sounds the word probably sounded like "yamanu" rather than "amun". and even so the hebrew word amein has an entirely different meaning based on its root than the word '-m-n as a root has in the egyptian language. its coincedental that the consonants are the same, but thats about as far as the similarity goes.
2007-03-21 04:07:06 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
I would not use that as an example of monotheism in the Western world, since people continued to worship other deities and the official system had been one based on mythology with several deities.
2007-03-21 03:45:40 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Abraham lived around 2000BC. Akhenaten reigned around 1350BC. Monotheism appears to be older in Judaism. Of note, according to the Bible, Abraham did go into Egypt.
Amen, in Hebrew, means "So be it."
2007-03-21 04:50:19 · answer #4 · answered by novangelis 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
There were many Gods in Egypt. Shu Tefnet, Nau and Nen, Hehui, Hehet, Keket Hethor.
2007-03-21 03:50:32 · answer #5 · answered by Edward J 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Oh,Eptian monotheism again.
For one,Egyptian religions were not monotheistic.They wosrhipped a number of gods.
Secondly,monotheism was not something the Epyptians invented.Humans have been worshipping the one true God since creation.
Thirdly,Amen has absolutely nothing to do with Amenhotep.Nothing in the slightest.Amen is just a word.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen
http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/akhenaten.html
2007-03-21 03:47:31 · answer #6 · answered by Serena 5 · 3⤊ 3⤋
No we{Jews} claim to be the first to accept the true God and to make monotheism last
2007-03-21 03:52:21 · answer #7 · answered by devora k 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
It could well be true. Is there a point lurking here somewhere?
2007-03-21 03:45:41 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋