Was Akhenaten's monotheistic worship of the god Aten the original influence on Hebrew monotheism?

Question

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

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

Answer 1

Very likely, actually. In the end, of course, it failed simply with his death, and the with Tut becoming Pharaoh.....because the Egyptians simply missed their raft of other gods... I've been in Egypt, learned to read hieroglyphics before going, and it was awesome to read the stuff in the museum, and in the temples. There certainly were exchanges of goods, and ideas at that time all over the Middle East-- The Adam and Eve story is from Babylon, a real place such as heaven is exactly as was The Valley of Reeds, and Judgement Day, is directly attributable to Egyptian religion, the 12 Denials, which are almost identical to the 10 commandments preceded Moses by 1200 years.... Even some of the prayers are Egyptian "...though I walk thru the valley of death, I will fear no evil....." Most of the beatitudes are directly from the Book of the Dead, (more properly called The Book for Going Forth by Day).

(In fact, after the death of Tut, his wife sent a message to the Hittites (Egypt's major enemy!!!) to send her a prince to marry. She knew full well that her right to be queen was in jeopardy if she were not married. He was indeed sent, but murdered before he got there. She married Aye, as I recall, and history really never heard from her again.)

All of these civilizations, tho enemies, did indeed trade good and ideas even during war. And the idea of a single god came and went, even among the tribe of Israel, from which comes Christianity.

Answer 2

No one has been able to present a theory which merits a scholarly consensus as to the origins of Monotheism in Israel, especially as she existed in a world that embraced Polytheism.

True Monotheism, embraced by all Jews, however, did not come about until sometime after Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem.

Monotheistic concept of God that Israel developed probably happen in the course of 8th-6th centuries BCE. Some priests came to the conviction that the effusive praise heaped upon a worshipper's god, ignited a new concept, that there was really only one god, the others were not gods at all. The people resisted this new interpretation, they probably had no problem with the effusive praise, it existed everywhere in the Pre-Exilic world of the 8th-6th centuries, but to claim there were no other gods- that was heresy. Only after the activities of Ezra, and Nehemiah with Persian assent, did the nation give up Polytheism, and True Monotheism prevailed at long last.

Israel's "original" God in the Late BronzeAge period was married to a goddess, the Queen of Heaven, he had children, the gods, and he was also the father of mankind; His royal symbol was the bull or bull-calf, he being called "Bull-El" in the Ugaritic myths...13th/12th centuries BCE

Answer 3

Possibly, there has been some debate on this subject. Tho there were tribes in several nations who dabbled with the idea of one god, according to written word (so far) Akhenaten was the first to create a 'movement' in this direction.
As to dates, Akhenaten 1351BC/1336BC. Prophet Zarathustra who founded Zoroastrianism, 651BC/559BC.

Fenix

Answer 4

I belive so, and ill offer an interesting link to what is left from a papyrus found written at the same time of the Hebrew exodus from egypt: http://members.tripod.com/~Raseneb/Ipuwer.htm

Answer 5

No. Moses did not worship the Sun.

Answer 6

No; Zoroastrianism occurred earlier.

Answer 7

Very likely. Moses was from around that time.

Answer 8

That and a few other old religions thrown in. Yep.

Answer 9

No, God Himself called Abraham out and chose his descendants to be their God.