In his early 1930s work 7'he Dawn of Conscience, the American Egyptologist James Henry Breasted argued that the religion of the heretic 18th-dynasty pharaoh, Akhenaten - who attempted to do away with most of Egypt’s traditional gods and to replace them with the worship of the solar disk or Aten (see
P. 236) - was nothing less than a direct precu*--the Judeo-Christian-Islamic monotheism of history. From 1934 the German Egyptc Hermann Junker went even further, suggesting, Egyptian religion had, in fact, originallx' monotheistic and had only eventually degen* into a morass of separate cults after the found, the Egyptian state. Although the argument k kind of primitive monotheism and the idea single, transcendent deity has long been disca. the idea that the Egyptians did gradually dt monotheistic ways of thought has been mon ing. Some scholars have seen the successive ; pre-eminent deities such as Re, Osiris and Ar precisely this kind of development. Others ha that the Egyptian word for god, netcher, usee out reference to any particular god (whici' especially common in Egyptian ‘wisdom lite’ or ‘instructions’ and in personal names whici'-bined the word god with some other element demonstrated the idea of an underlying singi in Egyptian religion. In an influential work pub. in 1960 Siegfried Morenz drew these argu; together in support of the idea that behind the' countless deities of the Egyptian pantheon was, historically, among at least some Egyp‘ growing awareness of a single god.
But another side to the story appeared v, publication of an incisive study by Erik Horn.' 1971. Hornung systematically examined question, and found no evidence for an or movement towards monotheism. Of central' tance, he argued that the word ‘god’ in Eg> usage never appears to refer to an abstract 6 higher order than other gods but is rather a :¦ term which can apply to any deity, or as He expressed it, ‘whichever god you wish’. In th? manner, personal names such as Mery-n-translated as ‘whom god loves’, could mean a; and may be found with many specified p; such as ‘whom Ptah loves’. From this persp-the various expressions of syncretism ‘indwelling’ of one deity in another do not p evidence of a move towards monotheism, worshippers may have elected to venerate a god above all others, this is merely henothi form of religion in which the other gods Finally, while it is true that at given times w-supreme god at the head of the Egyptian pa: the other gods remain, the qualities of the si being are not limited to any one god, and ever in the same period of time we find many god? called ‘lord of all that exists’ and ‘sole’ or ‘u. According to Hornung, only the ‘heretic’ Akh clearly insisted upon an approach which a: One god to the exclusion of the Many.
Other scholars have looked at the con; Akhenaten’s religious ‘revolution’ differentl) ever. In his 1997 work Moses the Egyptu example, Jan Assmann has pointed out that
Egypt and Monotheism
Painted limestone stela depicting Akhenaten and Nefertiti with infant princesses. The disk of the solar Aten shines on the royal family in an expression of what was essentially a closed theological system. 18th dynasty. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
' creation accounts developed by the Egyptians, ¦: ’:he ongoing process of syncretism, reflect two ¦damental but different approaches to the para-. of ‘the One and the Many’ inherent in all ancient ..-ptian religion. Assmann has characterized se divergent viewpoints as one of generation - which the One produces the Many (as seen in ..j-ptian creation accounts), and one of emanation •' which the One is present in the Many (as seen in syncretism). These viewpoints existed concurrently in Egypt throughout most of the Dynastic Period, but in the religion of Akhenaten the concept of the emanation of the god Aten is not to be found. It is through generation alone that the Aten recreates the world and all that is in it. In this view, although visible and in that sense immanent in his creation, the Aten also transcended it in the manner found in true monotheism.
. 'f the Great Aten. pie at Akhetaten ’.arm) represented on a . ‘.at block found at el-munein. The great altar ‘he top is flanked by statues the king bearing offerings c, iother expression of the fully delimited nature of n worship. 18th dynasty, ptian Museum, Cairo.
Egypt and Monotheism
(Below) The ‘Restoratio) Stela’of Tutankhamui. documenting the return orthodox Egyptian religi-and the restitution of th Amun after the Amarn. Period. Discovered in th temple of Amun at Ko' Egyptian Museum, Ca:
Statue base mtk excised cartouche of Amenophis III The agents of Akhenaten removed even the name of the king's father (leaving only his throne name which was written ivithout the name of Amun) in the widespread programme of eradication of the images and names of the Theban god. Luxor Museum.
World History
