Did Akhenaten’s Monotheism Influence Moses?

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In late spring, 1349 B.C., the chariot of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten drew up in an open space before a dazzling white inscription on a cliff face overlooking the Nile. There Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti made lavish offerings to the solar god Aten. Then the pharaoh addressed his assembled courtiers: “I shall make Akhetaten for the Aten, my father, in this place … I will make for myself the apartments of Pharaoh. I will make the apartments of the Great King’s Wife in Akhetaten.” His pronouncement must have sent shivers of apprehension through the court traditionally based at […]

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Footnotes

Donald B. Redford, “The Monotheism of the Heretic Pharaoh,” BAR 13:03; James P. Allen, “Monotheism,” Archaeology Odyssey 02:03.

Hershel Shanks and Jack Meinhardt, eds., Aspects of Monotheism: How God Is One (Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1996); Ephraim Stern, “Pagan Yahwism: The Folk Religion of Ancient Israel,” BAR 27:03; André Lemaire, “The Universal God,” BAR 31:06.

Endnotes

Ahmed Osman, Moses and Akhenaten: The Secret History of Egypt at the Time of the Exodus (Rochester, VT: Bear & Company, 2002).

For example, theancientsacredmysteries.com/akhenaton_moses.htm.

For instance, Arthur Weigall, The Life and Times of Akhenaten (New York: Cooper Square Press, reprint 2000).

Donald B. Redford, Akhenaten: The Heretic King (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1984). See also James K. Hoffmeier, Akhenaten and the Origins of Monotheism (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2015).

Aidan Dodson, Amarna Sunrise: Egypt from Golden Age to Age of Heresy (Cairo: American Univ. in Cairo Press, 2014).

Jan Assman, From Akhenaten to Moses: Ancient Egypt and Religious Change (Cairo: American Univ. in Cairo Press, 2014).

Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2003).