Walk Like An Egyptian




I've been reading about ancient Egyptian Pharaohs and their religions. Besides the current timetable showing which Pharaoh was king when Moses and the Israelite slaves departed, I found some interesting and insightful things.

There was a Pharaoh who changed his name to Akhenaten. He is the only Pharaoh/king to have broken religious tradition. He introduced faith in one God. He outlawed polytheism (belief in more than one god). He wrote descriptions of this God's essence as the Being who created all things, is invisible and in which all things exist. He even outlawed idolatry. He started Atenism.

What is also interesting, aside from Akhenaten leading Egypt to praise and worship a single God, was what happened after his death. His efforts were called heresy and the worship of all the traditional gods were reinstated. His legacy was erased and Egypt's history was revised to ignore his efforts.

The business of temple worship was very lucrative for the many priests of the many different gods.

The timetable is interesting. Was it after Moses and Israel left Egypt or when Joseph rose to being Vizier to Pharaoh? Revision of history has been a constant current in government throughout all eras. Here is a secular timeline. Here is an intricate theological timeline. Both arrive to a particular mean expanse of 400 years.

What secular history shows is Egypt's influence declining after this time-frame. What is very notable is the introduction of worshiping a single and invisible God, described as having attributes very similar to what Moses the Hebrew described.

I wonder; is it possible that Egypt revised their history to remove the shame of a Pharaoh and an army that drowned in the sea when pursuing a slave-nation they freed?

Or perhaps Akhenaten recognized the accounts of Joseph's God and sought Him out!

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