Akhenaten's Short-Lived Monotheism in Egypt (c. 1350 BC)

The event

For about seventeen years, Egypt's traditional religious order was thrown into upheaval by Pharaoh Akhenaten (formerly Amenhotep IV), who elevated a single god, the sun-disk Aten, above the entire pantheon of Ra, Amun, Osiris, and the rest, neglected their temples, and moved Egypt's capital to a newly built city devoted to Aten alone. The 'Great Hymn to the Aten,' composed during his reign, praises the sun-disk in strikingly universal, exalted language as the sole source of light and life for Egypt and every other nation.

Because this looks, on the surface, like monotheism, some popular writers have proposed a connection between Akhenaten's reform and the monotheism of Moses and Israel. The chronology makes this very hard to sustain: on this app's default early Exodus date (c. 1446 BC), Akhenaten's reign came roughly a century after Israel had already left Egypt under Moses; even on a later Exodus date, Akhenaten's Aten-cult was itself short-lived and thoroughly reversed by his successors (including the famous Tutankhamun), while Israel's worship of the Lord not only survived every attempt to suppress it but became the enduring faith of an entire nation across three and a half millennia.

More importantly, Aten was not the personal, covenant-keeping God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Aten was a solar disk exalted to sole supremacy by royal decree, still tied to the pharaoh's own divine status, and abandoned the moment political winds changed; the God of Israel introduced himself by name to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14), bound himself to his people by covenant oath, and never depended on any pharaoh's favor for his existence or his worship. Egypt's brief flirtation with a single sun-god is a fascinating footnote in religious history, but Scripture presents Israel's monotheism as revealed truth, not a borrowed royal policy.

Dating

Akhenaten's reign is one of the best-fixed dates in New Kingdom Egyptian chronology, thanks to the Amarna Letters correspondence. Some popular writers have speculated that Akhenaten's Aten-monotheism influenced, or even coincided with, early Israelite monotheism; on an early Exodus date (c. 1446 BC, this app's default), Akhenaten's reform occurs roughly a century after Israel had already left Egypt, and on a late Exodus date (c. 1260s BC) it occurs while Israel was still enslaved in Egypt, before Moses. Either way, the chronology does not support any dependence of biblical monotheism on Akhenaten.

Scripture references

• Exodus 1:8
• Exodus 3:14
• Exodus 5:2

Other witnesses

• Amarna Letters
• Great Hymn to the Aten