Akhenaten’s ‘Worship of the Aten’ displayed concepts that were too anachronistically advanced for Ancient Egypt and its people. This resulted in the decline of the Ancient Egyptian Empire and Akhenaten’s purposeful exclusion from official records. Akhenaten founded a new religion that was completely divergent from the millennia old worship of Ma’at, moving the capital of Egypt and converting the Empire into a monotheistic society centred around the Aten - or sun. However the premise of the revolutionary Amarna Period was well before its time and its core elements served as the foundations for the most popular modern religion, Christianity, despite being the underlying reason for the Egyptian Empire’s downfall.
The traditional religion and way …show more content…
The Aten interrelates closely with some of the modern world’s most popular monotheistic religions. Damen (Akhenaten and Monotheism, 2013) agrees with his approach, maintaining that “Hebrews came into contact with the aten and from that caught the monotheism bug, or even heard about the belief in only one god.” This suggests that Akhenaten’s religion circulated to nearby regions, influencing their religions whilst they were creating their own belief structures. Proof of this influence is the Bible’s Psalm 104 which shares multiple similarities with the Amarna culture’s ‘Hymn to the Aten’ as Harmon …show more content…
– to YHWH” (Psalm 404 Great Hymn to the Aten, 2013)
The worship of the Aten was anachronistic because it utilised advanced concepts and beliefs that didn't gain popularity until centuries after Akhenaten’s death, much less in a society that functioned off a polytheistic belief system for decades.
As a direct result of Akhenaten’s rule, the Ancient Egyptian Empire declined from a magisterial superpower to two separate mediocre cities on either side of the Nile. As Akhenaten died and his successor was named, his ‘Utopian’ began to crumble. Jarus (Egyptian Pharaoh, 2013) states:
“A boy king, he had originally been named Tutankhaten, in honor of the Aten, but his name was changed to honor Amun, the god whom his father had tried to have wiped out. [...] Amun and Mut assuming their places on top of the Egyptian pantheon of gods.”
In this statement, Jarus is highlighting that the people of Egypt did not advocate for Akhenaten’s religion and instead were biding their time until their oppressor died so that
The traditional religion and way …show more content…
The Aten interrelates closely with some of the modern world’s most popular monotheistic religions. Damen (Akhenaten and Monotheism, 2013) agrees with his approach, maintaining that “Hebrews came into contact with the aten and from that caught the monotheism bug, or even heard about the belief in only one god.” This suggests that Akhenaten’s religion circulated to nearby regions, influencing their religions whilst they were creating their own belief structures. Proof of this influence is the Bible’s Psalm 104 which shares multiple similarities with the Amarna culture’s ‘Hymn to the Aten’ as Harmon …show more content…
– to YHWH” (Psalm 404 Great Hymn to the Aten, 2013)
The worship of the Aten was anachronistic because it utilised advanced concepts and beliefs that didn't gain popularity until centuries after Akhenaten’s death, much less in a society that functioned off a polytheistic belief system for decades.
As a direct result of Akhenaten’s rule, the Ancient Egyptian Empire declined from a magisterial superpower to two separate mediocre cities on either side of the Nile. As Akhenaten died and his successor was named, his ‘Utopian’ began to crumble. Jarus (Egyptian Pharaoh, 2013) states:
“A boy king, he had originally been named Tutankhaten, in honor of the Aten, but his name was changed to honor Amun, the god whom his father had tried to have wiped out. [...] Amun and Mut assuming their places on top of the Egyptian pantheon of gods.”
In this statement, Jarus is highlighting that the people of Egypt did not advocate for Akhenaten’s religion and instead were biding their time until their oppressor died so that