Did Akhenaten's religion influence early Judaism?

Question

There were some claims, for example in the 1st 2 chapters of Moses and Monotheism by Freud, that early Judaism was basically a spin-off of Akhenaten's religion. There are indeed some remarkable similarities:

Akhenaten, an Egyptian, is perhaps the 1st monotheist in History; Judaism is the 1st organized monotheistic religion, and its becoming one is associated with the Exodus from Egypt.

Akhenaten calls his god Aton; one of the names used in Judaism is Adon or Adonai.

The word Moses means "son" in Egyptian, as in Ra-mses or Tut-mos; Biblical Moses was raised as the son of an Egyptian princess (perhaps because he was one).

Moses was fluent in Egyptian, but "tongue-tied" in Hebrew, even after considerable time as the leader of Jews.

There are also remarkable dis-similarities between early Judaism and the traditional Egyptian worship that denied the religion of Akhenaten:

The animals that were traditionally worshipped in Egypt (not by Akhenaten) are deemed "dirty" in Judaism.

Jews are forbidden to shave their heads, which was a common practice in Egypt.

Etc., Etc., Etc.

The speculation by Freud goes something like this:

The followers of Akhenaten's religion are persecuted after Akhenaten's death. The son of Akhenaten's daughter, known further as "the Son" or "Moses", decided to flee Egypt. A natural leader, he decides not to flee alone, but to create a new nation, become it leader, and install the religion of Aton with it. Jews, enslaved in the Delta, seemed a good pick. He convinces Aaron, the son of his wet nurse, to disseminate the story that Moses was actually a Jew, and to act as Moses's mouthpiece (and perhaps Hebrew-Egyptian interpreter).

Thus the question: is there any historical evidence to either support or deny such claim? Are there any contradictions between the described above speculated line of events and some reasonably known facts about ancient Egypt history?

Answer 1

In general, I would be very wary of claims that Akhenaten's religion was a significant influence on early Judaism. There is, however, one very famous link that is often claimed between Akhenaten and the Old Testament that seems to be worth investigation.

The Great Hymn of the Aten is one of a number of "hymns" written during the reign of Akhenaten and dedicated to the Aten manifestation of the Egyptian sun-god. The Aten was central to Akhenaten's religious reforms.

There are significant similarities between The Great Hymn of the Aten and Psalm 104 in the Old Testament. These were first identified in 1905 by the American Egyptologist Henry Breasted, and have been the subject of considerable academic debate ever since.

---

You can read the full English translation of the Great Hymn of the Aten here, (I'm sure a quick Google search will find many other sites).

[In case anyone is interested, you can also see the Hieroglyphic text of the Great Hymn to the Aten, discovered in the tomb of Ay.]

The text of Psalm 104 is also available in English on many sites, for example the King James translation can be found here.

---

We discussed the similarities between the Great Hymn of the Aten and Psalm 104 at some length when I was a student. I have to say that personally, while I can see the parallels, nothing that I have yet read or heard has quite convinced me of the direct link.

Miriam Lichtheim was a renowned translator of ancient Egyptian literature (I have a very well-read set of her 3-volume collection of translated ancient Egyptian literature on my own bookshelf). She was definitely not convinced of the connection, observing:

"The resemblances are, however, more likely to be the result of the generic similarity between Egyptian hymns and biblical psalms. A specific literary interdependence is not probable."

[Lichtheim, 2006, p100]

On the other hand, John Day (in the book linked above) argues that a number of the parallels, and also particularly the order in which they occur, strongly support the proposed dependence of Psalm 104 on the Great Hymn of the Aten [Day, 2013, p218]. He concludes that:

Psalm 104 is indeed dependent on Akhenaten's hymn to the Sun, but this dependence is confined to vv. 20-30

If he is correct, that really does have significant implications for the early development of Judaism (not to mention the implications for the currently accepted Egyptian chronology!).

That academic debate I mentioned is by no means over.

---

Sources:

• Day, John: Psalm 104 and Akhenaten's Hymn to the Sun in Jewish and Christian Approaches to the Psalms: Conflict and Convergence, Ed Susan Gillingham, Oxford, 2013
• Lichtheim, Miriam: Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume II: The New Kingdom. University of California Press, 2006

Answer 2

Judaism was long a Henotheist religion, ie it believed there was many gods, but claimed the Yahweh was the foremost and most powerful of these gods. It is generally believed that Judaism became monotheistic, claiming that other gods did not exist at all, during the Babylonian exile, (1, 2) probably influenced by Zoroastrianism.

These events are in the 6th century BC, some 600 years after Akhenaten. I do not know of any evidence outside imaginative readings of the Bible that supports the idea that Judaism comes out of Atenism or that Moses was a descendant of Akhenaten.

Answer 3

"Thus the question: is there any historical evidence to either support or deny such claim? Are there any contradictions between the described above speculated line of events and some reasonably known facts about ancient Egypt history?"

It is fairly certain that there was no Exodus as described in the Bible; the kingdoms of Judah and Israel are broadly accepted to have been Canaanite in origin and never to have been in Egypt.

So any story which presumes the Exodus is highly likely to be false, whatever its other appeal.

For a more extended discussion of the problems with the Exodus narrative as history, see here: Evidence for the Exodus

Answer 4

Akhenaten lived about 125 years before Rameses II, the best fit pharaoh of Moses. You'd have to explain that away first.

Answer 5

Has anyone read the work of Messod and Roger Sabbah? They were primarily concerned with proving a link between Egyptian hieroglyphs and Hebrew/Arabic but included a story linking Akhenaten with the founding of that monotheism which developed into Judaism. In this Moses is Rameses I (r.1292-1290 BCE) and his son Joshua was Sety I. Aaron is Horemheb (r 1319-1292 BCE) who launched a military coup following the death of the Pharoah Ay, also an early name for God in the Jewish tradition. This would set the Exodus story 1290-1279 BCE. In the opening of their book "Secrets of the Exodus", Rabbi Marc Alain Oaknin is quoted "This is far from all the hairbrained publications that have already appeared concerning hidden messages in the Bible. This thesis certainly contains some rather abrupt shortcuts and some errors, But it is not the work of charlatans". Certainly the coincidences are remarkable, compare the description of Sety I's campaign in Canaan with that of Joshua in the Bible and we could well be reading an account of the same campaign.