Who was the Pharoah Akhenaten?


Akhenaten was certainly at least one of the first people in history to believe and make a religion, based on a one 'god' principle.

The Aten, although symbolised by the sun disc, was an omnipotent all powerful god, who you could not see and had no idols or effigies.

Akhenaten expressly stated that the Aten disc, was 'not' god and should 'not' be worshipped as such, but that if you wanted to see the majesty of god, you had to look no further than the sun, which gives us light and heat everyday for life itself!

Akhenaten made a new capital in Egypt, named Amarna, which had no statues of gods or any temples to other gods, just designed, from the start, to honour the 'one true god'.

Although, Akhenaten's religion and dream did not last very long..... An uprising of priests and unbelievers, that were still loyal to the old gods, rebelled and destroyed Amarna.

All records of the reign of Akhenaten were destroyed, statues of him smashed, texts, carvings and even his already prepared tomb, were to be obliterated!

He was termed as the 'heretic' and although nearly forgotten, his legacy remained, shortly after his death, a tribe of people left Egypt, with the belief in one god.

These people, which included Egyptians too, were later to settle and become known as the Jews.

It is believed that Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten, his original birth name was Tutankh'aten' and on the back of his throne found in his tomb, is the sun disc, the aten, symbol of the majesty of the 'one true god'.

Ancient Egypt has had a 'huge' influence on the beliefs of people long ago, including the early Judaic nation and its belief structure, indeed there are many links to Egypt in the bible, including the Great Pyramid, which is shown to this day, as the flag of the Jewish nation, the 'as above, so below' symbolism, on the St.Davids Star.

funny to me how hollywood made Amenhotep (I hope I spelled it right) to be such a diabolical and evil man doing all the wrong things for love.
If I remember Amenhotep was a priest and chief builder for a Pharo (but I can't for the life of me remember who). He was a very powerful man in his own right and respected by his king. I doubt he would have been a bad guy like he was portrayed. he early Jews were educated by the Egyptians and their early structures like the Great Temple had a VERY strong resemblance to Egyptian structures.
The Egyptians also had the first "Flashlight" that was not an oil lamp or a torch. Look up Egyptian Gourd Light. Fascinating stuff.
Favorite Egyptian Gods, Bast and not because I like cats. I actually don't. I take cats on an individual basis like people. It was what Bast stood for. Wouldn't mind a dip in a hot tub with her either!!
Next it Ptah. Knowledge is power! He would be an interesting conversationalist for sure and someone I would want to be feeding me info for Jeopardy by ear plug!

Have you noticed the similarty between the names Akhenaton and Abraham?

Akhenaton was an intersex person too, or hermaphrodite.