“The
priests of Amun would likely have suffered the worst of these changes
as
Akhenaten’s main political rivals. This is shown by records of Akhenaten
singling them out to perform the most demeaning tasks he could muster”.
In
2023, Austin Crouch wrote an eminently readable article on pharaoh Akhnaton
(Akhenaten), which article, however, suffers, in part, from being conceived within
the context of the conventional chronology.
Here
I (Damien Mackey) would like to re-visit Austin’s fine article, but with some
of my own comments added throughout the course of it.
Akhenaten: Prophet or
Tyrant?
Akhenaten
upended the traditional Egyptian religion,
but
did he go too far with his reforms?
Akhenaten
is undoubtedly one of the most enigmatic and controversial figures not only in
Egyptian history, but antiquity at large. From the early days of his reign to
his death, Akhenaten challenged many Egyptian traditions, including the things
that helped Egypt prosper. He was not afraid to wield his authority with a
heavy hand when necessary. From his physical appearance to his major overhaul
of Egyptian theology, Akhenaten sticks out in history books like a sore thumb.
Keep reading if you want to learn about this fascinating ruler.
Who was Akhenaten?
So,
who was Akhenaten and how was a single ruler able to turn both the Egyptian
government and the national religion upside down? Akhenaten’s childhood is a
bit of a mystery to this day. However, most scholars can agree that Akhenaten
was born around 1353 B.C.E as the son of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his wife
Queen Tiye.
Damien
Mackey’s comment: Since I entirely accept Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky’s
re-dating of the El Amarna (EA) period, and hence of Akhnaton, from the
conventional C14th BC to the C9th BC, I cannot at all accept the above date of
1353 [BC].
Amongst
my multi-identifications for Akhnaton, in correspondence with the Bible, as
both the Syrian Na’aman and Hazael (Dr. Velikovsky’s Aziru of EA), I must reject that
Akhnaton was a member of the royal family (whether Syrian or Egyptian).
Akhnaton’s
life as Amenhotep, before he became pharaoh, is far less of “a mystery to this
day” if he be equated with the military man, Na’aman/Hazael, and also, in
Egypt, with the famous Amenhotep son of Hapu, serving the master-king Ben-Hadad
I of Syria who was the same as pharaoh Amenhotep ‘the Magnificent’. See also my
article:
Ben-Hadad I was a true
master-king
(4) Ben-Hadad I was
a true master-king
Austin
Crouch continues:
Akhenaten
was born during what is now referred to as the “New Kingdom” which was a period
characterized by wealth and expansion for Egypt. His original name
was Amenhotep IV—the Pharaoh would later adopt his more well-known persona
of Akhenaten, after the creation of his new cult. For the first several years
of his reign, Akhenaten likely shared the throne with his father.
Damien
Mackey’s comment: As Akhnaton was a usurper, as already indicated,
he did not share any co-regency with Amenhotep ‘the Magnificent’ (Ben Hadad I),
whom he assassinated.
Austin
Crouch continues:
This
is also when Akhenaten most likely took his most prominent queen, Nefertiti, a
woman whose beauty was so renowned that her name means “The beautiful one is
come.” The father and son partnership ended with Amenhotep III’s death opening
the door for Akhenaten to introduce his own sweeping changes in government,
religion and art.
Damien
Mackey’s comment: As Na’aman, Akhnaton already had a “wife” while
he was a leper serving the Syrian king, Ben-Hadad I (2 Kings 5:2-3).
Austin
Crouch continues:
….
In
the years preceding Akhenaten’s rule, Egypt’s religious structure had already
seen a considerable amount of change. Throughout the reign of Akhenaten’s
father, the god Amun and by extension his cult and priests, had steadily grown
in influence and power to become the unrivaled central Egyptian deity. However,
in the fifth year of his reign, Amenhotep IV uprooted Egyptian life by
asserting the dominance of the god Aten, who was now not only the supreme god,
but the only god to be worshiped in all of Egypt. The effect this would have
had on daily life in Egypt would have been immense, particularly in urban
centers where Akhenaten’s new laws could be enforced.
What was the Aten and how did it change Egypt?
In
the beginning of Akhenaten’s rule, the Aten was an anthropomorphized sun god
similar to any other. However, as part of Akhenaten’s reforms, the Aten was now
simply portrayed as a sun-like disk situated high in the sky. The Aten was
often depicted as shining its rays over the royal family. According to
Akhenaten, he and his family had a unique relationship with the Aten, as they
were the only ones who would communicate or connect with the god. So not only
did Akhenaten outlaw the worship of any of the traditional gods, but he also
blocked the creation of any priestly class and/or cult, like those that had
existed for the god Amun. Akhenaten then had the capital moved from Thebes,
which had acted as Egypt’s capital for centuries, to his newly built city now
known as Amarna. The name of this new capital would later function as the
inspiration for the name of the 16-year period (The Amarna Period) during which
Amarna was the capital of Egypt.
Was this new religion an example of early
monotheism?
For
centuries, these decisions have puzzled historians and theologians alike. The
religion Akhenaten implemented, sounds a lot like monotheism, centuries before
the monotheistic Abrahamic religions. There are some curious overlaps between
Akhenaten’s ideology and later monotheistic texts. One example is the eerie
similarity between The Hymn of the Aten and Psalm 104 from
the Bible.
Damien
Mackey’s comment: Not so, according to the revised chronology.
Akhnaton
post-dates even king David of Israel, thus he was hardly “centuries before the
monotheistic Abrahamic religions”.
Austin
Crouch continues:
However,
while the possibility that Akhenaten was the world’s first monotheist was
entertained in earlier decades, more recent consensus among historians has
resulted in a different conclusion. As mentioned earlier, throughout the
centuries leading up to Akhenaten’s reign the cult of Amun and its priests had
grown powerful. So powerful, in fact, that they could rival the wealth and
power of the throne. As a result, it is now accepted by many historians that
Akhenaten became a religious pioneer out of political necessity.
Damien
Mackey’s comment: No, his embrace of monotheism was due to his cure
from leprosy, as Na’aman, and his consequent radical conversion.
Austin
Crouch continues:
Akhenaten
needed to recenter Egypt’s focus on the royal family, specifically their unique
importance at the top of not only the government, but the religious hierarchy
as well.
What did this new world look like for
Egyptians?
While
these sweeping changes would have been a shock to many and were probably seen
as heavy handed, there is little evidence that Akhenaten relied on outright
violence to enforce these changes. More rural areas may not have seen much
enforcement at all. Although his capital city of Amarna may have had a more
militarized police force than previously seen in Egyptian cities, leading some
historians to portray Akhenaten in a more tyrannical light.
Additionally,
Akhenaten issued orders to have, what he perceived as serious threats to his
power or ideology, destroyed. This included anything to do with Amun or
anything that could indicate the existence of multiple deities and perhaps some
previous rulers as well. The priests of Amun would likely have suffered the
worst of these changes as Akhenaten’s main political rivals. This is shown by
records of Akhenaten singling them out to perform the most demeaning tasks he
could muster.
While
Akhenaten did not expressly use violence to control his people, he was
certainly aware that violence was an option for both him and his enemies. Some
scholars speculate that it was paranoia that led to the construction of Amarna,
due to the speed with which the city was constructed and the royal family moved
there.
Damien
Mackey’s comment: Akhnaton was essentially a military man.
And:
Akhetaton was ‘an armed
camp’
(4) Akhetaton was
'an armed camp'
Austin
Crouch continues:
Did Akhenaten neglect foreign policy?
In
addition to his internal reforms, Akhenaten also took a different approach to
foreign affairs than his predecessors. Overall, the New Kingdom was a time of
prosperity and expansion. This outward view was driven by Pharaohs whose names
and deeds would last the ages (and whose exploits are also well worth your
time) such as Ramesses II and Thutmose III. Akhenaten, however, had no interest
in international affairs or territorial conquests unless they could benefit him
personally. Instead, Akhenaten was almost purely inwardly focused with his
religious reforms. This was much to the dismay of his subjects and vassal
states who were left to their own devices, even in the face of military defeat
and conquest by foreign powers.
Did
Akhenaten have an unusual physiology?
Damien
Mackey’s comment: As King Hazael, Akhnaton was constantly
campaigning in the north, and, after him, his son, Ben-Hadad II.
Austin
Crouch continues:
….
Aside
from his religious and political reforms, Akhenaten had another curiosity: his
physique.
Akhenaten
gave rise to a new style of art and architecture — one of the most prominent
changes here being the depiction of Akhenaten himself and his family.
Interestingly, in this new art style the whole royal family is shown as having
unnatural proportions. With arms and legs that appear too long and spindly,
elongated necks and stretched craniums. These strange depictions even gave rise
to the theory that Akhenaten was a woman due to his statues having very wide
hips.
To
this day scholars are somewhat divided as to what is behind this bizarre
imagery. It is possible that this was simply a stylistic choice made in an
effort to set himself apart from his predecessors. The other prominent theory
is that Akhenaten was actually severely ill and used his physical deformities
as part of his divine persona. Common diseases associated with Akhenaten’s
physical appearance include Marfan’s and Frohlich’s Syndrome, both of which
could explain his unique depictions. Although, this fails to explain the
depiction of the family as all having the same deformity, considering they
would not have shared his condition.
Damien
Mackey’s comment: As Na’aman, Akhnaton had been a leper.
Not
sure if this helps, at least in part, to explain his unique appearance.
Austin
Crouch continues:
What is Akhenaten’s legacy?
Unfortunately
for Akhenaten, none of what he had put in place during his reign would survive
his death. Akhenaten’s successors, the relatively unknown Smenkhkare and more
infamous Tutankhamun, would almost immediately begin the reversal of all of
Akhenaten’s reforms.
The
city of Amarna quickly lost its status as the capital of Egypt and was
abandoned shortly after.
Finally,
there is no evidence for the survival of Akhenaten’s sun cult in any way. In
fact, Tutankhamun not only reopened the old temples but also followed in his
predecessor’s footsteps in an ironic way, a name change. Tutankhamun was
originally born as Tutankhaten but changed his name early in his reign to
reflect his association with the god Amun, and the fall of the Aten from
Pharaonic favor.
Damien
Mackey’s comment: I tend to think – an idea not yet properly developed
– that Smenkhkare, then Tutankhamun, reigned concurrently with Akhnaton, and as
his deputy pharaohs.
Austin
Crouch continues:
Later
rulers would go further still by labeling Akhenaten a “heretic” and working to
have his memory erased entirely. This effort included the destruction of most,
if not all, of his temples and projects and having not only his name, but those
of his immediate successors, struck from the record books. This destruction of
memory was so effective that Egyptologists had no knowledge of Akhenaten or the
Amarna Period until the early 19th century; meaning that
Akhenaten and his upheaval went undiscovered and forgotten for nearly 4,000
years. Quite frankly, we are not supposed to know Akhenaten ever lived at all.
Conclusion
Overall,
there are few figures throughout history, who have inspired as much controversy
and conjecture as Akhenaten. Unfortunately for modern scholars, with so much of
Akhenaten’s life being shrouded in mystery as a result of the assaults on his
memory, we will never truly know who this fascinating man was or what exactly
he was trying to accomplish. However, one thing is for certain, whether he was
a prophet of a monotheistic deity or a tyrannical politician fighting to
survive a changing Egypt, Akhenaten’s legacy is firmly cemented, despite the
significant efforts of his detractors.
….
For more, see my (Damien
Mackey’s) article:
Marvellous optimism of pharaoh Akhnaton
(4) Marvellous
optimism of pharaoh Akhnaton (4) Marvellous
optimism of pharaoh Akhnaton
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