© 1996 Richard Jernigan
© 1996 International Urantia Association (IUA)
Richard Jernigan
Dallas, Texas, USA
Few figures of ancient times stir up as much passion and controversy among historians as the Egyptian pharaoh Ikhnaton. The URANTIA Book calls him “the remarkable Ikhnaton,” credits him with writing twelve Psalms preserved in the Old Testament, and states that his subsequent followers influenced Moses (UB 95:5.1-UB 95:6.4). Still later, The URANTIA Book describes how a small group of Ikhnaton’s descendants presented the child Jesus’ parents with a complete copy of the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures during their stay in Alexandria (UB 123:0.3).
The URANTIA Book’s assessment of Ikhnaton’s influence on the history of religion has inspired this summary of how historians, archeologists, and Biblical scholars regard this intriguing pharaoh.
Usually spelled “Akhenaten” by most historians, current research places Ikhnaton’s reign during an 11 to 17 year period somewhere between 1375 and 1340 B.C. He was originally named Amenhotep (IV), the son of Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty. As the tenth Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, Amenhotep IV rebelled against the polytheistic religion of his forebears and advocated a single, monotheistic God who ruled not only over the Egyptians, but all of humanity as well. It was in the sixth year of his reign that he changed his name from Amenhotep, “Amon is satisfied,” to Ikhnaton, “the one who is beneficial to Aton,” or “it goes well with Aton.” Aton was already a familiar god in the Egyptian belief system; Ikhnaton elevated the term to designate this monotheistic, universal God, replacing the previous regime’s national god of many gods, Amon. Ikhnaton’s Aton was symbolized by a sun disk, and worship was in the open air as opposed to the dark temples of Amon.
To bring his ideals to complete fruition, Ikhnaton moved the capital of his kingdom from Thebes to a site 300 miles [500 km] north up the Nile river (the Egyptians would say this is “down river”). The new city was called Akhetaton (“the place of glory of Aton”), was located on the east bank of the Nile, and today the site is referred to as Tell el-Amarna. There he continued his revolution, constructing a sophisticated city, commissioning art, and developing a literature which reflected his new ideals of God and humanity. A greater visionary than administrator, strongholds in Syria and Palestine were lost during his reign as he focused attention more on religion and culture than conquest and political power.
Ikhnaton insisted on being portrayed naturalistically by his court artists. Several pictorial presentations show him with his wife (an historical figure more well-known than Ikhnaton — Queen Nefertiti) and children in day-to-day activities. The naturalism of the art of his dynasty also reveals Ikhnaton as unusual in appearance, with an elongated face and almost feminine hips, which has caused speculation among historians that Ikhnaton was a victim of everything from a progressively disfiguring disease to hermaphroditism.
The URANTIA Book states that Ikhnaton’s twelve hymns in the Old Testament are credited to Hebrew authorship; Biblical scholars universally agree that the 104th Psalm is probably based on Ikhnaton’s “Hymn to Aton.” But there is much debate as to whether Ikhnaton’s influence on Judaism extends further, and most historians tend to be conservative in suggesting that Moses’ monotheism came from Ikhnaton’s monotheism. In his richly detailed Akhenaten King of Egypt, Cyril Aldred discredits any such speculation, and Frederick Gladstone Bratton, in his The First Heretic, the Life and Times of Ikhnaton the King, dismisses the idea by stating that Yahweh was a tribal deity for Israel whereas the Aton was a God for all mankind. J. A. Wilson’s entry on Akhenaton in the Interpreter’s Dictonary of the Bible rejects any connection between Ikhnaton and Moses on the basis of lack of hard evidence.
Some speculations about Ikhnaton go to the other extreme. In Moses And Monotheism, Sigmund Freud hypothesized that Moses was an officer in the court of Ikhnaton, and that Moses was carrying on the monotheism which Ikhnaton had established. One scholar, Ahmed Osman, has even suggested that Moses was Ikhnaton. (Moses: Pharaoh of Egypt: the Mystery of Akhenaten Resolved, Harper Collins, 1994). But actual evidence linking Ikhnaton with Moses is currently non-existent. For that matter, it should be pointed out that there is no historical, extra-Biblical evidence of Moses or of the Hebrew exodus. Any speculation among historians that either affirms or denies a connection between Ikhnaton and Moses is strictly conjectural—the physical evidence just does not exist.
While Aldred and Bratton disregard the Ikhnaton—Moses connection, both observe that Ikhnaton had an influential mother, Queen Tiye, as The URANTIA Book points out. Likewise they note the presence of a court priest, Meryre, who promoted the concept of the Aton as “the father and mother of all thou hast made” (Cf. UB 95:5.1, and UB 95:5.6.) The identity of The URANTIA Book’s “Salemite physician” is elusive, although Aldred describes one loyal member of Ikhnaton’s court, Pentu, as “the King’s physician,” but Pentu returned to the worship of Amon after the end of Ikhnaton’s reign, which makes him an improbable candidate for the role of the Salemite physician who was keeping Melchizedek’s teachings alive.
Ikhnaton’s reign ended mysteriously around 1310 BC. Ikhnaton had taken an apparent son-in-law, Smenkhkare, as his co-regent, who was permitted to return to Thebes. At Thebes Smenkhkare paid some homage to Amon, possibly to salvage the troubled empire and to maintain peace with the Amon priesthood. But Ikhnaton had vowed never to leave the city of his God, and remained for the rest of his life at Akhetaton. Another son-in-law, Tutankhaton, made the full surrender, changing his name to Tutankhamon, returning to Thebes and “doubling, tripling and quadrupling” the property of the Amon priesthood. Unlike most Egyptian pharaohs, no tomb of Ikhnaton has been discovered.
King Tutankhamon reigned briefly, followed by Ay, an elderly member of the family. Then Horemheb, a general of the army, completed the counter-revolution and made every attempt to erase Ikhnaton and his “heresy” from history. It was not until the 1820 's that knowledge of Ikhnaton began to re-emerge from the remaining ruins, hieroglyphics, tombs, the famed “Amama letters,” and other artifacts. By the early part of the twentieth century, archeologists and historians had pieced together an extensive picture of Ikhnaton and his dynasty.
Certainly there are more pieces in this puzzle to be found, and further discoveries of the remarkable Ikhnaton are awaited. URANTIA Book readers interested in egyptology and biblical history should particularly watch for evidence of a connection between Ikhnaton and Moses, Ikhnaton’s eleven other hymns which were adopted into the Hebrew Psalms, the identity of the “Salemite physician”, and the presence of followers of Ikhnaton’s teachings up to the time of Jesus.
Aldred, Cyril. Akhenaten King of Egypt. London, Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1988.
Bratton, Fred Gladstone. The First Heretic, The Life and Times of Ikhnaton the King. Boston: Beacon Press, 1961.
Breasted, James Henry. A History of Egypt, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905
Freud, Sigmund. Moses and Monotheism. Vintage Books, 1967.
Grant, Michael. The History of Ancient Israel. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984.
Lambdin, T. O. “Tell el—Amarna,” Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. Abingdon Press, 1962 .
Wilson, J. A. “Akh-en-Aton” and “Egypt,” Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. Abingdon Press, 1962.