Post by Malcolm on Jun 24, 2013 17:20:18 GMT -5
The Hebrew Spoken Name for God is Adhonai. In writing it is YWYH, yet this tetragrammaton is always pronounced as Adhonai. It is the plural of Adhon, which in Greek translates as Adonis with the usual meaning of 'The Lord'.
In Egyptian, Adhon means Aten, the God of the Heretic King Akhenaten.
There is a general misconception that those who were faithful to Aten worshipped the Sun. This is utter nonsense, yet easily swallowed by the gullible. Judaism has other names for God, in particular Eli, or in the plural Elohim (like Adhonai). Since Hebrew like Egyptian is a consonantal language, we cannot be sure how the vowels were pronounced. In Hebrew, the spellings for Eli and Alah are almost identical, so it is quite easy to understand whence the Islamic name of Allah originates.
In a country which seemed to recognise many gods, one may wonder why Aten caused such an upheaval and division. In the first place, the Egyptians did only recognise one supreme being, who was generally known as 'Amen', 'Amun' or 'Amon'. With no written vowels we can only be reasonably sure that it was 'Amen' for this is the pronunciation still used at the end of prayers. The multiple names for God in Ancient Egypt arises not from there being many Gods, but the different characteristics of the One God each being given a different name. Thus as a Potter he was known as Ptah, and so on.
We have to go back to the time of the Hyksos Pharaohs to understand why there was such an upheaval when Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten and tried to eliminate the cult of Amen, along with its temples and priesthood. The Hyksos were Semites who infiltrated Egypt around the 18th Century BCE, and eventually took over as rulers. They were eventually driven out of Egypt by Ahmose I, who founded the New Kingdom and 18th Dynasty in 1570 BCE. The Hyksos had ruled Egypt for some two to three hundred years, just like the Roman control of Britain, and the Normans a thousand years later.
The hostility between Egyptian and the Semite Hyksos must have been much the same as we know existed between Saxons and Normans. Even when Norman kings had ruled England and Wales for two centuries, the language of the ruling classes was still French. In time it was difficult to distinguish between those of Celtic, Roman, Angle, Saxon, Viking or French origin. This final blend of the British race did at least have one common factor. They all converted to Christianity.
In Egypt there were two vital differences. In adopting the Egyptian God, the Semites added their own interpretation of the One Supreme Creator, and they retained their own language. Having arrived in Egypt during the Age of Aries they associated themselves with that sign, becoming known as the Shepherd Kings. On the other hand, Egyptians still remembered the old Age of Taurus and maintained customs that pertained to the sign of the bull. This was the reason that Moses became so enraged when he saw some of his flock making graven images of The Calf of God, for by then The Son was seen as The Lamb of God.
Long after the Hyksos had been driven out of Egypt, their people still maintained high places in the Egyptian Administration. Joseph became Chief Minister under the Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV. When his daughter Tiye married the next Pharaoh Amenhotep III (King Solomon), it is plain to see that the Egyptian hierarchy was horrified at the prospect of the Semites regaining the Royal Throne. Queen Tiye was naturally afraid that her baby son, the future Amenhotep IV and Akhenaten, would be in danger. We do know that he was hidden away, for there is no record of him in the Egyptian Royal family, until he suddenly emerges as a young man.
Joseph's sarcophagus, coffins and funerary furniture bear eleven different versions of his godly name. Just as a Christian name may be derived from biblical names, and Muslim from the Prophet's family, the Egyptians bore the name of the god they worshipped as well as their family name. Joseph's God, YHWH was a problem for the Egyptian funerary scribes, and his Mummy is now known as 'Yuya'. The name given Joseph by the Pharaoh was Zaphnath Paaneah (Book of Jasher and Genesis 41:45). He would have been better known as Yu-Zaph, or Joseph. What is really important though, is that YHWH was known as a God of the Semite population of Egypt as far back as the 18th Dynasty, and more importantly to Akhenaten, thought by many scholars to have been Moses.
Bearing all of this in mind, we can now see how YHWH was the hidden name behind Aten, the spoken Adhonai.
In Egyptian, Adhon means Aten, the God of the Heretic King Akhenaten.
There is a general misconception that those who were faithful to Aten worshipped the Sun. This is utter nonsense, yet easily swallowed by the gullible. Judaism has other names for God, in particular Eli, or in the plural Elohim (like Adhonai). Since Hebrew like Egyptian is a consonantal language, we cannot be sure how the vowels were pronounced. In Hebrew, the spellings for Eli and Alah are almost identical, so it is quite easy to understand whence the Islamic name of Allah originates.
In a country which seemed to recognise many gods, one may wonder why Aten caused such an upheaval and division. In the first place, the Egyptians did only recognise one supreme being, who was generally known as 'Amen', 'Amun' or 'Amon'. With no written vowels we can only be reasonably sure that it was 'Amen' for this is the pronunciation still used at the end of prayers. The multiple names for God in Ancient Egypt arises not from there being many Gods, but the different characteristics of the One God each being given a different name. Thus as a Potter he was known as Ptah, and so on.
We have to go back to the time of the Hyksos Pharaohs to understand why there was such an upheaval when Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten and tried to eliminate the cult of Amen, along with its temples and priesthood. The Hyksos were Semites who infiltrated Egypt around the 18th Century BCE, and eventually took over as rulers. They were eventually driven out of Egypt by Ahmose I, who founded the New Kingdom and 18th Dynasty in 1570 BCE. The Hyksos had ruled Egypt for some two to three hundred years, just like the Roman control of Britain, and the Normans a thousand years later.
The hostility between Egyptian and the Semite Hyksos must have been much the same as we know existed between Saxons and Normans. Even when Norman kings had ruled England and Wales for two centuries, the language of the ruling classes was still French. In time it was difficult to distinguish between those of Celtic, Roman, Angle, Saxon, Viking or French origin. This final blend of the British race did at least have one common factor. They all converted to Christianity.
In Egypt there were two vital differences. In adopting the Egyptian God, the Semites added their own interpretation of the One Supreme Creator, and they retained their own language. Having arrived in Egypt during the Age of Aries they associated themselves with that sign, becoming known as the Shepherd Kings. On the other hand, Egyptians still remembered the old Age of Taurus and maintained customs that pertained to the sign of the bull. This was the reason that Moses became so enraged when he saw some of his flock making graven images of The Calf of God, for by then The Son was seen as The Lamb of God.
Long after the Hyksos had been driven out of Egypt, their people still maintained high places in the Egyptian Administration. Joseph became Chief Minister under the Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV. When his daughter Tiye married the next Pharaoh Amenhotep III (King Solomon), it is plain to see that the Egyptian hierarchy was horrified at the prospect of the Semites regaining the Royal Throne. Queen Tiye was naturally afraid that her baby son, the future Amenhotep IV and Akhenaten, would be in danger. We do know that he was hidden away, for there is no record of him in the Egyptian Royal family, until he suddenly emerges as a young man.
Joseph's sarcophagus, coffins and funerary furniture bear eleven different versions of his godly name. Just as a Christian name may be derived from biblical names, and Muslim from the Prophet's family, the Egyptians bore the name of the god they worshipped as well as their family name. Joseph's God, YHWH was a problem for the Egyptian funerary scribes, and his Mummy is now known as 'Yuya'. The name given Joseph by the Pharaoh was Zaphnath Paaneah (Book of Jasher and Genesis 41:45). He would have been better known as Yu-Zaph, or Joseph. What is really important though, is that YHWH was known as a God of the Semite population of Egypt as far back as the 18th Dynasty, and more importantly to Akhenaten, thought by many scholars to have been Moses.
Bearing all of this in mind, we can now see how YHWH was the hidden name behind Aten, the spoken Adhonai.
