ipl-logo

Hymn To Aten: A Comparative Analysis

629 Words3 Pages

There are many similarities with Psalm 104 and hymn to Aten. These similarities may be summarized as follows. First, both hymns were celebrating the wonders of creation. It offers praise for the provision of water and food for man and beast. On the other hand, it gives distinguishing between creatures who were active during daylight and those who are active at night. Second, these both hymns single out lions and relate his activities to human being. Examples, when lions go back to their den, men go out to work. Third’s these hymns both refer to ships in the sea and sea creatures. Therefore, these similarities extend not only to theme but also to the order in which various natural phenomena are discussed. The similarities between the two …show more content…

It is not only me but it seems widely assumed that there was outside influence happed. It was the Hymn to Aten that influenced the Hebrew scribes. It is possible the text existed in other forms and may have been transmitted to regions outside of Egypt.

My speculation maybe when Moses was a prominent Egyptian governor in the Nile delta and a disciple of Akhenaten. After the death of Akhenaten and the collapse of his religious reforms, Moses adopted the Israelites as ‘his people’ and led them out of Egypt. Hebrew monotheism grew out of a strange admixture of the worship of Aten and the worship of an old Canaanite. In conclusion, Psalm 104 and the Hymn to Aten contain striking similarities. Psalm 104 looks very much at home in the Hebrew psalter whereas the Hymn to Aten, along with the religion of Akhenaten, is an aberration. Is it possible that Akhenaten was influenced by a corpus of literature that was introduced into Egypt, and pharaoh was preserved for safekeeping by Canaanites and finally transmitted into an Israelite scribe years

Open Document