Category Archives: Atenism

The Great Hymn to Aten and Psalm 104

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Banquet scene, Huya's tomb, El-Amarna. Akhenat...

Image via Wiki Commons

There is no longer any doubt the Hebrew word “Adon” (Lord) is from the ancient Egyptian “Aten” or “Aton” as it is spelled by some scholars. The name “Aten” also closely resmbles the Hebrew word “Adonai” which means “my Lord” - the root being “Adon.”

Many have pointed out the numerous similarities between the Hebrew or Aramaic hymn Psalm 104 and the Great Hymn to Aten composed by Akhenaten. Psalm 104 is attributed to the great Prophet Moses, who has also been identified as none other than Akhenaten (Akhnaten) himself.

While the sun is used as a symbol to represent God in many cultures, Aten is neither the sun nor is He the “sun god” as some have erroneously suggested.

The Scriptures use the symbol of the sun as representing God. Notice how the Psalmist describes the attributes of God:

“Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain. Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters. Who maketh the clouds his chariot; Who walketh on the wings of the wind; Who maketh winds his messengers; flames of fire his ministers (Psalm 104:2,3)

It should be noted that the sun itself was not worshipped by the faithful monotheistic Egyptians or Hebrews, but it was served as a ruling deity by the polytheists among other ancient Egyptians.

A Hymn of Praise

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An illustration from the Encyclopaedia Biblica...

Illustration from the Encyclopaedia Biblica

A Hymn of Praise to Aten* when he rises like a great falcon in the heights of the Two Horizons. Homage to you, Aten, Beautiful One of every day! You shoot up at sunrise without fail - how many are your works, O Great Creator. Your radiance is in your face, and as far as bright copper metal it does not resemble your splendours.

Self-existent One, you moulded your members into physical forms; giving birth, but he was not born; One by himself by reason of his power or abilities, Traverser of Eternity, He who is over the ways of millions of years, maintaining his Divine Form.

As are the beauties of the celestial regions even so are your beauties. More brilliant is your complexion than that of heaven. You sail across the heavens, all faces look at you as you go, though you yourself are hidden from their eyes.

You manifest the symbol of your power at break of day in beams of light, strong is your Divine Boat under your majesty. In a little day you journey over a road of millions and hundreds of thousands of minutes. When your day passes, you set.

The hours of the night likewise you make to fulfil themselves. No interruption takes place in your toil. All eyes direct their gaze upon you, they cease not to do so. You quickly rise up early in the morning, your sparkling rays flash in the eyes.

Praise be to you, O Aten of the day, Creator of mortals and Creator of their life. Praise be to you!
You are like a Great Hawk whose feathers are many-coloured, you, O Creator, who raise yourself up from non-existence! He exists by his own power, he was not born, he who dwells in the heights. Humankind cries out joyfully at his rising and at his setting likewise. He is the fashioner of what the ground produces, conqueror of the Two Lands, from the great one to the little one.

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One God, like whom there is no other

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O how many are the things which thou hast made!

They are hidden from the face, O thou

One God, like whom there is no other. Thou didst create the earth by thy heart (or will), thou alone existing, men and women, cattle, beasts of every kind that are upon the earth, and that move upon feet (or legs), all the creatures that are in the sky and that fly with their wings, [and] the deserts of Syria and Kesh (Nubia), and the Land of Egypt.
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Every creature skips towards thee

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Every creature that thou hast made skippeth towards thee, thy honoured son [rejoiceth], his heart is glad, O thou Living Aten, who [appearest] in heaven every day. He hath brought forth his honoured son, UA-EN-RA, like his own form, never ceasing so to do. The son of Ra supporteth his beauties…

[His son says:]

I am thy son, satisfying thee, exalting thy name. Thy strength [and] thy power are established in my heart. Thou art the Living Disk, eternity is thine emanation. Thou hast made the heavens to be remote so that thou mightest shine therein and gaze upon everything that thou hast made. Thou thyself art Alone, but there are millions of [powers of] life in thee to make them (i.e., thy creatures) live. Breath of life is it to [their] nostrils to see thy beams. Buds burst into flower (?), [and] the plants which grow on the waste lands send up shoots at thy rising; they drink themselves drunk before thy face. All the beasts frisk about on their feet; all the feathered fowl rise up from their nests and flap their wings with joy, and circle round in praise of the Living Aten. . . .

Translation by E. A. Wallis Budge.