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The name Adonai, translated "Lord" (only the
"L" capitalized), occurs approximately 300 times in the Old
Testament. It's interesting to note that it is almost always used in the
plural possessive
form meaning "My Lords". When the plural is formed using a singular
possessive ending (“my Lords”), it always refers to God, and occurs
over 300 times in the Tanakh in this form. The Masoretes ensured that the
sacred Name of the LORD YHVH would not be taken in vain by putting the vowel
marks for Adonai under the letters
in the running text.
Answer for yourself: Have you ever wondered why a "monotheistic" religion like Judaism would express the concept of its God in the plural tense? It stands to reason that it should be expressed in the "singular" tense but that is not what we find. Before I give you the real reason first understand that Judaism teaches us that the plural form Adonai, like the plural form Elohim, is regularly used with singular verbs and modifiers, so it is best to construe the Name as an “emphatic plural” or “plural of majesty.” Well that sounds like it could be right but I will share with you something in a second that will make a lot more sense as to why the name of God is expressed in the "plural" tense.
The word "Adonai" is used in Judaism as a spoken substitute for the ineffable (Incapable of being expressed; indescribable or unutterable) name of God. The name "Lord" or "Adonai" signifies ownership or mastership and indicates the truth that God is the owner of each member of the human family, and that He consequently claims the unrestricted obedience of all. This Hebrew word "Adonai", meaning "my lord, my master", comes from "adon" which also means "lord, master". "Adon", the basic form for the word "Adonai" is a title variously used to refer to men, angels, and to the true God of Israel, meaning “lord, master, owner.” It is derived from the Ugaritic "adn" meaning "lord" or "father" and the Akkadian "adannu", "mighty." In the Tanakh, the word "Adon" can, as I mentioned above, refer to men and angels as well as to the LORD God of Israel (e.g., Exodus 34:23). The reference to "angels" is very important as we shall see because it connects with the idea of the "neteru".
Answer for yourself: Why is this connection between "angels" and "God" as expressed as "Adon" so important? Well you will have to wait a second to find out.
From Hellenistic times onward "Adonai" was used verbally to replace the written Yahweh. When the tetragrammaton (YHVH) appears in the Biblical text, it is usual to read it out loud either as Adonai or as Ha-Shem ("The Name"). "Jehovah" is one of the English renderings of the Hebrew YHVH (illustrated below, note that Hebrew reads right to left), a Name of God revealed to the early Hebrews, long before there were any "Israelites".
Answer for yourself: Did I say "before" there were Israelites? Yes I did and we know this for sure today.
The
name and word "YHVH" was, after
about 300 B.C.E., held in such high regard by Jews, in accordance with a
"take no chances" interpretation of The Third Commandment to not use
the Name of God in vain, that it was not spoken at all. The only exception was
the high priest on The Day Of Atonement when he entered into the Most Holy
Place of the Temple. This practice was carried over into The Septuagint (the
Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament which was done
by Greek-speaking Hebrew scholars...the Essenes of Alexandria, Egypt) where the
YHVH was translated as the Greek
word "Kurios" i.e. Lord. This was further carried
into modern times where English-language Bibles now commonly translate the YHVH
as all-capitals LORD. One of the major exceptions was the American Standard
Version (ASV) of 1901 that uses "Jehovah" when translating the
YHVH. Also, whenever YHVH occurred in the Scriptures, the Jewish people
pronounced it, as is still done today, "Adonai" (i.e.
"Lord"), thus replacing the YHVH with Adonai.
Thus we see that the Hebrew Spoken Name for God is Adhonai. In writing it is YHVH, yet this tetragrammaton is always pronounced as Adhonai. Now we can better understand why the Masoretes ensured that the sacred Name of the LORD, "YHVH", would not be taken in vain accidentally by putting the vowel marks for Adonai under the letters in the running text. They did this to remind the reader to pronounce Adonai regardless of the consonants in the text. Let us not forget, please, that I mentioned earlier that the word "Adonai" is plural.
Answer for yourself: Why is this "plural"? What is this to teach us? Have we understood correctly why this monotheistic religion, Judaism, has for the biggest name for God a "plural" concept instead of a "singular" concept? In order to understand this we have to come to a proper understanding of the "neteru" which we shall do momentarily.
Now "Adonai" is the plural of Adhon, which in Greek translates as Adonis with the usual meaning of 'The Lord'.
Answer for yourself: It is possible to find the name "YHVH" in Ancient Egypt and it is possible that the Hebrews and Israelites obtained their understanding of God and His "names" in Egypt and only "borrowed" them and grafted them onto their own understandings of God following the Exodus? Could this reason revolve around the Egyptian "neteru"? Yes, it does, as I will show you.
In Egyptian, "Adhon means Aten".
Answer for yourself: What is meant by "Aten" and just Whom is "Aten"?
Our study begins with the fact that "Aten" is the name for the God of the supposed
Heretic King Akhenaten, one of the Hebrew Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty in
Ancient Egypt. I learned long ago that the word
"heresy" only meant "another opinion"; not necessarily a
"wrong" opinion. But few understand this when
they hear or read the word and
unfortunately it carries a "negative" connotation today when in
reality it should not. Often, in fact, those deemed "heretics" by
Roman Christianity are those who possessed more Divine Truth than those who
classified them as "heretics" in the first place. This is the irony
of all ironies.
Of great importance for us now is that we recognize that 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 and the unlearned in the truth behind the Egyptian Religion.
A young pharaoh comes to power in Egypt in 1379 B.C.E. and it will change
the world and its effects are seen today the world over. Like his father he is
called Amenhotep/Amenophis (IV) (Amenhotep='Amon is satisfied') in the
beginning. Later on he changes his name to Akh-en-aten. He tries to impose a
new belief system on his Egyptian subjects, which is in contrast with the
traditions and habits of thousands of years. This new belief system is an
orthodox
monotheism, the first example of its kind in history.
Amenhotep's rule lasted 17 years (1379-1362 BC.). Following his death this new
belief system meets its end abruptly, and anything and everything that belonged
to this 'heretic' ruler is banned. Unlike the previous Egyptian religious
system, the religion imposed by Amenhotep IV, the Biblical Moses, was a
fairly simple one, albeit radically different in character. In place of a
pantheon of gods (neteru), God being separated into each of His attributes,
characters, and features, each with separate functions and forms, they were all
grouped under a single diety - to the exclusion and denial of all other dieties
and attributes of this One God. Now, instead of God being thought about as different
manifestations of the Divine He is understood as the "All in the
One"; a Divine Unity of all that exists. This god was
Aten or Aton, the Intelligent Life-giving Force or Energy of the Universe that
was symbolized by the the disk of the sun (the physical example of the Cosmic
Energy that exits behind all matter). Quite simply, Aten was the supreme God of
all creation, responsible for all existing life regardless of place or
culture. No longer would mankind be
divided over this "understanding of God" or "that understanding
of God"; now all mankind could come together under the One God of All.
Mankind could finally be "one
brotherhood". Furthermore, besides the very obvious
image of the sun, Atenism was basically a religion without any image for its God; it assigned no
mythological visual representation to Aten. Aten was never represented in the
form of either man or beast, simply the impersonal disk of the
sun.
Answer for yourself: Why do you think Moses writes the following when Ancient Egypt was full of representations of these "neteru" and "attributes" of the One God?
Exod 20:3-6 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (KJV)
Now Egypt was not without its images and these were not wrong mind you; but they had the potential to be divisive. There were hundreds of them and without a proper understanding of Egyptian Religion it is easy to jump to conclusions and say that Egyptian Religion was "polytheistic". But it was not. Bet that as it may these "neteru" did not always bring unity. We see the same principle in the New Testament addressed by Paul:
1 Cor 1:12-13 12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. 13 Is Christ divided? ...(KJV)
In a previous article I introduced the reader to a new concept: the Neteru as the "Attributes of God" as understood by the Ancient Egyptians. I shared a little about the neteru as the personifications of universal principles, functions and attributes of the One great and supreme God. The neteru who were called "gods" by some, were endorsed and incorporated into Christianity under a new name, "angels".
Now above I mentioned that in the Tanakh, the word "Adon", the root for "Adonai" can refer to men and angels.
Answer for yourself: Now then can you see that this concept of "Angels", accepted in both Judaism, Islam, and Christianity and "Neteru" are the same spiritual concept that reflects the Emanation of God and the Spiritual Hierarchy in the Godhead? I hope you can. This behooves us to understand the "neteru" if we ever hope to grasp the truth behind our Creator God let alone the name "Adonai" and "YHVH".
The ancient Egyptian word "neter," and its feminine form "netert," have been wrongly, and possible intentionally, translated as "god" and "goddess," by almost all scholars. There is no equivalent word in meaning, to the word "neter," in the English language. Honest translation should use the native word, if they cannot find its equivalent in their language. "Neteru" (plural of "neter/netert") are the Divine Principles and Functions that operate the Universe. They are all aspects and functions of the One Supreme God. The words "god" and "goddess" leave the impression that ancient Egyptians had a multitude of gods, which is absolutely untrue.
As such, an Egyptian neter/netert was not a god/goddess but the personification of a function/attribute of the One God. With this understanding comes likewise the understanding that the labeling of Egyptian religion as "pagan" or "idolatrous" betrays the complete lack of understanding of the Egyptian religion by the writer or would be scholar.
The Song of Moses in Deuteronomy (32:43), as found in a cave at Qumran, near the Dead Sea, mentions the word "gods" in the plural:
"Rejoice, 0 heavens, with him; and do obeisance to him, ye gods."
Answer for yourself: Does this reference by Moses to "gods" by one motivated by Monotheism seem strange? Does this principle possible indicate that the Essenes, who would find their home in Alexandria, Egypt, later were influenced not only by Egyptian religion but by the evolution and paganization of it in their day? The Essene answer will come later for we have not gotten that far yet but the answer you will find upon examination is "yes." I have devoted a whole website to this problem which you need to see for yourself if you want to know how these ancient Divine Revelation and truths and personifications of universal principles, functions and attributes of the one great and supreme God were later corrupted by these Essenes in Alexandria and Qumran where these concepts once expressed as "attributes" of the One True God were later personified as if "real people" and later applied to Jesus; thereby making him God.
The passage we find in the New Testament (Hebrews, 1:6),
Heb 1:6 6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. (KJV)
reveals to us the transformation of the idea of the neteru. The the word "gods" as understood by Moses in the Song of Songs pointed about above has been modified. These attributes of the One True God now have a life of their own and they become "angels." The word for "gods" is substituted with "angels of God". Again this concept of the "neteru" shows the hidden influence of Egyptian religion not only among Judaism but even the movement later termed Christianity and because of this fact it is imperative to understand Egyptian religion in its earliest form as well as the corruption of it down through history if one wants to correctly understand both Judaism and the later corruption of Judaism and the simple Divine Revelation under Christian hands and Gentile Christianity. The term "angels", according to the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, refers to those who "guard and guide and direct the natural forces of mind and body, which have in them the future of the whole man."
Angels, or neteru, are living energies. In the wisdom teaching of various cultures, these Causal Powers are called by many names including Agents, Angels, Conscious Thought Forms, Creative Energies, Devas, Fathers, Fountains, Gates, Governors, Hands of God, Lords, and Shining Ones.
Edwin C. Steinbrecher, an astrologer, metaphysician, and author of, The Inner Guide Meditation, says that angels are, "living energies that contain ideas and information, specific patterns of instinctual behavior and thought. They are the energies which somehow attach themselves, without our conscious awareness, to everything we meet in the world we call real. [They] are the life energies that pour out of each of us unceasingly night and day. . . influencing everyone in our lives and causing us to be influenced in return."
Just like the Egyptian's neteru, each "angel" has been given a name and specific function(s). And just as each neter of Egypt did not always take the same form and shape, so is the case for each angel. As your projection of them changes, so will their appearance. Sometimes, they are so blocked by the ego that you can only see their dim, hazy outlines. Many have seen angels change from a shining light to a form resembling a human being, then into a symbol (cube, triangle, etc.), and back to human features. Upon careful examination, the concept of the Egyptian neteru was accepted by ancient and modern societies, who merely chose new names to express Egyptian ideas. The neteru became angels.
The roots of monotheism in Egypt could be found in earlier times. For a significant period there have been in Egypt attempts among the priests of the Sun Temple at On (Heliopolis) to develop the thought and emphasize the moral aspect of an universal god. During the reign of Amenhotep III, the Biblical Solomon, (the father of Akh-en-Aten, Moses...I know the chronology in our inherited Bible is wrong...blame Ezra) worship of the sun-god seems to have achieved some degree of popularity. In so doing the very ancient name of the sun-god, Aten, Aton or Atum, has regained importance. Understand that "Aten" was an older name for God and that Moses, Akhenaten, did not originate it; in fact we can find Aten worship during the reign of his father Amenhotep III. Thus we see the young king Amenhotep IV found a ready movement based on Aten/Aton belief system already existing when he came to the throne. Although he was not the first to have initiated this belief system, he became a loyal follower. While all this was going on, Egypt became a world power, and the resultant imperialism found its reflection in religion as universalism and monotheism. This god had to go beyond the boundaries and spread its sovereignty to the occupied lands. Amenhotep IV has never denied his loyalty to the sun cult. Amenhotep IV worshipped the sun not as an object but as a symbol of the Divine Being whose energy is manifested as rays of light, and he described himself as "first prophet of Re-Horakhte, rejoicing in the Horizon, in his name 'Sunlight which is in Aton.' " The high priest of Aton was called 'greatest of seers'. Instead of the word god, Aton is used and god is differentiated clearly from the sun as a body, and the pharaoh has sanctified the sun's power to influence the world.
What is of great importance for us is the fact that this new understanding of God emphasized the personal nature of the relationship between the god and the pharaoh. No longer anthropomorphic the sun was depicted as a golden orb shedding rays of light on the king and his queen Nefertiti, each ray ending in a little hand proffering the sign of life, the ankh, to the royal pair. Amenhotep's influence was an energetic intervention. He has introduced for the first time the 'exclusion factor' which transformed the doctrine of a universal god into monotheism. In one of the hymns he says: "O, sole god, there's no other god beside you!" (An identical impression could be found in Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Islam). As a result of the reaction amongst the priests of Amun towards this new religion Amenhotep's belief system gradually became clear, coherent, unyielding and intolerant. This opposition has risen to such a level in the sixth year of Amenhotep's reign that he changed his name - a part of which was the name of god 'Amun/Amen' to Akh-en-Aten (Akh-en-aten='Aten is pleased' or 'It pleases Aten').
After changing his name he left the city of Thebes, and has established a new royal capital lower down the river, which he named 'Akhetaten' (Akhetaton/Akhetaten='The horizon of Aten/Aton') the ruins of which is Tell el-Amarna in our day. He closed all the temples of Amun, worshipping in those temples were banned, all the assets of the temples were confiscated. According to Akh-en-aten what is said about the other gods were all lies, and deception. Akh-en-aten accepted the energy of the sunlight as the source of life on earth, and worshipped the Energy behind this light as a symbol of his god's power. He boasted his happiness caused by the 'creation', and his Ma'at (honest and just) life. Despite all the richness and extravagance that could be seen in the art of the Amarna period there was no other representation or a personal image of the Sun-God Aten/Aton. Because Akh-en-aten did not allow the making of the idols or images of the Sun-God. The king said that the real god has no form, and kept his position until the end of his life. And a last point: There was an absolute silence about Osiris and the kingdom of the dead; there would no longer be any worship of the icon of the "godman".
Despite the fact that Akh-en-aten has banned all the other gods and insisted on his sun-god as the sole god to be worshipped, (in other words he was really a monotheist), he was accused first with anti-theism then with atheism. Egyptian pharaoh Akh-en-aten is the first registered atheist in the history of mankind. Although Akh-en-aton has worshipped the sole god, the sun-god Aten/Aton, he was accused by his son in law Tut-ankh-aton- who replaced him - with atheism, because he has rejected the official gods. Tut-ankh-aton's name was changed to Tut-ankh-amen as the belief system of Aten was abandoned following the death of Akh-en-aten. Since Akh-en-aten all those who have rejected or opposed the official gods (the multiplicity of the neteru) in Egypt, Greece or Rome were accused of atheism. Socrates, Anaxagoras, Diagoras, Protagoras and others thinking like them were amongst those who were accused of atheism. The idea of monotheism which had risen with Akh-en-aten had to stay in darkness for a long time. There are those scholars who find the origin of the sole god, the father god of the code books of Judaism, Christianity and Islam here, in Egypt, in the Aten belief system. The belief system Moses imposed on Hebrews must have been nothing but the Aton/Aten religion.
Answer for yourself: Could YHVH be the Aten and we not know it? We will get to that in a second.
Answer for yourself: So what have we seen? We have seen that Egypt understood this One God as "the All in the One".
The energies represented by the various neteru may function together in groups or as individuals. The interaction between the neteru are expressed in myth, which is to be understood as the dramatization of cosmic and natural laws. We discussed the role of myth in an earlier article. The union of certain pairs of complementary energies/attributes (masculine and feminine forms) resulted in a third energy/attribute.
Answer for yourself: What should this teach us? Simply when reading of Osiris and Horus and Isis as well as other "neteru" or "gods of Egypt" we are not speaking of "literal historical people" or actual "competitive gods of the One God" but Divine Concepts that operate in this One God that are very real that are later personified by the Egyptian Spiritual Masters to help mankind better understand and relate to his God and Creator. This is not an odd concept, and it was copied in the trinity of the Christian faith and few know it. This explains why the corridors of history and nation after nation express these same "Divine Concepts" under different names whom we mistakenly believe were "pagan gods" and ridicule them as "stupid" in fact when a proper understanding of this Divine expressed in these concepts are absolutely breathtaking when you see them as they were understood by the Ancients. Our blindness today is due to Rome who burned the worlds libraries and murdered millions to cover up the fact that their "literalization" of these "allegorical expressions of God" was a lie and a gross misrepresentation of truth. Rome basically "literalized" the Christ within, one of the neteru, as a historical "god-man" whom we know today as "Jesus" to give validity to their Emperor as the Roman "god-man". Today we don't know this when reading accounts of a "literal" and a "supposed historical Jesus" but in fact the "Christ" was always real...but not a historical person but rather "a Divine Spark" that lives in all people. God's Christ dwells within us all as does this God Whom we love and Whom Manifests Himself as Osiris, Isis, Horus, etc. When we speak of "resurrection from the dead" we speak of the reality of Osiris. It is but a picture expressing a holy and Divine concept which tragically down through history lost its true meaning and today as Christians we truly look through a glass darkly. Tragically the Bible speaks of what has happened to Christianity since loosing the true "gnosis" behind these concepts:
Isa 42:18-19 18 Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. 19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD's servant? (KJV)
Now you better understand why 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 recognize many manifestations of God as "gods/neteru", one may wonder why Aten caused such an upheaval and division. Akhenaten never said that the "neteru" did not exist; only that we are not to worship one to the exclusion of all others; it is better that we worship God in his totality and promote the unity not only of God but of mankind at the same time. In the first place, as I just showed you, the Egyptians did ONLY recognize one supreme being, who was generally known as 'Amen', 'Amun' or 'Amon'.
Answer for yourself: Did you notice the word "Amen"? Ever heard this before?
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, because there is only One as taught by Egypt, but the different characteristics of the One God each being given a different name along with its symbolic representation (archetype). Thus as a Potter the One God was known as Ptah, and so on.
Answer for yourself: So what is going on that Akhenaten enforced Aten worship upon the whole nation?
We have to go back to the time of the Hyksos Pharaohs to understand why there was such an upheaval when Amenhotep IV, the Biblical Moses, changed his name to Akhenaten and tried to eliminate the cult of Amen, along with its temples and the very strong Amen-Ra priesthood. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties were powerless to put down the Hyksos, tribal warlords with foreign support who seized control of the Delta, establishing the capital of Avaris and moving south. Despite their alien origins (Hyksos means "Princes of Foreign Lands") and foreign ties, the Hyksos assumed an Egyptian identity and ruled as pharaohs.
Important for us to note is the fact that the Hyksos were Semites who infiltrated Egypt around the 18th Century B.C.E., 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 B.C.E. The Hyksos had ruled Egypt for some two to three hundred years. The hostility between Egyptian and the Semite Hyksos never ceased in spite of intermarriage and their living together eventually in a precarious peace. Important again for us to note is the fact that in adopting the Egyptian God, the Semites added their own interpretation of the One Supreme Creator, and they retained their own language.
Answer for yourself: What does the Precession of the Equinoxes have to do with this and the changing the end of the Age?
Having arrived in Egypt during the Age of Aries these Hyksos Semites associated themselves with the Sign of Aries (lamb, ram) in the Zodiac because it was now to rule the Vernal Equinox. That being so they became known as the "the Shepherd Kings". On the other hand, Egyptians still remembered the old Age of Taurus (bull) and maintained customs that pertained to the sign of the bull, the Age of Taurus which was passing away and being replaced by the Age of Aries.
Answer for yourself: Why is this important?
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 of God" was being reinterpreted as the "The Lamb of God" since the Constellation of Aries was replacing the Constellation of Taurus at the Spring/Vernal Equinox.
To make matters worse long after the Hyksos had been driven out of Egypt, their people still maintained high places in the Egyptian Administration.
Answer for yourself: Can you think of one in the Bible?
Joseph became Chief Minister under the Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV. When his daughter Tiye married the next Pharaoh Amenhotep III (the King Solomon of the Bible), it is plain to see that the Egyptian hierarchy was horrified at the prospect of the hated Hyksos-Semites regaining the Royal Throne. And that is exactly what would happen as we find the line of Hebrew Pharaohs in Egypt during the 18th Dynasty. Queen Tiye was naturally afraid that her baby son, the future Amenhotep IV and Akhenaten (the Biblical Moses), 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 (neteru) they worshipped as well as their family name. Joseph's God, YHVH (a shepherd...Aries) 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 YHVH, the hidden name of God of the Hyksos invading Semites, finding equivalency with Adon, Adonai, and the Aten", was known as the same God of the both the Semite population of Egypt as well as the Egyptians far back as the 18th Dynasty and earlier, and more importantly to Akhenaten, thought by many scholars to have been Moses. Bearing all of this in mind, we can now see how YHVH was the hidden name behind Aten, the spoken Adhonai.
Answer for yourself: So is YHVH the Aten and is Aten YHVH? Are they the same? Did Akhenaten, Moses hide the "neteru" behind the idea of the Aten and use the Hyksos name for this same God (YHVH) since he was a Hebrew part-Semite? Yes.
Answer for yourself: Now can you understand why in Judaism we have the idea of "plurality" in the name for God? It carries the idea not of "majestic plurality" but rather the Divine Concept of the "neteru" as the Emanations of God who is the many All in the One. I have found the study of the "neteru" simply fantastic and I understand why Akhenaten had to do what he did but sadly lost behind all of this is the glorious knowledge of these "neteru" which helps paint the glorious picture of God like I have never beheld it before.
This Hyskos dominion was shaken by Thebes which established the Seventeenth Dynasty and, under Wadikheperre Kamose, Egypt laid siege to Avaris. When his successor Ahmosis expelled the Hyskos from Egypt in 1567 B.C.E. , the New Kingdom was born. Ahmosis founded the Eighteenth Dynasty (1567-1320 B.C.E.) which reigned over the first part of a prosperous and stable imperial period during which Pharaonic culture flowered and Egypt became a world power.
Lawrence Gardner states: "It was upon the mountain at Sinai that Jehovah first announced his presence to Moses. Being an Aten supporter, Moses asked this new lord and master who he was, and the reply was "I am that I am", which in phonetic Hebrew became 'Jehovah'. However, for the longest time afterwards, the Israelites were not allowed to utter the name 'Jehovah' - with the exception of the High Priest who was allowed to whisper the name in private once a year. The problem was that prayers were supposed to be said to this new godhead".
Answer for yourself: But how would this God know the prayers were said to him if his name was not mentioned?
The Israelites knew not this Jehovah as well as Moses; for them it appears that they were confused, for after all the concept of the "neteru" is vast and problematic to one who does not have the proper "keys" for its understanding and interpretation. This is evident today when would be scholars interpret the great Egyptian Religion as "polytheistic". Lacking this the Israelites presumed he must be the equivalent of the great State-god of Egypt (Amun, Amon, Amen). It was decided, therefore, to add the name of that State-god to all prayers thereafter, and the name of that god was "Amen". To this day, the name of "Amen" is still recited at the end of prayers. Even the well-known Christian Lord's Prayer (as given in the Gospel of Matthew) was transposed from an Egyptian original which began, "Amen, Amen, who art in heaven..."
As for the famous Ten Commandments (said to have been conveyed to Moses by God upon the mountain), these too are of Egyptian origin and they derive directly from Spell Number 125 in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. They were not new codes of conduct invented for the Israelites, but were simply newly stated versions of the ritual confessions of the Pharaohs. For example, citing the 42 Negative Confessions, the confession "I have not killed" was translated to the decree "Thou shalt not kill"; "I have not stolen" became "Thou shalt not steal"; "I have not told lies" became "Thou shalt not bear false witness"; and so on.
Not only were the Ten Commandments drawn from Egyptian ritual, but so too were the Psalms reworked from Egyptian hymns (though they are attributed to King David, Thutmose III). Even the Old Testament Book of Proverbs - the so-called 'wise words of Solomon' - was translated almost verbatim into Hebrew from the writings of an Egyptian sage called Amenemope. These are now held at the British Museum, and verse after verse of the Book of Proverbs can be attributed to this Egyptian original. It has now been discovered that even the writings of Amenemope were extracted from a far older work called The Wisdom of Ptah-hotep, which comes from more than 2,000 years before the time of Solomon."
Answer for yourself: Can you begin to see the importance of Egypt in our Judeo-Christian heritage? Then if any of these earliest understandings of God have been purposefully or even accidentally changed and new replacement religious dogmas and doctrines have taken their place then can you grasp the severity of the nature of the problems lurking behind our inherited Roman "literalistic" Christianity which rejected their Jewish Roots and ultimately the Egyptian Religion on which it was built? Time to study and study hard before we die as Christian idolators and blasphemers and never know it because we inherited an anti-Jewish religion to which we never verified for ourselves that what we are told to believe for our "salvation" is indeed the Ancient Divine Truths held sacred by mankind since the beginning of time and up until the rise of the mighty Roman antisemitic Empire and its Orthodox Christianity.
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