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Monotheism vs polytheism essay
Differences of the monotheistic religion
How did religion affect Egyptian culture
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Pharaoh Akhenaten’s conception of God differs from the traditional Egyptian religion because he went in and tried to change the belief from polytheistic to monotheistic. Polytheism is known as having many gods and monotheism is having only one God. The Egyptians believed in the afterlife in that even though you are physically gone, your spirit is off to the next best world.
Monarchs, who were known as Pharaohs, ruled the Egyptians and they were the top ruler during that time. People looked up to the Pharaohs as both man and God and would kneel before them if they were asked. Basically, the Egyptians were at the Pharaoh’s beckon call. The only thing higher than a Pharaoh would be a God. When Pharaoh Akhenaten came into the Egyptians world,
Egypt has had many rulers among the eras, men were the only ones to rule. Not until the great Hatshepsut came into power, shortly after the passing of her father the throne was given to her young brother, he was too young to rule so Hatshepsut married her half brother and proclaimed herself as pharaoh. She was a pharaoh for two decades, and during her reign she ordered multiple buildings of projects and art work of herself.
In New Kingdom Egypt, in the 14th Century BCE, one man would attempt to force a change, a revolution, on a people that had remained unchanged and unchanging for 2000 years. This man, the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, promoted monotheism primarily because of religious intentions and not for political or personal gain. He selected one God, Aten, and it was this deity that was the center of attention during Amenhotep’s reign. Amenhotep IV, who would later take the name Akhenaten, would lead a controversial reign which would result in failure. He would eventually be deemed the “heretic king” (Assmann 149), but what was it that earned him this title? Was Amenhotep IV truly a “heretic king?”
Ancient Egypt was a single tightly organized state for much of its history (Centanni, n.d.). In all its phases, the Egyptian government was led by the pharaoh. The pharaoh was held to be descended from gods, with the power to assure success and control the rituals that assured the flow of the Nile and the fertility derived from irrigation. Wanting gods to favor Egypt, the entire population of people did not hesitate to carry out laws that the pharaoh placed upon them. Egypt’s pharaohs claimed additional power and authority as actual incarnations of the gods
Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions shared two key similarities: polytheism and priestly authority. The religions in Mesopotamia and Egypt were both polytheistic. Their religions were polytheistic because Mesopotamians and Egyptians could not explain many things in that occurred in their lives. Therefore, they assumed that there are different gods for everything. This means that the religion had many gods for different things. In Egypt and Mesopotamia, priests were part of the upper class and were very important in the daily lives of civilians. Priests were part of the upper class because they were thought to have the ability to communicate with the gods. In Mesopotamia, the priests held the highest authority in the religious structure. Egyptian priests were not as powerful in government as Mesopotamian priests were, but they still had significant power. Egypt’s highest religious and military leader was encapsulated in the position of pharaoh. The pharaoh was at the top of all social classes and was considered to be a god-like figure.
Egyptian religion is polytheistic. The gods are present in the form of elements of life – natural forces and human condition. Greek religion is also polytheistic. Like Egypt, the Greek gods exist to represent different aspects of life, but they also play an active social role in the people’s lives. In Greek mythology, the gods have feelings and flaws as the normal people do. Greek Gods have even had children and committed adultery with people. The Egyptian gods interact more with each other than with the people. They interact with the people more on a supernatural level. Osiris, the Egyptian god of agriculture and afterlife, judges people when they die. Amon, the king of gods, is hidden inside the ruler (This “king of gods” title was not always so as the popularity of Aton, the sun-disk rose through the reformation of Pharaoh Akhenaton in 1369-1353 BC). Hebrew religion, being monotheistic, had only one all-powerful god. Instead of being believed by the people to be somewhere in the world, the Hebrew god was completely separated from the physical universe. Abraham in Canaan (about 1800 BC) is the first known practicer of monotheism. As for monotheistic resemblance in other cultures, the Greek god Zeus is seen as a leader of the other gods, but not independent of them. Akhenaton’s short-lived reform of Egyptian religion reveres Aton as the source of all life. This is the earliest religious expression of a belief in a sole god of the universe. Akhenaton’s challenge to the power of the priests did not last beyond his own lifetime.
The Egyptians thought that there was one god that ruled over a different part of their life. For example, in Document 5 it shows a picture of, “An Egyptian carving showing the Pharaoh Seti making an offering to Osiris, the god of death, afterlife, and resurrection.” This shows that the Egyptians believed in multiple gods because Osiris was just seem as the god of death, afterlife, and resurrection. They believed in many different gods serving many different purposes and “...the Egyptians do not all worship the same gods, excepting Isis and and Osiris, the latter of whom they say is the Grecian Bacchus.” (Document 7) These multiple gods that were regarded as the ruler of various things were not even believed in by all of Egypt. There were roughly two thousand gods worshiped in Egypt just like the many gods of China. Historians agree that the Chinese believed, much like the Egyptians, that there were many gods, each with their own jobs and responsibilities. Their primary religion was Daoism. Daoism was a philosophy/popular religion that advocates simplicity and understanding of the world of nature, founded by the legendary figure Laozi. Zhuangzi was a Chinese philosopher who spelled out the teachings of Daoism. He told of the many gods associated of Daoism. China also implemented the “Mandate of Heaven” which was a belief Chinese emperors held control over the divine if they ruled morally. This gave emperors
Similar to Byzantium and Rome, in Egyptian society, the King was the most powerful figure, and everyone else was seen as lesser beings. Unlike Byzantium and Rome, Egypt had a king or pharaoh whereas Byzantium and Rome had an emperor.
In the glorious Eighteenth Dynasty, when Egypt became for the first time a world power, a young Pharaoh ascended the throne about 1375 B.C., who first called himself Amenhotep (IV) like his father, but later on changed his name to Akhenaten (1370-1358 B.C.). This king undertook to force upon his subjects a new religion, one contrary to their ancient traditions and to all their familiar habits. It was a strict monotheism, the first attempt of its kind in the history of the world, as far as we know; and religious intolerance, which was foreign to antiquity before this and for long after, was inevitably born with the belief in one god. But Amenhotep’s reign lasted only for seventeen years; very soon after his death in 1358 B.C. the new religion was swept away and the memory of the heretic king proscribed. From the ruins of his new capital, which he had built and dedicated to his god, and from the inscription in the rock tombs belonging to it, we derive the little knowledge we possess of him.1
Akhenaten wanted to build new temples, statues, monuments, and artifacts to establish that Akhenaten worshipped Aten the sun god. Meanwhile, statues of old gods were destroyed. Therefore, even statues of former pharaohs, including even those of Akhenaten’s own father were ordered to be destroyed (Jacobs, page 6). Akhenaten gave orders to destroy and ban all monuments that represented any other Gods besides the God of Aten, the one and only God for Akhenaten. Amenhotep IV built temples, royal workshops, buildings, and religious centers for his people to worship the god Aten in Akhetaten. “Akhenaten’s reign, he changed the long form of the god’s name so that, in essence, the Aten became ‘not just the supreme god but the only god.’” (Jarus) Normal citizens who did not have any power in Egypt were forced to pray directly to Akhenaten, instead of Aten. It was a rule that Amenhotep established because it was a border line between the people and the sun god Aten. A few Egyptians appeared to have added the word “Aten” to their name in honor of the god (Roberts, page 41). The changes that Akhenaten enforced upon all Egyptians was getting out of control, due to the fact that after thousands of years in believing in multiple gods, he forced a change within the beliefs of his people, to believe in the God
Akhenaten was a major change maker to Egypt. He forgot 2,000 years of Egyptian history overnight. He made all of Egypt worship one god, Aten the sun god. The royal family only worshiped Aten the common people worshiped the royal family. Akhenaten was not strictly monotheistic compared to the Israelites. In inscriptions they mention solar gods and other abstract ideas of Akhenaten’s religion.
Egyptians worshiped many gods and goddesses. Some of the gods they worshiped were Ra the sun god, Isis the god of nature and magic, Horus the god of war and Osiris the god of the dead. The act of worshiping many gods is called polytheism. The Egyptians had a god for almost everything.
In conclusion, Ancient Egypt has a very complex religion and beliefs that would be considered bizarre in many parts of the world. They believed in many gods, some took part in the creation of the universe. Others brought the flood every year, offered protection and took care of people after they died. The ancient Egyptians thought that it was important to recognize and worship the gods because they represented the peace and harmony across the land.
As king, the pharaoh had many duties that were civic and religious. The people saw him as the living Horus and the son of Ra. They believed only pharaoh could sacrifice to the gods and only the pharaoh could appoint the priests to serve the gods in his place. The people believed that he became Osiris after death and would continue to help his people in the afterlife. Pharaoh was the commander-in-chief of the army and the highest judge in the land. The people saw the pharaoh as essential for keeping their lives in balance and keeping harmony in Egypt. His rule was absolute.
Religion was very important to the ancient Egyptians the believed in many gods, meaning they were polytheistic.
Ancient Egypt ruling started with the Pharaohs which was between the periods of 3150 B.C to 30 B.C. The Pharaohs were known as the God Kings. The Pharaohs were dynasties, they ruled all the way to the Ptolemaic Period which ended exactly in 30 B.C. There were 31 dynasties of Pharaohs, however some rulers ran different areas of Egypt at the same time. The first Pharaoh was Narmer or well known as Menes, the last Pharaoh ruler was Cleopatra. There was the Native Pharaoh 's whose ruling ended in 343 B.C. and the Greek Pharaohs whose ruling ended in 30 B.C. There are 10 symbols to represent a Pharaoh or attire the Pharaoh 's wore which was the double crown, blue crown, Atef crown, Nemes headdress, crook, frail, cartouche, serekh.