Hebrew For "The House Of Truth"

Craig M. Lyons Ms.D., D.D., M.Div.


It has been said my many that Akhenaten is the second most controversial subject in Egyptian history, next to the Great Pyramid. It has also been said that Akhenaten was the "first monotheist" but this simply is hot true as we will come to see that Aten worship, the worship of the Creator as the Invisible Energy of the Cosmos, was known long before he was born. It is correct however that Akhenaten understood the "spiritual concept" of the neteru and it is important that the reader throughly undestand this concept before he goes on in this article. Originally known as Amenhotep IV, the pharaoh Akhenaten ("servant of the Aten") introduced{short description of image} radical new ideas into Egyptian life. He abandoned the worship of all of Egypt's traditional gods, who represented the forces of nature, and instead worshipped only Aten, the supreme force of light, which came to the world every day and gave it life through the disc of the Sun. Akhenaten's religion was repudiated by his successor (and possibly his son), Tuthankhamen, and later generations tried to erase all record of the heretical pharaoh by destroying his monuments throughout Egypt. As pharaoh, Amenhotep IV banished traditional gods such as Amun from public life and established a new religion based on the worship of a single god, Aten. He changed his name to Akhenaten ("servant of the Aten") and built a new capital city called Akhetaten ("Horizon of the Aten"), now known as Amarna. Aten worship and the city of Akhetaten were later abandoned by Tutankhamen who fell under the influence of the Thebian priesthood. Key to the correct understanding of Aten is the fact that the visible disc of the Sun called "Aten" was not so much a god as the medium through which the Cosmos' Energy or Sun's light comes to the world. It is this "Cosmic {short description of image}Energy" which is the core of all life. Under Akhenaten, however, Aten became the focus of Egyptian religion and represented the life-giving force of light and energy; the very "life of God". Aten bestowed the gift of life upon pharaoh, who in turn bestowed life upon his people. There were very many neteru in Egypt who represented the many aspects/attributes of the one Supreme. Aten was among this multitude of deities, and it was not a new idea which was introduced by Akhenaten. Aten does appear in a few texts from the time of the Twelfth Dynasty. It appeared frequently since the time of Tuthmose IV (1401-1391 B.C.E). Akhenaten exalted Aten over and above the others. Aten is the disk of the sun as physical manifestation of Re. The Aten was not a new invention of Akhenaten - rather, it was portrayed as a sun disc even in his father's time. So we find that the concept of the "Aten" as the "the Energy and life source of God" can be found to be identified with various pharaohs in previous times and it is improper to say or believe that is was the "invention" of Akhenaten as so many do today. In reality a proper understaning of "Aten" is simply just another expression of the "neteru" in summary fashion where God is the"Many or All in the One". Akhenaten is said to have written the very beautiful Great Hymn to the Aten, which has been compared to Psalm 104 and we will look at this a little later.

As a quick refresher was have seen up to now that just as 'Pharaoh' is never given a name by Old Testament scribes, so the Egyptian records understandably ascribe Egyptian names to the Israelites who entered their society, culture and religion. The Old Testament tells of Joseph becoming Pharaoh's right-hand man so to speak. He was known in Egypt as Yuya, the Vizier who served Ththmosis IV (c.1413-1405 BC) and his son Ahmenhotep III (c.1405-1367 BC) who we have seen is the Biblical Solomon. Yuya (Joseph) married Tuya, the daughter of the Priest of On (Hielopolis) and they had a son Aye and a daughter Tiye. It is Joseph's/Yuya's daughter that we have seen is so very important in tracing the Hebrew Pharoahs of Egypt. Ahmenhotep III, the Biblical Solomon married Tiye and their son first became Ahmenhotep IV whom history reveals under another name; namely Akhenaten, the Biblical Moses. Akhenaten was Moses, who when banished from Egypt on account of his worship of the Aten in defiance of the priests of Amon, fled to Sinai, taking with him the royal sceptre in the form of a brass serpent, symbol of Pharaonic authority. It was at Mount Sinai that he later received the Ten Commandments - which bear a close resemblance to the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Meanwhile his son Tutankh-aten had succeeded Akhenaten as the Pharaoh Tutankh-amun.

Now having also refreshed our understanding of the "neteru" and come to the correct understanding of the "neteru" we can say that Akhenaten glorified and worshipped one of the neteru above all the others; namely, the "Aten" which was for him the "composite" of all other "neteru". Akhenaten's worship of Aten as the sole god of creation which consisted of all other "neteru" was revolutionary. The stela of Wesi shows the worship of the god of the afterlife, Osiris, one of the many gods to whom Egyptians had{short description of image} prayed for centuries. The relief from the Great Palace at Amarna depicts Akhenaten's worship of Aten, the light within the sun's disk. Between these two different methods of worship of God we see that some elements remained the same and some changed dramatically under the influence of Akhenaten. But the basic concept remained the same; namely that from this God represented as "light" mankind received his very life and energy that sustained humanity hour by hour. For Akhenaten it was the Aten (symbolized by the Sun disk) that all life is brought forth; all life that is Eternal and Universal. The Aten is the Creative Force of all life. The Aten thus sends forth, as an emanation, symbolized by the light and rays of the Sun, His very life-giving essence which is trasmitted to all the earth and which animates all substances. It is the Aten who gives His breath and energy to all manifested life which are but other forms of "energy" and this "emanation from Father energy" is manifested in various levels of "life" throughout all of God's Creation. He would write of the Aten: "Thou are in the sky but thy rays bring life and vitality". This may be construed as meaning that the creative force of life, though it is beyond earth, through the medium of Aten's rays is conveyed to the air and thence to the earth (Savitri Devi, The Son of the Sun, 1956, preface). Understaning this concept it is easy to see how Akhenaten was "God-intoxicated", as Devi puts it. He perceived God in every manifestation of nature, the limitless sky, the green sea, the swaying palsm, the fish that leaped in the Nile river, in the very soil of the earth, in the very water vapors in the air, and of course in every cell of every living being; both plant, animal, and mammal. This "Cosmic Energy" of the Aten was all connected as different manifestations of this "First Cause" and could be described as different levels of manifested Creation and "God Consciousness"; mankind being the ultimate creation of this God, this Aten (ibid.). There was to Akhenaten a sole God as a radiating source of Divine power but also this God was not isolated from what He had created. God was "in everything" that there is. We read the same thing in the New Testament. Speaking of this "Karast/Christ", the very "Logos" or "Mind of God" we find:


Though we think of Akehanten as being "theistic", he was perhaps more of a "pantheist". In fact a proper reading of the Bible presents such a concept of the Divine. There was to him a sole God as a radiating source of Divine Power and Energy but also a God who was not isolated from what He had created. For Akehanten the beams of Aten, his light, carresed and lingered in all that was brought forth. The world "light" used by Akehenaten was not to be construed in the limited sense of physical property. It meant love and Spiritual Consciousness or a God Consciousness if all that surrounds you as well as all that is "within you". Thus this application of the word occurred centuries before Rome would "redefine" the word "Christ". Perhaps better than any Akehanten defined for all manking the very nature of this God we worship and clarified His being as the sum total of all Cosmic Energy; an all compassing Energy that operated in all facets with love, intelligence and design and which came to dwell and manifest within the highest of His creations....mankind. You could say that"in us He (God) lives and moves and has His being" and experiences His Creation through us!

Stepping back for a second as you can begin to see Akhenaten only glorified one of the neteru, namely "Aten", over and above all the other neteru (gods and goddessess and energies that comprised the Creator) but at the same time he wanted to challenge Amon and his establishment and the mighty Priesthood at Thebes. His vendetta with Amon was motivated as much by politics as by religion. Throughout Egypt, he ordered the name of Amon to be erased from the inscriptions of the temples. Akhenaten's reign extended eighteen years, much of it as co-regent. After he abdicated the throne, the worship of Amon was reinstated. The works of Akhenaten were destroyed. His name was deleted throughout the rest of Egyptian history. He was referred to as "the criminal", "the rebel" and "mos" which means "rightful person/heir".

It would be during this very important 18th Dynasty in Egypt that "Osiris Worship" would be at its zenith. At no other time in the history of Egypt was the "worship of the Godman" any more extensive. As Akhenaten saw it this was just wrong for althought there existed many "truths" in the worship of Osiris and the Spiritual Concepts asssociated with it he felt that Egypt was losing its way when its focus was more on the "Godman" than "God dwelling within man". The parallels to the worship of the "literalized Christ Jesus" is simply uncanny. That is why Bet Emet Ministires has spend so much time in recovering and presenting these truths for the interested reader for we are guilty of the same sin; worshipping a "creation" instead of the "Creator". The destruction of the early Christian and non-Christian understanding of the "Logos" and "the Christ within" where by the "Christ within" was exchanged by Rome for the "Christ without", being supposedly one person to the exclusion of all mankind, is the most sinister sin and rape of the human mind ever recorded in the history of this planet. The Biblical Moses, Akhenaten, saw the same thing being done with the Myth of Osiris which ironically is no different from the Myth of the Christ of Rome. If Moses were alive today we should expect him to close every church as he did every Egyptian temple which taught not the truth concerning this Divine Universal Architest and Cosmic Energy called "God" that consists in all things as the writer of Collosians describes above. As Moses sent every Priest home and deprived them of the monies taken from their "unknowing congregations" we should expect that those religious leaders who fail to study enough to see the deceptions of Rome would be also deprived of their ability to contine to mislead themselves and their flocks any longer. I have said for years that we don't need more "Jews for Jesus" but more "Christians for Moses/Akhenaten".

Sigmund Freud, the Jewish father of psychoanalysis, was interested in reading about Akhenaten and Moses. He later wrote a book called Moses and Monotheism. Many scholars are divided today as to the true identity of Akhenaten. Some see him as the Biblical Moses; others do not. Sigmund Freud argued that Moses was an Egyptian, a follower of Akhenaten, who later led the Jews out of Egypt. Freud also came to the conclusion that 'Moses" was itself an Egyptian name. Even though the Bible in Exodus, 2:10 tells us that Moses' royal mother, who adopted him, called him Moshe because, she said, "I drew him out of the water", Freud demonstrated that Moshe had a different meaning. In fact, the Hebrew word "m sh a", as a verb, can mean either "to draw"or "one who draws out". The name Moshui, is the one which means 'one who has been drawn out". It was then Freud's conclusion that the name of the Jewish leader was not of Hebrew origin, but comes from the Egyptian word, "mos", meaning a rightful person.

Later, Freud came very close to demonstrating that Akhenaten and Moses were one and the same person. In 1937 Imago published another article by Freud under the title 'If Moses was an Egyptian". Freud found great similarity between the new religion that Akhenaten had tried to impose on his country and the religious teaching ascribed to Moses. Sigmund Freud wrote: "The Jewish creed says: 'Schema Yisrael Adonai Elohenu Adonai Echod'" ('Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord thy God is one God'). The Hebrew letter "d" is equivalent to the Egyptian letter "t" and the Hebrew "e" becomes the Egyptian "o". Therefore this sentence from the Jewish creed could be translated: "Hear, 0 Israel, our God Aten is the only God." Akhenaten, as stated earlier, declared that Aten is the only God.

Answer for yourself: Is this just a coincidence?

Adonai in Hebrew means "my Lord". The last two letters "ai" of the word is a Hebrew pronoun meaning "my" or "mine" and signifying possession. "Adon" meaning Lord was correctly noted by Sigmund Freud, as the Hebrew word for the Egyptian "Aten". As the Egyptian "t" becomes "d" in Hebrew and the vowel "e" becomes an "o", so we see that Adon is the Hebrew equivalent of the Egyptian Aten. Thus Adon and Aten are one and the same.

Answer for yourself: Now you don't have to wonder why I connect Judaism with Egyptian religion; they are speaking of the same God who is the Invisible Architest and Orderer of all the Cosmos; the Cosmic Mind-Energy of the Universe which finds its being within all things, both visible and invisible.

The similarity between the religions of Moses and Akhenaten as raised in Sigmund Freud's book, Moses and Monotheism, has caused endless argument about this subject.

As shown elsewhere in earlier articles Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III, the Biblical Solomon, met and fell in love with Yuya's (Joseph's) daughter, Tiye. In order to inherit the throne, Amenhotep III married his half-sister Sitamun as was the custom of all Egyptian Pharaohs in a "matriarchal" society. He shortly thereafter married Tiye, the half-Egyptian (remeber the bloodline to Joseph and Israel and the Hebrews). To add insult to injury, he made Tiye rather than Sitamun, his Great Royal Wife (queen) which means so much when children and later inheritors to the throne of Egypt are born.

Amenhotep III's marital actions were irresponsible and must have created a virulent mood among many Egyptians let along the rival Priesthoods. Later, Tiye had a son, Tuthomose, who was educated and trained at Men-Nefer (Memphis) and who held the title of the High Priest of Ptah, as did most heirs-apparent during the 18th Dynasty, but then he disappeared suddenly from the scene. Moustafa Gadalls insinutates that there may could easily have been an imminent danger awaiting Tiye's sons. She was of mixed Egyptian-Israelite blood, and if her son succeeded to the throne, this would be regarded as forming a new dynasty of non-Egyptian, part-Israelite rulers over Egypt. (M. Gadalla, The Historical Deception: The Untold Story Of Egypt, p. 188-189). Her second son was born, probably in 1394 B.C.E., at the fortified frontier city of Zarw. He was named Amenhotep IV (later to be known as Akhenaten). Upon Akhenaten's birth, Tiye sent him by water to the safety of her Israelite relations at nearby Goshen as we are familar with in the traditional "Moses story". This event is echoed in the biblical story of Moses being found by a princess in the buirushes by the bank of the Nile. The imminent danger to Tiye's sons is echoed in the Talmud which provides a different reason for the attempt to kill Moses at birth. It was Moses specifically (not all other Hebrew children) who was to be murdered because he posed a threat to the throne of Egypt (Ibid.). The Bible gave the impression that Moses was the first-born in his family. We find out later that he already had an elder sister, Miriam, who was quietly watching him floating on the water. She approached the Pharaoh's daughter and offered: "Shall I fetch one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?" When the offer was accepted, the sister got her mother. The mother agreed to nurse her own baby in return for payment. Later, when the child grew older, she took him back to the Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her son. Then she, we are told, gave him the name Moses (Ibid., p. 189-190).

Now it is time to think a little. As we remember from our studies with Joseph (Yuya) when the Pharaoh appointed him as his vizier he gave him an Egyptian name to go with his new Egyptian identity.

Answer for yourself: Does it make sense for the royal mother of Moses to give her adopted Egyptian son a Hebrew name?

Answer for yourself: Should we expect the Egyptian royal mother to have sufficient, or any, knowledge of the Hebrew language to be able to choose a special Hebrew name for the child?

Answer for yourself: Does it not stand to reason that the biblical claim that the Pharaoh's daughter adopted the child is inherently improbable? Are you aware that in Egypt the customs of the time would not have allowed an unmarried princess to adopt a child? I was not either until I studied in detail about Egypt.

Answer for yourself: Do you remember the story of King Solomon, Amenhoptep III, and the two mothers fighting over a child and who was its "rightful mother"?

We now can see that the biblical story of two mothers fighting over the parenthood of a child who went to Solomon to resolve their dispute (I Kings 3:16-28) is uncanningly similar to the account of Moses growing up in the Pharaoh's palace, where he had "two mothers".

Answer for yourself: Is this just another in a long line of coincidences?

King Solomon, better known as Amenhotep III, would not have gotten involved in a dispute between two women, unless the dispute was in his household.

In either case of Akhenaten or Moses, we know very little of their early years beyond the fact that both had an extremely close relationship with their mother. Akhenaten, spent most of his youth in the Eastern Delta and at Heliopolis. In the Eastern Delta area he was influenced by Aten. At Onnu (Heliopolis), he was educated by the priests of Ra, the ancient Egyptian solar deity. Early historians stated that the biblical Moses spent his early youth at Onnu (Heliopolis).


There is no evidence that Akhenaten/Moses spent his early days at Men-Nefer (Memphis), where his father had his main residence at the time and where the heirs apparent were normally trained and educated with the sons of the nobles. When he was in his very early teens, Amenhotep IV was finally allowed to take up residence at Ta-Apet (Thebes). The Amonite priests and nobles of Egypt, the protectors of old traditions, regarded Akhenaten with contempt for his mixed race. It was not he who first rejected them, it was they, the Amonists, who refused to accept him as the legitimate heir to the throne (Ibid., p. 191).

When Amenhotep III's health began to deteriorate, Tiye's power increased correspondingly. In order to ensure her son's inheritance of the throne, she arranged for him to marry his half-sister, Nefertiti. She was the daughter of Amenhotep III by his sister, Sitamun, the legitimate heiress. Thus Nefertiti is recognized in the Bible as Miriam, Moses' sister. Tiye prompted her husband, Amenhotep III, to appoint Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) as his co-regent. Queen Tiye was definitely the power behind the throne, at the time which again speaks of the important role of Isis behind Osiris and should again be expected in a Matriarchal society. Her name, unlike that of earlier queens, was placed regularly in a cartouche, a distinction previously limited to the ruling monarch. Furthermore, she was represented as being of equivalent stature to the king, Amenhotep III (Ibid., p. 191).

As explained earlier, the biblical explanation of the name is incorrect. In Ancient Egyptian, this word, meaning a rightful person/heir, consists of two consonants, "m" and "s". If we take away the two vowels "o" and "e" from Moshe (the Jewish name for Moses) we are left with only two consonants, "m" and "sh". As the Hebrew letter "sh" is the equivalent of the Egyptian "s", one is able to conclude that the Hebrew word for "Moses" came from the Egyptian word. In both Hebrew and Egyptian, short vowels, although always pronounced, were never written.

As for the name Moses, the "s" at the end of the name is drawn from the Greek translation of the biblical name. "Mos" was part of many compound Egyptian names such as "Ptah-mos" and "Tuth-mos". We also find some examples of the word "mos" being used on its own as a personal pronoun and which means rightful person.

Answer for yourself: When did such a practice began? You got it. It was again during this 18th Dynasty.

Once Akhenaten was no longer on the throne, use of his royal names was forbidden, and he was referred to officially in later times as "The Fallen One of Akhetaten (Amarna)" and "The Rebel of Akhetaten". The Israelites may have called him "mos" to indicate that he was the legitimate son of Amenhotep III and the rightful heir to his father's throne; for he was their spiritual leader. That means that the Hebrews in Egypt were followers of Moses, the Biblical Akhenaten and worshipped the Aten. We see this same concept today in Judaism where unlike in Christianity where God is a man we find that for both Egypt and their children, the Israelites, God is an Invisible Incorpreal Entity and is ONE in Whom all things consist and exist. This sure sounds just like the Aten worship I described above.

Answer for yourself: Having seen the Egyptian source for the name of Moses are you then aware that many generations later and in a different country, the biblical editor, who may not have had any knowledge of Moses' original name, attempted to provide a Hebrew explanation instead of an Egyptian explanation for the name of Moses?

Answer for yourself: As we saw with Ezra who tried to "de-Egyptify" the Bible is it also possible that the later biblical editors were also trying to remove any possible link between Moses and his position as the Pharaoh of Egypt?

The Bible tells us that Moses has a brother called Aaron, a long time after Moses' birth.

Answer for yourself: Was Aaron a biological brother or a feeding brother? In the biblical era and even today, Bedouin mothers regularly nurse rich others' babies when they get hungry. The children of both mothers know each other as brothers and sisters. Thus, the woman who nursed Moses would have been called his mother. Her real son, Aaron, was simply what the Bedouins, call "a feeding brother" to Moses (Ibid., p. 192-193).


The hymn to Aten which is attributed to Akhenaten is a mirror image of Psalm 104. Below, are both versions for you to compare:

Hymn to the Aten

The cattle are content in their pasture, the trees and plants are green, the birds fly from their nests. Theirwings are raised in praise of your soul. The goats leap on their feet. All flying and fluttering things live when you shine for them. Likewise the boats race up and down the river, and every way is open, because you have appeared. The fish in the river leap before yourface. Your rays go to the depth of the sea.

Psalm 104

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and the herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth: and wine that maketh glad the heart of man and oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's 3 heart. The trees of the Lord are full of sap: the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted: where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house. The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.... So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both great and small beasts. There go the ships.

The similarity of sequence and of images in both compositions is so strikingly alike. As such, many believe that the earlier Egyptian hymn must have been known to the Hebrew writer (Ibid., p. 194).

Now let us look at some ironic parallels between Akhenaten and the Biblical Moses and try to understand how these could be again but "coincidences":

Answer for yourself: Are these but simple coincidences? Does it not appear to you that we are dealing with the same high officials who served Akhenaten at Amarna and then accompanied him to Sinai afterwards? Is Akhenaten the Biblical Moses?

Answer for yourself: Can these ironies be yet another confirmation that Moses and Akhenaten are one and the same? That is for the reader to determine as the evidence mounts.

Akhenaten's 18-year reign was mostly a co-regency. He reigned the first 12 years in conjunction with his father, Amenhotep III, the Biblical Solomon. It was very probable that the last few years of his reign was a coregency with his brother Semenkhkare. Akhenaten became a co-regent in or about the 28th year of Amenhotep III's reign. He would later transfer his residence to his new capital city, Tell el-Amarna, 200 miles north of Thebes. His reign had two groups of dated inscriptions. One related to the Thebes residence and the other one was related to the Amarna residence. From the start of the co-regency, with Amenhotep III, the Biblical Solomon, Amenhotep IV offended the Amonite priesthood by building temples to his God, the Aten, within the boundaries of the established Amon-Ra temples at Karnak. He also did not invite the traditional priests to any of the festivities. In the fifth year of his reign he changed his name to Akhen-aten in honor of the Aten. Because of the hostile climate that he created, Tiye, his powerful mother convinced both Akhenaten, and her husband, Amenhotep III, to leave Thebes and go to their new capital city at Tell el-Amarna [200 miles north of Thebes]. Amenhotep named his new city "Akhetaten" meaning "the city of the horizon of the Aten". The co-regency ended when his father died in Akhenaten's 12th year of his reign. The issue of the co-regency between Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten, was further reinforced by the discovery of his vizier's tomb in late 1989. The main points to be drawn from these findings are:

When the young Akhenaten became sole ruler after Amenhotep III died he shut down all non-Aten temples, stopped all financial support for them and sent the priests home. These actions made the Priests of Egypt extremely mad as you might expect. Try to imagine pastors today deprived of their tithe and you a good picture of what would happen.

Throughout his reign, Akhenaten relied completely on the army's support for protection. His new capital city was an armed camp with parades and processions of soldiers, infantry and chariotry in their heavy gear. This military climate is depicted in the tombs of the nobles, at Tell el-Amarna. The loyalty of the army, which was controlled by Aye (son of Yuya/Joseph), had kept Akhenaten in power, in the uneasy years that followed his coming to the throne, as sole ruler in his 12th year (Ibid.).

As a last resort or as a ploy, Akhenaten, in the 15th year of his reign was forced to install his brother, Semenkhkare, as his co-regent at TaApet (Thebes..the center for the Priesthood that opposed Akhenaten). This action only delayed the final outcome for Akhenaten and his "Aten centered" worship of God. As a sign of trouble between Akhenaten and Nefertiti, her official name Neferneferu-aten, meaning "beloved of Akhenaten", was given to Semenkhkare, upon his accession to the throne. Semenkhkare left Amarna for Ta-Apet (Thebes), where he reversed Akhenaten's hostile actions and began building a temple to Amon which delighted the priesthood as you might expect.

In the 17th year of his reign Akhenaten suddenly disappeared. At and about the same time, Semenkhkare died suddenly. This left a "power vacuum" and the co-regency of Akhenaten and Semenkhkare was succeeded by the young prince, Tutankhamun, the son of Akehanten (the Biblical Moses).

It is believed that Akhenaten may have been warned by his uncle, Aye, of a threat on his life. Many scholars believe that this is the reason why Akhenaten abdicated his throne and fled to Sinai with a small group of Aten followers. Improtant for us to note is that he took with him his symbol of Pharaonic authority, a staff topped by a brass serpent which we read about in the Old Testament which was later destroyed by Hezekiah.

Although Sinai was part of Egypt from the early days of Egyptian history, there was no established governing authority there. The sudden disappearance of Akhenaten is to be found in the biblical story of Moses when he escaped to Sinai, after he slew an Egyptian. The account of how Moses slew an Egyptian may have been mentioned in the Amarna Tablets. Among these Amarna Tablets is a letter, sent from Abd-Khiba, King of Jerusalem, to Akhenaten, in which Abd-Khiba accuses Akhenaten of not punishing some Hebrews who killed two Egyptian officials: "... the Khabiru (Hebrews) are seizing the towns of the king ... Turbazu has been slain in the very gate of Zilu (Zarw), yet the king holds back ... Yaptih-Hadad has been slain in the very gate of Zilu, yet the king holds back." It would appear that Akhenaten refused to take action again his "fellow" Hebrews.

Answer for yourself: Was letting the Israelites get away with two murders, the final blow to Akhenaten's reign?

It is important to take note of the fact that even though Akhenaten (the Biblical Moses) abdicated and fled from the scene, he was still regarded as the legitimate ruler and Pharaoh of Egypt. As long as he was alive, the Pharaoh was regarded as being the lawful ruler of his lands, even if he was weak and had no authority.

When the ten-year old Tutankhamen became the official Pharaoh, he was assigned and controlled by a guardian. This would be similar to any monarchy nowadays when the legal heir is of a minor age. As such, the rule of Akhenaten, his father, continued for four years and during this time the boy King was still called Tutankaten but that was shortly to change.

Four years later, in the 21st year of Akhenaten, the young boy king, under the influence of the Thebian Priesthood, abandoned the Aten (at least officially) and returned to be the son of Amon. It is at this time that he changed his name from Tutankh-aten to Tutankh-amen. In short this was reversing the religious reforms that had been put in place by his father. The Amon priesthood accepted this return to the more "traditional" faith and understanding of God in a crowning celebration. Only then did this son of Akhenaten, Tutankh-amen become the legitimate monarch in the eyes of man.At this point in time, the Aten lost its power in Egypt, and Akhenaten, who was still alive, was king no more (Ibid., p. 196-198).

Let us take just a second to reflect upon what we have seen up to now. The evidence keeps coming in that there is more than a casual connection between Akhenaten and the Biblical Moses of the Old Testament. But we are not through yet.

Late in 1989, the tomb of Aper-el, Akhenaten's vizier, was discovered almost intact in Saqqara.

Answer for yourself: Why is this name "Aper-el" so important?

The name Aper-el consists of two parts. The first part "Aper" corresponds to the Egyptian word for "Hebrew". The second part of the name "el" is the short form of "Elohim", which means "the Lord" in Hebrew. Similar names are known to have existed in Egypt at this time, but never in the case of high officials.

Answer for yourself: Was this "Aper-el" a worshipper of the Elohim?

The fact that Akhenaten's vizier was a worshipper of El confirms the strong bond between the king and the Israelites living in Egypt at the time. Such a bond is also evident in the many pieces of funerary items, which were found, in Aper-el's tomb. They included a box given to Aper-el by Amen hotep III and Queen Tiye, as well as Amenhotep III's cartouche.

Queen Nefertiti, the wife of Akhenaten, is described in the tomb of one of the officials of Akhenaten as the one who "unites her beauties and propitiates the Men with her pleasant voice and with her beautiful hands holding the sistra". Nefertiti means "the beautiful one has come". When Semenkhkare became coregent, Nefertiti disappeared mysteriously and some scholars suggested, without any evidence, that she must have died around that time. There is evidence that she moved to the north City of Amarna where Tutankhamen was also resident. Objects inscribed with the queen's name have been found at the residence in the city of Amarna. One can deduce that she may have disagreed with her husband, and that her views proved to be right after all. There is no evidence that she was buried in her royal tomb. There is conclusive evidence that Akhenaten had at least six daughters with Queen Nefertiti, in addition to Tutankhamen.

When Akhenaten abolished the worship of Isis among other deities, Nefertiti's image was used in place of that of the mother netert (goddess) on Amarna funerary objects. Nefertiti's image is to be found, in place of the image of Isis in the sarcophagus of Akhenaten.

Contrary to the general view, the name "Amarna" was not derived from a Moslim Arab tribe which settled in the area. No evidence exists to substantiate that.

Answer for yourself: Where does the name "Amarna" come from?

The name is, however, derived from the name in the second cartouche of Akhenaten's god, namely "Im-r-n". Amram, or Imran, was the name given in the Bible to Moses' father, and it is precisely the same name Akhenaten gave to his "father", the Aten.

Answer for yourself: Is this yet another confirmation that Moses and Akhenaten are one and the same?

The city was well-planned, with temples to Aten, residences for all classes, and tombs for the royal family and their high officials. The house of the high priest Panehesy was located prominently in the city. He was never buried in his assigned tomb. Now here comes a real shocker so set down!

Answer for yourself: Are you aware that in the Jewish Talmud this high priest of Akhenaten, Panehesy, is equated to the biblical Phinehas, who is likewise described as a priest? Are you aware that this same Jewish Talmud states that this Priest of Akhenaten, Panehesy, killed a man that is named "Jesus"? (A. Osman, Out of Egypt, p. 176). WOW!

Answer for yourself: Is the name "Joshua" and "Jesus" the same name? Yes.

Looking way back in time in Egypt then could this "Jesus" that the Talmud states was killed by the Priest (Panehesy/Phinehas) of Akhenaten (the Biblical Moses) have been the person known in the re-written Bible by the name of Joshua? Now we need to find out whom this "Joshua" really is historically and that is a study for another day. Sorry to keep you hanging but the killing of this "Joshua/Jesus" where he was pierced in the side and killed and hung on a tree at Sinai sure sounds remotely familiar to the later telling of the "Jesus Story" we all grew up with. This is all the more important taking into account that there is not unforged or undeniable evidence for a "Jesus" in the time the New Testament says he lived.

Answer for yourself: Could, in the absence of any unforged evidence for a historical first century Jesus, and taking into account all the forgeries and plagarism of the New Testament surrounding its presentation of this Jesus, the historical "Jesus Story" be simply a retelling of the very important death of an ancient "Jesus/Joshua" Savior from the time of Moses? Find the answer to this should keep you up at night for weeks to come and in so doing you come to find out the origin for the "historical" Jesus once and for all.

Answer for yourself: How can Talmud speak of this Jesus being killed by an Egyptian High Priest of Akhenaten? Who was this "Jesus" or "Joshua" that lived in the time of Akhenaten/Moses?

I don't want to let the "rabbit out of the hat" but let me say that Pinehasy/Phineas turns up in various scriptures. In the Old Testament he appears several times:

We have seen that the Talmudic rabbis later claimed that “Pinhas killed Jesus” and we also know that the Qumran Essenes identified this same "Pinhas" as “the Wicked Priest” who persecuted and may have killed the Teacher of Righteousness which was the "Jesus" figure (Osman,Out of Egypt, p. 176). You might also wish to consult F.M. Cross Jr, The Ancient Library of Qumran, pub. Doubleday, N.Y. 1958, pp 107-116, to further seek out this information.

Paul is the only contemporary apostle definitely identifiable as a historical figure, and he clearly states that he never met this Jesus in the flesh: his encounter with Christ, on the road to Damascus, was a purely spiritual one. The impact of that however was such that it sent him into the desert for three years to digest it. From then on, he speaks of dying daily, and “not I, but Christ in me”, in a way that shows him an Gnostic Initiate.

If you have been reading Bet Emet Ministires for any length of time you have seen what we are trying to teach step by step; namely, that the common confusion of a "historical Jesus" with indwelling Christ. Although there may have been a historical Jesus at some point, maybe as far back as Egypt where he was slain at Sinai and hung on a tree as the Joshua (salvation) in the time of Moses, the Christ is a principle that lives within each human being and is not exclusive to one instead of all mankind as Rome had taught and would have us believe. Here is where the "Karast/Christ" comes in. In Egypt, the king or Pharaoh always represented the divine in man (the descent of the Soul into matter).

Semenkhkare died suddenly and mysteriously at Thebes. It was impossible to give him a proper burial especially with so much turmoil in the country. Semenkhkare was therefore buried secretly, and in a hurry, using some objects meant to used by Akhenaten, who had already fled from Amarna to Sinai.

Incidentally some of Semenkhkare's funerary equipment at Amarna, were later used for Tutankhamen who also died suddenly. Semenkhkare was succeeded in his turn by the young king Tutankhaten, the son of Akhenaten (Moses). Tutankhamen ruled for at least nine, and perhaps ten years (c. 1361-1352 B.C.E.) before meeting an early death. He was succeeded by Aye (Ephraim), his great-uncle and the last of the four Amarna kings. Aye ruled for only four years before he disappeared. Nothing much is known about his death. His mummy - if he was ever mummified - was never found. His tomb, in the Valley of the Kings, was usurped by his successor, Horemheb.

According to the Talmud, when Moses was 18, he fled Egypt, after killing an Egyptian. He then became a soldier and fought on the side of the King of Ethiopia, against a rebellion led by an Egyptian native, Bi'lam. After the King won, Moses became very popular. As a result, when the king died, Moses was appointed as their new king and "they gave him the widow of their king for a wife." Moses reigned "in justice and righteousness". But the Queen of Ethiopia, Adonith wanted her own son by the dead king to rule. She said to the people: "Why should this stranger continue to rule over you?" The Talmud account goes, that even though the people loved and wanted him, Moses resigned voluntarily, and departed from their land. The people of Ethiopia bestowed great honors upon him.

No evidence has ever been found regarding the date of Akhenaten's death. The evidence, however, is consistent with the Talmud account of the reign of Moses, as a king of Nubia (Ethiopia), that he resigned his post, but did not die.

Here is some of the supporting evidence:

  1. Akhenaten's city, including the royal tomb, were substantially destroyed. However, archaeologists were able to reconstruct, from many small fragments, Akhenaten's sarcophagus which is the outermost of a series of coffins that would protect the royal mummy. (Three series of coffins enclosed each of the mummies of Yuya and Twtankhamen). The presence of the inner coffins would indicate burial. This absence indicates otherwise. No fragments of the inner coffers were ever found.
  2. There was no trace of other funerary items such as chariots, chairs, and magic bricks which were normally buried in royal tombs, only after the king's death. The found funerary items, which belonged to Akhenaten, are the sarcophagus lid, the ushabti and the canopic chest. Such objects were normally placed in the tomb prior to the time of actual death.
  3. Enough original fragments were found of the canopic chest. The fragments have been used to reconstruct the chest, which is now in the Cairo Museum.

It was customary to anoint the canopic chest and other funerary objects with bitumin or resin, at the time of burial. These anointing rituals did not contradict Akhenaten's religious beliefs, and therefore the chest should have been stained, if Akhenaten was ever buried there. Almost all experts have confirmed the complete absence of such stains.

4. The actual canopic jars which would have contained the viscera of the deceased have not been found.

The absence of these jars, or their fragments, from Akhenaten's tomb, is more strong evidence that he was never buried there.


Historians, looking back from the perspective of a Christian culture, regard Akhenaten as “the first monotheist”, even “the first modern man”, who brought the tradition-bound Egyptian religion down to earth and introduced naturalistic art into the temples. Such a concept shows the unfathonable ignorance of Christianity toward the true understanding of the Egyptian faith in the first place. When one first begins to study Egyptian religion they are met with a host of icons and statues that gives the traditional Christian the idea that these people were polytheists and idolatars. Never realizing that these various "gods" and "goddessess" were but "neteroo" we mistakenly fall into the conditioned trap of assuming that these people were not monotheists but polytheists due to more than likely our Christian backgrounds. Most grievously the Egyptian words "neter," and it's feminine form "netert," have been wrongly, and possibly INTENTIONALLY, transformed to "god" and "goddess," by most all scholars. There is NO equivalent word in meaning, to the word "neter," in the English language. Honest translators should use the native word, if they cannot find its equivalent in their language. Neteroo (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!If one will study for themselves the Egyptian religion you will find that Infact, however, he tried to drag down the Egyptian mysteries to the level shown in what the Jews actually made of their religion. You could say that Akhenaten is responsible for the Hebrew religion we have today. Akhenaten, the Biblical Moses understood the Neteroo and the later concept of YHWH embodied this same concept as the Neteroo.

Although the name Aten was used for the visible disc of the sun, in truth, Aten—earlier Atum-- was the Egyptian name for the Absolute, the impersonal principle behind all gods and manifestations, as was JHVH in its original meaning. This true meaning however was kept as an esoteric secret, in both cases. This is why there was no image for Aten in Amarna. But this is also the real reason for the hostility of the other priests to Akhenaten. They felt he was betraying this secret by making it too comon and secular. Let us never forget that there have always been "outer mysteries" and "inner mysteries" and it is through his hidden knowledge in religion that Priesthoods have exeercised and controlled the minds of men since the beginning of time. Akhenaten and his religious reforms was stripping these Priests of their control over the minds of people and revealing God as He was was understood in these "hidden inner mysteries" which was reserved for only the chosen "initiates". And Panehesy/Phineas, apparently understanding only the exoteric version, killed Tutankhamun when he arrived at Sinai (Moses' Joshua) because he believed the young pharaoh was no longer upholding the primacy of Aten as the only god.

Thus Tutankhamum was making the same mistake as the Hebrews, degrading Aten into a personal god thereby putting him on the same level in their minds as the other gods but at the same time claiming the attribute properly belonging only to Aten as the Absolute, to be “above” all gods.

Already from the very beginning of the Hebrew story of their involvement with Egypt, a false note is struck when it is said that Abraham feared that the pharaoh would kill him to get his wife, Sarah. Surely he must have known that no pharaoh would touch another man’s wife since these were "righteous people" who feared God and lived by their "own Torah". The suspicion arises that the story is trying to conceal the fact that Abraham lied in order to get his wife pregnant by the pharaoh and so get a claim on the throne. In support of this version is the point that even when the pharaoh discovers the truth, he does not kill him but, evidently appalled, sends them off with gifts.

Historically the involvement of the Hebrews with Egypt goes back to the invasion of Egypt by the Hyksos around 1630 B.C. Although variously described, the Hyksos seem to have been Semitic, and ruled Egypt for over a century, until they were driven out and the New Kingdom established in 1575 B.C.E. And as I have alluded to Akhenaten/Moses left in the Exodus in 1335 B.C.E.

We see thus that there was a long but in the end unsuccessful attempt by the Hebrews to take over Egypt, and then the story of this was written up in their scriptures as an elaborate fiction, designed to justify themselves as a chosen people when in fact they became over time a "mixed multitude" and were the offspring of intermiarriage with the Egytpians over many years. Through the hands of the Biblical redactors like Ezra and others dates, names and places were drastically altered, and the Egyptians demonized as oppressors. The religion of Akhenaten was modifed and remodeled over time by the followers of Akhenaten following his death that is quite similar to their Egyptian relgion and is maintained still today, of which many of the rituals and festivals are purely a commemoration of these supposed events.

In time then, these fictional scriptures were taken up by the new Christian religion as the basis for their claim to have the Messiah although the Jesus of the New Testament did not even fulfil the Jews’ prerequisites for a Messiah. The Old Testament was linked onto the New Testament, providing contradictions and problems ever since which Bet Emet Ministries has dealth with on our various websites. And now two thousand years later, sects of both religions abound, with a long history of abusing each other and the cause of which can be laid at the feet of ignorance of the real truth behind the stories we read in the Bible.

