Thursday, April 03, 2014

the dawn of monotheism revisited


solami |  §1     In 1961, the Egyptologist Sir Alan Gardiner set the stage for a more enlightening reading of humanity's record - in as much as it relied on Egypt's history and its King List as relayed to us notably by the historian Manetho. In his book "Egypt of the Pharaohs" (p.170), he declared: "Manetho's narrative represents the last stage of a process of falsifications which started within a generation after the triumph of Amosis" over the vilified Hyksos (1575-1550 Old Chronology, henceforth OC).  In this critical analysis, Gardiner has been supported by a growing number of scholars, some thus coming up with remarkable - even if occasionally conflicting - new ideas, theories and insights (1).  One of them, the Islamic scholar and Egyptologist Ahmed Osman, in one of his latest books "Moses Pharaoh of Egypt - the Mystery of Akhenaten Resolved", thus commented our tampered records:
         "Like the accounts of the historian Manetho, the Talmudic stories contain many distortions and accretions arising from the fact that they were transmitted orally for a long time before finally being set down in writing. Yet one can sense that behind the myths there must have lain genuine historical events that had been suppressed from the official accounts of both Egypt and Israel, but had survived in the memories of the generations" (p.24). "The Alexandrian Jews were naturally interested in Manetho's account of their historic links with Egypt, although they found some aspects of it objectionable. His original work therefore did not survive for long before being tampered with [2/3 of Zarathushtra's Avesta reportedly was even deliberately destroyed]" (p.27). And: "Yoyotte ... became one of the few to see through the 'embellishments' of the biblical account and identify the historical core of the story ..." (p.48).
§2     Thus, it was time someone went beyond mere bickering over the confusing King Lists. With his book "A Test of Time", the Assyrologist and Egyptologist David Rohl has presented an archeologically and astronomically supported NewChronology (henceforth NC, with the reign of Ramses II thus placed in the 10th century BC, i.e. dated some 350 years later than traditionally recorded, and the reign of Akhenaton beginning some 3025 years ago and overlapping the ascendancy of David as the successor to King Saul).  If independently confirmed in its key elements by further research, we would find ourselves at the threshold of a new era, providing startling synchronologies of the past to which we were blinded through our own shortcomings and not necessarily by design.  Recognizing this could have vast implications for the future far beyond the bedeviled Middle Eastern craddle where our monotheistic beliefs appear to have their common roots. Osman's comments on the above-quoted koranic and biblical texts may help us to get there:
         "... the Koran presents the confrontation in such a precise way that one wonders if some of the details were left out of the biblical account deliberately. Here Moses sounds less like a magician, more like someone who presents evidence of his authority that convinces the wise men of Egypt, who throw themselves at his feet and thus earn the punishment of [an imposter] Pharaoh. One can only suspect that the biblical editor exercised care to avoid any Egyptian involvement with the Israelite Exodus, even to the extent of replacing Moses by Aaron in the performance of the rituals. ... [During] their sed festival celebrations, Egyptian kings performed rituals that correspond to the 'serpent rod' and 'hand' rituals performed by Moses - and, in performing them, Moses was not using magic but seeking to establish his royal authority.
         I think the correct interpretation of these accounts [of the Bible and the Koran] is that, when Akhenaten was forced to abdicate, he must have taken his royal sceptre to Sinai with him. On the death of Horemheb, the last king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, about a quarter of a century later, he must have seen an opportunity to restore himself to the throne. No heir to the Tuthmosside kings existed and it was Pa-Ramses, commander of Horemheb's army and governor of Zarw, who had claim to the throne. Akhenaten returned to Egypt and the wise men were gathered in order to decide between him and Pa-Ramses. Once they saw the sceptre of royal authority and Akhenaten had performed the sed festival rituals - secret from ordinary citizens - the wise men bowed the knee in front of him, confirming that his was the superior right to the throne, but Pa-Ramses used his army to crush the rebels. Moses was allowed to leave again for Sinai, however, accompanied by the Israelites, his mother's relatives, and the few Egyptians who had been converted to the new [monotheistic] religion that he had attempted to force upon Egypt a quarter of a century earlier. In Sinai the followers of Akhenaten were joined subsequently by some bedouin tribes (the Shasu), who are to be identified as the Midianites of the Bible. No magic was performed, or intended, by Moses. The true explanation of the biblical story could only be that it was relating the polical challenge for power in a mythological way - and all the plagues of which we read were natural, seasonal events in Egypt in the course of every year. ..." (p.178f)
         "This would explain how a new version of the Osiris-Horus myth came into existence from the time of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Osiris, the King of Egypt, was said to have had to leave the country for a long time. On his eventual return he was assassinated by Set, who had usurped the throne, but Horus, the son of Osiris, confronted Set at Zarw and slew him. According to my interpretation of events, it was in fact 'Set' who slew 'Horus'; but their roles were later reversed by those who wished to believe in an eternal life for Horus [alternatively, if their roles were not reversed, that might support the idea that Moses/Akhenaton had a role to play in Canaan/Palestine in the post-exodus period]. This new myth developed to the point where Osiris/Horus became the principal god worshipped in Egypt in later times while Set was looked upon as the evil one. This myth could have been a popular reflection of a real historical event - a confrontation between Moses and Seti I on top of the mountain in Moab." (p.187f)
§3     These conclusions could go a long way to explain not only the developments which took place following the 18thDynasty but many of the undercurrents still gripping the Middle East. Particularly the relations between the descendents of the competitors to the Throne of Pharaoh,Ramses I and Akhenaton (Moses if, for this study, we were to follow Osman'sanalysis: 2); i.e. the Egyptians on the one side and the "Children of Israel" on the other who, both, would appear to be victims of imaginative falsifiers of history. And they would clear up many mysteries, if it were not for the uncertainties which persist on what happened at the end and after Akhenaton's 17 year reign, particularly whether, how and where Akhenaton lived on. So far, no archeological or historical evidence has become known which would undisputably attest to Akhenaton's death at a certain time and place.
 
§4     Until recently, most scholars tended to interprete the fragmentary archeological data as pointing to a violent death of what many describe as the "heretic Pharaoh" at his regnal year 17. And they mostly associated that end of the first monotheistic reign with the subsequent resurgence of the Amon cult all over Egypt. Initially, this seemed to be supported by esoteric sources, i.e. by currently living persons who, on the basis of personal reincarnation experiences, are said to have been contemporaries of Akhenaton (3). By their very nature, these subjective accounts are just that. They cannot be relied upon without corroberating data. Nevertheless, in the absence of more conclusive information - like contributions from other disciplines - they may constitute imaginative and sometimes helpful hints and pointers for further research and more enlightened analysis.
 
§5     Pointing notably to the striking parallels between Akhenaton's Great Hymn to Aton (Gardiner, p.225f) and Psalm 104, scholars suspect the authors of these texts to be identical. Moreover, the Encyclopaedia Judaica (vol.12, pp. 378, 388, 389, 390, 400) recorded :
         "No primary source of information on Moses exists outside the Bible. ... [In] the Haggadah's hymnic confession Dayyeinu, ... Israel's career from Egypt to the settlement is rehearsed in 13 stages without a reference to Moses. ... According to Artapanos, Moses ... was the first pilosopher, and invented a variety of machines for peace and war. He was also responsible for the political organization of Egypt (having divided the land into 36 nomes) ... According to Josephus, Moses was the most ancient of all legislators in the records of the world. Indeed, he maintains that the very word 'law' was unknown in ancient Greece (Jos., Apion 2:154). ...
         Hecataeus of Abdera presented Moses as the founder of the Jewish state, ascribing to him the conquest of Palestine and the building of Jerusalem and the Temple. He explained, in the Platonic manner, that Moses divided his people into 12 tribes, because 12 is a perfect number, corresponding to the number of months in the year (cf. Plato, Laws, 745b-d; Republic, 546b). ... Very curious is the legend recorded by Israel Lipschuetz b. Gedaliah (Tiferet Yisrael to Kid. end, n.77).  A certain King, having heard of Moses' fame, sent a renowned painter to portray Moses' features.
    On the painter's return with the portrait the king showed it to his sages, who unanimously proclaimed that the features portrayed were those of a degenerate [4]. The astonished king journeyed to the camp of Moses and observed for himself that the portrait did not lie. Moses admitted that the sages were right and that he had been given from birth many evil traits of character but that he had held them under control and succeeded in conquering them. This, the narrative concludes, was Moses' greatness, that, in spite of his tremendous handicaps, he managed to become the man of God. Various attempts have, in fact, been made by some rabbis to ban the further publication of this legend as a denigration of Moses' character."
§6     Together, these and other ancient voices are seen to support the view that the name Moses - incidently like that of Salomon - may be less the real name and more one which was adopted post-festum for the biblical editors' or their taskmasters' purposes. Could it be then that the person hidden behind the name-of-convenience of Moses is in fact Akhenaton? In that event, he would have lived beyond his reign in Egypt (similarities come to mind with Jesus’ alleged post-crucification life in Kashmir (India) and elswhere and how that persistently recurring story has been treated by the powers that be, i.e. by those who consider themselves as the gardiens of the Holy Grail).
 
§7     Sigmund Freud concluded in his 1939 book "Moses and Monotheism" that Moses was not an Israelite but an Egyptian whose teachings derived from Akhenaton's pure monotheism (which he had imposed for apparently imperative economic reasons). That, of course, would require rewriting those stories which ante-date the "exodus of the Israelites" - if that ever happened as such and was not in fact an exodus of monotheistic Egyptians - rather than one of slaves - to what may have been their Palestinian exile (essentially brought about by deseases and power struggles between factions associated with the legitimate, and on the other side with the illegitimate contender to the Throne of Pharaoh?).

17 comments:

BigDonOne said...

Lemme see here a moment: 2-3000 yrs ago there was no video, no still photography, no audio recording, 99% of the folks were illiterate, and the folks that could write had to hassle with ink/parchment/engraving. Most of what passes for history of the time was handed down several iterations word-of-mouth before it was ever "recorded" and has now been thru more translated iterations by "scholars" to produce the "historical" content of above post. We can't even get a straight answer about what actually happened in Dallas on Nov 22, 1963 with still-living eye witnesses and modern media........


BD declares this to be Mythology Day at Subrealism......

BigDonOne said...

Bad as it is, it beats teaching that you will get 72 virgins if you die while killing non-believers in Fizzlam.....

CNu said...

BD needs to be worrying about those big-assed heads and what that means....,

Vic78 said...

http://youtu.be/CPcTHJodp6M

Constructive_Feedback said...

CNu:


I trust that you have been watching the new series "Cosmos".


The "Brother Scientist" is "going at" Creationism BUT his argument, left up to the untrained mind are sufficient.

It is when we strip away the scientific "Jesus Magic" of TIME INFINITY, which they hide behind to pettifog their mastery of "the periodic table" and "cosmology" with "THE ORIGINS OF LIFE" that the slight of hand is discovered.


Neal DeGrasse Tyson argued that the highly evolved EYEBALL (sight) came from the evolutionary characteristic by which single celled organism began to SENSE the damaging effects of ultra violent light and thus when the sun came out - THOSE THAT WENT DEEPER INTO THE WATER survived. As they reproduced their "VISION FUNCTION" magically EVOLVED into what we now have today - after billions of years: SIGHT and the POWER of the lens to adjust itself so that it can FOCUS to bring a clearer picture to its host.


THINK CNu.
You have a mass of "goo" (elements) sitting in interstellar space.
WHAT MAGICAL FORCE (aside from TIME and FORCES cast upon this matter) translates this is LIFE???


With these constructs in mind and an unwillingness to be intimidated by the "academy" it is THESE "Ignorant Educated" minds that are the ones who are INCREDIBLE standing next to the Theological Creationist.

BigDonOne said...

You can't even trust the straight-up "respectable" news sources of Today. They also encourage Mythology. At one point, CNN actually had a report suggesting the possibility that Flight MH370 had been either slurped into a Black Hole or slipped thru a Wormhole into Another Parallel Dimension...... http://www.examiner.com/article/cnn-mocked-after-suggesting-malaysia-airlines-flight-370-swallowed-by-black-hole

Vic78 said...

"Respectable" news outlets are in on the hustle. Their job is to advance their bosses' agenda. They have to keep the cattle in line.

CNu said...

lol, oh now you want to talk about the MH370 kayfabery....,

CNu said...

Myths/mythology offer valuable insights into the climate of consciousness prevalent at the time of their construction. A lot can be gleaned simply from their recorded structure, i.e., if ancient, did they have rhyme, verse, meter - were they possibly set to music? Grimm's Fairy Tales are far closer to us in the span of historical time. Their enduring popularity and familiarity across popular culture give them the status of mythology. Most folks have no idea how genuinely grim these dark ages accounts of malnutrition, cannibalism, murder, mayhem and psychopathology are - and they're oral traditions preserved from the time of the collapse of the Roman empire.

CNu said...

sigh...., the theological creationist, I have no problem with. The bible-thumping creationist OTOH, is an irredeemable moron stubbornly stuck on pounding a square peg into a round hole. Not.worth.the.effort - and really no fun to engage because I don't stand to learn anything beyond the arcane ways in which the bible-thumper's crippled mind works. At this juncture, I'm pretty well versed in this sphere of deep dysfunction.

So let's just agree that our interests in this subject differ. I'm interested in understanding how biological machinery works, period. I have no dog in the hunt of strongly asserting where the machinery came from. That question doesn't matter to me as much as understanding how it works and acquiring some methods for adroitly working with it and on it. In the process of figuring out how it works, and how I can work with it, I'm hopeful that I will also acquire some well-informed insights into its nature and possibly its origins. http://subrealism.blogspot.com/search?q=quantum

Unlike the bible-thumper, I don't have a specific agenda that requires suspension of disbelief and acceptance of special authority.

Vic78 said...

It doesn't make Americans look good when Presidential candidates have to trip themselves about how much they love Jesus.

ken said...

"So let's just agree that our interests in this subject differ. I'm interested in understanding how biological machinery works, period. I have no dog in the hunt of strongly asserting where the machinery came from."

Let me redirect Confeed's question a little, just to flesh this thing out. I think we argue that most intelligent design/creationist would consider the eyeball and all its connections parallel with Nye's ideas about the watch I am going to ask you to look at. Please don't get distracted with the whole young earth debate with Ham, I was just interested in this one audience question and Nye's answer. You have to go to 2:27:40 to see the answer and question at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kgvhG3AkI



The intelligent design crowd do make the same distinction, that one set of ideas starts with the assumptions that all material starts from the bottom and becomes complicated randomly without direction, and the other is designed and therefore is organized from a top down process. Either way one can study a mechanism and understand how it works.


My question is would you agree with Nye's proclamation that evolution and intelligent design are incompatible?

CNu said...

I'm interested in how vision works and believe there's something very subtle and fascinating going on there. http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2008/02/cilia.html - There's even a related theoretical piece which has long held my attention http://www.cheniere.org/books/aids/appendixIII.htm Beyond the exhaustive interrogation of these mechanisms, which inquiry has limitless intrigue and possible application, what useful purpose is served by further rhetorical distraction which sheds no light on this astonishingly complicated mechanism?


I don't have any dogs in the "special authority from God" hunt.

ken said...

"the Koran presents the confrontation in such a precise way that one wonders if some of the details were left out of the biblical account deliberately. Here Moses sounds less like a magician, more like someone who presents evidence of his authority that convinces the wise men of Egypt, who throw themselves at his feet and thus earn the punishment of [an imposter] Pharaoh. One can only suspect that the biblical editor exercised care to avoid any Egyptian involvement with the Israelite Exodus, even to the extent of replacing Moses by Aaron in the performance of the rituals. ."


Wasn't the Koran written from Mohammad's visions in about 630 AD? Its well known that Mohammad spent time in both Jewish and Christian circles and received his influences from them. Its quite a leap now to use his visions received and written over a thousand years later as a credible confrontation to the Biblical text.

CNu said...

rotflmbao.....,whew!!! the nerviness of asserting the "authority" and fidelity of a biblical text - in the context of criticizing the integrity and fidelity of the Prophet is breathtaking. Islamic culture is responsible for uplifting Europe from its post-Roman dark ages, which culture preserved and maintained the sciences and literature of the Greeks and Egyptians to the extent it was preserved, and expanded upon these to incorporate Vedic science, literature, mathematics and culture, as well. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/396226/Muhammad


If any oral/written tradition existed in the pre-medieval world preserving historical and cultural scholarship going back into the far reaches of antiquity, that tradition would have been known within the global scholastic culture of Islam.

The buy-bull and those professing its nonsense have wreaked havoc on your mentations Ken http://youtu.be/GlKL_EpnSp8?t=29s

Vic78 said...

Here's one for your Netflix streaming: http://youtu.be/RbuEhwselE0. It's worth your time to watch it.

ken said...

"Islamic culture is responsible for uplifting Europe from its post-Roman dark ages......."

What does that have to do with the point that the author is weighing Koran and the Bible as if they have the same historical credibility? You are so far off the edge of double standard that you are in a free fall right now. I believe your post is supposedly bringing into question the account of the Bible about who Moses was, and one of the sources we are using is from a guy born in 570 AD who is recording the events from what he tells us is his visions of angel Gabriel in a cave. He later needs to be convinced from his wife that he isn't being influenced from a jinn spirit.

You're willing to accept the supposed revelations of Gabriel in this case, why not when he visited Mary or Daniel or Zacharias, why won't you accept the revelations recorded he gave to these people? Of course you don't believe he received any revelation from Gabriel, you yourself don't believe Gabriel exists. You believe somehow this guy who meditated in the cave away from the polytheism all around him, heard by oral communication 2000 years later the accurate stories of Moses, to where we should consider them at least equal to writings of Moses.

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