However, Hebrew traditionalists would consider Moses a
near-heretic. "Who are you to challenge God?" they would ask him. "If God gave
us Goshen as a province of Egypt who are you to question the will of God?"
By choosing the name "sons of Jacob" -- the other, jealous
sons who sold Joseph into slavery -- the "Israelites" were separating themselves
from Joseph who married into Egyptian aristocracy and fathered many children
with Indo-European and African-Egyptian wives. In other words, while most
Hebrews of Moses' time and many other Egyptians considered themselves "sons of
Joseph" by blood or inspiration, the "sons of Jacob" regarded themselves as the
"pure line" from Abraham. This is also why Jewish ancestry is traced back only
to the immediate family of Moses and not his cousins or those who came before
him.
Akhenaten
Moses' Worst
Nightmare
Before Akhenaten, all the Hyksos Pharaohs had been careful
to celebrate and promote local Egyptian culture and support their many temples,
while keeping their traditional practices as family affairs. Akhenaten would
change all that, and in doing so he would be the catalyst for three revolutions
-- two in Egypt and one in the desert after the Exodus.
Both Akhenaten and his wife, Nefertiti, had a common
grandfather through different grandmothers. Their grandfather was man was known
as Yu-Ya, and there is evidence to suggest that the man the Egyptians called
Yu-Ya is the same man the Bible calls "Joseph."
Yu-Ya
Once again, imagine the times. The Hebrew people in Egypt
believe their covenant with God has been fulfilled. They are successful and
influential and have no worries. Then, to the throne of Egypt comes Akhenaten
who proudly declares himself a grandson of Joseph -- a unifying and popular
figure among all Egyptians. The Hebrews must have been ecstatic. They now have
a grandson of Joseph on the throne of Egypt! To Moses, this must have seemed
like the end of the separatist dream. Though he may have warned that Akhenaten
was not a "true" grandson of Joseph and that Akhenaten was a cult leader and
threat, few would have taken Moses seriously -- especially at the start of
Akhenaten's reign.
What is known of Akhenaten's reign is that he came on the
scene as a populist who challenged the "wealthy and corrupt" Egyptian temples
and their priests, in the same way Christianity's Protestant revolution was driven
to end the dominance and extravagance of the Catholic Church, its temples and
priests some 3,000 years later.
It is probably during this initial period that Moses leaves
Egypt in fear of his life, thinking his mission will ever be fulfilled. The
story of Moses killing an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew, and the Hebrews
chastising Moses may be an allegory. It may suggest the idea that Moses tried
to kill the Egyptian dream that was keeping his people spiritually enslaved,
but they would rather remain as "slaves" and so they attack Moses as a heretic
and he flees.
Revolution #1: "One
Nation under One God."
But as Akhenaten rolls out his revolution he reveals himself
as a delusional tyrant and cult leader just as Moses had warned. At first,
Akhenaten opened simple, plain and roofless temples to gather worshipers for
his form of "Hebrewism." This worship was based on the ancient Hebrew "sun
blessing," a ritual still practiced by many Orthodox Jews.
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