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Hymn to Aten

Posted By: Naomi
Date: Tuesday, 13 August 2002, at 7:35 a.m.

In Response To: Ark of the Covenant of Aten (Naomi)

There have been references by various writers to the Great Hymn of Aten and its correspondences with Psalm 104. I would like to point out another Psalm that has close correspondences to the worship of Aten. In "Pharaohs of the Sun", Editors Freed, Markowitz and D'Auria, published in 1999 by Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on p.173 is the following text from a shabti of Ipy, a woman with the title of "Royal Ornament":

"Breathe the sweet breeze of the north wind which comes forth from the sky upon the hand of the living Aten. Your body is protected, your heart is glad. No harm shall happen to your body because you are sound. Your flesh will not decay."

Compare this with Psalm 16:9-10 - "Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices: my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will you suffer your holy one to see destruction."

There are other interesting correspondences in Psalm 16 to the religion of Akhenaten. Verse 4 says "Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names upon my lips." This certainly brings to mind Akhenaten's removal of the names of all other deities, even removing the Amen portion from his own father's name "Amenhotep".

Continuing in verse 5 - "YHWH is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: you maintain my lot. The [boundary] lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." This could be a description of the new city of Akhetaten by Akhenaten, where he set up boundary stele that included many of his hopes for the new city, and where he hoped to live out his life, never to leave.

The Psalm ends on a note of hope. "You will make known to me the path of life: in your presence is fulness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." It is stated to be a Psalm of David.

To anyone wondering how I got Adon/Aten in the verses I quoted in the previous post, it is from the Hebrew words only and you will not find it in English translations. You will usually see "Lord" or "Master". Wherever English translations have "LORD" in capital letters, it has YHWH in the Hebrew, written as Jehovah or Yahweh in some translations. The true pronunciation of that sacred name is unknown.

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