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IN SEARCH OF THE FIRST PROPHET.

/ Topic >  6. On the Remarkable Persistence of Memory /
/ Forum >  TheologyOnLine - General Theology /
/ Newsgroup > alt.bible.prophecy / 23Jan2002 /
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 Now during the period of the Hyksos domination of Egypt, the city of Thebes became a center of resistance, and their great sun-god, Amon-Re, grew to be an increasingly popular national deity by becoming Egypt's chief god of liberation. And after the Hyksos were overthrown, and Egypt's influence spread, Amon-Re was "the god who subdued foreign nations and left them to the mercy of his sons, the Pharaohs" (E.Drioton, Religions of the Ancient East, p.33). Political expansion also meant that a goodly share of the treasures  captured from the enemy lands and temples (including prisoners) were sent to Thebes; and this new-found power, wealth, and influence of the priests was expressed in no uncertain terms in the ongoing construction of the fabulous temple at Karnak.
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 [This particular temple is famous for its massive columns called hypostyles: “Hypostyles - the Greek root means 'resting on columns' - were man-made stone forests separating the temple's open court, where festivals and ceremonies took place, from the sanctuary, to which only kings and priests were admitted. (Egyptian temples did not provide for congregational worship.) The processional path through the hypostyle was a preparatory passage from this world to the next” (Kidder Smith, Looking at Architecture, p.14).]
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 But not everyone was overjoyed by these developments within the Egyptian Empire, and towards the end of his reign Pharaoh Amenophis III had grown cool toward the rich and lazy priests of Thebes, and had even gone so far as to reject their god Amon. He moved his palace away from Karnak, and in his private chapel there "he favored a sun worship which was supposed to revert to the pure Heliopolitan tradition without reference to Amon" (Drioton, p.34). And when his son came to the throne, Amenophis IV soon proved to be not so much a quiet reactionary as a violent and explosive revolutionary:
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 “... the first revolutionary in history. ... This pharaoh was the son of Amenhotep III, who was a kind of Louis XIV of his world, and his queen Tiy was apparently not of royal blood and may even have been a foreigner, possibly Negroid. ... With these physical peculiarities, real or invented, went an equally remarkable personality and policy. He tried to replace the traditional, official Egyptian religion [with] a new concept of god. Although still embodied in the sun, this concept, called Aton, was understood more abstractly and monotheistically. This meant that he had to make a revolution. He had to attack and destroy the traditional patterns of religion, which were thoroughly woven into every aspect of Egyptian life. He had to change the theology, ritual and ecclesiastical structure” (from ‘Akhenaton: Ancient Revolutionary’ by Professor Gerhard Rempel). This essay can be found at:
http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc1/lectures/03akhenaton.html
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 Thus the new king dared put his father's attitude into practice by introducing a new monotheistic religion, and forbidding the worship of all other (false) gods. In effect, the king’s will put the temples and priests (and all those associated with them; eg. idol-makers) rather abruptly out of business. And as if to add insult to injury, the Pharaoh ordered the wiping away of all trace of the name ‘Amon’ wherever it was found (on statues, monuments, inscriptions, etc). In this way the king hoped to cleanse Egypt of all memory of the gods, but the tradition-laden peoples of the Black Land were not much forgetful, and did not take kindly to having their world turned inside out. Thus when his son-in-law came to power (less than two decades later), Tutankhamen did the bidding of the angry priests (note the name of the god included at the end of his name), and now it was the heretic-king's turn to be blotted out of Egypt’s life and history.
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 Indeed, they were so successful at their apparent erasure of all references to Aton and Amenophis IV off of the *surface of things*, and at restoring Amon-Re to his “rightful” place in the hearts and minds of the priests and people, that historians and bible scholars automatically assume that everything that happened in his reign was simply forgotten by everyone after a mere decade at most. Drioton expresses an old and still common "conclusion" when he says: "So, as soon as Akh-en-Aton had died, in the reign of Tutankhamen, Egypt returned enthusiastically to Amon and its traditional gods. There was no more of Akh-en-Aton for several years except to curse him, destroy his monuments and proscribe his name, as he had done for Amon. Then his memory sank into the deepest oblivion" (p.35). Oh really? "deepest oblivion" you say? And are all the scholars and scribes and experts truly justified (ie. rationally and logically according to the archeological evidence) in their casual and thoughtless dismissal of this dark 'killer of gods'? . . . Oh yes, surely . . .
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 BUT *ONLY* IF EGYPT SUDDENLY CEASES TO BE EGYPT!
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 Consider that when the priests set about 'blotting out his name' they didn't actually destroy everything. What they did with the ‘Horizon of Aton’ [ie. Pharaoh’s new city was the center of his religion; he needed a location that was not already belonging to any local deity, and which could easily be made sacred] was to tear everything down, and then use the pieces as filler in other construction projects. The net result of this policy of recycling is that while the buildings are gone, the filler remains for archeologists to come along and find 3000 years later. And what they found was thousands of these lovely little stone blocks with nice carvings and inscriptions on them, all mixed together like some giant 3D jigsaw puzzle. Oh my! Why that’s just the kind of thing to give any historian a serious case of the drools.
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 Consequently, we now have more information about Akh-en-Aton than we do about those others guys who were so satisfied with their revenge upon the bane of Amon. An ironic twist of fate, to be sure; which only goes to show that history is full of surprises, and is never quite what it seems to be. And historians are still putting together the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle that is named Akh-en-Aton; and generally doing a very poor job of it (if you don't mind my saying so).
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 AND IN THE SAME WAY, ideas and memories are not able to be eradicated with hammers and chisels! Moreover, it is highly unlikely that the entire nation would simply ‘forget’ such a unique (and even bizarre) personality; at least not for a century or two. No, Egypt does not forget its titans so easily (especially not the joyfully hated ones); and Rameses II’s over-compensating colossal statues and monuments are tangible proof of Akh-en-Aton's dramatic effect on the hearts and  minds of the Pharaohs that came after him.
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                                      - one who disagrees with experts – textmman ;>
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IN SEARCH OF THE FIRST PROPHET.

/ Topic >  7. Why Pharaoh’s Heart was Hard /
/ Forum >  TheologyOnLine - General Theology /
/ Newsgroup > alt.bible.prophecy / 25Jan2002 /
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 Now I’m guessing that I may have lost some readers over this last point, and so I fear we must dwell further upon this in order to better appreciate its meaning and significance. Turn then thy attention to these snippets from Torah: Ex 7:13 - Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. // Ex 7:14 - Then the Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. // Ex 7:22 - But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts; so Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. // Ex 8:15 - But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said. // Ex 8:19 - And the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God!" But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said. // Ex 8:32 - But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and would not let the people go. // Ex 9:7 - Pharaoh inquired and found that not one of the livestock of the Israelites was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he would not let the people go. // Ex 9:12 - But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses. // Ex 9:34 - But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned once more and hardened his heart, he and his officials. // Ex 9:35 - So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. // Ex 10:1 - Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his officials, in order that I may show these signs of mine among them // Ex 10:20 - But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go. // Ex 10:27 - But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was unwilling to let them go. // Ex 11:10 - Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land. // Ex 14:8 - The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaohh king of Egypt and he pursued the Israelites, who were going out boldly. -- NRSV
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 While all these near identical repetitions in the texts are doubtless the result of a long life within the oral traditions prior to the writing of the Torah, it still seems that there is here (ie. behind these texts) some essential and authentic historical memory about the nature and character of the actual historical man. Now the scriptures do not mention Rameses II by name, but we assume that this is the Pharaoh in question chiefly for two reasons: 1) the timing is right for dating the Exodus at about 1280 BCE; and 2) Rameses II's colossal buildings and monuments suggest a man deeply preoccupied with his own divinity and immortality (ie. what had happened to Amenophis IV would not happen to him, for there would be no blotting out of the extra-large Rameses II)!
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 Now here is something interesting. Who is doing what to whom? Poor Pharaoh must have a diamond where his heart should be after all that hardening. Not only is he hardening his heart with all his might, but the Lord is apparently helping him along! And as if that's not bad enough, this very serious case of hardening of the arteries appears to be contagious as well. Hoy! Obviously there's something very peculiar going on here. Pharaoh definitely seems to have a bug in his ear about something. Why should Pharaoh be so stubborn? Is it simply because he was an egotistic man of exceptionally arrogant character? Or is there something deeper at work here?
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 Clearly the text is hinting that the king's resistance is irrational, and even abnormal. Indeed we may suppose that a more even-tempered king would not have let the entire situation deteriorate to such unhealthy extremes. Obviously Pharaoh’s character as a man was set long before his encounter with Moses. And obviously there was something about Moses and his claims that touched a very raw nerve deep in the royal heart (ie. the heart was thought to be the center of will, spirit, energy, and personality).
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 If we are right in all this, then it seems reasonable to conclude that Rameses II was who he was because the historical realities and circumstances of his day influenced the formation of his character (as it does with everyone else). In other words, Egypt's recent history has more to do with his actions and character (ie. his hardened heart) than Moses, and chief among those formative influences was the Pharaoh Amenophis IV who challenged the gods, and even dared to be a man:
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 "It is much more reasonable to regard him as the Pharaoh who refused to be a god. It is not simply his religious policy and his frank display of natural affection that seem to mark a strong and very original personality. His aesthetic ideas were his own. He refused to have his portrait conventionalized into the customary smooth beauty of the Pharaoh god, and his face looks out at us across an interval of 33 centuries, a man amidst ranks of divine insipidities" (Wells, p.189).
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 And indeed this is just the sort of Pharaoh that would surely enrage the arrogant spirit of Rameses! And so to this end of soothing his doubts, bestirred by the ghosts of Akh-en-Aton, he would turn loose his best engineers such that "his tenure as king corresponds to some of the most epic monumental architecture of ancient Egypt" (Richard Hooker). But ultimately, all of these impressive statues, buildings, and temples were nothing more than a deliberate attempt to overawe the viewer with the majestic divinity and power of the Pharaoh. The Egyptians thought that they could conquer this spiritual revolution with hammer and chisel and stone, and for a time it seemed that they had indeed triumphed over the sour seeds of the heretic-king ... But they were wrong; and Rameses knew it. Because of this, Rameses II was particularly eager to assert the divinity of the Pharaoh, which Akh-en-Aton had so effectively undermined.
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 Throw a pebble into a still and placid pond, and you can see at once the ripples radiate outward to the shores in a very pleasing and orderly fashion. The effect is impossible to describe with words, but immediately apparent to anyone who has ever seen such an event. As it is with the pebble, so it is with the greatest of men. Their lives, however brief, leave behind effects that ripple along the waves of time and history even unto the very shores of the present. It has always been this way; and we see no exceptions to this "historical law" anywhere.
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 Why then should we consign the Black Pharaoh of Egypt to oblivion? Because he was a black man? Because he is inconvenient to the historians and Egyptologists? Because the bible scholars and scribes and pharisees all wish to confer the honor and glory of the revelation of one universal god upon the ancient Hebrew prophets? Because, because, because! ... I have seen no reason adequate to justify the appallingly crass and stupid treatment that this pharaoh has received at the hands of these ignorant and self-serving “experts”! Therefore it behooves the reader to try something new, and take this amazing king seriously for a change.
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                                       - the almost unforgetful one – textman ;;>
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P.S. Therefore it is *memory* (ie. history) that holds the key to solving the mystery surrounding the Pharaoh's hardened heart.
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