Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

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Now imagine that you are an Egyptian priest in the year 1350 BCE.

Your world is already ancient, 3000 years old already.

Your temple has stood for centuries.

Its walls blaze with colour, processions of gods, offerings of incense, hymns inscribed in hieroglyphs that will track the movement of the cosmos itself.

Your day is structured by ritual, the waking of the god in the sanctuary, the presentation of food and linen, the sealing of the inner chamber at dusk, just as goes on in Hindu temples today in India.

Generations after generations of your family have done this.

The god is Amun, king of the gods, lord of Thebes, the hidden one whose breath fills the entire world.

And the temple you serve is the greatest religious institution on earth.

This is the most radical religious revolution in ancient history.

Whether it was the world's first true monotheism, whether it planted a seed that would eventually produce Yahweh, the God of the Hebrew Bible, of Christianity, of Islam,

is one of the most debated questions in the study of religion.

And that is exactly what we are here to explore today.

And we're all very excited about it.

This is Empire, and I'm William Durand-Poole.

Our guest today is someone who brings a quite exceptional combination of qualities to this conversation.

It is our old friend Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones.

Welcome back, Lloyd.

Hello, both.

It's good to be back with you.