William Durand-Poole

Because there's no real place for it, you know?

Does Akhenaten therefore become Mart himself?

Probably.

We're dealing here with an absolute religious zealot and a narcissist, I think, who is piling honours upon himself.

Yeah, many gods exist, but one tends to be exclusively worshipped.

Which is what you get in early Canaan.

I wouldn't even say early Canaan, but by the 6th century BCE, something like that is happening.

I would say that this is a henotheistic religion, okay?

He doesn't get rid of the other gods.

He acknowledged they exist.

They're not functioning correctly, and there's no power there.

I don't think he can ever claim really in monotheism.

And of course, Velikovsky and people like that back in the 50s were all over Akhenaten saying, you know, this is the origins of monotheism.

But I think we're far from that, actually, very far from that.

Yeah, so found in one of the tombs in Amana is this glorious composition that we call the Great Hymn to the Aten.

Some people think it is the work of Akhenaten himself, others that have caught Scribe wrote it.

I don't think it makes a difference whether it was Akhenaten or a Scribe.

I think the sentiment is what's important.

And it talks about the supremacy of the creator god, the Aten, that when the earth is in darkness, there is nothingness.

But then the light comes forward.