Was Moses Akhenaten?

Akhenaten was the Egyptian pharaoh that ruled in the Eighteenth dynasty for 17 years and died sometime around 1336 BC. Akhenaten caused a lot of trouble when he changed Egyptian theology over to monotheism. His one god was the Sun God Aten (Aton, Ra). All of this is well documented.

However, Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychotherapy, wrote a book 'Moses and Monotheism', in which he claims that Moses was the pharaoh Akhenaten. Freud also claims that the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt was actually Akhenaten running away from the Egyptians who were fed up with his crazy religious ideas.

This idea probably originated because of the closeness of Egyptian and Israelite history, especially the unusual monotheism aspect. Most cultures, including the Egyptians, worshiped many gods.

One of the main problems with this idea is the lack of good archeology on Moses and the Israelites in Egypt and most of the knowledge on this aspect of Israelite history is from the Bible. The other thing is that neither Moses nor Joseph is mentioned in Egyptian records despite having high status with the Egyptians and the Pharaoh, according to the Old Testament.

According to tradition Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt in the 1720's BC and was made Governor by the Pharaoh Ramses about a decade later. According to the records of Ramses, the Exodus of the Semitic people of the land of Goshen occurred decades later. According to the Bible, the Israelites went to Egypt three centuries before Ramses and that the Exodus was around 1491 BC.

However, the alternative Jewish version has Joseph appointed Chief Minister to Tuthmosis IV in the 15th century BC, placing him in Egypt a lot sooner than the 18th century BC. Obviously, there is a lot of confusion about when anything happened there.

Allegedly, Tuthmosis' son, Amenhotep III, married Tiye, the daughter of Joseph, but when the Egyptians decided that her son (the future Moses) should die, she floated him down the Nile in a basket to her father's half brother, Levi. The boy Moses (named Aminadab) was born around 1394 BC. Supposedly, this Aminadab changed his name to Akhenaten (servant of Aten). The reason that this is believed is because this Akhenaten took his scribes and family out of Egypt into the Sinai when the people revolted against him, and they called him Mose or Mosis, which means heir/born of, in this case born of Tuthmosis.

I can certainly see why this theory has been promoted, but it's doubtful if it's true. Most Biblical scholars don't accept this idea, but it does have possibilities.

Thanks for reading.