New Testement

I'm sorry, I'm going to hell, but I can't help snorfling.

The cats are attacking!! Cats Invade Neb. House, 3 Injured

This is not news -- well, I can't speak for Nebraska. But cats first invaded our house years ago. And conquered it shortly thereafter.

From what I've read, there's some scholarly support that Judaism became monotheistic (ie, became Judaism rather than generic tribal religion attached to teh people of Abraham) in Egypt wiht at least sonme influence form Akhenaton. Moses=Akhenaton is a new one on me, though. That would cast a whole different meaning on his conversations with Pharoah. Not to mention the heart hardening. And drowning.

Akhenaten=Amenhotep IV (or one of the Amenhoteps, anyway), yes?

I named my cat Amarna after Akhenaten's capital city t /another ancient Egypt geek.

My mother had a children's illustrated Bible at one point, written in modern prose

We had a great one that's still in print (but I can't find it on Amazon right now). It was the only book my mom would let me bring to Mass and read while the priest was going on (and on...), but that ended after my First Communion--then, I was supposed to pay attention.

In my sophomore high school English class, my teacher took us through Billy Budd line by line to catch all the various allusions, which is when I figured out how vital knowing the Bible was going to be in English class. Considering I was a post-Vatican II Catholic kid, I probably knew more about the Bible than Mom did (Bible study wasn't a big part of the Baltimore Catechism taught in Sunday school prior to Vatican II).

I thought Akhenaten was really Akhenahmen, but changed his name to - aten because of the one god thing. And then when Tutankahmen came to power, he actually changed his name from Tutankaten. But I think I read this in the second grade, so I may be craxy.

Late to the conversation, but I teach pieces of the Bible. I have to--most of the students I teach are completely unfamilar with the stories, and they are alluded to consistently in much of Western Lit.

I thought Akhenaten was really Akhenahmen, but changed his name to - aten because of the one god thing. And then when Tutankahmen came to power, he actually changed his name from Tutankaten.

There were definitely name changes. I can't remember exactly what they were, so I'm willing to believe that you are correct. The Tutankahmen one makes sense, certainly. I have a nagging sense that Akhenaten's name change was more substantial, but that might be what I thought should have happenned, and not what actually did.

Tommyrot:

Years ago i bought a recording of the Philip Glass opera Akhnaten. I had never heard of Akhnaten before and what I read just fascinated me. Akhnaten (aka Amenhotep IV) was a Pharaoh who instituted the first monotheistic religion.

I don't know if you can find them, but Allen Drury (who wrote Advise and Consent) wrote a couple of political thrillers set in Akhenaten's Egypt. The first book is called "God Against the Gods" and the other is "Return to Thebes". As a kid, they got me over the bridge from wanting to be an Egyptologist to wanting to work in politics. Darn it, I'm still there. Oh well.

When I was a kid, reading the Bible was considered a big part of a devout Christian's life. I wonder if that's less true today....

And then when Tutankahmen came to power, he actually changed his name from Tutankaten.

That's correct. I can't remember what Akhenaten's original name was, but I know it was a "III" or "IV" name. They did do a good job of chiseling his name out of all the monuments in places other than Amarna, where they let the place get buried by the sand when everyone moved back to Thebes after he died.