Who was Pharaoh Akhenaton?

Today starts a series titled "Wise Words from Pharaoh Akhenaton."  Starting Monday, February 18th, for five Mondays I will feature a quote from him, share my thoughts, and have a free copywork printable of the quote!  I was pleasantly surprised with what I found as I researched him and hope that you will come back to let me share what I found!

Today I would like to share with you a bit about Pharaoh Akhenaton before we start looking at some of the things that he said.  I am by no means an expert on Egyptian history, and so much of the past remains a mystery, but it is fun to research, learn, and think about new things!  Here are some of the things that I discovered.

Pharaoh Akhenaton was a part of the 18th dynasty of Egypt.  At the beginning of his reign he was known as Amenhotep IV, but as he sought to change Egypt's polytheistic religious system into a monotheistic one, he changed this name to honor Aton, his deity of choice.

This monotheism of his is what I want to focus on during this series.  In Egypt, worshiping one god was unheard of both before and after his reign.  This concept, along with the quotes from him that I am going to share with you over the coming weeks, fascinated me so I wanted to learn a little more about who this man was.

Well, the more I read, the more confused I was =) Some have suggested that Akhenaton was the Pharoah during part of Moses' early life.  Some say that Akhenaton was Moses.  I am no one to say what the truth is, but I do know that I have to hold to what the Bible teaches, so I'm going to rule that second opinion out.  I'd like to read the book Unwrapping the Pharoahs to see the conclusion given there.  I read the book Unveiling the King's of Israel by the same author and found it fascinating, so I'm sure the one about Egypt would be insightful as well!

Perhaps Akhenaton had heard stories of Joseph's God since he had been prominent in Egypt for some time.  Maybe he did live in Moses' day and was influenced by his faithfulness to the one true God.  Maybe there is some other undiscovered connection that still allows the Biblical text to be accurate.  I do not know, but the wisdom in many of his words are worth pondering, so that is what we will do!

Please join me, starting Monday, as we look at Wise Words from Pharaoh Akhenaton.

If you would like to be inspired by quotes on all sorts of other topics, you can look forward to hearing from the other ladies at the iHomeschool Network as well!  I'll point you their way as soon as the series officially starts.