Em hotep,

We know that Akhnaten and Moses were one and the same person. This is central to our beliefs as Atenists.

But why have 2 Names? Why not always go by Akhnaten or always go by Moses? Why switch from one to the other? As we shall see, the reason for the name change was not to cause confusion, but because circumstances at the time, prohibited from Akhnaten to use His name.

In point of fact, Akhnaten was not the birth name of Akhnaten. The birth name of Akhnaten was Amenhotp the 4th, son of Amenhotep the 3rd and Queen Tiye, the daughter of Yuya (Joseph from the narrative of Joseph in Egypt).

Being the daughter of a Hebrew Pharoah, Tiye was multicultural. This meant that her son, Amenhotep the 3rd, was partially Egyptian and partially Hebrew as well, of course.

The reigning Pharoah at the time, did not want a child of mixed lineage to sit on the Throne which is why there was an edict to have all male children killed when Moses was a child.

Moses, then, was not the son of a Hebrew couple but the son of a Egyptian King and an Egyptian/Hebrew Queen.

Something people do not know much about is the etymology of Moses’ name. Everyone believes he is called this because “He was drawn out of the waters” but to get to the truth, you have to look at the Name: the suffix “es” was a latter Greek addition. The real part of the name is “Mose”.

We will come back to this in a bit (Just hold onto that thought for the moment).

Jumping to Amenhotep becoming Akhneaten. He chose this name as He was a dutiful servant of Aten.

When the Priests of Amun raged against the Amarna Revolution and sought to have Akhenaten overthrown, all record of Akhenaten, Samenkhare, Tutenkhaten and Aye, (The Thustomisside pharaohs) were expunged from the record of Egypt. All traces of their names and identities were to be removed from the public.

This happened at a time when Akhenaten was still very much alive!

Akhenaten was of the Royal Egyptian lineage of Thutmose. So this was the name he used in an area that forbade any mention of Amenhotep the 4th or Akhenaten.

So when he came back to the Pharoah to be an advocate for the Hebrew people, he was known as Mose/Moshe/Mosha/Musa/Moses. (see? I told you we would get back to that point, eventually).

May Aten bless you