Moses and Monotheism Highly controversial, with good reason. Freud, as historian, could be careless with facts, and overgeneralize from his psychoanalytic theories to presumed events in the remote past. If you think there are serious problems with this book you would be right. However, the influence of Moses and Monotheism has been considerable and casts a shadow to this day. The value in the book consists of the many questions it suggests. It makes you think, really think, in ways that most other books about religion simply do not. It is one of those books about which, for all of the mistakes in its pages, it can be said that it is essential reading for any student of religion, Billy --------------------------- Moses and Monotheism >From Wikipedia
Moses and Monotheism (in German Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion) is a 1937 book by _Sigmund Freud_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud) , published in English translation in 1939. In it Freud hypothesizes that _Moses_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses) was not _Jewish_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish) , but actually born into _Ancient Egyptian_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt) nobility and was perhaps a follower of _Akhenaten_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten) , an ancient Egyptian _monotheist_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism) , or perhaps Akhenaten himself. The book consists of three parts and is an extension of Freud's work on _psychoanalytic theory_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalytic_theory) as a means of generating hypotheses about historical events. Freud had similarly employed psychoanalytic theory to history in his much earlier work, _Totem and Taboo_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totem_and_Taboo) . As well as in his ever-expanding library on the subject, Freud's interest in Egypt manifested itself in an impressive collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts. A selection of the smaller bronzes was permanently on display on his desk both in Vienna and London. In Moses and Monotheism, Freud contradicts the _Biblical_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible) story of Moses with his own retelling of events claiming that Moses only led his close followers into freedom during an unstable period in Egyptian history after Akhenaten and that they subsequently killed Moses in rebellion and later combined with another monotheistic tribe in Midian based on a volcanic God. Freud explains that years after the murder of Moses, the rebels regretted their action thus forming the concept of the Messiah as a hope for the return of Moses as the _Saviour_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvation) of the _Israelites_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israelites) . Freud said that the _guilt_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilt_(emotion)) from the murder of Moses is inherited through the generations; this guilt then drives the _Jews_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew) to _religion_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion) to make them feel better. ----------------------------------------- Egyptian influences in the Hebrew Bible >From Wikipedia It is generally accepted that some of the texts of the _Hebrew Bible_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Bible) have precedents in earlier (_Bronze Age_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age) ) _Ancient Near Eastern religions_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Near_Eastern_religions) and mythology, especially Mesopotamian (see _Panbabylonianism_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panbabylonianism) ), but to a lesser extent also Ancient Egyptian. For instance, material from the _Book of Proverbs_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Proverbs) derives directly from the _Instruction of Amenemope_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instruction_of_Amenemope) ._[1]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism_and_ancient_Egyptian_religion#cite_note-1) The religion of the ancient _kingdom of Judah_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Judah) was an amalgamation of local _Canaanite_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan) traditions. _Yahweh_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh_(Canaanite_deity)) was in origin a _Moabite_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moabite) deity, _Elohim_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elohim) was a group of deities from _Ugaritic religion_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugaritic_religion) , _Jerusalem_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem) was in origin a _Jebusite_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jebusite) city with the tutelary deity _Tsedek_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzadik) . These Canaanite traditions which gave rise to Israelite and ultimately ancient Jewish religion were in turn influenced by older Mesopotamian and possibly also Egyptian traditions. The consensus of modern scholarship is, however, that there was little or no direct influence of _Ancient Egyptian religion_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_religion) on _early Judaism_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple_Judaism) . _Sigmund Freud_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud) 's theory deriving Israelite _monolatrism_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolatrism) from Egyptian _Atenism_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atenism) , put forward in his _Moses and Monotheism_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_and_Monotheism) of 1939, has little support among modern scholars. --------------------------------------------------- -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
