Moses and Monotheism - by Sigmund Freud Part 2

If Moses Was an Egyptian...

Part 2 of this book assumes that Moses was an Egyptian and explains how an Egyptian could come to be the founder of the Jewish religion.  The ancient Egyptian religion was polytheistic and very concerned with death and the afterlife, while the Jewish religion was rigidly monotheistic and does not speak of the afterlife. So how could an Egyptian found the Jewish religion?

The answer is that for a short period, perhaps 17 years, an Egyptian Pharaoh established a new religion that was remarkably similar to the one later adopted by the Jews. In roughly 1330 BC Pharaoh Akhenaten (or Ikhnaton) established a new monotheistic religion that worshiped a moral, just sun god, Aton (Aten), and deemphasized the role of death and afterlife.

Freud speculates that this new religion based on the worship of Aton later became the core of the Jewish religion. He also points out that circumcision was practiced by the Egyptians long before adopted by the Jews and that the Egyptians considered it a sign of distinction from the barbarians elsewhere.  It was a mark of cultural superiority - and as such would have been adopted by Moses.

Exodus
Moses was probably a member of Akhenaten's household, or part of the nobility that had accepted this new monotheistic religion. After Akhenaten was overthrown, the old religions were reestablished. Moses gathered ("chose") a disaffected portion of the population, the Jews, and left Egypt to establish a new state where the religion of Aton could be practiced.  Moses would have just left Egypt, without the need of miracles, because following the overthrow of the Pharoah, the country was in state of turmoil, with no central leader.

To make a long story short, the refugees went east and eventually met up with a another tribe, the Midianites, who were probably kin, that lived in the area of Qades. Moses died somewhere along the way - proabably killed by the refugees themselves. His teachings were kept alive by his immediate family and followers, later called the Levites.

The Midianties worshipped a different god, Jahve (Jehovah) who was a volcano/fire/lightening/mountain god. After a few generations (Freud speculates two generations) these two religions merged into one. Many of the names and forms of the Midiante religion were kept, but the substance was primarily that of the Egyptian Moses. This new blended religion contained miracles and other inventions designed to create one unified and glorious story that gave credit to both cultures.

Dualism
I was most interested in this last part of Freud's account.  I have always felt that the Bible described two very different gods, one of light which is universal, indescribable and concerned with living a moral and just life. The other god was very human in appearance and his passions - and particularly vengeful and jealous.

Frued's account would explain this dualism. In reference to the Mediante god, he states, "The god Jahve ... was probably in no way a remarkable being. A rude, narrow-minded local god, violent and bloodthirsty, he had promised his adherents to give them 'a land flowing with milk and honey' and encouraged them to rid the country of its present inhabitants 'with the edge of the sword.'" This god was probably not even monotheistic, but just one more local god.

The god of the Egyptian Moses however was an entirely different nature - and Freud credits the Jewish people that it is from this version that they draw their inspiration.