Greg’s Blog Post

Mankind has an innate tendency to latch onto the concept of a higher plane, as well as the existence of entities that fall under another ilk. When a phenomenon cannot be detailed or identified properly according to scientific methods, we divert our gaze towards deities that are clad in mystery—which does little in-terms of advancing knowledge of the unknown. To be fair, a myriad of circumstances surrounding denizens of the old days must be taken into account when attempting to concoct a fair overview of their belief system(s). Any traits or notable oddities present within cosmogonies must be taken in earnest, because the texts that remain from that era are our only viewpoint into the minds that drafted the same documents. Our lack of access to live testimonies means we must pay special attention to recurring themes, or even the sensitivity of interpretations. The Great Hymn to the Aten and Genesis both possess the idea of light and darkness, which are typically linked with good and evil. But, are these terms (light/darkness) exclusively bound to their default associations? Or are they meant to be judged under a very specific context? To add, are they (light/darkness & good/evil) meant to coexist with one another in a harmonious sense, or can a reality exist with just one?

In The Great Hynm to the Aten, the elements are depicted as being life and death :

You fill every land with your beauty (…)

Your rays embrace the lands (…)

When you set in Western lightland

Earth is in darkness as if in death (…)

Darkness hovers, earth is silent. (lines 4-22)

The light emitted from the sun is considered beautiful, which is painfully obvious just from reading the text. Believers of this faith held the rays responsible for all of the activity on earth: work can commence, babies are nourished in the womb, and animals can traverse the sky, water, and land. Once the sun sets, the world is clad in darkness. All activity ceases to be, the warmth of God recedes, and predatory animals linger under the night sky. Nightfall’s description lacks any resemblance of beauty, due to it being a brief window into death; however, people are normally dormant at night, so they do not normally appreciate the darkness to the same degree. In their eyes darkness (probably) obscured any beauty that they could observe with the aid of the sun. While the sun is not of great importance in Genesis, light and darkness are present in a different manner.

During the world’s creation, the word good is utilized heavily throughout in order to describe God’s feelings. This word bears significance seeing as how the “Tree of knowledge” is clearly not following the same pattern as other creations in the world. The concept of death is also established at this point, “you shall not eat, for on the day you eat from it, you are doomed to die (pg 160).” For a caution such as this to be dispensed there must be something negative about the tree, even though it thrives on sacred grounds. But, for what purpose can a source of mortality serve to a creator?