Yahweh in Egypt

[David19]

I was hoping someone might know something about this. I heard and read on a site (can't remember which one) that Yahweh was/is a Egyptian moon god called Yah. Is this true?

Also does anyone know if Yahweh was ever worshipped in Egypt, by either Egyptians or the Hebrews while they were there or was his worship only done after the Exodus since i wanted to know where Yahweh was originally worshipped since i've heard several things like he only revealed himself to the Hebrews, he was originally a Midianite god and a Arabian war god (i think that was it) and a god that declared a war on the other Jewish/Hebrew gods.

Anyway thanks for any help.

BTW, i hope this is the right forum :)

[Ishtara]

There is indeed a Kemetic moon god named Iah.
Unfortunately, Iah is one of the many Names of Netjer about Whom very little is known. His name appears mostly in Middle Kingdom texts and, I think, in the Papyrus of Ani as well, but these are only short mentions.

Unless egyptologists discover more information about Iah, such as His attributes and His epithets, I think it is next to impossible to prove/disprove a connection with Yahweh.

[Necrosapien]

One thing I would like to add briefly: the word halleighlujah literally means "praise be to Yah." ...and as far as I know, Yah is a shortened or earlier version of Yahweh (YHVH). Thought I'd throw that in there...

[Sekhmet Soul30]

I think that Yahweh is a Egyptian God that came with the Children of Israel and the supreme one that was going to give them the land of Egypt took on this name because the Hebrew's connected to that name. My personal view.

[Phoenix_Falls]

I think that Yahweh is a Egyptian God that came with the Children of Israel and the supreme one that was going to give them the land of Egypt took on this name because the Hebrew's connected to that name. My personal view.

That's a cool thought, but Iah/Ah had already been deity-nommed by Wesir/Osiris, Khonsu/Chons/Khons and Djehuti/Thoth/Tehuti by the time Hebrew scholars say the Israelites were in Egypt. Actually, the original story about how the intercalerary days were formed, had Djehuti winning the days from Ah instead of Khonsu, which may actually make Ah a Pre-Dynastic god which would have been *well* before the Israelites were majority monotheistic.

I can't really remember off the top of my head though. I'll see if I can find the info in one of my books and get back to you on that.

[Annyka]

I'd like to know more on this... It's very interesting.

[Phoenix_Falls]

Alight, so I've checked out what books I've got and I can't find the one I'm looking for. All references to Aah/Aha/Ah/Iah are just that He was nearly indistinguishable from Kohnsu, was sometimes depicted as having an ibis head and had a form called Ah-Djehuti.

However, in the Encyclopedia of Egyptian Pharaohs Darrell D. Baker, Norman Jacobson (2008), I checked for any references to Aah in the names of the Kings and the first name I came across was Hor-Aha [also known as Aha/Horus-Aha and Heru-Aha: nebty-name Ity] who ruled in the 31st century BCE (circa 3050BCE). King Narmer, the famous unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt was Hor-Aha's father. Either way, it's clear that Aah was an already established deity by the First Dynasty and it's safe to assume, He's a Pre-Dynastic god.

The first known mention of the Israelites isn't until Merneptah and the Merneptah Stella in the Ninteenth Dynasty (c. 1213BCE). So just based on this information, there's no way that Aha could have originally been a Hebrew god which influenced the Egyptians into taking Him on.

Also, there's just no cultural context for it at all. The Ancient Egyptians didn't adopt gods of slave-nations. While they did indeed adopt several deities from Nubia, whom they had a very antagonistic relationship with, Nubia wasn't considered a slave-nation even though Nubians were often taken as slaves.

Although Merneptah's Stella mentions Israel, Abrahamic scholars say that descriptions would make the Pharaoh of Egypt during Israel's captivity as Rameses II, Merneptah's father. There are many Biblical and Jewish scholars though (not to mention non-secular anthropologists) who say that the Exodus story is an allegorical tale and not a literal story since, as of yet, there hasn't been any compelling evidence for that many people wandering around in the desert and although Ancient Egypt was notorious for covering up their mistakes (and indeed, thousands of slaves leaving would be seen as a BIG mistake), the Egyptian economy would have tanked immediately after the slaves leaving, not to mention there would have been a ton of campaigns to replace that many missing slaves, and I'm not even going to get into the "plagues" since that's another subject entirely.

[Brunhilda]

There was a temple at Elephantine. It apparently had issues with the nearby temple of Khnum. I think this is the temple mentioned in the Jeremiah.

[Sekhmet Soul30]

Interesting, Brunhilda. So is the Temple of Khnum the one mentioned in Jeremiah or the other one? If I'm confused forgive me.

[ninurta2008]

The Egyptian Yah's name being similar to the hebrew is actually just a coincidence. In egyption, YHWH is spelled yhw. Yahweh is actually related to the canaanite Yaw/yw.

[7 of Swords]

I came upon this thread and was reminded of a line from one of my books I was rereading, where supposedly the name of the hebrew god is mentioned in an egyptian medical papyri alongside kemetic Gods.

The book is by W. Max Muller and the papyrus is the Demotic Magical Papyrus of London.

According to the book the hebrew god was known as yaho-sabaho abiaho to the ancient egyptians. This shows to me that the ancient people of kemet knew of the god, though this deity was generally left out of the affairs of the Netjeru. Of course from what I understand if a purpose was important enough one could invoke any number of foreign gods as a means to an end, without necissarily worshipping them on a regular basis.

Another idea is that the particular papyrus in question was an invocation of the Gods to heal a dog bite. My personal hypothesis is that because of the simple nature of the wound and the regularity of such an injury that perhaps many slaves may have suffered from dog bites. Most likely egyptian doctors would treat the hebrews and perhaps threw in the name of their god for their benefit? Clearly the slaves were not forced into the kemetic ways, so can it be assumed they might have a few courtesies for when interacting with the slaves?

Anyway this is the only example of such a thing I can think of, and I've never read such a reference elsewhere so who knows.

Anyway here's a scan from the Muller passage. Hopefully it's big enough here to read.