First, A Timeline Sketch
2000 BC——-—1700–1500–1300–1200--1000 BC
The ancient Patriarchal religion of Abraham was established somewhere between 2000 to 1500 BC.
- The Israelites sojourn into Egypt occurred somewhere around 1700 BC.
- Akhenaten reigned from 1353 to 1336 BC.
- The Exodus of Israel, led by Moses, occurred somewhere around 1446 to 1224 BC.
- The collapse of the Bronze Age occurred somewhere around 1170 BC.
There is an observable evolution from Abraham’s Patriarchal religion, to his sojourn through the Fertile Crescent to Canaan circa 2000 BC to the sojourn of the Israelites into Egypt circa 1700 BC. Circa 1350 BC the Pharaoh Akhenaten upended Pharaonic Egypt with their multiple nature gods and centered his life upon the conceptualization that is often attributed as monotheism. Following this the Exodus of Israel occurs between 1446 to 1224 BC, and the Bronze Age collapse occurred circa 1177 BC.
The Patriarchal religion of Abraham came into being circa 2000 BC, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was well established by circa 1700 BC when famine caused them to travel to Egypt for sustenance. Akhenaten introduces the concept of a ONE God circa 1350 BC, right about the occurrence of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt.
Zooming in
Ralph K. Hawkins in the articles referenced here* observes that "within the Hebrew Bible, "there is a stark difference between Israelite religion in the ancestral period of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, described in Genesis, and that of the Mosaic period across the rest of the Pentateuch (the five Books of Moses, i.e. the Torah, or “Old Testament”)." The Abrahamic covenant is a foundational promise made by God to Abraham, which involves blessings for all nations as a result of Abraham and his descendants living faithfully and being a blessing to others. This covenant is considered a central and enduring theme in the Hebrew Bible and Christianity, with its promises being fulfilled through Abraham's lineage and ultimately in the New Covenant through Jesus.
The Mosaic Covenant was a conditional covenant between God and the nation of Israel centered upon God’s law as delivered to Moses (the Ten Commandments). This covenant stipulated blessings for living by blessing others and curses for self-centeredness. The Ten Commandments, God's principles provided a guide for Israel to live as according to this concept. Of course the reality is much deeper than this, but this is a sufficient overview I think.
Just to insert the concept here, the New Covenant (New Testament) covenant is a new agreement established through the life, death and ascension of Jesus that promises forgiveness and direct access to God through the Holy Spirit, that is available to all who have faith, a key element in the Christian understanding of God's relationship with humanity.
Observations of Rememberance
Hawkins observes that "In the ancestral period, God was generally referred to by epithets that begin with El, which was the general Hebrew word for 'god.' The ancestors were very free in their worship, which could be carried out at a variety of sacred sites without the assistance of priests, and which might include: building altars; setting up stones and pouring libations over them; and planting trees. There does not seem to have been an emphasis on holiness and its maintenance."
My interpretation of this is that, like humanity's nature religions, when humans were free to move about, they were more free in their forms of worship of their deity. This included the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of Israel.
But Hawkins observes that "Mosaic religion was very different and included: the revelation and broader usage of the divine name Yahweh; the restriction of worship to selected sites; the facilitation of sacrifice by priests; the prohibition of standing stones and trees; and an emphasis on holiness. Clearly, the system of worship established as part of the covenant and enshrined in the Torah of Moses was something new."
My interpretation of this is that as humanity increasingly settled into localized cultures. Humanity became increasingly urban. As a part of their religious worship "restrictions" or "prescriptions" were developed to foster improved civilization, that is, promoting restrictions that foster working together rather than allowing for unrestricted worship capabilities. This is a tension that has long been a stressful point between urban and rural humanity. Perhaps the collapse of the Bronze Age in 1177 BC promoted such restrictions to attempt to improve living conditions.
Hawkins notes that by about 1700 BC the book of "Genesis ends by recounting that the Israelites migrated to Egypt during a time of famine. The Bible indicates that the Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years. [So] there was a period of centuries between the conclusion of the ancestral period and the start of the Mosaic period. Did [the Israelites] continue to observe ancestral practices, or did they succumb to the influence of Egyptian religion? Let's consider the evidence from the Book of Exodus that suggests the Israelites maintained various aspects of their ancestral religion."
"The first piece of evidence may be the Hebrew midwives' fear of God. When the Hebrews grew numerous, Pharaoh worried that they might increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land .... the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites'. Pharoah commanded the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah to allow female Hebrews to be born, but to kill any baby boys. These midwives, however, 'feared God' and 'did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the boys live' ... the Hebrews continued to multiply. The midwives claimed that the Hebrew women were more vigorous than Egyptian women and that they would simply give birth before a midwife could arrive." In this text, Hawkins notes, "the text refers to deity with the common noun elohim without a definite article [e.g.the deity], but in one instance, however, it is used with a definite article, meaning 'the deity.'" Might Akhenaten have had a greater influence on the concepts of deity than he is given credit for?
"The second piece of evidence is found in the story of the burning bush," Hawkins says, 'when God calls to Moses, saying, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' (Exodus 3:6). ... the phrase 'the God of your fathers' is a formula that refers to the ancestral God. Since the formula connects the deity with the ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the word 'fathers' is always in the plural. In God's call to Moses from the burning bush, however, it is in the singular: 'I am the God of your father' [as well as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob]. Could this be a clue that Moses's immediate family had maintained faithfulness to Yahweh?"
Hawkins notes that "a third piece of evidence may be that the divine name YHWH, [Yahweh, or Yehowah, or Jehovah] had already been known in ancestral times. When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, Moses asked God how he should answer the Israelites if they were to ask the name of the deity who sent him. God answered Moses, 'The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'. Several chapters later, [the translators of] the King James Version rendered it 'And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them?'" It seems that the ancestors, at least at some point(s) in their 430 years in Egypt, knew and maintained reverence for the name ofYahweh.
"A fourth piece of evidence may be the appearance in Exodus of theophoric names that include a form of the name Yahweh." Jochebed (Yokhebed), the name of Moses's mother, is a compound of Yah (short for 'Yahweh') and 'glory' (kabod) meaning 'Yah[weh] is glory.' And the etymology of the name Joshua (Yehoshua) probably meant either 'Yahweh is victory', 'Yahweh is salvation' or 'Yahweh rescues'.
Observations of Forgetfulness
This suggests that the ancestral religion of the Patriarchs persisted among the Israelites who lived in Egypt during the long sojourn between the Ancestral and Mosaic periods. A period of some 400+ years. But material in Exodus, as well as in later biblical and post-biblical traditions suggests that at least a significant number abandoned the memory of YHWH, at least in part.
Hawkins points to the first piece of evidence: "the Israelites’ neglect of the practice of circumcision. According to the Pentateuch, circumcision was instituted in and practiced throughout the ancestral period. It was the sign of the covenant God made with Abraham and was to be a perpetual ordinance for Abraham and his descendants. Early Jewish interpreters supposed that when Pharaoh’s daughter opens the basket in which Moses has been placed and exclaims that he is a Hebrew it must be because she observes that he is circumcised. However, some modern scholars have pointed out that since Pharaoh has decreed that all Hebrew baby boys must be thrown into the Nile, she would surely conclude that any child so abandoned to the river must be Israelite. Many years later, when Moses is returning to Egypt after having lived among the Midianites for about two decades, he is traveling with his wife, Zipporah, and his son, Gershom. The text, though difficult, appears to recount that, along the way an attempt to kill Gershom is made because he is uncircumcised. This would seem to indicate that, as an Israelite, Moses should have already circumcised Gershom on the eighth day after his birth, in accordance with the patriarchal tradition. Clearly, however, he had not."
"A second piece of evidence that the Israelites abandoned their ancestral religion may be that they did not practice sacrifice while in Egypt. According to Exodus 5:1, Moses and Aaron petition Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go, so that they can celebrate a festival in the wilderness: 'Let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God, or he will fall upon us with pestilence or sword'. A Mosaic explanation was that 'from the time our ancestors left Canaan we have not offered him a single sacrifice.' The implication is that the Israelites could suffer greatly for their neglect of sacrificial worship."
"A third clue may be that the Israelites did not know the divine name Yahweh. [While it seems that] the ancestors had known the name Yahweh; yet, over 400 years later, when God appears to Moses in the burning bush and announces that he is going to send him to liberate the Israelites, Moses asks how he should answer if they ask him the name of the god who sent him. Although there are several interpretive possibilities, one suggestion is that, if they had known the divine name in Egypt, they must have forgotten it."
"A fourth clue is the golden calf episode. There were numerous bull, cow, and calf divinities in ancient Egypt, and the golden calf probably represented one or more of these. That the Israelites would so quickly return to the worship of one of those deities suggests that they had become familiar and comfortable with them during their time in Egypt."
"A fifth indication is that of later biblical traditions in which the period of Egyptian bondage was characterized by idolatry. The Book of Joshua claims that, after the people had moved into the Promised Land, Joshua led the Israelites in a covenant renewal service in which he challenged the people to 'put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt and serve the Lord'. Apparently, during the period of Egyptian bondage, some Israelites worshiped the gods of Mesopotamia, while others had adopted the worship of the gods of Egypt. ... In the sixth century BCE, the prophet Ezekiel recounted that, when Yahweh had chosen Israel and swore to them that he would bring them out of Egypt, he urged them to cast away the gods of Egypt, but 'not one of them cast away the detestable things on which their eyes feasted, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt'."
Take Aways
In this evolution I see a natural transition from rural "nature religion" to urban "community religion" and an exodus back to the nature religion with an emphasis on, perhaps, Akhenaten's observation that God was the 'One source of energy that is in the sun disc', emphasizing a universal essence without mythology or symbolism. God was, and is, universal energy. Science has shown that is a reference to photons–light.
Akhenaten conceptualized and lived his truth regarding the divine. He viewed God, represented by Aten, as the 'energy within the disk (of the Sun)', which he believed was the source of all life and vitality. Unlike traditional Egyptian beliefs that involved a pantheon of gods with complex mythologies, Akhenaten's approach was monotheistic, focusing solely on the worship of Aten without any accompanying mythology or symbolic representations. This perspective marked a significant departure from the established urban religious practices of ancient Egypt where over 2,000 deities were worshipped.
Akhenaten's belief system was characterized by a direct and personal relationship with the divine, which he expressed through simple acts of worship rather than through elaborate rituals or idol worship. Like humanity's ancient nature religion, Akhenaten focused on respect for what is rather than conceptualize or create a system of religious urbanization for what may be.
Like the ancient "nature religions" where existence on this Earth was seen to have a physical, spiritual, and conceptual nature, Akhenaten recognized and focused ONLY upon the adoration of the universal energy of God. That is, until he was politically overthrown by his former urban religion.
It seems that Moses was attempting a similar path, but recognized that the urbanization of the Israelites necessitated a form of "balanced organization" that strived to focus attention upon the Divine while at the same time delineating religious actions and organization to ensure harmony within the civilization.
For our era, the questions is: are we seeing a returning to an individual focus upon the divine and the universal energy of light, or to an “urbanization of religion” dictating rules and regulations that are more easily ignored than observed?
* Between Moses and the Ancestors: Israelite Religion in Egypt, Biblical Archaeology Review, Spring 2025; and Losing Abraham’s Religion, Biblical Archaeology Review, Fall 2025.