Psalm 104 and the Great Hymn to the Aten

1 What Scripture says

"Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey… The sun ariseth… Man goeth forth unto his work… O LORD, how manifold are thy works!" (Psalm 104:20–24).

2 What evidence we might expect

Direct dependence would show shared wording and order beyond what any hymn about day and night would contain, and a plausible route by which the Egyptian text reached Israel.
Shared imagery alone would show common themes with different theology and structure.

3 What ancient sources survive

Great Hymn to the Aten

Language: Egyptian (Late Egyptian)
Composed: Reign of Akhenaten, c. 1353–1336 BC
Oldest surviving copy: Inscription in the tomb of Ay at Amarna (Tomb 25)
Status: Not scripture

Praises the sun-disc as sole creator. Night: "every lion comes from its den, all the serpents bite"; dawn: people wake and work; "ships fare north and south"; fish leap before the sun; "How many are your deeds, though hidden from sight, O sole god." (Wording follows standard English translations; to be cited claim by claim, C check.)

Psalm 104

Language: Hebrew
Composed: Unknown; many date it to the monarchy or later
Oldest surviving copy: Qumran Psalms manuscripts preserve parts of Psalm 104 (coverage to be checked, C); Leningrad Codex (AD 1008)
Status: Scripture

The LORD clothes himself with light, sets the earth on foundations, waters it, appoints the moon and sun; night is also his, the lions "seek their meat from God."

Earlier and later Egyptian sun hymns

Language: Egyptian
Composed: Before and after the Amarna period
Oldest surviving copy: Various papyri and inscriptions
Status: Not scripture

Hymns to Amun-Re and to the sun with related themes existed before Akhenaten and continued after his religion was abandoned; some scholars see these, not the Aten hymn itself, as the more likely bridge (reported).

Amarna letter EA 147

Language: Akkadian
Composed: c. 1350 BC
Oldest surviving copy: Clay tablet from Amarna
Status: Not scripture

A letter from Abimilki, ruler of Tyre, praises Pharaoh in sun-hymn language, which some scholars cite as evidence that such imagery was known in Canaan (reported).

4 What discoveries exist

The Aten hymn was copied from the tomb of Ay at Amarna in the late 19th century. In 1909 J. H. Breasted drew attention to its resemblance to Psalm 104, and the comparison has been discussed ever since. Akhenaten's religion was suppressed after his death and his city abandoned, which is why the route by which any of its hymnody could reach Israel centuries later is the central problem.

Clay tablet letter from the Amarna archive — Authentic ancient artifactAn Amarna letter (14th century BC, British Museum): Biridiya, king of Megiddo in Canaan, writes in Akkadian cuneiform to the Egyptian pharaoh.Image credit

5 How interpretations compare

Scholarly reconstruction

Direct literary dependence

The psalmist knew the Aten hymn, perhaps in a translation, and adapted it to the LORD.

Evidence offered: Similar sequence in Psalm 104:20–26 (night, lions, dawn, work, ships, sea creatures); the exclamation about the multitude of works.

Assessment: Possible but hard to demonstrate: no intermediate text is known and the Aten cult did not survive Akhenaten.

Scholarly reconstruction

Indirect transmission

Egyptian solar hymnody, broader and longer-lived than Akhenaten's version, influenced Canaanite and then Israelite hymns about creation.

Evidence offered: Related Egyptian hymns before and after Amarna; Egyptian influence elsewhere in Israelite wisdom (e.g. Proverbs 22–24 and the Instruction of Amenemope).

Assessment: Widely considered the most plausible form of influence; the specific route remains unknown.

Alternative explanation

Shared observation of the world

Any hymn praising a creator for day, night, animals and seasons will share themes; the similarities need no literary contact.

Evidence offered: The natural order is the same in Egypt and the Levant.

Assessment: Explains some parallels, but the specific sequence in vv. 20–26 is closer than general observation would require.

6 The strongest supported reconstruction

Psalm 104 shares imagery and some sequences with Egyptian sun hymnody, of which the Aten hymn is the best-known example. Its theology differs sharply: the sun is a creature that "knoweth his going down," night belongs to God as much as day, and Leviathan is God's plaything. Influence from Egyptian hymnody is plausible; direct copying from the Aten hymn is not demonstrated.

7 What remains possible or unknown

Whether the psalmist knew any Egyptian hymn directly.
By what route Egyptian solar imagery reached Israelite poetry.
When Psalm 104 was composed.

8 How this material came to us

The library's Hebrew, Greek (Giguet), Latin and English agree in substance (D check). Comparisons with the Aten hymn use published translations; the site has not checked the hieroglyphic text (C check).

What the evidence shows

Strongly supportedPsalm 104 and the Aten hymn share imagery and sequence.
DisputedPsalm 104 copies the Aten hymn directly.
Independently documentedThe Aten hymn is inscribed in the tomb of Ay at Amarna.