There are certain clues that the biblical prophet Moses had links to Atenism, the monotheistic solar cult introduced and imposed on the Ancient Egyptians by the maverick Pharaoh Akhenaten. Sometimes Moses' God is called Adonai, which may be a related word to Aten/Aton. There are also similarities between the Biblical Psalm 104 and the Egyptian 'great hymn to Aten' (See Appendix). This hymn, attributed to the heretic king, was inscribed in a tomb near Akhenaten's short lived capital Akhetaten (modern Tel-El Amarna).

Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their daughters venerating Aten.

The tomb in question was the original tomb of Ay, the Grand Visier, who ultimately succeeded as Pharaoh and who turned his back on Atenism (after the brief reigns of Semkhare and Tutankhamen). Ay was succeeded as king by Horemhab, the general of the army. Horemhab totally erased the cult of Aten and probably was the pharaoh who expelled the Hebrews. (This may have coincided with the Thera eruption, fall out from which could explain the plagues of Egypt- it's a compelling theory anyway and one explored well by Graham Phillips among others). Some have even supported the claim that Moses and Akhenaten were one and the same. This hypothesis seems highly unlikely. Surely if a former king became a prophet it would have been recorded somewhere. Moses could, however, have been a priest of Aten fleeing Horemhab's persecution.

The idea of the Ark of the Covenant, however, which Moses introduced, does not seem to me to be reconcilable with what we know of Atenism or any form of solar worship. It is more like a shrine for an ancient Egyptian idol, with poles for carrying in procession. This seems to tap into an older Egyptian tradition- although in the Ark's case the conventional statue was replaced by the stone tablets of the law. Moses does not seem to have completely practiced the monotheism he supposedly preached. The 'cherubim' on the Ark have their precedents in the winged Egyptian goddesses Isis and Nepthys, and another part of the Bible Moses (Numbers 21: 4-9) seems to instruct his followers to venerate a brazen statue of a serpent, as a protection against snake bites. Now this is hard to reconcile with the commandments against idolatry or the making of graven images; or the outrage with which Moses reacted to the worship of the golden calf! Maybe, in the latter case, he was not so concerned with idolatry in itself, but in the people engaging in religious practices which he himself did not control!

Winged Egyptian goddesses, recalling the biblical cherubim on the lid of the Ark of Moses. From the shrine doors surounding the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.

Appendix: 'The Great Hymn to Aten'

At daybreak, when thou arisest on the horizon,
When thou shinest as the Aton by day,
Thou drivest away the darkness
and givest thy rays.
The Two Lands are in festivity every day,
Awake and standing upon (their) feet,
For thou hast raised them up.
Washing their bodies, taking (their) clothing,
Their arms are (raised) in praise
at thy appearance.
All the world, they do their work.

All beasts are content with their pasturage;
Trees and plants are flourishing.
The birds which fly from their nests,
Their wings are (stretched) out
in praise to thy Ka.
All beasts spring upon (their) feet...
Whatever flies and alights,
They live when thou hast risen (for) them.
The ships are sailing north and south as well,
For every way is open at thy appearance.
The fish in the river dart before thy face;
Thy rays are in the midst of the great green sea.

Creator of seed in women,
Thou who makest fluid into man,
Who maintainest the son in the womb of his mother,
Who soothest him with that which
stills his weeping,
Thou nurse (even) in the womb,
Who givest breath to sustain all that he has made!
When he descends from the womb to breathe
On the day when he is born,
Thou openest his mouth completely,
Thou suppliest his necessities.
When the chick in the egg
speaks within the shell,
Thou givest him breath within it to maintain him.
When thou hast made him his fulfillment
within the egg, to break it,
He comes forth from the egg to speak
at his completed (time);
He walks upon his legs
when he comes forth from it.

How manifold it is, what thou hast made!
There are hidden from the face (of man).
O sole god, like whom there is no other!
Thou didst create the world
according to thy desire,
Whilst thou wert alone;
All men, cattle and wild beasts,
Whatever is on earth, going upon (its) feet,
And what is on high, flying with its wings.

The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt, Thou settest every man in his place,
Thou suppliest their necessities:
Everyone has his food, and his time of life
is reckoned.
Their tongues are separate in speech,
And their natures as well.
Their skins are distinguished,
As thou distinguishest the foreign peoples.
Thou makest a Nile in the underworld,
Thou bringest it forth as thou desirest
To maintain the people (of Egypt)
According as thou madest them from thyself,
The lord of all of them, wearying (himself)
with them,
The lord of every land, rising for them,
the Aton of the day, great of majesty.

All distant foreign countries,
thou makest their life (also),
For thou hast set a Nile in heaven,
That it may descend for them and make waves
upon the mountains,
Like the great green sea,
To water their fields in their towns.
How effective they are, thy plans,
O lord of eternity!
The Nile in heaven, it is for the foreign peoples
And for the beasts of every desert
that go upon (their) feet;
(While the true) Nile comes from the underworld for Egypt.

Thy rays suckle every meadow.
When thou risest, they live, they grow for thee.
Thou makest the seasons in order to rear
all that thou hast made,
The winter to cool them,
And the heat that they may taste thee.
Thou hast made the distant sky
in order to rise therein,
In order to see all that thou dost make.
Whilst thou wert alone,
Rising in the form as the living Aton,
Appearing shining, withdrawing or approaching,
Thou madest millions of forms of thyself alone.
Cities, town, fields, road, and river--
Every eye beholds thee over against them,
For thou art the Aton of the day
over the earth . . .

Thou art in my heart,
And is no other that knows thee
Save thy son Nefer-kheperu-Re Wa-en-Re,
For thou hast made him well-versed in thy plans and in they strength.

The world came in to being by thy hand,
According as thou hast made them.
When thou hast risen they live,
When thou settest they die.
Thou art lifetime thy own self,
For one lives (only) through thee.
Eyes are (fixed) on beauty until thou settest.
All work is laid aside
when thou settest in the west.
(But) when (thou) risest (again),
[Everything is] made to flourish
for the king, . . .
Since thou didst found the earth
And raise them up for thy son,
Who came forth from thy body:
the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, . . .
Akh-en-Aton, . . . . and the Chief Wife
of the King . . . Nefer-iti,
living and youthful forever and ever.