MOSES AS AN EGYPTIAN: A DEFENSE OF FREUD'S THEORY IN LIGHT OF HISTORY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

Abstract

Sigmund Freud's proposal in Moses and Monotheism (1939) that Moses was an Egyptian, influenced by the monotheistic cult of Aten under Pharaoh Akhenaten, challenges traditional interpretations of Jewish religion and raises profound questions about collective memory, repression, and religious identity. This article defends the Freudian hypothesis based on historical, psychoanalytic, and cultural arguments, also drawing on the studies of Friedrich Wilhelm Sellin, James Henry Breasted, and Adolf Erman. Although controversial, Freud's theory proposes a valid interpretative model for the origins of monotheism and the Mosaic religion, considering the complex interaction between Egypt and the Hebrew people during the second millennium BC.