Akhenaten to Origen: Characteristics of Philosophical Thought in Ancient Africa

Author(s): Molefi Kete Asante and Shaza Ismail

Source: Journal of Black Studies , Nov., 2009, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Nov., 2009), pp. 296-309
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40282635

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 Journal of Black Studies

November 2009 296-309

© 2009 SAGE Publications

Akhenaten to Origen 10.1177/0021934707312814

http:#$bs.sagepub.com
hosted at

Characteristics of Philosophical http://online.sagepub.com

Thought in Ancient Africa

Molefi Kete Asante
Temple University
Shaza Ismail
Helwan University

Ihis article examines the context and content of two African philosophers,
Akhenaten and Origen, living hundreds of years apart, to establish through
reference to texts and records that the memories of the old system found their
way into the era of Christian development. The authors contend that the
religious ideas that originated in ancient Egypt did not vanish with the arrival
of the Christian faith. Indeed, they suggest that there is a connective link, an
intellectual chain, a continuity of form and substance that exists from Akhenaten
to Origen. The authors argue that although there was a break in the ancient
tradition when Christianity entered Africa, it was not an immediate or a clean
break, as if one had snapped a twig.

Keywords: sebayet; Christianity; Akhenaten; Origen; monotheism; Coptic;

eternal life

is the intention of this article to argue that the religious ideas that existed
from ancient Egypt to the Christian period formed a connective link, an
intellectual chain, a continuity, that must be seen as originating in Africa
itself. Although there was a break in the ancient tradition when Christianity
entered Africa, it was not an immediate or a clean break, as if one had
snapped a twig. There continued to be influences from the ancient texts and
records, memories of the old system, extensions of the theological and philo-
sophical teachings {sebayet) in the era of Christian development. Thus, from
Akhenaten, and probably before, the concepts and ideas that activated the
minds of the people continued to serve as a medium of thought and a context
for the new doctrine of Christianity (Ben-Jochannan, 1991).
Thus, what we mean to demonstrate is that the philosophical ideas and the
general contours of thought expressed in the works of Akhenaten and Origen,
as examples, represent either the same milieu of thinking or a reaction to this

296

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 Asante, Ismail / Akhenaten to Origen 297

milieu of thinking. Nevertheless, both the ancient and the Christian ideas
interacted with each other and articulated a fundamentally African character.
In some respects, we do not often recognize it as an African aspect because
it has become so well ingrained in many Western and Eastern concepts.
We have chosen to concentrate on Akhenaten (1353-1336 bc) and Origen
(185-251 ce), who were born nearly 1,538 years apart, to demonstrate the
longevity and resilience of some of the conceptions of early African civiliza-
tion. Everything did not survive the onslaught of Christianity, but enough of
the ancient wisdom and theology was retained in the popular culture to
impact the thinking of the leading intellectuals of the early Christian period.
The plan of this article is to present a general outline of the life and con-
tributions of the thinkers, show their key concepts, and then compare and
contrast their ideas. Our analysis of the biographical sketches of Akhenaten
and Origen connects with the traditional religious and spiritual conventions
of the African world.

Akhenaten (1353-1336 bc)

Akhenaten, whose name means "he who praises Aten," was an 18th-
dynasty king and philosopher who changed his name from Amenhotep,
meaning "Amen is satisfied." Although he was not the first African philoso-
pher, no other thinker of the ancient period was as significant as Akhenaten
in establishing a persona that has reverberated through the ages (Asante,
2007). None of the earlier philosophers such as Ptahhotep, Merikare,
Duauf, or Amenemhat left the enduring reputation for creativity as did
Akhenaten. Yet this popularity has been questioned by numerous African
scholars and can best be viewed by examining an array of facts surround-
ing the life and times of Akhenaten. In some sense it might be argued that
Akhenaten was the beginning of a revolution in religious thinking, and in
another sense he might be called the nadir of a religious tradition that had
existed for thousands of years. Actually, he introduced a sense of rebellion
and revolt in the religious order that had heretofore been fairly consistent
with the principles laid down by his ancestors.

The Historical Context

During the 18th dynasty in the Upper Egyptian city of Waset, called
Thebes by the Greeks, the god Amen was supreme. No god had dominated
the ancient land as Amen, whose name would ring eternally through the
ages as Amen and sometimes in combination with Ra as Amen-Ra. Indeed,

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298 Journal of Black Studies

the 1 8th dynasty of Kemet, named Egypt by the Greeks, was the Age of Amen's
supremacy. Any god raised up against the might of Amen would surely be struck
down by the priests of Amen. And any scribe, seshesh, or more precipitously,
any Per-aa, Great House, called pharaoh by the Hebrews, who dared to ques-
tion the predominance of Amen would find himself or herself resigned to the
margins of Kemetic history and assaulted by a thousand defenders of the
Hidden One. In the city of Amen, Waset, the spoils of a hundred war victo-
ries swelled the coffers of the Almighty and made God Amen all-powerful, in
fact, incalculably awesome.
Thus, Amen was also wealthy, the richest of any deity the world had ever
known. Avenues of sphinxes, grand pylons of massive stones, decorated the
city of God. Treasures from foreign capitals, including gold from the king-
doms of Nubia, timber from Assyria, and spices from Punt, elevated Amen
as paramount king of all the gods, the god of gods. So great and forebod-
ing was he that neither the Per-aa nor the high priest could lay claim to this
bounty; it had not been won in the service of mere humans; the wealth of
Amen was the precious treasure won in service to the Hidden One himself.

Amenhotep IV in Ascendancy
In the fifth month (January 1377) of what had been the 38th year of the
reign of Amenhotep III, his second son, Amenhotep IV, ascended the great
Heru seat as the Per-aa of Egypt, becoming the holder of the throne of the
living king of kings, lord of lords, ruler of rulers, mighty in power, given
life, health, and stability for ever and ever. His coronation name would be
Neferkheperura, that is, "the transformations of Ra are beautiful." He
would add the epithet wa-n-ra (unique one of Ra) to the coronation name.
He would take the nesut bity name as king of upper and lower Kemet.
Amenhotep IV, following his father, was crowned at Karnak, the chief
place of the God Amen, which means that he was not in open revolt against
the priesthood of Amen at the time of his coronation. However, shortly
afterward, Amenhotep IV began the gradual process of replacing Amen
with images of the deity Aten in the construction of temples and chapels.
The so-called talatat blocks, decorated with a lively artistic style, would
begin to define the early technique of the artisans of Amenhotep IV. A graf-
fiti at Aswan, written by Bek, the chief sculptor for Amenhotep IV, claims
that the king taught them the new, realistic technique. The 12,000 talatat
blocks that the Franco-Egyptian Center for the Karnak Temples extracted
from the demolished ninth pylon set up by Horemhab give us the best
example of Amenhotep IV's art style for the few years he was in Karnak.

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 Asante, Ismail / Akhenaten to Origen 299

The Transformation of the King

Waset was becoming quite uncomfortable for the king by his fourth
year, and during that year he visited a site he claims was "revealed by the
Aten himself and called it Akhentaten, "the horizon of the sun-disk."
Amenhotep IV laid out the city with fourteen boundary stelae, eleven on
the east and three on the west; this was to be a new Waset, perhaps even
with certain elements of old On, a new Heliopolis, because he had built a
private royal necropolis and a cemetery to the Mnevis bull.
Such massive transformation called for a new title for the king himself.
He proclaimed his new name on the inscription on the boundary stelae on
the east at Akhetaten. He changed his Heru name from "Mighty bull, tall of
feathers" which was too closely connected to the previous kings of Waset,
to "Mighty bull, beloved of the Aten." His Two Ladies name, "Great of
kingship on Ipet-sut" became "Great of kingship in Akhetaten" and his
Golden Heru name was changed from "He who uplifts his diadems in
southern On" to "He who uplifts the name of the Aten." He kept his coro-
nation name but changed Amenhotep to Akhenaten, meaning "he who
praises Aten," thus completing a universal overhaul of his theological exis-
tence by comprehensively replacing Amen with Aten, although it is clear
that the writing of Akhenaten, especially the song to Aten, was based on an
even earlier version of a song to Amen.

Theological Theme
Christine El Mahdy (1991, p. 200) is right to argue that Akhenaten's
"song to Aten" was preceded by other songs to one deity. The respect and
reverence to the sun was not unknown before Akhenaten. Indeed, people
had already, during the reign of Amenhotep III Nebmaatre, the father of
Akhenaten, shown their reverence for the sun as representative of the one
deity. As we will demonstrate, what Amenhotep IV Neferkheprure Waenre
(Akhenaten) did with Aten was not without precedence when he called
Aten the father of all creation. This had been reserved for the deity in its
form as Ra, but Ra was not the solar disk itself, but the power and energy
from the disk. Egyptians had seen the sun as representing the omnipotence
of Ra for centuries. They did not worship the sun; they reverenced the all-
encompassing power of the sun. What Akhenaten did was to create an aber-
ration of the traditions by claiming that the sun was Aten.

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300 Journal of Black Studies

Akhenaten and the Competition With Amen

It is good to remember what the king had left behind in the glorious city
of Waset. And while Amenhotep IV did not particularly care for the high
priests Her or Suti, he was in many ways a child of Ipet-sut, more than he
was of any other temple or place. The death of his father, Amenhotep III,
coincided with the maturity of the great temple of Amen at Karnak. An
entourage coming down the river from the Temple of Mut and turning into
the canal leading to the great temple could see a monumental entry with the
pylon of Amenhotep on one side and farther south constructions built by
Hatshepsut. There were other edifices built by Amenhotep III, including
chapels to Montu and Mut, indicating his love for Amen and his dedication
to the temple complex. Every king wanted to honor Amen, Mut, or Khonsu
at this place above all other places. Even Amenhotep IV upon his accession
had found a single obelisk in a work shed, neglected for 25 years, since the
death of Thutmose III, and had it decorated and dedicated to Ra-Harakhty.
During his second year Amenhotep IV decided to celebrate a jubilee, a sd
festival as it was called, as his father had done in his last decade. The time
was established for it to coincide with the third anniversary of his accession
to the throne.

This was perhaps the beginning of the real heresy of Amenhotep IV. The
jubilee was never celebrated in the 3rd year; it was normally celebrated in
the 30th regnal year. But to break this tradition meant that the king could
break any tradition. Of course, the king knew what others did not know at
the time - that he was planning his move to a new capital. He called his
sculptors around him and ordered Bek, the son and successor of his father's
chief sculptor Men, to begin the construction for the sd festival.
When Akhenaten took the royal authority to the new town of Akhetaten,
he did not take with him the old religious authority. He took with him the
royal court, and chief among his advisors were his mother, Queen Tiye, and
his wife, Nefertiti.

Naming a Heresy
Perhaps this was not a revolutionary change; nor was it some new reve-
lation in religion. Musicians and poets may have been influenced by
Akhenaten's contemplations during the Akhetaten Period, but certainly
Egypt had a history of philosophical and artistic responses to national polit-
ical developments. We know now that the society was not nearly as static
as some early scholars contended. Indeed, powerful movements have

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 Asante, Ismail / Akhenaten to Origen 301

always affected the social, architectural, and artistic life of a society. Take
the impact of Akhenaten's Great Hymn to Aten. Some compare it to Psalm
104 in the Bible. There are similarities in structure and style. But the signifi-
cance of Akhenaten's hymns must be in the known drama of his transforma-
tion; that is, while we know that Ra, the Almighty God, was identified with
the sun, Akhenaten reaches for a new solarization based on a common
ground of religious experimentation started in the Middle Kingdom. It is
excessive to speak of Akhenaten as bringing monotheism. Amenhotep IV
chose to worship the visible aspects of the sun, while Ra, represented by the
more invisible power of the sun, had been seen as the Almighty much longer.

The Words of the Philosopher

So what are we to make of these words from the tomb of Ay, where
Akhenaten says of Aten,

How great are your deeds,

Though hidden from sight,
Only God beside whom there is none other!

Or when he says,

You alone, shining in your form of living Aten,

Risen, radiant, distant, near.
You made millions of forms from yourself alone, (quoted in Asante
& Abarry, 1996, p. 5)

We are sure that this is an indication of Akhenaten's own acceptance of

Aten as one with characteristics usually reserved for Amen. Of course,
Amen had also been called the Hidden One, and when we read that Aten is
as one "hidden from sight," we glimpse the similarity between this adora-
tion and the more legendary adoration to Amen.
In another passage we read,

You are in my heart,

There is no other who knows you,
Only your son, Neferkheperaru, unique one of Ra,
Whom you have taught your ways and your might, (quoted in
Asante & Abarry, 1996, p. 5)

Here again Akhenaten is making his claim for the uniqueness of his pro-
claimed deity. So similar is this to the hymns to Ra that it appears Akhenaten

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302 Journal of Black Studies

is following a long tradition. Of course, we know that this is the case when
we read a similar formulation in the Hymn to Ra from the Papyrus of Hunefer:

O you who are crowned among the gods

You are the lord of heaven
You are the lord of the earth
You are the creator of those who dwell in the heights,
And those who dwell in the depths.
You are the one God who came into being at the beginning of time.
You created the earth,
You created humans
You made the watery abyss of the sky
You travel across the sky with your heart full of joy;
The great depth of heaven is content because of it. (Faulkner, 1972,
p. 220)

Few scholars would make the claim today that Akhenaten is the "father
of monotheism." The fact is we have no known father of monotheism;
indeed, discovering the mother of monotheism would probably be a better
bet. The originality of Akhenaten must be found in the turning of the rays
of the sun into a physical reality. He gave the world a creator who had phys-
ical hands that reached within the range of humanity. Indeed, he had Aten's
name placed in a shenu, cartouche, like that of earthly kings. The image
was easy to understand, and he did not have to rely on a trained clergy to
teach people about the everyday fact of the sun disk and its rays. You could
see it with your own eyes. Accordingly, Aten provided humans with an
immediate appreciation of the divine, in contrast to Amen, who was hidden.
However, the story cannot end with this simple conclusion, because schol-
ars recognize that there was another hymn prior to the Hymn to Aten made
in honor of Amen. Therefore, there are hymns written to different gods,
Aten and Amen, both of which appear monotheistic, although the one to
Amen was written three generations before that of the heretic king. The
later Hymn to Aten, from Amarna, begins, "Father of the gods who created
Mankind, who made the animals . . . and all the plants that sustain the
cattle . . . Lord of the rays of the sun that give light ..." The earlier hymn
to Amen says, "Holy God who created himself, who made every land, cre-
ated what is in it, all people, herds and flocks, all trees that grow from the
soil." Both hymns to African deities fit the monotheistic theology of the
Jewish, Christian, and later Islamic traditions, with the idea of one Supreme
Creator. However, it is not possible to infer from this that Akhenaten's Aten

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 Asante, Ismail / Akhenaten to Origen 303

worship was unique even in ancient Africa. It did not vary that much from
traditional Egyptian beliefs. Thus, our Akhenaten appears more consistent
with the established contours of Egyptian theology and ultimately related
to the monotheism of Origen and the rise of Christianity in Egypt.

Origen (185-251 ce)

The establishment of the Catechetical School of Alexandria in the mid-

dle of the second century ce helped the spread and development of
Christianity in Africa and precisely in Egypt at such an early date (Watts,
2006). The writings of its first scholars provide a great amount of refer-
ences for both the Medieval and modern teachings. The first three heads of
the school were Pantaenus, who died in 200 ce; Clement, who died in 215
ce; and Origen, who died in 251 ce. Its main aim was to prepare the leaders
of the church to be fully acquainted with both religious and social educa-
tion, which became the main theme of the Coptic Church. Therefore, it
encouraged students from Egypt and from all over the world to study the
religious principles. Then they would be able to hold the important reli-
gious ranks in the Christian Church. It is hard to rely on Pantenus because
we had not discovered any of his textual sources, yet Clement and Origen
with their arguments and writings provide an excellent source of this phase.
Eusebius mentioned the school of Alexandria several times in his
Ecclesiastical History (6.16, as cited in Frend, 1989). He referred to
Pantenus as the head of this school until his death. He described him as a
major character who explained through his teachings and writings the def-
inition of the divine beliefs. Several scholars discussed the nature of this
school of being either a school outside the church or a school with strong
bounds to the early church. Most of them argued that this school was inde-
pendent of the church. Modern scholars found the existence of this school
at such an early period a necessity due to the existence of various Christian
communities around the year 160 ce scattered around the city in different
house churches, which created the fatal need of establishing a sort of rela-
tionship and communication between them for the benefit of the new reli-
gion (Van den Hoek, 1997).
Origen was one of the significant characters in the history of the early
Christian Church. He was most probably born in Alexandria to Christian
parents around the year 185 ce and died in Caesarea around the year 251 ce
(Barker, 1969). His full name was Origenes Adamntius. His father was mar-
tyred during the persecution of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus.

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304 Journal of Black Studies

Origen's family was left in real poverty and need of protection after his
father's death at an early age. When he succeeded Clement as the head of
the school of Alexandria, he was only 18. He was a talented philosopher, a
religious character, and a great thinker. Most of his writings are lost, but
what survived give an excellent example of the works of one of the early
thinkers in Christian theology. One of his best works was accomplished
before he reached the age of thirty; it was known as "De Principiis." This
work is considered a model of scholarly achievements. There is a possibility
that Origen might have changed some of his thoughts and ideas at a later
date, but there is no real evidence regarding this point (Barker, 1969, p. 212).
He was imprisoned and tortured during the Decian persecution around the
middle of the third century ce, treated so cruelly that he later died as a result
of his injuries (Kershner, 1930, pp. 90-98). In the New Schaff-Herzog
Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Volume VIII, published in 1912, he
was described as "a person admired and hated in his own lifetime and after-
wards." Jerome identified him as the second teacher of the Church of Paul.
Origen, born and raised in Alexandria, was exposed to different thoughts
and streams that varied between a number of schools with their controver-
sies, arguments, and disputes. Origen's importance has largely been attrib-
uted to the interaction between his philosophical ideas and various aspects
of the Christian faith. There were the Greek Hellenistic schools, Hebrews,
and Christians, with their various oriental cults encountering each other.
This mixture between the dominant Greek philosophy and a strong belief in
Christian Orthodoxy shaped Origen's beliefs (Tzamalikos, 2006, pp. 5-10).

Education and History

Origen understood history as a process involving the participation of
persons in grand events leading to an eventual culmination or "end of
history." Unlike mainstream Christian eschatology, Origen did not under-
stand the end of history as the final stage of a grand revelation of God, but
rather as the culmination of a human-divine (cooperative) process, in which
the image and likeness of God (humanity) is reunited with its source and
model, God Himself (Against Celsus [2004], 4.7; On First Principles
[1985], 2.11.5, 2.11.7; see also Tripolitis, 1978, p. 111). This is accom-
plished through education of souls who, having fallen away from God, are
now sundered from the divine presence and require a gradual reinitiation
into the mysteries of God. Such a reunion must not be accomplished by
force, for God will never, Origen insists, undermine the free will of His
creatures; rather, God will, over the course of numerous ages if need be,

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 Asante, Ismail / Akhenaten to Origen 305

educate souls little by little, leading them eventually, by virtue of their own
growing responsiveness, back to Himself, where they will glory in the
uncovering of the infinite mysteries of the eternal godhead (On First Principles
[1985],2.11.6-7).
Two of the remarkable works in the history of the early church were
written by Origen. One was titled The Homilies, which was composed of a
number of commentaries on nearly every book in the Bible. The second was
the Hexapla, which included a comparison of the Old Testament texts. He
discussed each text through three different approaches, which led at the end
to the final stage of marriage of the soul to Christ. The three different
approaches were as follows:

(1) The Literal: in the form of a wedding drama, (2) The Ecclesiah in the
form of a union of Christ with the church, (3) The Spiritual, in the soul's
union with the Logos, (quoted in Frend, 1989, pp. 262-263)

The Philosophical System of Origen

Origen was the first systematic theologian and philosopher of the
Christian Church. Earlier Christian intellectuals had confined themselves to
apologetic and moralizing works. The methodology of Origen was different
from that of the nonintellectual believers of his time. Origen believed that
the Bible contains three levels of meaning corresponding to the threefold of
Pauline and Platonic division of a person into a body, soul, and spirit. The
bodily level of scripture, the bare letter, is normally helpful as it stands to
meet the needs of the more simple. The psychic level, corresponding to the
soul, is for making progress in perfection. The spiritual interpretation deals
with "unspeakable mysteries" so as to make humanity a "partaker of all the
doctrines of the spirits counsel" (Trigg, 1983, pp. 120-121, 126).
Scholars have argued about his methodology and whether it had an orga-
nized intellectual system. Examples of these scholars are Henri Crouzel in
1989, who referred to the contradictory statements in certain portions of the
treatise, as well as in other texts, as proof against the claim that Origen was
presenting a system. On the other hand, in 1974, Hans Jonas identified a
well-organized system in First Principles. The reason for this scholarly
divide is mostly due to the lack of a precise definition of "system" and "sys-
tematic." If one approaches Origen's text expecting a carefully worked-out
system of philosophy in the manner of a Kant or a Hegel, one will be dis-
appointed. However, if one reads the text with an eye for prominent themes

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306 Journal of Black Studies

and the inner consistency of such themes with one another, a system does
emerge. John Dillon (1977) focused on the fact that Origen succeeded in
attracting several students of the renowned Platonic teacher Ammonius
Saccas to study with him, and this would not have been possible if Origen
did not have some system to offer (pp. 146-150).
Origen's original Greek is preserved only in fragments; the remainder of
the text is extant only in a Latin translation by Rufinus, who was a defender
of Origen against posthumous charges of heresy. Although Rufinus' trans-
lation is, as far as we can tell, faithful in most respects, there is evidence
that he softened certain potentially troublesome passages in an ill-guided
attempt to redeem his beloved teacher. When reading Origen's treatise,
then, one would do well to keep this in mind should one stumble across
seemingly contradictory passages, for one has no way of knowing what the
original Greek might have said because the numerous translations have
mired Origen's words in obscurity.

The Trinity

Origen begins his treatise On First Principles (1985) by establishing, in

typical Platonic fashion, a divine hierarchical triad; but instead of calling
these principles by typical African names such as the Divine Triad or
Platonic terms like monad, dyad, and world-soul, he calls them "Father,"
"Christ," and "Holy Spirit," though he does describe these principles using
Platonic language. The first of these principles, the Father, is a perfect unity,
complete unto Himself, and without body - a purely spiritual mind.
Because God the Father is, for Origen, "personal and active," it follows that
there existed with Him, always, an entity upon which to exercise His intel-
lectual activity. This entity is Christ the Son, the Logos, or Wisdom
(Sophia), of God. The idea of Sophia, wisdom, in the Greek is similar to the
ancient Egyptian Seba that carried the meaning of wisdom as well. Indeed,
it has been argued that Sophia is derived from the more ancient Seba. The
third and last principle of the divine triad is the Holy Spirit, who "proceeds
from the Son and is related to Him as the Son is related to the Father"
(Tripolitis, 1978, p. 94). Of course, in the ancient Kemetic structure the
deities in the temples were usually represented by the Divine Triad, for
example, at Karnak, one finds Amen, Mut, and Khonsu. These are referred
to as the Male Principle, the Female Principle, and the Child Principle. The
first example of the Mother-Child dyad is the representation of Auset with
the child Heru.

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 Asante, Ismail / Akhenaten to Origen 307

The Fall of Souls

According to Origen, God's first creation was a collectivity of rational

beings which he calls logika. "Although Origen speaks of the logika as being
created, they were not created in time" (Tripolitis, 1978, p. 94). Origen
explains that the number of these rational beings is necessarily limited. These
souls were originally created in close proximity to God, with the intention
that they should explore the divine mysteries in a state of endless contempla-
tion. They grew weary of this intense contemplation, falling away from God
and into an existence on their own terms, apart from the divine presence and
the wisdom to be found there. The only rational creature that escaped the fall
and remained with God is the "soul of Christ" (On First Principles [1985],
2.6; see also Tripolitis, 1978, p. 96). As Origen explains, the soul of Christ
was no different from that of any of the souls that fell away from God, for
Christ's soul possessed the same potential for communion with God as that
of all other souls. What distinguished the soul of Christ from all others - and
what preserved Him from falling away - was His supreme act of free choice,
to remain immersed in the divinity. Origen stated that there are varying
degrees of subtleness even among the celestial and spiritual bodies (Tripolitis,
1978, p. 106). When a soul achieves salvation, according to Origen, it ceases
being a soul, and returns to a state of pure "mind" or understanding.
However, "due to the fall it is not possible for a spirit to exist without a body"
(Tripolitis, 1978, p. 1 14), but the bodies of redeemed souls are "spiritual bod-
ies," made of the pure fire (Scott, 1983, pp. 123-147).

Reactions Against Origen's Works

The reactions and feedback to Origen's work varied and were always
unstable. During his early years in Palestine, Jerome appreciated Origen and
his work and referred to him as second only to the apostles. He translated his
homilies on Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Luke, and the Song of Songs. Things
changed when Epiphanies, the bishop of Cyprus, considered him as a person
with heretical motives and intentions. Jerome joined him in formal rejection
of Origen, whom some had claimed was mixing paganism with Christianity.
Rufinus of Aquileia (345-41 1 ce), who translated the Homilies on Joshua and
who was in Palestine at the time, refused to stand against Origen or to sup-
port any of the accusations addressed to him by Jerome and Epiphanies and
took the side of John the bishop of Jerusalem. Theophilus of Alexandria tried
to establish peace between the two sides, but it seems that things did not get
any better until the death of Origen (Bruce, 2002, pp. 2-20).

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308 Journal of Black Studies

The influence of Origen's thoughts and ideas continued even to the 19th
and 20th centuries, as in the thinking of Nicholas Berdyav (1874-1948),
who admired Origen's work and made it clear that the works of Origen
played a major role in his intellectual life and made his point clear that the
doctrine of hell and the eternal suffering of sinners is not compatible with
authentic Christianity. He focused on the importance of history and started
a new de-mythologized conception of metempsychosis in terms of a uni-
versal history that he understood included all people. According to him as
well as Origen, history is the best way to bring people together; no one can
be saved when he is isolated. Berdyav wrote several books such as Slavery
and Freedom in 1944, the Beginning and the End in 1952, and Truth and
Revelation in 1962. Berdyav's appreciation of Origen's philosophy con-
firms in many ways the notion that the ancient Egyptians were the primary
source for many of Origen's ideas.
Indeed, there is nothing in the literature that commends to the modern
reader the idea that the ancient Egyptians believed in the idea of suffering
in hell. One can certainly find the concepts of "eternal life," "life everlast-
ing," and "justification," but the idea that one would be isolated in hell is
foreign to the thought of both Akhenaten and Origen and represents some-
thing different. Certainly there is much more to examine in the relationship
of African intellectuals and philosophers from the ancient period to the rise
of the Christian era.

References

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Bruce, B. J. (2002). Origen: Homilies on Joshua. Washington, DC: Catholic University of

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 Asante, Ismail / Akhenaten to Origen 309

Origen. (1985). On first principles. (Ed. G. W. Butterworth, Trans. Peter Smith). Gloucester,
MA: Peter Smith.
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Molefi Kete Asante teaches African civilizations at Temple University. His latest books are
An Afrocentric Manifesto and The History of Africa.

Shaza Ismail teaches early Egyptian art and Coptic culture at Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.

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