
A cartoon (Ѻ) of the “let there be light” of the Bible, and how, paradoxically, there are three types of Biblical light? The paradox is resolved by noting that Genesis 1:3-5 is a Jewish recension rescript of Thebian creation myth. [2]

A cartoon (Ѻ) of the “let there be light” of the Bible, and how, paradoxically, there are three types of Biblical light? The paradox is resolved by noting that Genesis 1:3-5 is a Jewish recension rescript of Thebian creation myth. [2]

In creation myths, Thebian creation myth or “Theban creation doctrine” (Greenberg, 2000), refers to []

Overview
In 2050BC, Thebes became the new state capital of Egypt, according to which the god Amen was reconceptualized as a fusion or incarnation of all the supreme gods come before; during which time the previously once dominate Egyptian creation myths, namely of Heliopolis (Heliopolis creation myth, 3100BC), Memphis (Memphis creation myth, 2800BC), and Hermopolis (Hermopolis creation myth, 2400BC), were uniformed into one Amen-god based creation narrative. [1]

In c.1300BC, the Amarnan creation myth, formulated by Akhenaten, usurped and superseded the Thebian creation myth, wherein the sun god Aten was made not only supreme god, but the only god. Donald Redford, in his Akhenaten: the Heretic King (1984), argued that Akhenaten, in his scientific sounding descriptions of Aten as something like energy, amounted to atheism. [3] This attempted reform, accordingly, only lasted about three decades.

In c.1213 BC, according to the Leiden Papyrus I 350, the god Amun again returned to supreme god status; fragments of the new form of the creation myth are translated as follows:

Hymn to Amun Leiden Papyrus I 350 (80th chapter) (Ѻ)	Hymn to Amun Alternative translation [3]
1 The eight (1) were your first manifestation (2) until you completed these, you being single (3). Secret was your body among the elders, 5 and you kept yourself hidden as Amun, at the head of the gods. You made your manifestations in Tatenen (4), to accompany the primeval ones in your first primeval time. Your beauty arose as the Bull of His Mother (5) . You withdrew as the one in the sky, enduring as Re. 10 You returned in fathers, maker of their sons, to make an excellent heritage for Your children. You began manifestation with nothing, without the world being empty of you on the first occasion (6). All gods came into existence after you ... [remainder lost]	He who has given shape to himself, his form is unknown, that beautifully shimmering (hue of) color which has become a beautiful but secret form—the one who gave shape to himself and who did create himself.... The eight gods [Ogdoad of Hermopolis] were your first manifestations?' Before them you alone hast been. Your body was made secret to the ancients, you, who hast hidden yourself as Amun, as the first among the gods. You assumed the form of Tenen (primal hill) to give shape to the first gods of the primeval era.... The Ennead together, (the nine) were in your members, and in your form were all the gods united. Your first form by which you have begun was Amun—namely, he who hides his name from the gods.... When Ra arose in the sky, to rejuvenate himself again, he (Amun) spat forth ... to create Shu and Tefnut to be joined.

Hymn to Amun
Leiden Papyrus I 350 (80th chapter) (Ѻ)

Hymn to Amun
Alternative translation [3]

1 The eight (1) were your first manifestation (2)
until you completed these, you being single (3).
Secret was your body among the elders,
5 and you kept yourself hidden as Amun,
at the head of the gods.

You made your manifestations in Tatenen (4),
to accompany the primeval ones in your first primeval time.
Your beauty arose as the Bull of His Mother (5) .

You withdrew as the one in the sky, enduring as Re.
10 You returned in fathers, maker of their sons,
to make an excellent heritage for Your children.

You began manifestation with nothing,
without the world being empty of you on the first occasion (6).
All gods came into existence after you ... [remainder lost]

He who has given shape to himself, his form is unknown, that beautifully shimmering (hue of) color which has become a beautiful but secret form—the one who gave shape to himself and who did create himself....

The eight gods [Ogdoad of Hermopolis] were your first manifestations?' Before them you alone hast been. Your body was made secret to the ancients, you, who hast hidden yourself as Amun, as the first among the gods.

You assumed the form of Tenen (primal hill) to give shape to the first gods of the primeval era.... The Ennead together, (the nine) were in your members, and in your form were all the gods united. Your first form by which you have begun was Amun—namely, he who hides his name from the gods....

When Ra arose in the sky, to rejuvenate himself again, he (Amun) spat forth ... to create Shu and Tefnut to be joined.

In 1991, Karl Luckert, in commentary on the above, states that this "hiddenness" and "obscurity of name" are the features generally associated with Yahweh, according to which this new new version of Amen, during the so-called "restoration period of Amunism" (Adolf Erman, 1923) following the collapse of Atenism, is the forerunner to the monotheism of Judaism. [3]

Hebrew creation myth

See main: Yahweh, Aten, and Amun

In the new Canaanite recension, following the Amarna recension (c.1300BC), with focus on the god Atum, and in the so-called “second Theban recension” (c.1200-800BC), with focus on the hidden god Amen, a new god YHWH or “I Am Who I Am” or Yahweh was formulated, based on a synthesis of the former two, intermixed with aspects of the old Canaanite god El, to make the new supreme god of the Israelites.

“I suspect that Yahweh was shaped after the model of Amen.”
— Kurt Sethe (c.1933) [4]

In short, as people began to migrate out of Egypt, Amen, in the so-called Iron age Canaanite creation myth (Ѻ) reform (c.900-300BC), was renamed YHWH or Yahweh, and was merged with the former Bronze Age Canaanite supreme god El, to make the compound god Amen-El or Yahweh-El, of the new sect of Is-Ra-El-ites, wherein in Isis became Sarah, Ra became Abraham, and Nun became Noah in god-to-prophet rescript fashion.

In Genesis 1.3-5, of the Old Testament of the Bible, the first day of creation is described as follows: (Ѻ)

“And god said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day’, and the darkness he called ‘night’. And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”

This account of things has been famously paradoxical, to Biblical interpreters, per reason that the statement that "light" is created on the first day, is scientifically impossible, per reason that the sources of light, namely the sun and the stars, are not created until the forth day? (Ѻ)

This confusion, according to Gary Greenberg (2000), is resolved by noting that this Jewish mythology version is a rescript of the following segment of Thebian creation: [2]

“The one (i.e. Amen) that came into being in the first time when no god was yet created, when you [Amen-Ra] opened your eyes to see with them and everybody became illuminated by means of the glances of your eyes, when the day had not yet come into being.”

The mention of “eyes” here, to clarify, refer to the ancient Egyptian belief that the eyes of Horus, the oldest of the Egyptian gods, were thought to be the sun and the moon, one eyeball being the sun, one being the moon, the face of the god looking down on people from above.

See also
● Clay creation myth

References
1. Thims, Libb. (2016). Smart Atheism: For Kids (pdf | 309-pgs). Publisher.
2. Greenberg, Gary. (2000). 101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History (Myth #3: Creation began with the appearance of light, pg. 14). Source Books.
3. Luckhert, Karl. (1991). Egyptian Light and Hebrew Fire: Theological and Philosophical Roots of Christendom in Evolutionary Perspective (atheism, pg. 109; Hymn to Amun, pgs. 111-12). SUNY Press.
4. (a) Bonnett, Hans. (1952). Reallexikon der Agyptischen Religionsgeschichte (pgs. 31-34). Publisher.
(b) Luckhert, Karl. (1991). Egyptian Light and Hebrew Fire: Theological and Philosophical Roots of Christendom in Evolutionary Perspective (pg. 126). SUNY Press.

External links
● Thebes (section) – Ancient Egyptian creation myths.