Did Akhenaten believe the sun was literally God?

Akhenaten worshiped and believed the Sun disk represented the god Aten, who is different from the Jewish god Yaweh. They are not the same. read more

Aten is the god of a settled people, and as such is always located in the same place, the Sun disk. Yahweh is a god of nomadic peoples, and as such has no set location or symbolic representation. Aten's beginnings are of a minor deity in the Egyptian pantheon, but became exclusive deity in the time of Akhenaten. read more

Amenhotep IV did away with the old gods, which were generally portrayed with human bodies and the heads of animals. In the place of the old gods, Amenhotep IV decreed that there was only one God, the god of his father and grandfather - Aten, symbolized by the Sun Disc. read more

A religious reformer he made the Aten, the sun disc, the center of Egypt’s religious life and carried out an iconoclasm that saw the names of Amun, a pre-eminent Egyptian god, and his consort Mut, be erased from monuments and documents throughout Egypt’s empire. read more