Netjer

[Antibush5]

What is the archeological proof of the Egyptian belief in Netjer? What is the arguement that the Egyptians were hard polytheists?

 

[Mata]

I've not read it; but I've heard really good things about it: Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many

My own knowledge - the Egyptians conception of the Divine changed quite a bit, but (excluding Akhenaten's reign) they remained polytheistic with varying degrees of hardness. One thing that shows that they weren't completely hard was their syncretism of deities, Sobek-Ra, Amun-Ra, Ra-Horakhty and so on.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

As already mentioned, the synchronization of deities is evidence enough that the Egyptians were not hard Polytheists. They may have been in the earlier dynasties, but the Faith of Kemet was always a living and evolving thing, and many Kemetics today believe in that spirit of progression.

Also Hornung's book you were referred to above is excellent. I would say that the House of Netjer's teaching that the Egyptians were soft Polytheists is closest to the truth.

 

[Rakovsky]

What is the archeological proof of the Egyptian belief in Netjer?

I can think of a handful. One is that in Genesis 41 and 2 Chronicles 35, the pharaohs recognize God, in their language Netjer. These passages were written at a time when Egypt was existing as still ancient and right next door to Israel. So the authors would have known whether Egypt thought of God as God or not.
The counterargument is that the Tanakh is biased or could make things up. I can agree a bit, but in this case I think the authors were sincere on this question.

What is the arguement that the Egyptians were hard polytheists?

One argument is that only Israelite religion and maybe a few others like Akhenaten's were the only monotheists, so that means by default everyone else is polytheist, at least when they teach more than one "god."

 

[EbonyBreeCaple]

I've not read it; but I've heard really good things about it: Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many

My own knowledge - the Egyptians conception of the Divine changed quite a bit, but (excluding Akhenaten's reign) they remained polytheistic with varying degrees of hardness. One thing that shows that they weren't completely hard was their syncretism of deities, Sobek-Ra, Amun-Ra, Ra-Horakhty and so on.

Will be referring to this book in the future if I find myself able to afford it.