The case of the so-called “Egyptian monotheism” appears to share some of the “answers” of religions deemed monotheistic but not the “questions.” The attempted transformation of the ancient Egyptian religious landscape in the 14^thcentury BCE by the ruler Akhenaten (formerly Amenophis IV) lasted just a few years into the reign of his successor before collapsing into history. Although the religion of Akhenaten and his family, centered around the Aten, appears to have met the criteria for what might be called “numeric monotheism,” it seems to remain somehow different from other religions deemed monotheistic. Assmann, an Egyptologist who has argued for the influence of Egypt on the development of Jewish monotheism, differentiates between the worship of the Aten (a kind of monotheism perhaps better articulated as “mature polytheism”) and the worship of YHWH (an exclusive and revolutionary kind of monotheism).¹ The case of Akhenaten’s religion highlights, quite pointedly, that the process of deeming religions monotheistic or polytheistic is more than just a “numbers game.”