Perhaps there were folk - especially in scribal circles, the literati, so to speak - who found the more spiritual (cerebral?) and monotheistic aspects of Atenism enticing and worshipping animals and ‘man-gods’ suddenly unsatisfying? This could be passed on.
...
Digression into more fanciful theory.
I find it curious that we have a Holy City with a monotheistic type of religion, with a divine leader writing psalm like religious poetry. Reminds me of King David. And Akhetaten is the one and only official cult centre in the land! [David’s campaigns seem remiscent of Thutmose III’s campaigns in the Levant]
We have Solomon and his proverbs, not unlike Amenophis III and his maxims.
Anyway, I find it all very curious.
[Furrher wild thoughts: Ah-Mose and the Hyksos Exodus happens a couple of hundred years earlier. A Moses template (with goodies and baddies reversed), and then, in the ensuing years a King who conquers much of the Levant (Thutmose III/David) and a later Holy City with a jealous god (Akhetaten/Jerusalem) with a King (Akhenaten/David again); then a wise king with a huge Harim, the uttering of wise maxims (Amenophis III/Jedidiah-Solomon)...]
...
Digression into more fanciful theory.
I find it curious that we have a Holy City with a monotheistic type of religion, with a divine leader writing psalm like religious poetry. Reminds me of King David. And Akhetaten is the one and only official cult centre in the land! [David’s campaigns seem remiscent of Thutmose III’s campaigns in the Levant]
We have Solomon and his proverbs, not unlike Amenophis III and his maxims.
Anyway, I find it all very curious.
[Furrher wild thoughts: Ah-Mose and the Hyksos Exodus happens a couple of hundred years earlier. A Moses template (with goodies and baddies reversed), and then, in the ensuing years a King who conquers much of the Levant (Thutmose III/David) and a later Holy City with a jealous god (Akhetaten/Jerusalem) with a King (Akhenaten/David again); then a wise king with a huge Harim, the uttering of wise maxims (Amenophis III/Jedidiah-Solomon)...]