Introduction
Due to the influence of the Abrahamic traditions around the world, we probably have heard the name Yahweh in the book of Exodus as the “I Am that I Am” (Exodus 3:14). Yahweh was the national god of the Ancient Israelites mentioned in the Christian Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. The name Yahweh is comprised of four consonants YHWH that were used to remind Ancient Israelites to say the word Adonai which translates to lord. Ancient Israelites used the word Adonai as a place name for their god which was a really common theme in the Near East when adherents were referring to a deity. YHWH is also referred to as the Tetragrammaton, this is due to the prophet Moses who is said to have given the name YHWH to the Israelites (Knight, Douglas A.; Levine, Amy-Jill 2011).
In this article, I will take a historical look at the god Yahweh and focus on the development of the deity through the Near East. I will look at what historians of the Near East, Old Testament scholars, and archeologists have to say about the origins of the god Yahweh within history. Although a focus of Yahweh in the biblical narrative will be germane to this article, the bible won’t be the only reference point I will draw from. Extra-biblical passages will be used to develop a sound understanding of the deity Yahweh. I will then end with a conclusion highlighting the major points in this article and how they are relevant for understanding this particular deity today.
The origins of Yahweh
There is disagreement among scholars when referring to the origin of Yahwism. Both Old Testament Scholars J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes state, “The origins of Yahwism are hidden in mystery. Even the final edited form of Genesis – II Kings in the Bible presents diverse views on the matter. Thus Genesis 4:16, attributed by literary critics to the so-called `Yahwistic' source, traces the worship of Yahweh back to the earliest days of the human race, while other passages trace the revelation and worship of Yahweh back to Moses in the Book of Exodus” (Miller, J. M. & Hayes, J. H. 1986). However, the Ben-Gurion University archaeologist Nissim Amzallag specializing in the Near East states that he disagrees with the obscurity of Yahweh’s origins. He states that Yahweh was originally a god-centered around metallurgy that was formed during the Bronze Age (Amzallag, Nissim 2009). Amzallag supports this claim by citing the copper mines of the Timnah Valley in southern Israel and also extra-biblical passages that show similarities of Yahweh to other deities of metallurgy in the surrounding area. Amzallag also notes that although we are told that Yahweh is the god of the Israelites in the book of Exodus the god was heavily worshiped by the people in Canaan (Amzallag, Nissim 2009). Amzallag provides a list of people that worshipped Yahweh besides the Israelites which include Kenities, Moabites, Edomites, and Midianites. There is also evidence of Edomites who worked and operated the mines at Timnah that converted an Egyptian temple to the god Hathor to a temple of Yahweh (Amzallag, Nissim 2009).
Although it is stated throughout the Bible that Yahweh is the sole creator deity, master, and architect of the universe his initial Canaanite origin continues to shine through biblical and extra-biblical text. Canaanites were henotheist and worshipped many gods headed by a supreme deity within their pantheon. We find Yahweh a part of the Canaanite pantheon where he is a subordinate to the Most High god El. Looking at the book of Deuteronomy, we can find this hierarchy in the Canaanite pantheon on full display. “The Most High, El, gave to the nations their inheritance” and that “Yahweh's portion is his people, Jacob and his allotted heritage” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9). These passages show a cultural layover from past believes from early Israelites and Canaanites. So, the claim that Israel always worshipped one god is only found later in Israelite tradition. Most of the powers and characteristics of the god Yahweh were consolidated during the Jewish exile in Babylon. During the 6th century, BCE Jews found themselves in Babylonia after the Kingdom of Judah fell to Babylonian conquest. After the Babylonian captivity was over the Hebrew scriptures started to become canonized during Second Temple Judaism. This is where the concept of a messiah was formed, which Yahweh would send to liberate the Jewish people.
The Moabite Stone
One of the earliest mentions of Yahweh was found in the Moabite Stone or also referred to as the Mesha Stele. The Moabite Stone was erected by King Mesha the king of Moab to commemorate his victory over Israel in the 9th century BCE. In the Stele there is an inscription that mentions how King Mesha “took the vessels of Yahweh to Kemosh” (Kerrigan, M. 2018) after his defeat of the Israelites. Kemosh was the chief god of Moab, the objects that were taken from the Israelites were sacred objects that were used for worship in the temple. The Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868 of the common era in modern-day Jordan. Two years after the discovery of the Moabite stone, it was published as the first extra biblical inscription that mentioned Yahweh. The findings from the Moabite stone report the same event as mentioned in the biblical narrative of II Kings 3. However, in the biblical narrative, the Israelites claim victory over the Moabites while the artifact claims that the Moabites won the battle.
In 1844 in the city of Soleb located in Nubia the archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius documented the ruins of the city but didn’t choose to excavate. Years later in 1907 archaeologist and Egyptologist James Henry Breasted photographed the ruins but didn’t excavate the site. It wasn’t until fifty years later when the site would be excavated by the archaeologist Michela Schiff Giorgini. Giorgini found references to a group of people that were referred to as the “Shasu of Yahweh” (Mark, J. J. 2018). The site was built by Amenhotep III which referred to Yahweh as a god that was worshipped by a group of people that were before the events that took place in the bible. From the excavation, the Shasu were Semitic nomadic people who were viewed by Egyptians as outlaws or bandits. The Shasu were also mentioned in a column at a temple in Soleb; where the inscription notes them as Egypt’s enemy. Throughout scholarship, there have been attempts to tie the Shasu to the Hebrews and the Habiru, but the claims made by these scholars haven’t met their burden of proof. Whoever the Shasu people were in history, they were not the Hebrew people or the Habiru who had Canaanite ancestry.
The recordings of the Shasu of Yahweh by Amenhotep III have opened the door to place Yahweh in earlier history. However, this finding also suggests that maybe Yahweh isn’t endemic to Canaan. This finding leans towards the desert god theory and that the Hebrews adopted Yahweh as a god. In the Book of Exodus, some scholars have interpreted the descriptions of Yahweh appearing as a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day that Yahweh was a storm deity or weather deity (Smith, Mark S. 2001). Another line of evidence to this claim of Yahweh being a storm deity or weather deity is how he guides Moses to water sources in both Numbers: 20 and Exodus 17:6. As of now the more generally accepted idea amongst scholars is that Yahweh originated in what was southern Canaan. Here we see Yahweh as a lesser god within the pantheon of the Canaanites as well as the nomadic Shasu. In the next section, we will look at Yahweh in the Biblical text.
Yahweh from a Biblical perspective
As discussed in the previous section, Yahweh was worshipped by other groups of people other than the Hebrews. From extra-Biblical sources we know some of the groups of people such as the Canaanites, Habiru, and the aloof Shasu. But what does the bible say about other groups of people worshipping Yahweh and who this god actually is. This section will be dedicated to answering these questions.
The Biblical text mentions other groups of people who worshipped Yahweh. There are also accounts of Yahweh coming from Edom to physically help the Israelites in battle (Deuteronomy 33:2, Judges 5:4-5). However, the Biblical narrative paints a different picture from other groups of people who historically have worshipped Yahweh. In the Biblical text, Yahweh is the one and only God who has created the universe and all life on the planet. Yahweh then chose a group of people out of his creation to be his own. Yahweh is very involved with the lives of his creation, and on occasion disciplining his creation like in the flood narrative in Genesis. Years after the great flood Yahweh selects Abram later called Abraham to relocate to Canaan and settle (Genesis 1-25).
Abraham does as Yahweh instructs and a community is then developed then continued by his son Isaac and then his grandson Jacob also referred to as Israel. Jacob has children of his own with is favorite being Joseph. Joseph’s brothers grew jealous of their father’s favoritism of Joseph and his gift of dream interpretation. Joseph’s brothers came up with an idea to solve their jealously problems caused by their brother by selling him to the Ishmaelites or the Midianites; as the Bible notes both groups of people as the initial buyer (Genesis 37:28, Genesis 37:36). Now in Egypt Joseph rises to the top after much trial and error and uses his skills of dream interpretation to save Egypt from famine (Genesis 25-50). The Book of Genesis concludes with Joseph telling his brothers that Yahweh will bring them out of Egypt to the promised land found in Canaan.
As the years passed after the death of Joseph the Israelite population grows too populous for the citizens of Egypt. An unnamed pharaoh enslaves the Israelites and then orders all the male infants to be killed (Exodus 1-22). Due to this order by the pharaoh, a Levite woman hides her baby boy in a basket and sends him downriver to be found by the pharaoh’s daughter. Pharaoh’s daughter takes the baby in and names him Moses (Exodus 2:1-10). When Moses is an adult, he learns of his Israelite heritage. One day he sees, an Egyptian beating an Israelite and stopping him by killing him. Moses then flees to the land of Midian where he encounters Yahweh taking the form of a burning bush (Exodus 3, 4: 1-17). After this encounter, Yahweh instructs Moses to go back to Egypt where he’s to free his people with the help of the Ten Plagues. After his people are free Moses starts to lead the Israelites to the land of Canaan. After some years of walking through the desert, Moses strikes a rock to make water come out which he wasn’t instructed by Yahweh to do (Numbers 20). For this Yahweh forbids Moses from reaching the promised land. Moses then turns to Joshua to be the leader of the Israelites and take back the land of Canaan as Yahweh had instructed. Yahweh is in full control in the Exodus narrative and fully plans out how the conquest of Canaan should be enacted. In the next section, we will look at how Yahweh is represented not only in the Bible but in the Canaanite Pantheon as well.
Yahweh in the Pantheon of Canaanite deities
Although the Biblical narrative is important to understanding Yahweh as a deity the text is not straightforward. The Biblical narrative also includes the Canaanite deity El whose name is within the name Israel which means he who struggles with God or who perseveres with God. In the Canaanite Pantheon El was the king or chief deity of the gods like Zeus is in the Greek Pantheon. We can see El giving Yahweh authority over the people of Israel “When the Most High [El] gave to the nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the Sons of God. For Yahweh's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9, Masoretic Text). This passage in Deuteronomy echoes cultural layover from Canaan. The Canaanites like most groups of people of the Near East and ancient civilizations worshipped many gods. Yahweh was a part of the pantheon of the Canaanite deities who was then looked at by the Israelites as their sole deity.
Yahweh from metallurgy god to supreme being
The scholar Nissim Amzallag states that Yahweh was a god of metallurgy. Nissim Amzallag uses both the Biblical text and extra-Biblical resources to back up his position. Amzallag states, “An essential link between Yahweh and copper is suggested in the Book of Zechariah where the dwelling of the God of Israel is symbolized by two mountains of copper (Zech. 6:1-6). In his prophecies, Ezekiel describes a divine being as a man was there, whose appearance shone like copper' (Ezek. 40:3), and in another part of this book, Yahweh is even explicitly mentioned as being a smelter (Ezek. 22:20). In Isaiah 54:16, Yahweh is explicitly mentioned as the creator of both the copperworker and his work…Such involvement of Yahweh is never mentioned elsewhere for other crafts or human activities (Amzallag, Nissim. 2009).” Amzallag also uses information about other surrounding deities that are gods of metallurgy to support his claims. Amzallag states, “the god of metallurgy generally appears as an outstanding deity. He is generally involved in the creation of the world and/or the creation of humans. The overwhelming importance of the god of metallurgy reflects the central role played by the copper smelters in the emergence of civilizations throughout the ancient world (Amzallag, Nissim. 2009).” Comparing the characteristics of gods like the Mesopotamian deity Enki and the Egyptian deity Ptah Amzallag finds shocking similarities. One of the most compelling evidence for the position of Yahweh being a god of metallurgy is that of Yahweh being a god of the Edomites. Amzallag looks at the name of the god of the Edomites, Qos, and draws the conclusion that Qos is an epithet for Yahweh. This is significant due to the Edomites being a people of metallurgy and were the workers found at the copper mines at Timna. Amzallag also notes that Edom is not mentioned in the Bible as being a rival of Israel supporting a foreign deity. This leads Amzallag to conclude that the two groups of people actually worshipped the same god.
Yahweh has also gone through some considerable transformation. Yahweh has gone from being one of many deities within a pantheon to the sole god of the Israelites. During the Iron Age, we can see some of the transformations to Yahweh that would be indefinable through history. In this time period, iron was replacing bronze and the cooper smelters lost their unique status of people seeing their work as magical. As with the economic and material change in the region, the Israelites during this age also wanted to make a change. Israelites living in Canaan wanted to distance themselves from the Canaanites as much as possible. They also wanted to establish their political and military strength. To do this they elevated Yahweh as not a leaser god to El but as a higher god than him and disregarded the rest of the pantheon as their own. Yahweh still retained the association with fire, forge, and smoke which were common traits for storm deities and warrior deities. During the Iron Age Yahweh went from a god of material transformation to one of supreme power and advocate for conquest.
Scholars Hayes and Miller state, “Perhaps the most noticeable characteristic of Yahweh in Israel's early poetry and narrative literature is his militancy. The so-called “Song of the Sea” in Exodus 15:1-18 and the “Song of Deborah” in Judges 5 are typical in their praise of Yahweh, the divine warrior who could be counted on to intervene on behalf of his followers…Thus it may have been primarily in connection with Israel's wars that Yahweh gained status as the national god. During times of peace, the tribes will have depended heavily on Baal in his various local forms to ensure fertility. But when they came together to wage war against their common enemies, they would have turned to Yahweh, the divine warrior who could provide victory” (Miller, J. M. & Hayes, J. H. 1986). We can see Yahweh as a warrior deity in the Hebrew Bible or Christian Old Testament. There is also imagery in a few passages of the New Testament (Ephesians 6:11, Philippians 2:25, II Timothy 2:3-4, I Corinthians 9:7). Next, we will look at the early to late beliefs of the Israelites and the surrounding people groups of the Israelites.
The early to late beliefs of the Israelites and surrounding people groups of the Near East
Early on the people of Canaan which included the Israelites adhered to a tradition of ancestor worship. In this tradition, the people of Canaan venerated the “god of the house” and their earthly ancestors. This form of veneration was intended to establish a tribal, family, and personal connections (Van Der Toorn, K. 2017). As ancestor veneration fizzled out the traditional religious practice evolved into the worship of deities such as Asherah, Baal, Utu-Shamash, El, and Yahweh. As the Israelite community continued to develop in Canaan there became a point to distance themselves from the people groups around them. As noted before the Israelites then elevated Yahweh to the supreme deity position that El traditionally held in the Canaanite pantheon. Although Yahweh was elevated to this position the Israelites themselves didn’t embrace monotheism at the time. The Israelites embraced henotheism and saw the worship of other gods as useful but acknowledged Yahweh as the head deity. The henotheistic nature of the Israelites held true throughout the time of the Book of Judges which predates monarchy in the Kingdom of Israel (1080-722 BCE).
After the death of Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel had split in two as a new political power arose the Kingdom of Judah and its capital Jerusalem. During this time both Kingdoms warred periodically and allied when facing a threat to both their nations. This held true until 722 BCE when the Assyrians conquered Israel and deported the Israelites in the area and replaced them with Assyrians. To the south Judah had held off the Assyrian assault by paying tribute to Assyria. Not long after the Assyrian Empire fell to the Babylonians in 612 BCE. The Babylonians invaded Judah in 598 destroying the Kingdom of Solomon. The Babylonians also took the leading citizens of Judah back to Babylon. This time period of Babylon’s control over the area in Jewish history is referred to as the Babylonian Captivity. The Babylon Captivity lasted from (598-538 BCE) until the empire fell. During 538 BCE Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia. Cyrus allowed the Jewish leaders held in Babylon to return to their homes in Judah.
Now that the leaders of Judah were back home an explanation of their time in exile had to be explained. Within traditions of faith, an understanding of quid pro quo or this for that explanation was usually favored as the meaning behind good and bad events. The leadership of Judah had to find a reason that all these horrific events happen to them. The temple was destroyed and the clergy and leaders were exiled this in their tradition had to be the result of not paying enough attention to Yahweh. Yahweh then became the reason for the Jewish people being exiled. To the Jewish clergy, Yahweh was angry with them and this was a form of punishment for worshiping other gods.
As the Jewish people returned home Jewish clergy revised Judaism and the Torah became canonized with new ways to understand its contents. This time period in Jewish history was called the Second Temple Period (515 BCE-70CE). The development of monotheism had arisen out of the Second Temple Period in which the Hebrew Scriptures were revised for a monotheistic belief system. The monotheistic beliefs revised during the Second Temple Period made way for other belief systems that would be influenced by Judaism such as Christianity. Adherents of Christianity would continue the veneration of Yahweh who eventually became known as Jehovah or in more modern terms God.
Conclusion
As we have covered throughout this article Yahweh was the name of the national god of the people of Israel. The origins of the god Yahweh are likely to have a date between the early Iron Age and late Bronze Age (Miller, Patrick D. 2000). Looking at the oldest Biblical literature we can see Yahweh depicted as a warrior deity and storm deity. In the early literature, we see that Yahweh was worshipped as one of many deities belonging to a pantheon that included gods like Asherah, Baal, and El. In later periods we see the fusion of El and Yahweh as they became conflated, epithets like El Shaddai became equated with Yahweh alone (Smith, Mark S. 2002).
Looking at the end of the Jewish captivity in Babylon the concept of many gods was rejected as Yahweh was claimed to be the sole creator of the universe. During this period the understanding of the Hebrew scriptures changed as monotheism took control. In the Second Temple Period even saying the name Yahweh in the public square was taboo (Leech, Kenneth 2002). Place names for Yahweh were spoken instead like Adonai. It was this time in Jewish history that laid the foundation for other religions like Christianity and Islam. Christianity adhered to Yahweh under the name Jehovah or God. Islam would develop Yahweh under the name of Allah which means the God or God. Today Yahweh forms a base for the world's three monotheistic religions. From simple Canaanite origins to supreme deity of the universe Yahweh has truly transformed throughout history.
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