The History of Yahweh
The deity called Yahweh is the central pillar of Judeo-Christianity. Judaism worships Yahweh directly; Christianity sees Jesus as an incarnation of Yahweh. This is very common knowledge. But from where does Yahweh come from? When does mention of Yahweh first appear historically? Was Yahweh his original name, and if so, from where did it arise? Did Yahweh begin as a monotheistic god? If Yahweh was of a polytheistic pantheon, from which did he originate? I will try to answer these questions in as logical a manner as I possibly can.
The Tetragrammaton (the four letter representation of the name of God) in Phoenician, Aramaic, and modern Hebrew.
The first question is simple. Yahweh (and his worshippers) arose in the Levant, in the Canaanite highlands. While Old Testament accounts tell of the ancient Israelites annihilating their foes and besieging cities, history tells quite a different narrative. They seem to have originated in a very peaceful manner, as migrants into Canaan from the deserts of Edom, in Southern Levant. Historians theorize this due to mention of the Israelites in an Egyptian inscription on the columns of a temple. I will expound on this further below.
Edom, the hypothesized origin of the Cult of Yahweh.
Historically, the earliest certain mention of the name "Yahweh" in its entirety is from the Moabite stele, dated to about 850 BC. It recounts a Moabite king's victory over the "the House of Omri", and mentions Yahweh. However (and this is the basis of the Kenite Hypothesis mentioned earlier), on a column in the temple of Soleb, there is a list of enemies (these were apparently quite frequent in ancient Egypt) that mentions the "Shasu of YWH". The word "Shasu" evolved from the Egyptian word for "Bedouins", or "nomads". Thusly, the widely accepted theory proposes that Yahweh came from the migratory tribes of Edom, of which the Kenites were (the Kenites were mentioned in the Old Testament, Jethro was a Kenite). Many historical scholars also propose an emergence from West Canaan.
There is also supposed mention of the name of Yahweh before even the Soleb inscription, from three Babylonian tablets dating to the first dynasty of Babylonia. In said tablets, the scholar Friedrich Delitzsch extrapolated the names "Ya-a'-ve-ilu", "Ya-ve-ilu", and "Ya-u-um-ilu", all of which he translated to "Yahweh is God". If correct, this suggests that Yahweh may have been one of the gods of a Semetic tribe that invaded Mesopotamia in 2000 BC. This would associate Yahweh worship to polytheistic tribes that predate the formation of the Kingdom of Israel.
The Shasu of YWH. These are the ancient people proposed by the Kenite Hypothesis as the possible originators of Yahweh.
In order to understand the etymological origins of the name Yahweh, we must first understand A. the language in which it was originally written, B. the language in which it was eventually written, and C. the texts in which the name was first mentioned.
The tetragrammaton (which means "four-lettered word" in Greek, and is representative of the name of god) is YHWH. This stems from Hebrews lack of vowels; in ancient Hebrew, the name of Yahweh reads "Yod, Hei, Waw, Hei". What the vowels originally were is actually unknown, but the pronunciation "Yahweh" and "Yehovah" or "Yehowah" descend directly from the Masoretic translation of the Hebrew " יהוה " (note that Hebrew script is read right to left), and from Latin/Greek transliterations.
What about the origins of the basis from which we understand the deity called Yahweh? There are several theories involving the creation of the Old Testament, but the one that seems to have the most support is the Documentary Hypothesis. In said hypothesis, the Torah was actually a compilation of four unrelated texts: the Jahwist, the Elohist, Deuteronomy, and the Laws of the Kohenim. Interestingly, the Jahwist and the Elohist (the two oldest sources), do not show a wrathful, jealous god, but instead, depict a god who is quite amiable towards his creations. In the Jahwist (the oldest source), Yahweh is not depicted as being confrontory towards other Canaanite cults, and draws similarities from the Epics of Atrahasis and Gilgamesh. It is theorized that he attained these qualities during the monotheistic upheaval after the Babylonian diaspora. The Book of Deuteronomy suggests that this took place in the monastic period during the reign of Josiah.
A picture showing the timeline and geography of the 4 hypothetical sources of the Torah and a picture that explains the Documentary Hypothesis. An explanation of the symbols: "J" stands for the Jahwist, "E" for the Elohist, "Dtr 1 and 2" stand for the two sources of the Book of Deuteronomy, "D" stands for Deutoronomy, "P" stands for the text written by the Kohenim, or the "priestly source", "DH" stands for the Deuteronomic Histories, and the "JE and R" stand for edited texts by redactors.
Now we get to the controversial topic: was Yahweh part of a polytheistic pantheon, and if so, which? The short answer: yes, he was part of the Canaanite pantheon, and early worshippers of Yahweh also worshipped both Asherah and Ba'al. The worship of Asherah and Ba'al is mentioned several times in the Old Testament, and there is conclusive archaeological evidence of the worship of both these deities in ancient Israel, particularly of the fertility goddess Asherah, of which we see many statuettes and idols. Allusions to the worship of other gods (and the conflict that arises because of this worship), can be found in Exodus (when the Israelites worship the golden calf, which was most likely the Apis Bull), and in Jeremiah (the depiction of the worship of Ba'al and Asherah poles, also known as Asherim). It should be mentioned here that some scholars suggest that Asherah was, at one point, a consort of Yahweh, although this isn't a mainstream theory.
An Idol of Asherah Found in Israel
But what about prior to the pantheon of the ancient Israelites (Ba'al, Asherah, and Yahweh)? Was Yahweh worshipped prior, and if so, did he demand exclusive worship then? Yes, it is theorized that he was worshipped prior to the pantheon of the ancient Israelites and no, he did not demand exclusive worship (few polytheistic gods did, unsurprisingly). Yahweh was worshipped as both Yahwi and Yaw (a storm god and a river god, who are part of the Canaanite pantheon). He was worshipped in conjunction with many other gods, including Asherah (Elat), El'Elyon, and Ba'al.
The gods Ba'al and Elat (here pictured as the Iron Age Asherah), part of the Canaanite pantheon. The far right is a depiction of Yahweh and several other gods at Kuntillet Arjud.
You may be thinking by this point "Well, that is great and all AA, but why isn't this in the VV instead of the EMM?" Because I want to see discourse on the subject. How do both atheists and theists interpret and/or rationalize the polytheistic origins of Yahweh? Are there any alternative theories to the ones I listed that a poster could share? Did I miss an important detail? Discuss!
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Originally Posted by boofhead
