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Yahweh was an ancient Semitic deity of Weather god and war in the ancient Levant, the national god of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and the head of the pantheon of the Polytheism Yahwism. Although there is no clear consensus regarding the geographical origins of the deity, scholars generally hold that Yahweh was associated with Mount Seir, Edom, Paran, and Teman, and later with Canaan. The worship of the deity reaches back to at least the early Iron Age, and likely to the late Bronze Age, if not somewhat earlier.
In the oldest Bible, Yahweh possesses attributes that were typically ascribed to deities of weather and war, fructifying the Land of Israel and leading a heavenly army against the enemies of the Israelites. The early Israelites engaged in polytheistic practices that were common across ancient Semitic religion, because the Israelite religion was a derivative of the Canaanite religion and included a variety of deities from it, including El, Asherah, and Baal. Initially a lesser deity among the Cannanite pantheon, Yahweh became conflated with El in later centuries, taking his place as the head of the pantheon in the Israelite religion. El's consort Asherah became associated with Yahweh, and El-linked epithets, such as (), came to be applied to him alone. Characteristics of other deities, such as Asherah and Baal, were also selectively absorbed in conceptions of Yahweh.
As Israelite Yahwism eventually developed into Judaism and Samaritanism, and eventually transitioned from polytheism to monotheism, the existence of other deities was denied outright, and Yahweh was proclaimed the creator deity and the sole deity to be worthy of worship. During the Second Temple period, Jews began to substitute other Hebrew words, primarily (, ), in place of the name Yahweh. By the time of the Jewish–Roman wars—namely following the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the concomitant destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE—the Tetragrammaton was forgotten entirely.
Additionally, Yahweh is invoked in the Aramaic-language Papyrus Amherst 63 from ancient Egypt, and also in Jewish or Jewish-influenced ancient Greek-language Greek Magical Papyri in Roman Egypt dated to the 1st to 5th centuries CE.
One scholarly theory is that "Yahweh" originated in a shortened form of , 'El who creates the hosts', which Cross considered to be one of the cultic names of El. However, this phrase is nowhere attested either inside or outside the Bible, and the two gods are in any case quite dissimilar, with El being elderly and paternal and lacking Yahweh's association with the storm and battles. Even if the above issues are resolved, Yahweh is generally agreed to have a non-causative etymology because otherwise, YHWH would be translated as YHYH. It also raises the question of why the Israelites would want to shorten the epithet. One possible reason includes the co-existence of religious modernism and conservatism being the norm in all religions.
The oldest plausible occurrence of Yahweh's name is in the Egyptian demonym , 'YHWA in the Land of the Shasu' (Egyptian: ) in an inscription from the time of Amenhotep III (1390–1352BCE), the Shasu being nomads from Midian and Edom in northern Arabia. Although it is still uncertain whether a relationship exists between the toponym yhwꜣ and theonym YHWH,: "Unfortunately, albeit the interesting analogies, the learned discussions, and the broad perspective, the evidence is too scanty to allow any conclusions concerning the exact meaning of the term YHWA/YHA/YH as it appears in Ancient Egyptian records." the dominant view is that Yahweh was from the southern region associated with Mount Seir, Edom, Paran and Teman. There is considerable although not universal support for this view, but it raises the question of how Yahweh made his way to the north. An answer many scholars consider plausible is the Kenite hypothesis, which holds that traders brought Yahweh to Israel along the caravan routes between Ancient Egypt and Canaan. This ties together various points of data, such as the absence of Yahweh from Canaan, his links with Edom and Midian in the biblical stories, and the Kenite or Midianite ties of Moses, but its major weaknesses are that the majority of Israelites were firmly rooted in Palestine, while the historical role of Moses is problematic. It follows that if the Kenite hypothesis is to be maintained, then it must be assumed that the Israelites encountered Yahweh (and the Midianites/Kenites) inside Israel and through their association with the earliest political leaders of Israel. Christian Frevel argues that inscriptions allegedly suggesting Yahweh's southern origins (e.g., "YHWH of Teman") may simply denote his presence there at later times, and that Teman can refer to any southern territory, including Judah.
Alternatively, some scholars argue that YHWH worship was rooted in the indigenous culture of the Kingdom of Israel and was promoted in the Kingdom of Judah by the Omrides. Frevel suggests that Hazael's conquests in the Kingdom of Israel forced the two kingdoms to cooperate, which spread YHWH worship among Judean commoners. Previously, YHWH was viewed as the patron god of the Judean state.
In the earliest Biblical literature, Yahweh has characteristics of a storm god typical of ancient Near Eastern myths, marching out from Edom or the Sinai desert with the heavenly host of stars and planets that make up his army to do battle with the enemies of his people Israel:
Alternatively, parts of the storm god imagery could derive from Baal.
From the perspective of the Kenite hypothesis, it has also been suggested that the Edomite deity Qōs might have been one and the same as Yahweh, rather than a separate deity, with its name a title of the latter. Aside from their common territorial origins, various common characteristics between the Yahwism and the Edomite cult of Qōs hint at a shared connection.
Doeg the Edomite, for example, is depicted as having no problem in worshiping Yahweh and is shown to be at home in Jewish sanctuaries.Unlike the chief god of the (Milcom) and the Moabites (Chemosh), the Tanakh refrains from explicitly naming the Edomite Qōs.E. A. Knauf. (1999). Qos in Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst eds., Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, pp. 674–677. Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 677. "This clan or family must have been of Edomite or Idumaean origin."Elie Assis, Identity in Conflict: The Struggle between Esau and Jacob, Edom and Israel, Penn State Press, 2016 p.10: "At 1 Kgs 1–8 there is exceptionally no mention of any Edomite gods: 'King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of the Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women. ... For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the aboimination of the Ammonites. ... Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods. Some scholars have explained this notable omission by assuming that the level of similarity between Yahweh and Qōs would have made rejection of the latter difficult. Other scholars hold that Yahweh and Qōs were different deities from their origins, and suggest that the tensions between Judeans and Edomites during the Second Temple period may lie behind the omission of Qōs in the Bible.
Accordingly, there have been different tiers of deities in the original pantheon: El and Asherah on top; followed by their children, the divine assembly; then followed by traders and craftsman deities; and finally minor deities or messenger gods. It has been argued that Yahweh was originally described as one of the sons of El in , and that this was removed by a later emendation to the text:
However, at some point the second tier collapsed, whereupon Yahweh became conflated with El, even though El was the original head of the pantheon. The remaining deities then became . During the reign of Ahab, and particularly following his marriage to Jezebel, Baal may have briefly replaced Yahweh as the national god of Israel (but not Judah).
In the 9th centuryBCE, there are indications of rejection of Baal worship associated with the prophets Elijah and Elisha. The Yahweh-religion thus began to separate itself from its Canaanite heritage; this process continued over the period from 800 to 500BCE with legal and prophetic condemnations of the asherim, sun worship and worship on the , along with practices pertaining to the dead and other aspects of the old religion. Features of Baal, El, and Asherah were absorbed into Yahweh, and epithets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone.
In this atmosphere a struggle emerged between those who believed that Yahweh alone should be worshipped, and those who worshipped him within a larger group of gods; the Yahweh-alone party, the party of the and , ultimately triumphed, and their victory lies behind the biblical narrative of an Israel vacillating between periods of "following other gods" and periods of fidelity to Yahweh.
Some scholars date the start of widespread monotheism to the 8th century BCE, and view it as a response to Neo-Assyrian aggression. In an inscription discovered in Ein Gedi and dated around 700 BCE, Yahweh appears described as the lord of "the nations", while in other contemporary texts discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei (near Lachish) he is mentioned as the ruler of Jerusalem and probably also of Judah.
In the national crisis of the Babylonian exile, Yahweh is described as the sole deity and absorbs all attributes of previous gods and goddesses. The notion of Yahweh as a supreme deity is described in the 6th-centuryBCE Second Isaiah. The author's praise for Yahweh is motivated by restoring Israel's confidence into their own historical gods against the deities of their Babylonian enemies. The claim for monotheism is directed against the deities of Nebuchadnezzar II, who founded his reign on Marduk and Nabu. The transition was a gradual one and was not totally accomplished during the First Temple period. At least some Jews seem to have worshipped Yahweh and Anath as distinct from Asherah and El during the 5th centuryBCE.
Under Hellenistic influence, Yahwistic beliefs became more exclusive.Sacchi, Paolo. "The history of the second temple period." (2004): 10Edelman, D. V. (Ed.). (1995). The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwisms to Judaisms (Vol. 13). Peeters Publishers. p. 23 These beliefs rejected the idea of lesser deities and emanations of deities in favor of Yahweh as an abstract single god.Edelman, D. V. (Ed.). (1995). The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwisms to Judaisms (Vol. 13). Peeters Publishers. p. 23 During the Hellenistic period, the scriptures were translated into Greek by the Jews of the Egyptian diaspora. Greek translations of the Hebrew scriptures render both the names Yahweh and as (κύριος), meaning 'Lord'. Jewish tradition celebrated Yahweh's name at least once a year at the temple by the High Priests at the Day of Atonement. However, after the destruction of the Second Temple, Yahweh's name ceased to be used.
The Secret Book of John reinterpreted the Genesis story under Hellenistic influence and proposes that Eve copulated with Yaldabaoth and gave birth to two sons: Abel and Cain, identified with Elohim and Yahweh respectively.Pearson, Birger A. Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity. Fortress Press, 1990. pp. 100–102 The former is said to be righteous and the latter injust. By murdering his brother, and corrupted by his father, he brings envy and death into the world.Pearson, Birger A. Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity. Fortress Press, 1990. pp. 100–102
A coin issued by Pompey to celebrate his successful conquest of Judaea showed a kneeling, bearded figure grasping a branch (a common Roman symbol of submission) subtitled Bacchivs Ivdaevs, which may be translated as either "The Jewish Bacchus" or "Bacchus the Judaean". The figure has been interpreted as depicting Yahweh as a local variety of Bacchus, that is, Dionysus. However, as coins minted with such iconography ordinarily depicted subjected persons, and not the gods of a subjected people, some have assumed the coin simply depicts the surrender of a Judean who was called "Bacchius", sometimes identified as the Hasmonean king Aristobulus II, who was overthrown by Pompey's campaign.
In any event, Tacitus, John the Lydian, Cornelius Labeo, and Marcus Terentius Varro similarly identify Yahweh with Bacchus–Dionysus. Jews themselves frequently used symbols that were also associated with Dionysus such as , , leaves of ivy, and clusters of grapes, a similarity Plutarch used to argue that Jews worshipped a hypostasized form of Bacchus–Dionysus. In his Moralia]], Plutarch further notes that the Jews hail their god with cries of "" and "Sabazios", phrases associated with the worship of Dionysus. According to Sean M. McDonough, Greek speakers may have confused Aramaic words such as Sabbath, Alleluia, or even possibly some variant of the name Yahweh itself, for more familiar terms associated with Dionysus.
Other Roman writers, such as Juvenal, Petronius, and Florus, identified Yahweh with the god Caelus.Juvenal, Satires 14.97; Peter Schäfer, Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World (Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 41, 79–80.Petronius, frg. 37.2; Schäfer, Judeophobia, pp. 77–78.Florus, Epitome 1.40 (3.5.30): "The Jews tried to defend Jerusalem; but he Pompeius entered this city also and saw that grand Holy of Holies of an impious people exposed, Caelum under a golden vine" (Hierosolymam defendere temptavere Iudaei; verum haec quoque et intravit et vidit illud grande inpiae gentis arcanum patens, sub aurea vite Caelum). Finbarr Barry Flood, The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies on the Makings of an Umayyad Visual Culture (Brill, 2001), pp. 81, 83 (note 118). The Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), p. 252, entry on caelum, cites Juvenal, Petronius, and Florus as examples of Caelus or Caelum "with reference to Jehovah; also, to some symbolization of Jehovah."
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