Chapter Six examines the historical origin of Yahweh, the dominant deity of Israelite religion. Readers can evaluate the Hebrew Bible’s foundation stories about Yahweh (and vis-à-vis El worship) juxtaposed next to the epigraphic record with datable texts ranging from 14th-13th centuries BCE Egyptian geographical lists to a ninth century BCE Moabite inscription to multiple ninth-eighth centuries BCE Yahwistic inscriptions from a remote site on the Darb el-Ghazza caravan route just south of Qadesh-Barnea, a site with a long biblical pedigree.

Additional topics include the meaning of the name Yahweh and its attestations in extra-biblical sources as well as the geographic origin of the deity. The latter includes a review of the Midianite-Kenite hypothesis studied alongside archaic Hebrew poetry (biblical and epigraphic) describing militaristic wilderness theophanies.

Methodologically, the chapter also describes the Canaanite cultural continuum from the Middle Bronze Age through the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

Reference: Oxford Academic: