Yahweh (Canaanite deity)
Encyclopedia
Egyptian place name "the land of Shasu-yiw"
A list of Egyptian place names from the temple of AmonAmon
Amon can refer to:* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon Ra* Amon , a Goetic demon* Amon * Former name of the band Deicide* Amon of Judah, king of Judah and son of Manasseh...
at Soleb
Soleb
Soleb is an antique town in Nubia, today's Sudan. The place lies something to the south of the third Nile cataract on the western side.The place owns a big temple from sandstone which has been established by Amenhotep III. It is the known temple most southern up to now of this king. It was...
(see also Shasu of Yhw), from the time of Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
(1402-1363 BCE) is the earliest possible occurrence of Yahu. The place name appears to be associated with Asiatic nomads in the 14th to 13th centuries BCE. A later mention from the era of Ramesses II
Ramesses II
Ramesses II , referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire...
(c. 1303 BCE – 1213 BCE) associates Yahu with Mount Seir
Mount Seir
Mount Seir formed the south-east border of Edom and Judah, it may also echo the older historical border of Egypt and Canaan.-Tanakh:Mount Seir is specifically noted as the place that Esau made his home . It was named for Seir, the Horite, whose sons inhabited the land...
. From this, it is generally supposed that this Yahu refers to a place in the area of Moab
Moab
Moab is the historical name for a mountainous strip of land in Jordan. The land lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by numerous archeological findings, most notably the Mesha Stele, which describes the Moabite victory over...
and Edom
Edom
Edom or Idumea was a historical region of the Southern Levant located south of Judea and the Dead Sea. It is mentioned in biblical records as a 1st millennium BC Iron Age kingdom of Edom, and in classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to a smaller area in the same region...
. Whether the god was named after the place, or the place named after the god, is undecided.
Yw in the Baal Cycle
More recently, the damaged Ugaritic cuneiformCuneiform
Cuneiform can refer to:*Cuneiform script, an ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC*Cuneiform , three bones in the human foot*Cuneiform Records, a music record label...
text KTU 1.1:IV:14-15 is also included in the discussion:
From KTU
Keilschrift Texte aus Ugarit
Keilschrift Texte aus Ugarit or KTU is the standard source reference collection for the cuneiform texts from Ugarit. The editors include Manfried Dietrich Keilschrift Texte aus Ugarit or KTU is the standard source reference collection for the cuneiform texts from Ugarit. (Keil is the German for...
II:IV:13-14
- tgr.il.bnh.tr [ ] wyn.lt[p]n il dp[id...] [J yp 'r] Sm bny yw 'ilt
- My son [shall not be called] by the name of Yw, o goddess, [Jfc ym smh (?)] [but Ym shall be his name!]
- wp'r $m ym
- So he proclaimed the name of Yammu.
- [rbt 'atrt (?)] t'nyn
- [Lady Athiratu (?)] answered,
- lzntn ['at np'rt (?)]
- "For our maintenance [you are the one who has been proclaimed (?)]
Many scholars consider yw a reference to Yahweh. Others consider that yw is unlikely to have be derived from yhw in the second millennium. However the Ugaritic text is read, the verbal play on the similarity between yw and ym (the sea-god Yam
Yam (god)
Yam, from the Canaanite word Yam, meaning "Sea", also written "Yaw", is one name of the Ugaritic god of Rivers and Sea. Also titled Judge Nahar , he is also one of the 'ilhm or sons of El, the name given to the Levantine pantheon...
) is evident.
Reconstructions
Possible Canaanite spellings of Yahweh have been reconstructed as (Canaanite: Yahwe) (Canaanian alphabetPhoenician alphabet
The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, was a non-pictographic consonantal alphabet, or abjad. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia...
: Hebrew alphabet
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew language, as well as other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. There have been two...
: יהוה) or Yahu (Canaanian alphabet
Phoenician alphabet
The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, was a non-pictographic consonantal alphabet, or abjad. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia...
: Hebrew alphabet
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew language, as well as other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. There have been two...
: יהו) was an ancient Canaanite deity., a storm god comparable to Ugaritic Hadad
Hadad
Haddad was a northwest Semitic storm and rain god, cognate in name and origin with the Akkadian god Adad. Hadad was often called simply Ba‘al , but this title was also used for other gods. The bull was the symbolic animal of Hadad. He appeared as a bearded deity, often shown as holding a club and...
(Baal
Baal
Baʿal is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu...
) in origin, with whom he shared the epithet of lrkb ‘rpt "cloud-rider".
Yahweh notably came to be the "personal name" of the God of Israel in the religion of ancient Israel and Judah, and its Hebrew spelling YHWH ultimately the name of God in Judaism
God in Judaism
The conception of God in Judaism is strictly monotheistic. God is an absolute one indivisible incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. Jewish tradition teaches that the true aspect of God is incomprehensible and unknowable, and that it is only God's revealed aspect that...
in Hellenistic era Second Temple Judaism
Second Temple Judaism
Second Temple Judaism refers to the religion of Judaism during the Second Temple period, between the construction of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 515 BCE, and its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE This period witnessed major historical upheavals and significant religious changes that...
. By this period, pronunciation of the name had become a religious taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
, and Adonai "my lord" was said instead.
Origins
Early worship of Yahweh likely originated in southern CanaanCanaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
during the Late Bronze Age.
Early history
It is probable that Yahu or Yahweh was worshipped in southern Canaan (EdomEdom
Edom or Idumea was a historical region of the Southern Levant located south of Judea and the Dead Sea. It is mentioned in biblical records as a 1st millennium BC Iron Age kingdom of Edom, and in classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to a smaller area in the same region...
, Moab
Moab
Moab is the historical name for a mountainous strip of land in Jordan. The land lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by numerous archeological findings, most notably the Mesha Stele, which describes the Moabite victory over...
, Midian
Midian
Midian , Madyan , or Madiam is a geographical place and a people mentioned in the Bible and in the Qur'an. It is believed to be in northwest Saudi Arabia on the east shore of the Gulf of Aqaba and the northern Red Sea...
) from the 14th century BC, and that this cult was transmitted northwards due to the Kenites. This "Kenite hypothesis" was originally suggested by Cornelius Tiele in 1872 and remains the standard view among modern scholars.
In its classical form suggested by Tiele, the "Kenite hypothesis" assumes that Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
was a historical Midianite who brought the cult of Yahweh north to Israel. This idea is based on an old tradition (recorded in Judges
Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its title describes its contents: it contains the history of Biblical judges, divinely inspired prophets whose direct knowledge of Yahweh allows them to act as decision-makers for the Israelites, as...
1:16, 4:11) that Moses' father-in-law was a Midianite priest of Yahweh, as it were preserving a memory of the Midianite origin of the god. While the role of the Kenites in the transmission of the cult is widely accepted, the historical role of Moses finds less support in modern scholarship.
The oldest West Semitic attestation of the name (outside of biblical evidence) is the inscription of the victory stela
Mesha Stele
The Mesha Stele is a black basalt stone bearing an inscription by the 9th century BC ruler Mesha of Moab in Jordan....
erected by Mesha
Mesha
King Mesha of Moab was a king of Moabites around the 9th century BC, known most famous for writing the Mesha stela.The books of Samuel record that Moab was conquered by David and retained in the territories of his son Solomon . Later, King Omri of Israel reconquered Moab after Moab was lost...
, king of Moab, in the 9th century BC. In this inscription, Yahweh is not presented as a Moabite deity. Mesha rather records how he defeated Israel, and plundered the temple of Yahweh, presenting the spoils to his own god, Chemosh
Chemosh
Chemosh , was the god of the Moabites . The etymology of "Chemosh" is unknown. He is also known from Ebla as Kamish....
.
The direct competition of Yahweh with Baal
Baal
Baʿal is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu...
is depicted in the narrative of Elijah in the Books of Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
. Yahweh or Yahu appears in many Hebrew Bible theophoric names, including Elijah itself, which translates to "my god
El (god)
is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "deity", cognate to Akkadian and then to Hebrew : Eli and Arabic )....
is Yahu", besides other name such as Yesha'yahu
Isaiah
Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
"Yahu saved" or Yahu-haz
Ahaz
Ahaz was king of Judah, and the son and successor of Jotham. He is one of the kings mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew....
"Yahu held", and others found in the early Jewish Elephantine papyri
Elephantine papyri
The Elephantine Papyri are a collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts dating from the 5th century BC. They come from a Jewish community at Elephantine, then called Yeb, the island in the Nile at the border of Nubia, which was probably founded as a military installation in about 650 BC during...
.