Methodologically, the chapter also describes the Canaanite cultural continuum from the Middle Bronze Age through the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Read and study Gods Word with Bible study software that has in-depth resources such as commentaries, Greek and Hebrew word tools, concordances, and more. The latter includes a review of the Midianite-Kenite hypothesis studied alongside archaic Hebrew poetry (biblical and epigraphic) describing militaristic wilderness theophanies. This article treats two separate but interrelated issues: (1) the historical origins of the deity YHWH (commonly rendered Yahweh), known from both biblical and non-biblical sources and (2) the origins and development of YHWH's profile(s) in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, specifically as it pertains to the problem of YHWH's historical. 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. This article attempts to examine the connection between the two through several themes: desert roots in the culture of ancient Israel, the origin of Yhwh. 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. Chapter Six examines the historical origin of Yahweh, the dominant deity of Israelite religion.

Origins of yhwh