Yahweh before Israel

Yahweh is the proper name of the biblical God. His early character is central to understanding the foundations of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic monotheism. As a deity, the name appears only in connection with the peoples of the Hebrew Bible, but long before Israel, the name is found in an Egyptian list as one group in the land of tent-dwellers, the Shasu. This is the starting-point for Daniel E. Fleming's sharply new approach to the god Yahweh. In his analysis, the Bible's 'people of Yahweh' serve as a clue to how one of the Bronze Age herding peoples of the inland Levant gave its name to a deity, initially outside of any relationship to Israel. For 150 years, the dominant paradigm for Yahweh's origin has envisioned borrowing from peoples of the desert south of Israel. Fleming argues in contrast that Yahweh was not taken from outsiders. Rather, this divine name is evidence for the diverse background of Israel itself.

Offers a deeply new account of the earliest evidence for the god Yahweh 'before Israel'
Explores how early religion can illuminate the historical background of ancient Israel
Develops a major new interpretation of early Israelite religion while tracing a scholarly genealogy that helps explain past interpretive paths taken and missed possibilities

Reviews & endorsements

'Fleming's thesis certainly strikes out on its own within debate about the Midianite hypothesis and the origins of Yahweh, but I think it often makes more judicious and careful use of the data, particularly in its interrogation of the Egyptian inscriptions at Soleb and 'Amarah West. There is a degree of speculation involved that is inevitable with trying to take steps into the dark … but I would argue Fleming's volume asks more interesting questions that have the potential to contribute to a more robust and productive engagement with what few data are available to us.' Daniel O. McClellan, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

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