Adoption as national god of Israel Scholars agree that the archaeological evidence suggests that the Israelites arose peacefully and internally in the highlands of Canaan.[18]:31 In the words of archaeologist William Dever, most of those who came to call themselves Israelites ... were or had been indigenous Canaanites.[37] What distinguished Israel from other emerging Iron Age Canaanite societies was the belief in Yahweh as the national god, rather than, for example, Chemosh, the god of Moab, or Milcom, the god of the Ammonites.[4]:156 This would require that the Transjordanian Yahweh worshipers not be identified with Israelites, but perhaps with Edomite tribes who introduced Yahweh to Israel. One longstanding hypothesis is that Yahweh originated as a warrior-god in the region of Edom and Midian, south of Judah, and was introduced into the northern and central highlands by southern tribes such as the Kenites; Karel van der Toorn has suggested that his rise to prominence in Israel was due to the influence of Saul, Israels first king, who was of Edomite background.[38]:248 Yahweh was eventually hypostatized with El. Several pieces of evidence have led scholars to the conclusion that El was the original God of Israel—for example, the word Israel is based on the name of El rather than on that of Yahweh.[10]:32 Names of the oldest characters in the Torah further show reverence towards El without similar displays towards Yahweh. Most importantly, Yahweh reveals to Moses that though he was not known previously as El, he has, in fact, been El all along.[39]
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 05:34:53 +0000