The Early History of God

Study of the early history of God brings together several related questions: the origin and meaning of YHWH, the relationship between biblical accounts and historical reconstruction, the place of YHWH among El, Baal, Asherah, and other figures in the West Semitic world, and the emergence of exclusive worship and monotheism.[2][3]

The evidence is uneven. Biblical texts preserve differing traditions; inscriptions and archaeology illuminate some practices without settling their interpretation; and reference accounts date decisive stages of monotheism differently.[3][6] The subject therefore concerns both the development of Israelite religion and the methods used to reconstruct it.

YHWH is the four-consonant Hebrew name of Israel’s God, conventionally called the tetragrammaton; “Yahweh” is a scholarly reconstruction of its pronunciation.[1][3] The biblical narratives differ about when the name became known: Genesis depicts it as used in the earliest generations, whereas Exodus 6:3 says the patriarchs knew God as El Shaddai and that the name YHWH was revealed to Moses.[3] Jochebed’s name, understood as based on Yahweh, has been cited as possible evidence that the Levites knew the name before Moses.[1] Reference accounts nevertheless distinguish biblical tradition from what historians can independently reconstruct.[3][4]

The name’s original meaning is uncertain. Exodus 3:14 connects it with the Hebrew verb “to be” or “to exist”; another proposed rendering is “He Brings into Existence Whatever Exists.” The title YHWH tseva’ot, often rendered “Lord of hosts,” has also been interpreted as referring to the heavenly court or to Israel.[1][3] Proposed evidence for the name or its origins outside the Bible has not settled the question: references from Ebla and Mari are not generally accepted, a fragmentary Ugaritic reference is inconclusive, and Egyptian references to a place called Yhv’ in the Negev or Sinai have been treated as a possible clue, not proof, for a Midianite or Kenite connection.[3]

Historical accounts place early Israelite religion within a Canaanite and broader West Semitic cultural setting. Ugaritic texts from around 1200 BCE depict El as a high god, with Asherah and other deities in a larger divine order; one reference account describes Israelite religion as adapting a comparable hierarchy, with YHWH at its head and a heavenly host beneath.[2] Accounts of Israelite settlement are also varied: theories include gradual migration from Transjordan and development from local Canaanite communities, while archaeological changes in the central highlands around 1200 BCE—new settlements and farming and herding—may correlate with Israelite settlement but do not establish it conclusively.[7]

Several historical reconstructions describe a development in which YHWH took on names, attributes, or functions associated with other deities. One reference account says YHWH absorbed the name and attributes of El, including beneficence and wisdom, and acquired features associated with Baal, such as a thunderous voice, fructifying power, and the title “cloud rider.” It also identifies biblical imagery of divine combat with a sea monster as parallel to traditions associated with Baal and other ancient Near Eastern gods.[2][3] These are accounts of historical and theological development, not a single uncontested reconstruction.

The meanings and roles of El, Baal, and Asherah in ancient sources require care. A Sefaria source sheet citing Mark S. Smith describes El as a Canaanite deity whose name later also referred to Israel’s God; the sheet itself is a secondary presentation of that citation, not a substitute for Smith’s book.[8] It notes that “Baal” and “Asherah” may function as names, titles, or more general terms in different contexts.[8] A 2011 Hebrew Union College thesis reproduces a reconstruction in which early Israelite religion was not sharply distinct from neighboring religions in its number or configuration of deities, and in which YHWH gradually assumed divine realms and functions; the quoted account includes qualifications such as “perhaps” and “if so.”[6]

Inscriptions referring to “YHWH and his asherah” have contributed to debate over whether asherah denotes a cult object, such as a pole or tree, or the goddess Asherah, possibly understood by some worshipers as associated with or a consort of YHWH. The evidence does not establish one meaning for every place and period.[2][6] The HUC thesis also discusses figurines and inscriptions from Kuntillet Ajrud and the Shephelah of Judah as evidence relevant to religious plurality, while distinguishing the artifacts from interpretations of them.[6] A proposal that Yahweh originated as a deity of Canaanite metallurgy has likewise been advanced, drawing on copper production and associations with the Kenites and Edomites, but its author identifies it as a hypothesis and says the identity of any Canaanite smelting deity remains unknown.[9]

Some reference accounts distinguish early exclusive service to YHWH from the later assertion that no other gods exist. They characterize early Israelite worship as monolatrous: Israel was required to serve YHWH alone, without necessarily denying the existence of other peoples’ gods.[3][10] In biblical tradition, covenant obligations associated with Moses at Sinai or Horeb and Moab, and with Joshua at Shechem, linked exclusive worship with Israel’s collective identity. YHWH was credited with bringing the people out of Egypt and granting them land, while the covenant framed allegiance in terms comparable to ancient Near Eastern treaties.[3]

The move toward universal monotheism is dated differently in the sources. One account contrasts a reconstruction in which exclusive worship was pressed by classical prophecy and universal monotheism developed through exile and Second Isaiah with a position tracing monotheism to Moses.[3] The Jewish Encyclopedia places full monotheism after the Babylonian exile, while another reference account says monotheism became the common way of understanding God in the Hellenistic period.[10][4] Taken together, the sources do not present a single settled chronology.[3][4]

The biblical texts and archaeological materials are presented as evidence of religious practices that did not always conform to exclusive worship. One reference account says only a minority of Israelites consistently worshiped YHWH alone during the early first millennium BCE, and points to diverse origins and the monarchy’s international and commercial interests among relevant social and political factors.[3] The biblical writers explain the falls of Samaria and Judah as consequences of failure to keep the covenant; that is the biblical account of those events, rather than an independent historical explanation.[3] An HUC thesis interprets biblical condemnations of local shrines and other forms of worship as evidence of practices that centralizing reforms sought to suppress.[6]

Reforms associated with Josiah, and possibly earlier Hezekiah, are described as concentrating sacrifice at the Jerusalem Temple and eliminating local shrines, with political and institutional effects as well as religious ones.[2] The sources thus present the development of Israelite religion not only as a change in ideas about God, but also as a history of worship, covenant, and efforts to centralize religious practice.

The divine name was increasingly avoided in Jewish practice because it was regarded as too sacred to pronounce. In synagogue ritual, Adonai (“My Lord”) was spoken in its place; the Septuagint translated Adonai as Kyrios (“Lord”).[1] After the Babylonian Exile, and especially from the third century BCE onward, Elohim increasingly replaced Yahweh in some usage as Judaism developed in a more universal religious direction.[1]

Between about the sixth and tenth centuries CE, the Masoretes added the vowel signs of Adonai or Elohim to the consonants YHWH as a reading cue. Latin-speaking Christian scholars later used the resulting convention to produce the Latinized form “Jehovah,” while biblical scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries returned to “Yahweh.”[1] The forms “Yahweh” and “Yahveh” are scholarly reconstructions based partly on early Greek transcriptions, while “Jehovah” arose from a misunderstanding of the scribal reading convention.[3] The name’s history therefore involves both its ancient religious use and later traditions of reading and transliteration.

The subject is significant because it connects divine names and theological claims with covenant, collective identity, political institutions, and ritual practice. In biblical tradition, exclusive allegiance to YHWH marked Israel as a people and shaped accounts of its origins, laws, land, and political history.[3] Historically oriented accounts also connect Temple centralization with changes in local worship and the authority of Jerusalem’s religious institutions.[2][6]

The subject also explains features of later Jewish usage. Avoiding the pronunciation of YHWH, substituting Adonai, and the later forms Yahweh and Jehovah preserve the history of how the divine name was read and transmitted.[1][3] Modern study of that history requires biblical theology, archaeological evidence, and competing historical reconstructions to be distinguished rather than treated as interchangeable.

Historical reconstructions of early Israelite religion remain debated, particularly over the origin of Yahweh worship, the relation between YHWH and other deities, and the chronology of monotheism. Multiple settlement theories include gradual infiltration from Transjordan and development from local Canaanite communities; archaeological correlations are treated cautiously, because destructions cannot automatically be attributed to Israelites and some cities in conquest narratives may not have existed in the thirteenth century BCE.[7] The same educational lesson reports that researchers who accept the historicity of the Exodus often place it under Ramesses II in the thirteenth century BCE, while presenting this as a scholarly reconstruction rather than a settled conclusion.[7]

The available sources also report sharply disputed conclusions attributed to archaeologist Ze’ev Herzog, including claims that archaeology does not support an Israelite sojourn in Egypt or a military conquest of Canaan, and that the united monarchy was “a small tribal kingdom at most.” These appear in a BESA Center article recounting Herzog’s conclusions, not as findings independently established by that article.[11] Interpretations of inscriptions involving Asherah, the extent of religious plurality, and the emergence of monotheism likewise vary among the sources.[2][6]

The phrase “The Early History of God” is also the title of Mark S. Smith’s book, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. A Hebrew Union College bibliography lists an original edition published in 1990 and a second edition in 2003.[5] An Encyclopedia.com bibliography and a Library of Congress-hosted volume instead cite the second edition as 2002.[2][12] The Encyclopedia.com entry characterizes the book as a thorough treatment of the relationship between Yahweh and Canaanite deities, including Asherah and the emergence of monotheism.[2]