Looking for purely scholarly historical information on Yahweh

Hello, everyone. Anyone have any good academic sources on Yahweh? Specifically, his connection to the Egyptian moon god Iah/Yah/Iao (correct me if I’m wrong but Iao is the Greek version of Iah since they did not have an h at the time?)

@StewardofSophia maybe you could assist me here? I guess I should be a little less vague though: I am looking for historical and linguistic evidence that confirms (or disproves) that Yahweh evolved out of the Egyptian Iah/Iao.

It wouldn’t make sense for a connection to exist, because Yahweh doesn’t have any connections with the moon. He’s likely a god of war and the weather.

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I asked for historical and linguistic evidence. There seems to be a connection, linguistically, between Yah/Iah and Yahweh and I was wondering if you knew any articles or sources that shed light on this.

That’s a very simplistic view of deities that I won’t even bother to debate. Please address the topic at hand.

Yeah, from what I’ve read he first shows up in the historical record as a tribal storm god.

Also a possible link to a Vulcan/Cabeiri-type deity:

@Maitre-Des-Biscuits I did a little Google skimming and the only academic citation I could find that references the moon god theory is:

From what I can tell, though, no serious expert today (apart from random YouTubers) concurs with Röth that Yhwh derives from the Egyptian Joh. It’s an interesting linguistic coincidence, sure, but like @StewardofSophia said, Yahweh’s characteristics just don’t really match those of a lunar deity.

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Thanks for that.

I do wonder if that’s because of legitimate academic reasons or because of a religious reason a.k.a. delusion. You know the ole “My god cannot possibly be a pagan deity! Those are FALSE GODS! My god is real, and and he can do anything! Not like those pagan gods! So I’ll just ignore all the evidence! that’ll teach them!” rhetoric. have to look into it further…

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There are plenty of non-Christian scholars of the Christian religion. While the religious scholars would definitely have a vetted interest in not connecting Yahweh with a Pagan deity. The secular scholars would have no such inhibition.

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Cananite Mythology El, Baal & Yahweh are featured there. Though i believe Yahweh was originally a blacksmith & storm deity. Hence his later association with fire and destructive storms in hebrew tradition.

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Yahweh likely came from a Canaanite god. I’v done quite a bit of research on this myself, but I’m way too tired to regurgitate it right now. Commenting so I can find this tomorrow.

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Here we go.

While there were likely quite a few Hebrew peoples living in Egypt, it’s very unlikely that Yahweh comes from Egyptian dieties, one possibility is that the name refers to an Egyptian place.

Theory 1:

Yahweh is an epithet of El, head of the Caananite pantheon. Evidence for this is hidden in the name “Israel” itself. It means to grapple with God, which is what Jacob did. The difference is that it specifically references El, not the root of Yahweh’s name.

A lot of archeological evidence also places Yahweh in a sort of marriage situation with the goddess Asherah.

Slowly, over the course of the Babylonian captivity, the lesser deity of Yahweh simply came to absorb the other gods and goddesses in the pantheon to become the supreme deity of not just the Hebrews, but of the world.

Theory 2:

The Kenite hypothesis holds that the name traveled along the caravan routes between Egypt and Canaan. We can see evidence from this in that the Bible references God as being with Edom and Midian. Moreover, an inscription in Egypt reads " land of Shasu of yhw," the Shasu being nomads from Edom and Midian, which are in northern Arabia.

It’s also interesting to note that “yhw” means “he blows” as one possible etymology, though it isn’t conclusive. If true, however, it would point to Yahweh being a weather god.

If you have some time, this is also a good documentary. Interestingly, it has an interesting hypothesis as to why the Jews don’t say the name “Yahweh,” and he seems reluctant to give his name at multiple points.

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Hmm, you force link him in and are rude to him when he responds nice.

Here, do your own work, and your welcome.

This man has done the research on that subject. Im sure with some effort on your part you can find his sources.
Ps he does not say Yahwah has anything to do with the moon, so sorry.

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