Yahweh: Origin of a Desert God

By (author) Robert D. Miller II Illustrated by Christopher Irwin

Book cover: Yahweh: Origin of a Desert God

Extent: 253 pages

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Subjects: Biblical Studies

Series: Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(March 2021)

ISBN: 9783525540862

6.34 x 9.25 inches

Price: $163.00

In stock

The origin of Yahweh


Recognizing the absence of a God named Yahweh outside of ancient Israel, this study addresses the related questions of Yahweh’s origins and the biblical claim that there were Yahweh-worshipers other than the Israelite people. Beginning with the Hebrew Bible, with an exhaustive survey of ancient Near Eastern literature and inscriptions discovered by archaeology, and using anthropology to reconstruct religious practices and beliefs of ancient Edom and Midian, this study proposes an answer. Yahweh-worshiping Midianites of the Early Iron Age brought their deity along with metallurgy into ancient Palestine and the Israelite people.

Robert D. Miller II is Ordinary Professor of Old Testament and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at the Catholig University of America.

  • By (author) Robert D. Miller II
  • Illustrated by Christopher Irwin