T
thephilosopher6
Guest
Moses existed, but we should recognize that the genre of Exodus was not meant to be taken as historical fact in every sense. The Bible is a library, there is mythology, poetry, history, etc. It’s a big book.
I prefer the revised Kenite hypothesis which has gained a lot of traction among scholars and explains a lot of the things we find in the Old Testament. The hypothesis posits that YHWH was the God of the Kenites, a tribe of the Midianites. Moses came into contact with Kenites through his fahter-in-law Jethro, adopted YHWH, and formed a priestly tradition around him as the Levites. It was likely the Levites were the one that came out of Egypt and brought their Yahwehist tradition to Canaan (explaining their itinerancy in Israel) along with other Midianite tribes who migrated into Canaan. This hypothesis fits well with the data of the Old Testament.
First, there is a strong southern origins tradition in the Hebrew Bible, and one of the earliest portions of the Hebrew Bible can be found in Judges which has YHWH marching from the south into Canaan,
Further indications of a southern origin can be found in Hosea 12:13 where it’s mentioned God used a prophet to bring Israel out of Egypt, and Habakkuk 3:3 where it is mentioned God came from Teman and from Mt. Paran, which is in Arabia on the coast of the Red Sea, and was likely the same as Sinai.
There is also much archaeological evidence that YHWH originated in the south, such as the discovery of the 14th century BC Egyptian text which mentions the “Shasu of YHWH”, which is the earliest reference to YHWH ever, even predating the text of the Hebrew Bible; the Shasu are thought to have resided in the region of Edom by scholars.
The discovery of the 9th century BC Kuntillet Ajrud confirms YHWH was worshiped by the Edomites for it mentions “YHWH of Teman.”
It is suggested that Yahweh was adopted by the Israelite monarchy, likely by King Saul whose family may have had YHWH as their God, but eventually the monarchy became extremely syncretist in their worship of Yahweh, which caused the push back of some of the “traditionalist” Yahwehist (who imported YHWH in the first place with their religious traditions around him) to emphasize sole worship of Yahweh and a tradition of prophets was started. Indeed, the Rechabites were a group of Kenites in Israel who were strictly devoted to Yahweh alone, and their founder Jehonadab was a zealot for YHWH worship alone who seemingly appears out of nowhere with Jehu (2 Kings 10, Jeremiah 35).
I prefer the revised Kenite hypothesis which has gained a lot of traction among scholars and explains a lot of the things we find in the Old Testament. The hypothesis posits that YHWH was the God of the Kenites, a tribe of the Midianites. Moses came into contact with Kenites through his fahter-in-law Jethro, adopted YHWH, and formed a priestly tradition around him as the Levites. It was likely the Levites were the one that came out of Egypt and brought their Yahwehist tradition to Canaan (explaining their itinerancy in Israel) along with other Midianite tribes who migrated into Canaan. This hypothesis fits well with the data of the Old Testament.
First, there is a strong southern origins tradition in the Hebrew Bible, and one of the earliest portions of the Hebrew Bible can be found in Judges which has YHWH marching from the south into Canaan,
Mt. Sinai was probably the original place where Yahwehist worshipped YHWH, and this area was most likely in northern Arabia in the region of Midian. It difficult to make sense why a Canaanite religion would venerate such a mountain in their traditions unless this place was originally associated as the dwelling place of YHWH by migrants who imported in the Yahwehist religion to Canaan.
Further indications of a southern origin can be found in Hosea 12:13 where it’s mentioned God used a prophet to bring Israel out of Egypt, and Habakkuk 3:3 where it is mentioned God came from Teman and from Mt. Paran, which is in Arabia on the coast of the Red Sea, and was likely the same as Sinai.
There is also much archaeological evidence that YHWH originated in the south, such as the discovery of the 14th century BC Egyptian text which mentions the “Shasu of YHWH”, which is the earliest reference to YHWH ever, even predating the text of the Hebrew Bible; the Shasu are thought to have resided in the region of Edom by scholars.
The discovery of the 9th century BC Kuntillet Ajrud confirms YHWH was worshiped by the Edomites for it mentions “YHWH of Teman.”
It is suggested that Yahweh was adopted by the Israelite monarchy, likely by King Saul whose family may have had YHWH as their God, but eventually the monarchy became extremely syncretist in their worship of Yahweh, which caused the push back of some of the “traditionalist” Yahwehist (who imported YHWH in the first place with their religious traditions around him) to emphasize sole worship of Yahweh and a tradition of prophets was started. Indeed, the Rechabites were a group of Kenites in Israel who were strictly devoted to Yahweh alone, and their founder Jehonadab was a zealot for YHWH worship alone who seemingly appears out of nowhere with Jehu (2 Kings 10, Jeremiah 35).
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Peace 