Yahweh

Yahweh^[a] was an ancient Levantine deity, and national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah.^[4] Though no consensus exists regarding the deity's origins,^[5] scholars generally contend that Yahweh is associated with Seir, Edom, Paran and Teman,^[6] and later with Canaan. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age, if not somewhat earlier.^[7]

In the oldest biblical literature, he possesses attributes typically ascribed to weather and war deities, fructifying the land and leading the heavenly army against Israel's enemies.^[8] The early Israelites were polytheistic and worshipped Yahweh alongside a variety of Canaanite gods and goddesses, including El, Asherah and Baal.^[9] In later centuries, El and Yahweh became conflated and El-linked epithets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone.^[10] But some scholars believe El and Yahweh were always conflated.^[11][12][13] Characteristics of other gods, such as Asherah and Baal, were also selectively "absorbed" in conceptions of Yahweh.^[14][15][16]

Over time the existence of other gods was denied, and Yahweh was proclaimed the creator deity and sole divinity to be worshipped. During the Second Temple period, speaking the name of Yahweh in public became regarded as taboo,^[17] and Jews instead began to substitute other words, primarily adonai (אֲדֹנָי‬‎, "my Lords"). In Roman times, following the Siege of Jerusalem and destruction of its Temple, in 70 CE, the original pronunciation of the god's name was forgotten entirely.^[18]

Yahweh is also invoked in Papyrus Amherst 63, and in Jewish or Jewish-influenced Greco-Egyptian magical texts from the 1st to 5th century CE.^[19]

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