How the God of Israel Was Born: Merging Two Ancient Traditions
I explore how Judaism emerged not from a single revelation at Mount Sinai, but from the gradual convergence of two distinct traditions: the northern Canaanite worship of El and the southern desert cult of YHWH. By examining archaeological evidence from Ugarit and Egyptian records, I reveal how these separate divine identities were harmonized into the monotheistic faith we recognize today, challenging the traditional narrative of an instant birth.
The original Hebrew text is not a monolith written by a single hand contemporary with the events, but an imposing stratification of independent sources, often openly at odds with one another.