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An Egyptian temple inscription names a southern nomad group called Yhw around the 14th century BCE. In Exodus 6, Moses is told that the ancestors knew him as God Almighty, using the name described as new though it was already in use among neighbors.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Soleb Inscription
Soleb Topographical List
Ancient Near East
From the inscriptions on the columns of the hypostyle hall of the temple of Amun-Re at Soleb, built by Amenhotep III. Column N4 preserves a list of subdivisions within the “Shasu-land” (ta shasu), a regional designation for mobile pastoralist communities in the southern Levant. ta shasu trbr (Shasu-land: Trbr) ta shasu yhwʒ (Shasu-land: Yhwʒ) ta shasu smt (Shasu-land: Smt) pyspʒys (Pyspys)
Exodus 6:3
Hebrew Bible
2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name ‘the Lord’ I was not known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as resident foreigners.
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Notes and References
... This landscape before the kingdoms of Israel and Judah opens up space to consider “Yahweh before Israel,” both in the 14th-century Yhwʒ of Shasu-land and in the “people of Yahweh” of Judges 5. ... In a text that lacks any link to the mountain of God, Exodus 6:2-8 recounts God's command to present Israel an offer of divine deliverance. The passage has long been attributed to Priestly (P) writing, which begins with the creation of the world in Genesis 1 and self-consciously connects an account of ancestors in Genesis with Moses as chosen intermediary in Exodus. ... The text opens with a precise and emblematic declaration that Yahweh has reserved communication of his proper name for this occasion of rescue from Egypt and establishment in their own land: “I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.” ...
Fleming, Daniel E.
Yahweh Before Israel: Glimpses of History in a Divine Name
(pp. 8, 87-90) Cambridge University Press, 2020
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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