Records and developments
A bronze bull statuette discovered at the 12th-century BCE "Bull Site" in Samaria
The central element of ancient Israel's religion through most of the monarchic period was the worship of a god named Yahweh, and for this reason the religion of Israel is often referred to as Yahwism.[5] Yahweh, however, was not the "original" god of Israel. Rather it was El, the head of the Canaanite pantheon whose name forms the basis of the name "Israel" (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל),[19] and none of the Hebrew patriarchs, tribes of Israel, Judges, or early monarchs have a Yahwistic theophoric name (i.e., a name incorporating the name of Yahweh).[20] It is unclear how, where, or why Yahweh appeared in the Levant; even his name is a point of confusion.[21] The exact date of his first appearance is also ambiguous: the term Israel first enters historical records in the 13th century BCE with the Egyptian Merneptah Stele, and, while the worship of Yahweh is circumstantially attested to as early as the 12th century BCE,[22] there is no attestation of even the name "Yahweh" in the Levant until some four hundred years later with the Mesha Stele (9th century BCE).[23][a] Because of this, Christian Frevel argues that Yahweh worship was rooted in the Kingdom of Israel and preserved by the Omride clan.[25] Nevertheless, many scholars believe that the shared worship of Yahweh played a role in the emergence of Israel in the Late Bronze Age (circa 1200 BCE).[26]
