1st Edition
A Story of YHWH Cultural Translation and Subversive Reception in Israelite History
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Chapter 1: Purpose and Scope
The Story of Comparative Endeavors
Understanding the Roots of Contemporary Questions
Some Common Challenges
Tools for a Comparative and Developmental History of YHWH
Finding a Narrative Arc
Cultural Translation
Subversive Reception
Summary
Chapter 2: Competing Narratives of Early Origins
Geographical Options and Limitations
Possible Southern Origins: Egypt and the Biblical Narrative
An Egyptian/Southern Test Case: Seth and YHWH
Early YHWHism From a Southern Perspective
The North: Ugarit, Baal, El, and the Early Stages of YHWHism
Early YHWHism
YHWH in Early Poetry
YHWH in Inscriptions
The Divine Council
Summary
Chapter 3: The Rise of YHWH and Jerusalem on the International Stage
Urbanization and YHWH
Urbanism and Divinity in the Ancient Near East
Israelite Urbanism and Divinity in Shiloh and Jerusalem
A Context for Change: Israel and its Neighbors
Urbanization, Divinity, and the Role of Scribal Culture
YHWH on the International Stage
The Neo-Assyrian Context as Catalyst
Isaiah 6 as Israelite Protest Literature
Isaiah 6:1–8 in the Neo-Assyrian Period
Subversive Reception: The mi¯s pi^ and its Connections with Isaiah 6:1–8
The Call of the Neo-Assyrian Kings Versus the Call of Isaiah
Subversive Reception in the Book of Nahum
Nahum 1
Nahum 2
Nahum 3
Summary
Chapter 4: YHWH as Israel’s Only God: YHWH in The Exilic Period
The Exilic Context
The Exile and Judean Reactions such as Psalm 137
The Growth of Exilic YHWHism and Onomastics
Psalms of Lament, Psalm 44, and the Silence of an Urban YHWH
What happened to the Other Gods? The Deuteronomistic History
Jeremiah
Genesis 1 and Creation Imagery
Habakkuk
Summary
Chapter 5: Persian Period: The Afterlives of YHWHism
The Context of the Persian Period
Elephantine and the Judean Communities YHWHism
YHWH in Third-Isaiah
Isaiah 57:14–15
Third-Isaiah
Tackling Monotheism
The Book of Jonah
Horizontal Movement and Tension
Descending to Sheol and Escaping Heaven: The Vertical Axis
Self-Constructed Distance from YHWH: Vertically and Horizontally
Jonah’s Complex/Post-Exilic Perception of YHWH
The Shape of YHWH in the Persian Period
Summary
Chapter 6: Conclusion and Assessment
Challenges and Limitations
Discoveries and Fruits
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Shawn W. Flynn received a PhD in 2012 from the University of Toronto, Canada, in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. His first book was YHWH is King, published in Vetus Testamentum Supplements (2014); he has also authored Children in Ancient Israel: The Hebrew Bible and Mesopotamia in Comparative Perspective (2018). In addition, he has edited Children in the Bible and the Ancient World: Comparative and Historical Methods in Reading Ancient Children (2019). He is currently an Associate Professor of the Hebrew Bible at St Joseph’s College, University of Alberta, Canada, and Academic Dean of the College.
