A Story of YHWH Cultural Translation and Subversive Reception in Israelite History Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East Series

A Story of YHWH investigates the ancient Israelite expression of their deity, and tracks why variation occurred in that expression, from the early Iron Age to the Persian period.

Through this text, readers will gain a better appreciation for the complexities and contexts in the development of YHWH, from its earliest origins to the Persian period. Two interpretive frameworks?cultural translation and subversive reception?are offered for filtering through the textual data and contexts. Comparative study with ancient Near Eastern deities and select biblical texts lead readers through early YHWHism, YHWH?s original outsider status, and the eventual impact of urbanization on the expression. Perceived and real pressures then challenge urbanite YHWHism and invite new directions for forming a unique expression of divinity in the ancient world.

This book is intended for those interested in the study of ancient divinity broadly as well as those who study ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible. The work provides generalists with a better appreciation for the particular challenges in working in the ancient Near East and with the bible specifically, while it provides specialists with a broad theory that can be continually tested. For both, the study provides two reading lenses to work through similar questions and an accounting of why the many contextually driven and varied constructions of YHWH may have occurred.

Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Chapter 1: Purpose and scope; Chapter 2: Competing narratives of early origins; Chapter 3: The rise of YHWH and Jerusalem on the international stage; Chapter 4: YHWH as Israel’s only God: YHWH in the exilic period; Chapter 5: Persian period: the afterlives of YHWHism; Chapter 6: Conclusion and assessment; Bibliography; Index

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.