Francesca Stavrakopoulou

Yeah, absolutely.

So it is relatively late.

We're talking kind of like 10 to midnight in the kind of the world clock of time.

This is a deity who's mentioned absolutely a clear attestation of a deity Yahweh linked to Israel and kings of Israel in the 9th century BC.

And that comes in the Mesha Stele, which is a stone inscription, a monument that was set up by a Moabite king called Mesha.

Moab is where we now identify Jordan.

That's our earliest unattested reference to Yahweh.

And that's got quite an exact date, doesn't it?

What's the date?

It's around, it's the midnight century BCE.

Possible references to Yahweh.

Some scholars have argued that we have in certain Egyptian materials, Egyptian texts, references to what appear to be nomadic or semi-nomadic tribal groups in this pocket of territory at the bottom of the Southern Levant and into some of what was ancient Egypt, some Arabian territories, that seems to refer to a Yahu or Yaho.

Now, we know from later Hebrew inscriptions that that is a very common form of the name Yahweh, the divine name Yahweh.

But in these ancient Egyptian materials that are much earlier, from around 14th century, 13th century BCE, doesn't look to be the name of a deity.

It doesn't look to be a proper personal name.

It looks to be a place name.

rather than a personal name.

So, some scholars have said this is a place name.

Could this be a place at which a deity takes his name?

Possibly.