Alice C. Linsley
Over the centuries there has been much speculation as to the original cultural context of the tetragrammaton, the Divine Name revealed to the Israelites through Moses. The Name is given at Mount Horeb, a mountain sacred to the Midianites. The narrative starts with Moses shepherding the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and ends with the theophany of the burning bush (Ex. 3:14) in which God declares from the bush, "I am that I am" (Ehye aser ehye). The entire narrative is limited to the location of this mountain sacred to the Horites living in that region, one of them being Moses' father-in-law Jethro. His ruler-priest status is designated by the spelling of his name with the initial solar symbol: Yetro. Jethro is a descendant of Abraham by his cousin wife Keturah.
In Exodus 3:14-15 we find the narrative as a polished national creed: "And Elohim said to Moses, Ehye aser eyhe. And he said 'You shall say to the sons of Israel Ehye has sent you.' And again Elohim said to Moses 'You shall say this to the sons of Israel, YHWH Elohi of your fathers, Elohi of Abraham, Elohi of Isaac and Elohi of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever and this is my title from generation to generation." Here the Divine Name is associated with another Divine Name: Elohi/Elohim, as in Genesis 24:7.
It is evident from study of the tetragrammaton in other ancient references that the giving of the Divine Name at the burning bush does not represent a new development. It represents reaffirmation of received tradition from the Horim or Horites. Abraham bargains with YHWH over the fate of Sodom (Gen.18:1). Hagar the Egyptian recognizes her angelic helper as the angel of YHWH (Gen. 16:7). Abraham utters the Divine Name twice, in Genesis 24:3 and 24:7. In the latter instance he recognizes "YHWH Elohim" as the one who called him out of Mesopotamia. In Genesis Abraham's servant invokes the help of YHWH no less than ten times in his quest for Isaac's cousin bride.
Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy structure of Abraham's people reveals that Moses was related to the Shasu as a descendant of Seir the Horite (Gen. 36)
Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy structure of Abraham's people reveals that Moses was related to the Shasu as a descendant of Seir the Horite (Gen. 36)
Extra-biblical inscriptions and archaeological finds
Two hieroglyphic references dating to the New Kingdom period refer to “the land of the Shasu of YHWH.” These are the oldest references to YHWH outside the Bible. The "Shasu of Yhw" is found on inscriptions from the Nubian temples of Soleb and Amara West, and corresponds precisely to the tetragrammaton.
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| Reproduction of the hieroglyphic inscription of YHWH dated to 1400 BC. Credit: Benny Bonte |
Shasu may be a variant of Saka, another word for Horite royal priests among the Kushites. They originated in the Nile Valley, and as they dispersed out of Africa, they spread the Proto-Gospel across the vast Afro-Asiatic Dominion. The Matsya Purana claims that the Saka ruled the ancient world for 7000 years.
The Shasu are definitively connected to the Horites of Seir in Edom (modern Jordan). Lists of place names in Nubian temples of Soleb and Amara West record six toponyms located in “the land of Shasu.” A monument of Ramesses II claims that he “has plundered the Shasu-land, captured the mountain of Seir” in Edom; a 19th Dynasty letter mentions “the Shasu-tribes of Edom” and Ramesses III declares that he has “destroyed the Seirites among the tribes of the Shasu.” Clearly, the Egyptians regarded the Shasu as a prominent part of the Edomite population which is described in Genesis 36.
The Soleb (Sulb) temple, located on the left bank of the Nile just south of the Third Cataract, was built around 1400 BC by Pharaoh Amenhotep III (18th Dynasty). Amara West was the seat of the Egyptian administration of upper Nubia or Kush from the reign of Seti I (1306-1290 BC) onwards. The section of the Amara West topographical list which contains the reference to “the land of the Shasu of Yahweh" was copied from the earlier list at Soleb.
Donald B. Redford writes of the Soleb reference to YHWH:
For half a century it has been generally admitted that we have here the tetragrammaton, the name of the Israelite god "Yahweh;" and if this be the case, as it undoubtedly is, the passage constitutes the most precious indication of the whereabouts during the late 15th century BC of an enclave revering this god.
Soleb was a Horite "enclave" as were many other temples of the Upper Nile. Egyptologists recognize that the temples at Nekhen and Soleb served as the pattern for later temples. Both temples were dedicated to Ra and Horus, and their royal priests were devotees of Horus. Thus, they are called "Horites" in the Bible. These priests dispersed across the ancient world. Genesis 36 speaks of the clans of Seir the Horite who were living in Edom.
Moses' father was a Horite priest and the priest Jethro was likely his brother-in-law. We should not be surprised that YHWH is associated with Moses. Moses and his family were Horites. This has been confirmed through analysis of the marriage and ascendancy structure of Moses' father, which is distinctively Horite.
The Divine Name is also found at the Almaqah temple in the Ethiopian Highlands. This dates between the 8th and 6th centuries BC and was constructed on the ruins of an earlier Nubian structure. The sacrificial altar found at Almaqah bears a 7th century BC inscription with the name of Yeha (YH). As this was a mountain shrine with an elevation well above the Nile floodplain there is no w as in the tetragrammaton. The w was a symbol for the Nile River.
The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests who were known in the ancient world to be concerned with ritual purity, sobriety and religious devotion. They were shepherds who sacrificed animals from their own flocks. They were not polytheistic. They believed in a single Creator whose son was Horus (HR), and they spoke of the Father and Son as equals.
As for the designation "I am" this was how Horus describes himself in the Coffin texts (passage 148): "I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'." (Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark, p. 216)
Here we find the words of Psalm 110:1, from David. The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."
The Horites believed that the sun inseminated the earth. As it rose and swelled in strength it generated life and health on earth. The Creator appointed His servants by the overshadowing of the sun. Those many of the names of the Horite rulers begin with the solar symbol Y. They also expected a woman of their ruler-priest lines to be overshadowed and to conceive the "Seed" of God (Gen. 3:15). She was called Hathor-Meri and she is shown on ancient Nilotic monuments crowned with the long horns of a cow in which the sun rests.
Hathor was the patroness of the miners at Timna, the site of the world's oldest copper mines. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timna by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University.
The smelting works, slag, and flints at Timna were found to be identical to those discovered near Beersheba where Abraham spent his last days. The metal workers of Timna and the metal workers of Beersheba were kin and the patroness of their mining and smelting operations was the virgin mother of Horus who was worshiped by the Horites. In other words, these were Horite metal workers. Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Rothenberg, Timna, p. 183)
The Horite Hebrew (and the Sethite Hebrew) believed that Horus was born at the winter solstice because from that day forward the Sun grows in strength. There may have been an Egyptian ritual that involved placing a male baby before the image of Hathor after which the priests offered gifts before the "divine son."
Solar symbolism is found also in relationship to the death and resurrection of Horus. The Horite priests led the people in a 2-day fast to mourn Horus’ death at the hands of his brother. At dawn on the third day, they put away their mourning clothes and dressed for the feasting that took place after seed was sown in the fields with prayers led by the priests. The seed symbolized new life. Some believe that Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of Horite Hebrew expectation when, in speaking of the manner
of his death, he said, “unless a seed falls into the ground and dies” it cannot give life. (John 12:24)
YHWH is not a Name
Among the Gun of West Africa "Yihwe" or "Yehwe" simply means God. It is likely that YHWH is not a name as much as it is a description about the High God who is/exists. This explains why, when Moses asked the name of the God who sent him, was told to say "I AM" sent me.
Likewise in John 8, when the Jews called Abraham their father, Jesus said to them, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.”
“Then the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was I AM.”
The Y could be symbolic of the One who rules over all things. The Y indicates the Creator as universal ruler who appoints His earthly representatives. This Y is a sun cradle and designates many Biblical ruler: Yishmael, Yitzak, Yacob, Yosef, Yetro, Yeshua, Yaqtan, Yishbak, and Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah). It appears that the Y speaks of divine appointment to rule or prophesy.
The two H's could represent Horus of the Twin Horizons. In fact, the words "horizon" and "hour" are derived from the name Horus. He rides Ra's solar boat and makes his daily circuit from east to west, swelling each morning on the eastern horizon. The Horite Hebrew were also known as Hapiru or Habiru (Hebrew) and Abru in Akkadian. These words are related to the Arabic yakburu, meaning “he is getting big” and to the intensive active prefix: yukabbiru, meaning "he is enlarging." This is a reference to the morning ritual of Horite priests who greeted the rising sun in their temples, offered prayers, and watched as the sun expanded across the horizon.
The Victory Tablet of Amenhotep III describes Horus as “The Good God, Golden [Horus], Shining in the chariot, like the rising of the sun; great in strength, strong in might…” (Tablet of Victory of Amenhotep III, J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, p. 854).
The W represents the Nile River, especially between the First and the Second Cataracts. This region was called WaWaT. A sacred temporal and spatial center for the Nilotic Horites occurred daily when the sun rested directly over the Nile. The Egyptian word for the sun at its peak is wbn. Bn refers to pillars and the w refers to the Nile. Psalm 29:10 describes “Yahweh who sat as king upon the flood; He is king forever.” Malachi 4:2 uses similar language: “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise [swell] with healing in its wings.” The swelling of the sun speaks of God's power to generate life and health.
Taking all the evidence together, it becomes clear that the original context of YHWH is Nilotic and that each glyph presents another feature of the God of the Horite Hebrew. For Abraham, this was a received tradition with a long history going back to his earliest Nilo-Saharan ancestors. They are discussed in my paper "Genesis in Anthropological Perspective."
The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests who were known in the ancient world to be concerned with ritual purity, sobriety and religious devotion. They were shepherds who sacrificed animals from their own flocks. They were not polytheistic. They believed in a single Creator whose son was Horus (HR), and they spoke of the Father and Son as equals.
As for the designation "I am" this was how Horus describes himself in the Coffin texts (passage 148): "I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'." (Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark, p. 216)
Here we find the words of Psalm 110:1, from David. The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."
The Horites believed that the sun inseminated the earth. As it rose and swelled in strength it generated life and health on earth. The Creator appointed His servants by the overshadowing of the sun. Those many of the names of the Horite rulers begin with the solar symbol Y. They also expected a woman of their ruler-priest lines to be overshadowed and to conceive the "Seed" of God (Gen. 3:15). She was called Hathor-Meri and she is shown on ancient Nilotic monuments crowned with the long horns of a cow in which the sun rests.Hathor was the patroness of the miners at Timna, the site of the world's oldest copper mines. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timna by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University.
The smelting works, slag, and flints at Timna were found to be identical to those discovered near Beersheba where Abraham spent his last days. The metal workers of Timna and the metal workers of Beersheba were kin and the patroness of their mining and smelting operations was the virgin mother of Horus who was worshiped by the Horites. In other words, these were Horite metal workers. Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Rothenberg, Timna, p. 183)
The Horite Hebrew (and the Sethite Hebrew) believed that Horus was born at the winter solstice because from that day forward the Sun grows in strength. There may have been an Egyptian ritual that involved placing a male baby before the image of Hathor after which the priests offered gifts before the "divine son."
Solar symbolism is found also in relationship to the death and resurrection of Horus. The Horite priests led the people in a 2-day fast to mourn Horus’ death at the hands of his brother. At dawn on the third day, they put away their mourning clothes and dressed for the feasting that took place after seed was sown in the fields with prayers led by the priests. The seed symbolized new life. Some believe that Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of Horite Hebrew expectation when, in speaking of the manner
of his death, he said, “unless a seed falls into the ground and dies” it cannot give life. (John 12:24)
YHWH is not a Name
Among the Gun of West Africa "Yihwe" or "Yehwe" simply means God. It is likely that YHWH is not a name as much as it is a description about the High God who is/exists. This explains why, when Moses asked the name of the God who sent him, was told to say "I AM" sent me.
Likewise in John 8, when the Jews called Abraham their father, Jesus said to them, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.”
“Then the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was I AM.”
The Y could be symbolic of the One who rules over all things. The Y indicates the Creator as universal ruler who appoints His earthly representatives. This Y is a sun cradle and designates many Biblical ruler: Yishmael, Yitzak, Yacob, Yosef, Yetro, Yeshua, Yaqtan, Yishbak, and Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah). It appears that the Y speaks of divine appointment to rule or prophesy.
The two H's could represent Horus of the Twin Horizons. In fact, the words "horizon" and "hour" are derived from the name Horus. He rides Ra's solar boat and makes his daily circuit from east to west, swelling each morning on the eastern horizon. The Horite Hebrew were also known as Hapiru or Habiru (Hebrew) and Abru in Akkadian. These words are related to the Arabic yakburu, meaning “he is getting big” and to the intensive active prefix: yukabbiru, meaning "he is enlarging." This is a reference to the morning ritual of Horite priests who greeted the rising sun in their temples, offered prayers, and watched as the sun expanded across the horizon.
The Victory Tablet of Amenhotep III describes Horus as “The Good God, Golden [Horus], Shining in the chariot, like the rising of the sun; great in strength, strong in might…” (Tablet of Victory of Amenhotep III, J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, p. 854).
The W represents the Nile River, especially between the First and the Second Cataracts. This region was called WaWaT. A sacred temporal and spatial center for the Nilotic Horites occurred daily when the sun rested directly over the Nile. The Egyptian word for the sun at its peak is wbn. Bn refers to pillars and the w refers to the Nile. Psalm 29:10 describes “Yahweh who sat as king upon the flood; He is king forever.” Malachi 4:2 uses similar language: “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise [swell] with healing in its wings.” The swelling of the sun speaks of God's power to generate life and health.
Taking all the evidence together, it becomes clear that the original context of YHWH is Nilotic and that each glyph presents another feature of the God of the Horite Hebrew. For Abraham, this was a received tradition with a long history going back to his earliest Nilo-Saharan ancestors. They are discussed in my paper "Genesis in Anthropological Perspective."
Related reading: The Aaronic Blessing Speaks of the Gospel; Solar Imagery of the Proto-Gospel; A Tent for the Sun; The Origins of Christianity; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; Why Cows Were Sacred in the Ancient World; Terah's Nubian Ancestors; The Mighty Men of Old; Jeff Benner on the Pronunciation of Yehovah
