The Kenite Hypothesis

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Yahwehs Origins

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• This theory links the origin of the worship of
  Yahweh to the relationship between Kenite or
  Midianite tribes and early Israelite elements.
• Why?
• What is the evidence?

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Where do you look for more information about the
  Kenites?
• The Bible
• For evidence outside the Bible
• a. archaeological sites
• b. epigraphic evidence.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Does the Bible say anything about a link between
  Moses and the Midians/Kenites?
• Judges 116 The descendants of Hobab the Kenite,
  Moses father-in-law, went up with the people of
  Judah to the city of palms (see Judg. 411)

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Hobab was Moses guide in the wilderness (Num
  1029-32) (F.M. Cross)
• Hobab was a member of a group of metal workers,
  the Kenites, belonging to the Midians (W.F.
  Albright)
• Moses was related to Hobab through marriage.
  (Albright/Cross)

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Yet.
• There is another tradition concerning Moses
  father-in-law
• Jethro

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Exodus 31 Moses was keeping the flock of this
  father-in-law Jethro, priest of Midian
• What can we tell from this?
• Jethro was a priest or
• a tribal chief with religious functions.
• Jethro was nomadic herdsman.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Exodus 31b
• he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and
  came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
• What do we learn from this?
• The mountain of God was located in Midian.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Exodus 36
• He said further, I am the God of your father,
  the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
  of Jacob.
• God reveals himself on a mountain in Midian.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Exodus 1810
• Jethro said, Blessed by Yahweh, who has
  delivered you from the Egyptians and from
  Pharaoh.
• Jethro was a priest in the land of Midian.
• Jethro was a priest of Yahweh.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Exodus 1812
• And Jethro, Moses father-in-law, brought a burnt
  offering and sacrifices to God and Aaron came
  with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with
  Moses father-in-law in the presence of the Lord.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Jethro offers sacrifices to Yahweh on Mt. Horeb.
• He presides over the sacred meal.
• The worship of Yahweh probably started in Midian
  among
• a nomadic people.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• What does this say about the Biblical tradition
  and the origins of the worship of Yahweh?
• Who or what is the common denominator?
• Moses

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Let us turn to archaeology and find out what it
  says
• about two key things
• Yahweh
• Midians

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• There is extrabiblical evidence for the worship
  of Yahweh.
• Two Egyptian topographical lists mention Yahweh.
• They date to the Late Bronze Age, (2000 bce.)
• One reads Yahweh in the Shasu land

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Yahweh in the Shasu land
• What do we know about the Shasu?
• The Shasu are a group of nomadic people.
• They moved in the areas of the Delta, S and SE of
  Palestine and Syria.
• They may be equivalent to the Midians in the
  Bible.
• Could even be early elements of Israel.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• Thus, extrabiblical texts from Egypt show that
  the worship of Yahweh is associated with the a
  group of people called the
• Shasu.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• We might note here the Arabic tradition
  concerning Moses and his Father-in-law.
• Jethro is also known as
• Shuaib
• a name which recalls Shasu.
• This association coordinates the Midian Jethro
  with the Shasu people of Egyptian texts.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• To the left is an excavation of what may be a
  Midian temple at Timnah.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• An upper view of the same Midian temple in Timnah.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• What do we know about the Midianites?
• They were an historical people
• Located in the SE section of the Gulf of Aqaba in
  Arabia.
• They were involved in the incense trade (but not
  nomadic).
• Their pottery suggests ethnicity.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• The strongest evidence that links Yahweh to this
  area is?
• His Mountain.
• It is located in Midian on the Sinai peninsula.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• This tradition was able to persist even after
• Israel became a state.
• And the sacred mountain was ideologically
  transferred to Zion in Jerusalem.

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The Kenite Hypothesis

• The above argument is primarily an example of
  the
• Historical Critical Method.

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The Kenite Hypothesis
The Very, Very End