Those who question the veracity of Historic Christianity
often raise objections regarding the evidence for God’s existence. One common
challenge is: Is there any evidence that the ancient Israelites worshipped
YHWH?
Do not worry—such evidence exists.
Evidence 1: The Soleb Inscription1
At the end of the 15th century
B.C., the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III built a temple to honor the god
Amun-Ra at Soleb in Nubia (modern-day northern Sudan). Within the temple area
are a series of columns on which Amenhotep III listed the territories he
claimed to have conquered. Each
territory is listed by a relief of a prisoner with their hands tied behind
their backs over an oval “name ring” identifying the land of the particular
foe. The most interesting from a
biblical perspective is a column drum that lists enemies from the “the land of
the Shasu (nomads) of Yahweh”. Given
the other name rings nearby, the context would place this land in the Canaanite
region. In addition, the prisoner is
clearly portrayed as Semitic, rather than African-looking, as other prisoners
in the list are portrayed.1 Two conclusions are almost universally accepted:
this inscription clearly references Yahweh in Egyptian hieroglyphics (the
oldest such reference outside of the Bible), and that around 1400 B.C.
Amenhoteph III knew about the god Yahweh. Moreover, it would indicate an area
in Canaan in the 15th century B.C. inhabited by nomadic or semi-nomadic people
who worship the god Yahweh.
Evidence 2: The Mt. Ebal Inscription2
In early 2022, a
research team led by scholars from the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR)
announced the discovery of a lead tablet from Mt. Ebal that they claim contains
the oldest extant Hebrew inscription… According to the team, the inscription, which
they date to the Late Bronze Age II period (c. 1400–1200 BCE), is a legal text
and curse that invokes the Israelite deity Yahweh. The team believes the tablet
is one of the most important inscriptions ever found in Israel, predating the
previously earliest known Hebrew inscription by several hundred years… the
tablet comes from the West Bank site of Mt. Ebal, which was first excavated by
archaeologist Adam Zertal in the 1980s…
As translated by
the team, the tablet reads:
You are cursed by
the god yhw, cursed.
You will die,
cursed—cursed, you will surely die.
Cursed you are by
yhw—cursed.
The team claims the
inscription is written in an archaic script, similar in style to other early
alphabetic inscriptions known from the southern Levant, which they term
proto-Hebrew alphabetic. Furthermore, they suggest that the use of the name
Yhw, a shortened version of the divine name Yahweh (YHWH), is clear evidence
that the text is an early Hebrew inscription.
Endnotes:
1https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2019/03/08/three-egyptian-inscriptions-about-israel/
2https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/mt_ebal_inscription/
Websites last accessed on 19th June 2025.
