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serpent and yhwh

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Chapter Two - Israel and the Amorites
from Part I - The Movement of Emancipation in the Southern Levant
Nissim Amzallag, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Book:

Yahweh and the Origins of Ancient Israel

Published online:

18 May 2023

Print publication:

01 June 2023, pp 70-95
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Summary

The affinities of the biblical with the historical Amorites lead to interpreting the biblical narrative of the emergence of Israel as a movement of emancipation from the authority of the Egyptian empire and its local Amorite vassals. A contrasting message is promoted in Genesis, which approaches Abraham, the father of both Israel and the concomitant newly emerging nations in the Southern Levant, as an Amorite leader installed in Canaan. The same contrast affects the status of the serpent in the Bible. This creature is identified as the archenemy of YHWH in some sources, thus promoting a Baal-like identity for the god of Israel. Others, however, approach the serpent as the holy emissary of YHWH and refer to the local pre-Amorite background. Pro- and anti-Amorite positions coexist in the Bible regarding the birth of Israel and the former identity of YHWH.