Kenite hypothesis

As a form of Biblical source criticism, it posits that Yahweh was originally a Kenite (i.e., Midianite) god whose cult made its way northward to the proto-Israelites.

[2] Friedrich Wilhelm Ghillany in 1862 was the first to propose that Yahweh had originally made his home in what was historically known as the kingdom of Edom (the area immediately south of the Dead Sea),[3] citing numerous passages where the deity is described as coming from southern lands.

[5] The hypothesis in the form it currently takes was more completely worked out by Karl Budde;[6] and later was accepted by H. Guthe, Gerrit Wildeboer, Henry Preserved Smith, and George Aaron Barton.

Eduard Meyer, Bernhard Stade, Karl Budde, Hugo Gressmann, George Aaron Barton, Thomas Kelly Cheyne, and Henry Preserved Smith each endorsed it.

Detractors included Theophile James Meek, Frederick Winnett,[9] Martin Buber and Roland de Vaux,[8] besides Gorden (1907),[10] Konig (1912),[11] Kittel (1917),[12] Volz (1947),[13] and Procksch (1950).

[8] By contrast Tebes (2021), focusing on archaeological evidence from the Southern Levant and Northern Arabia, presents the "Midianite" influence on Canaan as a drawn-out process of cultural transmission taking place during the 10th to 6th centuries BCE.

Later on, after having led the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity, Moses returns to the sacred mountain, and Jethro comes to him, having heard about Yahweh's great feats.

These examples lend to speculation as to what other expressions of what might be called a sort-of Yahwistic primitivism, for which no obvious explanation is at hand, may be relics of the aboriginal, pre-Israelite Yahwism associated with the Kenites and related groups.

As summarized by Tebes (2021), "[d]uring this period, there is no evidence of contacts between the local semi-pastoral societies with the Israelite (or proto-Israelite) population settling down in the central highlands of Palestine, not to mention the transmission of religious ideas.

The theory postulated that the Judahites were part of an Arabian trade league of numerous clans that ended up migrating north to Palestine, however in the 250 years that have passed since this explanation was offered, a number of genetic and archeological studies have concluded that the people that would become the Israelites originated in Canaan.

However, this does not preclude the idea that Moses and the Exodus were pre-existing motifs in Israelite thought — the narratives were certainly based on extensive oral tradition, the age of which cannot reasonably be determined with any veracity.

[34] Combined with the strong consensus among scholars that the Exodus narrative is largely legendary, it spells problems for the largest beam of support for the Kenite hypothesis.