Der höchste Gott: Alttestamentlicher JHWH-Glaube im Kontext syrisch-kanaanäischer Religion des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr.

In the current study, which is the author’s Habilitationsschrift accepted by the University of Würzburg in 1989, Niehr advances the thesis that the rise of YHWH to the status of the supreme god is not the result of the identification of YHWH with El or of the adoption of attributes from El and Baal, but rather is a postexilic development that must be seen in connection with the rise of Baˁalšamem as the high god in Syria-Palestine. The investigation proceeds in three parts. Part I treats the question of the high god(s) in the religion of Syria-Palestine in the first millennium BC on the basis of inscriptional material.
Part II examines four motif complexes associated with the term ˁlywn: the divine council, the seat of the high god, the lord of creation and chaos, and solar aspects of the high god. Each motif is examined for Phoenician, Aramaic, and Israelite religion and then evaluated in connection with YHWH.
In Part III the results of the investigation are evaluated in terms of their implications for the history of Israelite religion and literature. Here Niehr pleads for a paradigm shift to an approach which is not based on an opposition between Israel and its environment but which sees Israel as an integral part of the culture of Syria- Palestine.