Hey @Steefen, I have “theories”

The main problem in defending YHWH is that the Law of YHWH(Moses) requires that no images be made. There won’t be any archeological evidence such as statues and magnificent Temples everywhere with inscriptions and artwork on the walls to prove that there ever really was such a religion. The only evidence is in writing, and scrolls don’t last forever. So we kinda have take the Jews word for it about whatever the truth is. Cultural sensitivity things regarding antisemitism laws nowadays. I personally do business with Orthodox Jews every week. They never mention their religion. All there is to see of it is dress codes. If they did I would just smile and nod and not believe anything they told me anyways, in a respectful way. However, whatever happened thousands of years ago or during the 20th century is not their fault, and not anybody’s fault living today. As in, the God of the living. The past should be used to create present problems.

If Josephus mentioned Jesus that means the group had something significant to do with the Jewish Roman Wars. As in, they were probably belligerents as part of causing it, along with the other four sects of Jewish thought. You’re reading war propaganda where one side is trying to declare themselves as being innocent and not the aggressor. That’s not truth. If a war breaks out, the tensions and political disagreements have been occurring for a while at least. What the NT suggests is that groups of Jews were discussing new ways to achieve forgiveness of sins from God that did not include the traditions of animal sacrifices at a Temple. The only solution was to destroy the Temple before the new ways could have authority. I don’t think the first century Christians cared about the defense of the Temple one bit. Their rise to power required that the Temple be destroyed. The later centuries tried to defend themselves as always being non-violent. Which ain’t true at all because it was the Arianism Christians from Germany who defeated the Western Roman Empire and caused a need to unite the Eastern and Western empire once again because of heresy.

Syncretism is unavoidable between religions. There’s always similarities. There’s no such thing as a unique innovator who invented a whole new distinct religion. Trinitarianism theology is the result of fear. They were afraid to not be considered monotheists like the Jews, because then they have to side with the pagans, and the pagan traditions have been around a lot longer than the Trinitarians so the pagans have more authority in that respect of time.

That the Jews were always in agreement with a monotheistic religion is a falsehood. Even the Torah, Kings, and Prophets admit that. However the Torah and Kings do not admit that they were at the time a religion that worshipped the King as God. But, I think it’s quite obvious that they did. The enormous amounts of literature dedicated to King David and King Solomon are the evidence. The texts we can read today are just written in a new perspective.

So, if you’re looking for the evidence on how El became YHWH, I think it’s right there in Genesis 1. YHWH probably killed all the other gods of the Elohim and became the only god.
Genesis 1 does not mention YHWH. Genesis 2 and 3 do by mentioning YHWH Elohim. Genesis 4 is unique because it only mentions YHWH.

YHWH is linguistically creatively created from the Hebrew words Eve and living.
Write out the words “living” (Strongs 2416, Genesis 2:7) and “Eve” (Strongs 2332, Genesis 3:20) in either Paleo Hebrew or Modern Hebrew.
Next, remove the first Hebrew letter (the right side) from both “living” and “Eve” and next, combine in into living Eve. Whaloah there you have the word YHWH. As Eve is the mother of all the living, so is YHWH the creator of all the creation.
It’s creative writing, not some mystery word revealed to Moses. Somebody probably has all the letters written individually on small stones, and they were playing around with the arrangement of the stones and had a profound idea occur to them. Hey, I don’t like this one rock very much that isn’t part of YHWH from the Eve and living, maybe I should throw it at my brother over that I don’t like very much today. And maybe not because then mom will smack me. Then he came up with ideas for Cain and Abel.

That’s at least how I imagine it all.

Elohim and YHWH are not supposed to be understood as the same God as it is today by many. Genesis 1 was a completely different story that was later rewritten with Genesis 2,3,4. Hence, YHWH is there.

@Steefen

I agree with your analysis 100%

(Yahweh is neither El nor Elohim. The God of the first century was not the same notion of God from the book of Exodus.)

The Jews had their various interpretations of the Bible, as did the Christians. Eventually, the Roman Emperors had to enforce laws upon everyone to stop the arguments and riots. They leaned in favor of the Holy Trinity. ** you do not have permission to see this link **

However, the Holy Trinity doctrine as it progressed through the early centuries became very strict in prohibiting analysis such as yours being accepted as Holy Trinity doctrine. They called it heresy. Your analysis is a form of Marcionism. Heresy was illegal. Because it was illegal, the punishments included being sold into slavery, having your family inheritance and wealth confiscated, possibly executed. It was even illegal to start a theological argument in the public square with a priest of the Holy Trinity Church while they were out doing things in the public like going for a walk, or buying food at the market. If you wanted to debate theology that could only be legally done inside the Church buildings. In general, saying anything besides hello to a priest in the public squares was a form of harassment. The old Roman laws no longer apply today, hence we have a modern explosion of academics and historical perspectives on the Bible.