© Charles Chandler

 

From the north we get the Elohist tradition (which refers to God as Elohim), and from the south we get the Jahwist tradition (which refers to God as YHWH). Since the differences include different ways of telling the story of the Exodus ~400 years earlier, we should suspect that the cultural split had already occurred. The present thesis is that the split was between Jacob and Esau in 1328 bce, when Jacob changed his name to Otni'el and assumed command of an Atenists who wanted to settle in northern Canaan, with Esau getting Judah and Edom. The Jahwist passages never mention the Levites, nor the Plagues. In other words, it leaves out the Amarna heresy. So the Jahwists were the indigenous population of Abrahamic stock (at least after 1358 bce) who were more loyal to Egypt, and who kept to the south (i.e., closer to Egypt), leaving the northern frontier to the Atenist Habirus and Israelites. The Jahwists would have been the group to migrate to Goshen under the command of Joseph when Ehud was installed as governor. Their Exodus didn't involve a group of Egyptian priests in a power struggle with the Amun cult.