Before 15,000 BCE–20th century CE: (The Relict Distribution of Henotheism Across the Afrasian World — Clan, Tribal, or National Gods Among Semitic-Speaking P…

Before 15,000 BCE–20th century CE: (The Relict Distribution of Henotheism Across the Afrasian World — Clan, Tribal, or National Gods Among Semitic-Speaking Peoples Including Yahweh of the Early Hebrews, Chemosh of the Moabites, and Qos of the Edomites Long Recognized by Biblical Scholars as Originally Henotheistic, the First Commandment Making a Henotheistic Rather Than Monotheistic Claim, and the Same Belief System Persisting as Late as the Twentieth Century Among Omotic-Speaking Peoples of Far Southwestern Ethiopia at the Opposite Extreme of the Afrasian Map): This kind of belief occurred in recent millennia among several far-separated groups of Afrasian-speaking peoples and nowhere in between — a classic relict distribution. Among peoples speaking languages of the farthest northern branch of Afrasian, Semitic, there existed clan, tribal, or national gods: notably Yahweh of the early Hebrews, Chemosh of the Moabites, and Qos of the Edomites — all of which have long been recognized by biblical scholars as originally henotheistic in nature. Ehret notes that he was struck long ago, as a child, by the actual wording of the first commandment of the Bible. It does not make a monotheistic claim. Instead, it makes the henotheistic claim: thou shalt have no other god before me. The commandment does not deny the existence of other gods. It demands exclusive allegiance to one among many. The same kind of belief system also existed at the other extreme of the Afrasian map — persisting as late as the twentieth century among several Omotic-speaking peoples of far southwestern Ethiopia. Semitic speakers in the Levant and Omotic speakers in Ethiopia, separated by thousands of kilometers and thousands of years of independent history, both preserving the same structural form of religious organization. The distance between them — geographical, temporal, linguistic — is precisely what makes the evidence compelling. This is not borrowing. This is not coincidence. This is inheritance from a common ancestor, the proto-Erythraic or proto-Afrasian community that lived in the Horn of Africa before any of its daughter populations had begun their migrations. The god of Abraham traces his structural ancestry not to Sinai but to the Ethiopian Highlands.