According to the Book of Kings, Israel's gravest transgression, which eventually also caused its destruction, was Jeroboam's sin(s), 2 described in I Reg 12,26-33. With some exceptions 3 the Israelite kings and the people are said to have continued in this sin throughout the existence of the kingdom. It is commonly assumed that the sin originally referred to the construction of the cultic places at Bethel and Dan but especially to the golden bulls that Jeroboam constructed in these places. 4 Some scholars assume that only the bulls were meant in the oldest text, 5 and that the reference to the high places, the tvmb, is a later development. Although the literary history of the passage is debated, the bulls are unanimously regarded as the oldest and most integral part of 12,26-33. 6 Other themes of the passage are variously regarded as later developments. 1 Traditionally one has referred to calves, but a more appropriate translation would be young bulls. 2 I-II Reg variably uses the plural and singular when referring to Jeroboam's sin(s). The plural is more often used than the singular, but it is not always clear which one is meant: In I Reg 13,2; II Reg 3,3; 13,2.6.11; 17,22 the plural is used but a suffix refers to the sin(s) in the singular (hnmm or hb). This may suggest that the singular is original but was later changed. It would be logical that Jeroboam's sin was originally a single issue, but when later editors attributed more sins to him, the plural began to be used. 3 The reigns of Ela, Tibni and Shallum were very short, which may be the reason that a regular evaluation for their reigns is missing. Israel's last king, Hoshea is also treated differently.

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This paper seeks to sketch the origins and early development of Yahwism¹ as it appears from the perspective of Deuteronomistic texts.² They provide an excellent glimpse to the development of Yahwism from the sixth to fourth centuries bce, when these texts were mainly written. This period was crucial for the eventual and later development of monotheistic conceptions that lie at the background of three world religions. Deuteronomistic literature may also be the most fruitful area for observing and understanding the reasons for the exceptional development that led Israel's religion to a trajectory away from the other religions of the Ancient Near East. Although the Deuteronomists were active from the sixth century bce onwards, their sources also contain some information about the earlier development of Yahwism.³ The Hebrew Bible is not an unproblematic source for investigating the history of Israel's religion especially in the monarchic period. Most texts were written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 bce, which meant the destruction of the main structures of the ancient Israelite society: the temple, monarchy, and other state institutions. This destruction necessitated and entailed a complete reorientation of Israel's religion, and this has to be taken into consideration when using the Hebrew Bible as a historical source. Consequently, there are considerable challenges when Israel's religion in the monarchic period is reconstructed on the basis of texts that were written later and largely represent a very different religion that had already adapted itself to the new situation without the temple  In this paper Yahwism refers to the worship and cult of Yhwh.  Deuteronomism is here defined rather generally to include the Deuteronomic sections and redactions of Deuteronomy as well as the Deuteronomistic texts and redactions in the books from Deuteronomy to 2 Kings. It is necessary to acknowledge the uncertainties concerning Deuteronomism especially in the Book of Samuel but also in Joshua and Judges. See discussion in C. Edenburg and J. Pakkala (ed.), Is Samuel Among the Deuteronomists? Current Views on the Place of Samuel in a Deuteronomistic History (SBLAIL 16; Atlanta, GA 2013). Although not very specific, Deuteronomism is a usable concept for the purposes of the current paper.  Using other parts of the Hebrew Bible and beyond, the very early evidence for Yahwism will be discussed in much more detail in other papers of this volume.