Whatever religion existed in pre-Persian Canaan seems to have been based on the Canaanite pantheon based on El, Baal and Asherah. Yahweh is, at best, a minor character. Might he have been some sort of local god of the southern nomads? Sure. In fact that makes sense and as the state grew ( the notion that Judah was a fully fleshed out "state" prior to the 8th century BC has been dealt with best by Finkelstein) Yahweh got a promotion.
It is only after the Persians arrive that we start to see actual evidence of Yahweh as some sort of single creator god ( a la the Persian's Ahura Mazda) and even that evidence is thin because Yehud ( as the Persians called it) was an insignificant shithole of a region.
As for Hershel Shanks, he's a fucking lawyer who used to work for the Justice Department and hangs out with such notable con artists as Simcha Jacobovici and Oded Golan. Shanks' main function is to sell books and magazines to idiot theists. It has been a lucrative profession for him but no one takes him seriously as a "scholar."
It is only after the Persians arrive that we start to see actual evidence of Yahweh as some sort of single creator god ( a la the Persian's Ahura Mazda) and even that evidence is thin because Yehud ( as the Persians called it) was an insignificant shithole of a region.
As for Hershel Shanks, he's a fucking lawyer who used to work for the Justice Department and hangs out with such notable con artists as Simcha Jacobovici and Oded Golan. Shanks' main function is to sell books and magazines to idiot theists. It has been a lucrative profession for him but no one takes him seriously as a "scholar."
