Historical References

The timeline uses broad date ranges where the evidence supports a development rather than a single event. “Tradition” identifies conventional religious chronology; it does not dismiss the tradition or recast it as an archaeological claim. “Game Lore” is reserved for authored events and must not be presented as history.

Core historical sources:

• The Met: The Gods and Goddesses of Canaan — Ugarit, El, Athirat/Asherah, Baal, and the divine council.
• Theodore J. Lewis, The Origin and Character of God — the evidence and debates around the historical origins and profiles of YHWH and El.
• Mark S. Smith, El, Yahweh, and the Original God of Israel and the Exodus — reconstruction of the YHWH/El relationship and Israelite monotheism.
• Oxford Bibliographies: God, Ancient Israel — Canaanite continuities, divine-council traditions, and the evidence for other deities in Israelite religion.
• Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures: Ancient Israel — the Merneptah Stele and the late-thirteenth-century reference to Israel.
• British Museum: the Mesha Stele — ninth-century Moab and the divine name YHWH.
• Smarthistory: Architecture and liturgy — the First and Second Temples, 586 BCE, the Septuagint, and 70 CE.
• British Museum: Cyrus the Great — Babylon in 539 BCE and the return tradition.
• Oxford Learning Link: New Testament chronology — the approximate date of Jesus’s death and early Gospel chronology.
• The Met: Masterpieces of Islamic Art — revelations beginning around 610, the Hijra in 622, and Muhammad’s death in 632.
• The Met: The Dome of the Rock — the shrine’s 691/692 completion and layered Jerusalem context.