Gérard Nissim Amzallag

Gérard Nissim Amzallag is a French-Israeli biologist, born in Morocco in 1962. He is an associate researcher at Ben Gurion University. He holds a doctorate in biblical studies. His work on the origins of Yahwism was controversially received, describing Yahweh's proposed origin as the Canaanite god of metallurgy. He has written on the origins of biblical archeology locations such as Edom, and analyses of the Psalms. His work on Yahweh and the Origins of Judaism has been cited by Daniel E. Fleming and Yigal Levin.

It was also cited by detractors in 2010, "A Chalcolithic Error." Thornton et al named the academic as author of methodological and referential shortcomings, and "errata" too numerous to exhaust. The discussion (sive conclusion) rounds up:

Crucible and furnace smelting methods are not... as different as the author suggests, and we have provided... evidence for the indigenous development of furnace technology from earlier crucible smelting technologies. Contrary to Amzallag's vision of advanced furnace smelting originating in the southern Levant, we have demonstrated (it was a) conservative area as far as smelting is concerned.

This criticism didn't stop his output, however. In 2023, he published Yahweh and the Origins of Ancient Israel, moving forward based on previous musings on the metallurgical aspects of Yahweh. The author's multidisciplinary view is of a mainly volcanic and smithing Kenite hypothesis of Yahweh.

Publications

La raison malmenée, CNRS Éditions, Paris, 2002 L'Homme végétal, Albin Michel, Paris, 2003

La forge de Dieu, Le Cerf, 2020, 299 pages,

External Essays https://www.thetorah.com/author/nissim-amzallag