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Zev Radovan

Arrowheads such as this from the 11th-century B.C. bear the names of their owners inscribed in a rare script that bridges Proto-Canaanite and Early Phoenician linear scripts. This one is inscribed with the name Zakarbaal, a classic Canaanite name that incorporates the name of the Canaanite deity Baal. (Scholars refer to a divine name within a proper name as a theophoric element.) By noting the frequency with which names with Baal in them appear in the Book of Judges compared to the frequency of names with forms of Yahweh, the Israelite God, author Hess concludes that Judges was composed early in Israelite history.