Origins of Judaism

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Called the stele of Mesha, it contains the earliest known extra-biblical mention of the deity worshipped by Jews, Christians and Muslims and, since its discovery in 1868, it has fueled the argument over the historicity of the Bible.

In the text, King Mesha recounts how Israel had occupied the northern regions of his land and "oppressed Moab for a long time" under Omri and his son Ahab – the biblical monarchs who reigned from Samaria and made the Kingdom of Israel a powerful regional player in the first half of the 9th century B.C.E.

Based on the stele, it appears that the Yahweh that 9th century B.C.E. Israelites worshipped had more in common with the Moabite deity Chemosh than with Judaism's later concept of a single, universal deity. The fact that Mesha found a temple of Yahweh to plunder in Nebo contradicts the Bible's contention that the exclusive worship of a single God had already been established and centralized at the Temple of Jerusalem in the time of King Solomon.

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2018-09-13/ty-article-magazine/.premium/what-yahwehs-first-appearance-in-history-tells-us-about-early-judaism/0000017f-f0a3-df98-a5ff-f3affe360000 (https://archive.ph/RdiJb)

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Consistent with the previous observations, we detected minor Middle Eastern specific ancestry component among Indian Jewish communities, but virtually negligible in their local neighbouring Indian populations. The temporal test of admixture suggested that the first admixture of migrant Jewish populations from Middle East to South India (Cochin) occurred during fifth century.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26759184/

In contrast, Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) and Indian Jews (Bene Israel and Cochini) cluster with neighbouring autochthonous populations in Ethiopia and western India, respectively, despite a clear paternal link between the Bene Israel and the Levant. These results cast light on the variegated genetic architecture of the Middle East, and trace the origins of most Jewish Diaspora communities to the Levant.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20531471/