Question: Who was Gideon from the Bible’s Book of Judges according to history and archaeology?
Google; Who was Gideon in the Bible Judges?
Gideon, also spelled Gedeon, also called Jerubbaal, or Jerobaal, a judge and hero-liberator of Israel whose deeds are described in the Book of Judges. The author apparently juxtaposed two traditional accounts from his sources in order to emphasize Israel's monotheism and its duty to destroy idolatry.
From a state of fear, weakness, and insecurity, Gideon emerged as Israel's hero, filled with God's presence and His passion for deliverance. This study will encourage you to recognize your weakness as the key that the Lord gives you to unlock the full experience of His strength in your life.
Wikipedia: Gideon (/ˈɡɪdiən/; Hebrew: גִּדְעוֹן,
Gīdʿōn,
Gīḏəʿōn) also named Jerubbaal[a] and Jerubbesheth,[b][1] was a military leader, judge and prophet whose calling and victory over the Midianites are recounted in Judges 6–8 of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible.
Gideon was the son of Joash, from the Abiezrite clan in the tribe of Manasseh and lived in Ephra (Ophrah).[2] As a leader of the Israelites, he won a decisive victory over a Midianite army despite a vast numerical disadvantage, leading a troop of 300 "valiant" men.[Judges 7] Archaeologists in southern Israel have found a 3,100-year-old fragment of a jug with five letters written in ink that appear to represent the name Jerubbaal, or Yeruba'al
Biblical narrative[edit]
"Gideon thanks God for the Miracle of the Dew", painting by Maarten van Heemskerck (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg)
As is the pattern throughout the Book of Judges, the Israelites again turned away from Yahweh after 40 years of peace brought by Deborah's victory over Canaan; as punishment, the Midianites, Amalekites and other Bedouin peoples harried Israel for seven years.[9]
Calling[edit]
God chose Gideon, a young man from the tribe of Manasseh, to free the people of Israel and to condemn their idolatry. The Angel of the Lord, or "the Lord’s angelic messenger"[10] came "in the character ... of a traveller who sat down in the shade [of the terebinth tree] to enjoy a little refreshment and repose"[11] and entered into conversation with Gideon. The narrative has echoes of the meeting between Abraham and the visitors who came to him in the terebinths of Mamre and promised Abraham and Sarah, in their old age, that they would have a son (Genesis 18:1–15).[citation needed] The angel greeted Gideon: "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”[12]
Gideon requested proof of God's will by three miracles: firstly a sign from the angel, in which the angel appeared to Gideon and caused fire to shoot up out of a rock,[13] and then two signs involving a fleece, performed on consecutive nights and the exact opposite of each other. First Gideon woke up to his fleece covered in dew, but the surrounding ground dry; then the next morning, his fleece was dry but the surrounding ground covered in dew.[14]
On God's instruction, Gideon destroyed the town's altar to Baal and the symbol of the goddess Asherah beside it, receiving the byname of Jerubbaal from his father:
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