File:Zeus Yahweh.jpg

Phoenician drachm, 4th century BC, on exhibit in the British Museum.

The coin shows seated , labelled either "YHW" (Yahu) or "YHD" (Judea), see below.

Stephen Herbert Langdon, Mythology of All Races - Semitic. Boston. Archaeological Institute of America. Marshall Jones Company (1931):

"A coin from Gaza in Southern Philista, fourth century BC, the period of the Jewish subjection to the last of the Persian kings, has the only known representation of this Hebrew deity. The letters YHW are incised just above the hawk(?) which the god holds in his outstretched left hand, Fig. 23. He wears a himation, leaving the upper part of the body bare, and sits upon a winged wheel. The right arm is wrapped in his garment. At his feet is a mask. Because of the winged chariot and mask it has been suggested that Yaw had been identified with Dionysus on account of a somewhat similar drawing of the Greek deity on a vase where he rides in a chariot drawn by a satyr. The coin was certainly minted under Greek influence, and consequently others have compared Yaw on his winged chariot to Triptolemos of Syria, who is represented on a wagon drawn by two dragons. It is more likely that Yaw of Gaza really represents the Hebrew, Phoenician and Aramaic Sun-god, El, Elohim, whom the monotheistic tendencies of the Hebrews had long since identified with Yaw...Sanchounyathon...based his history upon Yerombalos, a priest of Yeuo, undoubtedly the god Yaw, who is thus proved to have been worshipped at Gebal as early as 1000 BC." (pp. 43-44)

But Sukenik (1934) read the three letters on the (same?) coin not as yhw, but as yhd, i.e. "Yehud" or "Judah" (figure 8, facing page 543. "The Persian Period." Gosta W. Ahlstrom. The History of Ancient Palestine. Minneapolis. Fortress Press. 1993, 1994).

The arrangement of the deity sitting on a winged wheel has been compared to Ezekiel's vision of Yahweh's throne as flying about the heavens on four wheels accompanying Cherubim (Ez 1:16-21; 10:2-19 and Dan 7:9).

Ahlstrom ( "The Persian Period." Gosta W. Ahlstrom. The History of Ancient Palestine. Minneapolis. Fortress Press. 1993) notes the controversy over the inscription being read yhw vs. yhd:

"The above-mentioned coin with a bearded deity sitting on a winged wheel that bears the inscription yhd (earlier read yhw, which could refer to Yahweh) is unique in that it depicts a deity (see figure 8). If the reading yhd is correct, the inscription (in lapidary Aramaic) names a province rather than a deity, which is rare.. This must be an official coin, probably struck by the Persian administration in Jerusalem. The date would be close to 400 BCE. L. Mildenberg says that the deity 'depicts no specific god, but a general conception of deity easily comprehensible to many people in the western part of the Persian empire'. If so, the people of Yehud may have associated the god with Yahweh, whom they called the 'God of Heaven', a well-known Iranian concept." (p. 898)

The yhd reading appears to be accepted now: "E. L. Sukenik's reading of yhd has been widely accepted: see his 'Paralipomena Palaestinensia', Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society. Volume 14 (1934), pp. 178-84. S. A. Cook objected to it asking why there would be a picture of a bearded man on a winged wheel without a corresponding name ('Ahlstrom cites: 'The Jahu Coin'. in the journal Zeitschrift für die alttestementliche Wissenschaft. Volume 56 [1938]. pp. 268-71)

In either case, the item is a Hebrew (Jewish) coin of the Persian period, showing a deity sitting on a throne with wheeled wings. Gitler and Lemaire (2003) understand the deity on the winged wheel might be Yahweh:

"Two new YHD obverse types have been published by Meshoer, one with an ear (probably Yhwh's ear listening to prayers) and the other with a Shopher (61). Also taking into account the well-known YHD drachm depicting a deity seated on a winged wheel, he suggests that a figurative representation of the deity was still tolerated at the time." (p. 4. Haim Gitler & Andre Lemaire. "Phoenicia and Palestine in the Persian Period." in C. Alfaro & A. Burnett (editors). A Survey of Numismatic Research 1996-2001. Madrid, Spain. 2003. pp. 151-175)