Religion and Culture

Midianite life in biblical descriptions includes pastoralism and the care of flocks. Exodus describes a priest of Midian, Jethro, who acknowledges the God of Israel and offers sacrifice (Exodus 18). This passage is important to discussions of early Israelite religion, but it does not establish that all Midianites worshiped the same deity or prove any particular theory about the origins of Israelite worship.

Material culture from northwestern Arabia reveals long-lived local traditions. It cannot automatically be assigned to the Midianites named in Scripture.