Canaanite Religion

Ba'al, fourteenth-twelfth century B.C.E., found at Ras Shamra.

Canaanite religion describes belief systems and ritual practices of the people living in the ancient Levant throughout the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Until recently, little was known of these tradition outside of the Hebrew Bible, which denigrated them as idolatrous and licentious. Twentieth century archaeological excavations, however, unearthed several texts which provided previously unknown details and insights into the nature of Canaanite religion.

Although the sources are still scarce, the Canaanite religion seems to have involved a rich mythological tradition which served as a bridge between the more ancient Mesopotamian religions and the later Greek and Roman gods. Several of the most famous Greek gods, for example, clearly evolved from Canaanite antecedents, just as several of the Canaanite gods grew out of Mesopotamian roots.

Like other ancient cultures, Canaanite society was largely concerned with agricultural themes. As a dryer land than either Egypt or the Fertile Crescent, rain gods—more than river or moon deities—came to fore. The supreme deity of the Canaanite pantheon was El, together with his consort Asherah. As with the Greek tradition, these early gods were later supplanted by younger, more immediate presences such as the rain/thunder god Ba'al and his consorts, such as the warrior goddess Anat and the love/fertility goddess Astarte. Early Israelite religion may once have shared the Canaanite belief in El and other gods, before the monotheistic tradition emerged.

History

Excavation at Ras Shamra on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria

The Levant region was inhabited by people who themselves referred to the land as 'ca-na-na-um' as early as the mid-third millenium B.C.E.. Until the excavation of Canaanite Ras Shamra—the site historically known as Ugarit)—and the discovery of its Bronze Age archive of clay tablet alphabetic cuneiform texts, little was known of Canaanite religion, except for accounts in the Hebrew Bible. Papyrus seems to have been the preferred writing medium, and unlike Egypt, in the humid Mediterranean climate, these documents have simply decayed. The accounts of the Bible regarding Canaanite religion were highly biased and uniformly negative. A few secondary and tertiary Greek sources included (Lucian of Samosata's De Syria Dea (The Syrian Goddess), fragments of the Phoenician History of Philo of Byblos quoting Sanchuniathon of Berythus (Beirut), and the writings of Damasacius). More recently, the detailed study of the Ugaritic material—together with inscriptions from the Ebla archive at Tel Mardikh and various other achaeological finds—have cast more light on the early Canaanite religion.

Canaanite mythology was strongly influenced by Mesopotamian and Egyptian traditions. At the same time, Egypt appears to have inherited certain religious traditions from the Canaanites as well. Canaanite religious beliefs were polytheistic, with families typically focusing worship on ancestral household gods and goddesses while honoring major deities such as El, Ashera, Baal, Anat and Astarte. Kings also played an important religious role especially in certain ceremonies, such as the sacred marriage of the New Year Festival, and may have been revered as gods.

Pantheon

The pantheon was conceived as a divine family, headed by the supreme god El; the gods collectively made up the elohim. Through the centuries, the pantheon of Canaanite gods evolved, so that El and Asherah were more important in earlier times, while Baal and his consorts came to fore in later years. Many of the Canaanite deities found their way into the Greek and Roman pantheon. For example, the characteristics of both El and Baal may be seen in Zeus, while Anat is similar to Athena. Some of the deities listed below are mentioned only briefly in the Canaanite texts, while others were important locally or nationally—such as Chemosh—but perhaps not throughout the region. Still others, such a Moloch, are known mainly from Hebrew texts.

A statuette discovered near Granada in Spain dating to the sixth or seventh century B.C.E. depicts ‘Ashtart sittng on a throne flanked by sphinxes holding a bowl beneath her breasts.

• Anat—virgin goddess of war and fertility, honored as a protector, agent of vengeance, and bearer of life.
• Asherah—early semitic Mother Goddess, walker of the sea, consort of El, also called Athirat, the mother of 70 gods
• Astarte—goddess of love and fertility, sometimes portrayed as the consort of Baal/Hadad
• Baalat or Baalit—the chief deity of Byblos, also identified with Astarte and Aphrodite
• Ba'al—meaning "Lord," god of rain, thunder, and fertility, sometimes synonymous Hadad; also used as a title prefixing the names of local deities
• Baal-Hammon, god of fertility and renewal in the Phoenician colonies of the Western Mediterranean
• Chemosh—the national god of Moab, referred to in both Moabite and Hebrew texts.
• Dagon—god of crop fertility
• El—the chief god, also worshiped by the Israelites
• El Elyon—Special title of El as "God most High"
• Eshmun—Phoenician god of healing
• Kathirat—a group of goddesses appearing in the Ugartic texts as divine midwives
• Kothar—full name Kothar-wa-Khasis, the skilled, clever god of craftsmanship
• Lotan—he seven-headed sea serpent or dragon, the pet of Yam or Yam's alter ego, related to the biblical Leviathan
• Melqart—the god who is King of the city, the underworld and cycle of vegetation in Tyre
• Moloch—title for the god who is "king," probably identical with Milcom and known mainly from the Hebrew Bible as the deity to whom child sacrifices were offered
• Mot—God of sterility, death, and the waterless desert
• Nikkal—goddess of fruit and orchards, married to Yarikh
• Qadeshtu—the Holy One, goddess of love
• Resheph—God of plague and healing
• Shalim and Shachar—twin gods of dusk and dawn
• Shamayim—the god of the sky or the heavens.
• Shemesh—Mesopotamian god of the sun also worshiped in Canaan; his name means "sun" in Hebrew and may be related that of the hero Samson
• Tanit—Phoenician lunar goddess, worshiped as the patron goddess at Carthage, and sometimes identified with Astarte or Anat
• Yam—god of the sea
• Yarikh—god of the moon, after whom the city of Jericho was named; Lord of the sickle, provider of nightly dew; married to the goddess Nikkal
• Zadok

Cosmology

In Ugarit, the gods were call as 'ilhm (elohim) or the children of El, a probable parallel to the the biblical "sons of God"). The chief god an progenitor of the universe was El, also known as Elion (biblical El Elyon), who was the father of the divinities. In the Urgaritic material El is the consort of Ashera, who is described as the "mother of 70 gods."

Ba'al, with thunderbolt and wheat stalk, triumphed over the sterility and dryness of Mot.

In the Urgaritic Baal cycle, Baal earns his position as the champion and ruler of the gods by defeated the tyrannical Yam, who has been placed over the other gods by El. Asherah offers herself as a sacrifice if Yam will ease his grip on her children. He agrees, but Baal boldly declares he will defeat Yam. With the aid of magical weapons given to him by the divine craftsman Kothar-wa-Khasis, Baal is victorious. However, the god of death and the underworld, Mot, soon lures Baal to his death in the desert, spelling ruin for the land. Baal's sister/wife Anat retrieves his body and assaults Mot, ripping him to pieces and scattering his remains like over the fields. El, meanwhile, has had a dream suggesting that Baal would be resurrected, which indeed takes place. However, Mot, too, had revived and mounted a new attack against Baal. After their titanic but indecisive battle, Mot finally bows before Baal, leaving Baal in possession of the land and the undisputed regent of the gods.

Thus, Baal came to replace El as the most important deity, although El himself remained theoretically supreme. In practice, temples to Baal were fairly common in Canaanite culture, and many ritual objects devoted to Astarte and Anat have also been uncovered. Even Israelites honored Baal and the "asherim," the latter term referring to poles, standing stones, and even trees probably devoted to a goddess and accompanying altars to both Baal and Yaweh/El.

In the Greek sources describing Canaanite religion, the union of El Elyon and his consort bore Uranus and Ge, Greek names for the "Heaven" and the "Earth." Biblical scholars see a parallel between this and the opening verse of Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning Elohim created to the Heaven and the Earth." A further parallel is seen with the story of the Babylonian creation myths.

The Greek sources also describe El as married to Beruth (Beirut = the city). This marriage of the divinity with the city seems to have biblical parallels with the stories of the link between Melkart and Tyre, Yahweh and Jerusalem, Chemosh and Moab, and both Tanit and Baal Hammon with Carthage. El Elyon is called "God Most High" in Genesis 14.18–19 as the God whose priest was Melchizedek king of Salem. Psalm 78:35 appears to identify El Elyon and the Hebrew God, Elohim, also call Yahweh (the Lord).

Relationship to biblical religion

Although the biblical writers usually cast Canaanite religion as the antithesis of Israelite monotheism, historians of religion tend to view the Israelite religion as largely evolving out of Canaanite religion, of which it was once part. The Book of Genesis itself describes the patriarch Abraham as a worshiper of El—also called El Shaddai and El Elyon—offering sacrifices as tithes to him. Exodus indicates that the Hebrews knew God only as El Shaddai until the time of Moses, who learned God's true name, Yahweh (the Lord), at Mount Sinai: I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them." (Exodus 6:3)

Certain passages in the Bible, considered to be the more ancient verse by critical scholars, indicate that Israelite religion was once polytheistic. For example, Deuteronomy 32:8-9 indicates a moment when El Elyon assigned Israel to Yahweh and other nations to various other deities:

When the Most High (Elyōn) divided to the nations their inheritance, he separated the sons of man... the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.

Similar, Psalm 82:1-6 says that "God (Elohim) presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the gods... I said, 'You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.' (Elyon) But you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler."

What may be described here is these verses is El and Yahweh merging into the one supreme deity and them reducing the other Canaanite deities into something less than gods altogether. Indeed, some versions of Psalm 82 render "gods" as "heavenly beings" or even "angels." Similarly, Job 1:6 states that "One day the sons of God (also translated as "angels") came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them."

According to many historians of religion, the angels of later Jewish mythology where once members of the divine assembly consisting of El and the "ben-elohim," (sons of God), who were originally the lesser deities described in the Canaanite pantheon. Indeed, such a divine assembly appears several times in the Canaanite texts.

See also

• Moscatti, Sabatino (1968), "The World of the Phoenicians" (Phoenix Giant)
• Ribichini, Sergio "Beliefs and Religious Life" in Maoscati Sabatino (1997), "The Phoenicians" (Rissoli)

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