Canaanite Religion

Canaanite religion was the group of belief systems utilized by the people living in the ancient Levant throughout the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

History

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.. There are a number of possible etymologies for the word.

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, meanwhile 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, 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:

• Anat, Goddess of War and Strife
• Asherah walker of the sea, Mother Goddess
• Astarte
• Baalat or Baalit, the wife or female counterpart of Baal (also Belili)
• Ba'al Hadad
• Baal-Hammon, god of fertility and renewer of all energies in the Phoenician colonies of the Western Mediterranean
• Dagon, god of crop fertility.
• El Elyon and El
• Eshmun or Baalat Asclepius, god of healing
• Kotharat
• Kathirat, goddesses of marriage and pregnancy
• Kothar, Hasis, the skilled, god of craftsmanship
• Lotan
• Melqart, king of the city, the underworld and cycle of vegetation in Tyre
• Moloch, "king" of child sacrifices
• Mot, God of Death
• Qadeshtu, Holy One, Goddess of Love
• Resheph God of Plague and healing
• Shalim and Shachar
• Shamayim, the God of the Heavens.
• Shemesh
• Yam-nahar or Yam
• Yarikh God of the moon
• 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 Greek sources he was 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).

Once again in the Greek sources, from the union of El Elyon and his consort was born 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, in which "Heaven and Earth" are likewise created by the primordial union of CHECK FACTS HERE.

Similarities with the Bible

El Elyon also appears in Baalam's story in Numbers and in Moses song in Deuternomy 32.8. The Masoretic Texts suggest

When the Most High (`Elyōn) divided to the nations their inheritance, he separated the sons of man (Ādām); he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the sons of Israel

The Septuagint suggests a different reading of this. Rather than "sons of Israel" it suggests the "angelōn theou" or 'angels of God' and a few versions even have "huiōn theou" 'sons of God'. The Dead Sea Scrolls version of this suggests that there were in fact 70 sons of God sent to rule over the 70 nations of the Earth. This idea of the 70 nations of Earth, each ruled over by one of the Elohim (sons of God) is also found in Ugaritic texts. The Aslan Tash inscription suggests that each of the 70 sons of El Elyon were bound to their people by a covenant. Thus as Crossan translates it

"The Eternal One (`Olam) has made a covenant oath with us,

Asherah has made (a pact) with us.

And all the sons of El,

And the great council of all the Holy Ones (Qedesh).

With oaths of Heaven and Ancient Earth."

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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