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.. 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.

• 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." The later Greek sources describe him 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).

In the Urgaritic Baal cycle, Baal earns his position as the champion and ruler of the gods by Yam rules harshly, and the other deities cry out to Ashera, called Lady of the Sea, to aid. Ashera offers herself as a sacrifice if Yam will ease his grip on her children. He agrees, but Baal opposes such a scheme and boldly declares he will defeat Yam even though El declares that Baal must subject himself to Yam.

With the aid of magical weapons given to him by the divine craftsman Kothar-wa-Khasis, Baal defeats Yam and is declared victorious. He then builds a house on Mount Saphon, today known as Jebel al-Aqra. (This mountain, 1780 meters high, stands only 15 km north of the site of Ugarit, clearly visible from the city itself.)

   Lo, also it is the time of His rain. 
   Baal sets the season, 
   And gives forth His voice from the clouds. 
   He flashes lightning to the earth. 
   As a house of cedars let Him complete it, 
   Or a house of bricks let Him erect it! 
   Let it be told to Aliyan Baal: 
   'The mountains will bring Thee much silver. 
   The hills, the choicest of gold; 
   The mines will bring Thee precious stones, 
   And build a house of silver and gold. 
   A house of lapis gems!' 

However, the god of the underworld, Mot, soon lures Baal to his death, spelling ruin for the land. Baal's sister/wife Anat (possibly identified with Astarte) retrieves his body and begs Mot to revive him. When her pleas are rebuffed, Anat assaults Mot, ripping him to pieces and scattering his remains like fertilizer over the fields.

El, in the meantime, has had a dream in which fertility returned to the land, suggesting that Baal was not indeed dead. Eventually Baal is restored. However, Mot too has revived and mounts a new attack against Baal.

   They shake each other like Gemar-beasts, 
   Mavet [Mot] is strong, Baal is strong. 
   They gore each other like buffaloes, 
   Mavet is strong, Baal is strong. 
   They bite like serpents, 
   Mavet is strong, Baal is strong. 
   They kick like racing beasts, 
   Mavet is down. Baal is down. 

After this titanic battle, neither side has completely prevailed. Knowing that the other gods now support Baal and fearing El's wrath, Mot finally bows before Baal, leaving Baal in possession of the land and the undisputed regent of the gods.

Baal is thus the archetypal fertility deity. His death signals drought and his resurrection, and brings both rain and new life. He is also the vanquisher of death. His role as a maker of rain would be particularly important in the relatively arid area of Palestine, where no mighty river such as the Euphrates or the Nile existed.

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)

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Canaanite Religion  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Canaanite Religion"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.