Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

While we're skirting around this...

The identification of one culture's gods with those of another is a fact of
life in the ancient near east. The Hebrews saw the Persian God of Heaven as
their own Yahweh, as specifically did the Hebrews at Elephantine. The
Seleucid Greeks saw Yahweh as Zeus. The Egyptians saw Reshef as Seth. At
one stage in the relations between Phoenicia and the Hebrews the
identification of Yahweh with Baal was made (ba'al = "lord"): this
conclusion seem inevitable to me, but let's contemplate the idea before
balking.

Jacob had the habit of putting up pillars (masseboth) and on one of those
occasions, which marked the founding of the sanctuary at Bethel, he rested
his head on such a stone and dreamt of the golden stairway. The Jubilees
version is a little fuller than that of Genesis: it says that Jacob had his
vision under an oak. This combination of pillar and tree is found again in
Joshua 24:26, "he took a large stone and set it up under the oak in the
sanctuary of the Lord." This type of act is condemned in Deuteronomy
16:21-22 (and elsewhere), "You shall not plant any tree as an asherah
beside the altar that you make to the Lord your God; nor shall you set up a
stone pillar..." The massebah and the asherah are closely related to the
worship of Baal. I gather that the massebah is a phallic representation of
the god and the asherah is in fact his consort, the goddess Asherah. At one
time in the history of the Hebrews it was fine to worship at shrines with
the pillar and the tree.

With the change in theological climate however the pillar and the tree fell
from favour and Josiah, the John Hyrcanus forerunner, "broke into pieces
the pillars, and cut down the asherim".

Hosea makes this intriguing prophecy, "And in that day, says the Lord, you
will call me, 'my husband' (ishi), and no longer will you call me, 'my
Baal' (baali)."

The syncretism between the two deities caused a conflict of imagery: while
Yahweh was a god of mountains and desert, Baal was a reflection of the
Phoenician world of ocean and storm. The imagery in Ps29 is obviously out
of place with the Yahweh tradition as is the geography of the third stanza
out of place with a traditional Israel. Yet, it would not really be inplace
to claim that Yahweh was Baal, though the imagery is obviously from the
Baal tradition [which we see reused in Daniel 7, with the domination of the
sea (Yam) and her monsters by the Baal figure who returns to take up his
thrown in heaven with the others including the white headed El. Again, I
don't think we should make much out of this use of imagery -- especially
when this Baal, "Baal Shamayim", the lord of the heavens, seems to be
parodied in the same document in the references to the abomination -- or
idol -- (shiqquts) of desolation (shamem)].

What is clear is that at some point in Hebrew history Baal syncretism was
acceptable enough for imagery to have been used in religious literature as
indicated by Ps29. At a later stage syncretism was discouraged and a
different outlook was taken on with regard to the significance of other
gods. That which other people believed was not God, but the work of human
hands.


Ian

-----------------------------------------
kurios kurios     adonay yahweh
kurios theos      yahweh elohim

theos hypsistos   el elyon