Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kevin L. Barney" <klbarney AT yahoo.com>]

Karen,

Regarding child sacrifice in Canaan and thereabouts, you might find of
interest Alberto Ravinelli Whitney Green, _The Role of Human Sacrifice in
the Ancient Near East_ (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1975), although IIRC
Green focuses more on Mesopotamia in this volume.

Perhaps of more immediate relevance for your friend would be John Day,
_Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament_ (Cambridge:
University of Cambridge Oriental Publishers, 1989).  Day gives an appendix
containing 19 quotations from classical and patristic sources attesting to
Canaanite/Phoenician practices of child/human sacrifice.

Child sacrifice is also recorded in Sakkunyaton's "Phoenician Theology,"
preserved in fragments in Eusebius, _Praeparatio Evangelica_, i.10.21, 34,
44.  See the discussion in Cross's article on 'el in TDOT 1:248.

The literary evidence has also been supported by archaeolical discoveries
of tophets in Carthage and elsewhere.  I believe you will find a reference
to these discoveries in John Day's article on "Canaan, Religion of" in the
Anchor Bible Dictionary, around 1:834.

Kevin Barney
klbarney AT yahoo.com
Hoffman Estates, IL

PS Thanks to all who helped me with my Isaiah text question.