Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>]

Yitzhak,

It's not me making the association, it's the Seleucids ... or at  
least, according to my memory, the Seleucids identified Greek Zeus  
with Syrian Baal Shamayim. I am at home right now so I am working  
from memory but I will see if I can dig up bibliography tomorrow.

Chris

On Aug 23, 2005, at 7:47 PM, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:

> On 8/23/05, Heard, Christopher wrote:
>
> > Antiochus IV was no atheist, nor a proponent of atheism. He styled
> > himself "Epiphanes," and had pictures of Zeus and Nike minted on his
> > coinage; these are not the actions of an "atheist." Judging by the
> > narratives in 1 Maccabees and Josephus, when Antiochus IV defiled the
> > temple in Jerusalem, it was not by promoting atheism, but by
> > promoting the worship of Zeus Olympius/Baal Shamayim. Persecuting a
> > "rival" religion is unusual in the history of antique polytheism, but
> > it is not atheistic.
>
> Hello,
>
> Is there any specific reason you associate Baal Shamayim with Zeus, as
> opposed to say, Baal Zephon or Baal Hadad?  Might you have references
> that I could read about Baal Shamayim?
>
> Thanks,
> Yitzhak Sapir

--
R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Seaver Fellow in Religion
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California 90263-4352
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