Ugaritic Religion

In this book, Ola Wikander studies Indo-European influences in the literary world of the Hebrew Bible and the Ugaritic texts, tracing a number of poetic motifs and other concepts originating in the Indo-European linguistic milieux of the greater Ancient Near East (e.g., among Anatolians and in Indo-European traditions transmitted through Mitanni)—and possibly at earlier, reconstructible levels—as they influenced what became Northwest Semitic poetic culture. The methodology used is what Wikander refers to as “etymological poetics”: the study of poetic and mythological structures as transmitted through specific lexical material.
Among the motifs studied are “smoke” as a simile for human life, the great serpent-battling tales of Northwest Semitic in comparison with similar stories among Indo-European-speakers (focusing on the titulature of the combatants and on the reconstruction of inherited and calqued poetic formulas), the etymology of the divine name “Dagan,” and terminology and ideas related to borders and living outside of established social norms, including the concept of the ger, the “sojourner” or “resident alien.” The study discusses the importance of early poetic borrowings for tracing the interactions between cultural and linguistic contexts, and—using the methodology of “etymological poetics”—employs these motifs and their history as a way of uncovering new, exegetically relevant interpretations of key texts. Ugaritic passages from the Baal and Aqhat texts, as well as biblical passages from (among others) Hosea, Psalms, 1 Kings, and Judges are given new interpretations.

One of the motifs discussed is that of destroying heat being used as a metaphor for forgetting important cultural memories and, consequently, of the resilience of such memories being expressed as resistance to burning. Thus, bringing these ancient connections between Indo-European and Northwest Semitic culture into the open is, in a sense, showing their “Unburning Fame.”

The goddess Asherah is designated as ‘Lady of the Sea’ several times in the Baal Cycle. In this papre I will focus on the description of Asherah in KTU 1.4, ii, and propose a new reading for a few of its passages. Until now scholars have assumed, based on the reading of column ii, that Asherah is a goddess who represents women and women’s domestic labor, since according to this passage, she is described as weaving, laundering, cooking, and serving food to El, her consort. These scholars have not explained the connection between this description and Asherah’s epic epithet as ‘Lady of the Sea’. Similarly unexplained is the connection between the description of Asherah engaging in domestic chores and the following passage, which deals with fishing and with Ashera’s fisherman Qudshu-wa-Amruru.
Closer examination of the Ugaritic word npnyh, accompanied by an alternate verse division of the text in question, raises the possibility that Asherah is portrayed here in the act of weaving a fishing net, which also serves as her garment. In light of this passage and additional textual references (including the Kirta Epic), as well as archaeological findings from Ugarit (a drawing on a drinking mug and a figurine of a goddess), the argument can be made that in the coastal city of Ugarit, alongside her other attributes, Asherah was also regarded as a goddess of fishing. She is described as a lady and as the consort of El, the head of the pantheon, as well as the goddess responsible for feeding the inhabitants of Ugarit.

There is little doubt that the primeval saga of Genesis 6:1–4 would have an astounding exegetical and theological significance to the Bible’s overall narrative if interpreters could only decipher its content. For at least two millennia, exegetes have debated the intention of this pericope.  The biblical narrative briefly describes humanity’s population increase (v. 1), a cryptic mention of “the sons of God” taking the “daughters of men” as wives (v. 2), then the resultant limitation on humanity’s mortality (v. 3), and an ambiguous reference to the “Nephilim” (v. 4). F. B. Huey lists several scholars who label the passage either as “strange,” “unintelligible,” or “unsolved.”  As John Walton explains, biblical narratives assume ancient sensitivities that are unfamiliar to the modern reader. In order to discern these enigmatic texts, researchers must investigate other ancient Near Eastern works for literary parallels.
The purpose of this article is to identify the function of the “sons of God” in the literary and socio-historical context of Genesis 6:1–4.  The article will first present presuppositions to the research, as well as the importance of Ugaritic literature in biblical studies. The investigation will then present a comparative study with the Ugaritic Epic of Kirta and a potential new theory regarding the Genesis pericope. It concludes by suggesting that literary parallels may reveal the Epic of Kirta as a close paradigm for understanding the function of the Genesis passage. The specific sin of the “sons of God” may not have been unsanctioned marriages, adultery, polygamy, or rape. Rather, the biblical account could act as a polemic against the belief that divine kings obtained immortality through marriage and reproduction, which exacerbated Yahweh’s decision to eradicate humanity and to demonstrate the finiteness of these so-called ancient god-kings.

Mot, personified death, plays a major role in the Ugaritic Baal myths
and cognate texts of the Hebrew Bible. Unlike Baal’s other foe, Yamm, however, it is unclear what Mot actually is intended to look like – in spite of “his” clear personification. Using the Ugaritic and biblical texts, comparative Ancient Near Eastern material, and comparative mythology, this essay argues that Mot is envisioned as a wolf, in both Ugaritic myth and the Bible.

There has been a growing consensus among scholars over the last several decades that KTU 1.13 and KTU 1.3 II attest to the notion of ḥērem-warfare. If true, these two texts from Late Bronze Ugarit would present the earliest historical witnesses to the concept of ḥērem-warfare, and so would have important historical, political, and religious implications for its interpretation in the ancient Near East. However, this article argues on philological and linguistic grounds that ḥērem-warfare in fact is not attested at Late Bronze Ugarit. Finally, I explore the historical implications of finding—or better, not finding—ḥērem-warfare at Ugarit.

Four Minoan glyptic images from the Neopalatial period portray sacred trees in conjunction with boats and seascape. The Mochlos Ring depicts an elite female figure seated upon a stepped ashlar altar that includes a tree, inside a self-propelled hippocamp-headed boat. The Makrygialos Seal depicts a female figure performing a cultic salute toward a tree situated inside a boat. In the Amnissos Ring elite figures communicate with a hovering epiphanic tree deity in the vicinity of a boat. A female figure in a hippocamp-headed boat upon the sea is surrounded by three cult structures in the Ring of Minos. These images have traditionally been interpreted in three main ways: as a representation of Minoan cosmological concepts; as depicting a vague “Goddess from the sea” who is either a metaphor for a Minoan “thalassocracy” or else symbolic of a sequence of seasonal festivals; and as a ritual scene involving the literal transport of a tree in a ship from one cult site to another. While each of these interpretations incorporates degrees of validity, they are only partial explanations of these images. This paper proposes that the religious aspects of the images can be understood through the examination of their iconography in light of both Minoan religion and contemporary Canaanite seafaring religion. In his early analysis of Minoan culture, Arthur Evans attributed Minoan religious concepts to cultural diffusion from the Levant and Egypt. Acculturation is often discernible within art and material culture connected to cult and such evidence can provide information on the imitation or adoption of foreign religious concepts. It is argued here that the four Minoan glyptic images that combine trees, human figures, boats and the sea represent a combination of native Minoan with Canaanite religious ideas concerning a tree goddess who also had power over the sea. Each image is thus a glyph of the protective power of the Minoan tree deity over maritime voyaging, whether to a nearby Cycladic trading partner, a colony, or to a distant eastern Mediterranean destination. The empowerment of the expedition through supernatural patronage emphasises Minoan land-based power over the sea and extends the Cretan landscape outward to incorporate the seascape. It is further proposed that the images functioned in a protective talismanic capacity and that the containment of the iconographic motifs within the confines of gold rings and a stone seal linked the Minoan elites who owned these objects with the exotic aura of transculturality and power associated with overseas trade.                                             

[Kindly read at the conference by Louise A. Hitchcock 

Now available here: https://12iccs.proceedings.gr/el/proceedings/category/38/32/381

This article discusses the Baal-Zaphon stele, a New Kingdom funerary stele from Ugarit depicting a certain Mamy worshipping the levantine god Baal-Zaphon. The stele, though well known since the early twentieth century, lacks a recent detailed study. A new edition of the text is proposed here, based on parallel inscriptions and on a personal inspection of the stele at the Louvre. The edition also incorporates a fragment mentioned in 1938 by Montet but absent from subsequent editions of the text. Finally, the article discusses the iconography of the stele, its parallels, and the ambiguous relationship between Baal and Seth.

The paper attempts to indicate and to survey those features in the Homeric image of Zeus, which present close similarities with certain characteristics of the Syro-Phoenician gods El and Baal. Also, the mechanism and the chronology of the appearance of the Syro-Phoenician elements in the mythological concept of Zeus are considered. Overall, it is concluded that the Homeric passages relating to Zeus and presenting resemblances with the Ugaritic passages relating to Baal and El are only scattered fragments, which remained from a much more voluminous prehistoric corpus of Greek poetry concerned with Zeus and created by translation of and/or by analogy with the Near-Eastern epics about the main Syro-Phoenician gods.

This work is a brief review of Mark S. Smith's The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts. Published in 2001, his work is a thorough treatment of the development of monotheism in Israel and Judah. Smith draws primarily from material found at the site of Israel’s more developed and cosmopolitan neighbor, ancient Ugarit. Smith suggests that Yahweh was unknown to the patriarchs and that El was the original god of the Exodus, only later to be identified as Yahweh due to priestly theological bias. Smith further proposes that the decline of the family, weakening of royal power via a rising middle class, and subjugation to foreign superpowers may have led to rhetorical monotheistic assertions. Essentially, as geopolitical and patriarchal situations decreased, the god of Israel was presented as increasingly omnipotent and monotheistic rhetoric was utilized. Smith points out that in Judah, this rhetoric and recognition of super nations with their corresponding deities also corresponds to the ‘Axial Age’ when human understanding witnessed a revolution in many spheres of life.

NOTE: This paper was formerly uploaded with the title, "Landscapes of Fear and the Language of Liturgy: The Contesting Narratives of Climate and Cosmology in the Late Bronze Age." This paper, with the new title, constitutes a revision of minor errors in the former document.  No content changes were made to the main document.

This thesis argues that the religious reforms of the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age that resulted in the emergence of the Succession Myth are best explained as the result of a dynamic relationship between regional climate change, its impact on local ecology, and in turn the subsequent geopolitical, economic, societal, and, ultimately, religious opportunities and challenges that it generated. The result of these challenges was the breakdown of culturally localized problem solving systems that eventually led to the collective discovery of a new mythic idea, the evidence of which is preserved and reflected in the written sources of the period, namely in the form of treaties, myths, deity lists, rituals, and prayers. The primary result of the reforms analyzed here was that the gods worshiped by previous generations were succeeded by younger deities, most commonly sky-, or storm-gods. Since religious and political ideologies in the region were often substantially different, this means that proximate cultural, ideological, and political factors alone are insufficient to explain the coterminous appearance of these reforms across geographic and cultural boundaries; therefore it follows that external forces, such as environmental factors, rather than internal factors alone, must have been the ultimate causes of these reforms.

Canaanite Anthropoid Burial Customs
and Egyptian Rule in the Jezreel Valley
during the Late Bronze Age in Light of the
Excavation at Tel Shaddud

During trial excavations carried out in 2013 on
behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, a seemingly
isolated clay coffin with anthropoid lid, containing
a single primary burial, was uncovered within a
6m × 5m probe bordering the lower east slope of Tel
Shaddud in the Jezreel Valley. It lay at the bottom
of a tightly constricted burial pit, about 1.8 m below
the present surface. Less than 3 m to its south-east,
a further three burial pits, enclosing four additional
primary burials, oriented east to west – in conformity
with the coffin burial. Together these burials form part
of an apparent Late Bronze Age II–III burial ground
at the southern and western margin of Tel Shaddud.
The coffin and associated funerary gifts bear a
strong resemblance to comparable specimens and
associated funerary assemblages known foremost
from Deir el-Balah in the Gaza strip and Bet Sheʽan
in the Jordan Valley. The shared mortuary aspects of
Tel Shaddud and the latter sites indicate a strong link
with New Kingdom Egypt.
Based on the Tel Shaddud data and its very
location, in combination with selective reading of
relevant, near-contemporary historic records (i.e. the
el-Amarna letters), it is argued here that Tel Shaddud
was a way station, or estate, functioning within the
framework of the Egyptian New Kingdom colonization
of the region during the Late Bronze Age II and
succeeding Iron Age I.
The coffin burial is apparently related to Egyptian
rule in the Jezreel Valley, a rule maintained with the
help of Canaanite representatives who took care of
Egypt’s interests at a key point along the road from the
port of Acre via Tel Shimron (Shimon) to Beit She’an.

ATCHY TITLES SUCH AS THE ONE above may be needed in our media-hyped days to point out truly spectacular technological advances which are less likely to catch the eye of a passing "surfer" whether his or her waves be the net, television, or even journal headlines. Such is the information age in which we live. The tale of the disappearing warrior goddess Anat emerged out of the latest phase of the West Semitic Research Pro-ject's (WSRP) Ugaritic project which was carried out in March 1995 by Wayne T. Pitard and Theodore J. Lewis in Dam-ascus and Aleppo, Syria. The WSRP Ugaritic project has as its goal the photographic and digital (electronic) documentation of the entire Ugaritic corpus and the sharing of such advances in epigraphic analysis with the wider scholarly community in an easily accessible format. The current plan under development engages the support of numerous scholars to develop a digital edition of the Ugaritic texts on CD-ROM so that scholars worldwide can access this material via personal computers.'

This article points out the parallels between the Ugaritic story of Aqhat and the story of Deborah in Judges 4. Although many scholars have noted parallels between Ugaritie literature and stories in Judges, this parallel is especially striking because the characters in both stories are ＜||＞violent females.＜||＞ At the same time, this article also notes the various contrasts between the characters in the story and the Canaanite characters as well as those between YHWH and the Canaanite gods. The author of Deborah's story used Ugaritic-like rhetoric of violent females to accomplish his theological purpose of praising the women and YHWH in the Deborah story. More importantly, such rhetoric points to a tactic for Sino-Christian theology where the modern theologian actively seeks to engage Chinese culture.

This article suggests interpreting the word u͗zb in the recently published Ugaritic incantation RS 92.2014 as “Syrian hyssop” (Origanum syriacum or Marjorana syriaca). The arguments advanced include epigraphic, etymological, and literary factors, as well as contextual analogies drawn from the mechanics of Ugaritian magic in theory and practice.

This article deals with the identity and the features of the obscure deity found only in Judges 9 and known by the two names Ba‘al-Berith and El-Berith by means of a joint methodological approach integrating textual criticism of the biblical sources with archaeological and epigraphic data and with the tools of comparative analysis. In retracing the past scholarship about the topic, the various hypotheses have been split into three groups according to a typological criterion and have been evaluated: this brought to light some significant factors which had been misinterpreted or overlooked, but it also helped in sketching a more detailed portrait of some aspects of the religious backdrop of Palestine in the last centuries of the II millennium BCE. At a final examination, the most likely option seems to be the identification of the god with a local manifestation of El, to which is attributed the epithet ba‘al bərît (“lord of the covenant”).

Hijos y padres, cazadores y guerreros, reyes y héroes: Masculinidades en las construcciones culturales fenicio-púnicas (a través de la tradición literaria ugarítica) [Sons and parents, hunters and warriors, kings and heroes: Masculinities in the Phoenician-Punic cultural constructions (on the basis of the Ugaritic literary tradition)

Това, че Библията като сбор от религиозните, традиции на древните евреи е копирала много от културите на съседните Месопотамия, Египет и Сирия-Палестина е известно отдавна. Добре проучени са заемките от вавилонските митове (XIX-IV в. пр. н.е.) и текстовете от Угарит (XX-XII в. пр. н.е.). Относително по-неизвестен, но твърде интересен е един от аспектите на това възприемане - вярата в страховити чудовища и морски змейове.

This article examines the story of Gideon, the Angel of the Lord, animistic thinking and practices, Gideon's fleece and the altar of Baal, etc, in light of ancient Canaanite cultures and make application to modern Asia today. Written with a high view of Scripture, the article is intended to enrich our study of the Scripture through Asian cultures. This article has been published as a chapter in the book, "The Old Testament in Theology and Teaching: Essays in Honor of Kay Fountain, (APTS Press, 2018) and is available online at https://www.amazon.com/Old-Testament-Theology-Teaching-Fountain/dp/9718942378/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1521682640&sr=8-1, at other ebook retailers or www.wipfandstock.com.

In Near Eastern texts, mention is made of a goddess ‘ttrt ḫr/‘štrt ḥr which is sometimes rendered as the “Hurrian Astarte.” Until now, the second element * ḫr* has not been satisfactorily explained. In this article, a new etymology of the latter word is proffered
and this manifestation of the goddess Astarte is then associated with  Ἀφροδίτης λιµνησία “Aphrodite of the salt marshes.” It would then seem that this avatar of this Greek maritime goddess was borrowed from the Semitic world.

ʿAthtartu/ʿAštart/Astarte studies—including what we can say of the biblical portrayal of the goddess—are undergoing a renaissance. Recent volumes attempt comprehensive comparative analyses of the goddess (e.g., Christian and Schmitt 2013; Sugimoto 2014; Wilson-Wright 2016). Yet even with renewed attention to the prominence of the goddess in the Northern and Southern Levant as well as in Egypt and the expanded Phoenician colonies, certain key aspects of her agrarian nature have been overlooked. This paper explores “ʿAthtartu of the Field/Steppe-land” from Ugarit together with biblical analogues.

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Les figurines féminines au tambourin du Levant Sud ont fait l'objet de maintes discussions. Les points retenant la plus grande attention portent sur le sens et le but de ces figurines ainsi que sur leur affectation possible au culte d’une certaine déesse. Nous dirigeons l’intérêt avant tout sur la fonction du tambourin des figurines ammonites, à l’est du Jourdain. Par un acte de surmoulage, chez quelques figurines un bébé a été attaché sur le tambourin. Ce détail fort intéressant – qui est d’ailleurs présent également à l’ouest du Jourdain, en ancien Israël – indique une relation directe entre le tambourin et les étapes de la reproduction féminine, voir les phases ‘pré-conception’ et ‘post-accouchement’. Une incantation contre la stérilité trouvée à Ougarit et des récits de l’Ancien Testament traitant d’un vœu dans le contexte de la stérilité évoquent une connexion possible des figurines au tambourin avec les pratiques invocatoires antiques.

Les « figurines féminines nues » constituent une catégorie d’artefacts très présents dans les cultures matérielles anciennes de l’Égypte, de la Nubie, du Proche-Orient, de l’Asie centrale et de la Méditerranée orientale. Fabriquées majoritairement en terre cuite, mais aussi en faïence et en d’autres matériaux (bois, pierre…), ces objets, facilement manipulables, représentent un personnage féminin au corps nu et souvent paré. Ils sont présents dans divers contextes archéologiques et leur interprétation est souvent délicate, du fait du faible nombre de sources textuelles qui peuvent être convoquées et de la difficulté à isoler des attributs iconographiques permettant d’identifier de façon certaine le personnage représenté (une entité divine, une officiante, un prototype de classe d’âge…). En outre, la présence, sur un large espace géographique de sociétés en contact, d’objets présentant, certes des similitudes techniques et iconographiques, mais aussi des points de divergence, pose des questions sur les origines, vraisemblablement multiples, de cette catégorie d’objets, et sur les potentiels phénomènes de diffusion/réception à l’échelle locale, voire à une plus large échelle. En proposant des analyses détaillées de lots cohérents de figurines féminines, replacés dans leurs contextes archéologique, historique, géographique et culturel, les travaux réunis dans ce volume, offrent ainsi l’occasion d’une mise en comparaison d’objets contextualisés, mais aussi d’une mise en commun de réflexions théoriques sur les méthodes (analyses matérielle et technique, archéologique, sémiotique..) mises en œuvre pour tenter de les interpréter et de comprendre leurs usages dans une société donnée. Les vingt-et-une contributions sont réparties en quatre sections géographiques (l’Afrique du Nord-Est – Égypte, Soudan –, le Proche-Orient et l’Asie centrale entre la fin du Néolithique et l’âge du bronze, le Levant Nord et Sud à l’âge du fer, la Méditerranée orientale et le monde grec) plus une section thématique (regards transversaux : l’iconographie, les textes, l’économie).