by Brian Godawa
While Melqart was a patron god of Tyre, he was not the only one. Shamem/Hadad was not only the head of the Phoenician pantheon but also had a temple at Tyre along with Melqart and Astarte. Shamem’s temple is most likely the oldest on the island.[72]
Day concludes,
Since the Baal promoted by Jezebel was the same Baal who had been worshipped by the Canaanite population of Israel and syncretistic Israelites, it can readily be understood how he gained such a large following. This would not be the case with Melqart, the city god of Tyre, and, as MJ. Mulder has emphasized, Ahab would have committed political suicide had he attempted to promote such a foreign god.[73]
The Image of Baal
I depicted the Baal temple idol in the novel as a seated bronze humanoid dressed in his conical Egyptian ateph headdress with horns of deity. His arms were outstretched for sacrifice over a pit of fire. Though we don’t have any actual temple images as artifactual examples, I have drawn from the writings of the ancients who described such images in relation to human sacrifice, another component of Canaanite/Phoenician religion. Though these are much later in time than the ninth century B.C., it’s the closest we can get. Here are two of them.
Greek author Kleitarchos (4th century B.C.):
Kleitarchos says that, out of reverence for Kronos [Baal], the Phoenicians, and especially the Carthaginians… There stands in their midst a bronze statue of Kronos [Baal], its hands extended over a bronze brazier, the flames of which engulf the child. When the flames fall upon the body, the limbs contract and the open mouth seems almost to be laughing, until the contracted (body) slips quietly into the brazier.”[74]
Historian Diodorus Siculus (1st century B.C.):
There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus [Baal], extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire.[75]
The Temple of Baal
In the novel, Ahab builds the temple of Baal in Jezreel, the summer royal residence, rather than in Samaria, the royal capital of Israel. A common belief is that the Baal temple was built in the city of Samaria because 1 Kings 16:32 says Ahab “erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria.”
But archaeologist Yigael Yadin has provided compelling evidence that the temple was actually built in the city of Jezreel rather than Samaria.[76] This is not to say the Bible is incorrect. The word “Samaria” is used in the text as both a reference to the city as well as the governmental state (1 Kings 13:32; 16:24: 2 Kings 21:1). The phrase in 1 Kings 16:32 doesn’t stipulate the city or the region as the temple’s location, so it could be either.
But tellingly, archaeological excavations haven’t unearthed a temple in the city of Samaria. Writer Jennifer Greig-Berens concludes from the evidence:
Due to Ahab’s loyalty to a central Yahwist cult in the capital of Israel, it is unlikely he would have built a temple to Baal in that place and arouse the opposition of those loyal to monotheism in Israel. It may have been in Jezreel that Ahab set up a palace and temple in order for his new wife and her entourage to practice their Baal worship. Jezreel seems to be the center of Baalism in the biblical narratives and is in closer proximity to Mount Carmel, where the altar of Yahweh had been “torn down” and replaced with an altar to Baal (1 Kings 18:30). This is also the abode of Jezebel after the death of her husband and during the reign of her son, Joram.
Furthermore, the area of Jezreel is the usual focal point of prophetic fulfillment throughout the narratives: the location of Naboth’s ancestral property (1 Kings 21:1-4); the place where the dogs would devour Jezebel (1 Kings 21:23); the place where Joram is assassinated (2 Kings 9:21-26); as well as where the heads of Ahab’s “seventy sons” are sent and piled up next to the gate of the city during Jehu’s revolt (2 Kings 10:8-9). By all accounts, Jezreel appears to be the central hub of Jezebel’s proliferation of the Baal cult in Israel.[77]
I’ve drawn my description of the temple of Baal from archaeology. The most popular Phoenician designs known from Ugarit, Byblos, and other sites commonly include a long tripartite rectangular building, a pillared entrance with steps, and a long hall with an elevated holy of holies at the back where the image of the deity resided.[78]
This explains why the Baal temples are the same design as the Yahweh temple in Jerusalem. King Hiram of Tyre was hired by Solomon to help build Yahweh’s house with Phoenician craftsmanship (1 Chronicles 14:1).[79]
Some Bible readers may fear this reeks of syncretism, melding foreign pagan religions with biblical religion. It’s not syncretism but subversion. Subversion is defined as the appropriation and repurposing of a foreign cultural element into one’s own cultural meaning. I’ve argued extensively in my books The Imagination of God and God Against the gods (paid links) that God and his scriptural authors in both Old and New Testaments engage in extensive subversion of pagan imagination. The temple is but one example.
In ancient Near Eastern religion, the temple was considered the center of the cosmos. Its architecture and design was a microcosm that reflected the macrocosm of the universe. The temple was described as being situated on a “cosmic mountain,” a holy hill where creation first began, along with a river that flowed out of the mountain as the source of eternal life.[80] So too in the Bible, God’s temple was a designed microcosm of the universe (Psalm 78:68-69) on the holy hill, the cosmic Mount Zion (Psalm 43:3-4; Is 2), where an Edenic river of eternal life is symbolically described as flowing out of its gates (Ezekiel 47:1-12).
But whereas similarities help to illuminate similar meaning, differences change meaning and make all the difference in the world. Differences are where subversion rather than syncretism takes place. Whereas the image of the deity was housed in the holy of holies of pagan temples, there was no image of Yahweh in his temple because of his prohibition of images. But also, he wanted to make it clear that the temple was only a sacramental symbol of connection between heaven and earth. “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?” (Isaiah 66:1-2).
Yahweh Versus Baal
This subversion of pagan imagination was not only in archaeological artifacts but also in literary poetry and prose. What critical scholars interpret as syncretistic evolution of Canaanite religious ideas are actually polemical subversions of those ideas by biblical authors.
It has long been known that the Old Testament contains many allusions and reflections of Canaanite literature. Some of those similarities include language used by Canaanites of Baal that were also used by the Hebrews of Yahweh. A side-by-side sampling of Ugaritic texts with Scripture illustrates strong echoes of Canaanite imagery in the biblical storytelling (see below).
UGARITIC TEXTS[81]
Baal sits…
in the midst of his divine mountain, Saphon,
in the midst of the mountain of victory.
Seven lightning-flashes,
eight bundles of thunder,
a tree-of-lightning in his right hand.
His head is magnificent,
His brow is dew-drenched.
his feet are eloquent in wrath.
(KTU 1.101:1–6)[82]
The season of his rains may Baal indeed appoint,
the season of his storm-chariot.
And the sound of his voice from the clouds,
his hurling to the earth of lightning-flashes
(KTU 1.4:5.5–9)
At his holy voice the earth quaked;
at the issue of his lips the mountains were afraid.
The ancient mountains were afraid;
the hills of the earth tottered.
(KTU 1.4:7.30–35)
now your foe, Baal,
now your foe the Sea you must smite;
now you must destroy your adversary!
Take your everlasting kingdom,
your eternal dominion!
(KTU 1.2:4.9–10)
Then Baal returned to his house [temple].
‘Will either king or commoner
establish for himself dominion in the earth?
(KTU 1.4:7.30–35)
OLD TESTAMENT
“Yahweh came from Sinai…
At His right hand there was flashing lightning…
There is none like the God of Jeshurun,
Who rides the heavens to your help,
And through the clouds in His majesty…
And He drove out the enemy from before you,
And said, ‘Destroy!’
So Israel dwells in security,
The fountain of Jacob secluded,
In a land of grain and new wine;
His heavens also drop down dew.”
(Deuteronomy. 33:2, 26–28)
The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over many waters…
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon…
The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire [lightning].
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness…
And in His temple everything says, “Glory!”
Yahweh sits enthroned over the flood;
Yahweh is enthroned as King forever.
(Psalm 29:3–11)
Critical scholars interpret these similarities as syncretistic evolution—i.e., that the Jews originally worshipped Baal and transformed him into Yahweh. But this ignores the more germane explanation of similarities as being a common usage of images in polemical arguments. Remember, the differences make all the difference in the world. And those differences in meaning are loud and clear. Yahweh inspires his authors to use water and storm language to reflect God’s polemic against the so-called storm god Baal.
Comparing the texts yields identical words, memes, and metaphors that suggest God is engaging in polemics against Baal through scriptural imagery and storytelling. It isn’t Baal who rides his cloud chariot from his divine mountain Saphon but Yahweh who rides the clouds from his divine Mount Sinai (and later, Mount Zion). It isn’t Baal who hurls lightning flashes in wrath but Yahweh whose lightning flashes destroy his enemies. It isn’t Baal whose dew-drenched brow waters the land of Canaan but Yahweh who drops dew from heaven to Canaan. It isn’t Baal’s voice that thunders and conquers the waters, resulting in his everlasting temple enthronement, but Yahweh whose voice thunders and conquers the waters, resulting in his everlasting temple enthronement.
Psalm 29 (quoted in part above) is so replete with poetry in common with Canaanite poetry that many Ancient Near East scholars have concluded it is a Canaanite hymn to Baal rewritten with the name Baal replaced by the name Yahweh.[83] God was not only physically dispossessing Canaan of its inhabitants but literarily dispossessing the Canaanite gods as well. Old Testament appropriation of Canaanite culture is a case of subversion, not syncretism — overthrowing cultural narratives as opposed to blending with them. See my book God Against the gods (paid link) for an in-depth examination of this biblical literary use of creative subversion.
Asherah
Another major deity who has an important role to play in the story of Jezebel’s ninth century Israel is Asherah (Athirat in Canaanite). This goddess has a veiled yet significant presence in the Bible during this time period. In some ways, she may have had a more insidious effect on the Israelites than Baal ever had.
Scholar Raphael Patai introduces the Asherah of Canaanite mythology as a fertility goddess and the wife of El, the chief god.
Her full name was “Lady Asherah of the Sea”—apparently, her domain proper was the sea, just as that of her husband El was heaven. She was, however, also referred to simply as Elath or Goddess. She was the “Progenitress [Mother] of the Gods”: all other gods, numbering seventy, were her children, including Baal, Anath [Anat], Mot, and the other chief protagonists of the Ugaritic pantheon… Asherah’s relationship to her husband El was not unlike that of an Oriental queen to her master: when entering into his presence, she would prostrate herself, whereupon El would kindly inquire after her desire. When Baal wished to obtain permission from El to build a house, he sent his mother Asherah to intercede with El. Upon the death of Baal, El asked Asherah to name one of her sons to succeed him as king. Asherah was a motherly goddess and as such she, together with her daughter Anath, served as the wet-nurse of the gods.[84]
Canaanite writings speak of a shrine of Asherah in Tyre, “the goddess of the Sidonians.”[85] Archaeologist William Dever adds that excavated imagery of Asherah often involve her wearing an Egyptian-style Hathor wig and standing on the back of a lion or escorted by two lions, thus giving the great Mother Goddess the additional epithet, “The Lion Lady.”[86]
Patai examines the manifold ancient artifacts found all over Palestine of clay figurines of nude women with protruding breasts and explains how they conform to stereotypical representations of Asherah. He concludes that Asherah was very popular with the common folk women of Israel, probably because she promoted fertility and facilitated childbirth.[87]
Dever imagines an ancient cultural context of men spending “too much time with their noses stuck in the Torah” and the moral dilemmas of public life while being oblivious to their families’ needs. Meanwhile, the women guided the family exercise of religious rituals and cult to safeguard their loved ones and therefore regarded themselves as morally superior to the men.[88] Depending on your presuppositions, one could see this as an anachronistic projection of modernity back upon the ancient world or as a reflection of the unchanging nature of gender weaknesses.
But Karel van der Toorn agrees that in the Bible Israelite women are often portrayed as displaying a greater religious sensibility than their husbands:
All in all, then, ancient Israelite religion played a double role in the lives of women. While legitimating their subservient social position, it opened the possibility as well of an intense religious experience. In this way, it gave a compensation on one level for what it had taken on another. As it seems, Israelite women eagerly seized upon this possibility.[89]
As a goddess of fertility, Asherah was a predictable point of connective identity for Israelite women. Asherah appears in the Bible dozens of times. But the word (singular: asherah; plural: asherim) is used for both the goddess and the image used to represent the goddess.[90] Asherah was often depicted in Canaanite art as a tree of life.[91] The Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) translated the word “asherim” as “sacred groves,” and the high places with asherim were often referred to as “every high hill and green tree” (1 Kings 14:23). Because of these connections with trees, Dever concludes, “Thus it seems clear that originally in ancient Israel there was a goddess named Asherah, who was associated with living trees and hilltop forest sanctuaries, and who could sometimes be symbolized by a wooden pole or an image of a tree.”[92]
Though it isn’t clear exactly what these asherim poles looked like, a perusal of the Old Testament passages gives the reader some clues. They are wooden (Judges 6:26), probably tree-like in symbolism (Deuteronomy 16:21), that were “made” (2 Kings 21:3), “carved” (2 King 21:7), could be “chopped down” (Deuteronomy 7:5), “cut down” (2 Kings 18:4), and “burned with fire” (1 King 15:13). They were often “planted” beside altars of Baal (Deuteronomy 16:21; Judges 6:28) or altars of Yahweh (2 Kings 23:6) and often spoken of together with Baal (Judges 3:7). Whatever they looked like, they represented the presence of the mother goddess, most likely as a consort to both Baal and Yahweh.
In more recent years, discoveries of inscriptions at Kuntillet ʿAjrûd in the Sinai and Khirbet El-Qom near Lachish have supported the idea that it was common for Israelites to consider Asherah as a wife or consort of Yahweh. Though interpretations are varied, some scholars argue the inscriptions may be translated as in the following examples:
I bless you before Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah.
Yahwe
h of Teman and his Asherah.
Blessed by Uriyahu by Yahweh.
By his Asherah, he has saved him.[93]
They all reflect the common localization of a deity with a city (Yahweh of Samaria), but there is disagreement over whether Asherah refers to the distinct deity or to the images that represent her. In either case, there is an intimate pairing of Yahweh with the goddess Asherah.
I’ve already examined the fact that there was an asherah in the Jerusalem temple for most of its existence (236 out of 370 years). As indicated in the texts, asherim were usually “planted beside altars” (Deuteronomy 16:21; Judges 6:28), so the asherah in Jerusalem was most likely beside the stone altar in the inner court of Yahweh’s temple. All the evidence seems to affirm that the norm of the official Judahite religion included Asherah as Yahweh’s consort. The reformers such as Hezekiah and Josiah were the anomaly (righteous though they were). When Josiah eliminated the asherah and other idolatrous elements of worship from the temple in the seventh century, he included rooms for male cult prostitutes “where the women wove garments for the asherah” (2 Kings 23:7). These were apparently garments that were used to clothe the asherah in some ritualistic manner.[94]
Strangely, Asherah was not always treated with the same level of condemnation as was Baal in the Scriptures. In our particular story of Jezebel, Elijah calls upon Ahab to send his 450 prophets of Baal and Jezebel’s 400 prophets of Asherah to Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:19). But in the showdown, only the prophets of Baal are ever mentioned as being there and as being slaughtered. Either the prophets of Asherah didn’t show up and were spared, or they did show up and were spared. Either way, they don’t appear to have been killed along with the Baal prophets. If they had been, the writer of Kings would have certainly exulted in it. After executing Jezebel, Jehu is described as “wiping out Baal” from Israel, and “demolishing” his temple. But no word is written of Asherah. As already noted above, the priesthood of Jerusalem had kept an asherah in Solomon’s temple for 236 out of its 370 years, two-thirds of its existence. It seems that worship of the goddess had a more entrenched grip on Israelites and Jews than did Baal or other deities.