by Brian Godawa
Critical scholars have recently constructed revisionist theories to describe the Carthage Tophet as not being a location of child sacrifice but a cemetery for children who died of natural causes. Stager, Wolff, and Greene debunk this skepticism by explaining several aspects that mitigate such revisionary speculation.[255]
First, the natural mortality rate of children at this time doesn’t match the unnaturally high mortality rate of children in the Tophet, thus indicating deliberate infanticide rather than natural causes.[256]
Secondly, none of the remains of the infants show pathological condition of disease.[257]
Thirdly, naturally expired infants are usually ritually buried in foundations of homes or near the adults of the family, not in a separate cemetery.
Fourthly, some of the inscriptions on stela above the urns describe sacrificial vows to a deity never seen in normal funerary stela.
Finally, burial urns of charred animal bones that are sacrificial substitutions are found interspersed with the children’s urns, something that would only make sense in terms of sacrificial rites. There were no pet cemeteries, and animal sacrificial substitution for humans was common though not universal. Some children were still sacrificed.[258]
Some have suggested that animal substitution evolved out of human sacrifice, but the later levels of Carthage show an increase in human sacrifice in later years, not a decrease, thus disproving the evolutionary theory.[259]
Child sacrifice was integrated into the Phoenician culture and the Israelite and Judahite cultures in a deep an affecting way. The biblical, historical, and archaeological evidence is consistent with each other.
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Chronicles of the Apocalypse
Chronicles of the Apocalypse is an origin story of the most controversial book of the Bible: Revelation. An historical conspiracy thriller trilogy in first century Rome set against the backdrop of explosive spiritual warfare of Satan and his demonic Watchers. ChroniclesOfTheApocalypse.com. (paid link)
Chronicles of the Watchers
Chronicles of the Watchers is a series that charts the influence of spiritual principalities and powers over the course of human history. The kingdoms of man in service to the gods of the nations at war. Completely based on ancient historical and mythological research. ChroniclesOfTheWatchers.com. (paid link)
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[1] G. Mussies, “Jezebel,” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 473.
[2] Millgram, Hillel I., The Elijah Enigma (K Locations 1106-1117). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. K Edition.
[3] John H Walton, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 31–32.
[4] Millgram, Hillel I., The Elijah Enigma (K Locations 1266-1273). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. K Edition.
[5] See 1King 11:15, 33; 2King 23:13; 1Sam 31:10.
[6] Josephus, Against Apion 1.18.
[7] In all my Chronicles series of novels, I make the fallen Watchers pose as the gods of the nations. Since angelic beings in the Bible are all male in gender, I have the Watchers masquerading as women goddesses.
[8] John Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2002), 214.
[9] Israel as married to Yahweh: Jeremiah 2.2; 31.32; Hosea 2:14–15; cf. 13.4–5.
[10] Israel’s unfaithfulness to Yahweh described as sexual infidelity and prostitution: Hosea 2:2; Jeremiah 3:6; Exodus 34:15–16; Leviticus 17:7; Numbers 15:39; 25:1; Deuteronomy 31:16; Judges 2:17; 8:27, 33; 1Chronicles 5:25; 2Chronicles 21:11, 13; Psalm 106:39; Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; 3:1–9; 5:7; Ezekiel 6:9; 16:15–17, 20, 22, 25–36, 41; 23:5–8, 11, 14, 19–19, 27–30, 35, 44; 43:7, 9; Hosea 1:2, 2:2, 4–5; 3:3; 4:10–15, 18; 5:3–4; 6:10; 9:1; Joel 3:3; Amos 7:17; Micah 1:7; Nahum 3:4.
[11] David Noel Freedman, “Jezebel,” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1996), 848.
[12] Ivories of the Woman in the Window have been found in Arslan-Tash, Khorsabad, Nimrud and Samaria, Jezebel’s second home. Eleanor Ferris Beach, “The Samaria Ivories, Marzeah, and Biblical Text,” Biblical Archaeologist 55:3 (1992), pp. 130-139.
[13] Nehama Aschkenasy, Woman at the Window: Biblical Tales of Oppression and Escape (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press), 12.
[14] Eleanor Ferris Beach, “The Samaria Ivories, Marzeaḥ, and Biblical Text.” The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Jun., 1993), 101.
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sp; [15] Translated by Daniel Fleming, Eds., William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, The Context of Scripture (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1997–), 427.
[16] Choon-Leong Seow, “The First and Second Books of Kings,” in New Interpreter’s Bible, ed. Leander E. Keck, vol. 3 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994–2004), 142.
[17] T. R. Hobbs, 2 Kings, vol. 13, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 119.
[18] Douglas Stuart, Hosea–Jonah, vol. 31, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002), 29.
[19] John H Walton, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament): 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 149.
[20] H.J. Katzenstein, “Who Were the Parents of Athaliah?,” Israel Exploration Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1955), 194-197.
[21] Katzenstein, “Who Were the Parents,” 197.
[22] Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 9.132.
[23] Herbert B. Huffmon, “Rechab, Rechabites,” ed. Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2006–2009), 744.
[24] Gerald L. Keown, Jeremiah 26–52, vol. 27, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1995), 196.
[25] T. R. Hobbs, 2 Kings, vol. 13, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1985), 128–129.
[26] 1Kings 14:16; 15:30; 16:19, 26, 3; 22:52; 2Kings 3:3; 10:28; 13:2; 14:24; 15:9, 24, 28.
[27] 1King 14:22; 15:34; 16:19, 25; 2King 8:27; 13:2, 11; 14:24; 15:18, 28; 16:2; 17:17; 21:20; 23:32, 37; 24:9, 19.
[28] 1 King 15:3, 25; 2 King 8:18. 27; 16:2; 21:20.
[29] 1 King 15:14; 22:43; 2King 13:6; 14:4; 15:4, 14, 35; 16:4;17:10-11; 21:3;
[30] 1King 15:11-14; 22:43; 2King 13:3-4; 15:3-4; 34-35.
[31] Ironically, this bronze serpent on a pole idol has evolved into the caduceus, an icon of two serpents on a pole with angelic wings as a symbol for medical practice.
[32] Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess Third Enlarged Edition (Detroit MI: Wayne State University Press, 1967,1978, 1990), 50.
[33] Susan Ackerman, “The Queen Mother and the Cult in Ancient Israel,” Journal of Biblical Literature 112 (1993): 391.
[34] William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2005), 237
[35] See William G. Dever, The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel: Where Archaeology and the Bible Intersect (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012) and William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2005). Also, Ziony Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches (London, Continuum, 2001).
[36] Benjamin Sommer, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel (NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 149.
[37] See also Deut 4:19 with Deut 32:8-9; 1 King 22:19-23.
[38] See also Psalm 89:5-7; Heb 2:2.
[39] See also Psalm 89:5-7.
[40] Daniel10:12-13, 20-21; 2Kings 6:17; Judges 5:19-20.
[41] See also 2 Kings 6:15-17 where Elisha’s servant has his spiritual eyes opened to see the myriad of heavenly warriors surrounding Israel preparing to battle Syria.
[42] Interestingly, this passage of Isaiah is not clear about what judgment in history it is referring to. But the language earlier in the text is similar to the Flood when it says, “For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. 19 The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken. 20 The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.” So this may be another passage that uses a Flood reference tied in with the Watchers and their punishment.
[43] 1 En. 89:59, 62-63; 67; Jubilees 15:31-32; Targum Jonathan Deut. 32, Sect. LIII; 3Enoch 48C:9, DSS War Scroll 1Q33 Col. xvii:7, Targum Jonathan, Genesis 11, Section II.
[44] See also 1 Enoch 89:59; 90:25, 3Enoch 48C:9, DSS War Scroll 1Q33 Col. xvii:7, Targum Jonathan, Genesis 11, Section II; Philo, On the Posterity of Cain and His Exile 25.89; Concerning Noah’s Work as a Planter 14.59; On the Migration of Abraham 36.202; 1 Clement 29; Origen, First Principles 1.5.1. Thanks to Don Enevoldsen for some of these passages. Walter Wink footnotes a plenitude of texts about the 70 angel “gods” over the 70 nations in the Targums in Walter Wink. Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament (The Powers : Volume One) (Kindle Locations 2235-2242). Kindle Edition.
[45] 1 Enoch 10:9, 15; 12:2-6; 13:10; 14:1-3; 15:9; 16:1-2.
[46] Jeremiah19:13; Deut 4:19; 17:3; 29:26; 2 Chron 33:3-5; Acts 7:42-43.
[47] Deut 32:43 LXX; Zech 2:13-3:7; Jer 23:18-22. And there are other passages where the divine council is not mentioned, but scholars explain that the plural grammar of the speech and activity imply the heavenly court motif of God addressing the council (Gen 1:26; 11:3, 4, 7; Isaiah6:8; 40:1; 41:21-23).
[48] Leviathan: Job 3:8; 41; Psalm 74:13-14; Psalm 104:26; Isa 27:1. Leviathan is said to dwell in the Abyss in Job 41:24 (LXX). “[Leviathan] regards the netherworld [Tartauros] of the deep [Abyss] like a prisoner. He regards the deep [Abyss] as a walk.” Job 41:34, Tan, Randall, David A. deSilva, and Logos Bible Software. The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint. Logos Bible Software, 2009.
For Rahab, see: Isaiah51:9; Job 9:13; 26:12-13; Ps 87:4; Psalm 89:9-10.
[49] For Chaoskampf in the Bible, see: Psalm 89:9-10; Isaiah 51:9-10; Job 26:12-13. Psalms 18, 29, 24, 29, 65, 74, 77, 89, 93, and 104. Also, Exodus 15, Job 9, 26, 38, and Isaiah 51:14-16; 2 Samuel 22.
[50] Enuma Elish, Tablet IV, lines 104-105, 137-138, 144.
[51] See KTU 1.3:3.38-41.
[52] For 2nd Temple examples of the feast of Leviathan and Behemoth, see 4Ezra 6:47-52; 2Apoc. Bar. 29:4; 1 Enoch 60: 7-9, 24.
[53] See Rev 12:3-13:4; 16:13-16; 20:2-3.
[54] KTU 1.5:1:30
[55] Isaiah 51:9. “Serpent, dragon, sea-monster” Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 1072.
[56] In Job 41, God’s questions to Job about being able to make Leviathan a servant or “play with him as with a bird” are obvious implications that God does so with Leviathan as a domesticated pet. See also Psalm 104:26. See also “sea creatures” (tannim: dragons) Psalm 148:7; Psalm 74:13; Isaiah51:9.
[57] William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2005), 220.
[58] John Day, “Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature,” Journal of Biblical Literature 105 (1986): 388.
[59] Avraham Negev, “Ugarit,” The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, 3rd ed. (New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1996).
[60] Judges 6; 1 Kings 18; 2 Kings 10.
[61] Judges 2:13; 1 Samuel 12:10; Jeremiah 2:23.
[62] “Baal,” DDD, 136.
[63] Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter Willem van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (DDD), 2nd ext. rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 132.
[64] N. Wyatt, Religious Texts from Ugarit, 2nd ed., The Biblical Seminar, vol. 53 (London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002), 36-39.
[65] “Baal,” DDD, 134.
[66] John Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2002), 74.
[67] John Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2002), 74-77; Mark Smith, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel, 2nd Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990, 2002), 68-71.
[68] Smith, The Early History of God, 71.
[69] Day, Yahweh and the Gods, 75.
[70] M
ark S. Smith and Simon B. Parker, Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, vol. 9, Writings from the Ancient World (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1997), 158–159.
[71] Smith and Parker, Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, 151.
[72] H. Jacob Katzenstein, The History of Tyre, 2nd ed. (Beer Sheva, Israel: Negev Press, 1997), 89. Quoted in Jennifer Lynn Greig-Berens, Jezebel: Religious Antagonist in Israel, Masters Thesis (Oral Roberts University, 2011), 8.
[73] Day, Yahweh and the Gods, 76.
[74] Paul G. Mosca, Child Sacrifice in Canaanite and Israelite Religion: A study in Mulk, PhD Thesis, (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, 1975), 22.