Ancient Semitic religion

The ancient Semitic religion is the polytheistic religion of the Semitic peoples of the ancient Near East and North-East Africa : ancient Jews, Phoenicians, as well as many small related peoples, such as the Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites ^[1] ^[2] .

The Semitic tradition and their pantheons ^[3] are divided into regional categories: the Canaanite religion of the Levant , the Sumerian mythology associated with the Assyro-Babylonian religion in Mesopotamia , the ancient Jewish religion of Israelis and Arab mythology . Semitic polytheism may have passed into Abrahamic monotheism through the god El , whose name is the word "God" in Hebrew, the root of the Arabic " Allah ."

Content

1 Proto-Semitic Pantheon
2 Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia
3 Canaan
4 Abrahamic religions
5 See also
6 notes
7 Literature

Proto-Semitic Pantheon

Abbreviations: Acc. Akkadian-Babylonian ; Ug. Ugaritic ; f. Phoenician Heb. Hebrew Ar. Arabic language OSA Ancient South Arabian languages ; Eph. Ethiopian

Ilu : “God” (sky god, head of the pantheon: Acc. Il, Ug. Illu , f. Elos, Heb. El / Elohim , ar. Allah , OSA Il
“Ashirat” : (Ilu’s wife: Ug. Atrt , Hebrew. Asher , OSA Atart ) - the meaning of the name is unknown. She is also called Ilatu "goddess" (As. Ilat, f. Alt , ar. Allat ).
Ataru : (God of Fertility: Ug. `Tr , OSA` tr , ef. Astar ( heavenly god ).
Atartu : (Goddess of Fertility: Ak. Ishtar , Ug. `Trt , f. Astarta , Hebrew. Astarta ). The meaning of the name is unknown and is not related to ʼAṯiratu .
Haddu / Haddad : (god of the storm: Ak Adad , Ug. Baal-Hadad , f Adodos . The meaning of the name is probably “thunderer.” This god is also known as Balu “husband, lord” (Acc. Bel , Ug. Bl . Baal / Belos, Hebrew Baal ).
Shamshu : “the sun” (Goddess of the Sun: Ug. Shapash , OSA: Shamash , but Ak . Shamash is a male god).
Yarich : “moon” (god of the moon: Ug. JRH , Hebrew. Yareah , OSA JRH ).

Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia

When five planets became known in Ancient Mesopotamia, they were combined with the sun and moon and connected with the main gods of the Babylonian pantheon. The bilingual list in the British Museum lists the seven-part planetary group in the following order ^[4] :

Sin ( Moon )
Shamash ( Sun )
Marduk ( Jupiter )
Ishtar ( Venus )
Ninurta ( Saturn )
Naboo ( Mercury )
Nergal ( Mars )

The religion of the Assyrian Empire (sometimes called Ashurism ) focused on Ashura , the patron saint of Assur , and Ishtar , the patroness of Nineveh . The last recorded worship of Ashur and other Assyrian gods without a negative context dates back to the 3rd century AD ^[5] ^[6] .

Ashur, patron of the eponymous capital of the Late Bronze Age, constantly competed with the patron of Babylon Marduk . In Assyria, Ashur eventually ousted Marduk, even becoming Ishtar's husband.

The main Assyro-Babylonian and Akkadian gods were:

Ashur ( aram. ܐܵܫܿܘܪ ) / Anshar , patron of Assur
Ishtar, goddess of love and war, patroness of Nineveh ( aram. ܥܸܫܬܵܪ )
Naboo : the god of writing and scribes
Nergal: the god of the dungeon
Tiamat : goddess of the sea
Samnuha ^[7]
Kudaba ^[8]
Marduk
Enlil
Ninlil
Nisroh
Nanby : Pazuzu's father
Anu
Ea , Sumerian Enki : god of crafts
Kishar
Sin , Sumerian Nanna: god of the moon
Ishara
Shamash: sun god
Adad / Hadad ^[9]
Dagon / Dagan
Bel
Tammuz

The main Assyrian-Babylonian demons and heroes were:

Adapa (Oannes)
Gilgamesh
Lugalbanda
Lilith
Pazuzu
Ninurta ^[10] ^[11]

Canaan

The Canaan religion was practiced by people who lived in ancient Levant during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Before the 1928 excavation in Ugarit in northern Syria and the opening of the Bronze Age archive of alphabetical cuneiform texts ^[12] , scholars knew little about Canaanite religious practice. Papyrus , apparently, was the main written material for scribes at that time. Unlike papyrus documents found in Egypt, ancient papyri in the Levant often simply decomposed from exposure to a humid Mediterranean climate . As a result, Bible stories became the main sources of information about the ancient Canaanite religion. In addition to biblical descriptions, several secondary and tertiary Greek sources have been preserved, including the treatise of Lucian of Samosata, De Dea Syria (“On the Syrian Goddess,” 2nd century AD), fragments of the Phoenician history of the Sanghunion , preserved by Philo Biblical (c. 64 - 141 AD) and the works of Damascus (c. 458 - later 538). A recent study of Ugaritic material made it possible to obtain additional information about this religion ^[13] , supplemented by inscriptions from the archives of the Levant and Tell-Mardich ^[14] (excavated in the early 1960s).

The Canaanite religion demonstrates the clear influence of Mesopotamian and Egyptian religious practices. Like other peoples of the ancient Near East, the Canaanites were polytheists , with families generally focusing their worship on domestic gods and goddesses , recognizing the existence of other deities such as Baal , Anat and El ^[15]

The kings also played an important religious role in some ceremonies, such as the sacred marriage of the New Year's holiday ; the Canaanites may have honored their kings as gods.

According to the pantheon known in Ugarit as ilkhm ( Elohim ) or the children of El (compare the biblical “ sons of God ”), a creator god named El was the father of other deities. In Greek sources, he was married to Birut ( Beirut ). Data on their pantheon was allegedly obtained by Philo Biblsky from the Sanghunion from Berita (Beirut). The deity’s marriage with the city seems to have biblical parallels with the stories linking Melkart with Tire , Yahweh with Jerusalem and Tanit, and Baal Hammon with Carthage . El Elyon is mentioned (as the Most High God ) in Genesis. 14: 18-19 as God, whose priest was Melchizedek , king of Salem.

Philo claims that the union of El Elyon and his wife led to the birth of Uranus and Gaia (Greek names for Heaven and Earth ). This closely matches the opening verse of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis. 1: 1 : “In the beginning, God ( Elohim ) created Heaven ( Shemaim ) and Earth ( Eretz ).” This also corresponds to the history of the Babylonian Annannian gods.

Abrahamic religions

Enuma Elish is compared to the creation of the world in Genesis ^[16] ^[17] ^[18] . Some authors trace the history of Esther to the Babylonian roots ^[19] .

El Alyon also appears in the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers and in the song of Moses in Deut. 32: 8 .

Notes

↑ Gordon S. Canaanite mythology
↑ Canaanite mythology. (unspecified) . https://bstudy.net .
↑ Noll, KL Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: An Introduction . - A&C Black, 2001. - P. 187. - “[A patron god in an ancient Near Eastern religion held a unique position among the gods] as the most powerful and the most just of the gods, who ruled the divine realm as he ruled the human realm, often with the approval of a council of divine 'elders' who legitimated his right to rule as patron god (as in the book of Job 1-2). [...] Other gods were subordinate to, and partners with, the divine patron, just as the human aristocracy and commoners were expected to be subordinate to, and supportive of, the human king. The pantheon was usually quite complex, often including hundreds or even thousands of gods. ". - ISBN 978-1-84127-258-0 .
↑ Mackenzie, p. 301.
↑ Brief History of Assyrians (Neopr.) . AINA Assyrian International News Agency.
↑ Simo. Assyrians after Assyria ( Neopr .) . - Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, Vol. XIII No. 2, 1999.
↑ Dalley, Stephanie , Mari and Karana: Two Old Babylonian Cities (2002), ISBN 1-931956-02-2
↑ Dalley (2002)
↑ Robert Francis Harper. Assyrian and Babylonian literature . - D. Appleton and company, 1901. - P. 26.
↑ Thorkild Jacobsen. The treasures of darkness: a history of Mesopotamian religion . - Yale University Press, 1978. - ISBN 978-0-300-02291-9 .
↑ ETCSLhomepage ( unopened ) . Etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk (October 24, 2006). Date of appeal May 16, 2015.
↑ Gray, John, “The Legacy of the Canaanite Texts of Ras Shamra and Their Importance for the Old Testament,” No. 5. The Archive of Brill , 1957; for a more recent discussion, see Yon, Marguerite, The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra , Eisenbrauns, 2006.
↑ Smith, Mark S. The Origin of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheism and Ugarite Texts , Oxford University Press, 2001.
↑ J. Pons, review by G. Pettinato, A. Alberti, Catalogo dei testi cuneiformi di Tell Mardikh - Ebla, MEE I, Napoli, 1979, in Etudes théologiques et religions 56 (1981) 339-341.
↑ Canaanite religion (neopr.) . Encyclopædia Britannica (April 17, 2014). Date of treatment January 26, 2016 ..
↑ The Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation Myth (Neopr.) . Crivoice.org (November 11, 2011). Date of treatment December 28, 2011.
↑ ENUMA ELISH - Babylonian Creation Myth - Theories (neopr.) . Stenudd.com. Date of treatment December 28, 2011. Archived November 22, 2011.
↑ Sharpes, Donald K. 'Lords of the scrolls: literary traditions in the Bible and Gospels'. Peter Lang, 2005. ISBN 0-8204-7849-0 , 978-0-8204-7849-4
↑ Gunkel, Hermanh. Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton: Religio-Historical Study of Genesis 1 and Revelation 12 . - William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. , 2006. - P. 198. - ISBN 978-0802828040 .

Literature

Donald A. Mackenzie, Myths of Babylonia and Assyria (1915).
Moscati, Sabatino (1968), The World of the Phoenicians (Phoenix Giant)
Ribichini, Sergio "Beliefs and Religious Life" in Moscati Sabatino (1988), The Phoenicians (by LB Tauris in 2001)
Thophilus G. Pinches, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria , The World Wide School, Seattle (2000)
van der Toorn, Karel (1995). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. New York: EJ Brill. ISBN 0-8028-2491-9.

[a-1] Gordon S. Canaanite mythology

[b-2] Canaanite mythology. (unspecified) . https://bstudy.net .

[3] Noll, KL Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: An Introduction . - A&C Black, 2001. - P. 187. - “[A patron god in an ancient Near Eastern religion held a unique position among the gods] as the most powerful and the most just of the gods, who ruled the divine realm as he ruled the human realm, often with the approval of a council of divine 'elders' who legitimated his right to rule as patron god (as in the book of Job 1-2). [...] Other gods were subordinate to, and partners with, the divine patron, just as the human aristocracy and commoners were expected to be subordinate to, and supportive of, the human king. The pantheon was usually quite complex, often including hundreds or even thousands of gods. ". - ISBN 978-1-84127-258-0 .

[4] Mackenzie, p. 301.

[5] Brief History of Assyrians (Neopr.) . AINA Assyrian International News Agency.

[6] Simo. Assyrians after Assyria ( Neopr .) . - Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, Vol. XIII No. 2, 1999.

[7] Dalley, Stephanie , Mari and Karana: Two Old Babylonian Cities (2002), ISBN 1-931956-02-2

[8] Dalley (2002)

[Harper1901-9] Robert Francis Harper. Assyrian and Babylonian literature . - D. Appleton and company, 1901. - P. 26.

[Jacobsen1978-10] Thorkild Jacobsen. The treasures of darkness: a history of Mesopotamian religion . - Yale University Press, 1978. - ISBN 978-0-300-02291-9 .

[11] ETCSLhomepage ( unopened ) . Etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk (October 24, 2006). Date of appeal May 16, 2015.

[12] Gray, John, “The Legacy of the Canaanite Texts of Ras Shamra and Their Importance for the Old Testament,” No. 5. The Archive of Brill , 1957; for a more recent discussion, see Yon, Marguerite, The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra , Eisenbrauns, 2006.

[13] Smith, Mark S. The Origin of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheism and Ugarite Texts , Oxford University Press, 2001.

[14] J. Pons, review by G. Pettinato, A. Alberti, Catalogo dei testi cuneiformi di Tell Mardikh - Ebla, MEE I, Napoli, 1979, in Etudes théologiques et religions 56 (1981) 339-341.

[15] Canaanite religion (neopr.) . Encyclopædia Britannica (April 17, 2014). Date of treatment January 26, 2016 ..

[16] The Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation Myth (Neopr.) . Crivoice.org (November 11, 2011). Date of treatment December 28, 2011.

[17] ENUMA ELISH - Babylonian Creation Myth - Theories (neopr.) . Stenudd.com. Date of treatment December 28, 2011. Archived November 22, 2011.

[18] Sharpes, Donald K. 'Lords of the scrolls: literary traditions in the Bible and Gospels'. Peter Lang, 2005. ISBN 0-8204-7849-0 , 978-0-8204-7849-4

[19] Gunkel, Hermanh. Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton: Religio-Historical Study of Genesis 1 and Revelation 12 . - William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. , 2006. - P. 198. - ISBN 978-0802828040 .