Ancient Semitic religion
Deities of the ancient Near East |
---|
Religions of the ancient Near East |
Part of a series on |
Ancient Near East mythology |
---|
Ancient Semitic religion encompasses the polytheistic religions of the Semitic peoples from the ancient Near East and Northeast Africa. Since the term Semitic itself represents a rough category when referring to cultures, as opposed to languages, the definitive bounds of the term "ancient Semitic religion" are only approximate, but exclude the religions of "non-Semitic" speakers of the region such as Egyptians, Elamites, Hittites, Hurrians, Mitanni, Urartians, Luwians, Minoans, Greeks, Phrygians, Lydians, Persians, Medes, Philistines and Parthians.
Semitic traditions and their pantheons[1] fall into regional categories: Canaanite religions of the Levant (including the polytheistic ancient Hebrew religion of the Israelites, Judeans and Samaritans and the religions of the Amorites, Phoenicians, Moabites, Edomites, Ammonites and Suteans); the Sumerian–inspired Assyro-Babylonian religion of Mesopotamia; the Phoenician Canaanite religion of Carthage; Nabataean religion; Eblaite, Ugarite, Dilmunite and Aramean religions and Arabian polytheism.
Semitic polytheism possibly transitioned into the Semitic originating Abrahamic monotheism (Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam) by way of the god El, whose name "El" אל, or elohim אֱלֹהִים is a word for "god" in Hebrew, cognate to Arabic ʼilāh إله, which means god.
Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia
The five planets visible to the naked eye and the sun and moon are connected with the chief gods of the Babylonian pantheon. A list now held in the British Museum arranges the sevenfold planetary group in the following order:[2]
The religion of the
Ashur, the patron deity of the eponymous capital of
The major Assyro-Babylonian-Akkadian gods were:
- Classical Syriac: ܐܵܫܘܼܪ), patron of Assur
- Classical Syriac: ܐܸܣܬܪܵܐ), goddess of love and war and patroness of Nineveh
- Classical Syriac: ܢܒ݂ܘܿ): god of writing and scribes
- Classical Syriac: ܢܸܪܓܲܠ): god of the Underworld
- Ninurta, Assyrian god of war and hunting
- Tiamat: sea goddess
- Samnuha[5]
- Kubaba[6]
- Classical Syriac: ܒܹܝܠ)
- Enlil
- Ninlil
- Nisroch
- Hanbi: father of Pazuzu
- Anu, supreme divinity of the Heavens
- Ea, Sumerian Enki: god of crafts
- Kishar
- Classical Syriac: ܣܝܼܢ): moon god
- Ishara
- Classical Syriac: ܫܡܫ): sun god
- Dagan/Dagon
- Classical Syriac: ܒܹܝܠ)
- Classical Syriac: ܬܲܡܘܼܙ)
Major Assyro-Babylonian demons and heroes were:
- Adapa (Oannes)
- Classical Syriac: ܓܡܝܼܓܘܿܣ)
- Lugalbanda
- Classical Syriac: ܠܸܠܝܼܬ݂ܵܐ)
- Pazuzu
- Ninurta[8][9]
Canaan
The Canaanite religion was practiced by people living in the ancient
Like other peoples of the ancient Near East, the Canaanites were
According to the pantheon, known in Ugarit as 'ilhm (
Philo states that the union of El Elyon and his consort resulted in the birth of
Abrahamic religions
Many scholars believe that the Assyro-Babylonian
When the Most High ('Elyōn) divided to the nations their inheritance, he separated the sons of man (Ādām); he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the sons of Israel.
Rather than "sons of Israel", the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, suggests the "angelōn theou," or "angels of God", and a few versions even have huiōn theou (sons of God). The Dead Sea Scrolls version of this suggests that there were in fact 70 sons of the Most High God sent to rule over the 70 nations of the Earth. This idea of the 70 nations of Earth, each ruled over by one of the Elohim (sons of God), is also found in Ugaritic texts. The Arslan Tash inscription suggests that each of the 70 sons of El Elyon was bound to their people by a covenant. Thus, Crossan[who?] translates:
The Eternal One ('Olam) has made a covenant oath with us,
Asherah has made (a pact) with us.
And all the sons of El,
And the great council of all the Holy Ones (Qedesh).
With oaths of Heaven and Ancient Earth.
See also
- Ancient Egyptian religion
- Arabian mythology
- History of Judaism
- Mandaeism
- Moses and Monotheism
- Names of God in Judaism
- Origins of Judaism
- Prehistoric religion
- Religions of the ancient Near East
- Semitic Neopaganism
References
- ISBN 978-1-84127-258-0. Archivedfrom the original on 12 March 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
[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.
- ^ Mackenzie, p. 301.
- ^ "Brief History of Assyrians". AINA Assyrian International News Agency. Archived from the original on 28 April 1999. Retrieved 22 August 2007.
- ^ Parpola, Simo (1999). "Assyrians after Assyria". Assyriologist. Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, Vol. XIII No. 2. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2007.
The gods Ashur, Sherua, Ishtar, Nanaya, Bel, Nabu and Nergal continued to be worshiped in Assur at least until the early 3rd century AD; the local cultic calendar was that of the imperial period; the temple of Ashur was restored in the 2nd century AD; and the stelae of the local rulers resemble those of Assyrian kings in the imperial period.
- ISBN 1-931956-02-2[page needed]
- ^ Dalley (2002)[page needed]
- ^ Robert Francis Harper (1901). Assyrian and Babylonian literature. D. Appleton and company. p. 26. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-300-02291-9. Archivedfrom the original on 12 March 2023. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
- ^ "ETCSLhomepage". Etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk. 24 October 2006. Archived from the original on 2 May 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
- ^ Gray, John, "The Legacy of Canaan the Ras Shamra Texts and Their Relevance to the Old Testament", No. 5. Brill Archive, 1957; for a more recent discussion see Yon, Marguerite, The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra, Eisenbrauns, 2006.
- ^ Smith, Mark S., The origins of biblical monotheism: Israel's polytheistic background and the Ugaritic texts, Oxford University Press, 2001.
- ^ J. Pons, Review of G. Pettinato, A. Alberti, Catalogo dei testi cuneiformi di Tell Mardikh - Ebla, MEE I, Napoli, 1979, in Études théologiques et religieuses 56 (1981) 339—341.
- ^ "Canaanite religion". Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 April 2014. Archived from the original on 22 May 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- ^ "The Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation Myth". Crivoice.org. 11 November 2011. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- ^ "ENUMA ELISH - Babylonian Creation Myth - Theories". Stenudd.com. Archived from the original on 22 November 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- ISBN 0-8204-7849-0, 978-0-8204-7849-4
- ISBN 978-0802828040. Archivedfrom the original on 12 March 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
Further reading
- 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 L.B. 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: E. J. Brill. ISBN 0-8028-2491-9.
External links
- Media related to Ancient Semitic religions at Wikimedia Commons