Canaanite Religion and Culture

1
Canaanite Religion and Culture

• Boadt, Chapter 11
• Review by Megan Morris
• Fall 2004

2
A Land Flowingwith Milk and Honey

• The land of Canaan good land.
• Exodus calls it a land flowing with milk and
  honey (Exod 38).
• The land was legend to be so rich that anything
  could grow and the culture that lived there would
  surely prosper.
• The word Canaan should not be identified with
  just modern Israel. It really refers to the
  whole Mediterranean coast from Turkey down to the
  border of Egypt (Boadt 213).
• Eventually in later days the southern part would
  be called Palestine after the Philistine cities.
• The Northern area would be called Phoenicia from
  the Greek name of the murex snail used to make
  the purple dye that was their major export
  (Boadt 214).
• The word Canaanite means trader in the
  Semitic language (Boadt 213).
• Poor tribes in Israel were shocked by the amount
  of wealth they found that the Canaanites
  accumulated.
• With the money came their own religious beliefs
  that clashed with the Israelites idea of one God
  who rules all.

3
The Lure ofCanaanite Religion

• Canaanite religion was easier to adapt to because
  each culture had different gods, but they all had
  basically the same features.
• The Canaanite God Baal could be identified with
  the Babylonian Marduk or the Assyrian Ashura as
  storm Gods or sky Gods.
• These Gods were so similar in characteristics
  that it was easy for one conquered nation to take
  the new Gods, because really there was no change
  other than the name.
• Because of this it made it really hard for the
  Israelites to believe in only one God who could
  do all it was much easier to add pagan practices
  to their devotion to Yahweh.

4
Canaanite Nature Religion

• The basic principles of their religious system
• They worshiped Gods that affected climate, rain,
  drought, and storms.
• The important Gods were the ones involved with
  the nature cycle.
• The Canaanite religion might better be called a
  cosmological religion because it focuses on the
  relation between the divine and ordering of the
  universe and human response.
• The task of the human worshiper is to win the
  favor of the Gods and hope that they would act in
  a way to help the community prosper.

5
The Canaanite Gods

• El, the father of Gods and creator of all
  creatures, appears to be the highest God and
  final judge in all disputes among the divine
  beings.
• Baal, the God of storms, is the day-to-day king
  of the Gods
• Asherah, Goddess over the sea, wife of El
• Anat, sister and wife of Baal, identified with
  sexual charms.
• Astarte is strongly identified with the fertility
  rites.

6
The Religious Myth of Baal

• The most important Ugaritic religious text for
  understanding Canaanite beliefs is The Epic of
  Baal, a series of texts about the role of Baal.
• They are on clay tablets which have been broken
  into pieces and the exact order is unknown.

7
Israelite Echoes of the Myth

• The Bible often describes Yahweh as a warrior who
  triumphs over the Israelites enemies.
• The Hebrew writers owe a lot of these kinds of
  passages to Canaanite practices.
• The writers of the bible use the same kind of
  metaphors for divine victory over the forces of
  evil.
• Psalm 29 was most likely a poem to the storm god
  Baal taken over by Israel and applied to Yahweh.
• Later Christians chose the feast of the newly
  reborn Sun God in the Roman calendar to be the
  feast day of Christmas, since Christs real
  birthday is not known
• These kinds of thefts from the pagan religions
  help to transfer peoples loyalty away from their
  old practices, and keep continuity in their lives
  by preserving favorite holidays and feasts.

8
Israel condemned many aspects of the Canaanite
religion.

• The fertility rituals that Canaanites had used to
  honor Baal and Anat were not accepted by
  Israelites
• the prophets were horrified by them.
• Israelites had a very strict idea of the
  sacredness of sex.
• Sex was to be reserved for marriage.
• Israelites condemned child sacrifice Exodus
  condemns the making of any image or idol of
  Yahweh.

9
There were religious practices parallel to both
Canaanite and Israelite religions.

• In both religions, sacrifice played a huge role.
• Altars were of similar size and shape.
• Both had temples similarly constructed.
• Both religions have the idea that children should
  take care of their parents in old age, and be
  responsible for them in death.