| ToC | Reading the Old Testament | . . . Part 2. Prophets | ToC |
2. The Study of Israelite ReligionIsraelite religion developed within the context of Canaan, and was strongly influenced by its religion. The high deities of Canaanite religion were El, Baal and Asherah. El was the chief deity who had receded into the background by the Late Bronze and Iron ages. Baal was the god responsible for agricultural productivity and Asherah, his female counterpart, also had fertility influence. The most detailed descriptive material comes from ancient Ugarit and dates to the Late Bronze Age, fairly close geographically and temporally to early Israel (see Parker 1997).
Canaanite religion is portrayed as the antithesis of Israelite faith. The Hebrew Bible is unanimously opposed to the polytheistic fertility practices of Canaan and favors the exclusive worship of Yahweh. This, at least, is the official position strongly argued in prophetic literature. There are hints both in external evidence and within the Hebrew Bible itself that popular religion was a fluid blending of elements from Yahwism and Baalism.
Official Yahwism, as expressed in prophetic literature and in the Psalms, appropriated elements of Baalism. Yahweh is described using the same phrases that were applied to Baal. Yahweh was argued to be the one responsible for the rains and fruitfulness, not Baal. And the motif of divine conflict between Baal and the sea is expressed in a variety of subtle ways in biblical literature (demythologized when God creates the firmament in Genesis 1; historicized as Yahweh versus hostile nations in Isaiah 51:9-11; and eschatologized as the Son of Man versus the beasts of the sea in Daniel 7).
A Hebrew inscription from Khirbet el-Kom (8th century B.C.E. Judah) writes "Blessed be Uryahu by Yahweh and by his asherah" and ones from Kuntillet Ajrud (early 8th century B.C.E. Israel) say "I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria and by his asherah" and "I bless you by Yahweh of Teiman and by his asherah" (see Freedman 1987). Evidently family and popular religion tended to blend Israelite and Canaanite religion to a degree that appalled and provoked the biblical prophets.
The disciplined study of Israelite religion from a sociological and cultural perspective contributes to a fuller picture of the conditions in which Israel's prophets found themselves as advocates of Yahwism.
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| ToC | Reading the Old Testament | . . . Part 2. Prophets | ToC |
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