The Religion of Ancient Palestine Part 3

[2] In the names in chapters vi. and vii., the more familiar Astarte is employed for Ashtart (Old Testament, Ashtoreth). Where cuneiform evidence is used the Babylonian form (_e.g._ Shamash, Ishtar) is usually retained.

[3] Amon, the predominant G.o.d of Egypt, owed his rise from an obscure local deity of Thebes to the political growth of the city. He was then a.s.similated to Re (the solar-orb) of Heliopolis.

Towards the close of the reign of Amenhotep III. Tushratta despatched to Egypt, Ishtar of Nineveh 'lady of lands, lady of heaven,' in pursuance to her oracle 'to the land that I love I will go.' She was doubtless sent to exercise her powers in Egypt, and Tushratta expresses the hope that the king may revere her tenfold more than on the occasion of a previous visit. He also invokes a hundred thousand years and great joy for his 'brother' and himself. There is a parallel to this in the late popular story where Ramses II. sent one of the images of Khonsu (moon-G.o.d and G.o.d of healing) to cure a Hitt.i.te princess, the sister of his queen, of an evil spirit. The G.o.d accompanied by a priest was received with all reverence, the demon was expelled and allowed to depart in peace to the place he desired, and a great feast was celebrated. Indeed, the {72} Hitt.i.te chief kept the useful G.o.d with him for nearly four years, when, frightened by a vision of the G.o.d flying upwards towards Egypt, he restored it to its rightful soil. The very human limitations of the deities render it necessary that some representation or emblem should be employed when their help is required.

+In political Treaties and Covenants+ the representative G.o.ds of the respective countries are invoked as witnesses, and their curses are expected to fall upon the defaulter. It was generally felt that curses as well as blessings had a very real potency, and the thrilling denunciations at the end of Khammurabi's Code of Laws and contemporary examples from Egypt threaten desolation, hunger, thirst, flaming fire, and the avenging pursuit of the G.o.ds. Political treaties are instructive for the light they throw upon the ruling powers. In Esarhaddon's treaty with Baal, king of Tyre (677-6 B.C.), the G.o.ds of the latter are Baal-shamen (Baal of heaven), two other specified Baals, Melkart of Tyre, Eshmun and the G.o.ddess Astarte. Later, in Hannibal's covenant with Philip of Macedon, the Carthaginian G.o.ds are enumerated in two triads, then follow the G.o.ds who took part in war, and finally, sun, moon, earth, {73} rivers, harbours (?) and streams. But the most illuminating example is the Egyptian version of the treaty (about 1290), between Ramses II. and the Kheta (Hitt.i.tes), the two great rival influences over the intervening lands. Here the representative heads of Egypt and the Kheta are respectively the sun-G.o.d Re and Sutekh (_i.e._ Set, the Egyptian equivalent of a weather- or storm-G.o.d whose native name can only be conjectured). Formerly, we learn, '[the] G.o.d prevented hostilities' between the two lands by treaty, and this new pact is made for 're-establishing the relations which Re made and Sutekh made for the land of Egypt with the land of Kheta' to prevent future warfare. The thousand G.o.ds male and female both of the Kheta and of Egypt are called to witness. Those of the former are particularly interesting, they comprise the sun-G.o.d lord of heaven, the sun-G.o.d of the city of Ernen (also called 'lord of every land'), Sutekh lord of heaven, Sutekh of Kheta, Sutekh of the city of Ernen, and the Sutekh of various specified cities, Antheret (probably Astarte) of the land of Kheta, nine G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses of certain named cities. Next come 'the queen of heaven; G.o.ds, lords of swearing; the mistress of the soil, the mistress of swearing, Teshker, the mistress of the {74} mountains, and the rivers of the land of Kheta,' and, finally, the G.o.ds of a North Syrian ally of Kheta. On the Egyptian side are Amon, the sun-G.o.d, Sutekh (here an Egyptian deity, see p. 83), the male and female G.o.ds of the mountains and the rivers of Egypt, of the heavens, the soil, the great sea, the wind and the storms. The treaty also bore a representation of the king of the Kheta and his queen embraced respectively by Sutekh the ruler of the heavens, and a G.o.ddess whose name is lost. To the G.o.ds of Palestine there is no reference; Palestine did not enjoy political independence.

+The Influence of Egypt.+--Our latest source is the Egyptian account of the visit of Wenamon to Byblos to procure cedar-wood from Lebanon for the sacred-barge of Amon-Re, King of G.o.ds (about 1100). The human messenger took with him the divine messenger in the shape of a statue of 'Amon-of-the-Way,' reputed to confer life and health; a sacred image upon which no common eye might gaze. When at length Zakarbaal granted an interview (see p. 54), he was inclined to ignore the political supremacy of Egypt, although he appears to allow that Amon had civilised Egypt and thence all lands, and that {75} artisanship and teaching had come from Egypt to his place of abode. Wenamon, for his part, showed that former kings not only sold cedars to Egypt, but spent their lives sacrificing to Amon. Even the evidence of 'the journal of his fathers' did not remove the king's reluctance. But the envoy urged the claim of Amon to be lord and possessor of the sea and of Lebanon, and solemnly warned Zakarbaal: 'wish not for thyself a thing belonging to Amon-Re, yea the lion loves his own.' Ultimately the king sent the wood, and he commemorated his obedience to Amon-Re by an inscription which was likely to be profoundly beneficial. For, as the envoy observed, should Byblos be visited by Egyptians who were able to read the stele with his name (the all-essential adjunct), he would 'receive water in the West (the world of the dead where the sun-G.o.d descended nightly) like the G.o.ds who are here' (presumably at Byblos).

Although the narrative is written from an Egyptian standpoint, the conviction which is ascribed to Zakarbaal finds a parallel in the familiar story of the journey of Osiris, the founder of Egyptian civilisation, from the Delta to Byblos. Even before the Hyksos period Egyptian women named themselves after the Baalath of Byblos {76} whom they identified with Hathor and evidently regarded as an appropriate patroness.[4] The connection between Egypt and the port of Lebanon may have been exceptionally close, but there were Egyptian settlements at Gezer, Megiddo, and the north at an equally early age. Under the conquerors of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the daughters of the small tributaries were taken into the royal harem, and the sons were removed as hostages and safely guarded in Egypt. Some of the latter settled down, others were appointed in due course to the thrones of their fathers, after having received the necessary anointing-oil from the great king. One of the latter recalls in the Amarna letters how he had served the king in Egypt and had stood at the royal gate, and from the grave-stone of a Palestinian soldier at El-Amarna we may see how settlement upon Egyptian soil had led to the acceptance of Egyptian ideas of the other world.

[4] A. Erman, _Zeitschrift fur Aegyptische Sprache_, xlii. p. 109.

Meanwhile Palestine and Syria were under the direction of Egyptian authorities, to whose presence the Amarna letters frequently allude, and one of the writers quaintly likens the solicitude of a certain official on his behalf to that of a {77} mother or a father. Where there were Egyptians or where princes had been in Egypt, some trace of the national religion may be expected, and it is probable that every military garrison possessed some kind of sanctuary. Moreover, Thutmose III. had dedicated three cities in the Lebanon district to Amon; later, Egyptian G.o.ds 'dwelt' in the north at Tunip. A stele, a few miles south of Tell 'Ashtarah (cp. the name Ishtar) in Bashan represents Sety I. offering a libation to Amon, and the pure Egyptian workmanship points to a strong foreign influence in the locality. Ramses II. set up a statue of his majesty in Tunip, and a city in South Lebanon was called after his name. Still descending, we read that cities were set apart for Amon-Re in the reign of Ramses III., and this king built in Canaan 'a mysterious house like the horizon of heavens which is in the sky' (_i.e._ the abode of the sun-G.o.d), with a great statue of 'Amon-of-Ramses-ruler-of-Heliopolis,' to which the natives brought tribute, 'for it was divine.'

Elsewhere, Ramses III. a.s.serts that he built strongholds in Asia in honour of Amon, taxing them year by year to bring their offerings to the _ka_ of the 'lord of G.o.ds.' Accordingly, down to the first half of the twelfth century the cult of Amon followed the extension of Egyptian {78} supremacy, and although the subsequent political history is obscure, the story of Wenamon would indicate that some sixty or seventy years later the prestige of the G.o.d's name was not entirely lost.

Wenamon's claim corresponds to the explicit recognition (in the Amarna letters) that the land belonged to Egypt's G.o.ds; it was the natural corollary of political extension. Like Zakarbaal and his ancestors, all the tributary princes were expected to acknowledge the suzerainty of Egypt's king and his deity. To refrain from sacrificing to the conqueror's G.o.ds was one of the signs of open revolt, as we know from a.s.syria and Babylonia. The king identified himself with the sun, like the contemporary Hitt.i.te king Subbiluliuina and other monarchs, from Khammurabi 'the Sun of Babylonia' who 'caused light to go forth over the lands of Sumer and Akkad' to the a.s.syrian Shalmaneser II. Although the result is confusing, the subordinate chiefs of Palestine and Syria were accustomed to the thought. They address the king as their G.o.ds, their Sun, the son of the Sun whom the Sun loves, the Sun in heaven, the Sun of the lands, or the everlasting Sun. This deified Sun or Shamash (to retain the Babylonian form) answers to the Egyptian Re or Amon. So Abimilki (Abimelech) of Tyre writes, {79} 'My lord is the Sun which goes up over the lands daily according to the decision of the Sun (Shamash) his gracious father.' And again, 'I have said to the Sun, the father of the king, my lord, "when shall I see the face of the king, my lord?"' Another writer ascribes his victory to the king's G.o.ds and Sun which went before his face. The chief of Megiddo, in a letter interesting for its glosses in the native language, announces his intentions should the king's G.o.ds a.s.sist him, and other writers invoke the G.o.d or G.o.ds of the king and acknowledge the might of Shamash. Nevertheless, the identification of the Egyptian and the Asiatic sun-G.o.d would not, and probably did not, prevent them from being regarded as two deities, and a private tablet at Taanach not only recognises the G.o.d Amon and the weather-G.o.d Addu, but even appears to add Shamash. It is natural to suppose from the identification of the king, the sun, and the national sun-G.o.d Amon (or Shamash) that many apparently ordinary rites had a deeper significance, whether it was the anointing of a va.s.sal or the fasting for a dead monarch (p. 56). The custom of offering sacrifices on behalf of kings is well attested, and it is possible that the position of divine kings throws light upon the fact that {80} the king of Cyprus has to explain his failure to send a representative to Egypt when Amenhotep was celebrating a sacrificial feast.

+The Treatment of Alien G.o.ds+ depends largely upon political relations (cp. _pp._ 69 _sqq._). New settlers might add the established deities of the soil to their own. A conqueror might recognise the deities of the district to which he laid claim. The G.o.ds of a defeated land were not invariably deposed, although the a.s.syrian kings would sometimes destroy them or present them to their own deities. Mesha king of Moab (about 850 B.C.) records that he brought before his G.o.d certain captured objects of cult, and it is possible that the pillar at Gezer which is not of local origin had a history of this kind (p. 14). The Philistines were dismayed at the 'mighty G.o.ds' which the Hebrews, in accordance with a familiar custom, took with them into battle, and, on another occasion, their own G.o.ds, left behind in their flight, were carried away by David (1 Sam. iv. 8, 2 Sam. v. 21). The mere capture of the G.o.ds was sometimes enough to lead to overtures for peace. But an a.s.syrian king would even repair the dilapidated captive deities, and having inscribed upon them the 'might' of his G.o.d and {81} the 'writing of his name' would restore them to a trusted va.s.sal. In Palestine the petty rulers enjoyed considerable freedom provided they paid their tribute, and supported their suzerain. We do not learn that Egypt sought to amalgamate subdued peoples and make of them 'one folk'

(_lit._ mouth), as was claimed by Tiglath-Pileser I. and other a.s.syrian kings. Nor do we find that the Egyptian king sent skilled emissaries to teach (as Sargon II. says) 'the fear of G.o.d and the king,' although, if the reference be merely to the promulgation of the official cult, this was probably the chief results also of Egypt's supremacy.

On the other hand, a Syrian prince who had recaptured his Sun-G.o.d from the Hitt.i.tes besought Amenhotep III. (whom he addresses as 'Son of Shamash') to put his name upon it as his fathers had done in the past.

The text is somewhat obscure, but the recognition of the Asiatic Shamash is clear, and intelligible on the identification of Shamash and Amon-Re. So, also, when the king of Byblos a.s.serts that 'the G.o.ds, Shamash, and the Baalath' of the city had brought about the king's accession, we have to remember that the G.o.ddess had long before been identified with the Egyptian Hathor. At a later date, a stele found north of Tell 'Ashtarah depicts Ramses II. {82} paying homage to a deity whose crown, horn, and Semitic t.i.tle prove him (or her) to be a native deity whom the king evidently respected.[5] Respect for alien G.o.ds ceases when they are found to be powerless; but Egypt was constantly troubled by her warlike Asiatics, and so far from their G.o.ds being ignored or rejected, they entered Egypt and found an extremely hospitable reception (see Chapter vii). Asiatic conquerors in Egypt appear to have been less tolerant. The Hyksos ruled 'in ignorance of Re,' and their G.o.d (Sutekh) was planted in the land; and, later, during the brief period of anarchy when a Palestinian or Syrian chief held Egypt until his overthrow by Setnakht, the upstarts 'made the G.o.ds like men and no offerings were presented in the temples.' We may a.s.sume then that the religion of our land remained practically unchanged during Egyptian supremacy except in so far as this involved the official recognition of the Egyptian national G.o.d and his representative upon the throne.

[5] _Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins_, xiv. p. 142, xv. p.

205. The stele, known as the 'stone of Job,' has entered into the worship of a Moslem place of prayer, and is appropriately connected with a story of the patriarch, many traditions of whom are current in this part of Hauran.

{83}

CHAPTER VII

THE PANTHEON

Until the necessary evidence comes to light it is scarcely possible to do more than collect a few notes upon some of the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses of our period. The most important sources are from Babylonia, a.s.syria, and Egypt; but some additional information can be gleaned from Palestinian names, allowance being made for the fact that a personal name compounded with that of a deity is not enough to prove that the bearer was its worshipper.

+Asiatic Deities in Egypt+ date from before the age of the Hyksos invasion, as can be gathered from the history of the mixed cult at Serabit and from the introduction of Baalath of Byblos (p. 75).

Apophis, a Hyksos king, has left an altar dedicated to his 'father Sutekh,' who had set all lands under his feet, and after the expulsion of the Hyksos, this foreign deity, {84} Egyptianised as Set (or Sutekh), became firmly established. Both SUTEKH and BAAL were regarded as essentially G.o.ds of battle, and the latter often occurs in descriptions of the prowess of the Pharaohs of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. Thus, the king is like Baal in the lands, mighty in strength, far-reaching in courage, strong-horned; he is like Sutekh great in might. He is the equal of Baal, 'his real son for ever,' and he is as Baal in his hour (_i.e._ of manifestation). When he appears upon the battlefield like Baal, his flame consumes the foe, and Amon-Re announces to Ramses III., 'I overthrow for thee every land, when they see thy majesty in strength, like my son, Baal in his wrath.' Baal is in his limbs; his roaring is like Baal in heaven, and his enemies fall down in fear of him like Baal. Baal was virtually identical with Sutekh who is represented as a foreign G.o.d and is sometimes horned (_e.g._ at Serabit). A curious scarab shows a winged Sutekh with horned cap and long streamer standing upon a lion.

Another foreigner is RESHEPH, lord of heaven, lord of eternity, or governor of the G.o.ds; he is the warrior, the G.o.d of fire and lightning (subsequently identified with Apollo). Valiant Egyptian officers are likened to him. He appears on {85} the Egyptian monuments with Semitic profile, and conical hat (or otherwise a fillet) from which projects the head of a gazelle; he holds a lance and shield in the left hand, and in his right a club. According to a magical text his consort was '_-t-m_, a deity who seems to be combined with Shamash in an old North Palestinian place-name, and may recur in the familiar Obed (servant of) -Edom. In Egypt Resheph also formed a triad with Min (the old harvest-deity and G.o.d of reproduction) and the G.o.ddess KADESH ('holy').

The last, whose name suggests the sacred licentious rites of Asiatic cults (p. 33 _sq._), is called lady of heaven, mistress of the G.o.ds, the eye of Re, etc. She was a.s.similated to Hathor, and stands nude upon a lion with lotus flowers in her right hand and a serpent in her left; her head framed with heavy tresses of hair is sometimes surmounted by the sun-disk between two horns. Among foreign war-G.o.ddesses Egypt had ANATH, well known from Palestinian place-names.

Her priesthood at Thebes is mentioned under Thutmose III., and the favourite daughter of Ramses II. was named 'daughter of Anath.' The deity is represented sitting clothed upon a throne with lance and shield in the right hand and battle-axe in the left; or holding instead the papyrus sceptre and {86} the emblem of life she stands erect clad in a panther-skin; her feathered crown sometimes has a pair of horns at the base. She is called lady of heaven, or of the world, daughter of the sun, mother, etc., and is often paired with Astarte.

ASTARTE found a place in several Egyptian temples. We also hear of her prophets, and a fragmentary myth apparently describes how, as daughter of Ptah, she entered the pantheon of Memphis. Here, as we learn from another text, Egyptian and foreign deities met together, and among the latter is a Baalath Saphun (B. of the North?), whose male counterpart appears in Baal-Zephon near the Red Sea (Ex. xiv. 2) and the equivalent Baal-Sapun, one of the G.o.ds of king Baal (see p. 72). The Egyptians depict Astarte with the head of a lioness, driving her quadriga over the foe; and as G.o.ddess of war she is 'mistress of horses and lady of chariots.' But that both Anath and Astarte were also dissolute G.o.ddesses is recognised in a text which ascribes their creation to Set.

The prevalence of the cult of the G.o.ddess of love and war in Palestine is well known from the references in the Old Testament to Ashtoreth (an intentional perversion to suggest _bosheth_ 'shame'), from the place-names, and from the plaques which {87} indicate numerous minor local types (p. 29). In the Amarna tablets Astarte (or rather the Babylonian Ishtar) coalesces with ASHIRTA who is sometimes written in the plural (Ashrati). Like the place-names Anathoth (the Anaths) and Ashtaroth (the Astartes), the different conceptions of the G.o.ddess in all her local forms seem to be combined in one term. Ashirta appears to have been essentially the G.o.ddess of the west. In a text of the First Babylonian Dynasty she is paired with Ramman as 'bride of the king of heaven, lady of exuberance (or vigour) and splendour'; later, she is called the consort of the 'lord of the mountain,' an appellative corresponding to the Baal of Lebanon. In old Arabia she was the wife of the moon-G.o.d, and the masculine form Ashir, on cuneiform Cappadocian tablets of our period, seems to be no other than the great G.o.d Ashur himself. Her name cannot be severed from the _Asherah_, but it is not clear whether it was transferred to or derived from the object of cult (see p. 26). The intricacy of the history of the divine-names will be understood when the a.s.syrian equivalent of Beth (house of) -El becomes the name of a deity, or when the plural of Ishtar is used of G.o.ddesses in general, or when Resheph (above) in Hebrew denotes a spark, {88} flame, or fire-bolt. But the career of the G.o.ddess of love and war is even more complicated. The phonetic equivalent of Ishtar in old Arabia was a G.o.d (so perhaps also in Moab, ninth century), and Ishtar herself appears in a.s.syria with a beard and is likened to the G.o.d Ashur, thus finding a later parallel in the bearded Aphrodite (Astarte, Venus) of Cyprus.

The s.e.x of the sun-deity SHAMASH is equally confusing, for, although he was lord of heaven (p. 73), and kings of Egypt and the Hitt.i.tes identified themselves with him, the deity was female in old Arabia, among earlier Hitt.i.te groups, and probably once, also, in Palestine and Syria.[1] Place-names compounded with Shemesh attest the prevalence of the deity, and around the district of Gezer lie Beth-Shemesh and the stories of Samson (sun) wherein solar elements have been recognised.

Among pastoral and agricultural peoples, however, the moon is more important. To the prominence of new-moon festivals and the probable connection between the lunar body and the name Jericho we must add the moon-G.o.d SIN, in Sinai and the desert of Sin {89} in the south of Palestine, and in the north at Harran, where his worship survived to the Christian era. At Hamath, in N. Syria, about 800 B.C., Shamash and the moon-G.o.d find a place by the side of the supreme 'Baal of heaven.'

Later, at Nerab near Aleppo the moon-G.o.d is a.s.sociated with his wife _N-k-l_ (Nin-gal 'the great lady'), Shamash, and Nusku (fire-G.o.d, messenger of Bel). Specific a.s.syrian influence might be expected at this date, but the consort's name appears in an Egyptian magical text, not later than the Twentieth Dynasty, as the wife of 'the high G.o.d'

(here, the Sun?).[2]

[1] H. Winckler, _Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft_ (Berlin, 1907), No. 35, p. 53; _id._, Amarna Tablets, No. 208, 1. 22 (Knudtzon, No. 323).

[2] A. H. Gardiner, _Zeit. f. Aeg. Spr._, xliii. p. 97.

Quite as prominent as the sun was the weather-G.o.d, G.o.d of storm, lightning and thunder. Known as Teshub (p. 70), Hadad, Ramman (comp.

the Biblical Rimmon), Adad, Dad, Bir, etc., the form ADDU, which was recognised as the G.o.d's 'Amorite' designation, is adopted here in preference to the more familiar Aramaean HADAD. This is supported by the spelling of the name of Rib-Addi, king of Byblos. The interchange of Baal and Addu in certain names in the Amarna letters shows that Addu could naturally be called Baal, and to the Egyptians he was apparently _the_ Baal. The importance of {90} the weather-G.o.d in the religion of agricultural and pastoral peoples may be ill.u.s.trated from one of Khammurabi's curses: 'May Adad, lord of abundance, regent of heaven and earth, my helper, deprive him (_i.e._ the disobedient) of the rain from heaven and the water-floods from the springs; may he bring his land to destruction through want and hunger; may he break loose furiously over his city and turn his land into the heap left by a storm.' The gifts of Addu preserved men from dearth and starvation; a too plenteous supply brought flood and ruin. Thus the G.o.d had a twofold aspect, and his thunder in the heavens, his fiery darts, in fact the destructive side of his character made him an appropriate war-G.o.d. This aspect of the nature-deity was especially cultivated by warlike peoples.

Babylonian and Hitt.i.te sculptures depict the G.o.d brandishing a hammer with his right hand, while the left holds up a triad of lightning-flashes or thunder-bolts. On an inscription from North Syria (eighth century) Hadad has horns, and with this agrees the a.s.sociation of the bull with the G.o.d. Like all predominant G.o.ds he includes a variety of attributes, and we may conjecture that the small heads of bulls unearthed by the excavations are connected with his worship (p.

32). {91} The inscription in question (see also p. 57) places Hadad at the head of a small pantheon with El, Resheph, R-k-b--el (steed, chariot, or charioteer of El) and Shamash. In the Amarna letters one writer calls the king of Egypt his Addu, and Abimelech of Tyre, who likens him to both Shamash and Addu, addresses him as 'he who gives his thunder in the heavens like Addu.'

Together with this combination it is to be noticed that while Khammurabi 'the Sun of Babylonia' calls himself the mighty bull who gores the enemy, old Egyptian scenes actually represent 'the strong bull' breaking down fortresses with its horns or expelling the inhabitants. The Pharaoh was symbolised by the bull, and even the Egyptian sun-G.o.d is styled 'the bull of the G.o.ds.' The animal is doubtless typical of generative force and of strength, while the union of the attributes of Shamash and Addu are intelligible since to the sun and weather man owed the necessaries of life. It is noteworthy that the two deities are prominent in the Hitt.i.te treaty, where each is called 'lord of heaven' (p. 73), and, as early as the nineteenth century, the a.s.syrian compound-name Shamshi-Adad indicates that they could be easily combined. The name is borne by two kings; one a 'priest-king' {92} of the G.o.d Ashur, the other a son of Ishme-Dagan ('D. hears').

Dagan (DAGON) has left his traces in place-names and in the ruler, 'Dagan is strong' (Amarna letters). The deity seems to have been of a.s.syrian or Mesopotamian rather than of Babylonian origin. It is possible that he was a corn-G.o.d. The Babylonian NEBO, the 'teacher,'

can only be recovered from place-names in Judah and Moab. NINIB (native form is uncertain), both sun- and war-G.o.d, appears in the Amarna letters in two place-names (one in the vicinity of Jerusalem), and in the personal-name 'Servant of Ninib.' The swine was sacred to Ninib, as also to Tammuz and the Phoenician Adonis; but neither of the latter can be traced in our period.

SHALEM, in Jeru-salem (Uru-salim in the Amarna letters), has been identified (on the a.n.a.logy of Jeru-el) with a G.o.d who is known later in Phoenicia, a.s.syria, and North Arabia, and who is perhaps combined with Resheph on an Egyptian stele of our period. He was perhaps identified with Ninib. The antiquity of GAD, the deity of fortune, can be a.s.sumed from place-names. In a disguised form the G.o.ddess, 'Fortune' was the guardian-deity of the cities in the Greek age, and allusion is made in the Talmud to the couch {93} reserved for the 'luck of the house.' A deified 'Righteousness' (_sedek_) has been inferred from a name in the Amarna age; it would find a parallel in 'Right' and 'Integrity' the sons of the a.s.syrian G.o.d Sham ash, and both 'Integrity' and 'Righteousness' find a place in the Phoenician cosmogony which, in spite of its late dress, preserves many old features which recur in Hebrew myths.

The Babylonian NERGAL, G.o.d of war, burning heat and pestilence, and ruler of Hades, the deity with whom was identified Saturn (and also Mars), should find a place in the pantheon. A seal from Taanach describes its owner as 'servant of Nergal' (p. 110), and the king of Cyprus reports to Egypt the desolation caused by the G.o.d's hand. Even as late as the third century B.C. we hear of a Phoenician who was his high-priest. As a solar fire-G.o.d he had in the west the name Sharrab or Sharraph with which the familiar Seraph may be identified. The G.o.d El of later Phoenician myth (the Greek Kronos; Saturn) was depicted with six-wings like the Seraphim. He was the G.o.d to whom children were sacrificed, whence the story that he had set the example by killing his own. If infants had been slain to Sharrab in Palestine, this would be in harmony with Nergal's character, and it may {94} be noticed that Nusku, who is sometimes a.s.sociated with Nergal, was symbolised by a lamp (cp. above, p. 41). In the Old Testament the grim rites belong to Molech (properly Melek), but there are independent reasons for the view that the latter was the proper-name of the Phoenician El.[3] However this may be, the name MELEK, although really an appellative ('king'), pa.s.ses over into a true proper-name; but it is not clear whether this is the case in our period where we meet with the personal names 'servant of Melek' (or, the king), 'El is Melek,' etc.

[3] M.-J. Lagrange, _etudes sur les Rel. Semitiques_, p. 107 _sq._

It is uncertain whether there is external evidence for the name YAHWEH (Jehovah), the national G.o.d of the Israelites. Unambiguous examples outside Palestine appear in North Syria in the eighth century in the form Yau (Yahu), which in one name interchanges with El. Cuneiform evidence for the name in the First Babylonian Dynasty has been adduced, and in the abbreviated Ya it possibly occurs in 'house of Ya,' a Palestinian town taken by Thutmose III. Further, in Akhi-yami (or, yawi), the author of a cuneiform tablet from Taanach, an identification with Akhiyah (the Biblical Ahijah) is not improbable, although other explanations are possible. While {95} other writers salute Ishtar (or Astarte)-Washur, the governor of Taanach, with: May Addu, or may the G.o.ds preserve thy life, Ahijah (?) invokes 'the lord of the G.o.ds.' In the course of his letter he asks whether there is still lamentation for the lost cities or have they been recovered, and continues: 'there is over my head some one (who is) over the cities; see, now, whether he will do good with thee; further, if he shows anger, they will be confounded, and the victory will be mighty.' It is not clear whether these words refer to the divine Pharaoh or to a deity, the supreme G.o.d whom he invokes. If the latter view be correct, it is difficult to decide whether the reference be to the Sun-G.o.d, patronised by the ruling powers (whether Egyptian or Hitt.i.te), or the great Addu who would be quite in keeping with the allusions to war and victory. Some, however, would recognise a Providence, or, from their interpretation of the writer's name, Yahweh himself. But a single tablet has little evidential value and we can merely mention the possibilities.

The preceding paragraphs touch only the fringe of an important subject--the Palestinian pantheon in and after the Amarna age.

Egyptian supremacy involved the recognition of Amon-Re, but it is difficult to determine to what extent this deity {96} differed from the Palestinian Shamash. Excavations ill.u.s.trate the result of intercourse, especially in the southern part of the land, but the numerous characteristic scarabs, and the representations of Osiris, Isis, Ptah, Sebek, Anubis, and the ever-popular Bes (with moulds), need have no significance for the G.o.ds of Palestine. They may not always be specifically Egyptian; Bes, for example, appears to be of non-Egyptian ancestry. Further, a number of the names in the Amarna letters are neither Egyptian nor Semitic, but of northern origin, and the name of the king of Jerusalem, 'servant of Khiba,' introduces a G.o.ddess of the earlier 'Hitt.i.te' peoples whose influence upon Palestine is to be inferred upon other grounds.[4]

[4] H. Winckler (_Mittheil._, No. 35), p. 48.

In Egypt, Babylonia and a.s.syria numerous deities of varying rank were venerated by the people. Bes, himself, in spite of his subordinate position in the pantheon was a favourite among all Egyptians outside the more elevated cla.s.ses. The popular beings, like the popular religious ideas, are not to be found in royal inscriptions or temple-hymns. The state and the priesthood often refused to recognise them, but they are to be found not rarely among the {97} personal names of ordinary individuals. This probably holds true also of Palestine, and consequently we must not suppose that the influence of foreigners upon the _popular_ cults of the land is to be ignored or that the more honourable names which we have been noticing were the sole claimants to the worship of the peasantry.[5]

[5] Comp. M. Jastrow, _Religion Babyloniens und a.s.syriens_, i. p. 164 _sq._; H. P. Smith, 'Theophorous Proper Names in the Old Testament,' in _O. T. and Semitic Studies in memory of William Rainey Harper_, i.