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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

CANAANITE DEITIES AND RELIGION

Study of the polytheistic religion of the Canaanites has contributed much to our understanding of the religion of ancient Israel. The Hebrew theological and religious structures were given by God to a people who were influenced and affected by other religions. To appreciate the Israelites’ monotheistic faith fully, one must understand the polytheistic setting that challenged their life and unity as a nation.

Contact among the many religions of the ancient Near East produced not only tension but also much syncretism or borrowing of concepts and practices. The Arameans and Philistines who settled in Canaan adopted the practices of the Canaanites; similarly the Amorites accepted much of the Sumerian religion as their own when they moved into Mesopotamia. Among all those peoples, however, the Hebrews took an independent course. Their God was the unique and cosmic deity who demanded exclusive allegiance. Such a concept ran against the grain of all the religions of the day.

Until the early part of the 20th century, most of what was known about Canaanite religion came from the Bible. In 1928 many clay tablets were found at a site called Ras Shamra, which was the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit. They contained abundant new information about the religious life of Canaan. Most of them were in a cuneiform alphabet and written in a previously unknown Northwest Semitic language quite similar to Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. The documents are often called the Ugaritic texts or the Ras Shamra tablets.

Discovery of these texts opened doors of understanding that had long been closed. The texts provided scholars with an important mythological literature that gave not only the names and functions of the gods but also much information on Canaanite society.

Canaanite deities had two striking features: an extraordinary fluidity of personality and function, and names whose meanings and sources could be easily traced. These facts, coupled with the nature of the mythology, mark Canaanite religion as relatively primitive.

The general Canaanite word for “god” probably meant “the strong, powerful one.” The head of the pantheon, or array of gods, was called El (“the mighty one”). El, a remote and shadowy figure, lived far away from Canaan “at the source of the two rivers,” hence in paradise. He apparently had three wives who were also his sisters: Astarte, Athirat (Asherah, also called Elat), and Anath. He presided over a divine council of gods who were his children. Although he was brutal enough to slay his own son, he was called Lutpan (“the kindly one”) and was described as an old man with white hair and a beard.

Baal, the great storm god, king of the gods, was the central figure in the pantheon and was functionally far more important than El. Baal acted as El’s prime minister and eventually dethroned him. “Baal” means simply “lord” and could be applied to different gods. Soon, however, the ancient Semitic storm god Hadad became the “Baal” par excellence. Hadad was considered to be the “lord of heaven,” the “one who prevails,” the “exalted, lord of the earth.” He alone reigned over all else. His kingdom was “eternal to all generations.” He was the giver of all fertility. When he died, all vegetation and procreation ceased. He was the god of justice, the terror of evildoers. Baal was called the “son of Dagon.” Dagon, meaning “fish,” was the chief god of Ashdod (cf. 1 Sm 5:1-7).

The Canaanites explained nature by reference to their gods. Each god represented some force of nature. The moon, sun, important stars, and visible planets were each considered a god or goddess. Baal, seen as god of the thunderstorm, personified the power of all nature.

The Canaanites’ personification of the forces of nature accounted for the succession of the seasons. The dry period from April to the end of October represented the duration of Baal’s death after his unsuccessful battle each spring with Mot (or with “the devourers,” who at Ras Shamra performed the same general function as Mot). Revival of the rain-and-vegetation deity Baal toward the end of October signaled commencement of the autumn rains, which continued intermittently until the following April. The Canaanites believed that the land regained its fertility because of the annual mating of Baal and Anath. What better form could their own religious activities take than that of imitating the sexual behavior of their chief deities? Hence there was always a pronounced orgiastic element in Canaanite religion.

The three goddesses—Athtarat (Astarte or Ashtaroth in the OT, Dt 1:4, KJB “Astaroth”; Jgs 2:13), Anath (appearing in the OT in the name of the town Anathoth and as Shamgar’s progenitor), and Athirat (Asherah in the OT)—presented an intricate set of relationships. Astarte was the same as Ashtar or Venus, the evening star. Anath’s original character is uncertain. Athirat was primarily goddess of the sea and the wife of El. She was also called Elat, the feminine form of El. All three goddesses were concerned mainly with sex and war. Their primary function was to have sexual relations with Baal on a continual yearly cycle, yet they never lost their “virginity”; they were “the great goddesses who conceive but do not bear.”

Ironically, the goddesses were considered sacred prostitutes and as such were called the “holy ones.” Idols representing the goddesses were often nude and sometimes had exaggerated sexual features. In what circumstances early cultic prostitution was practiced is a matter of some debate, but there is no doubt that both male and female temple prostitutes were used in the cult of Canaanite religion.

The fertility deities were also goddesses of war. In the Baal Epic of Ugarit, Anath has a gory thirst for blood. In New Kingdom Egyptian sources, Astarte appears as a nude and ferocious cavalry warrior, sporting shield and lance.

In the KJB the name Asherah was translated “grove,” following the Septuagint (third-century BC Greek translation of the OT). She seems to have been represented by some kind of wooden cult object set up in “high places” beside incense altars and stone pillars.

Continual struggle for survival no doubt led the Canaanites to worship things that they felt would benefit them materially. If the gods and goddesses were pleased by the worship, the result would be a plentiful harvest. Canaanite worship centered on a cultic shrine or “high place” where sacrifices were offered. Archaeological evidence indicates that animals of all sizes were offered at great temple-shrines such as Beth-shan. The city received its name from the temple located there: beth means “temple,” and Shan was patron deity of the city.

As noted, human sacrifice became a part of religious practice in Canaan. Second Kings 3:27 mentions Mesha, king of Moab, who, after defeat at the hands of a confederation of kings, offered up his son as a burnt offering to his god Chemosh.