What was Canaanite Religion?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มี.ค. 2023
- #bible #canaan #baal
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Music by Guy Kark, Peter Pringle, Kevin MacLeod, and Benjamin Bartlett
Map by Hunter Gracey
Select Artwork by Midjourney AI
Script co-edited by Zack Griffin
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ahlström, Gösta Werner, and Gary O. Rollefson. The History of Ancient Palestine. Edited by Diana Edelman, Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.
Day, Peggy L. “Anat: Ugarit's ‘Mistress of Animals.’” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 51, no. 3, July 1992, pp. 181-190.
Golden, Jonathan M. Ancient Canaan and Israel: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO, 2004.
Greener, Aaron. “Archaeology and Religion in Late Bronze Age Canaan.” Religions, vol. 10, no. 4, 2019, p. 258.
Naʼaman, Nadav. Canaan in the Second Millennium B.C.E.. Eisenbrauns, 2005.
Noll, K. L. “Canaanite Religion.” Religion Compass, vol. 1, no. 1, 27 Oct. 2006, pp. 61-92.
Smith, Mark S. The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. Dove Booksellers, 2002.
Smith, Mark S. The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts. Oxford University Press, 2004.
Van De Mieroop, Marc. A History of the Ancient Near East. Third ed., Wiley Blackwell, 2016.
Xella, Paolo, editor. The Tophet in the Phoenician Mediterranean. Essedue Edizioni, 2013.
REFERENCES
[1] Smith 2002, 6.
[2] Ibid, 7-10.
[3] Noll 2006, 66.
[4] Naʼaman 2005, 122-123.
[5] Noll 2006, 63.
[6] Ibid, 62.
[7] Greener 2019, 2.
[8] Golden 2004, 182.
[9] Greener 2019, 15.
[10] Noll 2006, 72.
[11] Van De Mieroop 2016, 142.
[12] Noll 2006, 61.
[13] Ibid, 72-73.
[14] Ibid, 74.
[15] Smith 2004, 45-46.
[16] Noll 2006, 74-76.
[17] Ahlström 1994, 259.
[18] Smith 2004, 45.
[19] Ibid, 35.
[20] Noll 2006, 76.
[21] Ibid, 77.
[22] Smith 2004, 107-128.
[23] Greener 2019, 3.
[24] Noll 2006, 77-78.
[25] Day 1992, 184-186.
[26] Noll 2006, 73.
[27] Ibid, 78.
[28] Smith 2004, 30.
[29] Smith 2002, 85.
[30] Noll 2006, 78-79.
[31] Ibid, 79.
[32] Ibid, 69-70.
[33] Ibid, 81-83.
[34] Greener 2019, 4-11.
[35] Golden 2004, 186.
[36] Greener 2019, 4.
[37] Noll 2006, 85-86.
[38] Ibid, 84-85.
[39] Xella 2013, 144.
[40] Noll 2006, 83.
Two things to note in this video:
1) Sorry for taking so long to upload content. I’ve been crazy busy irl with my school, social life, and athletics. I’ve also been delayed because of research, writing, and preparing in other ways for that video on Bronze Age Canaan. This video actually was supposed to be a section of the Bronze Age video (aka the prehistory-to-Bronze Age collapse video), but it would have been way too long, so decided to make it a separate video. That shows you how long the Bronze Age video is going to be.
2) Also sorry for my voice audio being poor in some areas. I had to retake some of the audio as I realized some of my information and pronunciations were incorrect, and when I retook the audio my allergies kicked in and so I sound like a smoker in some of the audio lol.
That’s fine I enjoy your videos. Willing to say anything about what the Bronze Age video will cover or generally be about?
@@Lukdnuke_Narson It will mostly cover the history of Ancient Palestine from prehistory to the Bronze Age Collapse. I focus mainly on the Bronze Age only dedicating few a paragraphs to prehistory, while I discuss extensively on the Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Ages. I don't cover everything, but I tried to cover as much as possible. I also discuss Egypt and the wider Near East as a whole, but only when relevant.
@@ClayandPapyrusu have better mentioned yahweh cause there are scholars that say yahweh was a cannanite deity of storms wars and metal urgy 😂❤
@@ClayandPapyrusand was one of asherhas sons of cannanite gods
Thank you for this excellent description of ancient beliefs. It's interesting to consider the Israelites also being Canaanites. This changes how one reads the Hebrew Bible.
I'm not super familiar with Canaan's history or religion but from my layman's perspective this looks to be an incredibly well researched video! You pack a lot of information and even acknowledge that scholars still debate this stuff (as they always do) but it's easy to understand and the animations help that. You have very high quality stuff and you're still such a small channel, I expect you to blow up big soon
Israelites were not Canaanites. They migrated thru Canaan to Egypt, then became the Hyksos.
Later, they were forced out by Kamose and Ahmose I (likely the story of “Moses”).
Canaan was Ham’s son. Meaning, Canaan was Ham’s extension. Ham was considered Africa and it extended to Canaan (now called Israel), after they “promised” land to themselves. You wouldn’t dehumanize Canaanites and “invade” Canaan if you were actually them. What was written was out of spite after being forced out of Egypt, after causing issues in the region.
The Book of Jubilee indicates Canaan settled there. Just like America was not “discovered”, Canaan was not “promised”.
It’s the same dehumanization, entitlement, and Enslavement story from a group that calls themselves the “chosen”.
We are seeing the same psychological playbook now with Israel and Palestine. Israel actually helped fund Hamas to tie the idea of terrorist to Palestinians after overthrowing the PLO.
Oppressors are terrified of the oppressed.
Look at the Bible as a psychological playbook with some astronomical metaphors. Then, cross reference that with Egyptian history. Men wrote the Bible and we must observe the potential for bias and strategy.
Great video!
nice work!
Good research, homie! Looking forward to seeing more from you as you enter grad school!
Thank you! I haven't even entered college yet though lol! I'm going off this fall, but I'm bringing a ton of hours in so I should be done in only a couple years.
Israelis were not Canaanites, the migrated there.
Land of Ham (Africa). Ham’s son is Canaan. Canaan was the extension of Ham. It’s in the Book of Jubilee.
Hebrews wrote in the Bible it was called Canaan and talked unfavorably (spitefully) about Canaanites.
This is great and unbiased. Thanks
Um, did you see the Sweet Home Alabama joke? This dude absolutely biased
Of course Moloch would be debated...They're probably not going to readily admit it.
A moloch was likely an animal sacrifice performed by the king to show loyalty to the gods They kept good records about their faith for example, what gods received what offering at what time of the year, who it was written by, and who commissioned it. There are records of them talking about their gods getting shit-face drunk and falling into their own filth, they spoke openly with little shame.
Great video! Do you have any plans on making a video about Yahweh, Esoterica did a great one about him but I would love to see what you have to say.
I've had the idea before, but never really put it into action, and I won't for a while (I've got 3 projects down the pipe before I think about doing something different). I think Esoterica hit the nail on the head in his video, and my video would probably be very similar to what he said. My projects I'm working on now are focused on more archaeological and political history topics that are somewhat underrated, so that's my main focuses for videos right now. However, I would not be opposed to doing a video on Yahweh in the future.
Dude, you know in the Bible the prophets were always criticising Israel for overlapping with Canaanites? So little surprise if archeology discovers an overlap.
The available data indicates that the Israelites were Canaanites. Besides the archeology, the DNA evidence indicates this as well.
@@baarbacoa i refer you to my original response. There was intermarriage going on as well (which was forbidden, but they did it anyway).
@@grantbartley483 They didn't just intermarry. The Hebrews were Canaanites. Just like the Phoenicians. They all share DNA, but somewhat different cultures. Whereas the Philistines did migrate into the area (thought to be Sea Peoples). The Philistines did intermarry and were genetically assimilated.
@@baarbacoa Nice assertion. Can you give me percentages of aboriginal Canaanite compared to Immigrant Sumerian (ie Abrahamic) genes, please. And a source would be great. so I could look it up myself, if it means something significant. Thanks.
@@grantbartley483 It would be a waste of my time. I'd post genetics, and point out that the Hebrew language is Canaanite language. You'd fall back on this you think you see in the Bible.
YHWH has entered the chat... and hes not happy.
brother, i'm just trying to relax while youtube dictates my research via algorhythm.. i was enjoying your work and about to subscribe, i just have one question..
do you have any idea of the difference in volume between your "sweet home alabama" joke & the rest of your video?... its way too much dude..
sad cuz i like a joke here n there in these types of videos...
but that was way too startling, forced me to jump up & lower the volume & disrupt my energy...
its just not worth it dude. im just giving u my honest feedback man... you can achieve your goals with your videos without including such a jarring sound brother..
Neat
Why the ear shattering blast of sound in the video. It hurt my ears.
Perhaps the life of Akhenaten is instructive and how leaders hitched their star to a particular deity. Perhaps the proliferation of deities and their rise and fall reflects the change in political groups.
Comment for engagement
Thanks lol
One correction, it's pronounced "In-fan-tuh/teh/tih-side" not "infant-side"
Dude is a tard, what do you expect ?
Interesting what you mention about (the non-occurence of) temple prostitution. My master's thesis was on this subject as it has been suggested to have occurred throughout mainly the Middle East and some parts of the Greek world. My careful conclusion was that if some practices occurred, they were either not religious or prostitution (but rather, either exploitation of female slaves by a temple for monetary gain, or some kind of ritual passage). But historian Stephanie Lynn Budin goes further and says it's complete nonsense. I have yet to read her book, but it seems to be mostly a 19th century myth based on misinterpretation or very easy acceptance of ancient sources - which are mostly Greek and paint the people of the Middle East as having weird savage rituals.
Interesting that's actually what I read recently from Robert Bellah. He said that Heretodus misunderstood Mesopotamian rituals which is the origin of the idea of temple prostitution (I believe that's what he said).
Glad to see a academic in the comments, I always appreciate you guys' feedback, and do you have a link to your thesis, Id love to take a look, and where did you study for your MA?
According to the general consensus of scholarship *(even critical Christian scholars),* YHWH was originally incorporated into the Canaanite pantheon as a son of the Canaanite high god El before inheriting the top spot in the pantheon and El's wife Athirat (Asherah) before religious reforms "divorced" them. El's pantheon in Ugarit is called the *Elohim,* literally the plural of El. Interestingly, the Biblical god is also referred to numerous times as Elohim. If you want to see if El is fictional, just read his mythology in the Ugaritic/Canaanite texts.
"When El was young, he came across two beautiful Goddesses washing their clothes in the Sea. They were Athirat (Asherah) and the Goddess Rahmaya, and, after buttering them up by cooking a meal for them, he asked them to choose between being his daughters or wives. They choose the latter and became the mothers of the Gods Shachar "Dawn" and Shalim "Dusk"."
*"First, a god named El predates the arrival of the Israelites into Syria-Palestine.* Biblical usage shows El was not just a generic noun, but often a proper name for Israel’s God (e.g., Gen 33:20: “El, the God of Israel”)."
"I should add here that it is very clear from the grammar that the noun nachalah in v. 9 should be translated “inheritance.” *Yahweh receives Israel as his “inheritance” (nachalah), just as the other sons of El received their nations as their inheritance (nachal, v. 8).* With this verb, especially in the Hiphil, the object is always what is being given as an inheritance. Thus, Israel is given to Yahweh as his inheritance. ((Here I’m indebted to Dan McClellan.)) It would make no sense for Elyon to give himself an inheritance. Moreover, as I’ve argued elsewhere, it is not just the Gentile nations that are divided up according to the number of the sons of El. It is all of humankind, i.e., “the sons of Adam.” This clearly includes Israel. And the sons of Adam are not divided up according to the number of the sons of El, plus one (i.e., plus Elyon). They are divided up, according to the text, solely according to the number of the sons of El. *Thus, that Yahweh receives Israel as his inheritance makes Yahweh one of the sons of El mentioned in v. 8. Any other construal of the text would constitute its rewriting."*
*"The Most Heiser: Yahweh and Elyon in Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 32 - Religion at the Margins"* based on the *majority scholarly consensus.*
(Written by Thom Stark who is a Christian)
*"Michael Heiser: A Unique Species? - Religion at the Margins"*
(A second response to Michael Heiser)
*"Excerpt from “Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan” by John Day - Lehi's Library."*
*"The Table of Nations: The Geography of the World in Genesis 10"* - TheTorah.com
(Excluding the short narrative on Nimrod (vv. 8-12), *which appears to be a later addition,* Genesis 10 contains *70* names of nations or cities, a number that was symbolic of totality. Similarly, the descendants of Jacob were *70* in number (Gen 46:37; Exod 1:5), *as were the sons of the supreme Canaanite god El, with whom YHWH became equated.)*
*"Polytheism and Ancient Israel’s Canaanite Heritage. Part V | theyellowdart"*
(Of course, much of this [i.e., that Israel worshiped El and Asherah alongside YHWH] is really to be expected given that recent syntheses of the *archaeological, cultural, and literary data* pertaining to the emergence of the nation of Israel in the Levant *show that most of the people who would eventually compose this group were originally Canaanite. As the Hebrew Bible notes, the Hebrew language itself is a Canaanite language, literally the “lip of Canaan” (שְׂפַת כְּנַעַן; Is. **19:18**), and so it cannot often be distinguished by modern scholars from other Canaanite inscriptions on purely linguistic grounds.)*
*"Ugarit - New World Encyclopedia"*
(Ugaritic religion centered on the chief god, Ilu or El, whose titles included "Father of mankind" and "Creator of the creation." The Court of El was referred to as the (plural) 'lhm or ***Elohim,*** a word ***later used by the biblical writers to describe the Hebrew deity*** and translated into English as "God," in the singular.
El, which was ***also the name of the God of Abraham,*** was described as an aged deity with white hair, seated on a throne.)
*"Mark Smith: Yahweh as El’s Son & Yahweh’s Ascendency - Lehi's Library"*
(Mark Smith is a Catholic)
*"God, Gods, and Sons (and Daughters) of God in the Hebrew Bible. Part III | theyellowdart"*
*"02 | December | 2009 | Daniel O. McClellan - Psalm 82"*
(Daniel McClellan is a Mormon)
*"Elohim | Daniel O. McClellan"*
(Refer to the article "Angels and Demons (and Michael Heiser)")
*"God's Wife Edited Out of the Bible - Almost."*
(Pay attention to whose wife Asherah (Athirat) is in the Ugaritic/Canaanite texts and how she became the wife of YHWH/Yahweh)
*"Yahweh's Divorce from the Goddess Asherah in the Garden of Eden - Mythology Matters."*
*"Asherah, God's Wife in Ancient Israel. Part IV - theyellowdart"*
*"The Gates of Ishtar - El, was the original god of the bible."*
*"The Gates of Ishtar - Anath in the Elephantine Papyri"*
(In addition to Asherah (Athirat) being the consort of Yahweh, it appears some Israelites also viewed the Canaanite goddess Anat(h) as Yahweh's consort)
*"Canaanite Religion - New World Encyclopedia"*
(Refer to the section "Relationship to Biblical Religion")
*"The Syncretization of Yahweh and El : reddit/AcademicBiblical"*
(For a good summary of all of the above articles)
Watch Professor Christine Hayes who lectures on the Hebrew Bible at Yale University. Watch lecture 2 from 40:40 to 41:50 minutes, lecture 7 from 30:00 minutes onwards, lecture 8 from 12:00 to 17:30 minutes and lecture 12 from 27:40 minutes onwards.
Watch *"Pagan Origins of Judaism"* by Sigalius Myricantur and read the description in the video to see the scholarship the video is based on.
Watch *"How Monotheism Evolved"* by Sigalius Myricantur and watch up to at least 21:40.
Watch *"Atheism - A History of God (The Polytheistic Origins of Christianity and Judaism)"*
(By a former theist)
Watch *"The Origins of Yahweh"* by Derreck Bennett at Atheologica.
Yeah, this does not contradict the bible. The bible actually says that the Israelites mixed worship of Yahweh with worship of other gods, and that God (Yahweh) detests this.
Tamar who got with Joshua after two husbands died and left her with no children she went and got pregnant by Joshua has two boys twins and one of them had king David as his great great grandson down the line
When the Israelites made the golden calf, when moses was receiving the ten commandments, was that a cannanite thing? Like, did they start worshipping a false YHWH?
First of Haddad means blacksmith not thunder. So it's probably something related to the bronzeage and maybe the metal being produced coming through thunder or whatever. Lol
The Bronze Bender!
they spoke a different language (Ugaritic), Baal Hadad means Lord Thunderer... they prayed to him for rain, which is why with his death the god of irrigation would take his place until his return
How the Kabbalistic system is similar to the Canaanite system, but instead of a pantheon, it has different angels and beings.
Thanks for not saying "Bale"
For the Sweet Home Alabama joke, you just got a dislike. 😊
In-FAN-ti-cide.
A lot of confusion and denial makes for fun times : P
Yehovah *
Hebrew: people that came from Iraq
Cannanite: people that were from Canaan
Israelites: people that were under hebrew rule, especifically the kindom of the north, they could be either hebrews or cannanites, or whatever.
Canaanite came from Babel (iraq) too
Caananites were branch of Arabic tribes same as Medianites or Nubutiens. They all were pagans
Alien:
El - Creation God
Asherah - Wife of El
Baal Hadad - God of Thunder,
Grandson of El
Ghost
Yam - God of Sea.
Mot - God of Death.
wrong everything is wrong here
the myth starts with darkness and wind birthing mot
and mot exploads to make el and asheshra
then mot gives up trieng to kill baal
you did not go back far enough!!!
All hail the Profit Joshua Graham
The New Canaanites shall prosper!
Profit from what ?
@@eliarp7097Lol , You mean the Government Reptilian Genetically modified clone Canaanite , That's 13 foot tall ?
Sweet home Alabama 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sigmacal chicken
go back to abraham SIR!!!!!!!
HEY! go back to abraham SIRRRRRR!
B.c.e? Stop it
El and Ba'el are the same person ala "I'm my own grandpa" as in Futurama
Baal Cycle speaks about them clearly being different beings, El is wise but avoids confrontation while it is Baal who acts when Yam seizes the throne