Korpel, MCA 2001, Asherah outside Israel, in B Becking, M Dijkstra, MCA Korpel and KJH Vriezen. Other gods were subordinate to, and partners with, the divine patron, just as the aristocracy and the commoners were expected to be subordinate to, and supportive of, the human king. Niehr, H, 1999, Religio-Historical Aspects of the Early Post-Exilic Period, in B Becking and MCA Korpel. To date, there remains no archaeological evidence to corroborate any of the biblical passages, though many biblical scholars are convinced that the evidence from the western Mediterranean confirms biblical testimony (Heider 1985; J. 2, pp. Biblical Seminar 77, Sheffield Academic Press, London. In some cases, the king was also a priest, such as Tabnit, king of Sidon, who was priest of the goddess Astarte (Pritchard 1969a, p. 662). This divine hierarchy and the political-social realities that generated it constitute the key element in all forms of Canaanite religion. Wyatt, N, 1998, Religious Texts from Ugarit: The Words of Ilimilku and His Colleagues, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield. Baals defeat of Yamm, the sea god, is thought by some to be the origin of the later tale of Israels exodus through the Red Sea (compare Isaiah 51:910) (Kloos 1986). I am he who made you king. It was a social club that would meet for wine and a meal, not a family cult of the dead, and if there was sexual activity (which is by no means certain), it was not religious in nature. Links (G. I. Davies 1991, p. 82; cf. PlaynGO adalah sebuah provider slot online yang memiliki tampilan flexible dengan sistem game slot online yang disediakan sangat mudah dimengerti bagi para pemainnya. This perspective and the word associated with it would not have been shared by peasant farmers, some 90 percent of ancient Canaans population. Astarte is a more enigmatic figure. He showed that he alone held power over the demons, sending them into the Abyss (Luke 8:31). From time to time it subverted the essential monotheism of the Israelites after they occupied Canaan, the Promised Land of the Old Testament. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Baals death and resurrection is viewed by some as the origin for later beliefs about dying and rising savior gods and belief in life after death (J. Day 1989). 23843). Most people, incidentally, expected no afterlife for themselves. A poem from Ugarit praises El and Athirat together and seems to present Athirat as the personification of Els benevolent nature, the grace of El, the support of El, the peace of El (KTU 1.65). This led many interpreters to conclude that a Qadesh and a Qedeshah were temple prostitutes. One should not expect archaeological data to betray an Israelite religion that is significantly distinctive from its Canaanite context (Dever 1987; Thompson 1992; Handy 1995; Niehr 1995, 1999; Becking 2001; Dijkstra 2001b; Vriezen 2001). Scholars frequently claim that the biblical god has nothing to do with the dead, but that is not quite accurate. Bright, J, 2000, A History of Israel, 4th ed., Westminster John Knox, Louisville. The new samples come from Sidon, a coastal city in Lebanon. NOTE: For other studies on the Book of Judges, read my post Studies on the Book of Judges. When God made a covenant with Abraham, God told him that his descendants would not return to Canaan for four generations because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete (Genesis 15:16). Maka dari itu situs slot online ini lah yang akan membantu semua pemain akan merasakan keseruan dan kenyamanan dalam bermain game slot online dengan tersedia provider slot online terpopuler. 4758, World Union of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem. 36, pp. Even biblical Proverbs preserved the imagery that Deuteronomy scorned. Mendenhall, GE, 2001, Ancient Israels Faith and History: An Introduction to the Bible in Context, Westminster John Knox, Louisville, KY. The most common view among researchers today is that biblical writers polemicized against aspects of Israelite religion that they did not accept, and their rhetorical attacks on foreign religion masked their real target (e.g., Greenstein 1999; M. S. Smith 2002, p. 7). In some periods, Canaan was a political term. 30411). Fragmentary evidence from other sites shows similar economic control exerted by the temples. Links In this case, the Asherah might be a sacred place, the temple of Baal-Hammon, and not a goddess, though one suspects that she is both the temple and a goddess, within whom Astarte now resides. Slot PlaynGO sangat cocok dijadikan tempat bermain slot online setiap harinya, karena sudah disediakan tutorialnya cara bermain slot online dengan benar dan pastinya mendapatkan jackpot terus menerus. Z. Smith 1990, 2004). Much of our knowledge of the origins and character of these fertility cults remains tentative and widely debated. Eventually, a god called Bethel emerged. Niehr, H, 1995, The Rise of YHWH in Judahite and Israelite Religion: Methodological and Religio-Historical Aspects, in DV Edelman, The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwism to Judaisms, pp. Davies, GI, ed., 1991, Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. This post originally appeared in Bible History Daily in June, Frequently, a patron god sent a human messenger called a prophet to warn the king and his noblemen, and sometimes the people as well, of their holy obligations. The perpetual flux of Canaanite myth is echoed in the Bible. Finkelstein, I, 1988, The Archaeology of the Israelite Settlement, Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem. The temples altar was usually quite large and located in an open-air courtyard. 4762 and passim). 124. Links BUY THE BOOK AT 40% DISCOUNT. In the modern West, a person might identify herself as an American in one context, a New Yorker on another occasion, or a Long Islander in another situation. Slot Online PG Soft Foster, BR, 1993, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature, 2 vols, CDL Press, Bethesda, MD. Slot Online, Daftar Situs Slot Online, Judi Slot Pulsa, Slot Deposit Pulsa, 8 Daftar Situs Slot Online Gacor Dengan Jackpot Terbesar, Nikmati Judi Slot Online Dengan Deposit Pulsa Tanpa Potongan, Mainkan Game Slot Bersama Agen Slot Online Resmi Terpercaya, Daftar Slot Online Melalui Situs Judi Slot Online Terpercaya. Canaan was situated at the crossroads of several cultures, and throughout its recorded history its art and literature illustrate a mixture of many elements: Egyptian, Mycenaean, Cretan, Hurrian, and Mesopotamian. The myth is an allegory for the agricultural season. An interesting myth of Baal tells of his battle with the god Mot, whose name means death (KTU 1.51.6). The texts often betray efforts by the elites to interfere with village life and religion. Agricultural festivals marked the seasons of the year, and the gods were called on to guarantee fertility of the crops, flocks, and human wombs. Hanya saja didukung oleh jaringan Telkomsel dan XL, karena kedua jaringan Indonesia ini tidak memiliki potongan ketika mengirim pulsa ke nomor tujuan. WebThe purpose of this paper is to briefly review what has been learned from modern research about the religion of the Canaanites. 18190. Clearly, though the names of the gods had changed, the people?s worship practices had not. Israelite religion is not Canaanite religion if, and only if, Protestant religion is not Christian religion, Conservative Judaism is not Jewish religion, and Shiite Muslims do not practice Islamic religion. 1550 bce), recorded history in the area began. Dr. Claude Mariottini Professor of Old Testament, Dr. Claude Mariottini, Professor of Old Testament, Northern Baptist Seminary, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, Translating the Bible: Israels War Against theAmalekites, Other Gods Mentioned in the OldTestament. Therefore, in divine mercy, ritual sacrifice provided communion between the divine and human. 15165, Ugarit-Verlag, Muenster. 3201). The Israelites only strength lay in their common covenant. This hierarchy of the gods is called by some scholars henotheism. It is a very short step from this idea that one god is the divine patron and others are subordinate to him, to the notion that one god is truly god and any other supernatural beings are merely creatures at his command. However, biblical and archaeological data suggest that Israelite religion was one local variety of the larger, regional Canaanite religion. Monotheism in Ancient Israel and the Veneration of the Goddess Asherah, pp. Nolls most recent publications argue that the biblical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings were not constructed as a work of history, but rather as an anthology of story and poem loosely arranged in an artificially chronological sequence. Parker, SB, 1997, Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, SBL Writings from the Ancient World 9, Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta. (KTU 1.4.v.35). Pitard, WT, 1987, Ancient Damascus: A Historical Study of the Syrian City-State from Earliest Times until Its Fall to the Assyrians in 732 B.C.E., Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, IN. Serta situs ini juga akan mereview berbagai macam jenis provide game slot online gacor yang wajib anda tahu. 33, pp. Israels leaders, elders, judges, and all officers came to Shechem to renew the covenant before God (Joshua 24:1). Copyright Blackwell Publishing 2006. Two additional second-tier gods ruled the sun and the moon. The irony in the story of Elijah was not intended by the ancient author but is evident to a religion researcher: Elijah seeks to differentiate himself from those with whom he shares almost every aspect of his own worldview. With the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000c. Thompson, TL, 1995, The Intellectual Matrix of Early Biblical Narrative: Inclusive Monotheism in Persian Period Palestine, in DV Edelman, The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwism to Judaisms, pp. Baal-Shamem said, He now teaches at Brandon University, Manitoba, Canada. At this family level, the kings divine patron was acknowledged (especially at tax time), but usually the patron god was not the center of pious attention. The Bible describes the dead prophet Samuel as a god in 1 Samuel 28:13. Finkelstein, I & Naaman, N , 1994, From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel, Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem. Links They also found that a curious cuneiform alphabet was in use at Ugarit. Maka dari itu hubungi customer service terlebih dahulu sebelum melakukan deposit slot pulsa tanpa potongan agar tidak terjadi hal hal yang tidak diinginkan. Braun, W & McCutcheon, RT, eds., 2000, Guide to the Study of Religion, Cassell, London. Wyatt, N, 1998, Religious Texts from Ugarit: The Words of Ilimilku and His Colleagues, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield. Among the academics, each school of thought produces its own definition of religion (Glazier 1999; Braun & McCutcheon 2000; Hinnells 2005). The Semitic phrase beth-el means house of El, a label for a temple. We need to learn from Israel's experience and respond to Jesus' command for total allegiance. It is believed that the practice of sacred prostitution was associated with the worship of Asherah. The worshipers commit to these counterintuitive gods because they alleviate existential anxieties, rationalize a moral order, and ground their commitment in something seemingly more lasting than the whim of personal convenience (Atran 2002, pp. I would love to hear from you! God spoke to his people on Mount Sinai and reestablished his covenant with them in the Ten Commandments. Monotheism in Ancient Israel and the Veneration of the Goddess Asherah, pp. Some offerings were voluntary. It is said that Jeremiah himself was from a village named for a goddess, Anathoth (literally Anats, a plural form; see Jeremiah 1:1). Levy, TE, ed., 1998, The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, Leicester University Press, London. Dimana salah satu judi slot online ini menjadi favorit para pemain salah satunya adalah judi tembak ikan. [To] bless Baal in the day of war, In later times, Canaan came increasingly to designate the coastal regions also called Phoenicia. He was the storm god who brought or withheld fertility for the land (cf. In modern popular culture, a religion can be defined in many ways, causing the publishers of standard dictionaries no end of headaches as they attempt to keep up with ever-changing cultural assumptions. ), Ancient Israelite Religion: Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross, pp. Their food and drink came from taxes in kind imposed on the commoners. 52985, Brill, Leiden. WebBecause they WERE Canaanites and they had practiced monolatrist traditions within the Ancient Canaanite Religion since the 20th century BC. Sometimes El creates by word of mouth, at other times by forming creatures from clay, and in some instances by having sexual intercourse with his goddess Athirat (Korpel 2001, p. 130). As a result, many Canaanite religious practices were assimilated into Israelite religious life. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Rainey, A, 1963, A Canaanite at Ugarit, Israel Exploration Journal, vol. These seem to have been the deified heads of households, the patriarchs. , Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Tidak hanya itu, provider pragmatic play juga hadir dengan ribuan jenis game slot gacor yang siap membagikan jackpot hingga ratusan juta. Humans were supposed to obey the moral precepts of the gods, but were not expected to be able to do that perfectly. 6534). Therefore, it is not certain which goddess the Bible remembers as the Queen of Heaven in the story of Jeremiah 44. Korpel, MCA, 1998, Exegesis in the Work of Ilimilku of Ugarit, in JC de Moor, Intertextuality in Ugarit and Israel, pp. Baal is portrayed as a man with the head and horns of a bull, an image similar to that in biblical accounts. Gods patience It is said that in Corinth alone, there were more than 1,000 prostitutes in Aphrodite's temple. It is alleged that sacred magic was performed in some ancient societies to ensure the fertility of land and wombs. 1478). Semua daftar situs slot online terbaik yang ada di situs ini tentunya merupakan game slot online paling gacor yang selalu menghadirkan berbagai jackpot terbesar. /Length 3897 In all cases, the purpose of a god or set of gods is to provide a counterintuitive and therefore strangely compelling foundation for the prevailing morality and customs of the society. 25961). Gruber, MI, 1992, The Motherhood of God and Other Studies, South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 57, Scholars, Atlanta. Canaanite religion, beliefs and practices prevalent in ancient Palestine and Syria during the 2nd and 1st millennia bc, centring primarily on the deities El, Baal, and Anath (qq.v.). Less than a century ago our knowledge of Canaanite religion was very limited. Miller, PD, 1980, El, the Creator of the Earth, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, vol. Frequently she is also called Qudshu (holy place; but cf. Archaeologists recovered several Hebrew inscriptions in which the reader receives a blessing from Yahweh and from his Asherah (Dijkstra 2001b, p. 117, 122; cf. Before Joshua died, he assembled all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem. They comply. Several kinds of human sacrifice are mentioned in the Bible. . Pan was depicted as an ugly man with the horns, legs, and ears of a goat. 47, pp. The Bible's repeated condemnation of child sacrifice shows God's hated of it, especially among his people. Pritchard, JB, ed., 1969a, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. << However, biblical and Temples functioned quite literally as the god's house, where the god resided in the form of a cult statue. Monotheism in Ancient Israel and the Veneration of the Goddess Asherah, pp. We have no idea what this rite was intended to accomplish. At times of crisis, Baal's followers sacrificed their children, apparently the firstborn of the community, to gain personal prosperity. For that reason, a government code might attempt to interfere, as in Deuteronomy 26:14, where the male head of household who brings his tax offering to the temple must swear that he has not given the divine patrons share of the crop to his own ancestral gods. WebThe Canaanites were a Semitic people because they spoke Semitic languages. Karena telah hadir customer service 24 jam nonstop setiap harinya akan membuat para pemain bisa merasakan keseruan bermain judi slot online 100% adil hanya bersama agen slot online terpercaya di Indonesia. Zakkur, king of Hamath, was chosen by this same Baal-Shamem to be king of Hadrach (Pritchard 1969a, pp. ), Ancient Israelite Religion: Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross, pp. In its more subtle form, theologians depict a Canaanite people who gradually stripped away Canaanite religious elements to construct a monotheism embodied in a Torah of Moses that allegedly reflects greater ethical consciousness than earlier Canaanite polytheism (e.g., Gnuse 1997). Slot Online PlaynGO The book is hostile to other gods, yet conforms to Canaanite depictions of Baal (e.g., Deuteronomy 33:2629) and presents a Canaanite patron, who is god of gods, lord of lords, the great god/El (10:17). Magical incantations were formulated to protect against serpents and scorpions, those who gossip, or those who use black magic to inflict the evil eye. One Ugaritic text seems to offer a ritual to cure sexual impotence. One way we can accomplish this is to study the gods that attracted Yahweh's people 3,000 years ago. >> The biblical texts were edited at a late date to create the false impression of a unified pan-Israelite ethnos (Noll 1999, 2001b). The burnt offering was an animal that was given entirely to the god with no meat remaining for the human participants. Most explicit are Exodus 22:2829 and Ezekiel 20:2526. Anat and Astarte received titles associating them with the heavens. 26, pp. 1478, Brill, Leiden. 18, No. 76772. Oden, RA, Jr, 1987, The Bible without Theology: The Theological Tradition and Alternatives to It, Harper & Row, San Francisco. the Canaanite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Links The names of the gods of Canaan and their place in the divine ranks differed from place to place and from human generation to generation. At Ugarit, the lists of the gods and the lists of offerings to the gods do not entirely correspond with one another (Pardee 2002, p. 12). The Canaanites attributed this fertility to their god Baal,and that is where the Israelites problems began. gathered it, ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, then boiled it in pots and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil (Numbers 11:7-8). Learn about upcoming promotions, releases, and other updates from That the World May Know. Had Deuteronomy named its god Baal rather than Yahweh, it would not have made any difference, for the polemic of Deuteronomy is akin to the polemic between sixteenth century Protestants and Catholics whose worldviews were largely identical, not the difference between, say, a Catholic and a Sartrean existentialist, whose worldviews are fundamentally opposite (Noll 2001b, p. 14). stream But the Bibles religion is not qualitatively different from other Canaanite conceptions of the divine. Archaeological data suggests that Canaanite cities were never destroyed or abandoned. Links 115124, Fortress, Philadelphia. Together, they constitute a fall harvest celebration, and each portion of the celebration finds its counterpart at Ugarit. This was the slaughter of all prisoners of war as a sacrifice to the victorious god (see, for example, 1 Samuel 15; cf. Your support now will help strengthen marriages, equip parents to raise godly children, save preborn babies, reach out to orphans and more by supporting our daily broadcasts, online and print resources, counseling, and life-changing initiatives. Links The Bible displays a similar desire to control the pious behavior of villagers from the royal center (e.g., Deuteronomy 12), though it is not certain to what extent these policies were enforced (Fried 2002; Naaman 2002). 6556). She is the evening star, the planet Venus at sunset. Dionysus was worshiped in the pagan Decapolis across the Sea of Galilee from the center of Jesus' ministry. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/place/Canaan-historical-region-Middle-East. In spite of the constant flux among them, a few features of the major gods were stable throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. Most egregious are popular publications aimed at pious readers. WebBut in the eyes of Israels religious leaders, the pagan ways of the Canaanites posed a continual threat to the integrity of the nation. Canaanite religion was a fertility religion. The etymology of the word Canaan is entirely uncertain and not particularly useful to this question (Tammuz 2001, p. 532). The concept of Canaanite religion is a difficult one since it is very likely that the ancient peoples we call Canaanite were not aware that they were religious. Other invaders included the Egyptians and the Hyksos, a group of Asian peoples who seem to have migrated there from north of Palestine. Smith, JZ, 1990, Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Pada awalnya memainkan slot online hanya dapat melakukan deposit via bank lokal, tentunya hal tersebut sangat merumitkan setelah di pikir. WebCanaanites for their religion was based primarily upon agriculture and those forces that controlled the elements essential to the productivity of the land. Many scholars believe that they took the practice of child sacrifice with them from Canaan. Van Seters 1999). When King Zakkur of Hamath fought enemy armies, he turned naturally to his patron, Baal-Shamem, never doubting that Baal-Shamem was on his side: I lifted my hands to Baal-Shamem. , 3:11-13). They display significant similarities even though they were composed centuries apart and at opposite geographic ends of Canaan. A god named Baal-Hammon was part of the ritual sacrifices in the western Mediterranean, but the Canaanite Baal does not seem to have received regular child sacrifices, and the biblical testimony that Yahweh once received these offerings is bewildering. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The expression did not know the Lord does not express ignorance of the demands of God. WebPrior to the Israelites further conquests it was discovered that Achan, a member of the tribe of Judah, had broken the erem by not devoting everything taken from Jericho to Yahweh. It is no surprise that material objects, temple structures, artistic styles, and other cultural artifacts are relatively uniform over a vast expanse of real estate larger than the region usually designated Canaan and therefore provide no foundation for distinguishing Canaanite from various ethnic identities (Levy 1998 provides an excellent overview; see also Finkelstein 1988; Finkelstein & Naaman 1994; Bloch-Smith & Nakhai 1999; contra Zevit 2001, pp. When Joshua led the people across the Jordan River into Canaan, he was fulfilling this promise. The sun god was called Shaphash (female) or Shemesh (either female or male). In conformity with ancient use of the term, this essay defines a Canaanite not as a member of an ethnic group but as any person who lived during the Bronze (especially later Bronze) and Iron Ages on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean. WebAnswer (1 of 24): This is the view of many archaeologists and historians today. 9091, 262). For example, Dagan, who was honored with one of the two major temples of Ugarit, is mentioned frequently in ritual texts but never plays a role in Ugaritic myths. In modern Tunisia, Sicily, and Sardinia, archaeologists have found evidence for another kind of human sacrifice: mass graves of young children, and a stela that depicts a priest offering an infant before a deity (J. PG SOFT ialah perusahaan pengembang game mobile yang berbasiskan di Valletta, Malta. Societies with many gods invent a specialist for each human need. 102, pp. The land of Canaan appears to have been, loosely, the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean. Archaeological excavations have exposed Canaanite household religious shrines, personal religious artifacts such as amulets, rural religious shrines, large urban temples with public altars, ritual utensils and divine statues, as well as documents. WebCanaanite religion, beliefs and practices prevalent in ancient Palestine and Syria during the 2nd and 1st millennia bc, centring primarily on the deities El, Baal, and Anath (qq.v.). 113). I stand with you; WebThe Canaanite religion was the group of ancient Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from at least the early Bronze Age through the 12750, Biblical Seminar 77, Sheffield Academic Press, London. The family tomb was, in a sense, a deed of property ownership, and the patriarchs of previous generations were gods who watched over the family and protected them (Noll 2001a, pp. (KTU 1.4.iv.2730), You are great, El, you are wise! The Israelites did not know whether Yahweh could provide them with abundant crops. Wright, DP, 2004, Syria and Canaan, in SI Johnston, Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide, pp. His right hand (sometimes both hands) is raised, and he holds a lightning bolt, signifying both destruction and fertility. For example, a royal inscription from Egypt describes Israel as one of several peoples defeated by Pharaoh Merneptah when he conquered the land of Canaan (Pritchard 1969a, p. 378). The Canaanites were farmers; the Israelites were shepherds. 3000 bce), was characterized by the use of pottery and copper and by houses of uncut stones, with walls of mud brick. In any case, Jeremiah 44 suggests that goddess worship remained popular in the southern portion of Canaan throughout Israelite times. Kloos, C, 1986, Yhwhs Combat with the Sea: A Canaanite Tradition in the Religion of Ancient Israel, Brill, Leiden. Yahweh performs the role of Resheph when he sends a slave-god to strike the Assyrian army with plague in 2 Kings 19 (cf. Atran, S, 2002, In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Thereafter Canaan became, for all practical purposes, the Land of Israel. Sebelum bermain judi slot online, kami akan menyarankan beberapa provider slot online terbaik dengan memiliki win rate dan RTP tinggi dan dipastikan akan mudah untuk mendapatkan jackpot terus menerus. They foretold the future by examining animal entrails or by watching flights of birds. For the king and his aristocracy, the divine patron and his cosmic retinue were central. In both texts, Yamm has a sidekick, a divine beast that Ugaritic scribes called Lotan, but the Bible names Leviathan in some passages and Rahab in others (KTU 1.3.iii.4042; 1.5.i.13; see Job 26:1213 as well as Psalms 74:14 and 89:10). The storm god is defeated by Mot and dies, descending into the underworld. In any religion, morality is a reification of the needs of a society. ), Only One God? Links Noll has taught for several Christian seminaries as well as Penn State Universitys Mont Alto campus. They weren't attracted" to the religion, that WAS their religion. The land was fertile beyond anything the Hebrew nomads had ever seen. Lloyd 1996). Likewise, inscriptions and the Bible agree that a practice called herem took place in some wars. At a Syrian city called Emar, she is Astarte of battle (Fleming 1992). Semitic peoples first appeared in Canaan during this period. This word suggests an unselfconsciously Canaanite worldview, since Israel means El strives (or perhaps El is just; cf. 3137. Hallo, WW, ed., 19972003, The Context of Scripture, 3 vols, Brill, Leiden. 3201). A peasant who brought an animal for sacrifice could only watch the sacrifice and receive, in the end, some roasted meat. Morris, B, 1987, Anthropological Studies of Religion: An Introductory Text, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. The time of the judges was a time of transition for the people of Israel. 3780, Leiden: Brill. Singer, I, 2002, Hittite Prayers, SBL Writings from the Ancient World 11, Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta. Athirat is not the only sacred space to become a deity. However, in this writers view, Zevits analysis relies almost entirely on subtle distinctions he believes he can discern in the material cultural remains while ignoring larger and relatively obvious ideological uniformity in the ancient sources (Zevit 2001, pp.