by Brian Godawa
The Old Testament is clear that Molech is a Canaanite deity, not a Phoenician one. His cult is described as a Canaanite abomination (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5). The Hebrew word for king is “melek,” which uses the same consonants as Molech, so there is some kingly context inherent in the divine name. But as with the names Jezebel, Ashtoreth, and others, it is possible that the scribes of the later Hebrew text used the vowels of the Hebrew word for “shame” (bosheth) and inserted them in the consonants of Molech’s name.
Day explains the external evidence for Molech as an underworld deity in Canaan:
That there was such a deity [Molech] is shown by two Ugaritic serpent charms which mention him (KTU2 1.100.41 [Ugaritica V.I, RS 24.244] and KTU2 1.107.17 [Ugaritica V.8, RS 24.251]). In both places it is associated with the place name Ashtaroth in Transjordan, a place elsewhere connected in the Ugaritic texts with rp’u [Rephaim] (KTU2 1.108.1-2), indicating an underworld association. He also appears as Malik in various god lists and in personal names from Ebla, Mari, and Ugarit. Significantly, Malik is twice equated with Nergal, the Mesopotamian underworld god, once in an Old Babylonian god-list where we read Ma-lik = Nergal, and again in a later god-list from Ashur, which likewise has Ma-lik = Nergal. This clearly indicates an underworld deity.
In the Bible, Molech is connected with the underworld in key ways. First, Isaiah 57 describes child sacrifices “in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks” (57:5), the activity most connected to the Molech cult. The text describes the journey to that abominable altar as an adulterer seeking the bed of a foreign god.
Isaiah 57:9:
You journeyed to the king (melek) with oil and multiplied your perfumes; you sent your envoys far off, and sent down even to Sheol.
In this case, “king” (mlk) is most likely a double entendre of Molech (mlk). But notice that the king resides in Sheol, the underworld. And that underworld was connected to the valley location of Molech’s cult in Jerusalem.[131]
The Molech cult was known for its child sacrifice, or “passing one’s children through the fire” (2 Kings 23:10). The altar of this sacrifice was called a Tophet or Topheth, a place of burning, which once again used the vowels of “shame” (bosheth) inserted into the consonants of the Aramaic word for “burning place” (tepat).[132] We will discuss the details of human sacrifice later in Chapter 5. But this shameful and atrocious activity was infamously popular in the Valley of Hinnom just outside the southwest walls of Jerusalem. Yahweh condemned this infernal location through the prophet Jeremiah for their “high places of Tophets” where they “burned their sons and daughters in the fire” (Jeremiah 7:31). He then proclaimed the name of the valley would be changed from “Valley of the Sons of Hinnom” to “Valley of Slaughter” (7:32), a term that would come to refer to Gehenna or hellfire in later years of Second Temple Judaism. Molech was an underworld god of fire sacrifice of children. This is why I portrayed him in my novels as mole-like with a maze of underground tunnels beneath the Hinnom Valley of the Tophet outside Jerusalem.
In chapter 4, we’ll look more closely at that underworld and the rest of the cosmic geography that fills the pages of Scripture and the novel of Jezebel.
The Archangels
One of the ongoing series of characters that appear in all the Chronicles series of novels is the archangels. In the Jezebel novel, they are depicted as they are in previous stories as protecting God’s people, most specifically the Remnant. Mikael (Michael) in particular is tasked with the protection of the bloodline of Messiah in Judah as he is considered the “prince of Israel,” or the principality of the Hebrew nation, in the same way that gods like Baal are considered the principalities of the pagan nations. This is rooted in a biblical tradition.
The only archangels named explicitly in the Bible are Michael and Gabriel. Gabriel is well known in the New Testament as the angel who comes to herald the births of both John the Baptist (Luke 1:11-20) and Jesus the Messiah (Luke 1:26-35).
The angel Gabriel is described as “one having the appearance of a man” who explains visions to Daniel the prophet in Daniel 8:16 and 9:21. Though it isn’t explicitly stated, some scholars believe Gabriel is also the unidentified angelic man who explains Daniel’s vision of the spiritual principalities of the nations in Daniel 10.
In that vision, we hear about Michael, who is described as “one of the chief princes” (Daniel 10:13) and the spiritual prince of Daniel’s people Judah (10:21; 12:1), who fights with Gabriel against the spiritual “princes” (principalities) of Persia and Greece.
Daniel 10:12–13:
12 Then [Gabriel] said to me… I have come because of your words. 13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the [human] kings of Persia.
Daniel 10:20–21:
20 Then he said… “But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come. 21 …there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince.
Daniel 12:1:
1 “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered.
The underlying Hebrew word for “prince” (sar) in these passages can be used of human as well as spiritual rulers. But most scholars acknowledge that the context of these passages dictates a spiritual principality over earthly powers. As Bible scholar John Collins explains,
The title “prince” does not necessarily imply less than divine status. The “prince of the host” in Daniel 8:11 is apparently the God of Israel. A precedent for the title “prince” being applied to an angel can be found in the [commander of the army of Yahweh] who appears in Josh 5:14. The title is used for the chief angelic powers at Qumran, for example, the “prince of lights” (1QS 3:20; CD 5:18) and the “prince of the dominion of wickedness” (1QM 17:5–6).[133]
This vision reveals the Deuteronomy 32 worldview played out in the unseen realm. The earthly kingdom of Persia was in battle with earthly Babylon, who held Judah captive, and so the spiritual prince of Persia was at war with the spiritual princes Michael and Gabriel, who were protecting Judah. When earthly Greece would come after Persia, their spiritual principalities too would fight in connection with the earthly battles of history (Deuteronomy 32:8-10; Judges 5:19-20; Isaiah 24:21-22; Ecclesiastes 17:17; Jubilees 15:31–32).[134]
The concept of archangel is drawn from the reference to Michael as one of the “chief princes” (Daniel 10:13). He is also called an archangel in Jude 9, and he is described in the Daniel passages above as the prince in charge of Israel who protects and delivers her (12:1).
There are two other places where Michael is described in his archangel capacity or leading the heavenly host. The first is in Jude, where a strange event is referenced that has no evidence in the Old Testament. Michael was said to have disputed with the devil over the body of Moses.
Jude 9:
9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
The context of this passage is that Jude is talking about the false teachers of his time who “defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones” (v. 8). This raises all kind of questions. If this story was not in the Old Testament, where did Jude get it? What did it mean to “dispute about the body of Moses”? And who are the glorious ones?
The story, though not available to us in any known manuscripts, was claimed by various early church fathers to have been taken from a book they had access to called by some The Assumption of Moses and by others The Testament of Moses. In either case, we no longer have the text. But it certainly opens the door to understanding how New Testament writers used Second Temple Jewish texts as sources in their canonical wri
ting.
I try to make some sense out of the strange disputation over Moses’s body in my novel Caleb Vigilant (paid link). I believe it might have something to do with the fact that Moses’s body had been transformed in some way by being in the presence of God. He was “shining,” not unlike those heavenly host around God’s throne (Exodus 34:29). Perhaps, the more time Moses spent in God’s presence, the more his physical body transformed to be more like those Sons of God around the throne.
So, the “glorious ones” in Jude 8 are contextually the shining angels from God’s throne. They are referred to earlier in the text when Jude writes of the angels who left their heavenly habitations in primeval days. “Blaspheming the glorious ones” is then likened to those humans of Sodom and Gomorrah who sexually “pursued strange flesh” by trying to copulate with angels (v.7 ). Divine beings are often described as shining with brilliance and glory in both the Old Testament (Ezekiel 1:4–7, 27–28; Daniel 10:6) as well as the New Testament (Matthew 28:3; Luke 24:4).
Lastly, Michael is referenced again as the archangel who fights with his angels against the satanic dragon and his angels in Revelation 12.
Revelation 12:7–8:
7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
I write about this momentous spiritual event in my series Chronicles of the Apocalypse (paid link).
Though both Old and New Testament only names Michael as the Watcher, or guardian angel, of God’s people and Gabriel as his “wingman,” Second Temple Jewish apocalypticism maintained a strong tradition that there are seven named archangels, four of whom stand in God’s presence: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel (sometimes called Phanuel). The other three are named Raguel, Saraqael, and Remiel (1 Enoch 20:1-7; Tobit 12:15).
Though not as explicit, Revelation 8:2 mentions “seven angels who stand before God,” and Gabriel describes himself also as “standing before God” (Luke 1:19), the same phrase used of the archangels in the Second Temple tradition (1 Enoch 40:3; Tobit 12:15).
Thus, I followed this archangelic tradition throughout all my Chronicles series, including Chronicles of the Watchers.
Chapter 4:
Cosmic Geography
Underworld Valleys
In the novel Jezebel: Harlot Queen of Israel, there is a sequence where Baal travels to Jerusalem but is trapped by the archangels in the Valley of Hinnom just outside the city walls. It is here at the infamous location of the tophet of Molech where Baal is swallowed up in a sinkhole as the jaws of Mot takes him down into the underworld of Sheol. While we have already discussed Mot above and will further discuss Sheol below, let’s take a look at the notion of valleys as connections to the underworld in the Bible and in the ancient Near East.[135]
Critical Bible scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou explains that, as the holy city, Jerusalem’s sacred topography is mapped onto the biblical cosmos of a three-tiered universe: the heavens above where divinity resides, the earth below for humankind, and the underworld of the dead beneath it all. The mountain is the transition between heaven and earth. It’s where temples of the gods reside like the temple of Yahweh on Mount Zion. The valleys, therefore, operate in a similar manner as the transition or points of entry from the earth into the underworld—like the Valley of Hinnom on the southwest side of Jerusalem.
As sites of transition, the valleys surrounding Jerusalem are thus imbued with a potent mytho-symbolic character; they are liminal locations marking at once three interrelated places: the transitional place between the ordered city and the uncultivated wilderness, the roots of the holy hill upon which the heavenly and earthly realms meet, and the intersection of the earthly realm and the underworld.[136]
The Second-Temple Jewish text of 1 Enoch uses this image of the valley as a place of judgment that ends in the underworld.
1 Enoch 53:1-3:
My eyes saw there a valley with a wide and deep mouth. And all those who dwell upon the earth, the sea, and the islands shall bring to it gifts, presents, and tributes; yet this deep valley shall not become full… Sinners shall be destroyed from before the face of the Lord of the Spirits—they shall perish eternally, standing before the face of his earth.[137]
The first sentence about the valley of judgment uses the language of Mot (Death) as the wide and deep mouth that is never satisfied (”shall not become full”). The idea here is that the valley is a place of judgment where sinners meet their destruction (“perish”). In 1 Enoch, valleys are places of judgment that lead to Sheol, like the mouth of Mot.
Then Enoch sees another valley of judgment where kings are judged in connection with the angelic Watchers who rule over them.
1 Enoch 54:1-2:
Then I looked and turned to another face of the earth and saw there a valley, deep and burning with fire. And they were bringing kings and potentates and were throwing them into this deep valley. And my eyes saw there their chains while they were making them into iron fetters of immense weight. And I asked the angel of peace, who was going with me, saying, “For whom are these imprisonment chains being prepared?” And he said unto me, “These are being prepared for the armies of Azazʾel [the Watchers], in order that they may take them and cast them into the abyss of complete condemnation.[138][139]
So the valley of judgment leads to the Abyss of Sheol where earthly and heavenly rulers and powers are cast down for judgment to be imprisoned and punished later. Another linking of valleys with the underworld.
In the Old Testament, several texts point to this same idea of valleys as portals to the underworld. The first one is a prophecy by Isaiah that reflects the same concept as the 1 Enoch passages above.
Isaiah 24:21–22:
On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.
Though the word “valley” is not used here, the prophetic picture is almost a mirror description of Enoch’s prophecy of earthly and heavenly rulers and powers being cast down into a pit to be imprisoned and punished later.
Secondly, there is a valley just outside of Jerusalem called Valley of the Rephaim (2 Samuel 5:22).[140] In Canaanite mythology, the Rephaim were divinized dead warrior kings, heroes of the past, who were called up from the underworld to legitimize current rulers.[141] Another valley linked with the underworld. We’ll explore the Rephaim in more detail under Chapter 5, the “marzeah feast.”
The third example of underworld valleys is the Valley of Hinnom at the southwest walls of Jerusalem. As shown in the novel, this valley was the location of a Tophet altar of Molech where children were sacrificed by being “burned with fire” (Jeremiah 7:31). Because this idolatrous practice was so abominable to Yahweh, Jeremiah prophesied destruction upon Jerusalem so devastating it would fill the valley with dead corpses and lead to the Babylonian exile of death (7:33). The name of the Valley of Hinnom would be changed to the Valley of Slaughter (7:32).
Jeremiah 7:32–33:
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth.
During the Hellenistic development of the Second Temple period, “the Valley of Hinnom, often referred to simply as ‘the accursed valley’ or ‘abyss,’ then came to represent the place of eschatological judgment of wicked Jews by fire (1 Enoch. 26–27; 54:1–6; 56:1–4; 90:24–27)… Gehenna had become hell itself.”[142]
When Ezekiel predicted the destruction of Gog in his major eschatological prophecy, he declared that it would occur in a valley that is tied to the underworld:
Ezekiel 39:11:
“On
that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog.
“Valley of the Travelers” in Hebrew is Valley of the Oberim. That name is not about mere travelers on the roads and valleys. Bible commentator Daniel Block explains the underworld valley connection best as a designation for “those who have passed on,” in other words, deceased heroes that are referred to elsewhere as Rephaim.
This netherworldly connection may hold the key to this frame as a whole. Gog and his warriors have imagined themselves to be like the nobles of old, but Yahweh hereby declares their doom. They are sentenced to death just as Egypt and all his companions in ch. 32…When the corpses of Gog and his horde are gathered, the pile in the “valley of those who have passed on” will be completely blocked off, that is, filled, so it will hold no more bodies. Sixth, because of its new usage, the site will receive a new name, gêʾ hămôn gôg, “the Valley of Hamon-Gog,” which appears to play on gêʾ hinnōm, “the valley of Hinnom.” Earlier this was the site of Molech worship and child sacrifice (e.g., Jeremiah 2:23), and the place where the bodies of animals and criminals were burned.[143]
Block also points out that “east of the sea” presumably meant the Mediterranean Sea and that the mass burial was suggestive of this important locale being reduced to a common cemetery. Notice also the linguistic connection to that other underworld Valley of Hinnom, which would become the ultimate symbol of judgment.
