The Cities That Built the Bible

by Dr. Robert Cargill

  And yet that’s what Jesus said to the Syrophoenician woman! Of course, he ultimately healed the woman’s daughter, but the text makes clear that it was because of the woman’s clever comeback—“even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs”—that he healed her. Note that she didn’t give Jesus an “Oh no you didn’t” response along with a finger wag, but instead spun Jesus’s “dog comment” and threw it back in his face, matching him cliché for cliché. And here’s the fun part: Jesus was so impressed with her cleverness—“For saying that, you may go”— that he healed the woman’s daughter.

  Of course, some people argue that the healing by Jesus makes up for his harsh words or that the addition in Matthew 15:24 of Jesus’s statement that he “was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” makes his healing of this Gentile woman some sort of extracurricular bonus healing, compensating for his initial denial of the woman’s request and his rude behavior toward her. Whatever its interpretation, it is worth noting that, although Jesus may have initially ministered to his fellow Jews, he ultimately ministered to all people, regardless of race, gender, and nationality, and he first did so not in Jerusalem or the Galilee, as one would expect, but on a trip to Tyre.

  The ancient Phoenician cities of Tyre, Ṣidon, and Byblos contributed to both the Old and New Testaments. Phoenicia gave us paper, the alphabet, and the word “Bible” itself. These cities assisted with the building of the Jerusalem Temple and are credited with helping Solomon become rich, not to mention the fact that their prosperity became the target of condemnation for Hebrew prophets. The destruction of these cities became a lingering memory in the minds of Jews at the time of Jesus, who performed a unique miracle there, expanded his ministry to include Gentiles, and chastised cities surrounding the Sea of Galilee by saying that they would suffer more than Tyre and Ṣidon. Indeed, the ancient cities of Tyre, Ṣidon, and Byblos are cities that directly helped build the Bible.

  CHAPTER 2

  Ugarit

  In 1928, an Alawite peasant named Maḥmoud Mella az-Zir was plowing his field in the Mediterranean port town of Minet el-Beida, about seven miles north of the modern city of Latakia, Syria. While he was plowing, az-Zir accidentally unearthed an ancient tomb. Archaeologists from the Service des Antiquités en Syrie et au Liban investigated the tomb and the pottery it contained. Noticing that pottery was thirteenth-century BCE Mycenaean and Cypriot pottery similar to vessels found in tombs in Crete, and given that the presence of imported vessels in a burial is typically a sign of a wealth, French archaeologists René Dussaud and Claude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer and their team began to focus on the nearby tell of Ras Shamra, about a half mile inland.

  Their curiosity paid off. The French team uncovered an entire city full of residences as well as several monumental buildings, including a palace and two temples. They had discovered the ancient city of Ugarit. Within the buildings, archaeologists discovered multiple caches of various cuneiform texts that not only tell us about the economic wealth and political standing of the city in the Late Bronze Age, but, more important for our purposes, also shed more light on the origins of Israelite religion than perhaps any other discovery in history.

  These Ugaritic texts detail the lives of many deities that were worshipped not only at Ugarit, but also throughout Cana‘an to the south, including in Israel. Likewise, the Ugaritic language provides a linguistic bridge from Mesopotamia to Cana‘an. Thus, the texts discovered at Ugarit are significant because they inform our understanding of the origin of many of the Bible’s stories and provide a backstory for many of the deities mentioned in the Bible. So the next stop in our journey is Ugarit, where we’ll take a look at how this city changed what we know about the Bible.

  THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF UGARIT

  Using the texts discovered at Ras Shamra, archaeologists in 1935 were able to identify the site as ancient Ugarit, a kingdom first mentioned around 2300 BCE in the Ebla Tablets, in the eighteenth-century BCE Mari Archives from Mesopotamia, and in the fourteenth-century BCE Amarna Letters from Egypt. The texts were discovered in multiple locations near various monumental buildings discovered on the site. Archaeologists interpreted one building to be either a library or the house of the city’s high priest. The remains of two temples honoring two deities—the Temple of Ba‘al Hadad and the Temple of Dagon—were also discovered in the northeast quarter of the walled city. These buildings formed the central areas of worship on the city’s acropolis.

  TEMPLE OF BA‘AL HADAD

  The temples of Ugarit are on the acropolis of the city to the east of the royal palace. The palace’s ninety rooms are guarded by the iconic postern gate that provides entrance to the city from the west. As you make your way through the city up the tell, you come to the Temple of Ba‘al Hadad, an impressive structure whose 52-by-72-foot building and walled enclosure covered 9150 square feet on the acropolis. It was identified by the presence of a large stele (an inscribed monumental stone) of Ba‘al, the “Ba‘al with Thunderbolt” (which is actually an image of Ba‘al with a mace), and a stele of a local “scribe and attendant of the royal domain” named Mami, which contained an Egyptian hieroglyphic dedication to “Ba‘al of Ṣafon.”1

  The main structure of the Temple of Ba‘al Hadad complex was a rectangular building divided into a larger and a smaller room, with an altar to the south in front of it. Archaeologist Marguerite Yon claims that the temple was about 65 feet tall. Because the acropolis itself rises another 65 feet above the plain below, the Temple of Ba‘al Hadad would have ascended 130 feet above the surrounding area, making it easily visible to sailors at sea.2 In fact, the presence of seventeen stone anchors found within the temple precinct demonstrates just how thankful sailors must have been to Ba‘al for protecting them while they battled the stormy seas.

  TEMPLE OF DAGON

  Another nearby temple, the Temple of Dagon, was also located on the acropolis of Ugarit to the east of the Temple of Ba‘al Hadad. Archaeologists attribute the temple to Dagon because two steles (KTU 6.13 and 6.14) were discovered within the temple enclosure, one of which possessed a dedicatory inscription to Dagon written in Ugaritic.3 Dagon was originally a Mesopotamian fertility deity (likely specific to grain) who was worshipped at Ugarit. The earliest references to Dagon are from the Mari Archives (2500 BCE), where he held the titles “King of the Land” and “Lord of all the Great Gods,”4 and at Ebla (2300 BCE).5 King Sargon of Akkad credits Dagon with his victories in western Mesopotamia, and the Philistines are said to have adopted Dagon as their national deity (cf. Judg. 16:23). Dagon also features prominently in 1 Samuel 5:1–5, when the Philistines capture the ark of the covenant and place it in the temple next to the statue of Dagon. In the story, the statue of Dagon falls on its face before the ark during the night, shattering and losing its head and hands. The text is designed to show that YHWH (represented by the ark) is greater than Dagon (represented by the idol).

  LIBRARY OR HOUSE OF THE HIGH PRIEST

  The House of the High Priest (which some have called the Library of the High Priest) stood between the two temples. Although this building possesses all of the expected features of any other fine house in Ugarit, what was buried inside changed the way we understand Ugarit and the Bible. The excavation of the building yielded seventy-four weapons and bronze tools including “a hoe and four adzes with dedicatory inscriptions on them that were used in 1930 to decipher Ugaritic.”6 But most important for our purposes were tablets upon which were written mythological poems containing texts from several important Ugaritic literary masterpieces, including the Ba‘al Cycle, the Legend of Kirta (Keret), and the Epic of ’Aqhat (or Dan’el), which provided the key to understanding Ugaritic literature.7

  These three buildings crown an impressive city full of remains that speak to the importance of Ugarit in the Late Bronze Age. But for our journey it wasn’t the monumental structures that helped build the Bible, but rather the texts that were discovered inside them; what those written texts say has been of interest to scholars for d
ecades. Once scholars began deciphering the Ugaritic tablets, they discovered something dramatic: the content of the narrative texts (e.g., the names of the deities, the tales of certain men, the poems, and the wisdom texts) and of the religious texts (e.g., how the ancient Ugaritic peoples worshipped and did religion) were remarkably similar to and possibly influenced many of the stories found in the Hebrew Bible. Some readers are surprised to learn that many of the stories found in the Bible were often inspired by earlier stories about characters and gods from other cultures. We’ll discuss this more later on, but first let’s meet the gods who were prominent both at Ugarit and in the Bible.

  THE UGARITIC PANTHEON

  People at Ugarit worshipped deities known from the Phoenician pantheon. This is to be expected, given Ugarit’s proximity to Phoenicia. But significantly, the texts discovered at Ugarit revealed much about the background of many of the deities mentioned in the Bible, including why encounters with various gods so frequently take place on top of holy mountains. The answer may lie in the holy mountain of Ugarit, which perhaps not coincidentally is also mentioned in the Bible.

  Jebel ’Aqra‘ (Mt. Aqra), lying to the north of Ugarit, is known in the Bible as Mt. Ṣafon (Zaphon).8 Mt. Aqra, or Mt. Ṣafon, is to Ugarit and northern Cana‘an what Mt. Olympus is to the Greeks: the tallest mountain in the region and home to the assembly of the gods.9

  Among the various deities mentioned in the Ugaritic texts as dwelling atop Mt. Ṣafon were some that came to play an important role in the development of religion in ancient Israel. Because these deities were worshipped at Ugarit hundreds of years before the so-called United Kingdom of Israel existed, scholars believe that much of what became Israelite religion was an incorporation of, or a reaction to, the popular Ugaritic deities that were worshipped throughout Cana‘an. Below, we’ll meet the most important Ugarit deities and learn how they may have influenced the Israelite religion.

  ’EL

  ’El was the father of the gods at Ugarit. However, he was viewed as more of an initial creator who now plays a less active role in the daily lives of the Ugaritic people, but whose consent was still required in major decisions. ’El was like the chairman of the board (as opposed to the CEO) of a company or the Deity Emeritus of the pantheon, who was respected for contributions made long ago.

  ’El is mentioned in the Bible several times, but it is difficult to distinguish in some cases whether the actual deity is being named or whether ’El is being used as an epithet for the Hebrew God, YHWH, or a shortened form of the Hebrew word ’Elohim (“God”). For instance, the ’El in the name Beth-’El (Heb., “house of ’El” or “house of God”) in Genesis 28:19 (cf. 31:13), where Jacob consecrates the place he wrestled with God, most certainly refers to YHWH. However, Judges 9:46 mentions the temple of ’El Berit (Heb., “’El of the covenant”) at Shechem, who is a decidedly different deity from YHWH.10 Likewise, Psalm 82:1 says, “God has taken his place in the council of ’El,” and many versions of the Bible translate “council of ’El” as “divine council” to avoid mentioning the deity ’El. Thus, ’El’s presence in the Bible is sometimes a synonym for the Hebrew God (YHWH) and sometimes the foreign deity with roots at Ugarit.

  ’ASHERAH

  ’Asherah is ’El’s consort, or wife if you will, in the same way she is the wife of Anu, the sky god (’El’s equivalent), in Sumerian mythology. At Ugarit, she is called ’Athirat. (The sh sound in Hebrew is pronounced and spelled as a th sound at Ugarit.11) She came to be associated with the sea at Ugarit; twelve different references to her in the Ba‘al Cycle alone are to the deity as “Lady ’Athirat of the Sea.”12 ’Asherah is mentioned in the Bible several times, often in association with Ba‘al.13 According to 2 Kings 21:7, at one point during the reign of King Manasseh of Judah an idol of ’Asherah even stood in the Temple in Jerusalem!

  BA‘AL HADAD

  Ba‘al is the champion of the Ugaritic pantheon. Pronounced like ball (and not like a hay bale), the name Ba‘al literally means “lord” or “master” in Ugaritic in the same way that it does in Hebrew. In fact, the word ba‘al is still the modern Hebrew word for “husband.” (My wife despises this fact when I mention it.) Most important, Ba‘al is the storm god, who brings rain and therefore fertility to the land—an important role in arid agrarian areas. Ba‘al’s voice is the thunder, in the same way that YHWH’s voice is thunder (Heb. qol, ) in Exodus 19:19.14

  Like ’Asherah, Ba‘al was a popular deity. Not only were the Israelite prophets constantly warning against worship of Ba‘al, but 1 Kings 16:30–33 says:

  Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took as his wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made a sacred pole (Heb. ’Asherah). Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him.

  Clearly, ancient Israel, especially the kingdom of Israel in the north, which was much more closely affiliated with Phoenicia to its north, worshipped Ba‘al openly.

  The aforementioned Ba‘al stele, which provided the identification for the Temple of Ba‘al Hadad on Ugarit’s acropolis, is a white sandstone bas-relief stele, 4 feet 8 inches high, depicting a horned Ba‘al in a typical power pose with his left foot forward and right arm raised holding a mace or club (often misinterpreted as a thunderbolt); it was discovered about 60 feet from the temple. This Ba‘al stele, now on display at the Louvre in Paris, reflects the literary descriptions of Ba‘al as both a warrior deity and a fertility deity.15

  Bronze statue of a storm god poised to strike, from Ḥaṣor, dating from the fifteenth to thirteenth centuries BCE. The image closely resembles other depictions of the storm god Ba‘al discovered at Ugarit and elsewhere. Image courtesy Israel Museum.

  Ba‘al’s popularity throughout Cana‘an and within ancient Israel is evident not only from the number of Ba‘al statues that have been uncovered throughout the land, but also from the number of texts in the Bible essentially saying, “Stop worshipping Ba‘al!”16 There is also a specific mention of a place called Ba‘al Ṣafon (“Ba‘al of Mt. Ṣafon”) in Exodus 14:2, 9 and Numbers 33:7 and of another place called Bamot-Ba‘al (“the high place of Ba‘al”) in Numbers 22:41, along with dozens of other place-names and personal names with the name Ba‘al in them.

  ‘ANAT

  ‘Anat is Ba‘al’s sister, who loved and defended Ba‘al vigilantly and viciously. Scholars debate whether ‘Anat is also Ba‘al’s consort or wife as the Ugaritic texts pair the two together in a number of stories. Like Ba‘al, she too promoted fertility by serving as goddess of both love and war in ancient Ugarit. A statue of ‘Anat in a pose similar to Ba‘al’s was uncovered at Ugarit by Dussaud, Schaeffer, and their team.

  However, unlike ’Asherah, ‘Anat is rarely mentioned in the Bible. The name does appear, however, in place-names and personal names, including the fortified city of Beth-‘Anat (Josh. 19:38; Judg. 1:33), ‘Anatoth (a priestly city and the hometown of the prophet Jeremiah, mentioned in Josh. 21:13, 18), and the name of Shamgar son of ‘Anat (Judg. 3:31; 5:6), who, true to his namesake, reputedly slew six hundred Philistines with an ox goad.17

  Bronze figurine of a striking goddess, probably ‘Anat or ‘Astarte, discovered at Tel Dan in northern Israel dating to the fifteenth to thirteenth centuries BCE. Image courtesy Israel Museum.

  It is likewise noteworthy that the name ‘Anat also appears as part of the name of the deity ‘Anat-Yahu (or ‘Anat-YHWH) in a fifth-century BCE Aramaic papyrus from Elephantine (modern Aswan), Egypt.18 There was a large Jewish community in Elephantine in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE that included a priesthood facilitating worship in a temple to Yahu (YHWH) there, which had been built by Jews who had fled various foreign campaigns into Israel and Judah. One Eleph
antine Papyrus (B52) preserves an oath that was drafted and signed as part of a court case involving the half ownership of a donkey (believe it or not), demonstrating that suing people over the smallest things is not a modern invention. The oath affirms that the defendant is telling the truth and swears “in/by the place of prostration, and by ‘Anat-Yahu.”19 The reference provides evidence that worship of ‘Anat reached as far south as Upper Egypt and that the Jewish deity YHWH was associated with her.20

  YAM

  Yam is the god of the Mediterranean Sea and of rivers, streams, and lakes at Ugarit. Yam is also referred to as “Judge Nahar,” or “Judge River,” as his cooperation is necessary for securing the proper amount of river water for crops and avoiding drought and flooding. Like the ocean itself, Yam is chaotic, unwieldy, and unconquerable. As in the story of creation in Genesis 1, the watery abyss must be restrained and put in its place to allow for dry land and human existence by a more powerful deity. It should come as no surprise that Yam’s immortal enemy is Ba‘al, as Yam controls the ocean and its abysmal depths, while Ba‘al is lord over the dry land, bringing life to the very creatures—humankind—that Yam’s oceans regularly seek to destroy.

  Yam appears in the Bible in a clever way; the Hebrew word for “sea” is yam! Thus, in Israelite religion, Yam the deity has become a depersonified natural entity—the sea—possessing all of the same characteristics, the unruliness and fear-inducing power over humankind, but without being considered a god. Many scholars have suggested that the battles between the “depths” (Heb. tehom, ) and YHWH are parallels to stories of battles between Yam and Ba‘al. Think about it. God battles the watery abyss during creation in Genesis 1, holds back the floodwaters during the flood in Genesis 6–9, parts and then collapses the waters of the Reed Sea21 in Exodus 15, and parts the Jordan River to allow the Hebrews to cross over into the promised land in Joshua 3:16. Repeatedly YHWH is said to conquer the waters in much the same way that Ba‘al conquers Yam at Ugarit.