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1
of 4 - Middle Eastern/Greek/Roman
Foundations For ...
(Top Posts - History - 013101)
...
the origins of Judaism and Christianity.
Disbelievers/doubters, seekers, and christians
should be enlightened regarding the nature of
the dependence on religion and worship that
were present in the Middle Eastern, Greek,
and Roman cultures during the development
of documents, philosophies, and cultures
impacting and impacted by the religions of
and ideas within Judaism and Christianity.
Topics covered in post 1 of 4:
o Middle Eastern Religion : Introduction /
General Considerations / Religious Practices
and Institutions / Types of Religious Organ-
ization and Authority / Canaan / Phoenicia,
Amorite / Philistine / Hurrian
o Syrian and Palestinian Religion : Nature
and Significance / Ugarit Ras Shamra texts
and the Bible
o Judaism : Biblical Judaism (20th-4th century
BCE) - The Ancient Middle Eastern Setting /
Map - Important Historical Sites of Hellenistic
and Medieval Judaism / Hellenistic Judaism
(4th century BCE-2nd century CE), The
Greek period (332-63 BCE) / Social, Political,
and Religious Divisions
- - -
Middle Eastern Religion
Introduction
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=119914
Excerpt: "Any of the religious beliefs, attitudes,
and practices developed in the ancient Middle
East (extending geographically from Iran to
Egypt and from Anatolia and the Aegean Sea
to the Arabian Peninsula and temporally from
about 3000 to 330 BC, when Alexander the
Great conquered much of the area).
They have had an enduring influence on Western
civilization. While this article treats only those
religions of Middle Eastern antiquity that have
not survived to modern times, special attention
is given in the introduction to their role as ante-
cedents of the major Western religions (i.e.,
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), all of which
originated in the region. ..."
- - -
Middle Eastern Religion
General Considerations
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=119914&tocid=68342#68342.toc
Excerpt: "... Manufacturing and services tended
to be monopolized by professional guilds, including
religious personnel specializing in sacrifices, oracles,
divination, and other kinds of priestcraft. The mo-
bility of such guilds throughout the entire area helps
to explain the spread of specific religious ideas and
techniques over great distances.
Just as guild potters spread ceramic forms and
methods, so also guild priests spread their religious
concepts and practices from the Indian Ocean to
the Aegean Sea, and from the Nile River to Central
Asia. The Greek poet Homer, in the Odyssey,
noted the mobility of guildsmen, mentioning
religious personnel as well as architects, physi-
cians, and minstrels.
Guild priests called kohanim were found at ancient
Ugarit on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria
as well as in Israel. Moreover, Mycenaean Greek
(late Bronze Age) methods of sacrifice are similar
to the Hebraic methods, which are preserved in
many countries to this day in the traditional tech-
niques of Jewish ritual slaughter. ...
The prototype of the biblical story of the Deluge
has turned up in the Gilgamesh epic. A fragment
(dating from about 1400 BC) of that Babylonian
epic has been found at Megiddo in Israel, showing
that the Mesopotamian version was current in
Palestine before the Hebrews, under Joshua,
conquered the land about 1200 BC.
A previously little-known people, the Hittites, are,
because of archaeological discoveries, now recog-
nized as a major power of antiquity with a rich
legacy of religious texts, especially rituals.
The earliest and certainly the most fundamental
ancient Middle Eastern civilization--the Sumerian--
had vanished without a reference in the literatures
of the world. Sumerology is now an important
field of investigation. Biblical studies have been
revolutionized by the tablets (1400-1200 BC)
found from 1929 onward at Ugarit.
It has become extremely difficult to keep abreast
of the continually growing body of material, and
very few scholars today feel secure enough to
venture beyond limited areas."
- - -
Middle Eastern Religion
Religious Practices and Institutions
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=119914&tocid=68352#68352.toc
Excerpt: "... It was only natural that fertility rites
should include sexual myths that were acted out
dramatically.
The Ugaritic text just alluded to describes El, the
head of the pantheon, copulating with two human
women. This has echoes in Hosea and Ezekiel
where God, as in the Canaanite literary tradition,
is referred to as having a love affair with two
women, symbolizing Judah and Israel.
The Hebrews, however, eventually eliminated sex
from their official theology as well as from their
religious practices. Up to the time of King Josiah's
reform (621 BC) there was a women's cult of
Asherah (under qedeshim auspices [consecrated
for fertility practices], according to 2 Kings 23:7)
in the Jerusalem Temple, alongside the male cult
of Yahweh.
Asherah's devotees considered her the chief wife
of Yahweh, even as she was the wife of El, head
of the Canaanite pantheon, for in the Bible El is
identified with Yahweh. But Josiah eliminated the
cult of Asherah, and official Judaism has since
then left no place for other gods, which meant
the elimination of every goddess.
Popular religion, to be sure, persisted in the female
fertility principle until the destruction of the Temple
in 586 BC. In Judaean excavations Astarte figurines
were found in private homes down to that time.
Further purification of the Hebrew religion, which
was intensified by the catastrophe of 586, put an
end to the practice of pagan fertility rites, including
the use of goddess figurines. Without goddesses
there could be no sexual activity in the pantheon,
and thus Judaism has developed without a divine
mother figure.
The ancient Middle East made a place for homo-
sexuality and bestiality in its myths and rites.
In the Asherah cult the qedeshim priests had
a reputation for homosexual practices, even as
the qedeshot priestesses for prostitution. Israel
eventually banned both the qedeshim and qedeshot,
while in Ugarit the qedeshim and kohanim were
priestly guilds in equally good standing.
Baal is portrayed in Ugaritic mythology as impreg-
nating a heifer to sire the young bull god. The bib-
lical book of Leviticus (18:22-27) bans homosex-
uality and bestiality expressly because the Canaanite
population had been practicing those rites, which
the Hebrews rejected as abominations.
Phoenician/Punic sites include an area called the
tophet that contains large numbers of infant burials ...
One explanation of the tophet is that it reflects a
major aspect of a fertility cult in which the first-born
child belonged to the deity. The deity rewarded the
parents who had sacrificed their child with future
fertility.
In the Hebrew Bible, just as the firstfruits of the
harvest belong to God, so do the first-born of the
people and their domestic animals (Exodus 13:1,
12-13, 15).
The actual cases in the literature do not always
specify infant sacrifice. The Bible describes how
King Mesha of Moab sacrificed his crown prince
to avert a military disaster (2 Kings 3:27).
King Ahaz of Judah sacrificed his son in pagan
fashion (2 Kings 16:3). King Manasseh of Judah
sacrificed his sons by fire (2 Chronicles 33:6),
filling Jerusalem with innocent blood.
The Jewish practice of redeeming a first-born
son at the age of one month (Numbers 18:16-17)
appears to be a milder substitute for the practice
of child sacrifice.
Another alternative to sacrificing a child was to
dedicate it to the service of God. Hannah, by
fulfilling her vow to dedicate her first-born, Samuel,
to God's service (1 Samuel 1:27-28) was rewarded
by the birth of five other children whom she and
her husband could keep for themselves (1 Samuel
2:20-21). ..."
- - -
Middle Eastern Religion
Types of Religious
Organization and Authority
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=119914&tocid=68354#68354.toc
Excerpt: "... Judaism (followed later by Christianity
and Islam) traces 'the Religion' back to Abraham,
who had personal and direct relations with God, as
was customary in the ancient Middle Eastern milieu.
Abraham's intimacy with God is similar to the inti-
macy between Odysseus and the Greek goddess
Athena. The next step is a covenant between a
particular deity and a particular person, binding
the two together in a contractual relationship for
all eternity from generation to generation. ..."
- - -
Canaan
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=20200
Excerpt: "Area variously defined in historical and
biblical literature, but always centred on Palestine.
Its original pre-Israelite inhabitants were called
Canaanites. The names Canaan and Canaanite
occur in cuneiform, Egyptian, and Phoenician
writings from about the 15th century BC as well
as in the Old Testament.
In these sources, 'Canaan' refers sometimes to
an area encompassing all of Palestine and Syria,
sometimes only to the land west of the Jordan
River, and sometimes just to a strip of coastal
land from Acre ('Akko) northward.
The Israelites occupied and conquered Palestine,
or Canaan, beginning in the late 2nd millennium
BC, or perhaps earlier; and the Bible justifies such
occupation by identifying Canaan with the Promised
Land, the land promised to the Israelites by God. ..."
- - -
Phoenicia
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=61260
Excerpt: "Ancient region corresponding to modern
Lebanon, with adjoining parts of modern Syria and
Israel. Its inhabitants, the Phoenicians, were notable
merchants, traders, and colonizers of the Mediter-
ranean in the 1st millennium BC. The chief cities of
Phoenicia (excluding colonies) were Sidon, Tyre,
and Berot (modern Beirut). ..."
- - -
Amorite
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=7309
Excerpt: "Member of an ancient Semitic-speaking
people who dominated the history of Mesopotamia,
Syria, and Palestine from about 2000 to about 1600
BC.
In the oldest cuneiform sources (c. 2400-c. 2000 BC),
the Amorites were equated with the West, though
their true place of origin was most likely Arabia, not
Syria. ..."
- - -
Philistine
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=61207
Excerpt: "One of a people of Aegean origin who
settled on the southern coast of Palestine in the
12th century BC, about the time of the arrival of
the Israelites. ..."
- - -
Hurrian
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=42536
Excerpt: "One of a people important in the history
and culture of the Middle East during the 2nd
millennium BC.
The earliest recorded presence of Hurrian personal
and place names is in Mesopotamian records of the
late 3rd millennium; these point to the area east of
the Tigris River and the mountain region of Zagros
as the Hurrian habitat. ..."
- - -
Syrian and Palestinian Religion
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=119920
Excerpt: "Beliefs of Syria and Palestine between
3000 and 300 BC. These religions are usually
defined by the languages of those who practiced
them: e.g., Amorite, Hurrian, Ugaritic, Phoenician,
Aramaic, and Moabite.
The term 'Canaanite' is often used broadly to cover
a number of these, as well as the religion of early
periods and areas from which there are no written
sources. ..."
- - -
Syrian and Palestinian Religion
Nature and Significance
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=119920&tocid=68294#68294.toc
Excerpt: "Syria-Palestine formed a land bridge between
the great civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt and
faced westward across the Mediterranean Sea toward
the cultures of the Aegean. Syria and Palestine were
subject to influences from these cultures and in their
turn contributed to them.
As a result, the official religions of the area were often
syncretistic and sometimes cosmopolitan. Particular
cults and myths were carried westward and adopted
by the Egyptians of the New Kingdom (1539-1075 BC),
by the Greeks and their antecedents, and later by the
Romans.
Despite their many different outer forms, and the indi-
vidual stamp given them by the various political powers,
the religions of Syria and Palestine appear to have been
typologically similar. Out of them, however, emerged
the ultimately quite distinctive religion of Israel, from
which in turn Judaism, Christianity, and, less directly,
Islam were formed. ...
While the Hebrew Bible was largely completed by 300
BC, its attitude toward contemporary religions of the
area was generally quite hostile, so that its references
to these religions may not only devalue them but also
exaggerate or distort various aspects of them.
On the other hand, Israelite religion was itself an out-
growth of, as well as a reaction to, the religions of its
neighbours, so that many features of Israelite religion
found in the Hebrew Bible exemplify the religions of
the larger area. The only sure guide to making such
discriminations is the knowledge gained from indi-
genous documents. ...
Cuneiform archives from various 2nd-millennium
sites and from the 3rd millennium at Ebla in north-
western Syria provide some documentation of the
religion.
The most abundant documentation comes from the
14th- and 13th-century remains of the city of Ugarit
(modern Ras Shamra), on the Mediterranean coast
of Syria. This includes the only native examples of
extended religious narrative. It also comprises the
widest range of genres, including myths, legends,
liturgical texts, god lists, omens, and correspon-
dence. ..."
- - -
Ugarit
Ras Shamra texts and the Bible
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=76046&tocid=7511#7511.toc
Excerpt: "... Many texts discovered at Ugarit ...
reveal an Old Canaanite mythology. A tablet names
the Ugaritic pantheon with Babylonian equivalents;
El, Asherah of the Sea, and Baal were the main
deities.
These texts not only constitute a literature of high
standing and great originality but also have an
important bearing on Old Testament studies. It is
now evident that the patriarchal stories in the Old
Testament were not merely transmitted orally but
were based on written documents of Canaanite
origin, the discovery of which at Ugarit has led
to a new appraisal of the Old Testament. ..."
- - -
Judaism
Biblical Judaism (20th-4th century BCE)
The Ancient Middle Eastern Setting
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108149&tocid=35168#35168.toc
Excerpt: "... The initial level of Israelite culture
resembled that of its surroundings; it was neither
wholly original nor primitive.
The tribal structure resembled that of West Semitic
steppe dwellers known from the 18th-century-BCE
tablets excavated at the north central Mesopotamian
city of Mari; their family customs and law have
parallels in Old Babylonian and Hurro-Semite law
of the early and middle 2nd millennium.
The conception of a messenger of God that underlies
biblical prophecy was Amorite (West Semitic) and
found in the tablets at Mari.
Mesopotamian religious and cultural conceptions
are reflected in biblical cosmogony, primeval history
(including the Flood story in Gen. 6:9-8:22), and
law collections.
The Canaanite component of Israelite culture con-
sisted of the Hebrew language and a rich literary
heritage--whose Ugaritic form (which flourished in
the northern Syrian city of Ugarit from the mid-15th
century to about 1200 BCE) illuminates the Bible's
poetry, style, mythological allusions, and religio-
cultic terms.
Egypt provides many analogues for Hebrew
hymnody and wisdom literature. All the cultures
among which the patriarchs lived had cosmic
gods who fashioned the world and preserved its
order, including justice; all had a developed ethic
expressed in law and moral admonitions; and all
had sophisticated religious rites and myths. ...
Historical and anthropological studies present
formidable objections to the continuity of YHWH
worship from Adam (the biblical first man) to
Moses, and the Hebrew tradition itself, moreover,
does not unanimously support even the more
modest claim of the continuity of YHWH worship
from Abraham to Moses.
Against it is a statement in chapter 6, verse 3, of
Exodus that God revealed himself to the patriarchs
not as YHWH but as El Shaddai--an epithet (of
unknown meaning) the distribution of which in
patriarchal narratives and Job and other poetical
works confirms its archaic and unspecifically
Israelite character. Comparable is the distribution
of the epithet El Elyon (God Most High). Neither
of these epithets appears in postpatriarchal nar-
ratives (excepting the Book of Ruth).
Other compounds with El are unique to Genesis:
El Olam (God the Everlasting One), El Bethel
(God Bethel), and El Ro'i (God of Vision). An
additional peculiarity of the patriarchal stories is
their use of the phrase 'God of my [your, his]
father.'
All of these epithets have been taken as evidence
that patriarchal religion differed from the worship
of YHWH that began with Moses.
A relation to a patron god was defined by revela-
tions starting with Abraham (who never refers to
the God of his father) and continuing with a suc-
cession of 'founders' of his worship.
Attached to the founder and his family, as befits
the patron of wanderers, this unnamed deity (if
indeed he was one only) acquired various Canaanite
epithets (El, Elyon, Olam, Bethel, qone eretz [pos-
sessor of the Land]) only after their immigration
into Canaan. ..."
- - -
Judaism
Hellenistic Judaism
(4th century BCE-2nd century CE)
The Greek period (332-63 BCE)
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108150
Excerpt: "Actual contact between Greeks and
Semites goes back to Minoan and Mycenaean
times and is reflected in certain terms in Homer
and in other early Greek authors.
It is not until the end of the 4th century, however,
that Jews are first mentioned by Greek writers,
who praise the Jews as brave, self-disciplined,
and philosophical.
After being conquered by Alexander the Great
(332 BCE), Palestine became part of the Hellen-
istic kingdom of Ptolemaic Egypt, the policy of
which was to permit the Jews considerable
cultural and religious freedom.
When in 198 BCE Palestine was conquered by
King Antiochus III (247-187 BCE), of the Syrian
Seleucid dynasty, the Jews were treated even more
liberally, being granted a charter to govern them-
selves by their own constitution, namely, the Torah.
Greek influence, however, was already becoming
manifest. ...
The Greek influence reached its height under King
Herod I of Judaea (37-4 BCE), who built a Greek
theatre, amphitheatre, and hippodrome in or near
Jerusalem."
- - -
Judaism
Social, Political, and Religious Divisions
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108150&tocid=35188#35188.toc
Excerpt: "... The fact that in 70 CE, according to
the Palestinian Talmud ... there were 24 types of
'heretics' in Palestine indicates that there was, in
fact, much divergence among Jews; and this
picture is confirmed by Josephus, who notes
numerous instances of religious leaders who
claimed to be prophets and who obtained con-
siderable followings. ...
Proselytes (converts) to Judaism, though not
constituting a class, became increasingly numer-
ous both in Palestine and especially in the Dias-
pora (the Jews living beyond Palestine).
Scholarly estimates of the Jewish population
of this era range from 700,000 to 5,000,000 in
Palestine and from 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 in
the Diaspora, with the prevailing opinion being
that about one-tenth of the population of the
Mediterranean world at the beginning of the
Christian Era was Jewish.
Such numbers represent a considerable increase
from previous eras and must have included
large numbers of proselytes. ...
Despite the attempts of the Pharisaic leaders to
restrain the wave of Greek influence, they them-
selves showed at least a surface Hellenization.
In the first place, as many as 2,500-3,000 words
of Greek origin are to be found in the Talmudic
corpus, and they supply important terms in the
fields of law, government, science, religion,
technology, and everyday life, especially in the
popular sermons preached by the rabbis.
When preaching, the Talmudic rabbis often gave
the Greek translation of biblical verses for the
benefit of those who understood Greek only.
The prevalence of Greek in ossuary (burial)
inscriptions and the discovery of Greek papyri
in the Dead Sea caves confirm the widespread
use of the language, though few Jews, it seems,
really mastered Greek. ..."
--- end 1 of 4 ---
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