This new abstract away from Phoenician myths that has been managed off Philo owing to Eusebius (including biblical sees for a passing fancy topic) was previously aren’t regarded as with suspician because of the critical scholarship and you may thought to be generally an invention by Philo, with no separate worth due to the fact a source of experience in Phoenician religion. So it suspicious thinking while the disappered due to the fresh new recovery away from spiritual impressive books of Ugarit on northern Syrian shore (1927-1937).
These extreme poetical texts discover by D.F.Good. Schaefer inside the a series of tips have indicated that the gods regarding Philo bear names inside the high part now well-identified regarding Ugarit in addition to from other source. The newest Philo mythology was described as the same moral ditch and you can primitive barbarity which have fondness for descriptive labels and you will personifications which can be available at Ugarit.
The latest sources of knowledge indicate absolutely nothing improvement in the message of Canaanite myths anywhere between c. 1400 BC and you will 700 BC. Of a lot specifics of Philo’s membership, not just in the challenge of labels off deities, however in the latest mythological environment too have done arrangement towards the Ugaritic myths and later Phoenician inscriptions. Students was, thus, justified inside the accepting, at the very least provisionally, the analysis managed by Philo that do not include subjective interpretation towards their part.
The fresh new divinities and this profile throughout the mythological messages out-of Ugarit was basically evidently maybe not peculiar toward city, but was newest one of the Canaanites, simply because they brear just an obscure link to the most common deities worshipped in town by itself
Since the mythology out of ancient Ugarit indicate, brand new faith of the Canaanite individuals try a crude and you may debased sort of routine polytheism. It had been from the sensuous fertility-cult worship regarding a really lewd and you may orgiastic form, and this turned out to be so much more important than just about any most other character faith regarding the ANE.
The new Ugaritic deities are in reality most widely known by several away from spiritual texts relationship from the 15th and early fourteenth 100 years BC which were used in a library situated into the a creating dependent ranging from Ugarit’s several higher temples, that dedicated to Baal plus the almost every other so you can Dagon
Canaanite deities, for the one-hand, introduce outstanding fluidity out of identity and you will means, which makes it often very hard to solve the specific website name of different gods or even to establish their kinship to at least one other. It is among grossly unreasonable areas of Canaanite religion, an indication of their corrupt characteristics. At exactly the same time, Canaanite deities have most of the time etymologically transparent names, a fact and this seems to point to brand new Canaanite pantheon as representing a good cruder and a lot more ancient sorts of polytheism.
Miscellaneous epigraphic and you may literary source show the new brands of one’s head gods and you will goddesses of several Canaanite citaies in different symptoms.
Este is the title which new ultimate Canaanite deity was understood. This really is together with a name whereby Goodness is joingy called in the outdated Testament — Este, the fresh Goodness (Elohim) away from Israel ( el elohe yisrael: Gen. ). For the majority prose they occures with greater regularity with an adjunct: El Elyon (probably the most high Goodness, Gen. ), El Shaddai (generally, God-almighty, Gen. 17:1), El Hai (This new lifestyle Jesus, Josh. 3:10), and incredibly commonly on plural out-of majesty, Elohim. When you look at the Hebrew poetry El is more frequent, where they stands in most cases without having any adjunct (Ps. , 33, 48; ; Employment 8:3).
The term El try an universal label for “god” in the Northwest Semitic (Hebrew and you can Ugaritic) and therefore it is extremely found in the existing Testament to own heathen deities otherwise idols (Ex boyfriend. ; Ps. ; Are. ). The first universal label is actually ‘ilum ; shedding the fresh new mimation additionally the nominative instance conclude ( u ) becomes ‘el into the Hebrew. It had been most likely a keen adjectival development (intransitive participle) regarding the root “getting solid, powerful” ( ‘wl ), meaning “The newest Solid (otherwise Strong) You to definitely.”