Ba'al and Yahweh.

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Ben C. Smith
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Ba'al and Yahweh.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

I rely here mainly upon John Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan.

1. Ba'al is a rider upon the clouds.

A common epithet for Ba'al is rkb 'rpt ("rider of the clouds"), according to Day on page 91. Yahweh, too, apparently rides the clouds:

Psalm 68.33-34 (LXX 67.34-35): 33 To Him who rides upon the highest heavens, which are from ancient times, behold, He speaks forth with His voice, a mighty voice. 4 Ascribe strength to God; His majesty is over Israel and His strength is in the clouds [ἐν ταῖς νεφέλαις, בַּשְּׁחָקִֽים].

Psalm 104.3 (LXX 103.3): 3 He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind.

The one like a son of man in the book of Daniel also seems to be associated with the clouds:

Daniel 7.13-14: 13 “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. 14 And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

The synoptic apocalypse (Olivet Discourse) has the son of man, in a gospel context meaning Jesus, coming upon the clouds (Matthew 24.30), in clouds (Mark 13.26), or in a cloud (Luke 21.27). Revelation 1.7 says that Jesus is coming with the clouds.

2. Ba'al is a storm god.

Ba'al is described as having control over the clouds, winds, rains, and thunder:

Ba'al and Môt, Column 5, lines 6-7: And as for you, take your clouds, your winds, your thunder-bolts, your rains....

Yahweh likewise controls the elements of the storm:

Psalm 18.13 (LXX 17.14): Yahweh also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire.

Psalm 78.48 (LXX 77.48): He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones, And their herds to bolts of lightning.

Isaiah 28.2: Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent; As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction, Like a storm of mighty overflowing waters, He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.

John Day writes on pages 96-97:

I have pointed out a further striking parallel with Baal mythology that was previously unnoted. This is the sevenfold manifestation of the deity in the thunder, the qol yahweh (vv. 3a, 4a, 4b, 5, 7, 8, 9). In KTU2 1.101.3b-4 (Ugaritica, V, 3.3b-4), it is said of Baal:
  • 3bSb't. brqm. [[.?]] Seven lightnings...
    4tmnt. 'isr r't. 's. brq. y[ ] Eight storehouses of thunder. The shaft of lightning...
Now, the numerical sequence 7/8 is capable of meaning simply seven in Ugaritic, the second number having the nature of what has been called 'automatic parallelism'13 (cf. KTU2 1.6.V.8-9 and KTU2 1.19.1.42-44). It therefore seems that this is a reference to Baal's seven thunders as well as lightnings....

He compares these thunders to the sevenfold repetition of "the voice of the Lord" in Psalm 29, adding that...:

...the parallel to Psalm 29 [is] even closer when it is noted that in KTU2 1.101.1-3a, immediately before the reference to Baal's seven thunders and lightnings, we read of Baal's enthronement like the flood: b'l. ytb. ktbt. gr. hd. r[] kmdb. btk. grh. '// spn. b[tk] gr. tViyt, 'Baal sits enthroned, like the sitting of a mountain, Hadad [ ] like the flood, in the midst of his mountain, the god of Zaphon in the [midst of] the mountain of victory', just as Ps. 29.10 states, 'The Lord sits enthroned over the flood, the Lord sits enthroned as king for ever'. The fact that the seven thunders of Psalm 29 go back to Baal mythology means that they are an integral part of the original psalm....

Seven thunders show up in Revelation 10.3-4, as well. And Jesus calms a storm at sea in Matthew 8.23-27 = Mark 4.35-41 = Luke 8.22-25.

3. Ba'al is victorious over the dragon.

Day writes on pages 98-99:

The Old Testament contains a number of allusions to Yahweh's battle with a dragon and the sea. Sometimes this is associated with the time of the creation of the world, at other times the dragon or sea is historicized, alluding to a hostile nation or nations, and occasionally the imagery is eschatologized, referring to some hostile power at the end time.

....

In the Old Testament the dragon is sometimes called Leviathan, and he is said to have had more than one head (Ps. 74.14) and is referred to as a tannin 'dragon' and is described as a 'twisting serpent' (Isa. 27.1). In the Ugaritic texts we similarly read of a seven-headed dragon (tnri) called Itn, frequently vocalized by modern scholars as Lotan, but more probably Litan,19 and he is referred to as having been defeated by the god Baal (KTU2 1.5.1.1-3) as well as by the goddess Anat (KTL/2 1.3.III.40-42).

On pages 105-106 he adds:

In accordance with the Urzeit wird Endzeit principle, the divine conflict with the dragon and the sea becomes projected into the future in connection with the Eschaton. The earliest known example of this is in Isa. 27.1, where we read that 'On that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the twisting serpent, Leviathan the crooked serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea'. The language used of Leviathan here is remarkably similar to that employed almost a thousand years earlier in the Ugaritic Baal epic, where Mot says to Baal that 'you smote Leviathan the twisting serpent and made an end of the crooked serpent' (KTLf2 1.5.1.1-2), and elsewhere in the Ugaritic Baal epic Leviathan is called a dragon (tnn, KTlf1 1.3.III.40), just as in Isa. 27.1 (tannin). The Ugaritic parallel makes it clear that simply one dragon, not three, is being referred to in Isa. 27.1.

Here are a couple of the passages in question:

Psalm 74.14 (LXX 73.14): 14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

Isaiah 27.1: In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent with His fierce and great and mighty sword, even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

John speaks of a seven-headed a dragon in Revelation 12.1-17, where it is Michael who is victorious.

4. Ba'al is victorious over the sea.

Day writes of Ba'al on page 99:

The Ugaritic texts only give brief allusions to the victory of Baal and Anat over Leviathan. On the other hand, we have a detailed account of the victory of Baal over Yam.

He writes of Yahweh on pages 99-100:

Quite a number of the references to God's conflict with the dragon and the sea at the time of creation occur in the Psalms. Both Psalms 74 (cf. vv. 12-17) and 89 (cf. vv. 10-15 [ET 9-14]) cite Yahweh's defeat of the dragon (Leviathan or Rahab) and the sea as grounds of hope in Yahweh's power in the exile when the temple and Davidic monarchy had come to an end and the powers of chaos appeared to have triumphed. Such use of the Chaoskampf motif implies that it was already well known in the pre-exilic period. Psalms which have this theme that are probably pre-exilic include Pss. 93.3-4, 65.7-8 (ET 6-7), 104.6-9, which set the conflict with the waters in the time of the creation of the world, and Ps. 29.3, 10, which associate it with Yahweh's continuing lordship over creation.
....

In addition to the Psalms another book which has a considerable number of references to God's conflict with the dragon and the sea is Job (Job 3.8, 7.12, 9.8, 13, 26.12-13, 38.8-11, 40.15-41.26 [ET 34]). In some of these passages the context of the conflict is clearly implied to be the creation of the world (Job 9.8, 13, 26.12-13, 38.8-11), and this is probably the case with the others too.

Jesus walks upon the sea in Matthew 14.22-33 = Mark 6.45-52 (John 6.16-21) in a scene reminiscent of Yahweh elsewhere:

Psalm 77.16-19 (LXX 76.17-20): 16 The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You, they were in anguish; the deeps also trembled. 17 The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth a sound; Your arrows flashed here and there. 18 The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; the lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook. 19 Your way was in the sea and Your paths in the mighty waters, and Your footprints may not be known.

Job 9.8: ... 8 Who alone stretches out the heavens and tramples down the waves of the sea.

Isaiah 43.16: 16 Thus says the LORD, Who makes a way through the sea And a path through the mighty waters....

Sirach 24.5: 5 Alone I have made the circuit of the vault of heaven and have walked in the depths of the abyss. [Wisdom is speaking here.]

And Revelation 21.1 affirms that there will be no more sea in the world to come.

5. Ba'al is a dying and rising god.

Day writes on pages 116-118:

I hope to demonstrate that the first clear reference to the literal resurrection of the dead in the Old Testament in Dan. 12.2 is a reinterpretation of the verse in Isa. 26.19 about resurrection, which, I shall argue, refers to restoration after exile, rather than literal life after death. Isaiah 26.19 in turn, I shall argue, is dependent on the death and resurrection imagery in the book of Hosea, especially on a reinterpretation of Hos. 13.14. Finally, the imagery of death and resurrection in Hosea (both in chs. 5-6 and 13-14), which likewise refers to Israel's exile and restoration, is directly taken over by the prophet from the imagery of the dying and rising fertility god, Baal.

That Baal was regarded as a dying and rising god cannot seriously be disputed. ....

Further evidence that Baal was a dying god is revealed by the reference in Zech. 12.11 to 'the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo', Hadad being another name for Baal.

Now, Day does not actually argue that Yahweh is also, like Ba'al, a dying and rising deity. But, given the many other similarities between the two storm gods, I have to wonder, especially in light of the following parallel:

Ba'al and Môt, Column 3, lines 18-21: Even I may sit down and be at ease, and (my) soul within me may take its ease; for mightiest Baal is alive, for the prince lord of earth exists.

Psalm 18.46 Masoretic (18.47 Masoretic, 17.47 LXX): Yahweh lives, and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of my salvation.

Ben.
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Re: Ba'al and Yahweh.

Post by outhouse »

Much of the biblical text absorbed Baal and El through centuries of redaction. At one time Yahweh and Baal brothers son of El the father deity who was married to Asherah, and later after 800 BC Asherah attributed as Yahwehs wife by some.

El and Yahweh were fused together early on but most of the people remained polytheistic to this family of deities all the way into Roman times.
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Re: Ba'al and Yahweh.

Post by andrewcriddle »

Ben C. Smith wrote: .....................................
5. Ba'al is a dying and rising god.

Day writes on pages 116-118:

I hope to demonstrate that the first clear reference to the literal resurrection of the dead in the Old Testament in Dan. 12.2 is a reinterpretation of the verse in Isa. 26.19 about resurrection, which, I shall argue, refers to restoration after exile, rather than literal life after death. Isaiah 26.19 in turn, I shall argue, is dependent on the death and resurrection imagery in the book of Hosea, especially on a reinterpretation of Hos. 13.14. Finally, the imagery of death and resurrection in Hosea (both in chs. 5-6 and 13-14), which likewise refers to Israel's exile and restoration, is directly taken over by the prophet from the imagery of the dying and rising fertility god, Baal.

That Baal was regarded as a dying and rising god cannot seriously be disputed. ....

Further evidence that Baal was a dying god is revealed by the reference in Zech. 12.11 to 'the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo', Hadad being another name for Baal.

The connection of the very difficult verse Zechariah 12:11 with Baal is possible but very far from certain. (The Hadad part of the compound Hadad-Rimmon was probably absent from the Hebrew text underlying the Septuagint.) Very very hesitatingly I would regard it as a reference to a syncretistic cult of Adonis/Tammuz. See Joan Taylor

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Re: Ba'al and Yahweh.

Post by austendw »

outhouse wrote:...but most of the people remained polytheistic to this family of deities all the way into Roman times.
On what basis to you make the assertion that "most" of the people were polytheistic all the way "into Roman times"? That's certainly not the picture that either the Dead Sea Scrolls or Josephus give.
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Re: Ba'al and Yahweh.

Post by andrewcriddle »

andrewcriddle wrote:
Ben C. Smith wrote: .....................................
5. Ba'al is a dying and rising god.

Day writes on pages 116-118:

I hope to demonstrate that the first clear reference to the literal resurrection of the dead in the Old Testament in Dan. 12.2 is a reinterpretation of the verse in Isa. 26.19 about resurrection, which, I shall argue, refers to restoration after exile, rather than literal life after death. Isaiah 26.19 in turn, I shall argue, is dependent on the death and resurrection imagery in the book of Hosea, especially on a reinterpretation of Hos. 13.14. Finally, the imagery of death and resurrection in Hosea (both in chs. 5-6 and 13-14), which likewise refers to Israel's exile and restoration, is directly taken over by the prophet from the imagery of the dying and rising fertility god, Baal.

That Baal was regarded as a dying and rising god cannot seriously be disputed. ....

Further evidence that Baal was a dying god is revealed by the reference in Zech. 12.11 to 'the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo', Hadad being another name for Baal.

The connection of the very difficult verse Zechariah 12:11 with Baal is possible but very far from certain. (The Hadad part of the compound Hadad-Rimmon was probably absent from the Hebrew text underlying the Septuagint.) Very very hesitatingly I would regard it as a reference to a syncretistic cult of Adonis/Tammuz. See Joan Taylor

Andrew Criddle
On whether Baal is a dying and rising God see http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1 ... 9808585140 and http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/1 ... -chapter-7 by Mark Smith (mostly the same article. I'm using a computer with University access. I'm not sure whether either or both of these links is general access.)

Mark Smith's conclusion to the second article:
6. The Mythology of Death and the God of Israel
This discussion of Baal holds considerable import for understanding biblical evidence about death and the underworld. The argument that the mythological presentation of Baal and the god of Death in the Baal Cycle is largely a literary one deriving some of its imagery from royal mortuary ritual should be consistent with biblical presentations of the chief deity of Israel and Death personified. Let me spell out this working hypothesis. Iron Age Israel shows clear evidence of the storm‐battle imagery of Baal's mythology.209 Indeed, biblical tradition shows a reliance on the particulars of Baal's mythology. In this category may be placed biblical references to the cosmic enemies such as Leviathan, Sea, and Tannin (discussed in chapter 1). Moreover, Psalm 48:3 identifies Mount Sapan, Baal's home in the Ugaritic texts, with Zion. Scholars generally accept the view that these details point to the continuity and modification of older traditions about Baal.210 In view of such shared specifics, one may ask why the Bible lacks a comparable mythology of the chief‐god with respect to the underworld and the god of Death. Like the Baal Cycle, the Bible is replete with speculations about the nature of the underworld and the god of Death; perhaps the best‐known biblical texts are Isaiah 28:15, 18; Jeremiah 9:20; Habakkuk 2:5; and Psalm 49.211 Unlike the Baal Cycle, the Bible contains few references to, much less any substantial mythology about, the conflict between the chief deity of Israel and the god of Death.212 Although the Bible does mention a divine victory over Death—though barely (Isaiah 25:8; cf. Revelation 21:4)—there is no mythological presentation of this conflict.213 The absence of this conflict is all the more striking because of the Bible's massive complex of storm‐battle imagery shared with the Ugaritic texts. The disparity might be attributed to the idea that the god of Israel has nothing to do with the realm of Death.214 Yet this is only partially correct. Certainly Yahweh is said to defeat death (Isaiah 25:8). There may be a deeper cause, one that involves the nature of this mythology as well as its social context in Ugarit and Israel. In the West Semitic world, the mythology of death may not have involved (p.131) the chief deity in a conflict. However, in the Baal Cycle the presentation of Baal and Mot may have been a literary production that modified an older mythology lacking such conflict. Indeed, the many structural similarities and verbal resonances between the Baal‐Mot and Baal‐Mot sections of the cycle (1.1–1.2 and 1.4 VIII–1.6, respectively) lend themselves to a theory that the latter section, using the traditional mythology of the underworld and the god of Death,215 was modeled on the former one under the further influence of a royal mortuary cult. If the theory is correct, the Ugaritic monarchy influenced the development of this particular form of the mythology of death at Ugarit. As far as the record presently indicates, Late Bronze Age West Semitic did not generally develop this sort of mythology except at Ugarit.

Accordingly, the chief god's conflict with Death may be absent in ancient Israel because West Semitic tradition perhaps did not generally contain and therefore transmit a broad mythology of death into the Iron Age. In other words, the dynasties of Israel and Judah may never have developed a mythology of Death as the Ugaritic monarchy did. The dominant priestly and deuteronomic theologies in the Iron II period in Judah may have inherited some dissociation between Israel's chief deity and the realm of death.216 Perhaps then death and the underworld in the Bible, insofar as they appear in Israelite material without a mythology of conflict, offer limited corroboration for the argument that the Ugaritic presentation of Baal's death and re‐appearance in the cosmos was fundamentally a literary production. In any case, the evidence does not support a ritual approach to the complex of material grouped under the category of “dying and rising gods,” at least for Ugarit and Israel. An attempt to resuscitate Frazer's category must drastically modify its basic criteria, perhaps so much so that Frazer would barely recognize it. (p.132)
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Re: Ba'al and Yahweh.

Post by Blood »

In any case, the evidence does not support a ritual approach to the complex of material grouped under the category of “dying and rising gods,” at least for Ugarit and Israel. An attempt to resuscitate Frazer's category must drastically modify its basic criteria, perhaps so much so that Frazer would barely recognize it. (p.132)
Tryggve N.D. Mettinger's book The Riddle of Resurrection (2001) does what Smith suggested -- rids itself of Frazer's death of vegetation as being the sole criteria for "dying and reviving gods" and reexamines ancient conceptions of deities who die and/or "disappear" and come back to life or simply reappear in narratives. He devotes 26 pages to "Ugaritic Baal" (the "Ugaritic" being an important qualifier) and concludes, "the Baal-Mot myth comprises the mytheme of death and resurrection. The return is a return to full and active life." And: "Baal's fates draw on seasonal changes. His absence causes the summer drought. The onset of the autumn rains is the proof of his return. The Baal-Mot myth is a paradigm and etiology for the seasonal changes ... (but) the situation on the cultic level of ritual is more difficult to ascertain ... the corpus of ritual texts contains virtually no reference to Baal's death and return." (page 81)

Elsewhere in the book he writes: "As far as I can see, the Hebrew Bible offers no evidence that YHWH was a dying and rising god. In this respect, 'canonical' YHWH offers a striking contrast to Canaanite Baal. At the same time, it should be noted that weather gods are not, as such, gods who die and rise. Baal seems to be exceptional. Lacking this characteristic, YHWH is simply similar to other Northwest Semitic deities." (page 220)
“The only sensible response to fragmented, slowly but randomly accruing evidence is radical open-mindedness. A single, simple explanation for a historical event is generally a failure of imagination, not a triumph of induction.” William H.C. Propp
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Re: Ba'al and Yahweh.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Good points, Andrew and Blood.

I object to the wholesale resistance to the concept of "dying and rising deities" that I am finding — my use of the term is not meant to conjure the shade of Frazer, to whom I have not referred in any of these threads until now. Rather, it is descriptive; it is the sum of its individual words, and no more. In response to the charge that the corpus of ritual texts contains virtually no reference to Ba'al's death and return, I can but point out that no fewer than three times, at least, in the saga of Ba'a'ls struggle with death is Ba'al said to be dead. Dead is dead. At some point Ba'al is said to be alive after this death. That is what Anglophones call rising. The semantics are so simple a child could not fail to grasp them. Just please be aware, again, that I am not tying this in to Frazer in any direct way. It is descriptive terminology. As such, it belies sentences such as one found in the abstract to one of those linked articles: "[I]f Baal is not to be regarded as a dying and rising god, what is the significance of his death and return to life?" In the quest to create distance from Frazer, apparently one is required to wage a war on words. I avoid such wars on principle; and, if Frazer's key tenets have to be overturned and recast in the process, so be it.

Zechariah 12.10 bears looking into, I very much agree; I had avoided using it until posting that quote because I am still uncertain about all of the correspondences between Hadad, Ba'al, and similar deities.
Last edited by Ben C. Smith on Sat Dec 02, 2017 8:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ba'al and Yahweh.

Post by andrewcriddle »

I've been reading the primary texts (in translation) e.g. Hittite Myths by Hoffner.

The basic argument that Mark Smith is making goes something like this.
a/ In Bronze Age Syria Anatolia and Palestine there is a widespread myth in which a leading god typically the storm-god disappears, (sometimes after defeat by another deity, sometimes into the underworld), and has to be brought back.
b/ Therefore It is prima facie plausible to expect a myth of the disappearance and return of the god throughout the related middle eastern cultures.
c/ The Ba'al Mot cycle is clearly one version of this myth.
d/ The Ba'al Mot cycle is unusual in that the disappearance of the god is represented as the death of the god.
e/ This involves describing the departing of Ba'al and the response of the other gods in ways deliberately modeled on the Ugarit liturgy for mourning the death of the (human) king.
f/ The background to this appears to be a parallel drawn between the disappearance and return of Ba'al and the replacement of the human king by his successor (the king is dead long live the king).
g/ Hence the representation, in the Ba'al Mot cycle, of the disappearance of Ba'al as his death appears related to the specific function of the myth in Ugarit culture.
g/ Therefore there is no prima facie expectation that a member of the related middle eastern cultures, (such as Yahwism), will have a myth like the Ba'al Mot cycle in which the god disappears by dying.
h/ Hence in the absence of direct evidence for such a myth in Yahwism it probably did not exist.

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Re: Ba'al and Yahweh.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

That does make sense, and I agree that "there is no prima facie expectation" that Yahwism would necessarily have to have the same mythos, particularly if this part is sound:
This involves describing the departing of Ba'al and the response of the other gods in ways deliberately modeled on the Ugarit liturgy for mourning the death of the (human) king.
The background to this appears to be a parallel drawn between the disappearance and return of Ba'al and the replacement of the human king by his successor (the king is dead long live the king).
Hence the representation, in the Ba'al Mot cycle, of the disappearance of Ba'al as his death appears related to the specific function of the myth in Ugarit culture.
Where is this liturgy to be found?

Also, I have been reading Widengren's essay from 1958, and he adduces evidence for exactly what you lay out as the disappearance and return of Yahweh, but his best evidences for the motif of death and resurrection are still subtle, at best. So what do you think "Yahweh lives" / "Yahweh is alive" means in Psalm 18? Every time I read it I can think only of the various Christian hymns which share a similar refrain about Jesus: "He is alive," in which cases the line means exactly how it sounds to my ear, to wit, that he was dead (or at least in grave danger) but is no longer. "X is alive" is not usually something we say about people for whom death was not even an option.

Finally, I do still find it interesting, on the supposition that Yahwism (by which we would have to mean all strains of Yahwism) lacked this death-and-resurrection element, that we find it put into place in force once Jesus comes along to take over the prerogatives of Yahweh.

I have a direct comparison of Ba'al and Jesus here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3153&p=70078, without reference to an intermediate Yahweh. I know not all of the parallels are of equal value, but both Ba'al and Jesus being "obedient unto death" and made "like mortals" stands out. And of course death is explicit in the tale of Inanna and at least implicit in the tale of Ishtar. I cannot help but suspect that something has happened either to bring Ba'al's death back into the Jesus story or to bring it in from one of those other myth cycles in a syncretistic way.
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Re: Ba'al and Yahweh.

Post by Nathan »

Ben C. Smith wrote:
This involves describing the departing of Ba'al and the response of the other gods in ways deliberately modeled on the Ugarit liturgy for mourning the death of the (human) king.
The background to this appears to be a parallel drawn between the disappearance and return of Ba'al and the replacement of the human king by his successor (the king is dead long live the king).
Hence the representation, in the Ba'al Mot cycle, of the disappearance of Ba'al as his death appears related to the specific function of the myth in Ugarit culture.
Where is this liturgy to be found?
Presumably this is a reference to lines 20-22 in the funerary text from Ugarit designated RS 34.126. It can be found transcribed and translated in Dennis Pardee's Ritual and Cult at Ugarit (pp. 87-8).

In the liturgy the sun goddess Shapshu speaks to the deceased king, saying:

20. After your lords [baals; i.e., your royal predecessors], from the throne,
21. After your lords [baals] descend into the earth [aretz],
22. Into the earth [aretz] descend and lower yourself into the dust ...

The background is apparently El's lamentation of Baal's death in KTU 1.5, column VI, lines 11-15, 22, 25 (pp. 149-50 in Simon Parker's Ugaritic Narrative Poetry):

11. Then Beneficent El the Benign
12. Descends from his throne, sits on the footstool
13. [And] from the footstool, sits on the earth [aretz].
14. He pours dirt on his head for mourning,
15. Dust on his crown for lamenting;
...
22. He raises his voice and cries:
...
25. "After Baal I will descend into Hell [aretz]."

ETA: Pardee seems to think the liturgy is based on the mythology and not the reverse:
...[T]he [liturgical] formulation is in imitation of the mythological depiction of 'Ilu mourning Ba'lu ... and of those who would go in search of the missing Ba'lu ...
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