[Illustration: Cover]
THE
RELIGION OF ANCIENT
PALESTINE
IN THE SECOND MILLENNIUM B.C.
_In the Light of Archæology and the Inscriptions_
By
STANLEY A. COOK, M.A.
EX-FELLOW, AND LECTURER IN HEBREW AND SYRIAC, GONVILLE AND CAIUS
COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AUTHOR OF 'A GLOSSARY OF THE ARAMAIC
INSCRIPTIONS,' 'THE LAWS OF MOSES AND THE CODE OF
HAMMURABI,' 'CRITICAL NOTES ON OLD
TESTAMENT HISTORY,' ETC.
LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD
1908
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PREFACE
The following pages deal with the religion of Ancient Palestine, more
particularly in the latter half of the Second Millennium, B.C. They
touch upon the problem of the rise and development of Israelite
religion; a problem, however, which does not lie within the scope of
the present sketch (pp. 4, 114 _sq._). The Amarna tablets, Egyptian
records, and the results of recent excavation form the foundation, and
the available material has been interpreted in the light of comparative
religion. The aim has been to furnish a fairly self-contained
description of the general religious conditions from external or
non-biblical sources, and this method has been adopted partly on
account of the conflicting opinions which prevail among those who have
investigated the theology of the Old Testament in its relation to
modern research. Every effort has been made to present the evidence
accurately and fairly; although lack of space has prevented discussion
of the more interesting features of the old Palestinian religion and of
the various secondary problems which arose from time to time. {vi}
Some difficulty has been caused by the absence of any more or less
comprehensive treatment of the subject; although, from the list of
authorities at the end it will be seen that the most important sources
have only quite recently become generally accessible. These, and the
few additional bibliographical references given in the footnotes are
far from indicating the great indebtedness of the present writer to the
works of Oriental scholars and of those who have dealt with comparative
religion. Special acknowledgements are due to Mr. F. Ll. Griffith,
M.A., Reader in Egyptology, University of Oxford; to the Rev. C. H. W.
Johns, M.A., Lecturer in Assyriology, Queen's College, Cambridge, and
King's College, London; and to Mr. R. A. S. Macalister, M.A., F.S.A.,
Director of the Palestine Exploration Fund's excavations at Gezer.
These gentlemen enhanced their kindness by reading an early proof, and
by contributing valuable suggestions and criticisms. But the
responsibility for all errors of statement and opinion rests with the
present writer.
STANLEY A. COOK.
_July_ 1908.
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CONTENTS
CHAP.
I. INTRODUCTORY:
The Subject--Method--Survey of Period and Sources--The Land and People,
. . . 1-12
II. SACRED SITES:
The Sanctuary of Gezer--Other Sacred Places--Their Persistence--The
Modern Places of Cult, . . . 13-23
III. SACRED OBJECTS:
Trees--Stones--Images and Symbols, . . . 24-32
IV. SACRED RITES AND PRACTICES:
General Inferences--Disposal of the Dead--Jar-burial--Human
Sacrifice--Foundation Sacrifice--Importance of Sacrifice--Broken
Offerings--'Holy' and 'Unclean'--Sacred Animals, . . . 33-49
V. THE WORLD OF SPIRITS:
Awe--Charms--Oracles--Representatives of Supernatural Powers--The
Dead--Animism--The Divinity of Kings--Recognised Gods, . . . 50-65
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VI. THE GODS:
Their Vicissitudes--Their Representative Character--In Political
Treaties and Covenants--The Influence of Egypt--Treatment of Alien
Gods, . . . 66-82
VII. THE PANTHEON:
Asiatic Deities in Egypt--Sutekh--Baal--Resheph--
Kadesh--Anath--Astarte--Ashirta Sun-deity--(Shamash)--Moon-god (Sin)
--Addu (Hadad)--Dagon--Nebo--Ninib
--Shalem--Gad--'Righteousness'--Nergal --Melek--Yahweh (Jehovah), . . .
83-97
VIII. CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT:
Miscellaneous Ideas--The Underlying Identity of Thought--Influence of
Babylonia--Conclusion, . . . 98-115
PRINCIPAL SOURCES AND WORKS OF REFERENCE, . . . 116
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, . . . 118
INDEX, . . . 119
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THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT PALESTINE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
+The Subject.+--By the Religion of Ancient Palestine is meant that of
the Semitic land upon which was planted the ethical monotheism of
Judaism. The subject is neither the growth of Old Testament theology,
nor the religious environment of the Israelite teachers: it anticipates
by several centuries the first of the great prophets whose writings
have survived, and it takes its stand in the second millennium B.C.,
and more especially in its latter half. It deals with the internal and
external religious features which were capable of being shaped into the
forms with which every one is familiar, and our Palestine is that of
the Patriarchs, of Moses, Joshua, and the Judges, an old land which
modern research has placed in a new light.
Successive discoveries of contemporary {2} historical and archæological
material have made it impossible to ignore either the geographical
position of Palestine, which exposes it to the influence of the
surrounding seats of culture, or its political history, which has
constantly been controlled by external circumstances. Although
Palestine reappears as only a small fraction of the area dominated by
the ancient empires of Egypt and Western Asia, the uniqueness of its
experiences can be more vividly realised. If it is found to share many
forms of religious belief and custom with its neighbours, one is better
able to sever the features which were by no means the exclusive
possession of Israel from those which were due to specific influences
shaping them to definite ends, and the importance of the little land in
the history of humanity can thereby be more truly and permanently
estimated.
+Method.+--Although Palestine was the land of Judaism and of
Christianity, and has subsequently been controlled by Mohammedanism, it
has preserved common related elements of belief, which have formed, as
it were, part of the unconscious inheritance of successive generations.
They have not been ousted by those positive religions which traced
their origin to deliberate and epoch-making {3} innovators, and they
survive to-day as precious relics for the study of the past. Indeed,
the _comparative method_, which investigates points of resemblance and
difference among widely-severed peoples, can avail itself in our case
of Oriental conservatism, and may range over a single but remarkably
extensive field. From the archæology and inscriptions of Ancient
Babylonia to Punic Carthage, from the Old Testament to the writings of
Rabbinical Judaism, from classical, Syrian, and Arabian authors to the
observations of medieval and modern travellers, one may accumulate a
store of evidence which is mutually illustrative or supplementary. But
it would be incorrect to assume that every modern belief or rite in
Palestine, for example, necessarily represents the old religion: there
have been reversion and retrogression; some old practices have
disappeared, others have been modified or have received a new
interpretation. This warning is necessary, because one must be able to
trace the paths traversed by the several rites and beliefs which have
been arrested, before the religion of any age can be placed in its
proper historical perspective. Unfortunately the sources do not permit
us to do this for our period. The Old Testament, it is true, covers
this period, and its writers frequently {4} condemn the worship which
they regard as contrary to that of their national God. But the Old
Testament brings with it many serious problems, and, for several
reasons, it is preferable to approach the subject from external and
contemporary evidence. Although its incompleteness has naturally
restricted our treatment, the aim has been to describe, in as
self-contained a form as possible, the general religious conditions to
which this evidence points, and to indicate rather more incidentally
its bearing upon the numerous questions which are outside the scope of
the following pages.
+Survey of Period and Sources.+--Many different elements must have
coalesced in the history of Palestinian culture from the days of the
early palaeolithic and neolithic inhabitants. It is with no
rudimentary people that we are concerned, but with one acquainted with
bronze and exposed to the surrounding civilisations. The First
Babylonian Dynasty, not to ascend further, brings with it evidence for
relations between Babylonia and the Mediterranean coast-lands, and
intercourse between Egypt and Palestine dates from before the invasion
of the Hyksos.[1] With the expulsion of {5} these invaders (about 1580
B.C.), the monarchs of Egypt enter upon their great campaigns in
Western Asia, and Palestine comes before us in the clear light of
history. The Egyptian records of the Eighteenth to Twentieth Dynasties
furnish valuable information on the history of our period. Babylonia
and Assyria lie in the background, and the rival parties are the
kingdom of the Nile and the non-Semitic peoples of North Syria and Asia
Minor ('Hittites') whose influence can probably be traced as far south
as Jerusalem. Under Thutmose III. (fifteenth century) Egypt became the
queen of the known world and the meeting-place of its trade and
culture. But the northern peoples only awaited their opportunity, and
fresh campaigns were necessary before Amenhotep III. (about 1400 B.C.)
again secured the supremacy of Egypt. His successor, the idealist
Amenhotep IV. (or Ikhnaton), is renowned for his temporary religious
reform, and, at a time when Egypt's king was almost universally
recognised, he established in Egypt what was practically a universal
god. Meanwhile, amid internal confusion in Egypt, Hittites pressed
downwards from Asia Minor, seriously weakening the earlier Hittite
kingdom of Mitanni (North Syria and Mesopotamia). The cuneiform
tablets discovered in 1887 {6} at El-Amarna in Middle Egypt contain a
portion of the diplomatic correspondence between Western Asia (from
Babylonia to Cyprus) and the two Amenhoteps, and a few tablets in the
same script and of about the same age have since been unearthed at
Lachish and Taanach. It is at this age that we meet with the restless
Khabiri, a name which suggests a connection with that of the 'Hebrews.'
The progress of this later Hittite invasion cannot be clearly traced;
at all events, Sety I. (Sethos, about 1320 B.C.) was obliged to
recommence the work of his predecessors, but recovered little more than
Palestine. Ramses II., after much fighting, was able to conclude a
treaty with the Hittites (about 1290), the Egyptian version of which is
now being supplemented by the Hittite records of the proceedings.
Nevertheless, his successor, Merneptah, claims conquests extending from
Gezer to the Hittites, and among those who 'salaamed' (_lit._ said
'peace') he includes the people (or tribe) Israel.
[1] For approximate dates, see the Chronological Table.
The active intercourse with the Aegean Isles during this age can be
traced from Asia Minor to Egypt (notably at El-Amarna), and movements
in the Levant had accompanied the pressure southwards from Asia Minor
in the time of the Amenhoteps. A similar combination was defeated by
{7} Ramses III. (about 1200); among its constituents the Philistines
may doubtless be recognised. But Egypt, now in the Twentieth Dynasty,
was fast losing its old strength, and the internal history of Palestine
is far from clear. Apart from the sudden extension of the Assyrian
empire to the Mediterranean under Tiglath-pileser I. (about 1100 B.C.),
no one great power, so far as is known, could claim supremacy over the
west; and our period comes to an end at a time when Palestine,
according to the Israelite historians, was laying the foundation of its
independent monarchy.
Palestine has always been open to the roaming tribes from Arabia and
the Syrian desert, tribes characteristically opposed to the inveterate
practices of settled agricultural life. Arabia, however, possessed
seats of culture, though their bearing upon our period cannot yet be
safely estimated. But a temple with an old-established and
contemporary cult, half Egyptian and half Semitic, has been recovered
by Professor Petrie at Serabit el-Khadem in the Sinaitic Peninsula, and
the archæological evidence frequently illustrates the results of the
excavations in Palestine. Excavations have been undertaken at Tell
el-Hesy (Lachish), at various sites in the lowlands of Judah (including
Tell es-Sāfy, perhaps Gath), at {8} Gezer, Taanach, and Tell
el-Mutesellim (Megiddo), and, within the last few months, at Jericho.
Much of the evidence can be roughly dated, and fortunately the age
already illuminated by the Amarna tablets can be recognised. Its
culture associates it with North Syria and Asia Minor, and reveals
signs of intercourse with the Aegean Isles; but, as a whole, it is the
result of a gradual development, which extends without abrupt gaps to
the time of the Hebrew monarchy and beyond. Chronological
dividing-lines cannot yet be drawn, and consequently the archæological
evidence which illustrates the 'Amarna' age is not characteristic of
that age alone.
+The Land and People.+--For practical purposes a distinction between
Palestine and Syria is unnecessary, apart from the political results of
their contiguity to Egypt and Asia Minor respectively. Egypt at the
height of its power was a vast empire of unprecedented wealth and
splendour, and the imported works of art or the descriptions of the
spoils of war speak eloquently of the stage which material culture had
reached throughout Western Asia. Even the small townships of Palestine
and Syria--the average city was a small fortified site surrounded by
dwellings, {9} sometimes with an outer wall--could furnish rich booty
of suits of armour, elegant furniture, and articles of gold and silver.
The pottery shows some little taste, music was enjoyed, and a great
tunnel hewn out of the rock at Gezer is proof of enterprise and skill.
The agricultural wealth of the land was famous. Thutmose III. found
grain 'more plentiful than the sand of the shore'; and an earlier and
more peaceful visitor to N. Syria, Sinuhe (about 2000 B.C.), speaks of
the wine more plentiful than water, copious honey, abundance of oil,
all kinds of fruits, cereals, and numberless cattle. Sinuhe was
welcomed by a sheikh who gave him his eldest daughter and allowed him
to choose a landed possession. Life was simpler and less civilised
than in Egypt, but not without excitement. He led the tribesmen to
war, raiding pastures and wells, capturing the cattle, ravaging the
hostile districts. Indeed, 'lions and Asiatics' were the familiar
terror of Egyptian travellers, and the turbulence of the petty
chieftains, whose intrigues and rivalries swell the Amarna letters,
made any combined action among themselves exceptional and transitory.
We gather from these letters that foreign envoys were provided with
passports or credentials addressed to the 'Kings of Canaan,' to ensure
their speedy and safe passage {10} as they traversed the areas of the
different local authorities. Such royal commissioners are already met
with in the time of Sinuhe.
Egyptian monuments depict the people with a strongly marked Semitic
physiognomy, and that physical resemblance to the modern native which
the discovery of skeletons has since endorsed. We can mark their dark
olive complexion; the men with pointed beards and with thick bushy
hair, which is sometimes anointed, and the women with tresses waving
loosely over their shoulders. The slender maidens were admired and
sought after by the Egyptians, and later (in the Nineteenth Dynasty) we
find the men in request as gardeners and artisans, and some even hold
high positions in the administration of Egypt. The script and language
of Babylonia were still in use in the fifteenth century, although the
supremacy of that land belonged to the past; they were used in
correspondence between Western Asia and Egypt, also among the Hittites,
and even between the chieftains of Palestine. Apart from the tablets
found at Lachish and Taanach, several were unearthed at Jericho,
uninscribed and ready for use. But the native language in Palestine
and Syria was one which stands in the closest relation to the classical
Hebrew of the {11} Old Testament, and it differed only dialectically
from the Moabite inscription of Mesha (about 850 B.C.), the somewhat
later Hamathite record of Ben-hadad's defeat, and the Phoenician
inscriptions.
The general stock of ideas, too, was wholly in accord with Semitic, or
rather, Oriental thought, and the people naturally shared the
paradoxical characteristics of the old Oriental world:--a simplicity
and narrowness of thought, intensity, fanaticism, and even ferocity.[2]
To these must be added a keen imagination, necessarily quickened by the
wonderful variety of Palestinian scenery, which ranges from rugged and
forbidding deserts to enchanting valleys and forests. The life of the
people depended upon the soil and the agricultural wealth, and these
depended upon a climate of marked contrasts, which is found in some
parts (_e.g._ the lower Jordan valley) to be productive of physical and
moral enervation. In a word, the land is one whose religion cannot be
understood without an attentive regard to those factors which were
unalterable, and to those specific external influences which were
focussed upon it in the entire course of the Second {12} Millennium
B.C. We touch the land at a particular period in the course of its
very lengthy history; it is not the beginnings of its religion, but the
stage it had reached, which concerns us.
[2] See Th. Nöldeke, _Sketches from Eastern History_ (London, 1892),
chap. i., 'Some Characteristics of the Semitic Race.'
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