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Monday, December 28, 2015

Canaanite Religion

baal03Also unnamed, this was the religion of the Canaanites, natives of the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. For thousands of years, the only evidence we had of their religion was from the Torah and the Bible, where they are a constant enemy of the Israelites. However, between 1927 and 1937, a number of Canaanite tablets were discovered on the northern coast of Syria. It was a polytheistic religion with a number of deities, the most prominent among them being El, the supreme deity, and Baal, his son and the god of thunder and rain.
One of the most popular myths was of a fight between Baal and Mot, the god of death. Baal challenges Mot and is easily overpowered, leading to a drought. All of the other gods, led by El, band together to free Baal. Anat, the virgin goddess of war, ends up going to the Underworld, slaying Mot, and freeing Baal. Influenced by a number of neighboring sects, it was slowly eroded by Israelite conquests and religious pressure, until it vanished altogether.

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