That the Hebrew God is the best known of all gods worshiped in the world today needs no explanation. The Jews, the Christians and the Muslims, among others, all accord the ancient Hebrew God their devotion. Whatever else those three faiths might say, they would agree with Psalm 95:3, that “The Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods.”
But God is not and has not been without his rivals, even in antiquity. Even in the pages of the Hebrew Bible, there were many alternatives to the Lord God of Israel, and in this article we will consider three of the now largely forgotten deities who once opposed Him, who alone is most great.
Perhaps the best known ancient rival to the Hebrew God was the pagan Baal, a term which means “master” or Rlord”, and is probably originally a general term for a variety of local deities in the area in and near the holy land. An example of a local baal cult is called “Baal-peor” mentioned in Numbers 25:3, where the Israelites disgraced themselves in some sexual rites with the Moabites and worshiped the local god, incurring the wrath and punishment of their own God.
Over the centuries, however, the cults of the “Baalim” became merged and several specific larger cults developed. The best known of these was the cult of the Syrian god Melqart, worshiped by King Ahab of Israel and his “wicked” wife Jezebel. It was this Israelite worship of Baal which was challenged by the Hebrew prophet Elijah in his famous conflict with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in I Kings 18, when he challenged the false prophets to bring down fire from heaven. When the prophets of Baal failed to do so, Elijah’s God did so, resulting in the slaughter of the prophets of Baal by an angry mob. But the worship of the god was not so easily extinguished.
The god or gods called Baal normally required the sacrifice of children, often the first-born male child, by sacrifice by fire. It has been suggested that the famous story of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac, when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son and then forbade the sacrifice at the last moment, was told to the ancients as a dramatic and instructive narrative which commanded the Hebrews not to follow the pagan cults of the land. It was as if to say that even the great patriarch himself did not sacrifice his son, but it was only a test of his faith, and so too good Hebrews must not follow the practice of the people of the land however tempted they were.
In post-biblical archeology, we note that the cult of Baal was taken by the Phoenicians to North Africa, where he was worshiped by the Carthaginian peoples. We are not surprised to find his name incorporated into the name of the great Carthaginian general Hannibal who harried Fabius Maximus and the generals of Rome with his wonderful elephants. In any event, Baal’s cult came to an abrupt end with the Roman sack of Carthage in 146 B.C.
Another popular goddess worshiped in the days of the Bible was Ashtaroth, a deity associated with sexuality and fertility, and by some peoples war. He was probably tied to the Mesopotamian cult of Ishtar, which in turn was probably derived from the very ancient Sumerian mother goddess Inanna. The Hebrew Bible also calls this same goddess Astarte. The ancient Hebrew prophets denounced her cult many times, most likely because she was worshiped with sexual fertility rites. Certainly her cult predated the Hebrews by many centuries, and when the Philistines slaughtered Saul, the first king of Israel, they could think of no better tribute than to place his battle armor in her temple as a tribute. (I Samuel 31:10) Many nude statues of her have been uncovered by archaeologists and the Bible refers to her fertility poles, or rods, on many occasions. Her cult must have been very popular, as it even swayed, or corrupted, the heart of wise King Solomon, for which he was criticized in I Kings 11:5.
Poor King Solomon also was led astray by the third of the favorite pagan gods of the land, Molech, to whom he raised an altar near Jerusalem, although the Bible tells us that God twice warned him not to and in punishment for this his heir would be deprived of 10 of the tribes of his great kingdom. (I Kings 11:10). Molech was a god of the Ammonite peoples. His name seems to be tied to the Hebrew word “melek” which means “king,” which in turn suggests he was an older god, perhaps the Akkadian diety Mulik. Like Baal, his cult may have also been transported to Carthage, where he was worshiped as the god Molech until the servants of the Olympian gods pulverized ancient Carthage.
The Hebrew Bible was quite fierce in its denunciations of Molech, not simply because of the sin of idolatry but also because of the custom of the worshipers of Molech of sacrificing children to the god by fire. The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah describes with horror the ancient rites, telling us that God says, “They built high places to Baal in the Valley of Beth-hinnom and immolated their sons and daughters to Molech bringing sin upon Judah; this I never commanded them, nor did it enter my mind that they should practice such abominations. (Jeremiah 32:35)
The Hebrew God reacted very strongly to this kind of worship. The Torah on several occasions commands the death penalty for anyone worshiping him. The text tells us that “Tell the Israelites, anyone, whether an Israelite or an alien residing in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech shall be put to death. Let his fellow citizens stone him. I (God) myself will turn against such a man and cut him off from the body of his people; for in giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.” (Leviticus 20:2-3)
It must have been a terrifying and tempting thing to the peoples of antiquity when they saw the impressive temples of the pagan gods, the loud music, the professional priesthoods and their claims that such blood sacrifices and exotic fertility rites could make people’s lives better. The Hebrew God by comparison spent a lot of his career with a solitary ark drawn around in a cart. Later, He had but few holy places for sacrifice and in the days of Solomon these were concentrated into only one temple in Jerusalem. But the humble worship of the Hebrew God, who had no images, ritual tattoos and who rejected child sacrifice, survived. The images of Baal, Ashtaroth and Molech are today viewed primarily by bored schoolchildren in museums.
(To the electronic readers of this column: As my writings on paganism often show up on various Web sites without my permission, I remind my readers that the copyright to this text belongs to myself and the Redlands Daily Facts and Web posting of this text without written permission is prohibited.)
Gregory Elder, a Redlands resident, is a professor of history and humanities at Riverside Community College. You can write to him at Professing Faith, P.O. Box 8102, Redlands, CA 92375, or send e-mail to Gnyssa@verizon.net
