Catholic Scholarship on the Canaanite Ugaritica

[ChinoCoug]

Since the apologists haven’t answered my question in three days, let’s see if someone can beat them to it.

Can someone point me to some quality Catholic scholarship on the discoveries of tablets at Ugarit that parallel some OT text, and provide powerful evidence that the religion of ancient Israel wasn’t strictly monotheistic?

Thanks.

 

[jenkiedad]

All I have seen is an article associated with a biblical course at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago:

prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/Doc6/ugarit.htm

The OT is full of references to the problems associated with the intermarriage between Canaanites and the 12 Tribes of Israel; i.e., adoption of the Canaanite gods.

 

[Peter_John]

Since the apologists haven’t answered my question in three days, let’s see if someone can beat them to it.

Can someone point me to some quality Catholic scholarship on the discoveries of tablets at Ugarit that parallel some OT text, and provide powerful evidence that the religion of ancient Israel wasn’t strictly monotheistic?

Thanks.

I do not know about that, but I do not know where in the Bible it affirms that the religion of Ancient Israel WAS strictly monotheistic. I know where it is that God declares He is the only God, which is all over the place in the prophets. The histories and literature still indiacte that the practice was often polytheistic, against the will of God. Even when some only worshipped one God they perceived god as “the King over all the Gods” (Psalm 95, I beleive) It is no wonder God keeps tells Isaiah, My people has not understood."

The Bible is the story of man beginning in perfect communion with God, losing this, then god reaching out to man and man responding. As man responds and accepts ever more complete revelations of God. The difference in this unfolding revelation of God, depending on man’s acceptance of it, is in the difference between the prohetic works – which offer a more clear picture - and the historic and literary works.

All the genres of the Bible only come into complete concord on monotheism in the plain and precious Deuterocanon removed by Jewish leaders after the Bible went forth from the Jews to the Gentiles. These take the story of Man’s relationship to God forward an additional 250 years from about 400 bc to about 150 bc. In these, particularly Wisdom and the Books of Maccabees it is apparent the people have finally understood and accepted that God is the One and Only God.

No surprise that the full revelation of God in the person of Christ follows. It brings not just direct personal interaction with God himself, and opens the prophecy and covenants to all men rather than a select few, God even opens his internal dialogue to us, by revealing his Trinity.

So finding ancient records that show ancient Israel practiced polytheism should not be surprising.

 

[ChinoCoug]

All I have seen is an article associated with a biblical course at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago:

prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/Doc6/ugarit.htm

The OT is full of references to the problems associated with the intermarriage between Canaanites and the 12 Tribes of Israel; i.e., adoption of the Canaanite gods.

Thanks, but I was hoping for // between the Divine Council and the Canaanite pantheon listed in passages like Ps 82 and Amos 3.

That article lists many parallels:

Enthronement of Yahweh // Enthronement of Baal

Yahweh was listed as one of the Sons of El.

Addendum: Looks like the article does mention it:

In 2 Kings 22:19-22 we read of Yahweh meeting with his heavenly council. This is the very description of heaven which one finds in the Ugaritic texts. For in those texts the “sons of god” are the sons of El.

Canaanite god Dan’il // Biblical Daniel

 

[ChinoCoug]

I do not know about that, but I do not know where in the Bible it affirms that the religion of Ancient Israel WAS strictly monotheistic. I know where it is that God declares He is the only God, which is all over the place in the prophets. The histories and literature still indiacte that the practice was often polytheistic, against the will of God. Even when some only worshipped one God they perceived god as “the King over all the Gods” (Psalm 95, I beleive) It is no wonder God keeps tells Isaiah, My people has not understood."

The Bible is the story of man beginning in perfect communion with God, losing this, then god reaching out to man and man responding. As man responds and accepts ever more complete revelations of God. The difference in this unfolding revelation of God, depending on man’s acceptance of it, is in the difference between the prohetic works – which offer a more clear picture - and the historic and literary works.

All the genres of the Bible only come into complete concord on monotheism in the plain and precious Deuterocanon removed by Jewish leaders after the Bible went forth from the Jews to the Gentiles. These take the story of Man’s relationship to God forward an additional 250 years from about 400 bc to about 150 bc. In these, particularly Wisdom and the Books of Maccabees it is apparent the people have finally understood and accepted that God is the One and Only God.

No surprise that the full revelation of God in the person of Christ follows. It brings not just direct personal interaction with God himself, and opens the prophecy and covenants to all men rather than a select few, God even opens his internal dialogue to us, by revealing his Trinity.

So finding ancient records that show ancient Israel practiced polytheism should not be surprising.

The problem with this is that some of the “idolatry” has survived in passages like Ps 82, Amos 3, and 2 Kgs 22:19-22, that parallel the Canaanite panthoeon. After Babylonian exile, Israel became a strict and intolerant monotheism. I don’t know much about the books in the Catholic Bible, but from your description they emphatically reinforce the strict monotheism.

I looked in the Catholic Encyclopedia and found nothing about the divine council. Is there something like a Catholic Dictionary of the Old Testament?

By the way, can you tell me who the leading Catholic OT scholars are? All I know is (the late) Brown and Fitzmeyer.

 

[Peter_John]

The problem with this is that some of the “idolatry” has survived in passages like Ps 82, Amos 3, and 2 Kgs 22:19-22, that parallel the Canaanite panthoeon. After Babylonian exile, Israel became a strict and intolerant monotheism. I don’t know much about the books in the Catholic Bible, but from your description they emphatically reinforce the strict monotheism.

I looked in the Catholic Encyclopedia and found nothing about the divine council. Is there something like a Catholic Dictionary of the Old Testament?

By the way, can you tell me who the leading Catholic OT scholars are? All I know is (the late) Brown and Fitzmeyer.

Amos would be considered a Prophet, but Kings and Psalms are other genres. For scholarship on a theological level I would put my money on a former German Cardinal who headed up the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine under John Paul II, and had responsibility for some of the most important decisions regarding scholarly and doctrinal interpretation during the last century.

I realize the way I began the post may not have made my point clear. There is nothing remarkable about ancient records showing that ancient Israel worshipped a multiplicity of Gods in practice. A contextual study of the Bible makes it clear that in practice it took until the last few centuries before Christ for the people to get the message. It took a long time for the Israeiltes to accept complete Monotheism, but they did before the time of Christ.

If you have an academic interest in OT studies, you really need to read at least 1 Maccabees (this is a strictly historic account of fundamentalist Jewish rebellion against Greek domination. It tells how Hannukah started. It has the most direct references to oridnances for the dead.) and the Book of Wisdom (the most clear references to the coming atonement).

 

[ChinoCoug]

Amos would be considered a Prophet, but Kings and Psalms are other genres. For scholarship on a theological level I would put my money on a former German Cardinal who headed up the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine under John Paul II, and had responsibility for some of the most important decisions regarding scholarly and doctrinal interpretation during the last century.

I realize the way I began the post may not have made my point clear. There is nothing remarkable about ancient records showing that ancient Israel worshipped a multiplicity of Gods in practice.

What about records, found in our current Bible that show a multiplicity of gods, that parallel the Canaanite myths?

Ps. 82: 1

God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgement:

I found this thread to be quite interesting:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=84832

 

[ChinoCoug]

I see some Catholic works on the Ugarit. These works appear to be quite dated though. Most scholarship to date has been done recently.

Fisher, L.R., ed. Ras Shamra Parallels: The Texts from Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible. Vol. I. AnOr, 49. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1972.

Fisher, L.R., ed. Ras Shamra Parallels: The Texts from Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible. Vol. II. AnOr, 50. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1975.

Rummel, S., ed. Ras Shamra Parallels: The Texts from Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible. Vol. III. AnOr, 51. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1981.

 

[Peter_John]

What about records, found in our current Bible that show a multiplicity of gods, that parallel the Canaanite myths?

Ps. 82: 1

I found this thread to be quite interesting:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=84832

There is nothing remarkable about that. How about the first commandment: “Thpugh shalt have no other gods before me.”? Easily taken by those having a difficult time abandoning their polytheistic practices to still acknowledge there are other gods, just Yahweh is prime.

The belief of those days associated specific gods with specific lands, and when a person moved from one land to another they fell under the auspices and practices of those gods. That is why, for example, when after his miraculous healing from leprosy Naaman took dirt from Israel back to his homeland with him. He associated the land with the god.

It is impossible to understand the Bible without recognizing that among the people the understanding of God as the one and only God took thousands of years to accept. The prophets kept repeating it, God told Isaiah, “My people has not understood.” But Hosea assured them that no matter how often they ran off to other gods, he would accept them back.

To grasp this, first plot out the historical books in chronological order, and these are the narratives. Then associate the literature works and the prophetic books with their associated time periods. Then study them in order with those associations. This will involve interspersing Psalms over several periods. You will be studying the cultural history of the religion and its role in ancient Hebrew life, right in context.

What you get is a clear image of a continuing unfolding of the revelation of the nature of God depending on what the people are ready to accept. Sometimes the Prophets use language on the level of those with whom they seek to communicate, but always with the intent of discouraging them from worshipping.

Finally, during and just before the second century before Christ, they got it. The writings from this time indicate general acceptance and recognition that there is only one God. The literature then begins to mock worship of false gods as solidly as did Elijah and Elisha.

With two centuries of solid monotheism under its belt, God moved it up to the next notch with his incarnation and perfect revelation in Christ. The people still did not understand that the one God is Love, and God became man to demonstrate this.