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The brand new conceptual regarding Phoenician mythology which was preserved from Philo because of Eusebius (including biblical sees on the same subject) was previously are not regarded as that have suspician from the important grant and you may thought to be primarily an innovation because of the Philo, without having any separate value due to the fact a supply of experience in Phoenician religion. This doubtful attitude as disappered by way of the fresh healing regarding spiritual impressive books away from Ugarit on the northern Syrian coast (1927-1937).
Such tall poetical messages found because of the D.F.Good. Schaefer inside a series of methods have indicated that the gods of Philo bear labels for the large area now better-known regarding Ugarit and additionally from other offer. This new Philo myths was described as an equivalent moral ditch and you can primitive barbarity with affection to own detailed names and personifications that are bought at Ugarit.
New resources of studies imply little change in the message of Canaanite mythology between c. 1400 BC and you will 700 BC. Many details of Philo’s membership, not only in the problem of your brands off deities, however in the fresh mythological atmosphere also can be found in done arrangement into Ugaritic mythology and later Phoenician inscriptions. Students is actually, ergo, warranted within the recognizing, at the least provisionally, most of the studies managed by Philo that don’t involve personal interpretation on the their part.
The brand new divinities which contour throughout the mythological texts regarding Ugarit was obviously perhaps not unusual with the town, but had been newest certainly one of most of the Canaanites, because they brear only an unclear relationship to the most famous deities worshipped in the city by itself
Due to the fact mythology out of old Ugarit mean, the fresh new faith of Canaanite peoples is actually a harsh and you may debased sorts of routine polytheism. It actually was for the sexy fertility-cult praise out-of a particularly lewd and you may orgiastic type, and that turned out to be far more important than any most other nature faith in the ANE.
The latest Ugaritic deities are in fact best known by various of spiritual texts relationships on the fifteenth and you can very early fourteenth millennium BC that happen to be used in a collection situated in an establishing created anywhere between Ugarit’s two great temples, you to definitely dedicated to Baal while the most other so you can Dagon
Canaanite deities, with the one hand, introduce superior fluidity of identification and you may means, so that it is usually nearly impossible to fix the specific website name of various gods or to explain its kinship to one some other. This is certainly one of many grossly unreasonable aspects of Canaanite religion, an indication of its corrupt character. While doing so, Canaanite deities keeps most of the time etymologically clear brands, a fact and therefore appears to suggest the newest Canaanite pantheon because the representing a good cruder and much more primitive particular polytheism.
Miscellaneous epigraphic and you will literary supplies show this new brands of the master gods and you can goddesses of several Canaanite citaies in different periods.
Este ‘s the term which the latest supreme Canaanite goddess are known. This is and a name wherein Goodness is named when you look at the the outdated Testament — El, the latest God (Elohim) from Israel ( el elohe yisrael: Gen. ). In most prose they occures more often that have an enthusiastic adjunct: El Elyon (by far the most large Goodness, Gen. ), El Shaddai (generally, God-almighty, Gen. 17:1), Este Hai (This new lifestyle God, Josh. 3:10), and also aren’t from the plural of majesty, Elohim. For the Hebrew poetry Este is more regular, where it really stands quite often with no adjunct (Ps. , 33, 48; ; Work jüdische Dating-Seiten in den USA 8:3).
The expression El are a common label to possess «god» inside the Northwest Semitic (Hebrew and you will Ugaritic) and thus it’s very utilized in the existing Testament to own heathen deities or idols (Old boyfriend. ; Ps. ; Are. ). The initial generic title are ‘ilum ; shedding the new mimation together with nominative situation ending ( you ) becomes ‘el inside Hebrew. It actually was likely an adjectival creation (intransitive participle) in the sources «to-be solid, powerful» ( ‘wl ), meaning «The fresh new Solid (otherwise Powerful) One to.»