Mesopotamia

The Basics

• Area between Tigris and Euphrates River• Modern day Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, and Syria• Cradle of Civilization• 4,000 BCE• Series of city-states

Map of Mesopotamia

Ugarit

• 1929: discovery of tablets at Ras Shamra• Thousands of tablets dated before 1200 B.C.E.

discovered• Prominent seaport and trading center• Destroyed in 1200 B.C.E. by an invasion from the

sea• Became a vassal state of the Hittite empire

Map of Ugarit

Cuneiform

Pantheon

El and Asherah

Yamm Mot Anat Baal

Level 3: Workman Deities (ex. Kothar wa Hasis)

Level 4: Messenger Deities

El

• Gold covered bronze from Megiddo (1400-1200 BCE)• High god, father of the gods and goddesses, judge,

creator• More remote, lives in a tent at the source of two

cosmic rivers• Seen as kind and merciful

Similarities to Yahweh• El is old “Father of Years

• Also called the Bull (symbol of strength, power and virility)

• Chief of the assembly of the gods

• “Kind El, the Compassionate”

• Yahweh is the “Ancient of Days” Daniel 7, Ps 102:28

• Yahweh also associated with the symbol of the bull (Exodus 32-34; Jeroboam and calves)

• Chief of the divine council (1 Kgs 22; Isa 6; Zech 3…)

• Yahweh “merciful and gracious god” (Exod 34:6)

Assimiliation

• Little polemic against El• The word el becomes the generic word for ‘god’

• Genesis 33:20 El-Elohe-IsraelEl, the God of IsraelGod, the God of Israel

• Genesis 46:3 God, the God of your FatherEl, the God of your Father

Asherah

• Wife of El and mother of the gods• Associated with lions in ANE iconography• Mentioned +40x in the Old Testament• Often what is referred to is the object – a stylized

tree (symbolizing fertility/life)• Asherah poles set up in the sanctuary• in 1 Kgs 18 polemic against Baal but the prophets

of Asherah are left alone

Baal

• Storm god• Controls the annual rainstorm and fertility cycle• Also called “king”• Portrayed with a war club (symbol of thunder)

and a twisted staff (symbolizing forked lightning)

Anat

• A fertility goddess• Never marries, adolescent and a warrior goddess• Defeats Mot and supports Baal• No explicit reference in Jewish Scripture