the deity bethel and the old testament

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The Deity Bethel and the Old Testament Author(s): J. Philip Hyatt Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Mar., 1939), pp. 81-98 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/593947 . Accessed: 12/06/2014 19:34 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the American Oriental Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 62.122.76.99 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:34:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: The Deity Bethel and the Old Testament

The Deity Bethel and the Old TestamentAuthor(s): J. Philip HyattSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Mar., 1939), pp. 81-98Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/593947 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 19:34

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofthe American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org

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Page 2: The Deity Bethel and the Old Testament

THE DEITY BETHEL AND THE OLD TESTAMENT *

J. PHILIP HYATT

WELLESLEY COLLEGE

IT HAS LONG been known that there was a West Semitic deity named Bethel,' and it has been conjectured by many scholars that this deity appears in certain Old Testament passages. The most important recent discussion of this god, with a summary of the references in biblical and extra-biblical sources and with special attention to the importance of the deity for the history of religion, is that of Otto Eissfeldt in Archiv fiur Religionswissenschaft 28 (1930) pp. 1-30.2 The discovery and publication of new epi- graphic and archaeological material bearing upon the subject make possible a re-consideration of the origin and history of the deity, and his relationship to the Old Testament records.

1.

The extra-biblical sources for the study of the god are manifold. These will be briefly summarized in order to prepare the way for the consideration of the new material.

One of the earliest occurrences to be recognized was in the treaty of Esarhaddon with Ba'al (written Ba-a-lu) of Tyre. This treaty is contained on three fragments of cuneiform tablets in the Ku- younjik Collection, K. 3500 + 4444 + 10235.3 The treaty ends

* The writer wishes to thank Professor Albrecht Goetze of Yale University for his kindness in reading the manuscript of this paper and making several valuable suggestions for its improvement.

1 In 1898, H. Winckler recognized the deity in the Treaty of Esarhaddon with Ba'al of Tyre (see below), Altorientalische Forschungen, 2te Reihe (Leipzig), I, pp. 10 ff. In 1905, K. L. Tallquist equated the deity with the divine name contained in Neo-Babylonian personal names, Neubabylonisches Namenbuch p. 232, although earlier he had equated it with the deity Bdnitu, ZA 7 (1892) pp. 277 f.

2Further references to Eissfeldt throughout this paper will be to this article. Cf. also his remarks in JPOS 14 (1934) p. 296.

The most recent treatment of this treaty is by Weidner, Archiv fur Orientforschung 8 (1933) pp. 29-34, who recognized the correct order of the fragments and suggested that another fragment also belongs here. The treaty is translated by Luckenbill, Ancient Records II pp. 229-231.

6 81

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with a section containing the names of gods and goddesses of Assyria and of jbir nari, by whom it is attested and who are in the usual manner called upon to inflict curses upon any violator of the treaty. Among the Assyrian deities named are Ishtar, Gula, and the Seven Gods. Among the deities of jbir nari are dIs-tar-tu (Ashtart), dQa4-ba,4 dBa-al-sa-me-me (Ba'al-shamem), dBa-al- ma-la-gi-e (Ba'al-malki?), dBa-al-sa-pu4-nu4 (Ba'al-sapo'n), dMi-il- qar( ?)-tu(?) (Melqart), dla-su-mu-nu (Eshmun), and a deity whose name is written dBa-a-a-ti-DINGIR.ME9,5-that is, Baiti- ilani.6 It is obvious that the last-named deity is considered as one of the great gods of jbir nari, or Syria, and he is apparently well- known, if not particularly worshipped, in Tyre. This god has often been recognized as the West Semitic Bethel, and there is no reason for doubting the identification.

Our deity appears also in a number of theophorous personal names found in Neo-Babylonian and Late Babylonian documents. In addition to the names cited by Eissfeldt from the reigns of Nebuchadrezzar, Neriglissar, Nabonidus, Darius I, Artaxerxes I, and Darius II, we may add the four following names which I have

'This name may be incomplete, as there is a lacuna in the tablet imme-

diately following -ba. ?The explanation for the writing DINGIR. MEA both in this treaty and

in some of the Babylonian names is probably either (1) that the plural

of the word for "god" was used for the singular, precisely as 'el6him is

used in Hebrew (cf. Langdon, RA 26 [19291 p. 193) ; or (2) that

DINGIR.MEA was sometimes used by the Babylonian scribes to represent

a West Semitic element -il or more probably -el (Clay, Bab. Exped. of the

Univ. of Penn., Series A, Vol. X pp. xix, 12-13, and more fully in Old

Testament and Semitic Studies in Memory of William Rainey Harper, I

pp. 316-320). In support of the first theory it may be remarked that several

Semitic languages or dialects show the same usage: the Amarna dialect

(B,6hl, Die Sprache der Amarnabriefe, pp. 35f.), Phoenician (Harris, A

Grammar of the Phoenician Language, p. 60), and the language of the

Sargonid letters (Pfeiffer, JBL 47 [1928] pp. 184-5). In objection to the

second theory, it may be noted that we cannot completely control the pro-

nunciation of the Hebrew and Aramaic names which Clay cites. For an-

other possible explanation, see Hilprecht, Bab. Exped. of the Univ. of Penn.,

Series A, Vol. IX, p. 19; Vol. X, pp. ix-xiv. 6 The exact reference for the name is K. 3500, Rev. II, line 6. The treaty

has recently been published (in part) by S. Langdon, RA 26 (1929) pp.

189-194. For the writing of the first part of the name cf. Delitzsch,

Assyrische Grammatik2, sec. 21 a 1), 22.

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The Deity Bethel and the Old Testament 83

listed and discussed elsewhere,7 all occurring in documents from Erech: (1) mdBit-ili-[da] -la-a4, from the first year of Nabonidus,8 (2) mdBa-'i-it-ili-da-la-a4, from the same year,9 (3) mdBit-ili.sar- usur, from the fifteenth year of Nabonidus,10 and (4) mdBa2ji-ti- <ili>-she-zib, from the reign of Cyrus (the year missing)."1

The theophorous element is variously spelled in these names: Ba(')it(i)-DINGIR. (MEA), Ba-ti-il,12 and P. DINGIR. (MEg). The variety in the early spelling is evidence of the fact that the name was not wellknown to the Babylonian scribes, for the ap- parent reason that the deity was foreign to them. It has some- times been doubted whether the second spelling is actually of our deity, and it has been suggested that it may be a derivative from Bjtnitu-ilu.13 But such a variation is to be expected in the writing of a foreign name, and it probably represents the name that the scribe actually heard in some cases. The last-named spelling is not found earlier than the first year of Nabonidus, but is frequent in the Persian period. Such an ideographic writing may indicate either that the deity had by that time become " domesticated " in Babylonia, or that the scribes had come to realize that Akkadian Bit-ili was the equivalent of West Semitic Beth-'el.

The documents bearing these personal names which contain their place of origin come from Babylon, Erech, and Nippur. Some of the names are apparently non-Akkadian: mBit-ibrna-a-dir-ri 14 and mdBa-ti-il-ha-ra.15 Others, however, seem to be of men who are

7JBL 56 (1937) 387-94. 8Dougherty, Records from Erech Time of Nabonidus (YBT VI) 11: 28.

G. Contenau, Contrats neo-babyloniens I (Louvre Textes Cuneiformes XII) 75: 7.

10 Dougherty, op. cit. 108: 3. 11 Tremayne, Records from Erech Time of Cyrus and Cambyses (YBT

VII) 83: 7. 12 With this spelling should be compared the Amarna personal name,

Bat-ti-ilu (DINGIR) or perhaps better, Be-ti-ilu, Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna- Tafeln 161: 20; 170: 3, 28. This individual is possibly a brother or near relative of Aziru, an Amurru prince (see Knudtzon 1265). It is not im- possible that this is a name derived from the god-name, although the deity- determinative is not used. Such a name might be expected at this time in Syria, as we shall see below.

18 Ebeling in Reallexikon der Assyriologie I. 392. Cf. note 1, above. "Bab. Exped. of the Univ. of Penn., Series A, Vol. X 122: 4.

15Strassmaier, Inschriften von Nabonidus 1133: 1. Tallquist, Neubaby- lonisches Namenbuch 316, lists the second element of this name as non- Akkadian.

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84 J. Philip Hyatt

Babylonian, as shown by the second elements of their names and by the names of their fathers,-e. g., mdBa-i-ti-<ili>.se-zib, and mdBa-ti-il-se-zib.l6 The father of one has the good Babylonian name mdBil-iddina.17 We conclude from these facts that the deity Bethel may have been known and honored-privately, at least-by some of the native Babyonians.

In the Aramaic papyri found at Elephantine there are names in which many scholars have recognized the deity under discussion. In a document which Cowley calls a list of " Names of Contributors to Temple Funds," occur the following: '?ntl4=K (18 Col. VII, 5) 18 and 7Kn4=1p (18 Col. VII, 6). The context indicates clearly that these are deities, because of the association with lid (1. 4). In another papyrus, 7Kn='lhYt (27: 7) is definitely called a god (Xn17'). The first part of each name is that of a deity. 'Anat is well-known as a deity of Syria-Palestine and of Egypt."9 MV8 has been identified with the deity 'ASima' named in II Kings 17: 30 as a god of Hiamath and possibly in Amos 8: 14,20 or with ISum, an unimportant Babylonian deity, or with Phoenician Eshmun. ble is not known from other sources, but is apparently a god-name, as shown by a theophorous personal name of Elephan- tine (see below). The second element in each name, 'KX'1, has sometimes been interpreted as meaning " temple " or " pantheon." Noth, for example, thinks that the term is a circumlocution for the three deities who were thought of as living in the temple of Elephantine.2' But this is doubtful, for several reasons. The word is nowhere used in any other context where it could have such a meaning, and the usual word in the papyri for "temple" is 8:118N.22 NMZ8T 14 is used once (3: 3) and possibly also

16 Strassmaier, Inschriften. von Darius 372: 17. 17 Univ. of Penn. Mus., Pubs. of the Bab. Sec. II, 1, 222: 12 and LE. 18 The numbers of these papyri are given according to the numbers of the

papyri (not of the tables) in Sachau, Aramiische Papyrus und Ostraka aus einer jiidischen Militdr-Kolonie zu Elephantine (Leipzig, 1911). Com- parison has been made in every case with the publication of Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B. C. (Oxford, 1923).

"9 Albright, AJSL 41 (1925) 92-101. 20 Cf. R. Kittel, JBL 44 (1925) pp. 130-131; Cowley, op. cit. p. xix;

Sachau, op. cit. pp. 82-84; Noth, Die israelitischen Personennamen im

Rahmen der gemeinsemitischen Namengebung (Stuttgart, 1928) 123-126. 21 Op. cit. 128. 22 See esp. papyri 1, 2. On this name cf. Van Hoonacker, Une Communaut6

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NIUn (32: 3). Furthermore, UNn4 occurs in a large number of personal names where it certainly is to be taken as a theo- phorous element, comparable with similar names of Elephantine: [l]VU5Snt1> (40 R. 1); 23 1 (18 Col. I, 6); 24 jne5Sn; .> who is the son of n (34: 5); MNIVZ, the father of 1n1n1 (34: 4) ; ZpD)5NM= (17: 9); TMnl= (16: 8) ; and CIN5Snll (25: 6, 10).

Bethel was undoubtedly a deity in Elephantine, and 5MVWIYV, 5NMZ=N. and 5MVZVIM are to be taken as names of double deities (not necessarily androgynous compounds), comparable to lj41 (32: 3) of Elephantine, V=111Wy of the Mesha Inscrip- tion (1. 17), and other Semitic divinities.25 It is very probably true, as Van Hoonacker suggests,26 that Bethel and the other deities named here, except 1'14, were only privately worshipped and were not accorded official recognition. But, the private wor- ship of individuals is often more important for the study of popu- lar religion than the official cult.

One of the latest evidences for the deity Bethel is found in the writings of Philo Byblius. This author is said by Suidas to have been born in the reign of Nero. ile wrote, therefore, in the latter part of the first century A. D., or the early part of the second cen- tury. The writings of Philo Byblius have been lost and are pre- served for us only in the works of the early Christian fathers, especially in Eusebius's Praeparatio Evangelica. Philo is said to have translated into Greek a work on Phoenician history by San-

Jud&o-Aram6ene a El6phantine, en 9gypte, aux Vje et Ve sivecles av. J.-C. (Schweich Lectures, 1914, London) 52 f.

28 The reading of Cowley. The daleth is uncertain in the reproduction of Sachau.

24 Also the reading of Cowley. The name may be, of course, simply 'Rl-narf, but apparently this reconstruction fills well the lacuna.

25 Albright, AJSL 41 (1925) 92-101, has given a somewhat different interpretation of these deities. He interprets them as really "attributes of deity." Egem-bet'jl is the hypostasized "name of God"; fIerem-bgt'el is the "sacredness of God"; 'Anat-bet'et = 'Anat-Yahu is the "providence (or predestination) of God." To the present writer it seems that these are excellent explanations of the origin of some of these names, but that the original significance had been lost in most cases and they were looked upon by the Elephantine Jews as simply gods, whose origin was forgotten by them.

26 Op. cit. 76-77.

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86 J. Philip Hyatt

chuniathon who, Eusebius says, lived before the time of the Trojans. Scholars have been divided on the question of the au- thenticity both of Sanchuniathon and of Philo. It seems best, however, to consider the work of Philo as being fairly authentic, particularly in view of the undoubted Semitic elements in it. Sanchuniathon also may be considered as a historical character, although we cannot determine his date.27 This Phoenician history includes the cosmogony and theogony of the Phoenicians. In the theogony, Ouranos (Sky) has four children by his wife-sister, Gj (Earth): Elos (interpreted as Kronos), Baitylos, Dagin (Siton), and Atlas.28 Baitylos, then, is the brother of El in this system, and here is plainly a deity and not simply, as elsewhere in Philo and in other classical writers, the name of the sacred stone. This deity is undoubtedly to be identified with our Bethel, who is here a member of the Phoenician pantheon.

The very latest evidence for the deity is to be found on an in- scription discovered in 1892 at Kafr Nebo (near Aleppo), dating from A. D. 223. It is the dedication of an oil-press, and begins :~IEmy Ka'& EVjpTA(O Ka't A&ORT ?EOig TarpwO.29 The second name may be taken, with Kittel,30 as the appellative of a deity who shared the bityl (seat of the god) with another deity, or-as is more likely-as the equivalent of the Elephantine tMV=NK.31

In summary, these sources show us that the deity Bethel was known in Phoenicia (Tyre specifically) in the seventh century B. c., where he is named along with well-known Phoenician deities, and in the time in which Sanchuniathon wrote, whenever that may have been. He was known in Babylonia, as evidenced by theo- phorous personal names, as early as the time of Nebuchadrezzar

27 On the authenticity of Philo and Sanchuniathon, see esp. Paton,

Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics IX 843b and XI 180-181; and Contenau,

La Civilisation Phenicienne (Paris, 1926) 100-101, 104-105. Contenau

remarks that Sanchuniathon, if historical, must have been late, since he

shows the influence of a certain amount of Greek speculation. The influ-

ence, however, may have been upon Philo rather than Sanchuniathon! The

Ras Shamra tablets make it more probable that Sanchuniathon was really historical and possibly early; cf. Olmstead, History of Palestine and Syria

(New York, 1931) 239. 28 Praeparatio Evangelica I 10. See ed. E. H. Gifford (Oxford, 1903) 36c. 29 Lidzbarski, Ephemeris f-hr semitische Epigraphik (1903-07) II 323 f.

80 JBL 44 (1925) 128. 't See Eissfeldt, op. cit. 22; Cowley, op. cit. xix.

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and as late as Darius II. He was worshipped-privately, at least- among the Jews settled in Elephantine in the fifth century, having been brought with them into Egypt in the sixth or seventh century. Finally, he was honoured in the third century A. D., in Syria, in the neighborhood of Aleppo.

2.

Eissfeldt has conjectured, in his study of this deity, that, al- though he was known in Palestine in the eighth century B. a., he was in reality an old Canaanite deity whose origin must be sought at least half a millenium earlier. Eissfeldt has supposed that his origin is to be found in Palestine itself. But the recently dis- covered inscriptions of Rds Shamra furnish us with a very prob- able explanation of the time and place of origin of this deity. The evidence is not entirely conclusive, but at least very suggestive.

It has been suggested 32 that Bethel as a deity occurs in the mythological poem called by Virolleaud "La Naissance des Dieux gracieux et beaux," 33 line 45. The words under consideration here have been translated by Virolleaud and Montgomery as "house of El," but a better rendering has been given by Ginsberg and Albright as "daughter(s) of El."34 This rendering suits better the meaning of the passage as well as the parallelism of the lines. In the dialect of Ugarit, bt'el may be read, of course, either as bet'el, "house of El (or, god)" or batel, "doughter of El (or, god) ."

The deity under discussion may appear in one of the tablets pub- lished in 1929, no. 14, line 1.35 In this text, the first line is btel, and each of the following lines (with the possible exception of line 10) begins with the two words bIl bt, followed by a word which may be a proper name; in some cases the third word appears to be a gentilic.36

Dhorme has interpreted this tablet as a list of Baals which are

82 For example, by J. W. Jack, The Ras Shamra Tablets: their Bearinrg on the Old Testament (Edinburgh, 1935) 15, 51.

88 Syria 14 (1933) 128-151; plates XVIII-XIX. 84 JPOS 14 (1934) 136; Ginsberg, The Ugarit Texts (Jerusalem, 1936)

82 f. 8"Syria 10 (1929) 304-310. The tablet is on PI. LXX. 86 This text, and no. 10 to be mentioned below, should be compared with

the text published by Virolleaud, Syria 15 (1934) 244-251.

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found in the temple of the god E1.37 He has been followed by Olmstead.38 Bauer has offered another interpretation, calling the list "Ein Verzeichnis von lleiligtUmern mit gr6ssenteils fremdar- tigen Namen." 3' Both of these are possible interpretations, and because of the abbreviated form of the text, neither can be definitely disproved. But it is entirely possible that the first line contains the name of a minor deity, as all the other lines apparently do. In such case bt'el is a deity, and the whole list may be taken as a series of deities like certain of the Akkadian texts of Rds Shamra.40

Bauer has found the divine name Bethel in a personal name of RMs Shamra.4' It is on tablet no. 10, line 16, of the group pub- lished in 1929. This tablet consists mostly of a series of personal names, each beginning with bn (1n). The last name is bn n'bt'el. Bauer has compared this with the name found in Judges 8 and Psalm 83: 12, V=3%. This he interprets as meaning "(the god) Mt% rules," on the basis of the parallelism between '1913 and VI: in Judges 9: 8, 9. He compares also a name in text 4, line 8, krbn' (which should now be read mrbn). The Ras Shamra name might be explained as meaning " Bethel rules," or " the rule of Bethel."

It is theoretically possible, however, that in the last two cases the reading should be batel, " daughter of El," rather than bet'el. But, the probability that in both of the latter cases we actually do have a deity Bethel is strengthened by certain historical considera- tions, and by comparison of the original meaning of such a deity with certain other deities or theological ideas of Rds Shamra.42

87 Revue Biblique 40 (1931) 49. 88 Op. cit. 237.

39 Entzifferung d. Keilschrifttafeln v. Ras Schamra. (Halle, 1930) 73.

'4 See Virolleaud, Syria, 10 (1929) 304. " Bauer, op. cit. 70, 72; ZAW 51 (1933) 82; OLZ 1930 cols. 589-590. 42 In the poem " Les Chasses de Baal," published by Virolleaud in Syria

16 (1935) 247-266, there occurs in Col. II, line 61, the phrase qr . bt 'eW.

Similarly in the Danel legend (see Ch. Virolleaud, La 16gende phenicienne

de Danel, Paris, 1936) I 153, is the phrase gr bt 'eW. In both cases Virolleaud

translates " 'hote de la maison de El," on the supposition that g and q are

interchangeable. Montgomery, however, has offered a better translation of

the first of these, " Fount of the House of God," in JAGS 56 (1936) 226-227.

Virolleaud may be correct in the second instance, where he thinks the

phrase may designate Aqhat. In neither case is btet to be considered as

a god, but if the meaning which Virolleaud proposes is correct in the second

instance, the expression may represent one of the stages by which the

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Of the places in which we have found the god in the first part of this paper, it is striking that the occurrences are most frequent in Syria, or specifically Phoenicia. The Esarhaddon Treaty is with a king of Tyre; Philo professes to be translating a work on Phoeni- cian history or theology; and the Kafr Nebo inscription is from Syria. On the other hand, the deity cannot be native to Baby- lonia, as we have seen, for the form of writing the earlier theo- phorous names shows that the deity is non-Babylonian. And, of course, the god is not native to Elephantine, but was brought there by the Jewish colonists in the sixth or seventh century B. C. We should expect, therefore, to find the deity originally in Syria or Phoenicia.

The probability that Bethel had his origin in Phoenicia is heightened by a comparison of the gods found in the work of Philo Byblius with the gods thus far identified in the texts of Rds Shamra.43 Such a comparison is likely to increase our respect for the authenticity of Philo-Sanchuniathon as well as show that Philo's Baitylos had his origin in the second millenium B. c. at the same time as many of his other deities. The comparison can be made, of course, only between the Rds Shamra divinities and those of Philo which bear obviously Semitic names. Philo's Blioun is probably a development of the Ugaritic 'Al'eyan, as Albright has pointed out.44 los plays a prominent part in the system of Philo, being identified with the Greek Kronos, said to have been the founder of Byblos. He is undoubtedly the Semitic El, in Rds Shamra the proper name of god, as well as a common noun for "god." Philo's Dagon (Siton) is Ras Shamnra Dgn. Astarte, identified by Philo with the Greek Aphrodite, and the greatest of the goddesses, appears also in the Rds Shamra lists, 'ttrt. A son of El and Rhea in Philo's system is named Mouth, interpreted as Thanatos or Pluto; this is the Rds Shamra Mt (Moit). We even have in Philo a Zeus Bilos, a remembrance of Ba'al; and Baaltis (another name for Dionj), a remembrance of the Ugaritic B'lt.

"house of El" became personified and deified (see below). In the Danel legend II i 33, ii 5, 22, btel apparently means the temple of El or its personnel, although here the usage seems close to personification.

"SOn the deities of Rds Shamra, see Bauer ZAW 51 (1933) 81-101, and 53 (1935) 54-59; Dussaud, RHR 104 (1931) 353-408, and 105 (1932) 245- 302; and J. Friedrich, Ras Schamra (Der Alte Orient 33 1/2 1933) 34-37.

"JPOS 12 (1932) 190f.

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There are only two or three of the gods and goddesses of Philo which do not appear also in the pantheon of Rds Shamra.45

There are several deities, or appellatives of deities, in the Rds Shamra pantheon which show theological speculation, or perhaps it is better to say religious psychology, similar to that of bt'el, if the latter is a deification of the temple of El. One of the deities is dr'el, which is interpreted by some scholars as "the dwelling of El" (D5r El).46 A clearer example is the name 'tr btl applied to the goddess "Anat in the poem I AB col. ii, lines 9, 30. This term means literally " shrine of Ba'al." Furthermore, the goddess 'trt (Ashirtu, Ashirat) has the full name rbt 'atrt ym (rabbat 'atirat yam) in I AB col. i, line 53 (16). This name means literally " the Lady, sanctuary of the sea." Formerly, one might have added the name zbl bcl 'ars, a designation of 'Al'eyan Ba'al. Zbl was first translated as "abode," but Ginsberg, Albright, and others have offered a more convincing rendering as "the exalted one." "

With these historical considerations and this comparison of other theological usages in Rds Shamra, we may with a high degree of confidence assert that there was actually a deity Bethel in the pantheon of ancient ITgarit. Text 14 may very possibly contain this deity, and the personal name bn ntbt'el very probably is a theophorous formation with the name of the deity, as Bauer has suggested.

The origin of the god Bethel, therefore, is to be attributed to the second millenium and, if not to the religion of Ugarit itself, to the religion of the territory of Syria or Syria-Palestine which is best represented to us by the Rds Shamra documents. The date of these documents according to the excavators is the fourteenth century B. C. 4 Albright prefers a date about a century and a half earlier, C. 1500.50 Whatever the exact date of the tablets, the mythology and theology which they represent were not invented when the tablets were written, but present the result of a development of

45Apparently the following: Melkathros (Heracles; Melqart?), SfUdukos

and possibly ledoud. 4'Bauer, ZAW 51 (1933) 82; Dussaud, RHR 104 (1931) 360.

47Albright, JPOS 12 (1932) 192-194. 48 Albright, JPOS 16 (1936) 17-18; cf. the interpretation of Graham,

Journal of Religion 14 (1934) 327.

'9Schaeffer, Syria 14 (1933) 112-114. 60 BASOR no. 63 (Oct. 1936) p. 26.

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several centuries, probably from the early part of the second mil- lennium or the latter part of the third.

There must have been several stages in the development of the deity Bethel. With the material now at our disposal, it is not pos- sible to trace all the stages of this development, but we may con- jecture that they were approximately as follows: In the first instance, bet 'el (or, 'eli) was used for "house of a god" or " temple." But the term would have been used especially for the temple of El, who was one of the major gods in the Canaanite pantheon. In the ancient Orient, as also in many other parts of the world, the temple or sanctuary of the deity was considered as very sacred, and itself became an object of reverence. In time, then, "temple of El (or, god)" would be used for El, or perhaps another god, the inhabitant of the temple.5" Then, finally, the temple itself would be not only personified but even deified, and so could be conceived as a deity in the abstract sense, apart from its being the abode of a specific god. When this final stage was reached, Bethel was a deity that might be named in addition to El, Ba'al and other divinities whom the people worshipped and propitiated. Just when this stage was reached we cannot be sure, but evidently by the time that the Rds Shamra documents were written, in the fourteenth or fifteenth century B. C., so that an individual of Ugarit could be given a name which meant " Bethel rules."

The term may have been used in one of the early stages of de- velopment as a circumlocution of El, but probably not for the reason that the Jews in the later period of their religion used mdqom and other circumlocutions for Yahweh,-that is, because the name Yahweh was considered too sacred to be pronounced. In the Rds Shamra texts and in other religions where El was a deity, it does not seem that the pronunciation of the name was thus feared; in the Rds Shamra poems, El is often named along with other deities. Bethel became a deity primarily because of the rever- ence felt for the sanctuary of El.

The religious psychology which produced the deification of the temple was not confined to Ugarit or to Syria. Many examples of it may be produced from other Semitic countries and many ages. Kittel has pointed out the parallel development of the goddess tWlp

51 Cf. the phrases discussed in note 42 above.

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(Qadesh), and the deity CIM if the proper vocalization is :Iararm " sanctuary," rather than ierem (Hebrew, " ban n).52

In Mesopotamia, the temples were personified or virtually deified, as may be shown by a study of proper names given to individuals. We often find that the name of a specific temple is used in a proper name in the same place and with the same significance as a divine name, the latter being, however, more often used. For example, even in the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon, there was a name Eanna-iddinnam, " Eanna has given to me (a child)." 3

The Assyrian form of Tiglathpileser is Tu1culti-apal-Egarra, " My strength (is) the son of Esarra." Names of this type became fre- quent in the Neo-Babylonian and Late Babylonian periods. To give only a few examples: Eanna-s'um-ibni,54 Eanna-bani-ahi,66 Eklur-zaleir,56 Eanna-s'ar-usur,57 Ezida-s4um-utkn,58 and Esagila-zjr- ibni.59 Some of these names may indeed be abbreviations; the last- named may, for example, be an abbreviation for Ina-Esagila-zjr- ibni,60 but such an explanation does not fit all of these names. It is more probable that the name of the temple was used in place of the god worshipped at that particular temple.

A similar usage of the name of the temple may be seen in a phrase which occurs in some of the letters of the Harper corpus. In a few of the letters the following sentence forms a part of the introductory salutation: Uruicki u Eanna ana sar matati beliia likrubftu, "May Uruk and Eanna be gracious to the king of coun- tries, my lord." 61 Usually in this formula the names of gods occur, but here both the city Uruk and the temple of Eanna are apparently used in place of a deity, probably Ishtar, the goddess who was worshipped in Eanna.

2JBL 44 (1925) 125ff.

C8Ranke, Early Babylonian Personal Names (Philadelphia, 1905) 83.

c'Dougherty, Archives from Erech Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods

(Goucher College Cuneiform Inscriptions II) 102: 15.

""Ibid. 366: 16. 5o Tremayne, op. cit. 54: 5.

7Ibid. 89: 9, 14. 58Keiser, Letters and Contracts from Erech (BIN I) 109: 14.

C Strassmaier, Inschriften. von Nabonidus 633: 2. [Here may be added

the names with (A) yaku-" shrine." E. A. S.] IO Tallquist, Neubabylonisches Namenbuch 60. I1 Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters 266, 268, 269, 274, 277 (all

Babylonian letters).

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From these personal names and this epistolary formula we may see that the name of the temple was used in Mesopotamia, even from a very early period, in a personified sense. It would prob- ably be an exaggeration to say that the temple itself was deified, for the determinative for deity is never used with these temple-names, but the step from personification to deification is very short.

Many other examples might be given, both from the ancient Semitic East and from other parts of the world, but these will suffice to illustrate the religious psychology which led to the deifica- tion of the temple shown in the deity Bethel.

3.

If we may conclude, with a fair degree of assurance, that there was a deity with the name Bethel in Syria in the second millennium B. C.,-perhaps the middle of that millennium,-what bearing has this conclusion upon the Old Testament?

Dussaud, in his book Les origines cananeenes du sacrifice israe- lite (Paris, 1921) pp. 231-243, has maintained that the deity ap- pears many times in the Old Testament: Jer. 48: 13; Amos 3: 14; 8: 14; Hosea 10: 8; Gen. 28: 17, 22; 31: 13, 53; 33: 20; 46: 3. Dussaud interpreted the god Bethel as a local form of the great Amorite and Syrian deity iadad, who invariably accompanied a bull or was simply represented by that animal. He thought that Bethel was the god of Isaac and Jacob-Israel, and that the Elohist in Gen. 31 and elsewhere sought to legitimise the cult of that deity in the eyes of the Israelites. There were at least three appearances of Bethel to Jacob: at the city Bethel (the name of which was probably originally Beth-Bethel, Gen. 28), at ilarran (Gen. 31), and at Mahanaim (Gen. 32). Jacob finally returned to the city where the deity first appeared to him and there fulfilled his vow by building an altar to the god and naming the place El-Bethel (Gen. 35). Dussaud summarized his theory as follows: ". . . si la tradi- tion judeene rattachait 'a Abraham et a Yahve les vieux sanctuaires locaux, Sichem, Bethel, ll6bron, Beersabee, Jerusalem, I'ancienne tradition ephraimite attribuait a ITsaac l'institution du culte du Dieu Bethel a Beersabee, et a Jacob celle du meme culte a Bethel, Mahanaim et Sichem, la premiere capitale du Royaume du Nord." 62

da See now Dussaud's more recent remarks in RHR 104 (1931) 360, note

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Dussaud's theory regarding the deity, especially in the Genesis passages, has found little acceptance among other scholars, chiefly because it is based upon too thorough-going and too radical re- constructions of the Hebrew text.63 The discussion has centered mostly around two passages, Gen. 31: 13 and 35: 7. The Masoretic text of Gen. 31: 13a is as follows: n tYM 'ItY11 '$M 1$:3 'il Mt 49 M13 r 'W$ irSr UV. The more natural translation would seem to be: " I am the god, Bethel, where you anointed a massibcih (and) where you vowed to me a vow." Such an apposi- tional translation of beth-'Wt is given by Dussaud who, however, amends the text on the basis of the LXX to read: " I am the god, Bethel, who appeared to thee in the place where you anointed a massebah " etc. He points to the parallel usage of ha-ze YIWI in Is. 42: 5 and Ps. 85: 9. Dussaud has been followed by Gress- mann.64 Baudissin and Kittel have objected strongly to this in- terpretation. Baudissin places no reliance upon the LXX-text, but objects upon grammatical grounds to the translation. He thinks that the phrase hd-'jl beth-'el is an elision for he-'el 3 beth-j1."5 Kittel emends the text on the basis of the LXX to read: " I am the god who appeared to thee in Bethel, where you anointed for me a massibah," etc. He furthermore maintains that the translation "the god, Bethel " is unhebrdisch.6"

The Masoretic text of Gen. 35: Tb reads tW-n4 N ?1= .

Dussaud sees in this also a reference to the god Bethel, and Jirku says that it is "eine richtige Erinnerung an diese Gottheit." 67

Again, this has been opposed by Baudissin, Kittel, and others. It is noted that the Greek, Syriac, and Vulgate omit '31 before beth-'_l. But the more important objection is that it is clearly the place which Jacob called El-Bethel, not the god.

Eissfeldt has objected to the interpretations of Dussaud on the ground that the context in both cases requires that Bethel be a place-name rather than a divine name (note especially the use of 3aser ... sam in the first passage).

1: "On voit maintenant que, dans les recits concernant Jacob, El et Betel sont interchangeables et representent la meme entitk."

es See esp. the criticisms by Eissfeldt, op. cit. 6; Baudissin, Marti Fest- schrift (Giessen, 1925) 1-11; Kittel, JBL 44 (1925) 138ff.

4 OLZ 1922 cols. 455-458. Il Op. cit. 1-11. Il Op. cit. 140 ff. 7 ZAW 39 (1921) 158 f.

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From this brief summary, it is clear that Bethel in these pas- sages is more likely to be the name of the place rather than the name of the god, although it must be admitted that the evidence is not entirely conclusive for either interpretation. Here it may only be pointed out that, if the god Bethel was known in Ugarit in the middle of the second millennium, it is entirely possible that such a deity was known also in Palestine in the patriarchal period, espe- cially if we accept the date of c. 1500 B. o. maintained by Bdhl for Abraham.68 From the present evidence we cannot determine whether the deity was first known in Ugarit and then its cult car- ried into Palestine, or whether both Syria and Palestine received the cult from an older Semitic source; to the present writer the former alternative seems more probable, at least on the basis of the extant sources.

The discussion of the deity in the pre-Israelite period cannot be separated from a discussion of the city Bethel. The Old Testament represents it as having been occupied in the patriarchal era, al- though its earlier name had been LiUz (Gen. 28: 19; 35: 6; 48: 3; Judges 1: 23). The campaign of the Kyle Memorial Excavation at Bethel has shown that the city was first occupied near the end of the Early Bronze Age, not later than the twenty-first century, and that it was occupied during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, fall- ing into Israelite hands in the thirteenth century.69 We do not know when the name was changed from Liz to Bethel. Albright has mentioned a theory once advanced (but never published) by Alt, that Liz (or Loz) was originally the name of Ai (et-Tell) and that Bethel was the old Canaanite name of the city under con- sideration.70 It is known that the fortunes of Bethel and Ai were bound together; Ai was not occupied after its destruction in the late Early Bronze Age (preceding the foundation of Bethel) until the twelfth century. The biblical account of the fall of Ai prob- ably applies really to Bethel.

This theory is attractive, but cannot be definitely proved or dis- proved. It would seem more probable that the name Lizz was first attached to Bethel and that some time in the second millennium the name was changed-by the Canaanites, not by Jacob, in all prob-

88 Das Zeitalter Abrahams (Der Alte Orient 29, 1, 1931) 19. 69 Albright, BASOR no. 56 (Dec. 1934) pp. 2-15. 70Ibid. 11.

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ability-to Bethel. This name has usually been interpreted to mean "House of El." But Baudissin has maintained that the name must be an abbreviation for either "the place of the bethel (sacred stone)" or "the place of the god Bethel." Since I shall attempt to show later that the term beth-'l was not applied to the stone but only to the place (or the god), the former interpretation is excluded. We may consider it highly probable that the town was renamed for the god Bethel, because of the cult of the deity there, and that its early name may really have been Beth-Bethel, as Dussaud suggested. Dussaud pointed out the parallel of Batal- Me'on as an abbreviation for Beth-Ba'al-Melon 71 (Nu. 32: 38; Jos. 13: 17, etc.; cf. Mesha Inscription, 1. 30). Beth-Bethel is a name which would very readily be shortened to simply Bethel.

Eissfeldt has maintained that the name of the deity is to be found in Amos 3: 14b; 5: 5; and losea 10: 8, 15; 12: 5. He sup- ports his position with a number of arguments based upon gram- matical usage and upon religious history. As he says, one of the reasons for the great opposition of the eighth-century prophets to the cult of the city of Bethel and the religious practices of the northern kingdom was that they knew the god honoured under the appearance of Yahweh was fundamentally a non-Yahwistic deity, the old Canaanite god Bethel.

One passage in the Old Testament where almost all scholars have agreed that the deity Bethel, rather than the city, occurs is Jere- miah 48: 13.72 This passages is as follows:

"And Moab shall be ashamed of Kemosh, As the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence."

Here the parallelism of the lines requires that Bethel be considered as the god of Israel (the northern kingdom), just as Kemosh was the god of Moab.73

Finally, the god Bethel occurs in a theophorous name in Zech- ariah 7: 2, Bethel-sar-eser. I have elsewhere discussed this verse and pointed out a Neo-Babylonian parallel to the name.7

71 Les origines cananeenes 234. 72 Baudissin, op. cit. 3; Dussaud, Les origines cananeenes 234; Eissfeldt,

op. cit. 10-12; Kittel, op. cit. 139. 73 This passage is usually considered as post-exilic, but Eissfeldt has

offered convincing proof for a date between 722 and 586. 74JBL 56 (1937) 387-394.

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4.

In conclusion, a few words should be added on the relationship between the foregoing and the familiar baetyls of Greek and Latin writers. This is a subject which one would like to avoid, for it is a very complex and confusing one. I shall confine myself to a very few remarks.

As long ago as 1903, the late Professor George F. Moore devoted an article to the " Baetylia " in The American Journal of Archae- ology 7. 198-208. According to him, the earliest mention of the /3astvAot or favnrXa is in Philo Byblius, who called them ALOovg

,uoxovs. Moore pointed out that the proper meaning of this term is stones " endowed with the power of self-motion." After a fairly exhaustive study of the occurrences in Philo, Damascius, the Ety- mologicum Magnum, and other sources, he concluded: " the name l3al-rvAot was appropriated to certain small stones of peculiar char- acter, to which various daemonic-or, as we might say, magical- properties were ascribed; they moved about, talked, or otherwise answered questions, and afforded a powerful protection to their possessors. There is no evidence that the name was anywhere ap- plied to the ordinary holy stones,-cones, pillars, omphaloi, or the like." Furthermore, he said, " in no Semitic language is the word bith-il or its equivalent used to designate the rude standing stones, pillars, obelisks, and the like which were found at every place of worship."

The latter statement leads us to the observation-very signifi- cant, but usually overlooked-that even in the legends of Jacob, the name beth-'el is never applied strictly to the stone which he erected and anointed. It is applied always to the place (1|),75

which in view of the statement in Gen. 28: 19b is probably to be interpreted as meaning the city (u18V;1). The nearest approach to calling the stone beth-'el is in Gen. 28: 22. At the conclusion of his vow, in which Jacob asks that the god shall be with him, protect him in his way, give him bread and clothing, and allow him to return to his father's house in peace, Jacob promises that if the god grants him these blessings, then he (Jacob) will take the god for his own and, as vs. 22 reads, nI-NX nts' 7nll

nts et III= MM, : "and this stone which I have set up as a

75Gen. 28: 19; 35: 7, 15; etc.

7

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98 J. Philip Hyatt

massibah shall become a beth 'elohim." The last clause is most naturally interpreted as a vow that Jacob will make of the massjbdh (which is the correct name for the stone!) a temple or sanctuary- a vow which he did fulfill, according to Gen. 35: 1-7, where we read that he returned to Bethel and there built an altar.76

In view of these facts, Eissfeldt is justified when he affirms that the baetyls of the Greek writers are an independent, parallel de- velopment.77 This is not to deny that the word may be of Semitic origin, and that the baetyl may have had its origin among the Phoenicians. But it is necessary to make a distinction between the god Bethel and the name applied to these stones which had a special character.78

7 The words b.~th 'elohim (or beth hI-'el6him) are not frequently used

with the meaning " temple " until late (especially in Chronicles), but

beth h4-'el6him is used in Judges 18: 31 of the shrine at Shiloh, possibly

pointing to an early usage. It is now known, from archaeological remains, that there were temples

in Palestine in all phases of the Bronze Age (espcially the Late Bronze),

many of which included masseb6th as cult objects; see Watzinger, Denk-

mdiler Paldstinas I (Leipzig, 1933) 64-67 and Albright, JPOS 16 (1936)

53-54. 77 Op. cit. 24-29. It should be noted, however, that Eissfeldt's reasons

for this conclusion are somewhat different from those given above, and

that his theory of the origin of the god is different from the present writer's.

8 On the nature of the masseb6th in general, see Burrows JPOS 14

(1934) 42-51. He concludes that the function of the massobah "is usually

if not always, in part at least, to commemorate a person or an event," but

notes that Jacob's stone has a somewhat special character. Wainwright,

Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement 1934, pp. 32-44, attempts

to prove that Jacob's stone was " a sacred meteorite, or an omphalos its

substitute." The biblical evidence does not seem to the present writer to

support this theory.

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