Popular Religion in Canaan and the Levant (Bronze Age Canaanite Religion) | Supplemental Podcast #5 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO VIDEOS ON ANCIENT PREISLAMIC ARABIA RELIGION AND KINGDOMS AND GODS.

There are currently two localities in Lebanon with names that owe their names to the "Canaanite god Baal". as are the city of Baalbek and Baaloul. the first famous for its temple, originally built to worship Baal and later rebuilt by various civilizations such as the Hellenists, Greeks, etc.

It's so sad, although simultaneously incredible, that finding content of this depth is easy on RU-vid but very difficult on mainstream media channels. Great work!

I’m always so glad I found channels like this that talk so much about such ancient history. Don’t find stuff like this on the history channel.

Your channel is amazing, please keep making videos!

Been learning a ton on pre-hebrew religions, and your videos have been amazing sources of further dives. Highly appreciated.

Analysis of the bones found in the tophet indicate the ages of children from 2-months to 2 years and found no evidence of disease or natural cause of death. They were also placed in urns with other common sacrificial animals. They very likely sacrificed their own children.

Thank you! I asked for this topic a while ago and I'm glad to say the wait was worth it

wow there is so much detailed info in this, happy I'm watching and happy that u are making these videos!

This is the part of history that is beyond interesting and entertaining. Much love ❤ keep em coming.

One interesting thing to note is the Biblical site of Shilo. This was where the Israelites found holy before Jerusalem, in the Iron Age I. During the Bronze Age, Shilo was still considered a holy site for the Canaanites.

I love your videos. So detailed, so eye opening and so objective. Keep up the good job.

Really good job with presenting this topic in a balanced way. I learned a lot esp. about how the ruler may have applied the rites and how the people lived their daily life. Good vid.

Interesting overview of the historic religions, thanks for posting!

Another fascinating video on a little known history. From the religious patterns and practices of ancient Canaan, I could say I see the broad outlines of what was to come. However, I don't want to get into a flame war with anyone.

El, "the good, the compassionate", "the creator of all creatures", was the ruler of the Canaanite gods. He lived in a tent on a mountain from whose base all the fresh waters of the world came (symilar to the description of the Garden of Eden and the 2 rivers), with the goddess Asherah as his consort. This pair constituted the highest level of the Canaanite pantheon. The second level consisted of their children, the "seventy sons of Atirat" (a variant of the name Asherah). Among them was Hadad, who had his home on Mount Zaphon. Over time Hadad became the dominant Canaanite deity, so that El became the executive power and Hadad the military power in the cosmos. Hadad's sphere of power was the storm with its life-giving rains, so he was also a god of fertility, though not quite "THE" god of fertility. Under the seventy great gods of the second level, there was a third level composed of relatively minor artisan deities and divine traders, with a fourth and final level of divine messengers and the like (probable origin of angels, messengers between man and God). El and his sons constituted the Assembly of the gods, and each member had a human nation under his care. A textual variant of Deuteronomy 32: 8-9 is often interpreted to describe El dividing the nations of the world among his sons, with Yahweh receiving Israel: "When the Most High ('elyôn) gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided humanity, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of divine beings. The part of the Lord (Yahweh) is his people, Jacob, and the inheritance assigned to him. "

Loved this! Thanks so much for the excellent content on a fascinating topic

Fantastic podcast, well done Cy!

G'day mate. Love your work Cy. My husband and I have watched your videos for a while now, and will continue to watch them for as long as you keep bringing them out. From two fans from Down Under.

You just keep me coming back. I sit through ads on maybe 3 channels I subscribe to, and yours is one of them. If I had money to throw at you, I'd join your patreon. I can't wait for the next installment on the Phoenician religion. Thanks for being a soothing voice of education, sound information and joy in our shared humanity.

Dig the video, thanks for creating/sharing!

Never had seen this Chanel I’m glad to find it now

Keep up the good work Cy

Highly informative. Thanks

Wow this is cool as hell thanks I've been getting really interested in this topic

it is interesting that 3 different "enemies" said the same thing about child sacrifice and yet never made that claim of other enemies they had.

Great show. All these ancient religions has some kind of sacrifice system. Usually it was all symbolic, and involved animals. But we are told that sometimes actual human sacrifices took place. (Example: the bible says king mesha of moab sacrificed his own son to the god kemosh). the mesha stele actually says that king mesha of moab called himself the son of the god Kemosh. He built a place of worship for Kemosh... because the god saved him from other kings. (In particular he mentions the king of israel). Interestingly, he associates the god with the nation of Moab itself. (This tells us that the gods could also be seen like we see national flags and figure heads of nations today. (And we know that many canaanite kings actually called themselves Baal (like some of the kings of tyre). We are told everywhere about the reality of human sacrifices. Sources though are mainly of later dates of the greeks or romans era. Mythology, (which is basically stories about great religious figures of long ago), is also full of such things. Example: agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to Artemis; Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son isaac; zeus and his brothers and sisters where said to have been eaten by their father; etc. The gods where: flags of nations; manifested in the nations king...making the king god in the flesh; the gods religions could also involve prostitution; mystery secret teachings and rites; festivles and reenacting dramas of their tales (similar to todays easter or christmas reenactments of birth and death of christ). ...And most religions involve heavy uses of imagery and art which features the gods.

This was eye opening. Thank you.

Very nice as always

I just find this channel and I'm absolutely fascinated by it, your topic selection always shed light on the less covered topics, such as that Dilmun and Mesopotamia-IVC trade.

Hey Cy, will you ever do a video on egypt after the new kingdom? Seems like few people ever talk about what was going on in Egypt after rameses III. You’d think nothing happened in Egypt between him fighting the sea peoples and cleopatra screwing Julius Caesar.

Outstanding video bro.

I think there is a possibility that child sacrifice was a reality some of the caananite religions. YHWH himself a caanite god, asked for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but only stopped him by an angel before he actually did.

Interesting stuff.

A "covenant" between a patron god and their followers? That sounds familiar but I can't recall where I heard it before.... The god is a shepherd and the people are the flock? Sounds familiar too but I can't put my finger on that either...

It's interesting, the similarities between the Canaanites and Sumerians, as El was the creator deity preceding the other deities, and also that his name was the generic word for deity, and that East on the Sumerian side of things, An was the creator deity preceding the other deities, and also that his name was the generic word for deity. Particularly since the Akkadians used "An[u]" and "El" interchangeably, if I'm not mistaken. Interesting how these similarities appear

Keep up the good work

This is an amazing video, better than any other on youtube about this topic, the least biased aswell! tysm!!

Hi i am ishan 8years old i watch your videos everyday. Can you post a video about gudea and ancient American and mesoamerican civilizations also khazars part 2 elam part 4 and ancient India. Thank you

Every video brings new information to me, how much grinding do you do to make these videos?

Great topic.. our past not so different from our present after all.. i wish if we can understand all the details but its not that easy to comprehend how and why our ancestors lived and acted the way they did.. thanks for sharing the knowledge Cyrus.

I recently found your channel, and I love it. Especially the stuff on more obscure ancient cultures. If you haven't already done it, might I suggest covering Magan? Also, if you do some stuff on East Asia, I would love to hear about Shu and Ba as well as the Baiyue, maybe Buyeo as well; though of course, these are all just suggestions.

Great video as always Cy! Do you have any translation or background of Israel’s deity Yahweh?

Hey Cy! First of all, I'd like to thank you a lot for your work, I find ancient middle eastern history to be one of the most interesting periods to study, and your videos sure do a good job of summarizing and condensing information for our hungry minds! Anyway, you mentioned Astarte as a sea goddess. I was wondering where you got that information from, wasn't she a sexual warlike goddess like the sumerian/akkadian Innana/Ishtar? I know that levantine mythology as a lot of different and conflicting sources, sometimes giving the same gods almost completely different attributes based on location and time period, so I'm sure you're aware of some source that I don't know about! Also, are you maybe considering on doing a video on specific levantine myths and epics like the Baal cycle? I'd love to see that, I really find them to be some of the most interesting stories ever told... And just for a final question, could you maybe clarify what the position of Yahweh was to the general ancient canaanite peoples? Was he only worshipped by the israelites or was he also a member of the more generalized regional pantheon? I know that at some point in history Asherah was considered to be his consort, so I was wondering if that is because he was already a part of the regional cult or if Asherah was adopted by the israelites.

Very interesting. The last sentence makes me wonder even more to see if you are able to differentiate consistently between Canaanite and Phoenician culture ;)

17:00 Archaeological and biological DNA evidence now shows the urns contained healthy 2-3 month old infants, and they were burned on the same pyre with the animal sacrifices. Still, thanks for not skating past the issue., as many have sought to do.

귀중한 영상 고맙습니다!!

Hey brother great videos there was a video I remember I watched from you where you once shared how these ancient nations had temples AND tabernacles or tents like portable tents do you know which exact video that was that you made?

best channel on YT

Caught that tone of voice on the sacrifice bit... Interesting

Can you do a video on how hebrew religion was split and formed from surrounding religions?

Excellent 👍

I have to say, I rather like the lack of background music. It allows more focus on the lecture.

Can’t wait for the Phoenician one

Thank you for making this video. It has helped me a lot to understand a lot more. Since you said the different Gods had there places on earth, on a mountain or where earth sky meant.The only question I have is. Where would the place be for El in today time?

Hello Cy! Where do you get sources for this information? Could you provide at least some for context?

This better reporting than what's available on CNN! And this occurred 2500 years ago! Makes one wonder..

Could you make an Episode on the Broch builders?

The Canaanite culture seems so similar as described in the Old Testament for the Hebrews. The God El also had me think if that may have been the origin of the biblical angels since all their names end with "el"; such as Gabriel, Michael, Uriel, etc.

Seems like the theme of sacrifice or sacrificing something was common in the ancient religions. Any thoughts as to the origins of this...

Thank you

Can you please do q&a, i am really interested in your academic background.

I am interested by that due to my bible Reading where Canaan is quoted :)

So interesting, especially the part about the nature of covenants with a deity, which explains the context within which the Bible was written. Evidently, it was common practice back then to make a covenant with a particular deity. Also the residences of each god: the God of the Hebrew Bible resided on Mount Zion and was specifically the God of Jerusalem, just as other cities had their own titular deities. I visited the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem back in 2017, and gained many insights into ancient religious thinking from studying the objects and their archaeological descriptions.

He cautiously downplayed the fact that the god of the Old Testament used to be a lesser war god in the Canaanite pantheon.

History time send his regards

I look forward to your presentation about the Phoenician religions/people, since it is they who IMHO burned the Library of Alexandria to cover their tracks, which has worked thru today.

Umm, as an Arab from Jordan, I can tell actually that there's more homogeneity than people think in the greater Levant, even among different religious groups and nations,with the exception of Israel which is more European than middle eastern. Even people who don't consider themselves necessarily arab by ancestry, ex maronite Catholics, consider their culture itself as part of the general Arab culture with it's own different aspects. Even the dialects there are linguistically considered 1 group, Levantine Arabic, but are divided into different subdialects.For example my native dialect is closer to certain northern rural Palestinian and southern Syrian dialects due to the fact that before WW1 people used to move between different areas easier than now and as such there are cross border tribal ties. The European colonialism we experienced disrupted this times old phenomenon and created fake borders and entities

It is fascinating to note that the god Baal Hadad was present both in Canaan and Mesopotamia, and in both of these lands he had the same role, fertility and rain. However. His importance was very different. While the Canaanites LOVED Hadad, the Mesopotamians viewed him as a "lesser" god, inferior to other gods like Marduk. (who...is very similar...but whatever...) This might mean nothing. But just to have some fun, I like to imagine that there are some ancient political implications behind this... The Canaanites were very culturally influenced by the mesopotamians and were conquered a few times by them. So in a sense, placing one of the greatest Canaanite gods as inferior to their gods, makes kinda sense. We are aware of these kind of practices in the pagan world. 🤷

Good work, Cy. What were your references? I hope you had a chance to research Israel Finklestein and William Devers. In summary, the same pantheon of gods existed throughout much of Canaan in the 2nd and early 1st Millennium, but different regions emphasized their favorite gods from that same pantheon. For example, the Hebrew nation of Israel emphasized El as evidenced by putting his name in the name of their people. Many Canaanite peoples worshipped the sky god Baal, including Israel. When the Hebrew nation of Judah appears in the 9th century BCE, they did something novel and elevated the Bronze Age sky god Yahweh (from older culture) over all other gods in the Canaanite pantheon...and then they wrote/revised several books about it.

I haven't researched it in any depth, but a month or two ago a similar (as in serious, not woo-woo) history/archeology channel spent a little time to state that Ba'al mostly meant "lord", thus the Lord of the Flies was Ba'al-zebub. Hyphen mine as is my qualifier, because if "lord of" were simply generic, kings would use it as their own title. My knowledge is fairly scanty for anything definitive, but I have an interest in how words and languages evolve over time and that "rings true" for me. Puts a slightly different face on your presentation, to be sure, but I'm not criticizing, just adding. Keep up the good work, classrooms full of eager students are the best classrooms. Stay safe and healthy, everyone!

Child sacrifice was common at that time. The Canaanites did it and so did others. And you’re right, the priests did eat the burnt offerings. The word cannibal means priesthood of bal.

Thanks

Hey. Will you cover the Sassanids?

Now you have hit on something, that cross connects with Hyksos and the slaves held by Egypt, in the turquoise mines. In the mines , they inscribed this passage, El save us!!. This is usually attributed to the cries of the Israelites. And here now we also see Baal being the son of El, or the Creator God. Is it possible , although messed up, that the Canaanites worshiped the same God as the Israelites?

I always thought Dagon was a fish type god. Nice video......

Really good video man, as a Christian it’s really interesting to see the polytheistic religion that had so much influence on my own, or at least the precursor to it :)

Great video. I understand that technically the Yisrealites are Canaanites due to location but I have a question for you Cy: Is the claim that YַHְWֶH is a Canaanite deity correct? If so what primary source data is this found in? Many have claimed that YַHְWֶH is in the Canaanite pantheon but I have yet to find a source.

Yes

wondering is this channel meant for school history or are there many adults who come here to understand history? just wanna know if this channel's worth it to learn or is this too simple and basic for adults?

These gods show similar aspects of Hinduism, could these be the root from which Hinduism morphed into what we know today . Love to hear your thoughts on this

5:30 I know a lot of God is taken from El, could this be talking about the garden of eden?

El has never been a generic name for god that’s propaganda El is synonymous with the term god because he’s above all just like everyone who’s best in their field of expertise is the Michael Jordan of that field of expertise.

I'd like a lot more visuals. This was more like someone reading the encyclopedia. Lots of facts though.

In Hebrew, "Dagan" means grain

El is similar like Shiva.El lived mountain with his wife asherah.similarly Shiva lived mountain kailash Himalaya with his wife Parvati (Aadishakti).Baal is like Ganesh Shiva's son.Ganesh other naam is Baal Ganesh means child Ganesh

For anyone who had doubts on the Jewish people's non-religious connection to Israel as their homeland (& archaeologically evidenced Canaanite origins), here's a few examples for you from this video.. 1. Canaanite head deity El, the only deity lived on through the nation of Israel (Jews). 2. Baal - means a 'lord' in Hebrew, and in ancient Jewish literature the Canaanite deity is referenced a million times over. 3. 'Dagan' deity of land, of the cattle - in Hebrew, dagan means 'grain' (i.e. wheat, barley, oat etc.) 4. ''Anat', Hadad' and 'Ashera' - all written about in ancient Jewish literature & are popular Hebrew names given to a child. Jews also worshiped female deity Ashera for a while, until quite late through their ancient history. 4b. Side fun fact, Hadad storm deity in ancient Akkadian is rammanu, from where Jews name thunder from. Raam in Hebrew. 5. ......Hebrew itself is the only surviving indigenous Canaanite language. All others went extinct long ago.

I'm sure they practiced human sacrifice, however, whatever human sacrifices that happened most likely occurred during times when they were unsure of their existence in the future and that they've severely angered their gods. It makes sense if you're in a hopeless situation and you believe your gods have abandoned you, you're going to do whatever it takes to win their favor back.

Fun fact the name Israel literally means struggles with El

Is the name Daniel named after the God EL , eg ISRAEL ( land of EL) ?

i know that the roman had reasons to tell about human sacrifice from the cartaginians for propaganda but still, there are reasons the human sacrifice could be true regarding some evidences: from the cartaginians it is not the case as it was in the iron age, but in the bronze age, it could be way more common to do this kind of stuff, we can see it by the myceneans in the trojan war, from the minoans, and from the cannaanites themselves with the mention of abraham's nearly sacrifice of his own son; so we can see there is a quiet common and universal presence of human sacrifice on this period, and the last part is very important: the hebraic religion, which is a monotheisme, is a cultural revolution (not the first apparition of monotheisme but still at his early age) from the very common polytheisme, and this story may be one of the cultural revolution, where human sacrifice is no longer admited.

Very interesting, but it does beg questions about the issues of religion and social identity. In particular, with cities that contained multiple temples, what was the relationship between the followers of the different temple groups - generally amicable or hostile to each others? Could people belong to more than one temple? If temples also had a judicial function, then could you have multiple parallel judicial functions performed by different temples in the same city, each looking after the judicial needs of their own group?

Dig up some ish on the moon god Kùs, Cy.

How many jews and palestinians practice their prime religion? Can someone tell me?

Baal was not the name of any god. It was a title that was used to denote several gods. It seems in Semitic religion, it was taboo to refer to a deity by jis proper name ( except by priests during certain rites and prayer), so titles and honorifics were substituted. Baal was just one example. In fact, there is some evidence that at one point the tribe of Judah used Baal to refer to their patron deity Yahweh, though this later changed to other titles to differentiate him from the Baals worshipped by rival kingdoms.

Isn’t Adu an early Jahweh, yes that Jahweh? There’s an Esoteria episode on this.

yes, who are the Southern Arabian Tribes and why did Moses flee where he did flee

The original "Melting Pot"

It was the crossroads for everyone

So are the Ugaritic people considered Canaanite? Why are they never mentioned in the Hebrew Bible?