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KAI

Canaanite and Aramaic Inscriptions

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Chapter 26

The offering(s) of the daily sacrifice: one ox; and at the [time of ploughing], one sheep; and at the time of harvest, one sheep. And may Baʿal the Victorious Horn bless Azatiwada with life and peace and mighty strength over every king, So that Baʿal the Victorious Horn and all the gods of the city may give to Azatiwada length of days and multitude of years and pleasant old age and mighty strength over every king. And may this city possess fullness and wine, and may this people who dwell in it become owners of oxen and owners of sheep and owners of fullness and wine. And may they bear children in abundance, and may they grow mighty in abundance, and may they serve Azatiwada in abundance and the house of Mopsos, by the grace of Baʿal and the gods. But if any king of kings, or prince of princes,⁠ or any man who is a man of renown, should erase the name of Azatiwada from this gate and put (his own) name (on it), or even should he covet this city and tear out this gate which Azatiwada made, and make for it a different gate and put his name upon it whether he tears it out with covetousness or with hatred and evil he tears out this gate—then may Baʿal-Shamem and El Creator-of-Earth⁠ and the eternal Sun and the entire assembly of the sons of the gods blot out that kingdom and that king and that man!⁠

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Melchizedek Echoes El Creator of Earth in a Phoenician Text

Ancient Near East, Northwest Semitic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

A Phoenician inscription from around 700 BCE blesses a king by “El Creator-of-Earth.” Genesis 14 has Melchizedek bless Abram by “God Most High, creator of heaven and earth,” using the same divine name and title current across Canaan.

Passages

KAI 26.iii

Ancient Near East, Northwest Semitic · Canaanite and Aramaic Inscriptions
this city and tear out this gate which Azatiwada made, and make for it a different gate and put his name upon it whether he tears it out with covetousness or with hatred and evil he tears out this gate—then may Baʿal-Shamem and El Creator-of-Earth and the eternal Sun and the entire assembly of the sons of the gods blot out that kingdom and that king and that man!
1200 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KAI

Genesis 14:19

Hebrew Bible
18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.) 19 He blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 Worthy of praise is the Most High God, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. 21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and take the possessions for yourself.” 22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I raise my hand to the Lord, the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth, and vow
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

References

... Thus, it can hardly be a coincidence that Genesis 14:19 (compare verse 22) speaks of “El-Elyon, creator (qōnēh) of heaven and earth” and Deuteronomy 32:6 declares, “Is not he your father, who created you (qānekā)?” This is so because not only is it the case that the verb qnh is used outside the Bible to speak of El's creative activity, but in both cases cited above we have other evidence supporting El influence: Genesis 14:19 and 22 specifically refer to El(-Elyon) ... The words ʼl qn ʼrṣ, “El creator of the earth,” occur in the Phoenician inscription of Azitawadda from Karatepe (KAI 26.A.III.18) and in a neo-Punic inscription from Leptis Magna in Tripolitania (KAI 129.1). Further, the form lqwnr appears in a bilingual text from Palmyra, where he is equated with Poseidon, and there is no doubt that this form underlies the name of the god Elkunirsha, whose wife is Asertu (Asherah) in a Hittite-Canaanite mythological text. ...
John Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, JSOTSup 265 (London: Sheffield Academic, 2002), 20.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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KAI 26.iii and Genesis 14:19

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