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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Baal, Anat and the Birth of a Bull

KTU 1.10 I

[…] the Maiden Anat
[…]
[…] that the sons of El do not know⁠
[…] the assembly of the stars⁠
[…] the circle of the heavens
[Mighty] Baal
[…] Rider on the Clouds
[…]
[…] sits on the ground
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…] he gives
[the Maiden] Anat
[the In-law of] the Peoples
[…]
[sits] on the ground
[…] flesh
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.10 I:4 and Jeremiah 8:2

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Jeremiah turns devotion to the stars, treated as gods in Ugarit, into a reason for disgrace, showing that these heavenly beings cannot protect their followers.

Passages

KTU 1.10 I:4

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
[…] the Maiden Anat […] […] that the sons of El do not know […] the assembly of the stars […] the circle of the heavens [Mighty] Baal […] Rider on the Clouds […] […] sits on the ground […] […] […] […] he gives [the Maiden] Anat [the In-law of] the Peoples […] [sits] on the ground […] flesh
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Jeremiah 8:2

Hebrew Bible
1 The Lord says, “When that time comes, the bones of the kings of Judah and its leaders, the bones of the priests and prophets, and of all the other people who lived in Jerusalem will be dug up from their graves. 2 They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon, and the stars. These are things they adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, from which they sought guidance and worshiped. The bones of these people will never be regathered and reburied. They will be like manure used to fertilize the ground. 3 However, I will leave some of these wicked people alive and banish them to other places. But wherever these people who survive may go, they will wish they had died rather than lived,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jeremiah

References

“... This is in harmony with the scholarly studies of astronomical terminology in the Hebrew Bible that Israelite religion, like other ancient religions of Canaan and the Near East, understood celestial bodies to be divine beings. In fact, many canonical texts that identify stars as divine beings are late. It is also noteworthy that this same “host of heaven” appears in a classic divine council scene in Dtr, 1 Kgs 22:17-23. If a redactional campaign was waged during the exile in the name of intolerant monotheism, it was shockingly careless. ...” “... 65 See Job 38:7-8; 1 Kgs 22:19; Deut 17:3; Jer 8:2; 19:13; Dan 8:10-11; Neh 9:6. The idea survived into the first century C.E. as witnessed by Second Temple literature (see Chapter Eight) and was known in the New Testament (Luke 2:13; Acts 7:42-43: Rev 1:20; 12:1-4). For the Ugaritic corollary texts, see KTU 1.10:3-5: bn ʾl (“sons of Ilu/El”) || pḫr kkbm (“assembly of the stars”) || dr dt šmm (“race of heaven”); KTU 1.19.IV:23-25, 29-31: ʾlm (“gods”) || šmym (“celestial ones”) || kbkbm (“stars”). ...”
Michael S. Heiser, “The Divine Council in Late Canonical and Non-Canonical Second Temple Jewish Literature” (PhD diss., University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2004), 13–14.

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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KTU 1.10 I:4 and Jeremiah 8:2

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