But he rather appears to have been Baal or the Sun (Jer. xxxii. 35.), and was the Adrammelech and Anammelech of the Sepharvaites, who burnt their children to them in the fire. There is great reason to think that the Hebrews were addicted to the worship of this deity before their departure from Egypt, since both the prophet Amos (v. 26.) and the proto-martyr Stephen (Acts vii. 43.) reproach them with having carried the tabernacle of their god Moloch with them in the wilderness. Solomon built a temple to Moloch on the Mount of Olives (1 Kings xi. 7.), and his impiety was followed by other kings, his successors, who had apostatised from the worship of Jehovah. The valley of Tophet and Hinnom, on the east of Jerusalem, was the principal scene of the horrid rites performed in honour of Moloch (Jer. xix. 5, 6.), who, it is probable, was the same as the Baal, Bel, or Belus of the Carthaginians, Sidonians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. IV. IDOL GODS OF THE CANAANITES OR SYRIANS, WORSHIPPED BY THE ISRAELITES. 1. Mr. Selden, in his elaborate treatise on the Syrian gods', mentions a goddess, whom he terms GOOD FORTUNE, as the first idol mentioned in the Scriptures, and worshipped by the Hebrews. This opinion is founded on the exclamation of Leah (Gen. xxx. 11.), when her handmaid Zilpah bore a son to Jacob. She said, I am prosperous (or as some in the present day, who ascribe every thing to chance, would say - Good luck to me); and she called his name Gad, that is, prosperity. Although this interpretation has been questioned, yet in Isa. lxv. 11. Gad is unquestionably joined with Meni (or the Moon), and both are names of idols, where the prophet says, Ye . . . . . have deserted Jehovah, Bp. Lowth's Version. What these objects of idolatrous worship were, it is now impossible exactly to ascertain: it is not improbable that Gad was the sun, and Meni the moon; the sun being the great source of plenty, which again is productive of prosperity. Jerome, as cited by Bishop Lowth, gives an account of the idolatrous practice of the apostate Jews, which is alluded to by the prophet, of making a feast, or a lectisternium as the Romans called it, for these pretended deities. "It is," he says, "an ancient idolatrous custom in every city in Egypt, and especially in Alexandria, that on the last day of the last month in the year they set out a table with various kinds of dishes, and with a cup filled with a mixture of water, wine, and honey, indicating the fertility of the past or future year. This also the Israelites did." 2 2. AHAD or ACHAD is the name of a Syrian deity, under which the sun was worshipped: it is mentioned in Isa. lxvi. 17. where the rites of this god are described: : They who sanctify themselves, and purify themselves De Diis Syris, Syntag. i. c. 1. (Works, vol. ii. pp. 255, 256.) In the midst of those who eat swine's flesh, Bp. Lowth's Version. 3. BAAL-PEOR (Numb. xxv. 1-5.) was a deity of the Moabites and Midianites, supposed to be the same as the Priapus of the Romans, and worshipped with similar obscene rites. (Compare Hos. ix. 10.) Selden imagined that this idol was the same with Pluto, from Psal. cvi. 28. They joined themselves unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. But this may mean nothing more than the sacrifices and offerings made to idols, who are properly termed dead, in opposition to the true God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, who is in the Scriptures repeatedly and emphatically termed the living God. CHEMOSH, the abomination of Moab, to whom Solomon erected an altar on the Mount of Olives (1 Kings xi. 7.), is supposed to have been the same deity as Baal-peor. Servants are known by the name of their lord. As the Israelites were called by the name of the true God (2 Chron. vii. 14.), so the Moabites are called (Numb. xxi. 29.) by the name of their god, the people of Chemosh; and other idolatrous nations were designated in a similar manner. (See Mic. iv. 5.) 4. RIMMON was an idol of the Syrians, but not worshipped by the Israelites it is mentioned in 2 Kings v. 8., and is supposed to have been the same as the Jupiter of the ancients. 5. ASHTAROTH or ASTARTE (Judg. ii. 13.; 1 Sam. xxxi. 10.; 2 Kings xxiii. 13.) is generally understood to have been the moon ; though in later times this idol became identified with the Syrian Venus, and was worshipped with impure rites. Astarte is said to be still worshipped by the Druses of Mount Libanus.1 V. PHOENICIAN IDOLS WORSHIPPED BY THE ISRAELITES. 1. None of the heathen deities, mentioned in the Old Testament, is more celebrated than BAAL. : The word signifies lord, master, and husband; a name which, doubtless, was given to their supreme deity, to him whom they regarded as the master of men and gods, and of the whole of nature. This name had its original from Phoenicia, Baal being a god of the Phoenicians and Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, brought this deity from the city of Zidon; for he was the god of Tyre and Sidon, and was certainly the Zeus of the Greeks, and the Jupiter of the Latins. This god was known under the same name all over Asia: it is the same as the Bel of the Babylonians; and the same name and the same god went to the Carthaginians, who were a colony of the Phoenicians: witness the name of Hannibal, Asdrubal, Adherbal, all consisting of Bel or Baal, being the name of the deity of that country, which was according to the custom of the East, where the kings, and great men of the realm, added to their own names those 'Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. v. pp. 32. 453-459. 2 May it not be presumed that the ancient inhabitants of Ireland were a Phoenician colony, from the appropriation of the round towers, found in that island, to the preservation of the Baal-Thinne, or sacred fire of Baal? On this subject, the further prosecution of which is foreign to the plan of the present work, much curious and antiquarian informa. tion is collected in the notes to "The Druid," a Dramatic Poem, by Thomas Cromwell. London, 1832, 8vo. of their gods. In short, it seems to be a name common to all idols, to whatever country they belonged; and when it is mentioned in the Holy Writings without any explanatory circumstance annexed, it is usually understood to be the principal deity of that nation or place of which the sacred writer was speaking. This false deity is frequently mentioned in Scripture in the plural number, Baalim (1 Sam. vii. 4.), which may either signify that the name of Baal was given to many different gods, or may imply a plurality of statues consecrated to that idol, and bearing several appellations, according to the difference of places: just as the ancient heathens gave many surnames to Jupiter, as Olympian, Dodonæan, and others, according to the names of the places where he was worshipped. The false gods of Palestine and the neighbouring nations were called Baal in general; but there were other Baals whose name was compounded of some additional word, such as Baal-peor, Baalberith, Baalzebub, and Baalzephon. The first of these has already been noticed in the preceding page. 2. BAALBERITH was the idol of the Shechemites (Judg. viii. 33.); and the temple of this deity was their arsenal and public treasury. As the Hebrew word Berith signifies a covenant or contract, this god is supposed to have had his appellation from his office, which was to preside over covenants, contracts, and oaths. In like manner, the Greeks had their Zeus "Optos; and the Romans, their Deus Fidius. 3. BAALZEBUB or BELZEBUB was the god of the Ekronites (2 Kings i. 3.), but the origin of the name (which in Hebrew denotes the god of flies) it is difficult to ascertain. As the vicinity of this country was long after infested with minute flies that stung severely all on whom they settled, it is not improbable that Ekron was infested in a similar manner, and that its inhabitants had a deity whom they supplicated for the prevention or removal of this plague.1 The Jews, in the time of Christ, called the prince of the devils by the name of Beelzebub. (Matt. xii. 24.; Luke xi. 15.) 4. BAALZEPHON is supposed to have been an idol, erected to guard the confines of the Red Sea, and also the name of a place, where a temple was erected for the use of mariners. 5. DAGON, the tutelary deity of the people of Ashdod or Azotus, was the Derceto of the heathens. Its name signifies a fish; and its figure is said to have been that of a man from the navel upwards, and that of a fish downwards. It is not improbable that this idol was commemorative of the preservation of Noah in the ark. The worship of Dagon "appears to have extended over Syria as well as Mesopotamia and Chaldæa. This idol had many temples in the country of the Philistines: and it was probably under the ruins of one of them, that Samson buried the people of Gaza, who had gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice. (Judg. xvi. 23.)" 2 6. TAMMUZ or THAMMUZ, though an Egyptian deity, is the same as the Adonis of the Phoenicians and Syrians. For this idol the See Harmer's Observations, vol. iii. pp. 323–325. Layard's Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, p. 344. 1 Jewish women are said to have sat weeping before the north gate of the temple. (Ezek. viii. 14.) Lucian has given an account of the rites of this deity, which illustrates the allusion of the prophet. "I saw," says he, "at Biblis, the great temple of Venus, in which are annually celebrated the mysteries of Adonis in which I am initiated; for it is said, that he was killed in the country by a wild boar, and in perpetual remembrance of this event, a public mourning is solemnised every year with doleful lamentations: then follows a funeral as of a dead body, and next day is celebrated his resurrection, for it is said, he flew up into heaven: one of the ceremonies is for women to have their heads shaved in the same manner as the Egyptians at the death of Apis. Those who refuse to be shaved are obliged to prostitute themselves a whole day to strangers, and the money which they thus acquire is consecrated to the goddess. But some of the Biblians say, that all those ceremonies are observed for Osiris, and that he is buried in their country not in Egypt. In order to which there comes yearly a head made of papyrus, brought by sea, from Egypt to Biblis, and I myself have seen it." Procopius, in his commentary on Isaiah, more particularly explains this rite, and observes that the inhabitants of Alexandria annually prepare a pot in which they put a letter directed to the women of Biblis, by which they are informed that the Adonis is found again. This pot being sealed up, they commit it to the sea, after performing some ceremonies over it, and command it to depart; accordingly, the vessel immediately steers its course to Biblis, where it puts an end to the women's mourning. This Syrian Venus had a temple upon the top of a mountain, which was built out of the way in a by-place, in the midst of a wood; it was demolished by the emperor Constantine2, who put an end to all the filthy ceremonies which had been performed in it. The image of this goddess, according to Macrobius 3, represented a woman in mourning covered with a veil, having a dejected countenance, and tears seeming to run down her face. 7. The BAITHYLIA or CONSECRATED STONES, adored by the early Phoenicians, are supposed to have been the most ancient objects of idolatrous worship; and, probably, were afterwards formed into beautiful statues, when the art of sculpture became tolerably perfected. They originated in Jacob's setting up and anointing with oil the stone which he had used for a pillow, as a memorial of the heavenly vision with which he had been favoured (Gen. xxviii. 18.), and also to serve as a token to point out to him the place when God should bring him back again. The idolatrous unction of stones, consecrating them to the memory of great men, and worshipping them after their death, must have prevailed to a great extent in the time of Moses, who therefore prohibited the Israelites from erecting them. (Lev. xxvi. 1.) The practice of setting up stones as a guide to travellers still exists in Persia and other parts of the East.5 1 In his treatise De Deâ Syria. Op. tom. ix. pp. 89-91. edit. Bipont. 2 Eusebius de Laudibus Constantini, pp. 736, 737. edit. Reading. 3 Saturnalia, lib. i. c. 21. Dr. A. Clarke on Gen. xxviii. 18. In the course of Mr. Morier's journey in the interior of that country, he remarked that his old guide "every here and there placed a stone on a conspicuous bit of rock, or two VI. BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN IDOLS. 1, 2. BEL and NEBO are Babylonian deities mentioned in Isa. xlvi. 1. Bel (the Belus of profane historians) was most probably a contraction of Baal, or the Sun, which was also a Phoenician idol. Nebo or Nebu is supposed to have been the planet Mercury, which was worshipped by the ancient Chaldæans. The divine worship paid to Mercury by the Chaldæans and Assyrians is attested by the many compound proper names, of which this name forms a part, as Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, &c. &c.1 3. MERODACH is supposed to have been a Babylonish monarch, who was deified after his death.2 Gesenius is of opinion that it probably was the planet Mars; to which, as the god of blood and slaughter, as well as Saturn, the ancient Semitic nations offered human sacrifices.3 4. NISROCH was an Assyrian idol, adored by Sennacherib (2 Kings xix. 37.; Isa. xxxvii. 38.) (perhaps the divinity of conquest or of victory), to whom he probably attributed the destruction of his army before Jerusalem, and whom he was in the act of adoring when he was assassinated by his sons. Nisroch is supposed to have been the tutelary divinity of Assyria, and the particular god of the victorious Sennacherib. As the word Nisr, in the Hebrew and other Semitic languages, signifies an eagle, and as it seems to be the root of this idol's biblical name, it has been conjectured that the colossal eagleheaded figure discovered by Mr. Layard at Nimroud is this identical god Nisroch.4 VII. IDOLS Worshipped in SAMARIA DURING THE CAPTIVITY. The deities noticed in the preceding pages are the chief idols anciently adored in Palestine; but there were other false gods worshipped there which were imported into Samaria, after Shalmaneser had carried the ten tribes into captivity, by the colony of foreigners which he sent to occupy their country. These men brought their idols with them. The men of Babylon had their Succoth-benoth, which was the Babylonish Melitta, in honour of whom young women prostituted themselves. The men of Cuth or Cutha brought their stones one upon the other, at the same time uttering some words which" (says this intelligent traveller) “I learnt were a prayer for our safe return. This explained to me, what I had frequently seen before in the East, and particularly on a high road leading to a great town, whence the town is first seen, and where the eastern traveller sets up his stone, accompanied by a devout exclamation, as it were, in token of his safe arrival. The action of our guide appears to illustrate the vow which Jacob made when he travelled to PadanAram. (Gen. xxviii. 18-22.) In seeing a stone on the road placed in this position, or one stone upon another, it implies that some traveller has there made a vow or a thanks. giving. Nothing is so natural in a journey over a dreary country, as for a solitary traveller to sit down, fatigued, and to make the vow that Jacob did:— If God will be with me, and keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I reach my father's house in peace, &c. then I will give so much in charity; —or, again, that on first seeing the place which he has so long toiled to reach, the traveller should sit down and make a thanksgiving; in both cases setting up a stone as a memorial." Morier's Second Journey, p. 84. 1 Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicon, by Robinson, p. 640. Boston, 1836. * W. Lowth, on Jer. 1, 2. Prof. Robinson's Translation of Gesenius's Heb. Lexicon, p. 614. Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 459. In vol. i. p. 64. there is a figure of this eagle-headed divinity. (One may be seen among the Nineveh marbles in the British Museum.) Bononi's Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 223. |