The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

Before we became monotheists? Specifically, my family is Syrian Orthodox.

Before we became monotheists? Specifically, my family is Syrian Orthodox.

During the Bronze Age, the geographical region, which nowadays consists of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordania, southern Turkey, and the Sinai peninsula, was inhabited by tribes and advanced city states, speaking a number of languages closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic (Ugaritic and Phoenician are the most well-known). In the beginning of the Iron Age, Aramaic tribes moved from the southern part of this region to the northern part of this region, and Aramaic became the lingua franca in the region until the 3d Century BCE, when Greek became another option. Anyone who spoke both Aramaic and Greek was sure to be understood by anyone in the region up until the 7th Century CE.

Our historical sources to religion in the region fall in two categories: Quite early records found in excavations during the 20th century (Ugarit and Ebla being the most famous excavation sites) and books written by Greeks and Romans about the region 300 BCE -- 400 CE. To the latter group belongs Philo of Byblus description of the alleged Phoenician author Sanchuniathon's writings.

The findings from Ebla and Ugarit, and the Graeco-Roman sources, agree about a pantheon along the following lines (but please remember that mythology was in flux during the entire antiquity, and that some deities were more - or less - popular in some cities):

The god of eternity, Olam, creates the artificer god, Chusor, who creates the world. El Eljon, 'God, the most High', marries the goddess of covenants, Berith. They beget the skygod, sometimes - but not always - known as Baal Shamin (whose temple in Palmyra was demolished by Daesh recently) and the earth goddess. They marry and have numerous children, including El (king of the deities), Dagon (god of agriculture), a mountain god (whom the Greeks identified with Atlas), Betel, Ashera (queen of the deities, known as Athirat in Ugarit), the goddess Astarte (who was a multi-purpose goddess now-and-then kidnapped by her relative, the goddess of Death), Atargatis (aka 'Baal Tis' and 'Derketo', unknown in Ugarit but very popular as the lover of Adonis in late antiquity), the daughter of Atargatis: Qadesh (or Qetesh) who was a goddess of love, eponymous to the city Qadesh and borrowed into Egyptian religion between the Middle and New Kingdom. Younger deities in the pantheon are the goddess Anat (warrior goddess), and the gods Melkart, Baal Hadad (storm god and seneshal), Eshmun (healer god and god of physicians).

Before we became monotheists? Specifically, my family is Syrian Orthodox.

 
Your choice would also depend upon how far back you think your family has been in what ever part of the mideast it's from.

You could be descendents of mustered out Roman legionnaires, so ancient Roman.
Greeks that came thru as part of general Greek diaspora from Alexander the Great thru the capture of the area by the Muslims.
Jewish, so you'd have to go back even further, around 4,000 years rather than 1,500 years.

Your choice would also depend upon how far back you think your family has been in what ever part of the mideast it's from.

You could be descendents of mustered out Roman legionnaires, so ancient Roman.
Greeks that came thru as part of general Greek diaspora from Alexander the Great thru the capture of the area by the Muslims.
Jewish, so you'd have to go back even further, around 4,000 years rather than 1,500 years.

Don't forget the Canaanites (in the broadest sense of the word) and the Aramaeans. From these two groups several modern ethnicities trace their roots: Samaritans, Karaite Jews, Rabbinical Jews, Syriac-Orthodox, Assyrians, and Mandaeans. There are also a few Aramaean-speaking groups in India.

It is likely, that this is true about Catholic and Byzantine-Orthodox Palestinians too, although these two groups were predominantly Greek-speaking before the 7th century, and became Arabic-speaking after that.

Modern Chaldaeans descend from Babylonians and Aramaeans. Their language is closely related to Hebrew, Rabbinical Aramaean, West-Syrian Aramaean (Syrioio), East-Syrian Aramaean (aka 'Assyrian'), and Mandaean Aramaean.

Jewish, so you'd have to go back even further, around 4,000 years rather than 1,500 years.

4000? Rather 2850 or so. The Mesha Stele, the Tel Dan Stele (if it is authentic), the Kurkh Monolith, and the Nimrud obelisk belong to that time period. It's regardless a very long time ago.

Total years from present, so 2850 BCE would be 4,800 years. 1,500 years would be sort of just prior to the rise of Islam but long enough for the Christian sects to be well established in the region.  Agreed, either way it's a long time ago.

2015 (this year) + 840 (i.e. 840 BCE) = c. 2855 years before present, not 4800 years. The two kingdoms conventionally known as Israel (aka Bet Omri) and Judah are attested in sources from the 840's BCE onwards, not before that.

My mistake on what years I meant, although my math was correct.  I was doing it from memory and thought the early Jewish state was a lot older, 2800 BCE, rather than 800 BCE.  I must be thinking of something else.

The stone monuments I mentioned in one of my earlier posts are the earliest written sources about Hebrew-speaking political entities (and there were two of them). Before the 840's BCE we don't know anything for sure. Not according to historical methods.

Scriptures like Joshua/Yehoshua, Judges/Shofetim, first and second books of Samuel/Shmuel, and first and second books of Kings/M'lakhim are religious documents and written at some point after 561 BCE, the last year described in the Second Book of Kings. Scholars generally agree that all of these books - styled former prophets within Judaism - were written by one and the same group of authors, but they disagree about the date of these literary works. Biblical maximalists argue for a date of composition between 560 and 420 BCE. Mainstream scholars argue for a date of composition between 520 and 330 BCE. Biblical minimalists argue for a date of composition after 330 BCE, and view the time of the Macchabaean uprising in the 160's BCE as a time of intense literary output. In any case, these scriptures were not written down until centuries after the events they allege, and as historical sources their value is lower than texts written down at a time close to the one they describe. A problematic historical value does not diminish the religious value these texts may have for many persons.

Biblical minimalists don't estimate oral tradition very highly. I'm rather leaning in the direction of mainstream scholarship on these issues, and, although oral traditions are problematic, they may have existed before a narrative was fixated into text. When the existence of king Jehu and others is corroborated by texts on monuments from their own time, it increases the likelihood of what Books of Kings tell about them.

The content of the four preceeding books are not corroborated by texts or other archaeological finds (which doesn't mean that all of their content is late: The hymn of Deborah in Judg. 5 is often considered to be one of the oldest segments of the Hebrew Bible. They are of legendary nature, and I guess no one of a scientific mind takes the story about Earth stopping rotating in Joshua seriously. About the time before the 840's we are entirely out in the dark. That's hardly surprising. After the Bronze Age collapse about 1200 BCE analphabetism rose, and we have very, very few texts from the time 1200-850 BCE. That time period was a dark age not only for emerging Hebrew-speakers (Jews-to-be), but also for Aramaeans, Greeks and Anatolians.