Humanities: Ancient Religion in Israel

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Introduction

Religion is such a field in humanities that makes a significant effect in the life span of not only a community, but in an individual, which upon emphasizing the individual affects his entire attributes in the context of gender, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, citizenship, language, and the habits of everyday life. On its own terms, the religion of Iron Age Israel covers the fascinating empires of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt, the small nation of Israel found itself at a crossroads of political, economic, and cultural life in the Fertile Crescent.

Unlike most of the other political entities of the same age, the extant literary remains are almost entirely focused on the religious dimension of Israel’s life and history. Therefore we can presume that this information about other aspects of life in ancient Israel can be extracted from those remains, they stand as a testimony first of all about the religion of that people.

What is true for the literary remains is equally the case for Israel’s iconographic evidence that is available to the contemporary scholar and interpreter as a result of the extensive archaeological work of the last century and more. The religious aspect is not utterly mute and certainly the pictorial remains convey a great deal in analyzing particularly when in both instances, the interpretive task is as large as or larger than it is for the written remains.

The written remains of course illumine one another and much of our judgment about the artifactual comes from what we know of the literature, both biblical and extra-biblical. Even if we study this field of humanities, we must take the responsibility to emphasize one body of evidence over another and even that by the intermixing of data from literary, iconographic, and artifactual remains that are neither literary nor pictorial.

The Concept of God in ancient Israel

The ancient Israel religion is all about worshipping the deity named Yahweh to which biblical, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence confirms. For this reason, the religion of Israel is often referred to, as Yahwism which made it essential for the other deities to be worshiped at different times or by different groups or that syncretistic movement took place from time to time cannot undermine the centrality of the worship of Yahweh throughout the course of ancient Israel’s history.

As a matter of fact it was always Yahweh who fought for Israel, not Israel which fought for its God. The holy war, in Israel, was never been war of religion. According to the ancient texts, the wars in the time of Josue and the Judges were not undertaken in order to spread belief in Yahweh, as the jihadis undertaken to spread the Moslem faith; nor was their object to defend a faith against a foreign religion. It is worthy of note that, in the Book of Josue, the accounts of the conquest do not contain a single allusion to the gods or the worship of Canaanites. This is also clear from the Book of Judges which reveals that Israel is not fighting (directly) for its religious freedom, but for its existence as a people. The Song of Deborah is such an example that contrasts Yahweh and his champions with Sisera and his chariots, but not with Sisera and his gods; Gideon destroys an altar to Baal, but the episode has no connection whatever with his holy war against the Midianites (McHugh & De Vaux, 1961, p. 262).

If we look at the origins of worshipping Yahweh, it is so much shrouded in the pages of history that they reach back at least to the early Iron Age and apparently as far as the Late Bronze Age. The earliest known possible reference to the name of the deity occurs in an Egyptian list from the time of Amenhotep III (c. 1400 B.C.E.), where a place called Yhw is associated with a nomadic group, the Shasu, whose location south of Palestine is indicated by others in the list. That conforms to the consistency with indications in the early poetry of Israel that Yahweh was a deity associated at the beginning with the South (Miller, 2000, p. 1).

The name of the deity was a matter of some importance to the Israelite religious community, both for the way in which it identified the deity and also because of its character. The initial encounter between Moses and Yahweh in the biblical tradition gives us the evidence of signifying that the name came to have at an early stage in the tradition.

Religion Types in Ancient Israel

Describing ancient Israel exactly is a difficult task because any effort to describe the religion of ancient Israel comes up against clear indications that there was not a single understanding or expression of what that religion was. Through both biblical and extra-biblical evidence we can say that a certain degree of pluralism, of multiformity rather than uniformity was the basic characteristic of their religion. That is what we see while analyzing the prophetic attacks on the worship of Baal and the making of an Asherah but the diversity and complexity of Yahwa were more than simply a matter of the worship of Baal alongside or in preference to Yahweh, such worship being contrary to true Yahwism.

The very effort to define Yahwism opens up a certain complexity within Israelite religion which upon further distinction suggests that between what goes on in public worship and what happens of a religious nature outside the public and formal sphere, what is commonly called ‘popular religion’, has been widely recognized as apropos of Israelite religion (Miller, 2000, p. 46).

The Israelite religion types set forth represent a common reconstruction and a typology rather than a precise account of how the religion was actually practiced and experienced. There are two different perspectives which provide the categories or types to be concerned about their religion:

1. Was their religion showed the question of orthodoxy,
2. the form and character of the cult preaching the religion.

To what extent Israelite Religion was Orthodox?

In any religious system, orthodoxy is measured by the beliefs and concepts of the cults. That means one cult’s belief that escorts him to orthodoxy might be another’s heterodoxy and vice versa. Yet there is some justification for suggesting that the tradition that became the endpoint of Israelite religion, or more accurately, the character it had as it moved into its two primary and immediately continuing streams, Judaism and Christianity, serves to define in retrospect what was orthodox and normative.

Firstly the Israelites were supposed to begin their day by worshipping Yahweh who stood as the sole divine power ultimately effective in the world even if there was resistance or encroachment by other deities. Israelites believed that Yahweh was without representation of the deity and the deity was without sexuality as a primary feature. The cult was subjected to believe in the powers of blessing that provides them with fertility, continuity, health, and wealth and because of salvation they refrain from unforgiveness and defeat that resided fully in Yahweh.

Oracle Inquiry

The will of the Yahwa was conveyed by means of oracle inquiry and prophetic audition or vision in which dreams were of significant importance. Other methods include casting of lots within the sacral assembly, and prophetic revelation was legitimate means of discerning the divine will or direction. Divination was prohibited as according to Israelites it was the only means to be prescribed and proscribed technique for consultation of the deity.

The individual or the community possessed the right to cry out to Yahweh, either in the sanctuary or outside it, and would receive a divine response, mediated by priestly or prophetic figures. Whether we are not sure that such appeals for help on the part of the individual cantered in cultic activities in a sanctuary or were more a part of ritual processes in the family or clan circles matters or not.

Sacrifice in Israel History

History tells us that there has been no period in ancient Israel’s history when sacrifice was not an important part of religious practice from the oldest accounts of family and tribal sacrifice to the systematic organization of the sacrificial ritual reflected in the Priestly material of the Pentateuch that belongs to the later stages of that history, the time of exile and afterward. Sacrifices were differentiated according to the categorization by way of the different names as possible but more complex than may appear at first glance.

It is clear that different terms for sacrifice were suggested to reflect different concerns. In this context, three principal orientations are of significant importance to be analyzed by today’s religious humanists which are reflected in the terminology, and a particular term may operate within more than one category depending upon how the sacrifice is applied:

1. Terms indicating either the manner of performing the rite, for example, zebaḥ, ‘slain offering’, or ‘ascending offering’, or the material to be used in the sacrifice, for example, ‘incense offering’.
2. Terms indicating the place of a sacrifice within the order or process of cultic operation or the calendar of cultic activity, for example, pesaḥ, ‘sacrifice of the Passover (pesaḥ) festival’, or ‘daily offering’.
3. Terms those are suggesting all possible means for the purpose or motivation of a sacrifice, for example, neder, ‘votive offering’ or ‘thank offering’ (Miller, 2000, p. 107).

The concept of holiness, secularism, healing and religious life in ancient Israel was permeated with a concern for holiness and a proper guarding of what was sacred. This reflects the various expressions of using taboo notions and dimensions of power, thereby belonging to a common category of experience in other religions; Israelites considered the many ways in which holiness was achieved and protected as directly related to their God (Hendel, 2001).

Due to this perception the holiness of Yahweh was to be reflected in various ways in the society. One was to develop a large body of legal material which they developed over the centuries to encourage and provide for achieving and guarding holiness, and extensive prophetic oracles attest to the seriousness of the concern for holiness and the frequent violation of the community.

The most extensive collection of rules and regulations to determine, achieve, or protect holiness and purity is found particularly in the Priestly legislation of Exodus through Numbers and in the related body of rules known as the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-26). But these are not the only places that are limited by the concern for and identification of the holiness. Not only does Deuteronomy have a strong notion of the people of Israel as holy, but narrative reports and prophetic oracles all testify to a perduring concern for the sacral in ancient Israel’s religion (Miller, 2000, p. 131). The Israel community was able to develop an elaborate cultic apparatus and procedure in the course of the ancient history to clarify and guard the realm of the sacred, the sense of the sacred and the experience of taboo were features of the religion of Israel at all stages.

Holiness or sacredness

Holiness or sacredness remained a considerable feature of expression of primarily in the various forms of the root, which was joined with the related category of purity. In each case there was an opposite category. The concept of being holy or unholy however, existed in somewhat complex relation to each other in which the holy and the clean were related categories, and so the holy needed also to be pure or clean.

There were symbolic features that ameliorate holiness manifested itself in partook of taboo. The story of Achan’s taking of the dedicated things in Joshua 7 is a good illustration of this but the story also makes it very clear that the sacrifice of the dedicated things was not because of anything inherent within them, any mana or potency with which they were laden. In this context it is not necessary that every reference to something as being holy can be seen in immediate relation to Yahweh, but the question that arises is that is the expression ‘holy to Yahweh’ sufficiently common? Furthermore the elaborated notions of holiness in the law codes so thoroughly tied to the command of the deity and the relation to the deity that one can read an animistic notion of holiness into Israel’s religion only with great difficulty.

Leadership qualities in Israelites Religion

The ancient religion was followed by the significant power and control vested in the religious leadership. Israeli leaders serve in no small way to define the religious practice of the community, whether in conformity to other dimensions of the system or in distortion of them. They provide varied forms of mediation between deities and people which may be bearers of the continuities of religious practice in some instances for example, priests or they may be disruptive elements, breaking with the customary conventions, ideologies, and practices, as, for example, in some Israelite prophecy.

The role of a priest or a priestly community throughout Israel’s history exercised a fundamental role in maintaining the order of life in the community and stood at the center of religious practice, whether carried out in a family setting or at local or state levels. Thus, one of the narratives of monarchical Israel recounting priestly activity deals with the activities of a priest exclusively in relation to a house shrine and in direct relationship to the household rather than to any wider religious community (Judges 17-18).

The priest was declared as ‘his priest’, referring to the head of the household while on the other hand, Samuel is depicted as carrying out priestly responsibilities, specifically sacrifice, at what seems to be a local shrine at Ramathaim. The presence of priests presiding over the national shrine and over the religious activities of the state is evident at a number of places in the history of Israel’s religion.

At all levels, priestly responsibility for ritual purity and proper order served to keep the community aloof from the threats of impurity and disorder. The anointing of the priest, and particularly the high priest, served to ‘sanctify’ him by removing him from the realm of the profane and empowering him to operate in the realm of the sacred. The priestly instruction and setting forth the norms for community life, individually and corporately, insured that the community would not fall apart by failure to keep the stipulations of the covenantal agreement between Yahweh and Israel and thus damage relations between people and deity and among members of the community.

Priestly authority and function were, by definition, set to maintain the order of the larger community and, where pertinent, smaller segments of that community. The mediation of the relationship between people and deities lay heavily in their hands so that the priesthood bore major responsibility for maintenance of that relationship and thus of the social order by the way in which they carried out their duties. Thus Israeli ancient religion highlights upon all the morals which today are essential in order to understand the social system of ancient Israel (Kim, 2007).

Political and Social Order in the light of Religion

Through various narratives we can presume that the then priests played role or could play in maintaining the social order through their role as guardians of the temple and the cultic affairs of the community. The chief priest who was named ‘Amaziah’, at the national shrine at Bethel during the eighth century, sought to remove Amos from prophesying in the Northern Kingdom because of the social and political unrest it could provoke and possibly was in fact doing, though we have no record of that. His couching of Amos’s prophecy as a conspiracy against the king and the national sanctuary, called by the priest ‘house of the kingdom’ and not ‘house of Yahweh’, was a reflection of his role in maintaining political and social order.

Again, however, the functionality of divine rule could be destabilizing and critical. This is found particularly in the figure of the prophet as the agent of the divine rule who had responsibility for designating the one chosen by Yahweh as ruler as well as for pronouncing judgment on the king, the forfeit of kingship for breach of law or covenant, as well as the death of the king for like reasons.

In like manner, the national shrine was not only guaranteed but also threatened by Yahweh’s rule, as demonstrated by the oracles of Amos in the North and those of Micah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel in the South. Furthermore, the rule of Yahweh on Zion and through Yahweh’s anointed became one of the primary carriers in Israel’s religion of a vision of social and political harmony, peace, and justice (Miller, 2000, p. 12).

The Israeli people were not only obedient but also punctual according to law and order which is evident from the fact that they had set times for the gathering to celebrate the gifts of Yahweh and the deity’s acts of deliverance and redemption. Partly agricultural in background, they came to represent thanksgiving on the part of the people for both the blessings of nature and the occasions of God’s deliverance and provided the context for renewal of the covenant that bound together with the tribes as well as Yahweh and the people. The primary activities at such festivals were the presentation of sacrifices and manifestations and sharing of meals (Fox, 2001).

But central features of the community’s historical experience of Yahweh’s deliverance and rule were also celebrated, including, at different times and different festivals, the deliverance from Egypt and the coming into the land, the proclamation of the covenant law, and Yahweh’s choice of David and Zion. Other special occasions were set during certain periods of Israel’s history, some of which centered on the family, such as the Passover, and the Sabbath, a day of rest and remembrance. In the course of Israel’s religion, other community-wide celebrations arose, for example, the Day of Atonement, and, in the late and post-Old Testament period, Purim and Hanukkah.

The moral and ethical sphere was a matter of stress, with requirements and expectations about guarding the welfare of neighbors and providing for weaker members of society. Family relationships were protected by divine law. Purity of conduct, dress, food, bodily functions and characteristics, and other matters were regulated in different ways and at different times. Everything in the moral and cultic realms was understood to be a part of the individual’s and the community’s relation to Yahweh, a manifestation of their holiness.

Work Cited

Fox S. Nili, (2001) “Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Israel: Prolegomena to the Study of Ethnic Sentiments and Their Expressions in the Hebrew Bible” In: The Journal of the American Oriental Society. Volume: 121. Issue: 1.

Hendel S. Ronald, (2001) “From Epic to Canon: History and Literature in Ancient Israel” In: The Journal of the American Oriental Society. Volume: 121. Issue: 1.

Kim Y. Uriah, (2007) “Ancient Israel: The Old Testament in Its Social Context” In: Theological Studies. Volume: 68. Issue: 1.

Miller D. Patrick, (2000) The Religion of Ancient Israel: SPCK: London.

McHugh John & De Vaux Roland, (1961) Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions: McGraw-Hill: New York.

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