Yahweh did not originate from the Canaanites or other similar groups, as some people have thought.

Understanding who the Canaanites were is crucial to understanding the actions of the Hebrews towards them as described in the Bible. By knowing the history and interactions of the Canaanites, we can avoid misinterpreting the scriptures. It’s important to shed light on historical facts, and the historical facts tell us that the Canaanites were an immoral and vicious people.

THE CHARACTER OF THE CANAANITES GODS

The way people think about theology is connected to their everyday life and how they see the world. This was true a long time ago, just like it is true now. So, if we want to understand the people of ancient Canaan, we need to learn about their beliefs in gods. Archaeologists, theologians, and historians study this to understand their culture.

The Canaanites worshiped many gods. We know this because of the things found by archaeologists, like idols, altars, and clay tablets. We even know the names of their gods, and some of these are mentioned in the Old Testament.

Dr. William Foxwell Albright was a highly respected figure in the field of Biblical Archaeology. His authority is recognized by people of different beliefs and backgrounds. In his book Yahweh And The Gods Of Canaan he provides a detailed account of the Canaanite gods. In a chapter entitled Canaanite Religion In the Bronze Age Albright notes the connection between the Egyptians and the Canaanites, and how many of their deities and religious practices carried over to one another, such as in the Canaanite Baal epic.  The Canaanite chief deity, the head of their pantheon of gods, was El who was also called the Bull and sometimes depicted as such. Likewise, the Hebrews also used the word El to mean God (as in Elohim), but understood God differently than the Canaanite’s god. Even in the Hebrew Scriptures Elohim can mean God, gods, angels, or heavenly beings depending on the context. The Hebrew Scriptures reveal God as holy, loving and personal. The Canaanite’s El was evil, unloving, and aloof.

In Canaanite religion, El, the chief god, required other gods to come to him by traveling to a distant place called the “source of the two rivers, the foundation of the two deeps.” This place was associated with Egypt and its gods. El’s wife was Asherah, also known as the “Lady who treads on the Sea Dragon” and “She who gives birth to the gods.”

The most important god of the Canaanites, Albright notes, was Baal – the “son of Dagan” (Albright, p. 125).  Baal is also known as Hadad.  Albright states, “There is good reason to believe that Baal was coming into use as a personal name of the god during the Hyksos period (seventeenth to sixteenth centuries B.C.), when Hadad was identified with the Egyptian storm-god, Seth” (Albright, p. 126).  It was Baal, according to the Canaanite Epic, who struggled with Mot, the god of death.  This battle was ongoing and violent.  They would seasonally exchange defeats and victories.  When Mot won he would take Baal down to the underworld – from which Baal’s sister (and sexual partner) would free him so Baal could then destroy Mot and continue the circle.

With the connection between the gods of Egypt and the gods of Canaan, it comes as no surprise that the practices of these gods and goddesses would be injected into the lives and character of the people who served them.  In Egypt kings such as Akhenaten and Ramesses II married “one of more of their own daughters.” (Albright 131).  Baal, according to Albright, “was closely associated with two other goddesses. The relationship between him and the goddesses Anath and Astarte were very complex. For example, Anath was not only Baal’s virgin (batultu) sister, but also his consort. While she was in the form of a heifer, he raped her in an epic myth ’77-even 88 times’” (Albright, p. 131).  This led the Canaanites, who acted out the lives of their gods, to practice ritual rape, bestiality, and incest. 

We have ancient texts stating that the goddess Anath, “walked along, lamenting the beauty of her brother . . . she devoured his flesh without a knife and drank his blood without a cup” (Albright, p. 132).  The Canaanites acted out this myth by the practice of omophagia (eating raw flesh and drinking the blood of sacrifices).  Albright notes “It must be remembered that cannibalism is said in early Hittite historical inscriptions to have been practiced in Armenia about the sixteenth century B.C.” Thus providing evidence that the Canaanites were also cannibalistic. 

Finally, Albright notes that “human sacrifice lasted much longer among the Canaanites and their congeners than in either Egypt or Mesopotamia. The same situation seems to hold for sexual abuses in the service of religion, for both Egypt and – on the whole – Mesopotamia seem to have raised standards in this area at a much earlier date than was true in Canaan” (Albright, p. 153).  Some of the human sacrifices offered by the Canaanites were their own infant children, placing them in the heated arms of their idol gods and burning them alive.  Archaeological discoveries have included temples of Baal and Molech where burned bones of small children were placed in pots. Archaeologists have also found the bodies of young women cut in half.  

These facts are clearly laid out in the Canaanites writings and epics, the writings of those nations near and around them, and of archaeological findings.  Thus, history (by the Canaanites own witness) shows them to have been barbarous, savage, and cruel beyond imagination.  

LIST OF CANAANITE GODS 

The pantheon of Canaanite gods and goddesses are as follows: 

• Anat, virgin goddess of war and strife, mate and sister of Ba’al Hadad.
• Asherah walker of the sea, Mother goddess, wife of El (also known as Elat).
• Astarte, possibly androgynous divinity associated with Venus.
• Baalat or Baalit, the wife or female counterpart of Baal (also Belili).
• Ba’al Hadad, storm god, superseded El as head of the Pantheon.
• Baal-Hammon, god of fertility and renewer of all energies in the Phoenician colonies of the Western Mediterranean.
• Dagon, god of crop fertility, father of Hadad (usually).
• El Elyon (i.e. god most high) and El.
• Eshmun or Baalat Asclepius, god of healing (or goddess).
• Kotharat. goddesses of marriage and pregnancy.
• Kothar, Hasis, the skilled, god of craftsmanship.
• Lotan, serpent ally of evil,Yam.
• Melqart, king of the city, the underworld and cycle of vegetation in Tyre.
• Molech, god of fire.
• Mot (god), god of death.
• Qadeshtu, holy one, goddess of love.
• Resheph god of Plague and healing.
• Shalim and Shachar.
• Shamayim, the god of the Heavens.
• Shemesh (in Ugarit the goddess Shapshu), Sun god (or goddess, its gender is disputed)^.
• Yam-nahar or Yam, also called judge nahar.
• Yarikh god of the moon, lover of Nikkal.

Yahweh, however, is not listed in this ancient pantheon.

YAHWEH WAS NOT A CANAANITE DEITY

The idea that Yahweh was originally a Canaanite deity and later adopted by the Hebrews is a popular theory among internet atheists, but there is no evidence to support it. In fact, the evidence suggests the opposite.

Dr. John Day in his book, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan (Sheffield Academic Press, 2002) writes, “Yahweh himself does not appear to have been a Canaanite god in origin: for example, he does not appear in the Ugaritic pantheon lists. Most scholars who have written on the subject during recent decades support the idea that Yahweh had his origins outside the land of Israel to the south, in the area of Median (cf. Judge. 5:4-5; Deuteronomy 33:2; Hab. 3:3,7) and there has been an increasing tendency to locate Mt. Sinai and Kadesh in N.W. Arabia rather than the Sinai peninsula itself” (Day, p. 15).

According to the Bible, we can find support for two things: first, the name of God, Yahweh or YHWH, is revealed in the book of Exodus, where it is referred to as “I AM Who I AM” (Exodus 3:14-15 LSB) Second, it is not surprising that the Midianites worshipped YHWH, as Moses’ wife was a Midianite and his father-in-law was a priest of Midian.

Archaeology has supported this as well. In 1957-1963 there was excavation done in modern-day Sudan of the Egyptian town of Soleb. A temple was built there to honor Pharaoh Amenhotep III (late 15th to early 14th century B.C.E.) for the Heb-Sed festival, an Egyptian celebration of the thirtieth year of his reign. One of the pillars, talking about Amenhotep’s victories and enemies, mentions the “cattle-herding nomads whose God is Yahweh” of the desert. This has caused many scholars to connect these “nomads of Yahweh” to the Israelites as reveled in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Most recently, a small “curse tablet” was discovered on Mt. Ebal. The ancient Israelites used to publicly bind themselves with oaths that involved blessings and curses they placed on themselves for following or abandoning their dedication to YHWH. The tablet was discovered in an abandoned layer believed to date back to the late Bronze Age (around 1200 B.C.E.), and the metal on which the tablet is inscribed likewise dates to the late Bronze Age. It seems to read:

“Cursed, cursed, cursed – cursed by the God YHW. You will die cursed. Cursed you will surely die. Cursed by YHW – cursed, cursed, cursed.”

If this dating holds (and more research needs to be done) we have on Mt. Ebal from the late Bronze Age a direct connection between EL (the God) and YHW (YHWH).  This would show that the Documentary Hypothesis (which claims the name YHWH did not come into use among the Hebrews until around 950 B.C.E.) to be false, and that the worship of YHWH was brought into the conquest of the Canaanites by the Israelites in the late Bronze Age, and that they worshipped YHWH as God – just as we find in Scripture.

CONCLUSION

Unlike the Canaanites and other tribal groups in the near far east, the Hebrews viewed God as:

Loving:

“Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” (Numbers 14:19 LSB)

“As a father has compassion on his children, So Yahweh has compassion on those who fear Him.” (Psalm 103:13 LSB)

Good:

“Yahweh is good, A strong defense in the day of distress, And He knows those who take refuge in Him.” (Nahum 1:7 LSB)

“Surely goodness and lovingkindness will pursue me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.” (Psalm 23:6 LSB)

Forgiving and Merciful:

“For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.” (Deuteronomy 4:31 LSB)

“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says Yahweh, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18 LSB)

Holy and Moral:

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You.” (Psalm 89:14 LSB)

“And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3 LSB)

Who protects the innocent and abhors child sacrifice:

“And you shall not give any of your seed to pass them over to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.” (Leviticus 18:21 LSB)

“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices soothsaying or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer,” (Deuteronomy 18:10 LSB)

“Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not justify the guilty.” (Exodus 23:7 LSB)

“Thus says Yahweh, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the sojourner, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place.” (Jeremiah 22:3)

The evidence shows that the Canaanites were extremely savage both in their attitude towards the Hebrews and to their own people. They worshipped gods that involved incest, rape, sex with animals and children, as well as human and infant sacrifice and cannibalism. The Canaanites did not have a god named YHWH, and that the worship of YHWH is traced to a different origin to the ancient Israelites. And that the nature of Yahweh, the God of Scripture, was not like the pagan tribal gods of the Canaanites.