Idolatry in the Ancient Near East[1]  

Ancient Near Eastern Pantheons

Ammonite Pantheon

The chief god was Moloch/Molech/Milcom.

Assyrian Pantheon

The chief god was Asshur.

Babylonian Pantheon

At Lagash--Anu, the god of heaven and his wife Antu.

At Eridu--Enlil, god of earth who was later succeeded by Marduk, and his wife Damkina. Marduk was their son.

Other gods included: Sin, the moon god; Ningal, wife of Sin; Ishtar, the fertility goddess and her husband Tammuz; Allatu, goddess of the underworld ocean; Nabu, the patron of science/learning and Nusku, god of fire.

Canaanite Pantheon

The Canaanites borrowed heavily from the Assyrians. According to Ugaritic literature, the Canaanite pantheon was headed by El, the creator god, whose wife was Asherah. Their offspring was Baal, who married Anath (The OT indicates that Ashtoreth, a.k.a. Ishtar, was Baal's wife). Dagon, Resheph, Shulman, Koshar and Mot were other gods of this pantheon. The cultic practices included animal sacrifices at high places; sacred groves, trees or carved wooden images of Asherah. Divination, snake worship and ritual prostitution were practiced. Sexual rites were supposed to ensure fertility of people, animals and lands.

Egyptian Pantheon^[2]  

Egyptian religion was never unified. Typically deities were prominent by locale. Only priests worshipped in the temples of the great gods. Only when the gods were on parade did the populace get to worship them. These 'great gods' were treated like human kings by the priesthood: awakened in the morning with song; washed and dressed the image; served breakfast, lunch and dinner. The cults of Ra and Osiris, his sister/wife Isis and son Horus^[3]   were as close to a national religion as it got. Typically families worshipped household gods.

Essentially Egyptian religion involved the worship of nature dieties. Anubis was a jackal god; Sobk a crocodile god; Horus & Ra were associated with the falcon; Thoth was associated with an ibis and connected with wisdom & the moon; Ma 'et (a.k.a. Maat, the daughter of Re) the godess of truth, justice, right & cosmic order; Nut the sky goddess; Shu the god of air; Nu the god of primordial waters; Geb the god of earth; Osiris god of the realm of the dead, vegetation and thus the rise of the Nile.

Kitchen believes it's unlikely that the exodus Hebrew's were focused on the Apis bull cult of Memphis or the Mnevis bull cult of Heliopolis when they charged Aaron to make them a god.^[4]   Instead he believes there were bull cults associated with Horus in regions around Gomer. These cults were associated with strength and fertility. Also, he suggests that the close proximity to Caanan meant that these cults were probably similar to the Hadad (Baal) worship there, which was also associated with the bull, strength and fertility.

Moabite Pantheon

The chief god was Chemosh (a.k.a. Athtar).

Philistine Pantheon (c.f. Canaanite Pantheon)

Gaza and Ashdod--the chief god was Dagon

Ashkelon--Ashtoreth

Ekron--Baalzebub

Syrian Pantheon (c.f. Canaanite Pantheon)

Ben-hadad

Alphabetic listings:

Anath 

• Sister and wife of Baal 
• Goddess of fertility and war
• "...she smote and slew from seacoast (west) to sunrise.....she waded in blood up to her knees-nay, up to her neck. 'Her liver swelled with laughter; her heart was full of joy.' She then washed her hands in gore and proceeded to other occupations."^[5] 

Asherah 

• The chief goddess of Tyre 
• Wife of El and mother of 70 gods including Baal. 
• A goddess of fertility. 
• In the OT, worship of Asherah is conflated with Baal worship.^[6]  
• Her cult object was the Asherah or Asherah pole which was a tree, grove or tree-like stylized pole; the pole may have been a tree trunk with branches or perhaps phallic 
• She was likely borrowed from Assyria where she was the wife of the war god Asir, hence the city and people Assyria; in Assyria Ashera and Ashtoreth (an epithet of Ishtar) were the same person but these were distinguished in Caanan.

Ashtoreth 

• a.k.a. Astarte (greek), Ishtar (Babylonian), Venus (again in Babylonia) or queen of heaven 
• some identify her as a moon goddess 
• some may have treated Ashtoreth and Asherah as the same deity 
• derived from Babylonian religion (Ishtar); an androgynous deity but a femine deity in Caanan. 
• sister of Baal and Anath 
• goddess of sex and war; though the war role may've been dropped by the Caananites 
• associated with religious prostitution 
• Chief female deity of the Phoenicians and Canaanites 
• Jezebel's father was an Astarte priest

Baal 

• lit. master, owner, husband; 
• this may be a title rather than a proper name because it is applied as a title to Hadad, the Amorite storm god whose cult object is the bull from 3000-1500 BC; it is equated with the Egyptian god, Seth in other texts and certain of the practices associated with Molech worship^[7]   are correlated with Baal worship in the Torah (see Jer.19:5) 
• he is slain by Mot and revived by Anath 
• he was worshipped in the high places of Moab (Nu.22:41)  
• The chief male deity of the Phoenicians and Caananites.  
• A fertility cult; male and female religious prostitution and orgiastic rites^[8]  
• his altars were often justaposed with asherahs 
• he is sometimes portrayed as in conflict with a flood monster called Rahab or Leviathan.^[9]   
• Jezebel was part of the Baal-melqart cult of which her father was a priest. Melqart (lit. king city or city king) 
• He is sometimes portrayed as at odds with his mother, Asherah; at other times as in league with her through bribery (Baal and Anath bribe Asherah with gold and silver to intervene before El) and at other times she attempts to seduce her son

Baal-zebub 

• lit. lord, prince or possible lord of the flies 
• god of the Philistine city, Ekron

Bel 

• see Marduk 
• the Babylonian sun god 
• son of Ea 
• in OT he is associated with Nebo (Isa.46:1) and Marduk (Jer.50:2; 51:44)

Chemosh 

• the name or title of the chief god of the Moabites (Nu.21:29/Jer.48:46) 
• child sacrifice is associated with him (2Ki.3:27) 
• Solomon built a sanctuary to him (2Ki.11:7) 
• he is equated with Ashtar in some texts 
• he is equated with Molech/Milcom b/c that was the Ammonite god and yet Jephthath says Chemosh was the chief god...Molech may be a title for Chemosh rather than a proper name.

Dagon 

• a grain god 
• most associated with the Philistines in the OT 
• in Canaanite beliefs he was one of the offspring of El and Asherah 
• References to his priests are, those who leap over the threshold, because that tradition followed Yahweh toppling a Philistine Dagon onto the threshold of his own temple (1Sam.4-5)(see Zeph.1:9).

Day Star 

• lit. bright one 
• could be a title for the king of Babylon 
• could be Satan, based on Luke 10:18 (c.f. Isa.14:15) 
• could refer to a deity (Ashtar--venus) that was supposed to occupy Baal's throne during the dry season but was too small to occupy it and had to descend.

Hadad 

• lit. thunderer 
• a.k.a. Adad, Addu, Haddu, Had, Rimmon and Teshub 
• originally this was Baal's proper name 
• the bull was his cultic object 
• he was worshipped at Damascus under the title "Baal" (2Ki.5:18)

Kiyyun 

• a.k.a. Kaiwan or Rompha 
• See Amos 5:26 
• A Babylonian deity 
• Associated with the planet Saturn 
• The Hebrews deliberately misspelled the names of other Gods to demean them and so it is often difficult to correlate the Hebrew use of a god's name with the name used by another culture.

Lilith 

• lit. night hag or screech owl (Isa.34:14) 
• associated with a child stealing witch 
• associated with carrion fowl

Marduk 

• a.k.a. Bel, Merodach 
• See 2Ki.25:27, Isa.39:1 and Jer. 52:31 
• the chief Babylonian god 
• foremost son of Ea 
• victorious over flooding after the destruction of Tiamat (c.f. Baal; see Waltke's account of the Akkadian creation myth in Creation and Chaos)

Molech 

• A fire cult originating in Phoenicia (c.f. Tyre) 
• may be a title for Chemosh 
• a.k.a. Milcom (2Ki.11:7, Heb.11:33, 2 Ki.23:13) 
• he may have been an astral deity (c.f. Zeph.1:5) 
• Child sacrifices offered to Molech in connection with vows and solemn promises^[10] . 
• Children were thrown alive into the red hot arms of a Molech image, thus to die^[11] . 
• In the days of the divided kingdom a site for this practice was established outside Jerusalem in the Hinnom valley, called Topheth. This was destroyed by Josiah, great grandson of Manassah^[12]   
• See Lev. 18:21; 20:2-5; 1Ki.11:7; 2Ki.23:10; Jer.32:35

Mot 

• God of aridity and death 
• Adversary of Baal

Sabeanism 

• Worship of the stars as gods 
• Forbidden by Moses Deut.4:19 
• Widely practiced from home to home (see Jer.8:2; 19:13; 32:29; 2Ki.21:3,5; 23:5-6; Jer.7:17-18; 44:17-19,25)

Sikkuth 

• a.k.a. Sakkuth 
• See Amos 5:26 
• A Babylonian astral deity 
• Like Kiyyun, Sikkuth is associated with Saturn in Mesopotamian texts. 
• The Hebrews deliberately misspelled the names of other Gods to demean them and so it is often difficult to correlate the Hebrew use of a god's name with the name used by another culture.

Notes:

^[1]  Much of this material is from A. K. Helmbold, Ph.D., Gods-false, In: Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia Vol.1, Moody Press (1975). Return to Text

^[2]  The Egyptian pantheon is so extensive I've listed it in a separate appendix. Return to Text

^[3]  With Isis' help, Horus avenged his father Osiris' who was killed by his brother Seth by helping Osiris regain his kingship on earth. Return to Text

^[4]  K. A. Kitchen, New Bible Dictionary, 2nd edition, see the article, Calf, Golden, p. 160 Return to Text

^[5]  G. E. Wright and F.V. Filson, The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible. (London, 1945), p.36 and G.E. Wright, The Old Testament against its Environment (London, 1950), p.78 Return to Text

^[6]  Jud.3:7, 1Ki.18:19, 2Ki.23:4 Return to Text

^[7]  Child sacrifice was part of the Baal cultus (Jer.19:5) (c.f. Molech) Return to Text

^[8]  J. Bright, A History of Israel (London) 1960, pp. 108f.; 1Ki.14:24; 2Ki.23:7 Return to Text

^[9]  Leviathan and Rahab are the same being; this mythical creature is identical with the Canaanite 7-headed dragon Lotan. Waltke's summary of research in this area, Creation and Chaos, makes it clear that the biblical references are not granting the existence of such a creature rather they illustrate in a typical Hebrew poetry that God alone is God. Return to Text

^[10]  Sholem Asch, The Nazarene (London, 1939), pp. 347ff and C.F. Pfeiffer, The Patriarchal Age (Michigan, 1961), chapter 9. Return to Text

^[11]  A temple at Amman (1400-1250 B.C.) excavated and reported upon by J.B. Hennessey, Palestine Exploration Quarterly (1966), p. 162, writes, "Two outstanding features associated with the use of the temple were the enormous quantities of animal, bird and human bones and the abundant evidence of fire...There can be little doubt that the temple was associated with a fire cult." In a private communication with G.J. Wenham he wrote that "At least 75% of them (the bones found) belong to children between the ages of 3 and 14, or thereabouts. Return to Text

^[12]  Manassah probably did more to restore these practices than anyone after his father's death (i.e. Hezekiah) see Isa.30:33. Return to Text