Pantheon, rituals, and sacrifices in Canaanite religion

Canaanite religion refers to the group of ancient Semitic religions which were practiced by the Canaanites who were living in the ancient Levant from the early Bronze Age. Canaanite religion was polytheists and in some of the instances it was monolatristic. There are several salient features of Canaanite religion which are discussed below.

Pantheon

There are a large number of deities which were worshipped by those who followed the Canaanite religion. In spite of a constant flux of the gods that were worshiped by Canaanites there were a few of them that were termed as the major gods that were stable throughout the iron and bronze ages. The gods of Canaan are arranged in four -- tier hierarchy which are patron gods, cosmic gods, gods of daily life and the slave gods termed as messengers. The gods of the first and second tiers were El who was the most high god who created cosmos and overseas his creation with a lot of benevolence and wisdom. He is an elderly god that delegates the divine patrol of the underlying mighty storm god Baal. Athirat, Ashirta and Asherah was El's wife that gave birth to several gods at the same time nursing human royal heirs .Baal/Haadad / Adada was referred to as a cloud rider .he was the storm god that brought and withheld fertility in this land he was thus one of the most popular gods of Canaan where agriculture was the main occupation. Anat was the young and wild virgin refers erred to as the lady of high heavens. Astarte is an enigmatic figure an evening star and the planet Venus during sunset. Gods of the third and fourth tier of the Canaanite pantheon were most. These include Ugarit, god of craftsmanship, Kothata the seven goddesses of child birth ( Noll, 2006)

Rituals and daily life

There were three levels of religious experience within the Canaanite religion. The king, divine patron and his cosmic retinue was central.at the villages and extended families level the divine patron was a significant part of the daily lives but attention was to the gods that helped wit practical aspects of life as well as those issues that were raised through social interactions. A third and very significant level of religious experience was within the nuclear family. Ancestral gods used to be venerated; there was reception of offerings at family tombs as well as household gods that protected any form of evil or misfortune.

Sacrifices and offerings

There were temples meant for receiving and processing of food offerings. They also stored wealth for kings as well as being rudimentary banks. Domestic animals used to be slaughtered at the temples by priests as part of religious rituals. Some meat was offered to god as a form of thanks giving while most of it was consumed by people with little or no wastage. Paying taxes was also one reason for making sacrifices to gods. Therefore within the divine mercy ritual sacrifices were meant to give communion between human and the divine (Noll, 2006)

Human sacrifice

This took place within the Canaanite religion in certain occasions. These sacrifices normally took place at the time of war.

Sacred sexual rites

In the Canaanite society fertility of animals, crops and humans was central concern. There were some rituals that were performed which ensured fertility of the land.

Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel on Canaanite religion

All these prophets were spokespeople of God. Their stand was that Yahweh was the one and only God that should be worshiped by the Israelites. They were all mouthpieces of God conveying his messages to his people. They saw how the Canaanite religion had influenced the beliefs and practices of the Israelite's. This religion had made the people not worship the one and only true God. They therefore addressed this problem through relaying prophesies of messages of God to the people of Israel. Ezekiel often used Visual and imagery in his prophesy just to show the people of Israel that the only real God is Yahweh and he alone should be worshipped. Jeremiah rebuked the Israelite's and their deeds in order to bring them back to the right path. Isaiah reminded the Israelite's of the great expectations that God had of them and that they were not living up to them through practicing the Canaanite religion. They all though of Baalism as being a dangerous religion that would and continued to affect worshipping of he true God within the divided kingdoms. Baalism had a great influence in the divided kingdoms as some of the kings even advocated for their people to worship Baal. This was very dangerous to the people since it influenced their lives and made them forget to worship their God Yahweh (Larue, 2007).