The Philistines Invaders

The Book of Judges reflects considerable diversity in the premonarchical religion of Israel, and this is confirmed by archaeology. The final editors of the Hebrew Bible (OT) had a rather idealistic view of religious conditions—the Levites led the other tribes in the worship of Yahweh, which contrasted sharply with the idolatry of the Canaanites. Once we get behind the editorial framework of the compilers, however, we find a far more complex situation.

In the beginning of our article about Canaan, we must to bear in mind some archeological findings about the so-called Canaanite area that held true throughout the Middle – Late Bronze Ages and beyond:

Gods and Rituals of the Canaanites –  Highlights

Amorites the Oldest Canaanites

The Amorites (Sumerian MAR.TU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurr?m, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’em?rî) refers to a Semitic people who occupied the country west of the Euphrates from the second half of the third millennium BCE. The term Amurru refers to them, as well as to their principal deity.

The Most Powerful  of Canaanites  – The Phoenicians

Ba’al / Hadad -  Haddu / Hadadu  -  Balu  –  Adad / Bel  – Hd / b’l  -  Adodos – / Belos  – Ba’al /Baal

Religious cosmologies are ways of explaining the history and evolution of the universe based, at least in part, on the acceptance of principles that cannot or need not be justified on the basis of accepted scientific arguments. Most frequently, such theories begin by positing the existence of a gods (or god) who created and/or maintain(s) the universe.

The Mari’s language