G. Herbert Livingston
G. Herbert Livingston is emeritus professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY. He is author of The Pentateuch in its Cultural Environment, 2nd ed. (Baker, 1987) and a regular contributor to Bible and Spade.
The area where the archives of Ugarit were found had long been known by the Arabs living on the Mediterranean Sea coast of modern Syria as Tell Ras Shamra. Tell Ras Shamra is located near the coastal bay called Minet el Beida not far south of the Turkish border. No one suspected that beneath the dusty soil lay the rich treasures of an important, ancient city. Not until a farmer who was plowing a field struck a hard object. Brushing away the soil he found a flat stone and overturning it discovered a passage-way to a tomb. He found man-made objects and sold them to a dealer in a nearby town. This event occurred in the spring of 1928.
Organizing an Excavation
News about the farmer’s discovery soon reached the French authorities at nearby Latakia. Since World War I the area had been designated as a French Mandate by the Supreme Council of Allies. The French governor, M. Schoeffler, checked the matter out and notified Charles Virolleaud, Director of the Antiquities Service of Syria and Lebanon, located at Beirut. In Paris, Virolleaud showed artifacts from the tomb to Rene Dussaud, Curator of Oriental Antiquities in the Louvre. Impressed, the two men made preparations during the winter of 1928–29 for an archaeological team to go to Tell Ras Shamra. Thirty-year-old Claude F. A. Schaeffer was chosen to head the expedition, supported by the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, the Ministry of Education, the Louvre, and the local government at Latakia. The team arrived at Latakia in March, 1929.
The trip from Latakia to Tell Ras Shamra was neither easy nor safe. Camels were hired to carry supplies and 20 French soldiers guarded the caravan. On the morning of April 2, the excavation was begun with the help of some of the soldiers and a few local inhabitants. Near the bay, evidence of a cemetery came to light. At a depth of several feet, pottery, a statue of the god Resheph, and a statue of the goddess Astarte were found.
Schaeffer noticed that nearby was a mound that could be the remains of an ancient settlement. At the suggestion of Rene Dassaud, who was visiting the site, the team moved to this mound on May 9 and began digging at its highest point on the northeast side. The mound
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covered 50 acres and was approximately 60 ft high. Guided by some rocks that were lined up like a wall, Schaeffer’s men began throwing dirt to the side.
The Excavation Process
Working around the stones soon paid rich dividends. The walls of an ancient palace came to light, and in the dirt were found bronze weapons, a broken statute of an Egyptian inscribed with hieroglyphic writing, a statute of the god Baal-Sapuna. On May 14, the first clay tablet was found. On its surface were inscribed cuneiform symbols., which indicated the people who lived here long ago had contacts with cultures in the Mesopotamian region watered by the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. During the days that followed, more clay tablets were found.
Examination of the cuneiform characters revealed they were not used as symbols of a large number of syllables, as was common in Mesopotamia. Instead, there seemed to be only 26 or 27 different symbols on the tablets, suggesting a kind of alphabet. Not only were these characters found on clay tablets, they were also found on five ax heads.
When the temperature became too hot to continue digging. Schaeffer and his team loaded the artifacts into a boat and transported them to Latakia and from there to Paris.
Inscriptions on Tablets
Excitement was running high among scholars interested in ancient Near Eastern literature, for news of this treasure of inscriptions had preceded their arrival. A desire to decipher the new script captured the energies of three important scholars.
Besides Charles Virol-leaud, who published the results of his studies in 1929, there were a Ger-man scholar, Hans Bauer, a linguist at the University of Halle, and another French scholar, Edouard Dhorme, a professor at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem. A publication of the inscriptions made it possible for these men to decipher them and publish their findings in 1930. They found the script was indeed alphabetic, with 27 symbols representing consonants and three more representing three basic vowels.
In the spring of 1930, Schaeffer and his team returned to Tell Ras Shamra and soon unearthed several buildings. One was a “library” building, in which more clay tablets were found. These tablets were covered with inscriptions written in five distinct scripts: the new alphabetic kind, the older standard cuneiform style of the Mesopotamian area, the Egyptian hieroglyphic mode, a previously unknown Hittite hieroglyphic set of characters, and an unknown script later called Cypro-Minoan.
A hole was dug to bedrock through a series of layers of debris (called strata) of ancient settlements. In the strata of interest here, excavators found inscribed tablets dated to the Late Bronze age, Ugarit’s “golden age” that began about 1400 and continued to about 1180 BC, when the city and its civilization was destroyed.
The American archaeologist, W. F. Albright, a professor at Johns Hopkins
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University, suggested in 1931 in an essay that the ancient city being excavated was Ugarit. This city was mentioned in some of the tablets found at Mari. Soon Professor Virolleaud found the name on some of the tablets he was deciphering and thus confirmed Professor Albright’s insight. It followed that the new alphabetic script and the language it communicated was soon labeled as Ugaritic.
Every spring until the outbreak of World War II, Professor Schaeffer, with his co-laborers, continued digging at Ugarit and several nearby mounds. At the conclusion of his 11th season of digging in early 1939, about one-eighth of the surface of Ugarit, mostly the top strata, was excavated and about one-sixth of the cemetery near the bay of Minetel-Beida.
Limited excavation was resumed in 1948 and 1949, and a full scale operation was carried out in 1950 and continued under the direction of Claude Schaeffer until 1969. From 1971–1973, Henri de Contenson was in charge, followed by Adnan Bounni, Nasib Saliby, Jacques and Elizabeth Lagarce who served as co-directors in 1974. Jean-Claude Margueron took over leadership in 1975, but the project came to a halt until 1978 when work resumed and has continued.
International Connections
The location of Ras Shamra (Ugarit) on a bay in the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea was ideal for developing sea trade. Contact could be made with ports along the southern coast of what we now call Turkey, and other ports on Cyprus, along the Palentinian coast and the northern ports of Egypt. Merchandise and merchants moved along land routes from the north, east and south to Ugarit to support the sea trade.
Ugaritic text in alphabetic cuneiform with the legend of Aghat.
Many artifacts and inscriptions unearthed at Ugarit provide samples of trade items and records of this trading activity. Some of these samples and records are tied with trade with Canaan in a time span during and after the Israelites moved into the land of Canaan.
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A place where many of the inscribed tablets were found at Ugarit is a palace complex which was built in stages during the 14th and 13th centuries BC. The main building was about 390 ft from east to west and about 292 ft from north to south and was surrounded by about 2.5 acres of land. The building had nearly 90 rooms, a dozen staircases leading to an upper level, five courtyards and a garden. Wells which supplied water to the palace were also within its walls.
A number of administrative records, called the Western Archives, were found in one area of the palace. In some annex offices, the Central Archives were found. Some 180 tablets were written in the Akkadian language, a few in the Hurrian language, and about 50 in the local Ugaritc language. On the south side of the palace the diggers found the Southern Archive which had records of relationships with the Hittite Empire. Nearby, in the Southwestern Archives were tablets written in the Hurrian language. Of special significance was an oven, damaged during the destruction of the city, filled with partially baked tablets, The Eastern Archives of the palace had economic tablets. Two thirds of these tablets were in Ugaritic, about one third were in Akkadian, and a few in Hurrian.
A few inscriptions were found in the Temple of Baal, which also contained a slab of stone with a carved image of the Canaanite god Baal, who held in his hands a sword and a lightning bolt. Also on his helmet were two horns. A small statue of Baal was found in a tomb. Other inscribed tablets were found in the House of Rasapbu, the House of the Scholar, the House of Rap’anu, the House of the Bronze Armorer, the house of the Magician Priest, and the House of Literary Tablets.
Of the several thousand inscribed tablets, about 1,400 were in the Ugaritic language, written in the cuneiform-alphabetic script, and dating mostly from about 1400 to 1200 BC. Almost all the clearly religious texts were written in this language and script, and these are texts that take center stage in the following discussion.
Relief of Baal, god of thunder and lightning. Found in the Temple of Baal at Ras Shamra, now in the Louvre, Paris.
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The Religion of Ugarit
The religious texts provide us with some idea of what the Canaanite people, which includes the people of Ugarit, believed and how they practiced their religion. Some of the temples provided a few such texts, but most came from priestly libraries and a few from the magician’s house. The texts from the magician’s house are incantations used as magical words. Actions are described that sought to repel sickness and death and promised healing to clients.
The texts from the priestly libraries contained hymns, rituals, myths and incantations that sought help from gods and goddesses well known in the Old Testament. El was the mountain god and father of the others. A slab of stone depicting El as an aged king seated on a throne was found at Ugarit. In the mythological literature, El was a shadowy, remote figure but very much in charge. He was head of the assembly of the other gods. He was the creator of nature and sustained it. The other deities fought each other, but El kept out of the quarrels, except to bring peace. At the same time, he was immoral in his relations and was called “the Bull” who bred Anath, the goddess who was depicted as a cow.
Baal was understood to be second in command and was the god of storm and lightning. He fought viciously those who challenged him, especially Yamm the sea god and Mot the god of death. His victories restored order out of chaos. His defeats sent him to the underworld and nature into a severe drought. His deliverance caused nature to produce bountifully, after copious rains.
Dagan was the god of grain and dependent on the victories or defeats of Baal. In turn, he was important to humans, for grain was their basic food staple. If Dagan was not functional, starvation was the result.
Asherah was the love-war goddess whose name in Mesopotamia was spelled Ishtar and in the Old Testament known mostly as Asherah. Anath was another love goddess in the pantheon. The close relationship of Asherah and Anath to crops and cattle is revealed by a carved figure of the goddess, as well as a small statue showing her holding newly harvested grain and feeding some goats. These art figures could be either of these goddesses. Asherah, seemingly, was thought to be Mother Earth, which agrees with the Old Testament identification of Asherah with the processes of reproduction in plants, animals and humans. Many other lesser deities are mentioned in the Ugaritic texts.
The sources of most of the information about the major deities of the Canaanites are the tablets that have the so-called “Legend of King Keret” and the “Legend of Aqhat” inscribed on them.
Israel’s Theology was Different
Much of the detail given above is not mentioned in the Old Testament. El, Elohim, Eloah are the Hebrew names for God, but his character is totally different from the El of Ugarit. The Israelite El is the one and only God and is Almighty with no rivals. He is distinctly other than nature, though He created it and sustains it.
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He is holy, merciful, compassionate and a divine Person who speaks to chosen people, hears and answers the prayers of anyone who comes with repentance and faith. He is the redeemer of his chosen nation and those sinners who seek his mercy. He does not engage in sexual activity. Much more could be said along this line; the main point is that Elohim was and is utterly unlike the Canaanite gods.
The Old Testment has one narrative describing a contest between the prophets of Baal and Elohim. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to meet him on Mt. Carmel where an altar and sacrifice was soaked with water. The 400 prophets of Baal had first chance to call down fire to consume the sacrifice. Baal, the assumed master of lightning, could not provide the fire. Elijah prayed to his God and lightning burnt the offering (1 Kgs 18:20–40). Elsewhere in the Old Testament the Canaanite deities are associated with idol worship, magic, false prophecy and sex worship. These practices were a constant threat to the covenant people of Israel. Their submission to idolatry finally brought them to destruction.
Some Old Testament scholars have assumed that there were no priestly institutions, literature and practices in the time of the Exodus that could provide models for establishing a priesthood among the Hebrews. Hence, these scholars have declared that the passages in the Pentateuch that give information about Moses setting up a priesthood, and giving instructions for worship and a place of worship, must be dated to the post-exilic period, i.e. between 450 and 250 BC.
Not only was there a strong priestly class and tradition in Egypt from which they fled, but the Ugaritic texts reveal that the Canaanites had a strong priestly class and tradition as well. Though Ugarit was located several hundred miles to the north and was destroyed about 1200 BC, there were Canaanite temples and priests in Canaan, and trade routes kept information flowing freely.
In the Old Testament, God, the true El/Elohim, told Moses how to organize the priesthood and how to build the tabernacle. God also told Moses how to worship with sacrifices and festivals, and how to conduct their lives. In doing so, God took physical, social and religious structures from contemporary cultures (“earthen vessels”), cleansed them of idolatry and magic, and poured into them His spiritual treasures.
Religious Practices were Different
The floor plan of the tabernacle, and later the temple, was more like the floor plans of the temples at Ugarit and other Canaanite cities than of Egyptian temples. However, the spiritual message connected with the decoration and furniture in the Israelite structures were distinctly different, conveying what God wanted to teach His people.
In Israel, the words for high priest and priests were the same as in Ugarit. But unlike Ugarit and other Ancient Near Eastern religions, the priesthood was separated from the political/military leadership.
In both Ugarit and Israel, the words for the sacrifices were the same, and
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both offered the same animals (for the most part). However, the magical rituals of Ugarit were replaced in Israel with repentance, confession, faith, thanksgiving and commitment to the covenant God.
In Ugarit, the priests were skilled in writing various scripts, especially the alphabetic script that used cuneiform-shaped signs. They produced and copied religious poetry, narratives and regulations. Coming out of Egypt, Moses, Aaron and his family would have had writing skills in several languages, including skills for writing their Semitic language in a southern Canaanite script that was alphabetic. They used signs for consonants that were unique for that time. Moses and his helpers, probably mostly priests, could easily have written the Pentateuch as we know it today.
In Ugarit and Israel, annual festivals involving the entire community were held at about the same time in the several seasons of the year. However, the names of these festivals, their agenda and practices were utterly different.
The basic purpose of the festivals, the rituals and activities of the Canaanite cult was to magically “jump start” the reproductive powers of plants and animals into fruitfulness. They thought grains needed special help to sprout, grow and produce seed. Likewise, domestic animals needed special help to conceive, give birth and mature. The words of the rituals and the sexual activity of humans at the climax of the festivals were thought to provide that help by “triggering” nature powers into action.
The purpose and practices of the Israelite festivals were drastically different. God placed a strong prohibition on divination, magic and immorality. Conversely, He placed a strong emphasis on spiritual honesty and humility, coupled with a sincere confession of sin, a willingness to receive God’s atonement for sin, and a commitment to live a holy life.
The Israelite festivals were rooted in sacred history, especially the Exodus event at the Passover at the beginning of spring and the Day of Atonement at the beginning of autumn. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, held right after Passover, was a time of thanksgiving for the grain harvest, as was the Feast of Pentecost 50 days later. The Feast of Trumpets was the civil New Years Day at the end of summer, and the The Feast of Tabernacles soon after the Day of Atonement celebrated with thanksgiving both God’s help during the wilderness wandering and the end of the fruit harvest.
Comparison of Languages and Literatures
The language of Ugarit and the Hebrew of the Old Testament belong to a group of languages called Semitic. Hence, they have some vocabulary in common and some language structures and types of literature that are similar. For the past 50 years much effort has been focused on determining just how these languages are alike and how they are different. Much of the research has centered on a comparison of the poetry produced by the priests of Ugarit and the poetry found in the Old Testament. The discussions have been
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often turbulent, but some general conclusions have been reached.
One of the scholars in the center of this controversy has been Mitchell Dahood, who wrote three volumes on the Psalms (1966). He suggested an amazing number of instances where Ugaritic poetic structure, syntax and vocabulary are evident in the Psalms. His critics have been numerous, but there have been some who have found his suggestions helpful. Only a few examples of how some of his suggestions have illuminated passages in the Psalms and some aspects of the book of Job will be discussed here.
The passages selected from the Psalms have to do with resurrection and immortality. Many liberal scholars have held that concepts of life after death were not known to the Israelites until the Persians ruled the Middle East (535–332 BC). Hence, they dated some Psalms very late. Recent studies of ancient literature has revealed that Egypt, Mesopotamia and Ugarit had concepts of life after death, though they were tied to royalty and a few special people. In Ugarit’s tablets there is a concept of resurrection of sorts. When Baal was defeated, he died and went to the underworld but came back to life when the rains soaked the earth and plants sprouted. These tablets date about 1400 to 1200 BC.
The thing to note is that words used in Ugaritic to describe Baal’s springing back into action occur in passages in the Psalms that tell of life after death for humans. This phenomena would help to date these Psalms early instead of late.
One Hebrew word of interest is normally used of awaking from sleep. In a Ugaritic tablet, however, it refers to Baal coming out of the underworld of death to take part in the sprouting of plants and birth of animals, i.e. coming alive again. This was surely understood as more than a physical waking from sleep. May not 1 Kings 18:27 be based on that concept? Did not Elijah want to make clear that Baal was unable to arise from the underworld of death and become a living god?
And what of other key passages in the Old Testament? Dahood translates Psalm 17:15b, “At my resurrection I will be saturated with your being.” The usual English translations, e.g. NIV, NKJV and NLT, use “awake” here. The same word is used in Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:2 where this same Hebrew word is translated “awake,” but the complete verse in each instance clearly speaks of a resurrection from the dead. Perhaps in all three instances the Hebrew should be translated “awake (or arise) from the dead.”
The Hebrew word for life is sometimes used in the plural form and joined with the word for land. Normally, translators understand this phrase to refer to this life. Dahood believed that in Psalm 27:13 it means life eternal and translates the verse, “In the Victor do I trust/ to behold the beauty of Yahweh in the land of life eternal.” Dahood based this translation on a passage in a Ugaritic tablet that tells of a goddess offering a human “life” in the sense of eternal life and “no death” in the sense of immortality.
In Proverbs 12:28 these two phrases occur in parallelism and are translated in NKJV, “In the way of righteousness is life/ and in its pathway is no death.” NIV has “In the way of
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righteousness there is life/ along that path is immortality.” NLT has “The way of the godly leads to life/ their path does not lead to death.” Note that in this translation the negative is on the verb rather than on the noun, death.
Dahood has provided many more suggestions in his commentary on Psalms. Some of these suggestions are discussed by Elmer B. Smick (1970). The discussion above gives a hint of what is possible for a clearer translation of some passages.
Since the Ugaritic tablets have been translated, attention has been turned to the book of Job with interesting results. Scholars have been divided concerning the date of Job’s life span, the area where he lived and the date of the writing of the book. Those of liberal trend of thought have favored a fictional Job living in a fictional land and written in the Exilic or Post-exilic period.
Recent studies of the Ugaritic tablets has caused a turning toward a Late Bronze Age (1500–1200 BC) setting for the book of Job because there are many similarities between the customs, geography and language of Job and the Ugaritic material. An article by Johannes C. de Moor (1994) explores this problem and concludes that Job was a real person and lived on or near the Golan Heights at about 1300 BC. He sees a number of parallels in Job with the customs and language of Ugarit, but believes later editors added a number of passages to an original, early core of literature. I do not accept this conclusion that many additions were made to an original story of Job.
Careful study of the archives of Ugarit has not come to an end. Articles and books will continue to come off the press. Evangelical scholars should do their share of contributing to comparing and contrasting the literature in those archives with the Old Testament.
Bibliography
Dahood, M.J.
1966–1970 Psalms: Introduction, Translation and Notes, 3 vols. New York: Doubleday.
Moor, Johannes C. de
1994 Ugarit and the Origin of Job. Pp. 225–57 in Ugarit and the Bible, ed. G.J. Brooke, A.H.W. Curtis and J.F. Healy. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Smick, E.B.
1970 Ugarit and the Theology of the Psalms. Pp. 104–15 in New Perspectives on the Old Testament, ed. J.B. Payne. Waco: Word Books.