How many foreign gods are named in the Hebrew Bible?
068
Answer: At least 23
The first commandment given to Moses on Mt. Sinai was that Israel have no other gods before Yahweh (Exodus 20:3). Indeed, only two verses later, Yahweh describes himself as a “jealous God” who demands unwavering love and commitment from his chosen people (20:5).
Given that nearly two dozen different foreign deities are named in the Hebrew Bible, it is easy to see why the Biblical writers portrayed Yahweh as a jealous God: A host of other Near Eastern gods and goddesses of other peoples were around to compete with Yahweh. Among his most immediate rivals were the Aramean god Rimmon, the Canaanite deities Baal, Ashteroth and Asherah, the Philistine gods Dagon and Baal-Zebub, and Milcom and Chemosh, the respective gods of the Ammonites and Moabites of Transjordan.
As the kingdoms of Israel and Judah came under the influence of the Assyrian and then Babylonian empires in the eighth, seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E., an increasing number of Mesopotamian deities entered the land. The author of 2 Kings, for example, lists seven different gods (Adrammelech, Anammelech, Ashima, Nibhaz, Succoth-benoth, Tartak and Nergal) that were brought in by the Syrian and Mesopotamian deportees who were resettled in Samaria by the Assyrians after the Israelite kingdom was destroyed in 722 B.C.E. (2 Kings 17:30–31). Only decades before, the prophet Amos had chastised the northern kingdom for worshiping the idols of two other Mesopotamian deities, Sakkuth and Kaiwan (Amos 5:26).
Similarly, on the eve of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E., the prophet Ezekiel has a vision in which the women of Judah weep for the Mesopotamian god Tammuz in the forecourt of the Temple (Ezekiel 8:14), while his contemporary Jeremiah finds Judahite families who make cakes for the “queen of heaven,” an appellation of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. In different contexts, Jeremiah also identifies the chief Babylonian god Marduk (called both Bel and Merodach in Jeremiah 50:2), as well as the Egyptian deities Amon (46:25) and Apis (46:15).
How many foreign gods are named in the Hebrew Bible?
068 Answer: At least 23
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