The Gods the Bible Inherited

Dan McClellan Hey, everybody. I'm Dan McClellan. And

Dan Beecher I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan And this is Data Over Dogma, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and we combat the spread of misinformation about the same. I am roasting in, uh, what is it? It's 95 degrees right now in a house with no AC because our AC crapped out a couple days ago, and we're working on getting it repaired.

Dan Beecher Yikes.

Dan McClellan But how are you, Dan? You had a very similar problem, uh, a couple of weeks ago with your AC in your apartment.

Dan Beecher Yeah. And, uh- But now I'm, I'm basking in- Everything's cool ... in, in, in the, the, the joys of modern technology, and- Yeah ... I'm, I'm fine.

Dan McClellan All right.

Dan Beecher So-

Dan McClellan Well-

Dan Beecher So yeah, all of you-

Dan McClellan I was like- ...

Dan Beecher all of you watching at home who see Dan, uh, particularly glowy- ... this, this episode, uh, okay.

Dan McClellan There are two reasons for that.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And don't worry about them.

Dan Beecher Yeah. So, uh- Don't, yeah. It's none of your business how Dan's face looks. You just mind, you stick with the, the data. Uh, and the data that we're gonna be mining today, we're gonna do a what's that? And it's, uh, uh, we're gonna do the Baal Cycle.

Dan McClellan Mm-hmm.

Dan Beecher And that's all I'm gonna say.

Dan McClellan It's a setting on my dryer. I'm- Um, it-

Dan Beecher Nope. Nope. Absolutely not. Uh, so let's, let's just dive in to what's that? Okay, so the Baal Cycle, it sounds like a, uh, I, I can't even say what it sounds like. It sounds like an exercise bike at the gym that you don't wanna use.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher But, uh, talk to me about this. We're talking about Baal.

Dan McClellan Baal.

Dan Beecher We're talking about-

Dan McClellan Yes, or Baal- Uh- ... as, as-

Dan Beecher Or Baal ...

Dan McClellan some folks, uh, prefer to call him because in, in spelling, it's usually B-A-A-L.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan Or B-A, and then you've got some kind of indication of, uh, an ayin, and then A-L. So it's the name of a deity.

Dan Beecher Right. And- And we're, we're not about to get pedantic about how you pronounce it. You pronounce it- No ... however you want.

Dan McClellan Yes. You pronounce it how, how it's easy for you to understand and pronounce, uh, as with maybe the word won't. If, if, if that happens to be your won't or happens to be your want, whatever your own personal want. However, however

Dan Beecher you want to won't- Yes ... uh, we won't want to correct you.

Dan McClellan But, uh, this comes to us courtesy of the Ugaritic literature.

Dan Beecher Hmm.

Dan McClellan And when, we, we had to have talked about Ugarit to some degree.

Dan Beecher We have mentioned Ugarit. We have talked a little bit. Oh. You know, the word Ugaritic comes up from time to time.

Dan McClellan Yeah, yeah.

Dan Beecher But I think we should start by, uh, a, a quick brushing up-

Dan McClellan Yeah. Okay ...

Dan Beecher on, uh, on what Ugarit is, where it was, all that sort of stuff.

Dan McClellan Okay, so to lay our scene.

Dan Beecher Uh-huh.

Dan McClellan It's 1929. A French farmer, well, a farmer is in French-occupied Syria- Wow ... is plowing a field, hits a rock, cannot move the rock, uncovers what turns out to be the top of an ancient stone doorway, or sarcophagus, actually, I think it is, not a doorway, but anyway, uh, calls some archeologists, and they come out and discover a whole damn city- ... called, and, and we did not know where this city was. Uh, it is called Ugarit. We, we know that now. At the time, they didn't know what city this was. I think that, I think there were some scholars who were like, "Could this be Ugarit?" Because this was a city that was mentioned in some other literature. But we found a bunch of texts written in cuneiform, but we didn't know that it was not anything anyone had ever seen before. And-

Dan Beecher Cuneiform is just, uh, thun- thumbtack writing.

Dan McClellan Well, it's, it's with, it's, uh, little wedge-shaped impressions in clay- Right ... uh, or carved in stone. And, uh, people went to work trying to figure out what's going on here. They counted up all of the different signs, and they realized there were only 30 of them. Now, the thing with cuneiform is it usually has well over 100 different signs because they're usually reflections of a syllable, so a consonant plus a vowel. Mm. But you can't write in a syllabic script that only has 30 characters. There are a lot more than 30 syllables, which means it has to be alphabetic. So we went, it's alphabetic. It's, uh, it's close to the coast of Syria. Uh, and it probably dates to between the 1500s and the 1200s BCE.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan So then we said, "Okay, this must be some, this must be cuneiform alphabet, and it's probably a Northwest Semitic language." So we went about deciphering it based on the assumption that it was that, and one of the assumptions that helped us is, okay, in Northwest Semitic, the most common letter is the mem. And so we're gonna catalog how many times all of the different characters occur, and whichever occurs the most, we're just gonna say, "That's a mem."

Dan Beecher That's, that, our best guess is mem.

Dan McClellan And then we're gonna say, "Where are all the two-letter words that have a mem?" Because there are only a handful of words that can be that. And so then we went, the other letter has got to be one of these two or three or four different letters. If we do that, we, and, and basically we deciphered this Northwest Semitic language, and it is Ugaritic, and we found a bunch of receipts. We found a bunch of letters. We found a bunch of, uh, ritual texts. We found a bunch of mythology, and one of those texts happens to be this thing called the Baal Cycle. And what, what fascinates scholars like me about Ugaritic is it basically stops, and is just lost, uh, about the same time that the people of Israel first show up on the scene many miles south of there.

Dan Beecher Interesting.

Dan McClellan And so the languages are very, very closely related. In fact, if you wanna learn Ugaritic, you should start with Biblical Hebrew, and then you have a foundation. People can say, "Okay, this is just like Hebrew with this word over here and this word over here." And so there are a lot of ways that it helps us to fill in- Our understanding of the development of Northwest Semitic languages and helps us better understand what's going on in Hebrew. It's revolutionized our study of the Hebrew Bible in a lot of different ways. But the Baal Cycle has a lot of language, has a lot of terminology, has a lot of titles, has a lot of deities that are very closely related to what we see in the Hebrew Bible. And we're gonna talk about a few of those points of contact and why- I- ... this is such a boon for the study of the Hebrew Bible. A-

Dan Beecher as I was reading this and looking at it, even I was like, "Uh-oh, I'll bet that is a cognate to this person." So-

Dan McClellan Yeah. Yeah ...

Dan Beecher I'm catching them, too.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher And I, and I'm just the ding-dong in the show. So that's kinda fun.

Dan McClellan So it's called the Baal Cycle because there are three different main kind of storylines.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan So these are narrative arcs, and there are three of them. So similar to how scholars talk about the Abraham cycle or the Jacob cycle in Genesis, because we got a several stories that are going on. And, um- Or

Dan Beecher Wagner's Ring Cycle.

Dan McClellan Or, or yeah, whatever. Um, and you have, uh, uh, three different main ones. They have to do with kingship, and they have to do with Baal, obviously. But, but one of the cool things is that Baal is not the head of the pantheon. Baal is one of the second-tier deities. The head of the pantheon is a dude named El.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Now, we know El.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Because El's all over the Bible. El is God. El means God, and El is the paterfamilias. Uh-

Dan Beecher Point of order. El isn't always God in the way that the Bible refers to God, right?

Dan McClellan Uh-

Dan Beecher Like, like, like El Elyon, uh, like high El is the guy that gives Adonai dominion over, uh, Israel.

Dan McClellan Right. R- right?

Dan Beecher So, like- Right ... but then they become conflated later.

Dan McClellan Yes. So- Is

Dan Beecher that ... Did I get that right?

Dan McClellan Yes. Initially, El and Adonai were distinct deities.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And, and at one point they were conflated, and they became the same deity. But when we look at the way that El is represented separate from Adonai, El is elderly. Hmm. El is benevolent. El is, uh, has seniority, is basically the ruler over the pantheon. Is basically a patriarchal high deity. And what did we find in, in the Baal Cycle? We found an elderly, patriarchal, high deity who ruled over the pantheon. Yeah. And then when we look at the way Adonai is represented distinct from El, when it's just Adonai on their own, Adonai is a youthful, violent warrior associated with storm imagery. And guess what we find in the Baal Cycle? A youthful, violent warrior associated with storm imagery in the character of Baal, who is a second-tier deity. In other words, who's one of the sons of El. Now, when, when we look throughout all the Ugaritic literature, Baal is, is actually sometimes the son of Dagon, sometimes the son of El. Uh, it, it, it's not consistent. What do you know? Just like the Bible. But you also have a couple of other characters who are important. Athirat, which is cognate with Asherah.

Dan Beecher Yeah. That, that was the one that I was like, "Hey, I caught one." Yeah. And I, I, I ... And then I had to look it up. Is this, is this sort of, is this the same- Yeah ... basic thing? So

Dan McClellan yeah. And so Baal and all these other second-tier deities are the offspring of Athirat. She is the creatrix of the gods. She is the mother of the 70 sons of El. Um, and-

Dan Beecher Is, is she the consort of El? Or is she just- Yes. Okay. Yeah.

Dan McClellan So she's, she's the consort. But when you look in the literature, it is, it does have a very, um, kind of ... It, it's an odd kind of royal state of affairs. 'Cause there's a part where Athirat is gonna go to El to, um, butter El up- Right ... so that she can request Baal be given a palace.

Dan Beecher Right. She advocates- Because- ... for Baal.

Dan McClellan Right. And, and one of the reasons Athirat has to go do it is because another goddess, Anat, went and threatened Baal.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And that didn't work.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan So, um, yeah. So, uh, Athirat's like, "Eh, I'll, I'll take care of it." Um-

Dan Beecher Let me smooth this over.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Um, and then you've got an, some other deities. Yam. Yam, who's also referred to as Nahar.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And interesting, Yam in Hebrew would be sea, the sea.

Dan Beecher Oh, okay.

Dan McClellan From sea to shining sea.

Dan Beecher From, from-

Dan McClellan And then Nahar- ...

Dan Beecher yam to shining yam.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Um, that- So that's when you go into the grocery store and you see yams.

Dan Beecher Uh-huh.

Dan McClellan That's, uh, where they come from etymologically. It's not important. Anyway, um-

Dan Beecher Is it really?

Dan McClellan No.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Uh, and then Nahar means river.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan So Nahar is another way to refer to Yam. So th- this is basically the waters, and it, this is, this deity's representative of chaotic waters. Because the sea is dangerous, my friends.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Um, it was angry that day. And, and, you know, you're, you never know what you're gonna get when you go out on the sea.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And it consumes a lot of lives. And then you also have Mot, and Mot literally means death in, uh, ancient Northwest Semitic languages, so in Hebrew as well as in, uh, Ugaritic. And so there's a deity named Mot. And then you have, um, Kothar-wa-Hasis is, uh, is a crafts person deity. Uh-

Dan Beecher Not, not, not in the, not in the, uh, the television and film version. A crafty is a cra- the craft station- ... is where you get your food, g- where you get the, you know-

Dan McClellan Right, right, right ...

Dan Beecher some Red Vines. Not craft services

Dan McClellan deity.

Dan Beecher Not craft services.

Dan McClellan No, no.

Dan Beecher But he does, he j-

Dan McClellan Crafts person, but-

Dan Beecher Right, right ...

Dan McClellan yeah.

Dan Beecher He's a, he's a, he's a builder of things and a maker- Yes ... of things and-

Dan McClellan So, um, so this is the deity you go to when you need, uh, you know, your supplies, when you need weapons, or when you need to build a palace or, or whatever. This is-

Dan Beecher Some fancy clubs to beat somebody up.

Dan McClellan Yeah, yeah.

Dan Beecher If you, if you need that.

Dan McClellan Uh, try, try this one. Oh, that didn't work. Okay, try this other one. Uh, and-

Dan Beecher He's, he's the equivalent of the guy that made Thor's hammer

Dan McClellan Yeah. Yeah, it was, uh, Peter Dinklage, wasn't it? And, uh-

Dan Beecher Peter- Peter Dinklage, that's right.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher He-

Dan McClellan Uh-

Dan Beecher He can play that guy, too.

Dan McClellan Yeah, and then, uh, Shapash is, is, uh, the Semitic word for sun. So you've got the sun goddess who, who functions as kind of a mediator deity as well. So these are the main characters, and, and they are cognate, parallel to what's going on in a lot of the, the parts of the Bible. So in the, the first cycle, um, Yam says, "Hey, everybody, I've been doing really well lately. Um, you know, I've been racking up a lot of, a lot of Ws." "And so, uh, I want to be king over the divine council." And, and divine council is another thing that we, we see a lot of in the Ugaritic literature that had a lot of scholars going like, "Oh, this is in the Bible, too."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan "Oh, okay, so this is helping us." Just like the frog DNA helped, uh, create dinosaurs- ... in that, uh, that documentary I saw back in the '90s. Um, the Ugaritic literature helped us fill in some of the gaps in the pantheon DNA of, uh, of the Hebrew Bible.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan So, um, eh, all the other deities are like, uh, you know, bowing down, "We're not worthy, we're not worthy," except for Baal. And Baal's like, "Mm, don't think so." Uh, and, and interestingly, this has a lot to do with, uh, geography and, uh, environment and stuff like that because, uh, there are parts of ancient civilization where the river is what makes civilization possible.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan Mesopotamia, that's the river.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Egypt, that's the river. The predictable flooding of these rivers every year allows you to plan agriculture around them, to manipulate, uh, the rivers for irrigation, all this kind of stuff. So if you're in Mesopotamia or Egypt, sure, the, the nahar, the Yam is what's responsible for civilization. That is the bedrock of your civilization. So the deity who represents that, yeah, would be the most high. Uh, but we're talking about a part of, uh, the Levant where it's more rainfall-

Dan Beecher Hmm

Dan McClellan ... that is what makes things, uh, that makes agriculture possible, uh, particularly when you get into the mountains. Um, now, now Ugarit is kind of close to the coast. It's, uh, it's more coastal than it is mountainous, but these deities are all operating far to the north or to the south, in the more mountainous regions where the rain is what you count on. Uh, and, and this is what, this is also the case in the, the central and northern hill countries of Israel and Judah.

Dan Beecher Hmm.

Dan McClellan It was not rivers and seas that made their, uh, civilization possible. It was the rain. And who's responsible for the rain? Not Yam. The storm deity. The storm deity is responsible for the rain. So the storm deity stands up and says, "No, I'm more important." Uh, and El is kinda like, "Yeah, sure, Yam, you can take over." And, uh, El is kind of represented as your, as your elderly, um, uh, kind of, you know, on-the-back-nine deity who's, who's, uh-

Dan Beecher He's the King Lear. He's, uh-

Dan McClellan Yeah

Dan Beecher ... he's ready to, he's ready to turn over his, his rule.

Dan McClellan Yeah, he's kind of treated as a lame duck. Now, there, there are some times when, when he will throw it down if he needs to.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan But, um, but here he's like, uh, he doesn't oppose, uh, Yam's kingship. So, uh, and there are a lot of different ways that, that people try to explain that, but, but basically, Baal and Yam are gonna fight.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And so, um, Baal goes to, uh, uh, Kothar-wa-Hasis and, uh, gets some weapons, and I, I wanted to read just some of that, just so you can get a sense for, uh, what this language is like. And it's very fragmentary. This is one of the most frustrating parts of this. There are a lot of lacunae. It's, it's, you know, you get a sentence or two, and then, uh, a gap of maybe a letter or two, or maybe 50 lines. Uh, so-

Dan Beecher And we should, we should make it clear. The, so what we have, wh- where we're getting this is from clay tablets.

Dan McClellan Yes.

Dan Beecher That, that, that the, uh, the letters were impressed into the clay, and then they were fired, and so that's, that's why they've survived this long.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher But if the tablets are broken and you got a chunk missing or whatever, then, uh, what are you gonna do? You, you just- ... fill it in as best you can.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Um, so I'm, I'm reading in, uh, from Religious Texts from Ugarit, which is Nicholas Wyatt's translation of all these texts, which includes the Baal Cycle and a bunch of other texts.

Dan Beecher It's funny because the cover of the, of the book just says Wyatt, and I was like, "Ron Wyatt?" It's not Ron.

Dan McClellan But, uh, Nick was, uh, one of the readers for my doctoral dissertation.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan So, uh, always been, uh, a fan of Nick. So, uh, there's a part where Baal is getting angry. Says, "I shall knock down his houses. Into the underworld will fall my strength, and into the dust my power. From his mouth his speech barely went forth, from his lips his word, and he gave forth his voice in groaning beneath the throne of Prince Yam." So Baal is, is, it's not looking good for Baal. But then, um, Kothar, uh, this translation says Kothar and Hasis, and that's what the W means in, in, um, Ugaritic, spoke, "Indeed I say to you, O Prince Baal, I repeat, O Charioteer of the Clouds." And by the way, that's a title-

Dan Beecher Mm-hmm

Dan McClellan ... that Adonai has-

Dan Beecher Right

Dan McClellan ... in the Hebrew Bible.

Dan Beecher Oh, really?

Dan McClellan Yes.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Yes, Charioteer of the Clouds, Rider of the Clouds.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Uh, because the storm deity goes, "Hyah," and rides-

Dan Beecher Right

Dan McClellan ... the clouds around. Um, "Now your foe, Baal. Now your foe you must smite. Now you must destroy your adversary. Take your everlasting kingdom, your eternal dominion. Kothar fashioned two maces, and he pronounced their names. You, your name is Expeller." "Expel her. Expel Yam. Expel Yam from his throme- throne, Nahar from the siege of his dominion. You must leap from the hand of Baal like a falcon from his fingers. Strike the shoulders of Prince Yam, the chest of ruler Nahar. The mace leapt from the hand of Baal like a falcon from his fingers. It struck the shoulders of Prince Yam, the chest of ruler Nahar. But Yam was strong. He did not flinch. His joints did not tremble. His visage was not discomposed. Kothar fashioned two maces, and he pronounced their names. 'You, your name is All Driver. All Driver, drive Yam away. Drive Yam from his throne, Nahar from the siege of his dominion. You must leap from the hand of Baal like a falcon from his fingers. Strike the skull of Prince Yam, the brow of ruler Nahar. Let Yam collapse in a heap. Let him fall to the ground.' Then the mace leapt from the hand of Baal like a falcon from his fingers. It struck the call- the skull of Prince Yam, the brow of ruler Nahar. Yam collapsed in a heap. He fell to the ground. His joints trembled, and his visage was discomposed. Baal gathered up and drank Prince Yam to the dregs." "He exterminated ruler Nahar." So, uh-

Dan Beecher That, you know what? That is, that is harsh. When you, when you've defeated an enemy, and then you drink him, that's, uh- ... that's pretty definitive.

Dan McClellan It's, yeah. Well, well, that's what you gotta do to, um, that's, uh, that's the flex over, uh, the sea. When you defeat the sea, you just-

Dan Beecher Yeah

Dan McClellan ... slurp it up.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Um, and yeah, there, there are some other examples in, in, um, Enuma Elish, the, the, uh, Babylonian, the Neo-Babylonian version of the creation account. Marduk defeats Tiamat, who is also representative of the chaotic waters of the sea. But when Marduk defeats Tiamat, Marduk splits Tiamat's body into two, and the one half becomes the waters of the heavens, and the other half becomes-

Dan Beecher Oh

Dan McClellan ... the earth.

Dan Beecher Interesting.

Dan McClellan Which should, which should sound familiar to-

Dan Beecher Yeah

Dan McClellan ... uh, to some folks.

Dan Beecher If you've read, if you've read Genesis 1-

Dan McClellan Yes

Dan Beecher ... you may, you may recognize that

Dan McClellan ... where the depths are referred to as tehom, which is the Hebrew cognate term for Tiamat, only it's not this chaotic deity. It's now just inert water.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan But it's still split, the waters above, the waters beneath, to facilitate the creation of the earth. So, uh, so yeah, you have, uh, a lot of parallels there. And then, uh, so Baal fights Yam. Baal defeats Yam. It's the classic story. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Girl finds boy. Boy forgets girl. Girl dies in a blimp accident over the Orange Bowl. Uh- Boy,

Dan Beecher boy drinks girl.

Dan McClellan Boy drinks girl. Um, and then, uh, the next part, Baal wants a palace.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Because Baal gets the kingship, uh, but you wanna, he needed to be fully in charge. And so-

Dan Beecher You can't be the king if you don't have a, if you don't have a castle.

Dan McClellan Right. And, you know, we see something very similar going on in, uh, in the Hebrew Bible when David's like, "Yeah, we got our, we got our capital city. Uh, we got everything that we need, but, but God is still dwelling in a tent. We need a home. My boys need a home, Jerry." Um, we need a, we need a temple for our God. And so in order for Baal to be truly the leader of the gods, Baal needs to have a temple. And so, uh, Kothar-wa-Hasis is going to help, but first they need permission. And this is where, uh, Anat goes to Baal, and is like, "Give my boy a temple." And, um, that doesn't work out. Instead, Athirat-

Dan Beecher Yeah, threatens him to, like, threatens to bloody his beard or-

Dan McClellan Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah ... yeah. It's like chunks of your, your brain or something are, are kinda, are, are gonna be scattered on your, uh, your gray beard.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Um, and, uh-

Dan Beecher And Anat, if I'm not mistaken, it might be Baal's sister. Like, she keeps referring to him as brother. Is that right?

Dan McClellan Yes. Although there, there are some places where there's, the, their relationship is a little more amorous.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Um, so- Oh, yeah ... yeah, it's, it's a messed up system, but it, but it's also very inconsistent.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan But interestingly enough, there is a, uh, a text from the late fifth century, early fourth century BCE from a, a Jewish garrison in Egypt, in Elephantine, that refers to the Jewish God as Anat Adonai, uh, which is widely understood to refer to the divine pair.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan And so Asherah is not the only consort of Adonai. We also have, at least in Egypt, end of the fifth century, beginning of the fourth century, we have an Anat Adonai divine pairing it would seem. So-

Dan Beecher Interesting.

Dan McClellan Yes, very interesting. So, um, Athirat negotiates with El. Permission is granted. El remains supreme, but Kothar-wa-Hasis builds the palace, and there's a debate about whether or not it had, should have windows. Um, you know, th- and this is something that you always have your, with your contractors. They're, they're just like-

Dan Beecher It's, uh, yeah

Dan McClellan ... "We can't do it. Can't do it."

Dan Beecher They, they come at you. They're like, you know, I, I-

Dan McClellan Yeah. We didn't get the permits. Um-

Dan Beecher I got three bids. It's gonna be out of the budget. I don't know what you wanna do.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Yeah. Now, you know, if I had, like, $1,000 right now, maybe I could do something with that. But, um, I, I assume everybody works with, uh, um, contractors that extort you, but, uh-

Dan Beecher Cr-

Dan McClellan Maybe that's-

Dan Beecher Crooked contractors.

Dan McClellan But, uh, the ... And, and interestingly, windows in Baal's palace, the palace of the storm deity, uh, resonates with this idea of windows of heaven, 'cause what comes out of the windows of heaven? Rain.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And storm clouds. That's wh- that's how they get in. Uh, that's how they get you. Um, so Baal begins to rule. Uh, the thunder rolls, as the great poet once, uh, sang. Uh, rain falls, agriculture flourishes, and then the ne- the next cycle begins. We got a problem, though. ... somebody else shows up. Uh, uh, Mot-

Dan Beecher Yes

Dan McClellan ... the Death, basically sends Baal an invitation. And this is kind of like in the movies where Death, you get a note from Death.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan It's like a, "We have an appointment." That means you're gonna die. And so when you get an invitation from Mot, that means you're gonna die. Oh, and, and something fascinating about, uh, the Ugaritic literature is you've got a bunch of angels running around. Only in the Ugaritic literature, the angels don't communicate between gods and humans. The angels communicate between gods and gods.

Dan Beecher Right. They're-

Dan McClellan You send divine messengers to other gods.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan Yeah, so, um, we, we have kind of a parallel pantheon, but in the Bible, it has been renegotiated. It has evolved to serve different functions.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Because y-

Dan Beecher W-

Dan McClellan Go ahead.

Dan Beecher Yeah. It, it, it's, uh, that part is very interesting, but I'm, I'm trying to speed us up a little bit-

Dan McClellan Oh

Dan Beecher ... 'cause we, uh, we, we gotta get through this.

Dan McClellan 'Cause I'm, I'm... Okay. So anyway, uh, Mot is characterized by having this great maw that just swallows people whole. Death is, you know, swallows you whole. And, uh, and Baal doesn't win this fight. Uh-

Dan Beecher Yeah. He dies.

Dan McClellan Baal, yep, goes into the underworld, uh, disappears, rain stops, the earth becomes barren, very much like the droughts that we have in the Hebrew Bible that are Adonai's responsibility. Uh, El is, uh, mourning, tears his clothes, throws dust on himself. He's a cutter, cuts his skin. This is kind of conventional, uh, mourning behavior-

Dan Beecher Mm

Dan McClellan ... uh, rituals. And, uh, Anat is not gonna take it, and so searches for Baal. Anat is the one who ultimately... Anat is, like, the, in, in the Ugaritic pantheon, the people you were most scared of were the women. The, the, the men were, were, you know, they were warriors, sure, but when Anat was coming at you-

Dan Beecher Yeah, Anat seems-

Dan McClellan ... uh, that was trouble

Dan Beecher ... like vicious. Anat seems terrifying.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Um, hack, he, she, like... There, there are parts of the, um, narratives where, where Anat has, like, the hands of her, uh, fallen enemies- ... like, uh, strewn together to create, like, a sash or, or they're-

Dan Beecher Sure

Dan McClellan ... they're, like, uh, hanging off of her back, just kind of dangling there as a trophy and-

Dan Beecher It's her favorite accessory.

Dan McClellan Yeah. So, like, she's vicious, but, um, she hacks Mot to pieces. Uh, and then Death itself is, is treated like harvested grain. She winnows him, burns him, grinds him, scatters him to, in the fields, 'cause that is, uh, you know, the ultimate flex, to, to not just defeat him, but do all that other crap.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Uh, and, uh, Baal comes back, rain returns, life returns. And so there are a lot of people who are like, "Oh, this is, this is the cyclical agricultural cycle. This is the, the changing of the seasons." Uh, there, there's a degree to which it's, it's related to that. Uh, but the dying and rising god motif, which is what a lot of people like to latch onto, that's an outdated 19th century framework. It's not so much dying and rising as it is dying and returning, because dying is, um, geographic-

Dan Beecher Yeah

Dan McClellan ... rather than ontological.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan To die is to travel to the underworld, and then-

Dan Beecher It is interesting to me, like, I, uh, y- you know, you mentioned the, the, the season idea, but to me, what makes a lot more sense is what you referred to before, which is the idea that, uh, there may, there m- there are periodically in any, uh, area droughts, and if a period of drought was particularly devastating, people are gonna be asking, "Where is our god? Where is our storm deity that we've-

Dan McClellan Yeah

Dan Beecher ... been worshiping, who has been providing for us for this time?" And, you know, coming up with a, a way in which, you know, he was eaten by Death is a, is an interesting, you know, that's an interesting explanation.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher And then a few years later, uh, back he comes after he's been rescued and-

Dan McClellan After his sister has gone and, and, um, committed some violent crimes and, uh- Yeah ... yeah.

Dan Beecher Interestingly-

Dan McClellan And then comes back

Dan Beecher ... when Death is killed, Death also comes back eventually.

Dan McClellan Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dan Beecher So-

Dan McClellan And, and this is, this is some, this is an interesting part of the Hebrew Bible, because you have, you, you kind of have the death of the gods. Like, at least Psalm 82 consigns the, the gods of the divine council, the, the patron deities of the nations, consigns them to mortality. "You will fall like men. You will die like any prince."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan But then they all come back. Um, they're, they, you know, and they get, they get squished down into, into more angelic/demonic status, but they come back. And I, and I think that reflects this fascinating feature of this literature, that the literature sticks around, even the older stuff. Um, and so you're always having to renew your kind of engagement with the text. It's ki- you know, like The Simpsons. How old is Bart Simpson by now?

Dan Beecher He's-

Dan McClellan Every season it starts over. Um-

Dan Beecher He's deep in his 40s, yeah.

Dan McClellan Yeah, but, um-

Dan Beecher Or his 50s probably at this point.

Dan McClellan But, uh, I, I, I think I'm supposed to be the same age as Bart Simpson. Because when I, the first time I saw The Simpsons, I was like, "Hey." Uh, it was when it first came out, and I was like-

Dan Beecher Yeah

Dan McClellan ... "Hey, I'm also a 10-year-old blonde kid who is-

Dan Beecher Uh-huh

Dan McClellan ... kinda stupid." Um, but, uh, it, you know, th- this is kind of a feature of this. You, you can't really... Because the literature and the stories kind of establish the foundation of things, you can't move away from them.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan You can't depart from them. They have to be there. And so if you, you know, if you, uh, have the anvil falling on Wile E. Coyote, Wile E. Coyote's gotta come back.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Um, so- I, I think that's an interesting feature of all this, and that's what's going on in the Hebrew Bible and, and the New Testament as well. By the time you get down to the New Testament, a lot's been changed. But guess what? Nothing's been changed.

Dan Beecher Mm-hmm.

Dan McClellan 'Cause all these things still have to be there. Their, their exact nature is just a little different. Uh, they're, you know, dismissed as, as powers and, and dominions and thrones and angels and demons and, and all that kind of stuff, but they're the same patron deities. They are just described differently.

Dan Beecher This whole thing has been so interesting, and it's funny because, you know, as I, as I've been sort of present while you've had discussions- ... with other, uh, with other scholars about, about this stuff-

Dan McClellan Uh-huh

Dan Beecher ... it is clear that studying Ugaritic has become integral to understanding, to, to, to Bible studies.

Dan McClellan Mm-hmm.

Dan Beecher Even though, you know, this is not considered biblical by any means. But, uh, but yeah, everybody's clamoring for, like, "Where can I study Ugaritic? Where can I, you know, what, where can I study the all, you know, U- Ugarit?" And I think that that's, uh, that's really interesting. And-

Dan McClellan Yeah. It's, it-

Dan Beecher And yeah, it does. It sheds a lot of light on where this stuff came from. 'Cause this all, this definitely precedes everything biblical, right?

Dan McClellan Everything. In, in fact, it probably, uh, when Ugarit gets destroyed in the late Bronze Age collapse, uh, and Eric Cline's 1177 BC is far and away the best discussion of that. If you want a book on the late Bronze Age collapse, that's what you should check out. But that is probably the demise of Ugarit. Most of these texts were written in the 13th or 14th centuries BCE. Our earliest reference of any kind whatsoever to any people group known as Israel dates to about 1208 BCE, so right about the time that, that, right, just before Ugarit's gonna fall. So, so yeah, the, everything that's written in the Bible is coming from a couple hundred years after the fall of Ugarit, where the language has changed a little bit more. We've lost case endings and stuff like that. So, um, so it's basically taking the pieces of that. Y- the Ugaritic literature is, is basically the grandfather of, uh, Biblical Hebrew. Uh, so- So cool. That's- You have to study it if you want to, uh, really dig down to the bedrock of what's going on in Biblical Hebrew.

Dan Beecher So cool. So interesting. All right. Well, that is really interesting stuff. I'm really glad that we got into it. If you friends are really interested and glad that we got into it also, you can decide to become one of our patrons over on patreon.com, uh, slash DataOverDogma, which is where you can get early and ad-free versions of all of our episodes as well as, uh, access to the pre-game/after-party/whatever we're calling it, the patrons-only content that, uh, patrons at a certain level get every week, and, uh, and just so many other things. Uh, you'll be the first to know when we have announcements. It's just always a good thing to be a patron, and they're our favorite people anyway, so go over there, uh, if you're willing to and help make this show go. Uh, otherwise, you can also help out by giving us five stars on your various places, uh, liking, commenting, subscribing here, and, uh, and we, uh, we deeply appreciate all of you, and we'll talk to you again next time.

Dan McClellan Bye, everybody.