Celestial Divination in Ugarit and Ancient Israel: A Reassessment

✍ Scribed by Jeffrey L. Cooley

• Book ID: 111688465
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 168 KB
• Volume: 71
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-2968
• DOI: 10.1086/664456

✦ Synopsis

In my previous article, I discussed the veneration of astral bodies in ancient Syria-Palestine, surveying textual and archaeological material from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. 1 There, I articulated the view that, though there was Aramean and Assyrian influence on Israelite astral worship-primarily aesthetic influence-that worship was grounded in the native religious traditions of Syria-Palestine. In this present article, I wish to bring that study to its real purpose, namely, to demonstrate that celestial divination was not a substantial feature of Israelite religious expression before the Babylonian exile, though astral worship was. My evidence will be archaeological, Ugaritic, and pre-exilic biblical material. In addition to this, I will outline both biblical and extrabiblical Jewish astrological material from the Second Temple period.

While post-exilic material might not seem immediately relevant to Iron Age practice, I believe it dem-