The Legacy of Canaan: The Ras Shamra Texts and Their Relevance to the Old Testament

362 Pages·1965·39.395 MB·English

by  John Gray

THE LEGACY OF CANAAN
SUPPLEMENTS
Tü
VETUS TESTAMENTUM
EDITED BY
THE BOARD OF THE QUAR TERLY
G. W. ANDERSON HENRI CAZELLES
P. A. H. DE BOER E. HAMMERSHAIMB
G. R. CASTELLINü H. G. MA Y
W. ZIMMERLI
VOLUMEV
LEIDEN
J.
E. BRILL
1965
THE LEGACY OF CANAAN
THE RAS SHAMRA TEXTS AND THEIR RELEVA NCE
TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
BY
REV. PROF. JOHN GRAY M. A., B. D., Ph. D.
University of Aberdeen
SECOND, REVISED EDITION
LEIDEN
E. J. BRILL
1965
FIRST EDITION, 1957
Copyright 1965 lry E. J. BrilI, Leiden, Netherlands.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated
in atry form, lry print, photoprint, microftlm or atry other means without
written permission from the publisher.
PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
PREFACE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . ... VIII
ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
THE UGARITIC ALPHABET AND TRANSLITERATION.. .. .. . .. ... XII
CHAPTER I: Ugarit and its Records.. .. .. .. . . . .. .. . .. . .. . . 1
CHAPTER II: M yths of the Fertility Cult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
CHAPTER III: Saga and Legend ........................... 106
CHAPTER IV: The Religion of Canaan ....................• 152
i: The Gods ...................................... 152
ii: The Cult. . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . • .. 192
iii: Cultic Personnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 209
CHAPTER V: The Sodal Order. . .. .. .. ... .. . . . . . ... .. . ... 218
CHAPTER VI: Literary and Linguistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 259
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 312
CONCORDANCE OF U GARITIC TEXTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . • 326
INDEX OF UGARITIC PASSAGES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 330
INDEX OF UGARITIC WORDS ............................... 333
SUBJECT INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 337
AUTHoRs' INDEX.. ... .•. .. .. . . ... .. .. ... . . .. .. .. ... . . . .. 341
INDEX OF SCRIPTURAL PASSAGES ........................••. 344

PREFACE
The author's studies in the Ras Shamra Texts date from 1936,
when as Blackie Travelling Fellow of Edinburgh University his
interest in them was engaged in the library of l'Ecole Biblique de
J
St. Etienne in erusalem. At that time the historical interpretation
of certain of the longer texts had not been seriously questioned, and
many striking but hasty conclusions had been drawn after M. CHARLES
VIROLLEAUD'S prompt publication of the texts. Our initial reserve
has been confirmed by subsequent critical study. No longer can we
find any specific reference to the fathers of the historical Hebrews
or to particular localities in Palestine. The texts, however, are most
valuable as documenting the life and culture of Canaan on the eve
of the Hebrew settlement, and it is in the belief that they are vitally
relevant to the understanding of the Old Testament that we present
this study.
To M. CHARLES VIROLLEAUD, the first editor of the texts, to
M. CLAUDE F. A. SCHAEFFER, by whose skill the texts were recovered
from their archaeological context and so accurately dated, and to
M. RENE DUSSAuD, who gave the first fuH synthesis of the texts, all
scholars in this field must remain grateful, and, if many of the original
views of MM. VIROLLEAUD and DussAuD have been exploded, their
work is still most stimulating. With the critical reaction against the
first interpretation of the texts the initiative passed largely to American
scholars, notably C. H. GORDON and H. L. GINSBERG, whose judge
ment on philological points has always commanded respect. To
Professor GORDON Ugaritic scholars owe a particular debt for his
Ugaritic Handbook and Manual, which make the texts so readily
accessible. Our debt to Professor GORDON is evidenced by the fact
that we have found references to his work too numerous for citation
in our authors' index except by 'passim'. Of other major works we
should particularly note our appreciation ofT. H. GASTER'S admirable
anthropological study Thespis, and the most recent study of the major
texts by G. R. DRIvER. Our MS was already complete and accepted
for publication before the appearance of the last work, and, though
we were permitted to resume the MS, we must frankly admit that in
other circumstances we should have dealt more fuHy with this fine
work. We trust that we have conveyed out just appteciation of the
VIII PREFACE
contribution of all other fellow-workers in this field by our citation
of their works in our bibliography.
We should like further to express our gratitude to the staff of the
library of l'Ecole Biblique de St. Etienne in Jerusalem, where our
serious study of the texts began, to the REV. PROFESSOR H. H. ROWLEY
M.A., D.D., Theol.D., Ll.D., F.B.A., our former principal in the
University of Manchester, whose voluminous library of books and
offprints was so freely at our disposal, to PROFESSOR P. A. H. DE BOER
of Leiden and the editorial staff of Vetus Testamentum and to the
compositors of the house of BRILL for their handling of such intricate
matter in so many scripts, and to the REV. GEORGE FARR M.A., B.D.,
of the Baptist College, Manchester for stimulating discussions in
matters of common interest and for his careful reading of our proofs.
King's College,
University of Aberdeen,
April 1957.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
The publishers' request for a second edition of The Legacy of Canaan
has given the writer the welcome opportunity to develop certain
themes, on which he had previously only touched, and to declare
more firmlyon certain problems, which he was obliged to leave open
in the first edition. Since the first edition w~s already in press when
G. R. DRIVER'S Canaanite Myths and Legends appeared, the writer is
glad of the opportunity to consider PROFESSOR DRIVER'S work more
adequately than was formerly possible. The most useful Wörterbuch
der ugaritischen Sprache (1963) of the late PROFESSOR J. AISTLEITNER
has been a notable advantage in the study of texts still notoriously
problematic. The re cent death of PROFESSOR AISTLEITNER is indeed
a grievous loss to scholarship in this field, and the moment is oppor
tune for our sincere acknowledgement of his achievement and of
the unfailing stimulus of his fertile genius and mature scholarship.
It is indeed fitting that the work of this notable pioneer in Ugllritic
research should be crowned by his comprehensive lexicon and con
cordance.
It is highly gratifying to see the industry of the indefatigable
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION IX
PROFESSOR SCHAEFFER rewarded with continued success in the dis
covery of new texts. By the great courtesy of PROFESSOR SCHAEFFER
these are already known to the writer, though, since the most recently
discovered alphabetic texts are not yet published, they are omitted
from the present edition. In the third edition of this work, however,
which the writer and his publishers already project, they will form an
important addition together with the political documents from the
palace of Ugarit, so far omitted from The Legary 01 Canaan since they
do not so closely relate to the significance of the Ras Shamra disco
veries for the study of the OldTestament.
My particular thanks are due to my assistant the Rev. WILLIAM
JOHNSTONE M.A., B.D., Lecturer in Hebrew and Semitic Languages
in the University of Aberdeen, who has found time in a very full
programme of archaeological field work at Ras Shamra, research, and
routine work in University and Church to read my proofs with
characteristic thoroughness, and to the compositors of E. J. BRILL
for their masterly handling of the various difficulties involved in the
text of this book with its exacting problems of transliteration and the
various scripts involved.
J.
King's College, G.
University of Aberdeen,
January, 1965
Vetus Test., Supp!. V 2