The Religion of Ancient Palestine in the Second Millenium B.C.

+Miscellaneous Ideas.+--Although the native literature of our period consists almost entirely of the begging-letters and reports in the Amarna Tablets, yet even from the languag...

+Their vicissitudes.+--The deities were not originally personifications of any one power of nature; like the secular heads of small local groups they were the supreme patrons of...

+General Inferences.+--That the old places of cult had their duly ordained officials may be taken for granted; even the smallest of them, like those of to-day, must have had app...

+Awe.+--A fundamental sense of awe was felt in the presence of anything unusual or contrary to experience, and man's instinctive philosophy shaped his ideas from the suggestions...

Until the necessary evidence comes to light it is scarcely possible to do more than collect a few notes upon some of the gods and goddesses of our period. The most important sou...

+The Sanctuary of Gezer.+--Of the excavations in Palestine none have been so prolific or so fully described as those undertaken by Mr. Macalister on behalf of the Palestine Expl...

+The Subject.+--By the Religion of Ancient Palestine is meant that of the Semitic land upon which was planted the ethical monotheism of Judaism. The subject is neither the growt...

The modern holy places, under the care of some minister, dervish, or priestly family, are the scenes of periodic visits, liturgical unctions, processions, the festal display of...