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What happened to Kemosh?
- Author(s):
- Collin Cornell (see profile)
- Date:
- 2016
- Group(s):
- Religious Studies
- Subject(s):
- Religions, Mediterranean Region, History, Ancient, Archaeology, Assyriology, Bible. Old Testament
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- Ancient Mediterranean religions, Hebrew bible, Old Testament
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6F97X
- Abstract:
- What happened to Kemosh in the era after Moab’s loss of political independence? The present article first argues that this question is of interest to scholarship on the Hebrew Bible because Kemosh and Yhwh were initially twinlike: both were patron deities of Iron Age Levantine kingdoms and shared various similarities of profile. As such, comparing the postnational history of Kemosh and Yhwh can help to isolate the historical and intellectual events without which Yhwh would presumably have developed along similar lines to Kemosh. This article next argues that both deities underwent »the Greek interpretation« by becoming identified with their equivalent in the Greek pantheon. But unlike Kemosh, Yhwh’s evolution included a counterbalancing force, i.e. inscripturation. Because prophetic oracles and regional stories about Kemosh were never gathered into an authoritative corpus, Kemosh became the Greek god Ares, without remainder.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 6 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
zaw2-2016_014_cornell.pdf