Those Crazy Prophets, Who Knew?

Altar at Tel Hazor, Galilee

Richard Hess notes an interesting phenomenon in both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Using Tel Hazor (Israel) and Tell Beit Mirsim (Judah, SE of Tel Lachish) as the model, the amounts of “domestic cult objects” are a fairly low percentage of the total objects found per stratum. By the close of both kingdoms, the percentage of domestic cultic material per stratum increases rapidly. At Tell Beit Mirsim, the percentage is around 45 percent. He concludes this observation, saying, “Close to the end of both kingdoms there is an apparent increase in domestic cult activity, perhaps reflecting a movement toward the worship of a variety of deities in such cultic contexts.” . It is curious to note that as the pressures and strains of international politics affect the respective kingdoms, the local populace seems to become more detached from national life or perhaps turns towards more devoted cultic activity in hopes of securing divine intervention.[1]

Jeremiah 7:17-18 along with 44:3, 15-19 gives a detailed description of domestic family cult. “Sweet cakes” were made and offered to the Queen of Heaven along with incense being burned and libations poured out. Both men and women burned incense and poured libations while making vows of cultic renewal. If one changes the deity from the Queen of Heaven to Yahweh (or any other deity) and adjust the rites accordingly for the new deity and a “typical” picture of domestic devotion can be constructed.

What does all this mean? It means that the closer to Exile each kingdom came, the more the children of Israel courted the favor of other deities. It was at the same time that the “writing” prophets (Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, etc) began to issues their calls for repentance and warnings. Maybe they knew something?

Fun stuff from my thesis research…

1. Hess, Richard S. (2007) Israelite Religions. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. p. 312

~ by eikonministries on April 2, 2009.