IX PALESTINE IN RELATION TO THE BIBLE. 



235 



If these inferences are correct we can picture the chief 

 elements of " Baal " worship in the pre-Israelitish times and 

 later. It was a worship of a Ba'al — the owner or possessor of 

 the locality — who among the Canaanites was specially the Ba'al 

 who gave increase of ihe land and who thus came to be the god 

 of fertility and to be connected with symbols of procreation. 

 Side by side with this was the worship of the ba'alat, the 

 proprietress of the place who all over the land was identified 

 with Ashtarte, the goddess of fertility and reproduction. She, 

 too, in the Asherali, at this stage was symbolised by emblems of 

 the reproductive organs — as she certainly was on the terra-cotta 

 plaques. In connection with these emblems we find the 

 sacrifice of the first born " [or at any rate of new-born infant,] 

 buried at the foot of the Massehah probably when they were 

 erected, human and animal sacrifices at the altar, and a system 

 of religious prostitution, for which perhaps the cave under the 

 Temple was adapted. This last we know to have accompanied 

 this cult and evidences of it surviving to a late period are found 

 in various passages in the Old Testament {rf. Amos ii, 7, Deut. 

 xxiii, 18). 



Accepting these views the language of Old Testament 

 writers recrardincr the abominations of the " heathen " or the 



o o 



Canaanites will not appear too strong. G. F. Moore,* while by 

 no means accepting all the above views, writes, " There is no 

 doubt, however, that the cultus of Ashtarte was saturated with 

 these abominations." How much of the religious process of the 

 Israelites was one long struggle against the Massehah and 

 Asherhii is evident by a reference of their whole history do\vn 

 to their captivity. There was an Ashcrah at Samaria (ii Kings 

 xiii, 6), at Bethel (ii Kings xxiii, 15), and even in the Temple 

 at Jerusalem at one time (ii Kings xxiii, 6). It by no means 

 follows that the Israelites took on at once all the sanctuaries ; 

 in many cases in the first zeal of their invasion it is quite pos- 

 jsible that many were destroyed, though, perhaps, in some cases 

 restored ; but at Gezer we have a special reason for accounting 

 IQV the old Massehuth being allowed to remain undisturbed. We 

 read (Josh, xvi, 10) that the Israelites did not turn out the 

 Canaanites, but became amalgamated with them. But though 

 the pillars stood, the Temple appears to have lost some of its 

 ancient sanctity, for now at the stratum dated for this period 

 we find the Temple area, previously so sacred, becoming built 



* Art. " Ashtoreth,"' Ere. Bib. Col, 338. 



