Question- Judah/Israel History

[TaylorTRoom]

When stumped, hornfans is a great source of info on almost any topic. Help me out here on this one please, for a project I have.

Ahaz was king of Judah (the southern kingdom) from about 735 - 717 BC. 2 Kings 16, cataloguing his evils, mentions that he "passed his son through the fire", indicating he sacrificed him to the Phoenician idol Moloch (this was the manner of sacrifices to Moloch). Does anybody know what year that might have been?

How about context, since Ahaz did not join the Syro-Ephraim alliance (Syria worshipped Moloch among others), but rather adhered to Assyrian subserviance (Assyria did not have a human sacrifice practice at that time, nor for hundreds of years). Why the Moloch affinity?

Thanks for any help.

 

[longtex]

Excuse me for changing the subject slightly, but it occurred to me that this IS "Horn" fans' forum, and it seemed reasonable ask a horn-related question, and I haven't seen any folks fallin' all over themselves to answer your question, and the closest I could come to an actual answer required a White Whale, and so uhhhh where was I? Oh, yeah, Horns, that's the ticket.

Hey, if you get past this one, how about seeing if you can find out how come Moses grew horns? Yeah, I know St Jerome supposedly mistranslated and it shoulda been that he had beams of light coming out of his head, but I think I'm more at ease with horns than headlights. Maybe the horns deal was right, but it meant the same thing then as now - somebody was bangin' Frau Moses.

 

[BattleshipTexas]

There are a couple of people on HFs that will probably know your answer. I am not sure you are correct that Assyria had no connection to Moloch and such sacrifices. Evidently Baal and Moloch have a connection, and you might want to read Zénaïde Alexeïevna Ragozin's book The story of Assyria: from the rise of the empire to the fall of Nineveh The link below takes you to some of it on-line discussing this issue.

Baal and Moloch

 

[TaylorTRoom]

Thanks for the link, Battleship, but it seems to be describing the Phoenician/Canaanite Moloch ("Baal" evidently was a word that could be a name for a specific idol, or it could mean "Lord" and apply to many), although I did catch the link to the Carthaginian Moloch worship. I understand that archeologists have found evidence of Phoenician child sacrifices as recent as the 3rd century BC.

That was a very interesting time and area theologically. The Assyrians seemed to be basic polytheists, with a straightforward worship of idols based on region and tribe (the primary deity seemed to alternate between the archer and the dragon based on which faction was in charge). The Bible tells us that Ahaz, intimidated by Tiglath Pilsener III, had an altar made similar to the Assyrians' and sent to the Temple in Jerusalem (which must have ticked off Isaiah to no end). Meanwhile, the Persians were developing Zoroastrianism, which would assign deities to traits and values (good and evil), as opposed to tribes and regions. And of course, there was Judaism, which would somehow come out of the exile stronger than ever. It is remarkable how many of our modern values and social structures are derived from the tribes of Judah and Levi.

I've been thinking about Ahaz, and decided he must have been very, very superstitious to sacrifice his child to Moloch. He must have been ready to believe in several deities, besides Yahweh.

 

[Monahorns]

TaylorTRoom, the best thing I can come up with regarding Ahaz practices is that Israel had been practicing other religions since the time of the division. That area of the world had huge religious diversity with some of the most bizarre customs. I heard one preacher speculate that Abraham didn't want his son Isaac to marry a Canaanite girl due to such strange customs as child sacrifice among others. He sent Isaac and a servant back to Chaldea where the religion though pagan was a little more tame. Once Israel split from Judah the king discouraged worship in Jerusalem and encouraged various other types of worship. The Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon are very close neighbors to Israel, so it would seem natural that some of their customs would be adopted over time, one of them being Moloch. Several kings are described as doing this but I can't remember who off the top of my head. Israel and later Judah became very syncretitic combining religious practices from all over the region. In the case of Ahaz, I would think adopting an Assyrian custom wouldn't require him to stop practicing Moloch worship. I don't think Assyria cared what else they worshiped as long as Israel followed them on some level. This is a characteristic common to the pagan mindset. Also something to consider is that worshiping Moloch gave an excuse for people to get rid of pregnancies that were unwanted for any reason. So there could have been a natural motivation for Moloch, birth control on some level though pretty disgusting. Maybe that is why God allowed Assyria to conquer Israel and its northern neighbors. During the same time, Judah was not practicing this and was not conquered by Assyria. Later they did, and Babylon was in power.

Your first question about the timing of Ahaz offering a child to Moloch is very difficult to answer unless it is spelled out in the text. The only thing you could do if you haven't already is do a word search for Ahaz and if there is any mention in any other place in the Bible about it.