Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible Online

I. Name In Gen. 4.1 the name of the first son of Adam and Eve, Cain, is related in a popular etymology to the Hebrew verb qnh ‘to acquire’. More probably the name should be related to either the Ugaritic qn ‘reed; shaft’ and Heb. qayin ‘javelin’ or to Syrian and Semitic words for ‘smith’; e.g. Syr. qajnājā ‘(gold)smith’; Thamudic qjn; qn and qnt, ‘smith’ ( HALAT 1025; Hess 1993). His name might be related to a Thamudic deity qayn. Besides, the story on Cain and Abel has been interpreted mythologically, Cain representing the deified sun (Goldziher 1876:129–139). II. Identity In Thamudic inscr…

I. Name Hebrew ʿēgel, Ugaritic ʿgl, Aramaic ʿîglaʾ, the common word for ‘calf’ (sc. a young bull), is used of images worshipped by the Israelites in texts written from the deuteronomistic perspective. II. Identity The bull as a symbol of physical strength and sexual potency, together with all the economic benefits arising from herding, has an ancient pedigree in the religions of the Ancient Near East. From at least the time of Neolithic Çatal Hüyük in Anatolia, images have been prominent in glyptic art, sculpture and reliefs, and the animal has b…

I. Name Carmel (Jebel Kurmul) is a promontory on the Mediterranean Coast of Israel near Haifa which since ancient times was considered as ‘holy’. A deity was worshipped there whose name occurs outside the Bible as “god of the Carmel”. In the OT Mount Carmel is known especially as scene of a trial of strength between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, or rather, between Baal and Yahweh (1 Kgs. 18). II. Identity The ‘holiness’ of the Carmel may already have been mentioned in the listing of countries and cities of the conquering Pharaoh Thutmoses III in the second millennium (about 1490–1436 bce) by …

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