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I. Name Vohu Manah, ‘Good Thought’, is the name of one of the seven principal deities of Zoroastrianism (the Amesha Spentas). A slightly blurred form of his name is extant in the Hebrew transcription of Mehuman (מהומן), the name of one of the seven chamberlains of Ahasuerus in Est. 1.10 (Duchesne-Guillemin 1953:106). II. Identity In Zoroastrian theology, a group of seven deities, called the Amesha Spentas (‘beneficent immortals’), occupies a prominent position. Although the antiquity of the doctrine of the Heptad has been the subject of debate (Narten 1982), its main features were…

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I. Name Heracles was undoubtedly the most popular mythical hero of ancient Greek mythology; he was also one of the most complex. Etymologically the name derives from Ἥρα (Hera) and κλέος (fame). Though he is explicitly mentioned only in 2 Macc. 2.19–20, there is evidence to suggest that Heracles traditions were incorporated into the cycle of Samson legends found in the Old Testament and in certain aspects of the depiction of Jesus in the Christology of Hebrews. II. Identity Ancient mythographers divided the exploits of Heracles into three groups: (1) The Twelve Labours ( athloi or erga)…

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I. Name The word tĕrāpîm is found 15 times in the Hebrew Bible, occurring only in the plural even when it denotes one image (1 Sam. 19.13, 1 Sam. 16; cf. A. R. Johnson, The Cultic Prophet in Ancient Israel [Cardiff 1962] 32 n. 3, who suggests that some forms of the plural may be occurrences of the singular with mimation). For the most part the Septuagint translators chose to simply transliterate the term, yet on occasion they associated it with idols ( eidōlon;Gillulim) or a carved image ( glyptos). There is even some attempt to connect it to healing (Hoffner 1968:61 n. 2). The Targumic ma…

I. Name The nine toponyms Baal-gad, Baal-hamon, Baal-hazor, Baal-hermon, Baal-judah, Baal-meon, Baal-perazim, Baal-shalisha, and Baal-tamar include various descriptive combinations which are compounded with the divine name or appellative Baal. They are all located in the Canaanite hill country, save for Baal-meon which is located on the plain east of the Dead Sea. There is a difference in the distribution of toponyms which are named by masculine (Baal-X) and feminine (Baalah, Bealoth, Baalath-X) forms. The former are attached to the highlands whe…

I. Name In a hymnic passage extolling Jesus Christ we read “for in (or: by) him all things in heaven and earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones ( thronoi) or dominions or rulers and powers—all things have been created through him and for him” ( Col. 1.16). Here the term ‘thrones’, like the other words, denotes heavenly beings. It occurs with this meaning only here in the Bible. The other words are found in similar lists (1 Cor. 15.24; Eph. 1.21; Eph. 3.10; Eph. 6.12; 1 Pet. 3.22); whilst ‘rulers’ and ‘powers’ are mentioned together in Col. 2.10, Col. 15. II. Identity A th…

I. Name In Deuteronomistic religious polemics and related texts, ‘vanities’ ( hebelîm) indicate images of non-Yahwistic deities. It is impossible to establish the identity of the deities involved (Preuss 1971:160–164). Etymologically, hebel is related to words for ‘breath; vapour and nullity’. II. Identity Since it is not clear to which deities the term hebelîm refers, their character cannot be described. It is characteristic of the orthodox form of the Yahwistic religion in ancient Israel to designate ‘other deities’ in a disparaging way. This …

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I. Name Despite frequent claims that Behemoth refers to one or another animal of the natural world, the Behemoth depicted in Job 40.15–24 ( Job 10–19) is best understood as a mythological creature possessing supernatural characteristics. By form bĕhēmôt is the intensive (feminine) plural of bĕhēmâ (‘beast, ox’; collective: ‘beasts, cattle’; see Botterweck 1975:6–17); nevertheless, in Job 40.15–24 the grammatical forms pertaining to Behemoth are all masculine singular. The figure suggested is a singular being of awesome dimensions, a ‘super ox’ …

I. Name In the OT and NT the winds (רוחות, πνεύματα, ἄνεμοι) are either ruled as such by God personally ( Exod. 10.13 and Exod. 19; Jer. 49.36; Jer. 51.1; Hos. 13.15; Ps. 135.7) or personified as his servants (מלאכים, ἄγγελοι: Ps. 104.4; Rev. 7.1). They are four in number ( Jer. 49.36; Dan. 7.2; Rev. 7.1; cf. e.g. 1 Chr. 9.24; Dan. 8.8; Mark 13.27, where ‘the four winds’ = the points of the compass), and are conceived of as (a) winged being(s) ( 2 Sam. 22.11; Ps. 18.11; Ps. 104.3). They are addressed ( Cant. 4.16) but not venerated. The following specific winds are mentioned in the OT: the צפון or n…

I. Name Gog ( gwg) occurs as the name of a mysterious figure in Ezek. 38–39. Its etymology is uncertain. A derivation from Sumerian gug (‘black spot’, ‘cornelian’, or ‘shining’, depending on the identification of the root) has been proposed (A. van Hoonacker, ZA 28 [1914] 336), but is highly implausible. The connection with a hypothetical deity ‘Gaga’, mentioned in Ee. III 3 as the vizier of Anshar (Assur), the father of the gods, must be abandoned as the name of the deity in question is to be pronounced Kaka (D. O. Edzard, RLA 5 [1976–80] 288; see also Šurpu. 59 ad VIII 30 on the reading d Ga-a-gi).…

I. Name The noun ʾiyyîm, the plural of I אִי*, is attested in Isa. 13.22; Isa. 34.14 (1QIsa.a ʾyyʾmym [?]) and Jer. 50.39. It is generally derived either from Eg. jw or jwjw ‘dog’ (cf. Arab. ibn ʾāwā ‘jackal’) or from III אִי* (< אִיִּי*) ‘(ghostly) islander, beach demon, goblin’ ( HALAT 37; Ges.18 44). The ancient versions (LXX ὀνοκένταυροι, Vg. sirenes, onocentauri, fauni) imagine a tailless ape, or in a derived sense an impure demon. Even if the meaning of the word ʾiyyîm is controversial, nothing speaks against the assumption that a zoologically definable species can also be meant…

I. Name Common to most Semitic languages, the root rkb, “to mount (upon)”, is more often used in connection with chariot-driving than with riding upon an animal (such as an equid or a camel (W. B. Barrick, The Meaning and Usage of RKB in Biblical Hebrew, JBL 101 [1982] 481–503;; id./H. Ringgren, TWAT 7, 508–515). Consequently, both the divine name Rakib-Il and divine epithets such as “Rider-upon-the-clouds” do not relate to the imagery of a riding horseman, but to that of a chariot-driving warrior. However, ancient Near Eastern iconography knows …

I. Name Tartak is one of two gods (the other Nibhaz) worshipped by the Avvites whom the Assyrians settled in Samaria, some time after the city’s fall ( 2 Kgs. 17.24, 2 Kgs. 31). A god by this name is unknown in extra-biblical sources. In addition, the location of Avva is uncertain. II. Identity Two identifications of Tartak, both problematic, have been suggested. The first associates the Avvites with Elam. Avva is taken to be identical with the town Ama on the Uqnu River on the Babylonian-Elamite border, occupied by Aramean tribes (Zadok 1976:120, Becking 1992:98). The transfer of Avvite…

I. Name Yahweh is the name of the official god of Israel, both in the northern kingdom and in Judah. Since the Achaemenid period, religious scruples led to the custom of not pronoucing the name of Yahweh; in the liturgy as well as in everyday life, such expressions as ‘the Lord’ ( ʾădōnāy, lit. ‘my Lord’, LXX κύριος) or ‘the Name’ were substituted for it. As a matter of consequence, the correct pronunciation of the tetragrammaton was gradually lost: the Masoretic form ‘Jehovah’ is in reality a combination of the consonants of the tetragrammaton with the vocals of ʾădōnāy, the ḥaṭēf p…

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I. Name Akk. baštu (in later texts baltu, Sum. téš) “dignity, pride, decorum” is sometimes characterized as a protective spirit in Mesopotamia. Heb. bōšet occurs in personal names in the OT ( 2 Sam. 2.8 and 2 Sam. 4.4) as a substitute for the theophoric element. The Akkadian noun derived from the verb baʾāšu “to come to shame”, which is of common Semitic origin (e.g. Ug. bṯ, Aram. behet, Heb. bōš). Von Soden (1964) tried to show that baštu had an original meaning “sexual power” and that it was part of a more complex concept for “life force”, expressed by four words: lamassu “efficiency…