Baal vs. Yahweh: The Lost Tablets of Ugarit and the Bible

In 1928, a farmer's plow on the Syrian coast opened a tomb and led archaeologists to Ugarit, a Bronze Age port city that had burned around 1190 BC. Its clay tablets, written in one of the world's oldest alphabets, preserve the Baal Cycle: the storm god Baal fights the Sea, builds his palace on Mount Zaphon, and comes back from Death. These Canaanite myths also changed how scholars read the Hebrew Bible. Psalm 29, the "Rider of the Clouds," Leviathan the twisting serpent, the "sons of God" in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the "Yahweh and his asherah" inscription from Kuntillet Ajrud all show how close Israel's religion was to the world of El, Asherah and Baal. Using the work of Frank Moore Cross, Mark Smith, Francesca Stavrakopoulou and the Ugarit excavators, we trace how Yahweh and Baal went from sharing the same language to being bitter rivals, from Elijah on Mount Carmel to the prophet Hosea. Throughout, we keep scripture, myth and archaeological evidence clearly apart. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:08 The Plow and the Tomb 02:38 The Scribe Who Signed 04:47 El and His Seventy Sons 06:21 Borrowed Thunder 08:15 The Last Letter 10:01 How Baal Lost 12:21 The Voice Left Behind Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugarit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_Cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_(deity) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_wi... https://archaeology.org/issues/july-a... https://library.biblicalarchaeology.o... https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/h... https://eupt.uni-goettingen.de/GMU/2_... https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2018/2018.0... https://www.galaxie.com/article/bspad... https://lycoming.edu/schemata/pdfs/re... https://resolve.cambridge.org/core/jo... https://cojs.org/?p=7527 https://www.academia.edu/115936609 https://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh... https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/th... https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/d... https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/ind... Image and video credits: Unknown artist Unknown artist (CC BY-SA 3.0) Gianfranco Gazzetti (CC BY-SA 4.0) Frank Kidner (CC BY-SA 4.0) Rama (CC BY-SA 2.0 fr) ALFGRN (CC BY-SA 2.0) Rama (CC BY-SA 3.0 fr) Zunkir (CC BY-SA 4.0) Poshotenk (CC BY-SA 4.0) Dosseman (CC BY-SA 4.0) פעמי-עליון (CC BY-SA 4.0) Sigal Lea Raveh (CC BY-SA 4.0) Grauesel (CC BY-SA 3.0) Temerarius (CC BY-SA 4.0) Phillip Maiwald ( Nikopol ) (CC BY-SA 3.0) Zde (CC BY-SA 4.0) Claude Valette (CC BY-SA 4.0) Unknown artist Unknown artist (CC BY-SA 4.0) Fallaner (CC BY-SA 4.0) בית השלום Original uploader was בית השלום at he.wikipedia (Attribution) hanay (Attribution) Hans Bernhard ( Schnobby ) (CC BY-SA 3.0) Verity Cridland (CC BY 2.0)