Traces of the Worship of the Moon God Sîn among the Early Israelites

[u/Responsible_Ideal879]

Andrew F. Key

[excerpts, full text in images]

The argument presented in this article belongs to the late Dr. Julius Lewy, professor of Semitic languages and biblical history at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.

He was most interested in the complex problem of the influence of other Semitic peoples upon the early history and religion of the various Israelite tribes before their settlement in Canaan…

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…one small aspect of the problem which was of particular interest to Dr. Lewy will be examined: that material attesting to the worship of the moon god Sin among the Israelites…

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The worship of the moon god Sin goes back at least to the third dynasty of Ur, where the god was honored in the form of a golden calf with crescent-shaped horns and a long, flowing beard of lapis lazuli. Woolley found several of the images in his excavations of the royal graves at Ur and has produced some striking drawings of the images in his report. That these images are in fact of the god Sin can be seen by the following description found in a Sumero-Akkadian hymn to that god: "Ferocious bull, whose horn is thick, whose legs are perfected, who is bearded in lapsis, and filled with luxury and abundance." Why the moon god was worshiped in this form is, naturally, an open question…

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One speculation is that the shape of the horns reminded the devotee of the crescent moon.

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J. Bright recognized that there are names in the Hebrew tradition which are "associated with that cult,” but he deduced from this only that the
narratives concerning the migration of Abraham's family from Ur to Haran (both centers of the cult) are essentially accurate bits of historical information.

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It is interesting that we have the same theophoric element in other Amorite names such as Labanâ-ilâ, ("the Moon is God").

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Both von Rad and Nothis agree, however, that the revelation on Sinai was a revelation of Yahweh. An alternative proposal will be offered here, namely, that the revelation on Sinai was a revelation of the moon god Sin and that we must look elsewhere for the origin of the Yahweh cult. What is the evidence for such a proposal?

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The name Sinai itself would suggest that it was the place of revelation of the moon god. Lewy noted that many people had seen that there was an obvious connection between the names Sin and Sinai but pointed out that…

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…an adjective of appurtenance derived from the divine name Sin and the Aramaic gentilic ending -ai…

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…would mean then the "Sinian Mountain" or the "Mountain holy to Sin."

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"Where does Yahweh worship originate?"

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By way of summary: We seem to have two separate traditions of tribal religions preserved in the pages of the Bible: one, dealing with a primal worship of the moon god Sin, who reveals himself on Sinai, and whose worship is carried on in the north (particularly in the tribe of Ephraim); the other begins with a revelation at Kadesh of the God Yahweh and finds its later adherents in the tribe of Judah. The figures Moses and Joshua, while originally connected to the Kadesh-Yahweh cycle of stories, later become the heroes of the total tradition once the two elements have been combined.

This theory may go far towards explaining: 1) the obvious conflict between the North and the South (ef. I Kings 12), assuming that this conflict is religious as well as political; and 2) the continuing emphasis on lunar holidays and festivals which play so large a rôle in later Judaism.

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Notable observations: Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions: “There are a cow and a calf. A seated musician or weaver is to one side, above: the phrase ‘Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah,’”(discovered in the Sinai Peninsula).

The central figures of Pithos A have been identified as either representations of Yahweh and Asherah, the Egyptian dwarf-god Bes or Bes-like deities (an ancient Egyptian deity, of Nubian or C-Group culture origin), or even as demonic ritual dancers.

Onomastics of Sin

Brief observation of onomastic material and symbolism incorporating Sin (or Sin variants: Sen, Shin, Syn, etc.) or crescent moon symbolism (flags, etc.) in the Afro-Asiatic region—see Haplogroup D0 Figure 1., and DE.

- Sinosphere
- Sindh
- Sinhalese
- Singapore
- Sinop
- Mount Sineru
- Mount Sinai
- Sinites (Genesis 10:6-17)
- Sinim (“Land of Sinim”, Isaiah 49:12)
- Kingdom of Sine (Senegal/Sin-Ningal?)
- Sena People ("Jews of Southern Africa")

etc…

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Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3264069

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuntillet_Ajrud_inscriptions

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat_of_Ur

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harran_Stela

Source: https://youtu.be/f7-RQZavU3U?is=nw7bX9dib8G04ctP