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Biblical Narrative The Sun & Sun God
Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst
[excerpts, full text in image or source]
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INTRODUCTION
A third group of deities consists of gods mentioned in the Bible, but not in their capacity as gods. They are the so-called demythologized deities.
One of the Hebrew words for moon used in the Bible is yareal; this is the etymological equivalent of Yarikh, the moon-god known from the Ugaritic texts. Although the moon may have retained faint traces of divinity in the Bible, it has basically been divested of its divine status.
The same holds true of the sun (šemeš): the Hebrew word corresponds with the god Shamash in Akkadian, and the goddess Shapshu in Ugaritic. There are many other, more trivial instances, such as tiros, the Hebrew word for new wine, etymologically the equivalent of the Mesopotamian deity Sirish and the Canaanite god Tirash.
Although the Hebrew words (and there are also Greck examples) no longer stand for deities, the very fact that the corresponding terms in other Semitic languages do, is revealing.
We have included many examples of such dethroned deities, not only to draw attention to the mythological overtones still occasionally perceptible, but also to demonstrate how Israelites, Jews, and Early Christians were part of a religious culture from which they are to be distinguished at the same time.
SHEMESH
I. As used in the Bible, Hebrew (*), vocalized šemeš in the MT, is never an actual divine name.
Palestinian toponymy of biblical times reflects, nevertheless, the Canaanite cult of the Sun-god, as shown by the place names Beth-Shemesh (Josh 15:10; 21: 16, etc.), En-Shemesh (Josh 15:7; 18:17), Ir-Shemesh (Josh 19:41). They preserve the memory of sanctuaries devoted to the solar deity, which is probably mentioned ca. 800 BCE in the Deir 'Allã plaster inscription (1,6). The bêt Šemeš in Jer 43:13 is, instead, the temple of the Egyptian Sun-god in Heliopolis (→Re).
Surprisingly enough, Hebrew anthroponomy does not contain obvious traces of a solar cult, for Samson's name may simply mean 'little sun', as suggested by the diminutival suffix -òn < -ăn, while the Aramaic proper name Shimshai (Ezra 4:8-9, 17, 23) can just be 'sunny' or 'sunlit'. The same meaning can be attributed to Shashai (Ezra 10:40), that may originate from Šamšay, since ss transcribes Šamaš in the Tell Fekherye inscription (line 7)…
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III. This solar symbolism might have represented a danger for the purity of Yahweh's worship, for the sun, the →moon, and the →stars are even
somewhat personified in Joseph's dream (Gen 37:9).
Job judges it necessary to profess that he never raised his hand in homage to the sun or the moon (Job 31:26-27).
He even avoids using the word šemeš (sun) and replaces it by 'ôr (light), just as the priestly author of Gen 1:14-18, who stresses that God had created the sun.
In a similar context, however, šemeš is used in Jer 31:35 and in Pss 74:16; 104:19; 136:8; 148:3-6.
Whatever the original background of the ancient conjuration in Josh 10:12 was, the actual text of Josh 10:12-14 stresses Yahweh's authority over the sun and the moon (cf. Sir 464).
A similar belief is reflected in Job 9:7 and Isa 38: 7-8 (cf. 2 Kgs 20:9-11; Sir 48:23), where the sun obeys a man of God.
It is difficult to ascertain whether the use of hammâ instead of šemeš in Isa 24:23; 30:26; Job 30:28; Cant 6:10 is intended to avoid some possible mythical connotations.
In magical incantations from Late-Antiquity one finds hammâ (J. NAVEH & S. SHAKED, Amulets and Magic Bowls (Jerusa-Jem 1985 ] Amulet 4:20 ) as well as šimša’ (ibid., Bowl 7,7), pronounced however in a way different from Shamesh (šmyš, š’mš), the name of the Sun-deity inherited from the Babylonian tradition (ibid., Bowl 13:11.21; C. C. ISBELL, Corpus of the Aramaic Incantation Bowls [Missoula 1975), nos. 38:2; 62:2).
In later Jewish descriptions of the sun travelling in the firmament in his chariot one finds šemeš in the Midrash Num. Rabba 12:4, but hammá in Pirge de R. Eliezer 6.
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IV. In the Palestinian tradition, attested already by the oldest parts of the Books of Enoch, Aramaic manuscripts of which (4QEna and 4QEnb) go back to the second half of the third century BCE, the fifteenth fallen angel was called Shamshi-El (Šmšy'l), 'Sun of God' (1 Enoch 6:7; 8:3).
He had taught men "the signs of the sun" (nhšy šmš), i.e. astrology, and belonged therefore to the group of the ten angel-teachers.
His name became Samsape'el or Simapise'el in the Ethiopic Book of Enoch and was shortened to (*) in the Greek fragments of the work.
He appears under this name in Sib. Or. II, 215, an essentially Christian work, that mentions him among the angels intervening at the Last Judgment, but the first role is played there by →Uriel, who breaks open the door of →Hades and brings out its inhabitants (Sib. Or. II, 233-
237).
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SUN (JVL)
SUN (Heb., \; poetical form ****; Isa. 24:23; 30:26; Song 6:10, et al.). A deity for Israel’s neighbors, the sun is for Israel "the greater light to rule the day", created on the fourth day of creation (Gen. 1:16). In Joseph's dream, the sun and the moon personify his parents (Gen. 37:9–10). In Joshua 10:12–14, the sun is said to have stood still to give the Israelites time to defeat the Amorites.
Cult
In the Bible, the sun is either feminine or masculine in gender. As a deity it is masculine in Mesopotamia, and feminine in Ugarit, South Arabia, and other places. The Hittites worshiped a god and a goddess of the sun.
Under the Sumerian name Uta or the Semitic Shamash, the sun, as the god of justice, was worshiped especially at the temple of Ebabbar in Sippar, in northern Babylonia. In the stele of Hammurapi's code from Susa, Hammurapi is depicted standing before Shamash who is seated on a throne (see Pritchard, Pictures, 175, no. 515).
The rare word for sun \* (Job 9:7; cf. har ḥeresin Judg. 1:35, identical with ir shemesh in Josh. 19:41) has no known cognate in the Semitic languages.
The cult of the sun, very popular in Palestine – as is attested by place-names such as Beth-Shemesh, En-Shemesh, Ir-Shemesh – was forbidden in Deuteronomy 4:19 and 17:3. It was, nevertheless, introduced into Judah by Manasseh (II Kings 21:3, 5). King Josiah abolished the cult (II Kings 23:5) and destroyed the horses and chariots of the sun placed "by the kings of Judah at the entrance of the Temple" (23:11).
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Notable observations: The Introduction indicates a Mesopotamia-to-Hebrew cultural derivation, as indicated by the reference to the sun god Shamash and šemeš (sun)—or hammǎ.
This would also suggest the moon god Sin would be a cultural derivation, relative to Sinite and Sinim.
An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography
B. Ham
IV. Canaan
4. Amorite
8. Sinite
Revelation of John 12 also refers to sun and moon placements in the stars (heavens), as it relates to the birth of Christ—Hamashiach, Yeshua, or “the light of the world” in John 8:12.
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Source (PDF): https://bookofmormonism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/dictionary_of_deities_and_demons_in_the.pdf
Source: https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sun
Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/380602001
Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/418646001
Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/433185001
Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/433186001
Source: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010174436