The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament

by Richard J. Clifford

The term "cosmic mountain" is a rendering of the nineteenth-century German scholarly designation Weltberg, which was derived from ancient Mesopotamian sources. The book offers a critique of the concept, especially as it has been applied to West Semitic religion, chiefly that witnessed to in Ugaritic texts and the Bible. Chapter 2 examines the connection of various Ugaritic deities to sacred mountains--El, Baal, Mot, Anat, and other deities. Chapter 3 studies the concept in Genesis, in the Sinai and Zion traditions, and in the Solomonic Temple. The last chapter looks at the concept in some literature of Early Judaism.

Genres: Old Testament, Religion

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Richard J. Clifford, SJ, is professor of Old Testament at Boston College School of Theology. He taught biblical studies at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge from 1970 to 2008. His doctorate is from Harvard University. He was general editor of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly and is a former president of the Catholic Biblical Association. As well as teaching and lecturing in scholarly circles, he is active in adult education in various New England dioceses.

Reviews

[Erick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book. It traces the Old Testament use of Zaphon and Zion to an ancient semitic precursor as found in the Ugaritic texts.

[Steven Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Came to this book by way of references in works of Michael Heiser and L. Michael Morales. It seeks to trace concepts associated with the “world-mountain”cosmologies from Mesopotamia on the Old Testament. What I found interesting was the survey of Edenic images among ancient near eastern peoples, particularly the Ugaritc myths. The author does not have a high view of the Scriptures but examines from a perspective of one myth amongst others, which I reject. Nevertheless the comparisons provide much meditation on the authorial intent of the OT writers.

[Rick Mcgarry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not terribly accessible, especially for those unfamiliar with ancient near eastern languages. Clifford reviews primary sources regarding the cosmic mountain myth, or lack thereof, in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Canaan, and how it infiltrates the ancient religious texts of the Hebrews.