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Mythology Among the Hebrews and Its Historical Development
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
492 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1876
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About the author
Ignaz Goldziher
51 books39 followersIgnác Goldziher was a Hungarian orientalist and scholar of Islam. Along with the German Theodore Nöldeke and the Dutch Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, he is considered the founder of modern Islamic studies in Europe. He represented the Hungarian government and the Academy of Sciences at numerous international congresses, and in 1889 he received the large gold medal at the Stockholm Oriental Congress. His eminence in the sphere of scholarship was due primarily to his careful investigation of pre-Islamic and Islamic law, tradition, religion and poetry, in connection with which he published a large number of treatises, review articles and essays contributed to the collections of the Hungarian Academy. Most of his scholarly works are still considered relevant. And in addition to his scholarly works, Goldziher kept a relatively personal record of his reflections, travel records and daily records. This journal was later published in German as Tagebuch. In his numerous books and articles, he sought to find the origins of Islamic doctrines and rituals in the practices of other cultures. In doing so, he posited that Islam continuously developed as a civilization, importing and exporting ideas.
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March 6, 2016
Introduction
Ignac Goldziher attempts to uncover the earliest version of the Hebrew myths using comparative mythology and philology, although he seems to stray into the realm of parellelomania at times. He pronounces various figures in the Bible to be either sun gods or moon gods, sometimes based solely on the speculative etymology of their names. Confirmation bias seems to play a role as well, since anything he finds that doesn’t agree with his theory can simply be chalked up to a change made at a later period.
The Kindle version is a scan, so the text is jumbled and difficult to read. Interesting to learn some things about the ancient world. For example, ancient Arabs would light a fire when they began a war to serve as a beacon for those eager for the fight. Due to the fact that fire was produced by rubbing a boring stick in a hole, the act of copulation was viewed by ancient cultures as producing fire.
I was interested to learn that when Joshua commands the sun to stand still so he can continue slaughtering his enemies (Joshua 10:12-13), there is a parallel in Homer in which Agamemnon implores Zeus not to let the sun go down for the same reason (Iliad, Book 2, line 412). While this is interesting, I don’t think it tells us much. This could mean one source borrowed from another or both derived from an earlier source, but I think it is most likely a coincidence.
Nomads vs. Agriculturalists
According to Goldziher, mythology first arises as an explanation of nature and changes along with civilization. The chief plots of all myths involve either fights or incest between relatives, since the sun, moon, and stars were all thought to be related to each other. Nomads revere nights and clouds which shield them from the scorching heat of day, so for them solar gods are evil. Nomads often traveled in the afternoon or during the night. Ancient Arabs couldn’t bear to see the graves of their friends scorched by the sun’s heat, thus in old Arabian poetry, “Drench, O clouds, the earth of that grave!” is a recurring formula. They also think in terms of night. A journey took eight nights, rather than eight days. This lives on in the English expression “fortnight”.
Agriculturalists, on the other hand, value the sun which sustains their crops. For them, gods which embody night and heavy storms which ruin their crops are the evil gods. Eventually, multiple gods get combined into a singular deity and gods from an earlier age are turned into historical figures. Isaiah 63:16 may indicate Abraham and Jacob were considered gods before they became historical founders. As mythology became historicized, place names and time periods were attached to give the stories a sense of completeness.
Both the nomadic and agricultural stages of worship are present in different parts of the Bible. In the Garden of Eden story, agriculture is viewed as a punishment. (There’s a related East African Calabar legend in which the first humans are forbidden agriculture and propagation by the Calabar god Abasi. When the woman is tempted by a female friend into using implements of tillage, they fall.) Nomadic shepherds such as Abel, Jacob, Moses, and David are good guys, while the agriculturalist Cain is a bad guy, indicating this story comes from the nomadic period.
The battle between day and night is often depicted as a battle between brothers such as Cain (Sun) and Able (Night). Jabal, another Able, is described as the father of those that dwell in tents and with cattle (Genesis 4:20), even though Able did this already (Genesis 4:2). Jabal’s brother Tubal-cain is a duplicate of Cain. Cain, like many solar heroes, built the first city. (Enoch, another solar figure, is also connected with city building.) The fact Cain is described as a fugitive and vagabond, also connects him with the sun which is said to live a life of unrest and motion, wondering from place to place. In the Agada, it is speculated that the mark of Cain could be the brightening of the sun, or a horn, among other things. Sun’s rays are mythically called horns sometimes.
The names of constellations in Job 38:31-32 implies an earlier mythology. Particularly the legend of Nimrod (called the Fool) who went to war with the gods and was bound to the sky for his insolence (the constellation called Orion by the Greeks). Amos 5:26 indicates the Hebrews may have worshiped a star god named Kiyyun and another god named Sukkoth (associated with the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles). This seems to be another remnant from nomadic times.
Cherubim
Ezekiel 28:14 speaks of a covering cherub, so perhaps cherubim were originally clouds. This could also explain why Yahweh is said to ride on cherubim which make darkness around him like rain clouds (2 Samuel 22:11-12). Yahweh is described quite explicitly as a storm god later in the chapter. Isaiah 19:1 says Yahweh rides on a swift cloud. The cherubim spread out their wings to keep the Ark of the Covenant and its carrying poles in the shade (1 Kings 8:7). Psalm 91:1-4 tells us whoever dwells in God’s shadow or is covered by his wings is protected.
God appears to the Hebrews as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. (Exodus 13:21, Exodus 14:19-20, 24, Numbers 12:5, Numbers 14:14, Psalm 99:7) Also, the Hebrew name Ananias means Cloud God, indicating the earlier nomadic stage of worship. Clouds are described as “the heights of the sea” in Job. The deification of rain and storm is associated with serpent worship. Later, when sun worship replaces rain worship, the serpent or dragon became the enemy and Observers of Clouds (usually translated sorcerers) are forbidden (Deuteronomy 18:10, Leviticus 19:26).
Storm Monsters
In ancient mythologies all over the world, the sun battles the flying serpent (lightning) and the recumbent or curved serpent (rain), the monsters which want to devour the sun, but the sun shoots them down with his arrows (rays). Storms are said to bite (Job 9:17) using the same word used in Genesis 3:15 describing how the serpent wounds the heels of man. Several sections of the Bible (Isaiah 14:29, Isaiah 27:1, Isaiah 51:9, Isaiah 60:9, Job 26:12-13, Job 40-41, Psalm 74:12-16, Psalm 89:10, Psalm 91:13) mention Yahweh’s battle with serpents and dragons named Leviathan, Tannin, Rahab, and Nehushtan.
These nature based myths become historicized after a while. Yahweh’s fight with Rahab becomes the parting of the Reed Sea in Isaiah 51:9-10. Later, the dragon comes to symbolize hostile nations. Rahab and Tannin (used as a proper name in Job) become sea animals in general (Psalm 74:13), then later become associated with Egypt and Pharaoh (Psalm 87:4, Psalm 68:30, Psalm 89:9-11, Ezekiel 29:3, Ezekiel 32:2).
There’s also the myth that when the sun sets into the ocean or another body of water, the sun has to do battle with a monster waiting to devour him before rising again the next day. The story of Jonah and the fish may be related to this. The name Balaam means the Devourer, i.e., the monster that devours the sun. This later got historicized into the Devourer of the Hebrew people. Personifications of storms are often lame or limping and Balaam was lame according to the Agada. However, the Agada also says Samson was lame, and solar heroes shouldn’t be lame, so Goldziher tells us we can’t always trust the Agada. Goldziher may be falling prey to confirmation bias here.
The name of Jacob’s son Levi is related to Leviathan the same way the serpent name nachash is related to Nechushtan, the brazen serpent mentioned in 2 Kings 18:4 and Numbers 21:9. Hence, Levi could represent the storm serpent which devours the sun. See the description of the battle between the sun horse and the rain serpent in Genesis 49:17. This is about Dan, however since Dan is a solar figure, Goldziher thinks this section probably belonged to Levi originally.
Levi (along with Simeon) is the slayer of the solar characters Chamor and Shekem. In Genesis 34, Jacob’s daughter Dinah (the Sun) is raped (snatched up) by Shechem (the Dawn) son of Chamor (the red, indicating sun, although the name could also refer to the ass). Shechem (the Dusk) is then murdered by Jacob’s sons (the night sky). It is said that Levi and Simeon sometimes “destroy the bull” for amusement (Genesis 49:6). The bull is a solar animal due to its horns, so Levi destroying it indicates his storm serpent character. Levities were called the Sons of the Serpent and attacked their compatriots when they attempted to introduce solar worship in the form of the Golden Calf.
Sun vs. Moon
Goldziher thinks several stories in the Bible were originally about battles between the Sun and Night/Storms. The Akedah narrative may have originally involved Abraham who represents night killing his son Isaac who represents the sun. We see the same thing with Jephthah sacrificing his daughter and Lamech killing his child (unnamed, but probably Jabal), except in their case, it’s the sun killing the night.
Goldziher points out that Genesis 22 seems to have vestiges of polytheism. The god Elohim commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but Abraham is prevented from carrying this out by an angel of Yahweh. Deuteronomony 12:31 also tells us Elohim demanded human sacrifices, while Yahweh preferred animal sacrifices: “Thou shalt not do so unto Yahweh thy God; for every abomination of Yahweh which he hateth have they done unto their Elohim; for even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their Elohim.” Passages like these point to an earlier time when Elohim and Yahweh were two separate gods rather than two different names for the same god. (As an aside, in Mexico, it’s Quetzalcoatl who commands that animal sacrifice take the place of human sacrifice.)
Moses
The passage of Moses and his people through sea by night derives from the idea that the setting sun travels all night through the sea and then rises again on the opposite side of the world. Moses, like other solar heroes (Perseus and heroes from German legend), is put into a chest and placed on the water immediately after birth. Moses sees a burning bush which does not burn away similar to the grove of Feronia. The staff Moses uses to perform miracles is similar to the pramantha (the twirling stick used to make fire). Like Dionysos, Moses strikes fountains of water out of the rock. Like the sun, Moses is said to have a beaming countenance (Exodus 34:29-35).
Interestingly, the name of Moses is rarely mentioned in the writings of the prophets, although the delivery from Egypt is, indicating they may not have known the name of Moses. “By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.” (Hosea 12:13)
Goliath
Targums are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic including additional commentary. According to a targum on 1 Samuel 17, Samson is the father of Goliath. David may have originally been a sun god since he is described as a reddish hero with a fine face and he defeats Goliath by throwing stones. So Goliath may have originally represented the monster that embodies storms or night and it makes sense for him to be the child of the sun god Samson, since sun gods are often said to be the father or mother of night.
Elijah
Another feature associated with solar figures is ascending to heaven rather than dying. Enoch ascends to heaven as well as Elijah who ascends in a chariot of fire with horses of fire. Fiery, rapid horses are attributed to the Sun in various myths around the world (also see 2 Kings 23:11).
In addition, Elijah is said to be a hairy man and the sun’s rays are often referred to as hair. Sun gods are often depicted with long hair and/or beards. Samson is another example. Unlike the lunar figure Joseph who brings rain, Elijah curses the land with a drought (1 Kings 17:1).
Jacob
Esau (Day) is another hairy figure (Genesis 27:11), who is born with his twin Jacob (Night) grasping his heel (Genesis 25:26). As we’ve by now come to expect of lunar figures, Jacob is a herdsman. Esau however is a hunter rather than an agriculturalist as we’ve come to expect from solar figures. This is because the Sun is a hunter, shooting out his arrows (rays) as he does battle with darkness and storm clouds. In the Agada, Nimrod, who contends against Abraham the same way Esau contends against Jacob, is also a hunter (Genesis 10:9). We know Nimrod is a solar god since he is ministered to by 365 kings, the number of days in a solar year. (Enoch is also a solar figure since the Bible tells us he lived 365 years.) Yahweh shoots arrows in Habakkuk 3:11. Although, arrows can also represent lightning (Psalm 18:14).
In Genesis 32:24-26, Jacob (night) wrestles with a man (dawn) who dislocates his thigh-socket. Jacob lets him go at daybreak, so dawn can rise into the sky. Jacob is left with a limp (Genesis 32:31) because night figures are often portrayed as limping in mythology, probably to distinguish night from the rapid chariots of day.
In ancient times, the sun was said to be both red and white since it appears to be different colors when rising and setting than during the middle of the day. Hence, the solar figure Esau is said to be red, as well as the solar figure David (1 Samuel 16:12). The lunar figure Jacob cheats his brother out of his birthright and cheats Laban (the white) out of his sheep. He also steals Laban’s heart while his wife Rachel steals Laban’s household gods (Genesis 31:19-20) Night figures are credited elsewhere with a thievish nature since night steals away the stars before the sun rises. Night is also said to steal the sun itself from the sky. The name Jacob is derived from a word meaning heel, but is also related to a word meaning to cheat.
Jacob has twelve sons, like other fathers in Biblical genealogies (Joktan, Nahor, and Ishmael). This is seen in other parts of the world as well. In Ojibwa legend from Native America, Getube has twelve children to correspond to the twelve signs of the zodiac.
Hebrew women at one time worshiped the moon who they called the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 7:18, 44:16-19). Mount Sinai’s name also seems to be related to the moon. The moon was associated with fertility and the growth of plants. Abraham’s legitimate wife Sarah was associated with night as opposed to his concubines. Similarly, Jacob’s legitimate wives Leah and Rachel have names that relate to the night in opposition to his concubines. Leah is related to Delila, a name which means languishing, weary, weak, which relates to the setting sun that has finished its day’s work or the time when night has cut off the sun’s hair and leaves him blind. “The eyes of Leah were weak” (Genesis 29:17) Midrash Shocher Tov on Psalm 19:7 describes the sun as a hero who goes out strong and returns home powerless.
Rachel is associated with clouds, and in fact Hebrews refer to rain as Rachel weeping for her children. (Jeremiah 31:15, Matthew 2:18). Rachel’s favorite son is Joseph (the multiplier) who is described as “the blessing of the heaven above, the blessing of the flood that lies below, the blessing of the breasts and womb” (Genesis 49:25). This describes rain, which is milked from the clouds above to flood the ground below.
Myths refer to the rays of the sun and the moon as milk and honey (regarding the moon as a bee and the sun as a cow). Hence the Promised Land is called the land of milk and honey (see also Satapatha Brahmana XI.5.6.4).
Joseph
The night is said to have cloak to cover the sun. Joseph loses his cloak when Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him. (Genesis 39:12). She is unnamed in the Bible, but called Zalicha or Zuleika (the swift marching, a solar figure) in tradition. Thus the sun steals the cloak of night giving way to day.
Joseph, as a lunar figure, is also persecuted by his brothers who have arrows (sun rays) thus making them solar figures. The enmity between Joseph and his brothers later symbolized the enmity between the northern and southern Hebrew kingdoms.
The rainbow is described as the bow of god (Genesis 9:13). Of Joseph it is said “his bow abode in strength” (Genesis 49:24) which means after the storm god Joseph was driven from the sky by the sun’s arrows, he fixed his bow in the sky to be ready for a future fight.
Samson
Samson (Shimshon) is derived from shemesh, the Hebrew word for Sun. Like Samuel before him, it is said no razor came upon Samson’s head. Samson, therefor, was originally a sun god and his adventures in the Bible are allegories for the Sun’s battles against darkness and storms.
The Assyrians and Lydians worshiped a sun god named Sandan or Sandon who was famous for killing a lion. The lion was a symbol for summer due to its fiery color and hairy mane which resembled the sun’s rays in the ancient mind. The constellation Leo was in the sun during the dog days of summer along with Orion, the huntsman and Sirius (Hairy in Arabic.)
Therefore, when Samson kills the lion in the Bible, it’s a metaphor for the end of summer. His riddle involving a bee hive being built inside the carcass of the lion (a place bees would never build a hive in reality) indicates bees are most abundant when the sun is in Leo, thus the sweet honey comes from the strong eater.
The Phoenicians, Assyrians, and Lydians attributed suicide to their Sun god, for that was the only explanation they could conceive for the mitigation of the sun’s heat during the end of summer. Since the forces of nature are both helpful and hurtful to man, the gods embodying nature must therefore work against themselves. However, out of this death, the sun god is reborn like the Phoenix. Herakles, also famous for killing a lion, burns himself but rises out of the flames to Olympus. Like Herakles who killed the Nemean lion with his bare hands, Samson likewise kills his lion with his bare hands.
Foxes, like the lion, also represent solar heat due to its color and its long-haired tail. At the festival of Ceres in Rome, a fox-hunt through the Circus was held in which burning torches were bound to the foxes’ tails, a symbolic reminder of the damage done to their crops by the mildew robigo (red fox). Samson likewise sends foxes into the Philistines’s fields with firebrands fastened to their tails. Later, Samson defeats the Philistines, then runs away and hides in a cave. Why would he flee after achieving a victory? Apparently sun gods often flee after victory.
When Samson kills several Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, he does it in a specific place, a district between the Philistine and Israelite territories called Jawbone due to the shape of the mountains which looks like a jawbone with teeth, possibly with a spring coming out of it. In other mythologies, the head of an ass or horse denotes a storm cloud, and a tooth or boar’s tusk represents lightning. The jawbone of the ass could therefore represent lightning as well.
Since Samson’s hair represents the growth of nature during summer, the cutting of his hair represents autumn or winter. Like Orion, Samson is also blinded, representing the sun losing its power. Like other sun gods, Samson is bound. And like the Phoenician Herakles who died at the winter solstice where his two pillars are set up to mark the end of his wanderings, Samson also dies at two pillars. (The pillars of heaven described in Job are not mountains, but like the Pillars of Hercules which hold up the world.)
Conclusion
In the end, Goldziher (and Steinthal in his appendix on Samson) present an interesting theory, but it's ultimately speculative. Just because a sun god in another myth does something similar to Moses doesn't prove he was originally a sun god. Also, just because one of the possible meanings of someone's name is related to night doesn't prove they're a moon god. The case for Samson being a sun god seems to be the strongest, although even with him you have to ignore the fact he has a limp.
Ignac Goldziher attempts to uncover the earliest version of the Hebrew myths using comparative mythology and philology, although he seems to stray into the realm of parellelomania at times. He pronounces various figures in the Bible to be either sun gods or moon gods, sometimes based solely on the speculative etymology of their names. Confirmation bias seems to play a role as well, since anything he finds that doesn’t agree with his theory can simply be chalked up to a change made at a later period.
The Kindle version is a scan, so the text is jumbled and difficult to read. Interesting to learn some things about the ancient world. For example, ancient Arabs would light a fire when they began a war to serve as a beacon for those eager for the fight. Due to the fact that fire was produced by rubbing a boring stick in a hole, the act of copulation was viewed by ancient cultures as producing fire.
I was interested to learn that when Joshua commands the sun to stand still so he can continue slaughtering his enemies (Joshua 10:12-13), there is a parallel in Homer in which Agamemnon implores Zeus not to let the sun go down for the same reason (Iliad, Book 2, line 412). While this is interesting, I don’t think it tells us much. This could mean one source borrowed from another or both derived from an earlier source, but I think it is most likely a coincidence.
Nomads vs. Agriculturalists
According to Goldziher, mythology first arises as an explanation of nature and changes along with civilization. The chief plots of all myths involve either fights or incest between relatives, since the sun, moon, and stars were all thought to be related to each other. Nomads revere nights and clouds which shield them from the scorching heat of day, so for them solar gods are evil. Nomads often traveled in the afternoon or during the night. Ancient Arabs couldn’t bear to see the graves of their friends scorched by the sun’s heat, thus in old Arabian poetry, “Drench, O clouds, the earth of that grave!” is a recurring formula. They also think in terms of night. A journey took eight nights, rather than eight days. This lives on in the English expression “fortnight”.
Agriculturalists, on the other hand, value the sun which sustains their crops. For them, gods which embody night and heavy storms which ruin their crops are the evil gods. Eventually, multiple gods get combined into a singular deity and gods from an earlier age are turned into historical figures. Isaiah 63:16 may indicate Abraham and Jacob were considered gods before they became historical founders. As mythology became historicized, place names and time periods were attached to give the stories a sense of completeness.
Both the nomadic and agricultural stages of worship are present in different parts of the Bible. In the Garden of Eden story, agriculture is viewed as a punishment. (There’s a related East African Calabar legend in which the first humans are forbidden agriculture and propagation by the Calabar god Abasi. When the woman is tempted by a female friend into using implements of tillage, they fall.) Nomadic shepherds such as Abel, Jacob, Moses, and David are good guys, while the agriculturalist Cain is a bad guy, indicating this story comes from the nomadic period.
The battle between day and night is often depicted as a battle between brothers such as Cain (Sun) and Able (Night). Jabal, another Able, is described as the father of those that dwell in tents and with cattle (Genesis 4:20), even though Able did this already (Genesis 4:2). Jabal’s brother Tubal-cain is a duplicate of Cain. Cain, like many solar heroes, built the first city. (Enoch, another solar figure, is also connected with city building.) The fact Cain is described as a fugitive and vagabond, also connects him with the sun which is said to live a life of unrest and motion, wondering from place to place. In the Agada, it is speculated that the mark of Cain could be the brightening of the sun, or a horn, among other things. Sun’s rays are mythically called horns sometimes.
The names of constellations in Job 38:31-32 implies an earlier mythology. Particularly the legend of Nimrod (called the Fool) who went to war with the gods and was bound to the sky for his insolence (the constellation called Orion by the Greeks). Amos 5:26 indicates the Hebrews may have worshiped a star god named Kiyyun and another god named Sukkoth (associated with the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles). This seems to be another remnant from nomadic times.
Cherubim
Ezekiel 28:14 speaks of a covering cherub, so perhaps cherubim were originally clouds. This could also explain why Yahweh is said to ride on cherubim which make darkness around him like rain clouds (2 Samuel 22:11-12). Yahweh is described quite explicitly as a storm god later in the chapter. Isaiah 19:1 says Yahweh rides on a swift cloud. The cherubim spread out their wings to keep the Ark of the Covenant and its carrying poles in the shade (1 Kings 8:7). Psalm 91:1-4 tells us whoever dwells in God’s shadow or is covered by his wings is protected.
God appears to the Hebrews as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. (Exodus 13:21, Exodus 14:19-20, 24, Numbers 12:5, Numbers 14:14, Psalm 99:7) Also, the Hebrew name Ananias means Cloud God, indicating the earlier nomadic stage of worship. Clouds are described as “the heights of the sea” in Job. The deification of rain and storm is associated with serpent worship. Later, when sun worship replaces rain worship, the serpent or dragon became the enemy and Observers of Clouds (usually translated sorcerers) are forbidden (Deuteronomy 18:10, Leviticus 19:26).
Storm Monsters
In ancient mythologies all over the world, the sun battles the flying serpent (lightning) and the recumbent or curved serpent (rain), the monsters which want to devour the sun, but the sun shoots them down with his arrows (rays). Storms are said to bite (Job 9:17) using the same word used in Genesis 3:15 describing how the serpent wounds the heels of man. Several sections of the Bible (Isaiah 14:29, Isaiah 27:1, Isaiah 51:9, Isaiah 60:9, Job 26:12-13, Job 40-41, Psalm 74:12-16, Psalm 89:10, Psalm 91:13) mention Yahweh’s battle with serpents and dragons named Leviathan, Tannin, Rahab, and Nehushtan.
These nature based myths become historicized after a while. Yahweh’s fight with Rahab becomes the parting of the Reed Sea in Isaiah 51:9-10. Later, the dragon comes to symbolize hostile nations. Rahab and Tannin (used as a proper name in Job) become sea animals in general (Psalm 74:13), then later become associated with Egypt and Pharaoh (Psalm 87:4, Psalm 68:30, Psalm 89:9-11, Ezekiel 29:3, Ezekiel 32:2).
There’s also the myth that when the sun sets into the ocean or another body of water, the sun has to do battle with a monster waiting to devour him before rising again the next day. The story of Jonah and the fish may be related to this. The name Balaam means the Devourer, i.e., the monster that devours the sun. This later got historicized into the Devourer of the Hebrew people. Personifications of storms are often lame or limping and Balaam was lame according to the Agada. However, the Agada also says Samson was lame, and solar heroes shouldn’t be lame, so Goldziher tells us we can’t always trust the Agada. Goldziher may be falling prey to confirmation bias here.
The name of Jacob’s son Levi is related to Leviathan the same way the serpent name nachash is related to Nechushtan, the brazen serpent mentioned in 2 Kings 18:4 and Numbers 21:9. Hence, Levi could represent the storm serpent which devours the sun. See the description of the battle between the sun horse and the rain serpent in Genesis 49:17. This is about Dan, however since Dan is a solar figure, Goldziher thinks this section probably belonged to Levi originally.
Levi (along with Simeon) is the slayer of the solar characters Chamor and Shekem. In Genesis 34, Jacob’s daughter Dinah (the Sun) is raped (snatched up) by Shechem (the Dawn) son of Chamor (the red, indicating sun, although the name could also refer to the ass). Shechem (the Dusk) is then murdered by Jacob’s sons (the night sky). It is said that Levi and Simeon sometimes “destroy the bull” for amusement (Genesis 49:6). The bull is a solar animal due to its horns, so Levi destroying it indicates his storm serpent character. Levities were called the Sons of the Serpent and attacked their compatriots when they attempted to introduce solar worship in the form of the Golden Calf.
Sun vs. Moon
Goldziher thinks several stories in the Bible were originally about battles between the Sun and Night/Storms. The Akedah narrative may have originally involved Abraham who represents night killing his son Isaac who represents the sun. We see the same thing with Jephthah sacrificing his daughter and Lamech killing his child (unnamed, but probably Jabal), except in their case, it’s the sun killing the night.
Goldziher points out that Genesis 22 seems to have vestiges of polytheism. The god Elohim commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but Abraham is prevented from carrying this out by an angel of Yahweh. Deuteronomony 12:31 also tells us Elohim demanded human sacrifices, while Yahweh preferred animal sacrifices: “Thou shalt not do so unto Yahweh thy God; for every abomination of Yahweh which he hateth have they done unto their Elohim; for even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their Elohim.” Passages like these point to an earlier time when Elohim and Yahweh were two separate gods rather than two different names for the same god. (As an aside, in Mexico, it’s Quetzalcoatl who commands that animal sacrifice take the place of human sacrifice.)
Moses
The passage of Moses and his people through sea by night derives from the idea that the setting sun travels all night through the sea and then rises again on the opposite side of the world. Moses, like other solar heroes (Perseus and heroes from German legend), is put into a chest and placed on the water immediately after birth. Moses sees a burning bush which does not burn away similar to the grove of Feronia. The staff Moses uses to perform miracles is similar to the pramantha (the twirling stick used to make fire). Like Dionysos, Moses strikes fountains of water out of the rock. Like the sun, Moses is said to have a beaming countenance (Exodus 34:29-35).
Interestingly, the name of Moses is rarely mentioned in the writings of the prophets, although the delivery from Egypt is, indicating they may not have known the name of Moses. “By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.” (Hosea 12:13)
Goliath
Targums are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic including additional commentary. According to a targum on 1 Samuel 17, Samson is the father of Goliath. David may have originally been a sun god since he is described as a reddish hero with a fine face and he defeats Goliath by throwing stones. So Goliath may have originally represented the monster that embodies storms or night and it makes sense for him to be the child of the sun god Samson, since sun gods are often said to be the father or mother of night.
Elijah
Another feature associated with solar figures is ascending to heaven rather than dying. Enoch ascends to heaven as well as Elijah who ascends in a chariot of fire with horses of fire. Fiery, rapid horses are attributed to the Sun in various myths around the world (also see 2 Kings 23:11).
In addition, Elijah is said to be a hairy man and the sun’s rays are often referred to as hair. Sun gods are often depicted with long hair and/or beards. Samson is another example. Unlike the lunar figure Joseph who brings rain, Elijah curses the land with a drought (1 Kings 17:1).
Jacob
Esau (Day) is another hairy figure (Genesis 27:11), who is born with his twin Jacob (Night) grasping his heel (Genesis 25:26). As we’ve by now come to expect of lunar figures, Jacob is a herdsman. Esau however is a hunter rather than an agriculturalist as we’ve come to expect from solar figures. This is because the Sun is a hunter, shooting out his arrows (rays) as he does battle with darkness and storm clouds. In the Agada, Nimrod, who contends against Abraham the same way Esau contends against Jacob, is also a hunter (Genesis 10:9). We know Nimrod is a solar god since he is ministered to by 365 kings, the number of days in a solar year. (Enoch is also a solar figure since the Bible tells us he lived 365 years.) Yahweh shoots arrows in Habakkuk 3:11. Although, arrows can also represent lightning (Psalm 18:14).
In Genesis 32:24-26, Jacob (night) wrestles with a man (dawn) who dislocates his thigh-socket. Jacob lets him go at daybreak, so dawn can rise into the sky. Jacob is left with a limp (Genesis 32:31) because night figures are often portrayed as limping in mythology, probably to distinguish night from the rapid chariots of day.
In ancient times, the sun was said to be both red and white since it appears to be different colors when rising and setting than during the middle of the day. Hence, the solar figure Esau is said to be red, as well as the solar figure David (1 Samuel 16:12). The lunar figure Jacob cheats his brother out of his birthright and cheats Laban (the white) out of his sheep. He also steals Laban’s heart while his wife Rachel steals Laban’s household gods (Genesis 31:19-20) Night figures are credited elsewhere with a thievish nature since night steals away the stars before the sun rises. Night is also said to steal the sun itself from the sky. The name Jacob is derived from a word meaning heel, but is also related to a word meaning to cheat.
Jacob has twelve sons, like other fathers in Biblical genealogies (Joktan, Nahor, and Ishmael). This is seen in other parts of the world as well. In Ojibwa legend from Native America, Getube has twelve children to correspond to the twelve signs of the zodiac.
Hebrew women at one time worshiped the moon who they called the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 7:18, 44:16-19). Mount Sinai’s name also seems to be related to the moon. The moon was associated with fertility and the growth of plants. Abraham’s legitimate wife Sarah was associated with night as opposed to his concubines. Similarly, Jacob’s legitimate wives Leah and Rachel have names that relate to the night in opposition to his concubines. Leah is related to Delila, a name which means languishing, weary, weak, which relates to the setting sun that has finished its day’s work or the time when night has cut off the sun’s hair and leaves him blind. “The eyes of Leah were weak” (Genesis 29:17) Midrash Shocher Tov on Psalm 19:7 describes the sun as a hero who goes out strong and returns home powerless.
Rachel is associated with clouds, and in fact Hebrews refer to rain as Rachel weeping for her children. (Jeremiah 31:15, Matthew 2:18). Rachel’s favorite son is Joseph (the multiplier) who is described as “the blessing of the heaven above, the blessing of the flood that lies below, the blessing of the breasts and womb” (Genesis 49:25). This describes rain, which is milked from the clouds above to flood the ground below.
Myths refer to the rays of the sun and the moon as milk and honey (regarding the moon as a bee and the sun as a cow). Hence the Promised Land is called the land of milk and honey (see also Satapatha Brahmana XI.5.6.4).
Joseph
The night is said to have cloak to cover the sun. Joseph loses his cloak when Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him. (Genesis 39:12). She is unnamed in the Bible, but called Zalicha or Zuleika (the swift marching, a solar figure) in tradition. Thus the sun steals the cloak of night giving way to day.
Joseph, as a lunar figure, is also persecuted by his brothers who have arrows (sun rays) thus making them solar figures. The enmity between Joseph and his brothers later symbolized the enmity between the northern and southern Hebrew kingdoms.
The rainbow is described as the bow of god (Genesis 9:13). Of Joseph it is said “his bow abode in strength” (Genesis 49:24) which means after the storm god Joseph was driven from the sky by the sun’s arrows, he fixed his bow in the sky to be ready for a future fight.
Samson
Samson (Shimshon) is derived from shemesh, the Hebrew word for Sun. Like Samuel before him, it is said no razor came upon Samson’s head. Samson, therefor, was originally a sun god and his adventures in the Bible are allegories for the Sun’s battles against darkness and storms.
The Assyrians and Lydians worshiped a sun god named Sandan or Sandon who was famous for killing a lion. The lion was a symbol for summer due to its fiery color and hairy mane which resembled the sun’s rays in the ancient mind. The constellation Leo was in the sun during the dog days of summer along with Orion, the huntsman and Sirius (Hairy in Arabic.)
Therefore, when Samson kills the lion in the Bible, it’s a metaphor for the end of summer. His riddle involving a bee hive being built inside the carcass of the lion (a place bees would never build a hive in reality) indicates bees are most abundant when the sun is in Leo, thus the sweet honey comes from the strong eater.
The Phoenicians, Assyrians, and Lydians attributed suicide to their Sun god, for that was the only explanation they could conceive for the mitigation of the sun’s heat during the end of summer. Since the forces of nature are both helpful and hurtful to man, the gods embodying nature must therefore work against themselves. However, out of this death, the sun god is reborn like the Phoenix. Herakles, also famous for killing a lion, burns himself but rises out of the flames to Olympus. Like Herakles who killed the Nemean lion with his bare hands, Samson likewise kills his lion with his bare hands.
Foxes, like the lion, also represent solar heat due to its color and its long-haired tail. At the festival of Ceres in Rome, a fox-hunt through the Circus was held in which burning torches were bound to the foxes’ tails, a symbolic reminder of the damage done to their crops by the mildew robigo (red fox). Samson likewise sends foxes into the Philistines’s fields with firebrands fastened to their tails. Later, Samson defeats the Philistines, then runs away and hides in a cave. Why would he flee after achieving a victory? Apparently sun gods often flee after victory.
When Samson kills several Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, he does it in a specific place, a district between the Philistine and Israelite territories called Jawbone due to the shape of the mountains which looks like a jawbone with teeth, possibly with a spring coming out of it. In other mythologies, the head of an ass or horse denotes a storm cloud, and a tooth or boar’s tusk represents lightning. The jawbone of the ass could therefore represent lightning as well.
Since Samson’s hair represents the growth of nature during summer, the cutting of his hair represents autumn or winter. Like Orion, Samson is also blinded, representing the sun losing its power. Like other sun gods, Samson is bound. And like the Phoenician Herakles who died at the winter solstice where his two pillars are set up to mark the end of his wanderings, Samson also dies at two pillars. (The pillars of heaven described in Job are not mountains, but like the Pillars of Hercules which hold up the world.)
Conclusion
In the end, Goldziher (and Steinthal in his appendix on Samson) present an interesting theory, but it's ultimately speculative. Just because a sun god in another myth does something similar to Moses doesn't prove he was originally a sun god. Also, just because one of the possible meanings of someone's name is related to night doesn't prove they're a moon god. The case for Samson being a sun god seems to be the strongest, although even with him you have to ignore the fact he has a limp.
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