First, the use of the term
‘share of the inheritance’ (ḥebel naḥălâ) hints at a subordinate status
for Yahweh. Outside of Deuteronomy, this phrase appears in Psa 105:11 and its
parallel in 1 Chron 16:18, where it describes the land of Canaan as the
Israelites’ allotted territory: “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your
share of the inheritance” (lə-kā ʾettēn ʾet-ʾereṣ-kənāʿan ḥebel naḥălatkem).
Significantly, ḥebel naḥălâ in these texts refers to something that a
superior gives to an inferior, rather than something that a person keeps or acquires
for themselves. And while it is risky to generalize from such scant parallels, Yahweh’s
possession of a ḥebel naḥălâ would seem to imply a subordinate status
for Israel’s patron deity. Like the other children of El, he receives his share
of the inheritance from Elyon.
This conclusion receives
support from both the Baal Cycle and the Phoenician History. In the Ugaritic
texts, only the younger, subordinate generation of deities are said to have an
inheritance: in ktu 1.3 iii 30 and iv 20, Baal refers to his clifftop abode, Ṣapunu,
as ‘the mount of my inheritance’ (ǵr . nḥlty), and in ktu 1.3 vi
15–16 (restored in ktu 1.1 iii 1–3) he instructs his messengers to visit
Kothar-wa-Hasis in ‘Memphis, the land of his inheritance’ (ḥkpt / ảrṣ.
nḥlth). The Baal Cycle also refers to Mot’s territory as ‘Phlegm, the land of
his inheritance’ (ḫḫ . ảrṣ / nḥlth) in ktu 1.5 viii 13–14;
1.6 ii 16. The surviving Ugaritic texts never say how Baal, Kothar-wa-Hasis, or
Mot acquired these territories, but the later Phoenician History provides a
potential clue. Three passages within this text describe how Kronos—who is
explicitly identified as El in pe 1.10.10, 16, 29—assigned territories to some
of his children: he gives Attica to Athena in pe 1.10.32, Byblos to Baalat /
Dione and Beirut to Poseidon in pe 1.10.35, and Egypt to Taautos in pe 1.10.38.
Based on these parallels, I hypothesize that Baal, Kothar-wa-Hasis, and Mot
received their territories from El (who is characterized as the father of both
Baal and Mot). (Aren M. Wilson-Wright, “Yahweh’s Kin: A Comparative Linguistics
and Mythological Analysis of ‘The Children of God’ in the Hebrew Bible,” in Where
Is the Way to the Dwelling of Light? Studies in Genesis, Job and Linguistics in
Honor of Ellen van Wolde, ed. Pierre Van Hecke and Hanneke van Lon [Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 2023], 56-57)
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