The Contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:19-40) as a Reflection of a Religious-Cultural Threat

Nadav Na'aman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The article suggests that the story of the contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kgs 18:19-40) is a complete literary unit that was written by a single author in the early Persian period and inserted into the deuteronomistic story-cycle of Elijah. The story is entirely legendary and reflects the polemic of a devotee of YHWH against the contemporaneous spread of the Phoenician cult and culture. The attachment of the story to Mount Carmel may reflect the occasion of the establishment of a Tyrian/Sidonian temple on one of the mountain's peaks, but this hypothesis cannot be verified. The story conveys a clear religious message of the absolute power of YHWH and the worthlessness of all other gods - in particular the Phoenician God Ba'al - and of the fallacy of the belief in his divine power.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)85-100
Number of pages16
JournalBiblische Zeitschrift
Volume64
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Keywords

  • Ba'al Shamêm
  • Elijah
  • Melqart
  • Mizpeh Yammim
  • Mount Carmel
  • Sidon
  • Tyre

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