By James Linville
Destroyed and abandoned in a war after some 4,000 years of occupation, Ugarit in northern Syria (a few kilometres north of Latakia) was abandoned around 1190 BCE. The so-called “Sea Peoples” were moving into what are now Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Egypt. This was a factor in the “Bronze Age Collapse” in which many urban civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean failed because of environmental, economic and political catastrophes. 
Many clay tablets were discovered at Ugarit and these caused a major stir among archeologists and biblical scholars. Previously, little was known about the “Canaanite” god Baal, except that the Bible bans his worship. With the Ugaritic discoveries, one could read what believers, and not just detractors, thought of this god and the rest of the Canaanite pantheon.
Head of the pantheon was El, whose name simply means “god” and was imagined as a powerful bull. The myths portray him enjoying a quiet retirement while still making some executive decisions and, in one text, getting very drunk.
The most important texts concern the weather or storm god, Baal (“Master” or “Lord”). He fights to be the active principle and power in the universe. Sadly, the tablets are badly damaged and it is not clear in what order they should be read. One myth has Baal, the “Rider of the Clouds,” fight Yamm (“Sea”), also called Judge Nahar (“River”). With his victory, Baal is enthroned and establishes the proper cycles of rain and sets boundaries for the sea and rivers. In another cycle, Baal is swallowed by Mot (“Death”) only to be revived to assume his throne. This myth has many agricultural associations.
The Ugaritic language and literary styles are similar to the Hebrew in the younger biblical texts. Ugaritic descriptions of Baal and El share some common elements with the Bible’s descriptions of the Israelite god, often called Elohim, a longer form of El. The divine courtiers in Ugaritic El’s palace are called “Sons of El,” while the biblical deity is attended to by “Sons of Elohim” in the book of Job. The ancient Israelite deity, also called Yahweh, was himself a storm god like Baal. The prophet Hosea casts the two deities as rivals and complains that Yahweh’s people have falsely credited Baal with Yahweh’s provision of the Earth’s bounty. Although El and Baal were distinct deities in the Ugaritic pantheon, some biblical passages, such as Psalm 118:27, stress that Yahweh and Elohim (El) were one and the same. In one Psalm, Yahweh stands out among the heavenly “sons of gods” (pl. of el) and the Holy Ones. He controls the sea (Heb. yamm) and defeats chaos serpents. King David is then given a seemingly godly dominion. Yahweh says, “I will set his hand also on the sea (yam), and his right hand on the rivers (pl. of nahar)” (Ps. 89:25). Yahweh has crushed the many heads of the aquatic serpent Leviathan according to Psalm 74:13-14. Isaiah 27:1 has the defeat of the twisting serpent still in the future. Hundreds of years before any of these biblical passages were written, however, an Ugaritic text recalled Baal’s defeat of Lotan, a wriggling, seven-headed serpent associated with Yamm.
While the beliefs of the people of Ugarit and the Bible’s writers seem at times diametrically opposed, they both shared a common cultural and literary heritage and many similar conceptions of the divine.
Those who are interested in learning more about this are warmly invited to hear Prof. Pierre Bordreuil speak on “Ugarit and the Bible: some Literary Parallels” at 1:40 p.m., Tuesday at Room PE-264 (Health and Wellness Centre). Prof. Bordreuil is a world-renowned expert on Ugarit, and is Emeritus Director/Chair of Centre national de la recherche scientifique/École des langues et civilizations orientales in Paris.
James Linville is in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Lethbridge.