Child Sacrifices

[Rameses the Great]

I know there are theories as to if the Carthaginians did use tiphot rites but was this not brought over from its homeland Phoenicia? The Bible makes mention of children being sacrificed to the God 'Baalim' if this is so then I'm guessing this was from the Phoenicians and Assyrians. Does anyone have more information on this?

[Pantagathus]

RtG: The Tophet was the actual cemetery. The 'rights' of child sacrifice are what is referred to as the Molk Sacrifice as in the Semitic languages it was written and referred to as MLK.

 

There is plenty of evidence that the practice was common among Semitic people with the Jewish people being of course the main contingent to reject the practice.

 

The interpretation of the practice will probably always be open for rigorous debate. However, it seems as if 2 primary factors played a part:

• The children were perhaps those of important members of the community
  
• The children were perhaps already ill and their life expectancy was not expected to be long anyway (based on analysis of remains in the tophets of Carthage & Motya)
  

In Phoenicia proper Baal would indeed have been the primary deity honored in the sacrifice and in Carthage it would have been Baal or Tanit.

[Rameses the Great]

RtG: The Tophet was the actual cemetery. The 'rights' of child sacrifice are what is referred to as the Molk Sacrifice as in the Semitic languages it was written and referred to as MLK.

 

There is plenty of evidence that the practice was common among Semitic people with the Jewish people being of course the main contingent to reject the practice.

 

The interpretation of the practice will probably always be open for rigorous debate. However, it seems as if 2 primary factors played a part:

• The children were perhaps those of important members of the community
  
• The children were perhaps already ill and their life expectancy was not expected to be long anyway (based on analysis of remains in the tophets of Carthage & Motya)
  

In Phoenicia proper Baal would indeed have been the primary deity honored in the sacrifice and in Carthage it would have been Baal or Tanit.

 

Was this only a Phoenician/Carthaginian practice or were their others in the region who did partake in these events? Whenver it states a chil sacrifice it says 'Baalim' if this is the case it was probably most common among the Phoenicians unless others other than the Phoenicians used Baalim as their God.

 

I'm wandering if there are any Grek or Roman sources.

[Pantagathus]

Was this only a Phoenician/Carthaginian practice or were their others in the region who did partake in these events?

I said in my post that it was a pan-semitic activity...

 

Baal (Northwest Semitic/Phoenician) = Bel (Eastern Semitic/Babylonian) = Bēlu (Akkadian) and it means "Lord" or "Master". Most likely 'he' was the sun or a solar deity. The Babylonian & Assyrian Marduk was also conflated with Bel/Baal.

 

As for a Greco-Roman source I would certainly say check Flavius Josephus first.

[Rameses the Great]

Was this only a Phoenician/Carthaginian practice or were their others in the region who did partake in these events?

I said in my post that it was a pan-semitic activity...

 

Baal (Northwest Semitic/Phoenician) = Bel (Eastern Semitic/Babylonian) = Bēlu (Akkadian) and it means "Lord" or "Master". Most likely 'he' was the sun or a solar deity. The Babylonian & Assyrian Marduk was also conflated with Bel/Baal.

 

As for a Greco-Roman source I would certainly say check Flavius Josephus first.

 

Ok, thanks!