Did the ancient Canaanites really sacrifice their babies like the Old Testament says they did?

by [deleted]

As an amateur student of history, something I’ve discovered is that claims like “OUR ENEMIES LITERALLY BURN BABIES ALIVE AND WORSHIP SATAN” are usually not true, or at least based on heavy exaggeration or cultural misunderstanding. How common was infant sacrifice in the Levant during this period?

I’ve marked NSFW just to be safe since infant death is a pretty horrible subject

Giladel

Since your question refers to both the Canaanites as a people and the region of the Levant, I’ll qualify my answer as pertaining to Canaanite religion in general. References to infant sacrifice as a Canaanite religious practice are mainly limited to writings by followers of other religions: you mentioned the Old Testament, where Jeremiah berates the Judeans for following the Canaanite practice of burning their children; another major source for this practice are the Romans and Greeks, who describe child sacrifices carried out by Phoenicians following the Canaanite religion. An eighth-century BCE Phoenician inscription from Cilicia also contains advice by a Canaanite priest from Tyre, encouraging the local ruler to sacrifice a lamb and his son or grandson to alleviate a plague ravaging the area. However, this may be a ‘one-off’ breaking of norms, similar to human sacrifice practiced by the Romans in the wake of their defeat at Cannae which contemporary authors claim went against their habits.

The archaeological record also presents information on child sacrifice in the form of Tophets: sacred burial places found in Phoenician sites named after the Biblical Tophet near Jerusalem where the Judeans practiced child sacrifice. Tens of thousands of urns, mainly containing cremated remains of small children, are buried in these Tophets. So far, all Tophets have been found in North Africa, Sardinia and Sicily, possibly indicating that Tophets were limited to Phoenician colonies instead of Canaan itself; at the same time, the Tophet at Carthage dates to the period immediately following the foundation of the city which makes it likely that the colonists took Tophets and associated practices with them from Canaan. In any case, the Phoenician colonists still practiced the Canaanite religion.

Two rough views on Tophets exist. First, the high rate of infant mortality in antiquity combined with the high percentage of Tophet remains belonging to newborn or premature infants have led some scholars to postulate that the Tophets were a burial place for infants who died of natural causes. Since the gods had ‘recalled’ these children, the parents gave their bodies back to the gods and asked for a replacement in the funeral stela. However, most of the stelae placed above the remains of children in Tophets refer to vows made to the gods instead of requests for replacements. This indicates that the offerings were made in fulfilment of these vows. Moreover, in addition to infant remains, Tophets also contain cremated remains of animals. This clashes with the notion that Tophets were burial places for children who died of natural causes, and instead indicates that animals were used as substitutes for children (mirroring the story of Abraham who sacrifices a ram in his son’s stead).

The currently available evidence leaves us with arguments for and against the notion that child sacrifice was a common practice within Canaanite religion. However, the fact that multiple neighbouring peoples have referenced Canaanite child sacrifice independently combined with the reference to child sacrifice by a Canaanite priest and the indications that Tophets were sacred burial places for sacrificed children seems to point towards the existence of child sacrifice as an accepted part of the Canaanite religion.

Main source: Stiebing, William H., Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture. Routledge, 2017

Chris_Hansen97

The answer is yes, and we have wide documentation of this as an event, and we even have records of this from Phoenicians themselves. Philo of Byblos, a Phoenician author, wrote:

Kleitarchos provides a clear piece of evidence that seems to indicate that the Phoenicians (Canaanites) would sacrifice children. Following Dewrell’s translation of the fragments (137 F 9):

And Kleitarchos says the Phoenicians, and above all the Carthaginians, venerating Kronos, whenever they were eager for a great thing to succeed, made a vow by one of their children. If they would receive the desired things, they would sacrifice it to the god. A bronze Kronos, having been erected by them, stretched out upturned hands over a bronze oven to burn the child. The flame of the burning child reached its body until, the limbs having shriveled up and the smiling mouth appearing to be almost laughing, it would slip into the oven. Therefore the grin is called “sardonic laughter,” since they die laughing.

Philo of Byblos writes (fragment in Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica 1.10.44=4.16.11):

Among ancient peoples in critically dangerous situations it was customary for the rulers of a city or nation, rather than lose everyone, to provide the dearest of their children as a propitiatory sacrifice to the avenging deities. The children thus given up were slaughtered according to a secret ritual. Now Kronos, whom the Phoenicians call El, who was in their land and who was later divinized after his death as the star of Kronos, had an only son by a local bride named Anobret, and therefore they called him Ieoud. Even now among the Phoenicians the only son is given this name. When war’s gravest dangers gripped the land, Kronos dressed his son in royal attire, prepared an altar and sacrificed him.

Porphyry also attests to this, on Philo’s authority:

The Phoenicians too, in great disasters whether of wars or droughts, or plagues, used to sacrifice one of their dearest, dedicating him to Kronos. And the ‘Phoenician History,’ which Sanchuniathon wrote in Phoenician and which Philo of Byblos translated into Greek in eight books, is full of such sacrifices.

2 Kings 3:26-27 attests to the sacrifice of sons:

When the king of Moab saw that the battle had gone against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they failed. Then he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. The fury against Israel was great; they withdrew and returned to their own land.

Ngaous I reads:

That it may made good, favorable, and happyTo the holy lord SaturnA great nocturnal offering—a morchormorBecause of a vow of Aquilius Victor and Aelia Ruffina his wifefor procuring a son,a gift they willingly offer—a lamb as a substitute.

RES 339 (Constantine, Algeria) reads:

To the Lord, to Ba‘l Hammon, a mlk’dm, the vow which Ba‘l-Pado’son of Magon vowed. He heard his voice;he blessed him.

Here a mlk'dm is a human sacrifice, which we know from Ngaous III, CIS 1 307 and JA 11:10, 49-50 because they have mlk'mr, a sheep sacrifice, thus, a mlk is a type of sacrifice and 'dm and 'mr specify what it contained.

RES 334 (Constantine, Algeria)

To the lord, to Ba'l Hammon, and to the Lady to Tanit, the Face of Ba'l,an oath which Hamilkat son of Bo-'Astart,son of Nabal vowed, a mlk'dm bš'rm btm.For he heard his voice; he blessed him.

Mosca notes that bš'rm btm may indicate the distress under which these sacrifices were made (which parses well with Philo).

KAI 107

(Presented to) the Lord Ba'al-hammon is the vow that Idnibal son of Abdešmun vowed, the molk sacrifice of a person of his own flesh; he heard his voice (and) he blessed him.

Neopun 30 (Constantin, Algeria)

To the holy Lord Ba‘l, in a fortunate day, for a mlk

Stavrakopoulou notes that "Stelae have been found at sites at Carthage, Cirta and Sousse (Roman Hadrumetum) in modem Tunisia, Motya and Lillibeum in Sicily, and Tharros, Sulcis, Monte Sirai and Nora in Sardinia" which all attest to the mlk sacrifice, showing that this was not isolated to Carthage and so is likely something all these Canaanite colonies inherited from their ancestors.

All translations come from below:

Harold Attridge and Robert Oden Jr., Philo of Byblos the Phoenician History: Introduction, Critical Text, Translation, Notes, CBQMS 9 (W. D. C.: Catholic Biblical Association, 1981), 61-63.

Harold Attridge and Robert Oden, De Dea Syria (Scholars Press, 1976), 59

Heath Dewrell, Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2018), 8-16.

Albert Baumgarten, The Phoenician History of Philo of Byblos (Leiden: Brill, 1981), 244-247

Francesca Stavrakopoulou, King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004), 216-217