WI: Pan-Canaanism survives

This is probably an obscure title, so I'll have some explaining to do. The Bible records King Solomon - the very same! - as building temples not only to Jehovah but also to the other Canaanite tribal gods Chemosh, Moloch, and apparently Astarte. This was a straightforwardly political move to bring unity to the Canaanite people for whom Jerusalem was a commercial and cultural hub (if not a hegemony). It wasn't until the rule of Josiah, about three centuries later, that these temples were pulled down again.

We can discuss the historicity of Solomon or other Biblical narratives all we like, but these verses show to my satisfaction that there was, at some point in time before the Exile, a real sense of "Pan-Canaanite" religious unity that could be fostered by some and repudiated by others. My question is, what if that remains? What if *Judaism, along with its relatives, doesn't become zealously monotheistic but rather reinforces pre-existing henotheistic tendencies, similar to OTL Hinduism? And could this interpretatio judaica become a popular religious / philosophical concept elsewhere in the world?
 
It will more likely disappear firstly in broad Canaan world, then under Hellinstic monarchies and finally Pax Romana.
Without distinct Judaism Jews would not be able to mantain their distinct ethno-religius identification.
But we will have world without Abrahamic religions.
 
IIRC the Bible also notes Solomon's later years as being highly misguided by his foreign concubines, but as you noted, that's likely because of later evolutions of Judaism. But I don't think it would become a major tendency religiously, let alone anything as important as Judaism OTL. What use do the Phoenician traders have for this religion? They wouldn't be very particular or aggressive about it or else they'd fail, hence you'd get OTL with their relations with the Berbers and various other peoples. In the end, it would probably fade as the area is conquered repeatedly, by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, etc. It would be blended into their own faiths. Odds are the average "pagan" in the heartland of former Carthage (even if they natively spoke Punic) in the 3rd century before Christianity really took root was rather detached from the tradition of their Phoenician ancestors. Even the tradition of Semitic poetry in North Africa found among Punic-speaking North African Roman soldiers in Late Antiquity isn't particularly "pagan".

Overall you'd just have the various forms of Ba'al (honorific for Semitic gods and the generic term passed down to us thanks to Jewish scripture) absorbed into local traditions. Following the Assyrians, Aramaic culture would absorb the local Semitic peoples except those in North Africa (Carthage) so you'd more have the gods of the ancient Syrian peoples after that except in Carthage.

If you mean to compare Canaanite deities to other deities, it can certainly be done, but that won't make the Greeks pray to Yahweh or Asherah anymore than they might pray to Tyr or Odin. Odds are that Yahweh would just be another deity in the Mediterranean tradition, compared to other thunder/sky gods, thus compared to Zeus, Jupiter, Taranis, Thor, Perun, Perkunas, and Ukko (i.e. the regional name for that "god" representing that part of the divine). Perhaps a sort of "Euro-Mediterranean" "Hinduism" would evolve based on that.
 
Or do Caananite deities just become archangels / other subordinate enities under Christianity? Friday is fish-fry nite at Saint Dagon Orthodox Church?
 
There's quite a few passages in the Hebrew Bible that imply the existence of other gods. All quotes from the Oxford Annotated Bible.

Deuteronomy 32:8—9 claims that YHWH and El Elyon (God the Most High) are two different gods, and that YHWH received Israel from El Elyon (later versions of the Bible realized this was problematic and edited out the blatant polytheism):

32:8 When the Most High apportioned the nations,
when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the gods;

32:9 YHWH's own portion was his people,
Jacob his allotted share.​


2 Kings 3:26—27 compared with the Mesha Stele implies that Chemosh, "the abominable god of Moab," actually exists and brings "great wrath upon Israel":

3:26 When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through, opposite the king of Edom; but they could not.

3:27 Then he took his firstborn son who was to succeed him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And great wrath came upon Israel, so they withdrew from him and returned to their own land.​
The sacrifice worked! Contextually this "great wrath" seems unlikely to be YHWH's, especially because YHWH makes the erroneous prediction that Israel will conquer Moab in 2 Kings 3:18.

And the Mesha Stele, erected by this very same King of Moab, explicitly mentions this incident, saying "Chemosh drove [Israel] away":

I took Yahweh's vessels, and I presented them before Chemosh's face...

And the king of Israel had built Yahaz, and he stayed there throughout his campaign against me; and Chemosh drove him away.​

Psalm 82 implies that there were many gods at least at some point, and that El Elyon (God) may have removed their divine status because they ruled unjustly:
82:1 God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:

82:2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked?”

[...]

82:6 I say, “You are gods,
children of the Most High, all of you;

82:7 nevertheless, you shall die like mortals,
and fall like any prince.”​
 
Top