Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MOON

All civilizations of the ancient Near East worshipped the waxing and waning moon; with few exceptions, the major lunar deities were portrayed as masculine. Moon gods, indigenous and international, were worshipped in ancient Palestine (Deut. 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kgs. 23:5; Job 31:26; Jer. 8:2). Abraham’s links with Haran and Ur, the most prestigious centers of lunar worship in ancient Mesopotamia, probably mirror the Aramean cultic milieu familiar to the Genesis authors. Proper names in the OT reflect a recognition of moon gods from western Asia and Mesopotamia. Forms of the name of the Mesopotamian moon-god Sîn occur in Sanballat (Neh. 4:1[MT 3:33]), Sennacherib (2 Kgs. 18:13 = Isa. 36:1), and Shenazzar (1 Chr. 3:18). West Semitic Yariḫ (Heb. yārēaḥ) is attested in Jerah (Gen. 10:26 = 1 Chr. 1:20), and Jaroah (1 Chr. 5:14); other names based on words for the moon include Hodesh (1 Chr. 8:9) and Laban (e.g., Gen. 24:29). Place names like Beth-yeraḥ and Jericho also testify to ancient lunar worship. The iconography of Iron Age Syria-Palestine represents the moon either as a natural object — a crescent — or symbolizes it with one of the liturgical conventions of the neighboring nations, i.e., a crescent mounted atop a pole or stand (Mesopotamian Sîn of Haran, stamp and cylinder seals), a lunar barge (Egyptian mythology, amulets), or a crescent headpiece worn by a baboon or an ibis (Egyptian Thoth, amulets and scarabs).

The basis of the civil and cultic calendars in ancient Israel and Judah was the lunar month (cf. Sir. 43:7). A festive holiday was observed monthly when the new moon was first sighted (Num. 10:10; 28:11).

The figure of the moon in the Bible is usually paired with the sun and stars. As a rival to Yahweh, the moon is an object of proscribed worship (Deut. 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kgs. 23:5; Job 31:26; Jer. 8:2). Appreciation of the natural beauty and splendor of the moon inspired lyrical poetry (Job 26:9; Ps. 8:3[4]; Cant. 6:10). As a spectacular illustration of divine judgment, the apparent eternity of the moon (Ps. 72:5, 7; 89:37[38]) could be terminated: a pregnant symbol of the day of Yahweh and the eschatological conclusion of history is the extinction of the moon (Isa. 13:10; 24:23; Joel 2:31[3:4]; 3:15[4:15]; Mark 13:24 par. [Gk. selḗnē]; Acts 2:20; Rev. 6:12; 8:12; 2 Esdr. 7:39).

Bibliography. S. B. Freehof, “Sound the Shofar — ‘ba-kesse’ Psalm 81:4,” JQR 64 (1974): 225-28; B. B. Schmidt, “Moon,” in DDD, 585-93; M. Stol, “The Moon as Seen by the Babylonians,” in Natural Phenomena: Their Meaning, Depiction and Description in the Ancient Near East, ed. D. J. W. Meijer. Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen Verhandelingen, Afd. Letterkunde, n.s. 152 (Amsterdam, 1992): 245-77.

Steven W. Holloway

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MOON

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)