(March 12, 2022 at 3:19 am)The Grand Nudger Wrote:Quote:Moloch (also rendered as Molech or Molekh, from the Hebrew מלך mlk) is a Canaanite god in the Old Testament associated with human sacrifice. Some scholars have suggested that the term refers to a particular kind of sacrifice carried out by the Phoenicians and their neighbors rather than a specific god, though this theory has been widely rejected.https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/moloch
I don't think you'll find much on the subject of the op, btw - beyond the simple fact that the people who wrote the ot also employed bovine imagery and thought, as many people thought, horns were somehow magically important - hence their supposed inclusion in the construction of a ritual object like an altar in an establishment myth. Beyond that, it was very much the business of the ot "prophets" to distinguish themselves from other beliefs common in their demographic at the time. All that other stuff was why the bad thing happened, in their retelling of events.
Interesting. I thought the consensus was moving away from “Molech” being seen as a deity in Canaan. I must be misremembering that.