Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of

the Dead in the Iron Age Israel

Yoon, Dong-yong
Drew University

: 2010 10 20
: 2010 11 27
: 2010 11 28


S ub j e c t Old Testament, Archeology, Sociology of Religion

Key word the cult of the dead, standing stones, funerary ritual,
marzeah, rephaim

Abstract The present study purports to review various aspects

of the cult of the dead in the iron age of Israel. The
worship of the dead implies that the dead is
connected with and has influence on the living world.
Textual evidences on the funerary rites, communal
repast with the dead (marzeah), and the veneration of
the dead (rephaim) intimates that the death cult was
prevalent in the realm of popular religions in ancient
Israel. Some archeological evidences also allude to the
ongoing practice of the death cult at ancient Israel.
Funerary installations such as vessels for food might
intend the provision for the deceased. Standing
stones (masseboth) that were installed either at graves
or at certain cultic places apparently had the function
of commemoration of the ancestor as a whole. By
offering provision and demonstrating their veneration
to the dead, the living could reconcile with the dead
in order to secure their favor.

 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_215

Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of

the Dead in the Iron Age Israel

Yoon, Dong-yong | Drew University

The term cult of the dead designates rites and beliefs

concerning the dead. Different from funerary rite, the cult of the
dead comprises a system of practices repeated periodically. More
to the point, funerary rites, as B. Schmidt argues, occur between
the death and the arrival in the afterworld, whereas death cult
practices begin with the deads arrival in the afterworld.1) The
worship of the dead implies not only the idea of survival after
death, but also the belief that the dead, as superior powers to the
living, actively participate in the mundane affairs of the living.
According to Schmidts definition, the dead require the highest
form of reverence for they can act independently of the high god
to affect the world of the living.2) They are, in effect, equal in
power with the god. The living must propitiate the dead through
the offer of goods, services, words, and other gestures in order to

1) Brian B. Schmidt, Israels Beneficent Dead: Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in

Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition (Tbingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1994), p. 6.
2) Schmidt, Israels Beneficent Dead, pp. 910.
216_ 18

secure their favor.

. Textual References to the Cult of the Dead

1. Funerary Rite and Its Implication

The ancient Israelite funerary customs point to a belief in some
kind of continued existence of life after death. Death among the
Israelites was considered a kind of sleep, a continuation of life in
another world, known as Sheol. The tomb was a kind of
continuation of the house of the family house after death. The
ancient Israelite term for death is gathered to his fathers (Judg
2:10; 2 Kgs 22:20; 2 Chr 34: 28), or slept with their fathers (1
Kings 11:23). The living was supposed to be able to help the
dead in this afterlife. Since death was viewed as a transition to a
different world where life was continued, and since the spirits of
the dead were considered to have great capacity for harm or for
good, it was also customary to place offerings of food and drink
in special vessels which were buried in the tomb. A clear
reference to the offering of food to the dead during a funeral
repast is found in Deuteronomy 26:14.

I have not eaten of it while in mourning; I have not removed

any of it while I was unclean; and I have not offered any of it
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_217

to the dead. I have obeyed the LORD my God, doing just as

you commanded me (NRSV).

This declaration of innocence points to the practices prohibited:

feeding the death. To the audiences of this proclamation the
communal meal with the dead was probably a familiar custom. K.
van der Toorn argues that the phrase I have not eaten from it
while in mourning indicates that the funeral repast was celebrated
in connection with the burial of the dead.3) The practices of the
feeding of the dead were prohibited because they were not merely
expressions of grief, but attempts to bring about a ritual
communion between the living and the dead. The declaration of
innocence prescribed by Deuteronomy 26:14, then, connects the
offerings to the dead with the funeral meal of the living.
G. E. Wright, in his commentary on Deuteronomy, however,
insists that this reference does not mean the offering of sacrifice
to the spirits of the dead. He is sure that such custom simply did
not exist in Israel.4) R. de Vaux5) and Y. Kaufmann6) also

3) K. van der Toorn, Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel: Continuity and
Change in the Forms of Religious Life (Leiden; New York; Kln: Brill, 1996), 209.
4) G. E. Wright, "The Book of Deuteronomy", in The Interpreters Bible (New York;
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1953), 2: pp. 48687.
5) See R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, Its Life and Institutions (trans. J. McHugh; New
York: McGrawHill, 1961), pp. 6061. De Vaux acknowledges that offerings are made
to the dead. But he thinks that these offerings never indicate the belief in the
existence of death cult.
6) See Y. Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel: From Its Beginnings to the Babylonian
Exile (trans. and abridged by M. Greenberg; Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1960), pp. 31116. Y. Kaufmann rejects even the suggestion of such cult. According
218_ 18

confidently argue that a cult of the dead never existed in Israel.

Agreeing basically with the former, H. C. Brichto also argues that
the cult of the dead in the Ancient Israel was no other than
ancestor veneration.7) Supporting patriarchs negative attitude
against the cult of the dead, K. Spronk proclaims that clear
evidence of a cult of the dead practiced by Israelite is scare.8)
He even argues that the archaeological indications of the repeated
foodofferings brought to the grave cannot be regarded as
definitive proof of an Israelite cult of the dead.9) Recently, B.
Schmidt suggested that the cult of the dead was not introduced in
Israel at least before King Manasseh. According to him, Israels
interest in the dead was a late development under NeoAssyrian
influence.10)

to him, all the biblical descriptions of rites performed on behalf of the dead are acts
of familial devotion without religious significance. He maintains that the rites
connected with death and burial has no cultic meaning and is thus not a cult of the
dead.
7) See H.C. Brichto, "Kin, Cult, Land and AfterlifeA Biblical Complex", HUCA 44
(1973): p. 52. Brichto, after carefully distinguishing between immortality and
resurrection, shows that the biblical belief on the dead is not the cult of the dead,
but the veneration of ancestors. For him, veneration is not worship and "ancestor
worship as such was abhorred as a foreign rite."
8) K. Spronk, Beatific Afterlife in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East
(NeukirchenVluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1986), p. 249.
9) See Spronk, Beatific Afterlife, pp. 4354, pp. 24750. Spronk relegates practices
pertaining to the dead forbidden in the Bible to the realm of "popular religion" and
claims that "popular religion" was syncretistic, allowing the influences of Canaanite
practices in a way that "official religion" did not permit.
10) Schmidt, Beatific Afterlife, p. 142. According to him, the references in Isa 8:19, 19:3,
and 29:4 to necromancy in the eighth century are all redactional additions in line
with the Deuteronomistic rhetorical strategy of projecting necromancy back to early
Canaanite origin and influence.
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_219

However, the socalled "minimalist view (orientation minimaliste)"11)

has been generally denied by most of the major scholars, because it
seeks to minimize the Canaanite/Israelite nature of Israelite customs
pertaining to the dead by distinguishing between Yahwistic religion
and popular religion (against Spronk),12) or it is based on the
inaccurate definition and sources13) and the inconsistent,
"paradoxical" interpretation of textual or archaeological evidences
(against Schmidt).14)
Biblical scholarship has reached a general consensus on the
existence of the death cult in the ancient Israel, but understands it
in different ways. As well known, Albright tried to connect the
function of bamah (high place) with the hero cult.15) It is doubtful

11) The definition of "minimalist view" was named by D. Pardee. He argues in his
article that the interpretation of the death cult should be confined in fewer texts
that the large scholarship accepts. The same term can be found in the book review
of B. Smiths monograph by A. Lemaire. Cf. D. Pardee, "Marzihu, Kispu, and the
Ugaritic Funerary Cult: A Minimalist View", in Ugarit, Religion and Culture:
Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Ugarit, Religion and Culture,
Edinburgh, July 1994 (ed. N. Wyatt et al.; Mnster: UgaritVerlag, 1996), p. 273 and
A. Lemaire, "Book Reviews: Israels Beneficent DeadAncestor Cult and Necromancy
in Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition by Brian B. Schmidt", JNES 58/3 (1999):
p. 219.
12) See M. Smith and E. M. BlochSmith, "Review Articles: Death and Afterlife in
Ugarit and Israel", JAOS 108 (1988): pp. 27784.
13) See Lemaire, "Book Reviews", pp. 21819 and D. Pardee, "Reviews: Brian B.
Schmidt, Israels Beneficent Dead: Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in Ancient
Israelite Religion and Tradition", JSS 42 (1997): pp. 36268.
14) See P. S. Johnston, "Reviews: Israels Beneficent Dead. Ancestor Cult and
Necromancy in Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition by Brian B. Schmidt", JTS
47 (1996): pp. 16972 and M. S. Smith, "Book Reviews: Brian B. Schmidt, Israels
Beneficent Dead: Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in Ancient Israelite Religion and
Tradition", CBQ 58 (1996): pp. 72425.
15) G. W. Albright, "The High Place in Ancient Palestine", in Volume du Congress
220_ 18

whether there was hero cult in the Ancient Israel like in Greece,
but his ideal relation of the bamah with the standing stone seems
to be appropriate. Differently from Albright, A. Soggin sought to
connect the death cult with child sacrifice, but did not suggest any
proper archaeological evidence.16) In spite of one or two dissenting
voices, there is something approaching a consensus that the cult of
the dead was a vital element in Israelite religion at least until
about 600 BCE. In the eyes of their living offspring, the dead had
certain godly qualities, for which reason they could be called
elohim (divine beings). They possessed such special powers as
foreknowledge, available to their living descendants through
necromancy.

2. Communal Repast with the Dead

Interpreting Isa 57:313, S. Ackerman finds a linkage between the
cult of the dead and child sacrifice. Both of them, according to
Ackerman, were executed as a part of a fertility cult in preexilic
Judah. She argues that the Pozo Moro reliefs could be interpreted
as a death cult marzeah whose food is provided by the cult of
child sacrifice.17) It is probable that child sacrifice was widely

Strasbourg 1956 (ed. G. W. Anderson; Leiden: Brill, 1957), pp. 25657.

16) See A. Soggin, "Child Sacrifice and Cult of the Dead in the Old Testament", Old
Testament and Oriental Studies (ed. A. Soggin; Rome: Biblical Institute, 1975), pp.
8487.
17) S. Ackerman, Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in SixthCentury Judah
(Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992), pp. 16162.
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_221

practiced in the ancient Near East and also in ancient Israel (cf.
Jer 7:3032), but it is doubtful whether the child sacrifice was
performed in relation with the cult of the dead. Beach also
connects, somewhat implicitly, the function of the marzeah table
with the child sacrifice,18) but the string of assumptions is purely
speculative.
The marzeah that Ackerman and Beach refer to, however, has
been a focal disputation among the biblical scholars because of its
relation with the cult of the dead. After the long discussion about
the relation of the Ugaritic marzihuinstitution to the death cult, O.
Loretz concludes that the marzihuinstitution always appears with
the funerary banquet and thus, it is closely related to the cult of
the dead.19) Archaeologically, this repast has been attested by the
evidences of wall reliefs and provisions of tombs. The wall relief
of Ashurbanipals feasts from the Assyrian palace at Nineveh
shows the possible depiction of the marzeah repast. Avigad and
Greenfield suppose that the drinking cup with a Phoenician
Dedicatory Inscription founded in a tomb of the Persian period at
Tell elFarah was used for the drinking and offering libations in
the marzeah banquet as in the wall relief of palace at Nineveh.20)

18) E. F. Beach, "The Samaria Ivories, Marzeah, and Biblical Text", BA 56/2 (1993): pp.
94104.
19) O. Loretz, "Marzihu im ugaritischen und biblischen Ahnenkult: Zu Ps 23; 133; Am
6:17 und Jer 16:5.8", in MesopotamicaUgariticaBiblica: Festschrift fr Kurt
Bergerhof zur Vollendung seines 70. Lebensjahres am 7. Mai 1992 (ed. M. Dietrich
and O. Loretz; NeukirchenVluyn: Nerkirchner Verlag, 1993), p. 141.
20) N. Avigad and J. C. Greenfield, "A Bronze phiale with a Phoenician Dedicatory
222_ 18

However, scholars have not reached a consensus about the

character of the marzeah. Some scholars have refused to interpret
the marzeah as a banquet with the dead. Lewis argues that its
primary function is related to a drinking banquet which could, on
occasions, be associated with funerary feasts.21) Avigad and
Greenfield also suggest that the marzeah had a wider function as
an institution, for it was a place for sacred repasts and memorial
meals, and it also served as a social institution since the leaders
of the community were members.22)
The principal attributes of communal eating, drinking and
remembering the dead link it with a Mesopotamian rite, the kispu.
It is an accepted fact that in ancient Mesopotamia there existed a
belief in a relationship between the living and the dead. This
relationship found expression in various rites, such as the kispu
offering to the dead, as well as in the prayers and incantations
employed to propitiate inimical ghosts. According to A. Tsukimoto,
kispu was the funerary offering denoting the offerings regularly
presented to the deceased.23) The kispu apparently consisted of
invoking the name of the departed, presenting food offerings, and
pouring a water libation on the first, sixteenth or twentyninth day

Inscription", IEJ 32 (1982): pp. 11828.

21) See T. J. Lewis, Cults of the Dead in Ancient Israel and Ugarit (Atlanta: Scholars
Press, 1989), p. 89.
22) Avigad and Greenfield, "Bronze phiale", p. 125.
23) A. Tsukimoto, "Aspekte von KISPU(M) als Totenbeigabe", in Death in
Mesopotamia: Papers Read at the XXVIe Rencontre Assyriologique internationale
(ed. B. Alster; Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1980), p. 129.
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_223

of the month according to the regional practice.24) A. Malamat

extends the conception of food offering to a communal meal of the
living with the dead.25) Thus, Pope argues that the Mesopotamian
kispu corresponds to the marzeah in SyroPalestine.26) Such food
offering and communal meal has been largely accepted as an
indication of the cult of the dead.27)
The idea of giving food to the dead was not unfamiliar to the
Israelites. In Jeremiah 16:59 it is clear that the marzeah house is
the locus of a funeral feast, for it occurs in a context of mourning
and bereavement. God forbids Jeremiah to enter the bet marzeah
in Jerusalem. The prophet does not consider marzeah associations
to be a legitimate part of the religion of Israel. If the marzeah
was only a funerary feast as Pope and Lewis suggest, one may
ask why Jeremiah was disallowed to enter the bet marzeah.
Perhaps, one of the functions of the marzeah was sacrifice to the
dead.

24) E. BlochSmith, Judahite Burial Practices and Beliefs about the Dead (Sheffield:
JSOT Press, 1992), p. 124.
25) A. Malamat, "King Lists of the Old Babylonian Period and Biblical Genealogies",
JAOS 88 (1968): p. 173.
26) M. H. Pope, "The Cult of the Dead at Ugarit", in Ugarit in Retrospect: Fifty Years
of Ugarit and Ugaritic (ed. G. D. Young; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1981), p. 176.
27) K. Spronk, however, refuses to accept kispuoffering as an indication of the death
cult. He argues that the offering of food and drink can be merely the normal care
for the dead. The dead were assumed to survive with the food even after the
death. See Spronk, Beatific Afterlife, p. 248.
224_ 18

3. Rephaim and Veneration of the Dead

In the Hebrew Bible, the dead are frequently paralleled with the
rephaim which are usually regarded as just another name for the
souls of the dead who dwell in the underworld. In Ps 88:11 (Eng
88:10), the rephaim are paralleled with the dead. The same
parallelism between the rephaim and the dead occurs in Isa 26:14,
19. Prov 9:18 indicates that the dead rephaim are located in the
underworld. In Prov 21:16, it is defined as congregation or
assembly.
Designating the spirits of the dead, the Hebrew term is related
to Ugarit rpum, a name for the defied royal ancestors. In Ugarit,
the rpum were the line of dead kings and heroes, as the Ugaritic
text, RS 34.126=KTU 1.161 indicates. This text describes a ritual
in which a new king (Ammurapi) invokes the presence of
deceased royal ancestors in order to partake in the funerary
ceremony of the recently deceased king (Niqmaddu III). After
offering the proper sacrifices, the new ruler then beseeches these
rpum of the underworld to bless his current administration with
wellbeing. According to Lewis, this text demonstrates that the
dead were not simply cut off from the living. Rather, they
continued to exist in the underworld and, with proper invocation,
could be beseeched to grant favors to the living.28)

28) T. Lewis, "Dead", in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. K. van
der Toorn et al.; Leiden; New York; Kln: Brill, 1995), p. 429.
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_225

The royal aspect of the rephaim is most evident in Isa 14:9.

The text in question is part of a funerary complaint addressed to
the king of Babylonia in view of his imminent death. The text
establishes a link between the rephaim and the deceased kings.
However, as M. Smith points out, Isa 14:9 preserves only the older
understanding of the Ugaritic rephaim. According to him, the older
understanding had experienced harsh deformation in a later period
and split into various descriptions of the rephaim.29) He points out
that the older Ugaritic rephaim was bifurcated as the following.

The Rephaim as a line or group of heroes and monarchs at

Ugarit corresponds to the biblical view of them as a people or
nation. As heroes and monarchs, the Rephaim survived in the
Bible as giants or warriors.30)

According to M. Smith, the Ugaritic view of the rephaim as a

dead group has broadened in the biblical texts describing the
rephaim as the dead in general. Thus, an Iron Age Israelite death
cult seems to differ from that of the Bronze Age Ugarit and
Mesopotamia cults. Israel apparently did not support hero or royal
ancestor worship; rather worship of the dead in general.
Archaeological evidences might apparently prove it.

29) M. S. Smith, "Rephaim", in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (ed. D.N. Freedman; New
York: Doubleday, 1992), 5: p. 675.
30) Smith, "Rephaim", p. 675.
226_ 18

. Archeological Evidences of the Ancestral Worship

1. Funerary Installations
The death cult has been confirmed by archaeological data. C.
Schaeffer argues that various Ugaritic funerary installations such
as ceramic pipes and gutters, socalled libation pits, windows, and
holes in ceilings, support the notion that an essential part of the
Ugaritic cult of the dead was to provide the dead with libations.
The pipes were located next to the tombs doors and were used to
pour water into the tomb. The vases placed outside the tombs
under an opening (windows) in the wall of the grave made it
possible to bring offerings to the dead after the burial without
having to open the grave again.31) Pope also insists that the
transmission of liquids into the grave through conduits or pipes
was common in Mesopotamian mortuary rites since there is a
special term for the pipe or conduit, artu. According to him the
sungod ama in the netherworld is the caretaker of the artu
through which the deceased drinks.32)
However, W. T. Pitard severely criticizes Schaeffers argument,
because he believes that Schaeffer misinterpreted the data.33)
According to Pitard, Schaeffer mistook the harbor town for a

31) C. F. A. Schaeffer, The Cuneiform Texts of Ras ShamraUgarit: Schweich Lectures

1936 (London: Oxford University, 1939), pp. 4956; see also Lewis, "Dead", pp. 9798.
32) Pope, "Cult", p. 161.
33) W. T. Pitard, "The Libation Installations of the Tombs at Ugarit", BA 57/1 (1994):
pp. 2037.
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_227

necropolis. Pitard argues that the holes and pipes were used only
to evacuate water from the house, because there is no
archaeological indication of some type of pipe leading down from
the floor level and fitting into one of these holes. The libation pits
and drains were ordinary sumps, latrines, and gutters from the
roof. He says,

All of the remains identified by Schaeffer as funerary

installations designed to allow the living to provide water and
/or food for the dead from outside the tomb are better and more
reasonably interpreted as mundane items, unrelated to the cult of
the dead.34)

Pitard concludes that there is simply no archaeological evidence

for a regular, ongoing ritual of providing food and libations for the
deceased at Ugarit.
We cannot avoid the criticism that the archaeological evidences
of the cult of the dead practiced by Israelites are scarce.
However, some indirect evidences imply that the cult of the dead
might be performed in ancient Israel. E. Sukenik found some
traces of repeated offerings to the dead in a tomb in Samaria. In
this tomb there are two pits, which could be receptacles of
offerings connected with cult of the dead as regularly practiced in
ancient Israel.35) At a few tombs in Palestine, J. W. Ribar found

34) Pitard, "Libation", p. 34.

228_ 18

ceiling holes in the tombs which made it possible to communicate

between the dead and the living after the tombs are sealed. Vases
were found also which could be filled from outside the tombs.36)
Pope reports that the piping of wine and oil into the tomb is
attested on the occasion of the visit of Rabban Gamaliels sons
Judah and Hillel to the grave of Zakkai at Kabul.37) BlochSmith,
after the investigation to Judahite tombs in the Iron Age, suggests
that funerary offerings of food and libations are well attested in
the archaeological data.38) As she suggested, vessels for foodstuffs,
liquids, perfumes, spices, oil for lamps, and personal items might
be provided in Judahite burials throughout the monarchy.

2. Standing Stones
T. J. Lewis also confesses that the archaeological evidences of
the cult of the dead are meager, and so the text is our best
witness.39) Reading Isa 57:313, Lewis suggests an interesting
interpretation in connection with the cult of the dead. Lewis
presumes that the geographical setting of the text is a wady (v.7).
The wady was allegedly a traditional place of burial.40) The wady

35) E. L. Sukenik, The Buildings of Samaria: SamariaSebaste, I (London: Palestine

Exploration Fund, 1942), pp. 2122.
36) J. W. Ribar, "Death Cult Practices in Ancient Palestine" (Ph.D. diss. University of
Michigan, 1973), p. 73.
37) Pope, "Cult", p. 161.
38) BlochSmith, Judahite Burial Practices, pp. 106108.
39) Lewis, Cults of the Dead, p. 181.
40) W. H. Irwin, "'The Smooth Stones of the Wady'?: Isaiah 57:6", CBQ 29 (1967): p.
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_229

Kidron is, thus, identified as a common graveyard in 2 Kings 23:6.

Lewis argues that the words in Isa 57:213 should not be
translated literally, because several words embrace the metaphoric
meanings. According to him, the word mikab in vss. 7, 8 can be
interpreted as tomb, because the mikab was generally
interpreted as tomb in Northwest Semitic. Likewise, both zikkrn
and yad (v.8) can also mean memorial monument which was
erected for the dead. Thus he argues that this memorial stele was
a part of the ancient Israelite death cult.41)
The interpretation of Lewis seems to be appropriate. W. Hallo
attests that in Mesopotamia, the departed ancestors were
worshiped in the form of cult statues.42) M. Pope also suggests
that the grave marker, whether a crude stone or lifelike portrait,
was regarded as embodying or representing the person of the
departed in Ugarit.43) BlochSmith asserts that the memorial stele
served as a locus for death cult activities such as consulting the
dead, feeding the dead or offering sacrifices, perhaps calling the
name in the Iron Age Israel.44) Concerning zikkrn and yad (v.8),
Lewis translates them as a stele, because he apparently has in

37.
41) Lewis, Cults of the Dead, 14950; see also his "Death Cult Imagery", Hebrew
Annual Review 11 (1987): pp. 27374.
42) W.W. Hallo, "Royal Ancestor Worship in the Biblical World", in "Sha'arei Talmon":
Studies in the Bible, Qumran, and the Ancient Near East Presented to
Shemaryahu Talmon (ed. M. Fishbane et al.; Winona Lake: Eisenbraun, 1992), p.
389.
43) Pope, "Cult", p. 161.
44) BlochSmith, Judahite Burial Practices, p. 113.
230_ 18

mind the translation of NAB: an indecent (phallic) symbol.

Probably, he considers zikkrn and yad an inscribed or figured
stele. Though, as C.F. Graesser points out, uninscribed, unfigured
plain stones predominated in Palestine,45) we cannot deny that the
inscribed relief was also an important alternative, because those of
Egypt and Mesopotamia, as a rule, bear inscriptions and figures.46)
Derived from the Hebrew root to set up or to stand, the
term massebah (pl. masseboth) is used to describe the upright
stones erected to commemorate important religious events or
sacred covenants in Palestine during the Bronze and Iron Ages.
According to Graesser, standing stone monuments in Palestine
have a variety of functions which can be classified under the
following: memorial (as monuments honoring the dead), legal (as
boundary markers or treaty stones), commemorative (as stelae
marking a victory), and cultic (as signs of the divine presence).47)
In the patriarchal narratives of the Book of Genesis, masseboth
are mentioned both as burial monumentsJacob set up a pillar at
Rachels grave (Gen 35:20)and as memorials to direct encounters

45) See Carl F. Graesser, "Standing Stones in Ancient Palestine", BA 35/2 (1972): pp.
3435. Graesser defines the stones which bore inscriptions or figures as stele.
46) The number of hewn stelae is definitely lower in Iron Age Palestine than in other
parts of the Near East. However, according to Mettinger, the inscribed stelae were
flourished even in Palestine before Deuteronomic reform. De Moor also proceeds his
study agreeing with Mettingers argument. See T. N. D. Mettinger, No Graven
Image?: Israelite Aniconism in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context (Stockholm:
Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1995), pp. 19197; J. C. de Moor, "Standing Stones
and Ancestor Worship", UF 27 (95): pp. 120, esp. 16ff.
47) Graesser, "Standing Stones", pp. 3748.
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_231

with GodJacob set up a pillar at the site where [God] had

spoken to him (Gen 35:14). Their significance as physical
representations of sacred covenants is also stressed, as in the
Book of Exodus (Ex 24:4), where 12 masseboth are erected at the
foot of Mt. Sinai to symbolize the divine covenant shared by the
12 Israelite tribes.
But, as J. C. de Moor points out, the basic commemorative
function makes the standing stone a natural focus of the ancestral
cult. According to him, various functions of massebah overlap on
the commemorative function.48) The massebah served to keep the
memory of the ancestor alive among his descendants and
represented him bodily in the cult. Therefore it is understandable
that Absalom who did not have children to perform this duty for
him took the initiative to erect a stele for himself to commemorate
his name (2 Sam 18:18). From the viewpoint of the living the
standing stones were a means to enter into a holy communion
with the gods and the spirits of their ancestors.
A wellknown archaeological example of such a standing stone is
the Late Bronze Shrine 6136 at Hazor. A row of ten standing
stones are presided by an enthroned basalt statue of a male figure.
An offering table stands in front of the group. According to

48) de Moor, "Standing Stones", pp. 23. De Moor explains the overlap as following:
"Even when a merely serves to worship a high deity, without any discernable link
to a historical event, this basic function is present because in the Ancient Near
East laudatory mention was a form of remembering."
232_ 18

Mettinger, the standing stone may represent gods of divinized

ancestors, two categories which are not separated by a clearly
defined line of demarcation.49) Graesser also interprets such
groups as evidence for some kind of family memorial worship.50)
Mettinger suggests the Iron Age examples of the standing
stones. He refers to the pillars on the high place at Bethshemesh.
According to him, the five pillars are connected with a burial cave
which is supposed to have been built later than pillars. In the
western part of the area, there was an entrance to a burial cave
that extended under the place with the five stones. He argues that
it contained all the paraphernalia of the cult of the dead.51)
At Tel Dan, four different masseboth shrines which are
supposed to belong to 9th8th have been discovered in the gate
square. The larger ones have been supposed to represent deities,
while the smaller ones represent ancestral spirits. Mettinger insists
that the masseboth in the environs of the city gate belong to the
local, popular level of religion.52)
Mettingers last reference to the masseboth is a significant one.
He supposes that the masseboth worship pertaining to the dead
extended beyond the private life, unlike the scholars who confine
the Israelite cult of the dead in the family religion. Especially

49) Mettinger, No Graven Image, p. 181.

50) See Graesser, "Standing Stones", p. 56.
51) See Mettinger, No Graven Image, p. 153.
52) Mettinger, No Graven Image, p. 166.
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_233

among them, Karl van der Toorn is a wellknown supporter of the

cult of the dead as a family religion. His emphasis on the family
religion can be well recognized in the following reference.

The dead were honored in the first place on account of their

role as ancestors and forebears. They were the ones who had
bequeathed the family estate and the family home to the living....
Piety toward the dead was a social virtue; it could be seen as
an extension of the honor paid to ones parents.53)

Of course, van der Toorns reference to the family religion does

not mean only the nuclear family, but the extended family, the kin.
Though he recognizes that piety toward the dead fosters a sense
of unity and solidarity among the living member of the clan, he
cannot avoid the criticism that he limits the cult of the dead to
the ancestor cult based on kin lineage. However, the Israelite cult
of the dead must be understood in broader context.
In this regard, the recent study on Gates and Gods by Tina
H. Blomquist is remarkable. According to her, both archaeological
and biblical sources indicate clearly the presence of gate cult
locales in Iron Age Palestine. She argues that the gate cults
encompassed a diversity of cult forms. Among them, she
interestingly connects the gate cult with the cult of the dead.
Blomquist finds an element of death cult from the site of

53) van der Toorn, Family Religion, p. 233.

234_ 18

Bethsaida (etTell). She points out that the iconic stele on the
podium is raised higher than other stelae. The raised position,
according to her, indicates the higher status than the aniconic
stelae placed directly on the pavement. However, all the stelae
were presumed to have a function within the ancestor cult.
Blomquist insists that these stelae were worshiped as the deity at
the gate. According to her, the stelae also functioned as the
markers of the border area of the city which raised the memory of
ancestors and their divine protection.54) Here, we can get a hint
that the cult of the dead was an important religious establishment
beyond the category of the family.
At Dan, Biran found a trace of the gate cult. Unlike in
Bethsaida, the distinctive archaeological evidences for the death
cult are hardly found. However, the finds such as a basin, vessels,
and a bowl with ashes55) suggest rituals involving libations, smoke
and vegetable offerings, and groups of masseboth as cult symbols.
According to Biran, masseboth adjacent to Dans gate were

54) Tina H. Blomquist, Gates and Gods: Cults in the City Gates of Iron Age Palestine
An Investigation of the Archaeological and Biblical Sources (Stockholm: Almqvist
& Wiksell International, 1999), pp. 4957. According to van der Toorn, masseboth as
the marker of the border is functionally closely related to the cult of the dead. The
ancient Israelites thought that the land was inherited as a nahalat abt (inheritance
of the fathers, 1 Kgs 21:3) from ancestors. For ancestors were supposed to
survive after the death in this nahalat abt, the abandonment of the land meant the
everlasting death of the ancestors. See van der Toorn, Family Religion, pp. 205
206.
55) A. Biran, "Sacred Spaces of Standing Stones, High Places and Cult Objects at Tel
Dan", BibRev 24/5 (1998): pp. 3845, p. 70.
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_235

supposedly used by merchants or travelers, as well as by Dans

permanent residents, as they entered or left the city. This gate
massebah at Dan might be paralleled with the gate stelas in the
LXX translation of Lev 26:30 and Num 21:28. The Greek stelas
comes from the Hebrew word bamah. According to Albright, the
bamah had the meaning place of burial where the deceased were
interred according to pagan rites, cemetery near an ancient pagan
cultic installation.56) This bamah is related to the massebah, both
denoting memorial stelae. Thus the LXX regularly rendered bamah
by stelas. Likewise, M. Gleis argues that these alleged gatestelae
are characterized as the stelae of dead kings that were placed in
the city gates as cult objects.57) Though it is doubtful whether the
stelae of dead kings existed in the gate of the ancient Israel, it is
plausible to suppose that the gate cult of Dan might have
executed as a cult of the dead in general like in Bethsaida. The
masseboth at the gate of Dan might have functioned as a marker
of the citys border as well as a cultic stand for the memory of

56) Albright, "High Place", p. 248.

57) See M. Gleis, Die Bamah (Berlin & New York, 1997), pp. 102110. However,
Blomquist does not accept the interpretation of Gleis as well as Albright. She
argues that the translation of LXX was caused from the writers ignorance of
bamt. According to her, the gate cult locale might be attested by the interpretation
of 2 Kgs 23:8. Blomquist is firm that the expression bamt haarm in here denotes
a specific type of gate bamah that could be placed in a variety of ways in
connection with a city gate, assumingly according to local tradition, functional
needs, and topographical conditions. Though she denies the connection of the cult of
the dead with this shrine, the possible presence of ancestor images at gate cult
locales may also be considered, as indicated by Exod 22: pp. 78. Cf. Blomquist,
Gates and Gods, pp. 151163.
236_ 18

ancestors.
Many archaeologists deny the existence of the cult of the dead
in the preexilic Israel. However, as described above, it is
necessary for the dead to have proper burial and continuous
offerings in the afterlife in order to ensure eternal rest and
happiness. Archaeology reveals no distinctively Israelite burial
practices during almost the entire biblical period. The Israelites
followed the mode of burial employed by their neighbors, and
shared a common attitude of respectful care for the dead.

. Conclusion

From the biblical texts, we recognize that the practice of

communal burial was prevalent among the Israelites (2 Kings 23:6;
Jer 26:23). Burial in a communal tomb undoubtedly was an
expression of the individuals desire to maintain some contact with
the community even after death. According to H. W. Robinson, the
pure conception of the individuality did not exist in the ancient
Israel. Thus every individual, as a cooperate personality, should
maintain her/himself as an extension of the whole community.58)

58) H. Wheeler Robinson argues that in the ancient Israel, the whole group was
considered as the individual, indistinguishable from the larger body; see H. Wheeler
Robinson, Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel (Philadelphia, Pa.: Fortress, 1964),
120.
 Living Dead: A Consideration of the Cult of the Dead in the Iron Age Israel_237

After death, individuals join the dead community in the netherworld.

Thus, the Israelites could understand the dead as a whole, not as
an individual. In this regard, it is possible that the cult of the dead
was not exclusively a matter of the family. This cult might be the
answer to the fear for the dead in general and not only the dead
within ones family. The masseboth at the gate are clear evidences
for Israelites worshiping the deceased as a whole. Masseboth
represent neither a certain kings or heroes, nor individuals. They
represent all the deceased. Perhaps because of this anonymity, the
Israelite standing stones, unlike those of Egypt, Mesopotamia and
Ugarit, usually do not preserve inscriptions and figures.
238_ 18

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