The Molekh as an explanation to the Zeus and co myths

Sacrificing human offerings in Canaanite religion, especially offerings to deities like Baal, was a custom intended to ensure divine favor (article). The Carthaginians, descendants of the Canaanites, practiced child sacrifice. Classical sources describe the ritual sacrifices to Baal Hammon, where children were offered during crises to avert disasters or ensure victories.

This practice is archaeologically supported by the discovery of Tophet sites, burial grounds containing charred remains of children. Discoveries were made in eight Carthaginian settlements, in Tunisia, Sicily, and Sardinia. The remains included infants aged from a few weeks to one year. They were cremated, and their ashes were placed in urns used as jars, buried in the ground. In Carthage alone, more than 20,000 such jars were found. It appears they were all sacrificed in the same manner: placed on their backs on a pyre of oak branches in the open air before the fire was lit. Exactly as described in the Binding of Isaac. And not for nothing. The Binding of Isaac is a text clearly intended to counter the prevalent custom that also existed in Israel. The Bible contains many prohibitions on child sacrifice, as in the books of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Jeremiah. Josiah, Jeremiah’s contemporary and the one in whose time the Book of Deuteronomy was “found”, instituted a religious reform. One of the things he did was to defile the Tophet in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, in order to abolish the custom.

It should be noted that in Carthage, where a variety of infant ashes were found, remains of lambs were also found. It is suggested that in some cases indeed, human sacrifice could be replaced by lamb sacrifice, but as time went on, human sacrifice was preferred over lamb. In the remains dating to the founding of the city, the ratio between human and lamb sacrifices is in favor of lambs, but towards the Roman conquest, very few remains of lambs were found. The Romans forbade human sacrifices, and thus, in a forced manner, the custom of sacrificing lambs returned, what is called in research “Neo-Punic Tophet”. Against this background, we should understand the finding of the ram caught in the thicket.

In Carthage, more than 6,000 inscribed stelae were also found on the graves of infants, containing vows of parents, mostly fathers, who vowed in exchange for their request to Baal to heed their voice. From the inscriptions, it appears that the word “mlk” was the designation for this type of sacrifice, considered a gift or “offering”. The recipients were Baal Hammon, also called “Adon” (Lord), and his consort, Tanit. There were several types of offerings: Mlkt, which is an offering for a female, Mlk-Bl for a human sacrifice, and Mlk-Amr for a cattle sacrifice.

In contrast, traditional Jewish commentators interpreted the name Moloch differently. Some linked it to Milkom, the “Baal” of the Ammonites. Some linked it to the worship subsidized by royalty. Some even argued that it was called that because kings themselves used to sacrifice their children, as documented in the Bible.

An unexpected reinforcement comes from the Church Father Eusebius in his book “Praeparatio evangelica”, where he quotes the Phoenician priest Sanchuniathon, who recounted that it was a custom for kings to sacrifice their sons in times of trouble. The custom is reminiscent of the myth about El who had a beloved son with his nymph wife Anobret (or Anat Rabat, lady Anat), which was called “Iedud”, meaning “only begotten” (i.e “the only”, or “the beloved”). In times of trouble, the god had to dress his son in royal garments, prepare an altar, and sacrifice him. El was a king who, after his death, deified and manifested in the star of Saturn.

This story explains a few things. Firstly, why Isaac is called “yachid” (only), even though he wasn’t Abraham’s only son. The reason is that the son chosen to serve as a human sacrifice was called “yachid” in Phoenicia, as argued by Sanchuniathon. Secondly, Greek myths begin to make sense. Like the myth of Cronus, whom Sanchuniathon argues is the Greek counterpart of the Phoenician god El, who devoured his children. Also, Saturn did the same, as the Roman counterpart of Cronus. Similarly to Cronus, whose son Zeus rebelled against him after being saved from being eaten, Baal the son of a El, is described as having expelled his father. Baal is also called Adon, reminiscent of the Phoenician god Adonis.

In the Greek myth, Adonis is considered the son who was saved from his father who wanted to kill him. The father discovered that his son was born from an illicit affair. The mother tried to keep it secret but eventually it was revealed? The father pursued her and sought to kill her, she turned into a tree, the father cut the tree, and from the tree, which symbolizes the pregnant belly of the mother, Adonis was born. We see a recurring motif of a father who killed his son, whether by burning or by slaughter, but the son returns to life.

Such a myth obviously also reminds us ultimately of Jesus. What Judaism did was to unite the father and son, El and Baal, and therefore abolish the narrative in which the father killed the son and the son returned to life. There is no process here where the son becomes the father through rebirth, but there is continuity between them because they are one. In practice, Christianity doesn’t say anything different from Judaism if we adopt the trinity approach.

mafia uses execution methods that were used in religious ceremonies in the past

In Avignon in France, the remains of three women from the Neolithic period (5,500 years ago) were found, one of them died naturally and two of them were younger, executed as human sacrifices in a way that is currently used by the mafia. The method is called “Incaprettamento” and in which victims are placed on their stomachs with their knees bent, their necks and ankles connected by a rope, and any movement can cause self-suffocation.

Why does it seem that the method was used for a religious ceremony? Above the grave was a wooden structure that was aligned with the sun at the solstice and nearby some broken stones for grinding grain were found. Which suggests that the burial was part of a ritual related to agriculture. The fact that in different periods over the years (between 3,500 and 5,400 BC) remains were found that appear to have been made using this method along with other wall paintings from the Stone Age that seem to represent this execution as well, show that this custom has continued since ancient times.

This raises the possibility that the mafia uses execution methods that were used in religious ceremonies in the past, and they did not invent those brutal methods, it did not come out of nowhere.