Gods of the Bible

By Michael O. Varhola

It may come as a surprise to many people that dozens of pagan and gentile gods appear in the Bible, along with numerous supernatural beings, such as demons, angels, and Nephilim, and so we decided to make an examination of them here. Indeed, God himself has such varying characteristics throughout the Bible that it is valid to ask if the same being is actually being discussed at each point he appears. Most of the following entities were worshiped by the indigenous peoples of the Holy Land which, because they are the most reviled by the People of the Book, are also the most well known. We have also included hotlinks back to an online edition of the New International Version of the Bible for those who wish to read the verses in question and have included our favorite passage pertinent to each entry. Comments are welcome! 

Ares: While he is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, the Greek god of war is implicitly present in the Book of Acts (Acts 17:19, Acts 17:22, Acts 17:34), in the episode where Saint Paul addresses the people of Athens from the place known to them as the Areopagus (shown above right). This "Hill of Ares" took its name from a mythological event in which the namesake god was tried — and acquitted — for murdering one of Poseidon's children, and the term also applied to a legislative assembly that met at the spot. Acts 17:22-23: "Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: 'People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship — and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.'"

Artemis: Artemis was worshiped as a mother goddess by the Hellenized residents of Ephesus — where her great temple became one of the Seven Wonders of the World — and turns up five times in as many verses in the New Testament, all in the book of Acts I (Acts 19:24, Acts 19:27, Acts 19:28, Acts 19:34, Acts 19:35). The Christian church in Ephesus is one of the seven mentioned in the Book of Revelation and, according to tradition, this city of Asia Minor is where Mary, mother of Jesus, retired to after her travails. Acts 19:35: "The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: 'Fellow Ephesians, doesn't all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven?'"

Asherah: This mother goddess is the wife of Baal and carries a variety of titles, among them "Queen of Heaven." She is almost always referenced in terms of Jewish apostasy and often in conjunction with the term "Asherah poles," a type votive item associated with the goddess, and is mentioned 40 times in 40 verses (Exodus 34:13, Deuteronomy 7:5, Deuteronomy 12:3, Deuteronomy 16:21, Judges 3:7, Judges 6:25, Judges 6:26, Judges 6:28, Judges 6:30, 1 Kings 14:15, ). A representative and particularly evocative example can be found in Second Kings 17:16: "They forsook all the commands of the LORD their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal."

Ashtoreth (Astarte): A Middle Eastern goddess of sexuality, fertility, and war who was worshipped by the Greeks in the guise of Aphrodite. She appears nine times in nine verses, all in the Old Testament (Judges 2:13, Judges 10:6, 1 Samuel 7:3, 1 Samuel 7:4, 1 Samuel 12:10, 1 Samuel 31:10, 1 Kings 11:5, 1 Kings 11:33, 2 Kings 23:13). Second Kings 23:13: "The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption — the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon."

Athena: The classical Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare does not explicitly appear in the Bible but does so implicitly as the namesake for the city of Athens, which was named after and dedicated to her. The most famous structure in Athens, in fact, the Parthenon, takes its name directly from Athena Parthenos, the virginal aspect of the deity. This seat of philosophy and learning is mentioned five times, all in the New Testament (Acts 17:15, Acts 17:16, Acts 17:22, Acts 18:1, 1 Thessalonians 3:1).

Atum (Atum-Re, Re-Atum): This Egyptian sun god is implictly present in Ezekiel 30:17, in one of the characteristic Biblical passages about the bad things that are going to happen to other people: "The young men of Heliopolis and Bubastis will fall by the sword, and the cities themselves will go into captivity." Also known as Awanu, "the Place of Pillars," and translated from Greek as "city of the sun," Heliopolis was the principle seat of worship for Atum, "the evening sun." He was one of the most important and frequently-mentioned deities from earliest times, as evidenced by his prominence in various sacred texts. He is believed to have created himself and is portrayed as both a creator and a destroyer who will precipitate the end of the world and, as a result of these characteristics, was sometimes known as "the complete one."

Baal: A name that translates simply as "lord" or "master" and is widely applied variously to both the Caananite storm god and to the predominant deity of any particular place; this title is sometimes even used as a synonym for all the local pagan deities in an area (e.g., "the Baals"). This is the first proper name/honorific given to a foreign god in the Bible and, because of its sometimes generic but nonetheless reviled nature, it is referred to in some context in a staggering 134 verses, all but one of them in the Old Testament (so it will take us awhile to get all the pertinent links posted). We will devote two quotes to him here, one each from the Old and New Testaments. The first clear reference to Baal as a deity appears in Numbers 25:3: "So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the LORD’s anger burned against them." The final reference appears in Romans 11:4: "And what was God’s answer to him? 'I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.'"

Baal-Zebub: This Semitic deity was revered in the Philistine city of Ekron in the era of the Old Testament and is apparently the same being referred to variously by the same name or as Beelzebul or Beelzebub in the New Testament, where he is identified as the "Prince of Demons." He is mentioned four times in the Book of Second Kings (2 Kings 1:2, 2 Kings 1:3, 2 Kings 1:6, 2 Kings 1:16). 2 Kings 1:2: "Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, 'Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury.'" Meaning "Lord of Flies" or "Lord of Dung," this name may simply have been a perjorative modification of "Baal" (q.v.) rather than an actual reflection on the nature of Philistine religion.

Bast (Baast, Bastet, Ubasti): This Egyptian goddess is implictly referred to in Ezekiel 30:17: "The young men of Heliopolis and Bubastis will fall by the sword, and the cities themselves will go into captivity." Bubastis, the "House of Bast," was named for and dedicated to the cat-headed goddess Bast, who in her earliest incarnations was associated with a wild lioness but who ultimately came to be associated with the domesticated cat (an animal critical in agricultural Egypt, where rodents could ravage grain stores). In keeping with the cat's role as an enemy of vermin that might menace people in their homes, Bast is said to have battled and defeated the evil serpent Apep (often known by the Greek name Apophis).

Chemosh: Worship of "the vile god of Moab," who reportedly became angry with his people and allowed them to be enslaved by the Israelites, was introduced in Jerusalem by Solomon. He is mentioned eight times in eight verses, all in the Old Testament (Numbers 21:29, Judges 11:24, 1 Kings 11:7, 1 Kings 11:33, 2 Kings 23:13, Jeremiah 48:7, Jeremiah 48:13, Jeremiah 48:46). First Kings 11:7: "On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites."

Dagon: A major god of the once-seafaring Phillistines, Dagon is generally represented as a muscular, bearded man with the lower body of a great fish. He is referred to as a deity 10 times in seven verses (Judges 16:23, 1 Samuel 5:2, 1 Samuel 5:3, 1 Samuel 5:4, 1 Samuel 5:5, 1 Samuel 5:7, 1 Chronicles 10:10), and twice more in two verses as part of place names that may have been named for him (Joshua 15:41, Joshua 19:27), all in the Old Testament. Judges 16:23: "Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, 'Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.'"

"foreign gods": Unnamed foreign gods are referred to early in the Bible, not long after the first reference to similarly unnamed "household gods," in Genesis 35:2: "So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, 'Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.'"

"gods of Egypt": References to Egypt appear beginning in the the book of Genesis, but its as-yet unnamed deities are not mentioned until Exodus 12:12: "'On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.'"

Hadad: Hadad was an ancient Semitic war, fertility, and storm god who was associated with the Edomites among others and equated with the the Egyptian deity Set, the Greek Zeus, and the Roman Jupiter. He was sometimes referred to simply as Baal, or "Lord," and many of the occurrences in the Bible of this name are likely to have been references to Hadad. The name Hadad appears 63 times in the Bible, all in the Old Testament as an honorific in proper names (e.g., Hadadezer, "Hadad is my help"); generally these are the names of kings and in a few are of places but none are explicitly used as the name of the deity. 1 Kings 20:16: "They set out at noon while Ben-Hadad and the 32 kings allied with him were in their tents getting drunk."

Hermes: Hermes was, amongst other things, the god of messengers and the roadways to the ancient Greeks. He is mentioned once in the New Testament of the Bible, in Acts 14:12, when the Apostle Paul is mistaken for the deity Hermes during a visit to the Asia Minor city of Lystra in A.D. 48. Acts 14:12: "Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker." The entirey of this episode, one of the most amusing in the New Testament, can be read in Acts 14:8-20. (The name Hermes turns up once more in the Bible, in Paul's Epistle to the Romans, but as the name of a mortal member of the church to whom the letter is addressed.)

"household gods": The first reference in the Bible gods other than the God of the Israelites is to the unnamed "household gods" worshiped by Rachel's father in Genesis 31:19: "When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods." These probably would have been hearth goddesses, minor tribal deities, and/or the spirits of ancestors, which watched over and protected the home and its inhabitants.

Leviathan: Not a deity in the sense that most modern people would understand it, Leviathan was an ancient elemental monster who appears in the pre-Biblical epics of Baal and Gilgamesh. It appears in the Bible mostly as a device for showing God's power over immense forces and is mentioned seven times in six verses, all in the Old Testament and half in the Book of Job [Job 3:8, Job 41:1, Job 41:12, Psalm 74:14, Psalm 104:26, Isaiah 27:1]. Psalm 74:14: "It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert."

Marduk: This deity was chief of the Mesopotamian pantheon and patron of the city of Babylon during the era of the Old Testament and was associated with water, vegetation, judgment, magic, and the planet Jupiter. He is mentioned explicitly just once, in the Book of Jeremiah, but is alluded to four other times — presumably as an honorific — in the composite names of two kings, Marduk-Baladan and Awel-Marduk (2 Kings 20:12, 2 Kings 25:27, Isaiah 39:1, Jeremiah 52:31).Jeremiah 50:2: “Announce and proclaim among the nations, lift up a banner and proclaim it; keep nothing back, but say, ‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.’"

Molek (Molech, Milcom): "The detestable god of the people of Ammon" (Second Kings 23:13). Molek has the distinction of being one of the few divine beings who appears in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, a total of 16 times in as many verses [Leviticus 18:21, Leviticus 20:2, Leviticus 20:3, Leviticus 20:4, Leviticus 20:5, 1 Kings 11:5, 1 Kings 11:7, 1 Kings 11:33, 2 Kings 23:10, 2 Kings 23:13, Isaiah 57:9, Jeremiah 32:35, Jeremiah 49:1, Jeremiah 49:3, Zephaniah 1:5, Acts 7:43]. Leviticus 18:21: "'Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.'" Acts 7:43: "You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon."

Nehushtan: This was the brass or bronze serpent that Moses raised up on a pole in order to protect the Israelites from the venomous snakes that an irritated God sent to bite them (Numbers 21:4-9). As what appears to be a generalized slip into apostasy, the Israelites had begun to worship this relic by the time of King Hezekiah, and he responded accordingly, as indicated in 2 Kings 18:4: "He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)" This idol appears to have acquired the label "the Nehushtan" during or after the time of Hezekiah and the actual name by which it was venerated is unknown.

Queen of Heaven: This celestial goddess was at one point especially popular with the people of Judah, who made sacrifice to her and baked cakes bearing her image, and is cited four times in four verses in the Book of Jeremiah (7:18, 44:17-19). She is variously identified as the goddess Asherah (q.v.) or Astarte (q.v.). Jeremiah 44:17: "We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm."

Rimmon: A major deity worshiped in Syria, and whose temple is believed to have been in Damascus, who may have been known as Baal in other places. He is mentioned as a deity just once in the Bible, although his name turns up at least 10 times in place names that may have been dedicated to him. 2 Kings 5:18: "But may the LORD forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also — when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant for this.”

Tammuz: A Sumerian god of fertility and vegetation who, as the length of days grew shorter after the Summer Solstice, was mourned by his followers as his influence over the world waned. He was adopted by the Greeks as Adonis and is believed by some to have been worshiped at the sport where the Church of the Nativity would eventually be established. He is mentioned just once in the Bible, in the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 8:14: "Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz."

Zeus: This chief god of the classic Greek pantheon is mentioned twice in the Bible, both times in the New Testament, as part of an episode in which two Apostles are so eloquent that they are mistaken for pagan gods during a visit to the Asia Minor city of Lystra in A.D. 48. Acts 14:12-13: "Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them."