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THE FIRST TEMPLE PERIOD
AND THE LONG DAVIDIC DYNASTY
Polytheistic Beliefs
In the First Temple period, people throughout the ancient Near East
prayed to a great variety of gods and goddesses. Baal, for
instance, was the god of storms and war, while Astarte was the
goddess of love and fertility.
These polytheistic practices were common among the early Israelites
themselves-and were vehemently denounced by the prophets, as recounted
in the Bible and evidenced by the many cultic figurines that were
apparently deliberately destroyed. It was not until the religious
reform under King Josiah, in the 7th century BCE, that the worship of
the one God of Israel began to be enforced.
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Statuette of a bull.
Collection ASJOS, exhibited at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Photo © The Israel Museum, by Dr. Jean-Luc Pilon, Canadian Museum of Civilization
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