Agriculture and Religion

Even though modern farmers have had education and training in
agriculture many still wonder at the strange powers of fertility
living in the soil which they look to for good harvests for their
living. The mystery of the soil was once looked at in religious way
when the whole culture depended on its fruitfulness. The land was a
sphere of divine powers. The Baal of a region was the owner of land
and fertility depended on the sexual relations between him and his
consort. Rain and earth and water mingled stirring mysterious powers
of fertility. New life was annually resurrected after winter. Farmers
were not spectators. The ritual enactment of sacred marriage made it
possible to assist, through magic, the fertility power to consummation
and ensure their prosperity. Sacred prostitutes were also a feature of
these Canaanite cults. The belief was that a human pairing could bring
Baal and his consort together in a fertilizing union. Farmers believed
the whole of nature was bound up in masculine and feminine powers.
They believed they could swing into the rhythm of agriculture through
ceremonies and magic to could keep it going. It is called sympathetic
or imitative magic as they believed that the imitation of the action
of the gods would bring it about.

The Canaanite and Mosaic religions proved incompatible desite efforts
to bring them together. Both were concerned with the relationship of
humans and the deity, but they were radically different. They had
diametrically different world views of sacred and profane. The
opposition called 'Yahweh against Baal' focussed on the meaning of
sex. There was a fundamental difference between the demands of Yahweh
and the eroticism of Baal. The Canaanites put sex in the realm of
divine. The divine power disclosed itself in nature and the mystery of
fertility. Their gods were sexual in nature and worshipped ritually.
The cycle of death and resurrection of Baal and renewed fertility came
not through natural law but religion and fertility. It was in the best
interests of the people, who depended on it for their existence, to
control the gods to maintain the harmony and rhythm of the natural
order. The aristocracy used it as a tool to maintain the 'status quo'
against disruption.

The meaning of life was disclosed in the divine powers of nature or in
relation to the Lord of history. Yahweh revealed himself in historical
events such as the Exodus, a sign of God's liberation of his people
from slavery and the creation of a coventant people. It was possible
for other communities to see an analogy between this and their own
experience. The analogy was perceived repeatedly as Israel suffered
new forms of oppression. The ethical demands of the covenant precluded
fertility rites. Baal believers were taught to control their gods,
Israel's faith emphasised service to God in thanks for his
faithfulness to the covenant. Unique against Baal, Yahweh had no
consort, he was Lord of fertility and the continuing creative activity
of Yahweh was emphasised in fertility. Yahweh blessed and blesses the
progeny of humans, animals and the soil. He gave the blessings of
fertility without being involved in the process. He was a living God
who was with them in their midst in all their joys and sorrows, he was
not coerced by magic, he was free and supreme.

Many of the festivals - Passover, Unleavened Bread, Weeks and Tents or
Tabernacles - had agricultural and historal significance. Harvest
festivals also commemorated events in Israelite history. They were not
purely nature festivals they celebrated Yahweh's saving power and will
in a new way.

It took a long time before the strength and uniqueness of the Mosaic
faith was seen. When eventually it was it shook religious foundations
of agriculture. Farmers found a new understanding of their vocation.

Bibliography

Bernhard Anderson, The Living World of the Old Testament
The Jerome Biblical Commentary