Which ancient cults would cut out the hearts of live animals and offer them as sacrifices?
Upvote:1
Likely widespread practice
First, we must establish some basic facts. There is a lot of proof that human sacrifice was widespread in region of Middle East and North Africa. Idea that Carthaginians sacrificed their children is not a Roman slander, there is hard archeological evidence for that. Sacrifice to Moloch and Baal is well known from Bible, but also mentioned in other sources (Greco-Roman) . Even episode of Binding of Isaac is now interpreted as a proof that ancient Jews did offer human sacrifice to their tribal god Yahweh but stopped and replace it at certain time with animal sacrifice. Strong rebuke in Old Testament against human (especially child) sacrifice is repeated several times (for example in Deuteronomy 12:30-31). Such strong rebuke would not be needed if even worshipers of Yahweh didn't indulge in such practice.
What about animal sacrifice ? Episode with Isaac tells us that animal sacrifice was some kind of substitute for human sacrifice. Of course, this was not unique for Jews, about same time all other civilizations in the region started to move away from something that more and more looked barbaric. Animal sacrifice persisted well into Roman times, for example in episode of Cleansing of the Temple, Jesus expels money changers and merchants of livestock ready for sacrifice. This supposedly happens somewhere around 30 A.D. Even if do not believe in story about Jesus, it is certain that writers of Gospels were familiar with the practice.
Question now arises, in a period between abolishing of human sacrifice and destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. (which most likely ended animal sacrifice), in what manner were animals prepared for slaughter. There is a well known Jewish practice of Kosher Slaughter, or more precisely Shechita. According to Jewish tradition, these rules are ancient, given to Moses on Mount Sinai. However, it is a well known fact that compilation of Mishna happened in first and second century, before that laws about preparation of food and animal sacrifice were oral. Therefore, it safe to assume that existed period before Kosher Slaughter and Shechita were different rules (or no rules at all) existed concerning animal sacrifice. Sacrificing still beating hearts is not that uncommon in human history, Aztec did it on human captives, closer to Middle East there are still similar rituals in India etc ...
What is most likely in our case is that somewhere at the end of human sacrifice, there was a transitional period where animals were more and more offered instead of humans, but rules were not established yet. Therefore, they were often killed in sadistic or at least cruel manner. Again, this was not linked to particular cult, worshipers of Baal, Moloch, Yahweh and any other deity likely copied parts of ritual that were widespread. This is mentioned in the Old Testament, which often forbids exactly that : worship of Yahweh in a manner of other gods. When Judaism started to change from henotheism to strict monotheism all kinds of foreign influences were gradually suppressed, and this includes un-Kosher slaughter of sacrificial animals.
More post
- 📝 What was the northernmost region/city in the Roman Empire that spoke Greek as the native language?
- 📝 what city was unix invented in?
- 📝 Where are the Dorians from?
- 📝 When was the first time lower-class people had a reasonable chance of having a fair trial?
- 📝 Are there instances where collective farming has actually brought benefit to the population
- 📝 What German torpedo problem was discovered in 1942?
- 📝 Who coined the term "Golden Age" in reference to musical theatre?
- 📝 At the end of WWII, were Nazis working on any other super weapon besides V-2?
- 📝 Who left Fort Ross to defect to Mexico?
- 📝 When was the Western Facade on the Sant Andrea Basilica by Alberti constructed?
- 📝 Did a unit of 40 men hold off Rommel's "ghost division" for 18 days?
- 📝 When was the American War of Independence first called a 'Revolution'?
- 📝 Was Latin widely spoken by European diplomats in the late 19th century?
- 📝 Microsocial behaviour 500 years ago in western societies
- 📝 What is the oldest debt that any country is paying right now, and to whom?
- 📝 Was Greece the only thing stopping a Persian invasion of Europe?
- 📝 Troy: How could a city be built on top of an older one?
- 📝 Why didn't the eunuch faction improve stability in Imperial China?
- 📝 How different would the current situation of South Korea be if Seoul wasn’t 30 miles from the DMZ
- 📝 Are tanks the only reason for the abandonment of trench warfare?
- 📝 What are specific parts of this 19th century dress called?
- 📝 Did the empresario system exist only within Mexican Texas?
- 📝 How accurate is Nietzsche's account of the birth of tragedy?
- 📝 Who is "A Gentleman"? (The listed tranlator of the 1758 English edition of Tusculan Disputations)
- 📝 Battle which has been decided by an epidemic plague
- 📝 What portion of the finance industry was British prior to WWI?
- 📝 When was unleaded gasoline introduced in California?
- 📝 What is a good, authoritative source on the history of Tibet?
- 📝 Was the unemployment rate in the Nazi regime lower than the Weimar Republic?
- 📝 How was financial profit viewed in Medieval Europe?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Which ancient cults would cut out the hearts of live animals and offer them as sacrifices?
- 📝 What were the thoughts of the Celts, Romans and other ancient European people about the standing stones which survive from prehistoric times?
- 📝 In which East European country in the 1980s did people put their TVs in front of windows and turn them facing outside?
- 📝 What's the Ancient Egyptian phrase/word for “Royal Road of Life”? And how would it have been spelt?
- 📝 What is the difference between the Ancient Greek religion and the Ancient Roman religion?
- 📝 What is the evidence to claim that political order in ancient Rome was sufficiently different under "kingdom", "republic" and "empire"?
- 📝 How to explain the apparent discrepancy in the use of papyrus vs. clay tablets between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?
- 📝 Was Kaliningrad offered to the Lithuanian SSR; was this offer rejected; and if so, why?
- 📝 When did the round house fall out of vernacular use throughout Britain and Ireland?
- 📝 Which languages would be most useful in Europe at the end of the 19th century?
- 📝 Which Babylonian tablets contains the list of squares and cubes?
- 📝 Which nations have armed prisoners and sent them to war?
- 📝 Why was the Cold War carried out over the whole world instead of between Siberia and Alaska?
- 📝 Was there ever any doubt which side the USA would join?
- 📝 If salt was scarce and expensive, how did people "salt the earth" to ensure their enemies would stay defeated?
- 📝 Why did Athenian philosophers praise Spartan culture and laws, which would preclude philosophers like themselves?
- 📝 What was the life expectancy of an ancient Roman child and adult?
- 📝 Why did the states that were born out of the Louisiana purchase adopt a common law system, and not a civil law system?
- 📝 Which European countries did not have a revolution in the aftermath of the French Revolution and why?
- 📝 Was the Soviet Union in 1945 seeking to capture German soldiers and civilians, or drive them west?
- 📝 Which fruits and vegetables did Chinese migrants introduce to Australia during the gold rush?
- 📝 Which were the last castles to be besieged and fall in the United Kingdom?
- 📝 Were there any pilots that declined to carry out the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 How did the ancient Chinese coordinate armies of tens and hundreds of thousands?
- 📝 I'm reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. What should I watch out for?
- 📝 Which specific day of 1964 was the tree Prometheus (WPN-114) cut down?
- 📝 Why weren’t the Dutch and Belgian borders fortified with wire, trenches, mines, etc., as it became clear Germany would invade during WW2?
- 📝 Would the original readers of Lewis Carroll's books have made connections between the experiences in the books and drug use?
- 📝 Which RAF squadrons and aircraft types took part in the bombing of Berlin on the 25th of August 1940?
- 📝 Did more Jews live in Poland than any other country, prior to the Holocaust, because of how Polish laws and people regarded Jews?
