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Moloch

This article is about the deity. For other uses, see Moloch (disambiguation).
''Offering to Molech'' in Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us, by Charles Foster, 1897. The drawing is typical of Moloch depictions in nineteenth-century illustrations.[1]

Moloch, Molech, or Molek[a] is a word which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the Book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly condemns practices that are associated with Moloch, which are heavily implied to include child sacrifice.[2]

Traditionally, the name Moloch has been understood as referring to a Canaanite god.[3] However, since 1935, scholars have speculated that Moloch refers to the sacrifice itself, since the Hebrew word mlk is identical in spelling to a term that means "sacrifice" in the closely-related Punic language.[4] This second position has grown increasingly popular, but it remains contested.[5] Among proponents of this second position, controversy continues as to whether the sacrifices were offered to Yahweh or another deity, and whether they were a native Israelite religious custom or a Phoenician import.[6]

Since the medieval period, Moloch has often been portrayed as a bull-headed idol with outstretched hands over a fire; this depiction takes the brief mentions of Moloch in the Bible and combines them with various sources, including ancient accounts of Carthaginian child sacrifice and the legend of the Minotaur.[7]

Beginning in the modern era, "Moloch" has been figuratively used in reference to a power which demands a dire sacrifice.[8] A god Moloch appears in various works of literature and film, such as John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô (1862), Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927), and Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" (1955).

  1. ^ Soltes 2021.
  2. ^ Stavrakopoulou 2013, pp. 134–144.
  3. ^ Day 2000, p. 209.
  4. ^ Stavrakopoulou 2013, p. 144.
  5. ^ Stavrakopoulou 2013, p. 147.
  6. ^ Xella 2013, p. 265.
  7. ^ Rundin 2004, pp. 429–439.
  8. ^ Boysen & Ruwe 2021.


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