Digging Up the Bible: Megiddo Altar

DIGGING UP THE BIBLE
Important Archeological Finds that help Us Understand Scripture
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Linda Manuel—1996

Megiddo Altar
(13^th century BC)

Tel Megiddo is widely regarded as the most important archaeological site in Israel today. (A Tel is an artificial hill or mound.) Researchers have uncovered twenty levels of civilization representing 5500 years of continuous habitation from 6000-500 B.C. The round altar there (2950-2350 B.C.) was the center for much of the city's religious activity. Seven steps (in the photo) lead to a huge platform twenty six feet in diameter and five feet high. Adjacent to it were three small temples, each assigned to a different deity. In some respects, this altar resembles the biblical "high places" which religious reformers in the 81h and 7th centuries condemned.

Megiddo was a major city and cultic center in Canaan. The culture of the Canaanites was not primitive according to the standards of its day. They had international trade connections throughout the Mediterranean, drew advanced architectural design and construction techniques from Egypt, and displayed intricate pottery decoration. (A small broken tablet found on the site containing a passage from the Gilgamesh Epic may indicate a scribal school in Megiddo.) Their religious practices, however, were morally depraved, including child sacrifice, fertility rites, and sexual perversion, all of which God considered detestable. He instructed Israel to destroy the Canaanites, but His people failed to complete the task. Israelite forces did not conquer Megiddo until long after the initial incursion:

Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. (Judg 1:27)

Most scholars date its capture to the time of David, several hundred years later.

The book of Leviticus gives detailed instruction on ceremonial law and lists warnings and condemnations of Canaanite cultic practices:

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.... "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. (Lev 18:1-3, 24-28)

Despite this instruction, Israel allowed some pagan religious centers to remain, and these eventually led the nation away from God.

Later in Israel's history, God used the Assyrians to take the ten northern tribes into exile because of their involvement in these corrupt practices. The southern tribes also adopted Canaanite rites, and God sent them into exile through Babylon. Leviticus calls God's people to be holy in every aspect of life. Holiness cannot coexist with evil or depravity, a point believers would do well to remember even today.

Significance for Biblical Studies: The Megiddo Altar is a reminder of why the Northern Kingdom of Israel went into exile and of the devastating effect idolatry had on the nation:

All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt.... They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. (2 Kgs 17:7-9)

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