I am not referring to the application (whether fertility cult or kingship ascension or what have you) to which a template of dying and rising might be put; I am referring to the template itself: the pattern of a divine figure being obedient to the point of dying and then being restored to life.Chris Hansen wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 12:11 pmI do not think the parallels actually hold up, especially as N. Wyatt (in 2017) has shown that Ba'al's "death" and "resurrection" are likely to be (as Mark S. Smith argued) related to kingship ascension.
You appeal to Nicolas Wyatt, so here is Nicolas Wyatt:
Nicolas Wyatt, "The Problem of 'Dying and Rising' Gods: The Case of Baal," in Ugarit-Forschungen, Internationales Jahrbuch für die Altertumskunde Syrien Palästinas, Band 48 (2017), page 822: Here the expression "placed him in a grave of the gods of the underworld" (tštnn bḫrt ilm arṣ) is formulaic, occurring in KTU 1.5 v 5 and also in the Aqhat story, KTU 1.19 iii 6, 20, 35, where, referring to Aqhat's burial, it cannot mean anything but the interment of the dead.
Nicolas Wyatt, "The Problem of 'Dying and Rising' Gods: The Case of Baal," in Ugarit-Forschungen, Internationales Jahrbuch für die Altertumskunde Syrien Palästinas, Band 48 (2017), page 826: To infer from the text at either end of the gap [of nearly 40 lines at the beginning of KTU 1.6 v] that Baal has returned, been restored, resurrected, or whatever we wish to call it, is a reasonable, indeed the only reasonable interpretation of the materials.
Ba'al dies, and Ba'al rises; Jesus dies, and Jesus rises. Ba'al's death is in obedience to someone (to whom is unclear, due to a lacuna in the text); Jesus' death is in obedience to God the Father. Death is conquered by Ba'al in the process or as a consequence of Ba'al rising; death is abolished by Jesus in the process or as a consequence of Jesus rising. These specific correspondences are the template or the pattern of which I am speaking. Whether or not the pattern or template meant the same thing to different people over time is a separate issue.
Ba'al dies, and Ba'al rises. The exact term you wish to use for this phenomenon is not relevant to my point. It is the concept of death and revival from death that I am talking about.As such, interpreting Ba'al as a dying-rising god is misinformed from the start.