Era 4 · Covenant and WildernessLeviticus
Family Boundaries and Molech
"After the doings of the land of Egypt… shall ye not do"
"After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do… Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them."
Then the boundaries: no sexual relations with close relatives, by blood or by marriage (a parent, stepmother, sister, half-sister, granddaughter, aunt, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, a woman and her daughter, two sisters at the same time). No relations with a woman during her period, or with a neighbor's wife.
"And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God." A man is not to lie with a male as with a woman; no one is to lie with an animal.
"Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled… and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants." Leviticus 20 repeats many of these laws with penalties, beginning with the most severe for anyone who gives a child to Molech.
The world these laws addressed
Every ancient society regulated marriage and incest. Hammurabi's laws punish a man who sleeps with his daughter (exile), his daughter-in-law (death) or his mother after his father's death (burning). Hittite laws list forbidden relationships including with animals, some punishable by death, others not. Egyptian royal families sometimes practiced brother-sister marriage. Leviticus' list is unusually systematic, forbidding marriages that Genesis records among the patriarchs: Abraham married his half-sister Sarah, Jacob married two sisters, and Moses' parents were nephew and aunt (Exodus 6:20).
Molech
Who or what was Molech? The Bible links it with "passing" children "through the fire" at the Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom, outside Jerusalem, practiced by Kings Ahaz and Manasseh and ended by Josiah (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6; 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31; 32:35).
Molech was a deity, perhaps an underworld god known at Ugarit and in Mesopotamia as Malik, to whom children were sacrificed (John Day, George Heider).
In 1935 Otto Eissfeldt pointed out that Punic inscriptions use mlk (molk) as a term for a kind of sacrifice. "To Molech" would then mean "as a molk offering." This view was influential but has been challenged, since the Bible clearly treats Molech as a rival to God.
Some interpreters, ancient and modern, thought "pass through the fire" meant a dedication ritual rather than killing. Jeremiah 7:31 and Ezekiel 16:20–21 say the children were burned and slaughtered.
The tophets of Carthage
At Carthage and other Phoenician colonies, archaeologists have found sacred precincts with thousands of urns containing the cremated bones of infants and young animals, marked by stelae dedicated to Baal Hammon and Tanit, from the 8th to the 2nd century BC. Greek and Roman writers accused the Carthaginians of child sacrifice. Scholars disagree whether these were sacrifices or a cemetery for infants who died naturally; a 2010 study argued the latter, and a 2013 response defended sacrifice. Evidence from Carthage cannot by itself confirm what happened in Jerusalem, but it shows that the Bible's accusation describes a real practice in the Phoenician world.
The Case for the Biblical Account
Scripture's account
Laws on forbidden relationships and on giving children to Molech, with penalties (Leviticus 18; 20).
What evidence would we expect?
Ancient incest laws; evidence of child sacrifice in the region; biblical narratives showing these issues in Israel's history.
The discoveries
Hammurabi's and Hittite laws on incest and bestiality; the Carthage tophet and Punic mlk inscriptions; biblical accounts of the Topheth in Jerusalem.
Testing the discoveries
The laws have real parallels. The interpretation of the Carthage tophet is debated; no tophet has been excavated in Jerusalem.
The strongest reconstruction
Leviticus 18 and 20 address real concerns of ancient societies, with an unusually comprehensive list, and condemn a practice of child sacrifice that the Bible says reached Jerusalem.
What remains possible
The identity of Molech and the extent of child sacrifice in Judah remain disputed.
Reading difficult laws honestly
These chapters include laws and penalties that many modern readers find hard, including the prohibitions on male same-sex relations (18:22; 20:13) and the death penalties of chapter 20. Jews and Christians have interpreted them in different ways: rabbinic courts surrounded the death penalty with so many procedural safeguards that it was rarely possible; Christians have debated which Levitical laws continue in force after Christ. We present the text as it stands, its ancient setting, and the main lines of interpretation, and leave the reader to weigh them.
What the evidence shows
- Hammurabi's and Hittite laws regulate incest and bestiality.Source: M. T. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (1997)
- Thousands of infant cremation burials were found in the tophet at Carthage.Source: P. Xella et al., "Phoenician Bones of Contention," Antiquity 87 (2013); J. H. Schwartz et al., "Skeletal Remains from Punic Carthage Do Not Support Systematic Sacrifice of Infants," PLoS ONE 5(2): e9177 (2010) ↗
- The Carthage tophet burials were child sacrifices.Source: P. Xella et al., "Phoenician Bones of Contention," Antiquity 87 (2013); J. H. Schwartz et al., "Skeletal Remains from Punic Carthage Do Not Support Systematic Sacrifice of Infants," PLoS ONE 5(2): e9177 (2010) ↗
- Molech was the name of a god.Source: J. Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament (1989); G. C. Heider, The Cult of Molek: A Reassessment (1985)
- "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes… which if a man do, he shall live in them."
Continue the journey
Ancient MysteriesMolech and the TophetWho was Molech, and did Israel's neighbors, or Judah itself, sacrifice children?More from this lesson
Investigations
Optional deep dives: the ancient sources, the physical evidence, and every interpretation side by side, including unconventional ones, each labeled for what it is.
Molech and the TophetBiblical prohibition: clear · Identity of Molech: disputed · Carthage sacrifice: disputed but supported
Who was Molech, and did Israel's neighbors, or Judah itself, sacrifice children?
Leviticus forbids giving children "to Molech." Kings and Jeremiah say Judahite kings made their children "pass through the fire" at the Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom. At Carthage, archaeologists have excavated vast cemeteries of cremated infants called tophets. Whether Molech was a god or a sacrifice, and whether the Carthage infants were sacrificed, are both debated.
Open the full investigation →Why this matters to the rest of Scripture
- Josiah defiles Topheth "that no man might make his son… to pass through the fire to Molech."
- "Which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart."
- God stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac.
- Paul condemns a man living with his father's wife.
- Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:12Paul quotes Leviticus 18:5.