Ancient Mysteries & Interpretations
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.
Biblical prohibition: clear · Identity of Molech: disputed · Carthage sacrifice: disputed but supported
2 Kings 16:3; 21:6; 23:10Jeremiah 7:31; 19:5; 32:35
"Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech" (Leviticus 18:21). Ahaz "made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen" (2 Kings 16:3). "They have built the high places of Tophet… to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart" (Jeremiah 7:31). Josiah "defiled Topheth… that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech" (2 Kings 23:10).
Many are dedicated to Baal Hammon and Tanit and use the term mlk (molk), sometimes mlk ʾmr (a molk of a lamb) or mlk bʿl.
Describe Carthaginians sacrificing children to Kronos (Baal Hammon) in times of crisis.
The tophet of Carthage (Salammbô), excavated from the 1920s and by Lawrence Stager's team in the 1970s, held thousands of urns with the cremated bones of infants and young animals, under stelae, over six centuries. Similar precincts were found in Sicily, Sardinia and at Tyre. No tophet has been excavated in the Valley of Hinnom, and the Jerusalem evidence comes only from the Bible.
In 2010 Jeffrey Schwartz and colleagues argued from the ages of the infants that many were stillborn or died soon after birth, so the tophet could be a special cemetery. In 2013 Paolo Xella and colleagues answered that the inscriptions, the ancient testimony, and the ages together support sacrifice. The debate continues.
Scholarly reconstruction
Molech was a deity (perhaps an underworld god, related to Malik known at Ebla, Ugarit and Mari) to whom children were sacrificed.
Source: J. Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament (1989); G. C. Heider, The Cult of Molek: A Reassessment (1985)
Scholarly reconstruction
Following Eissfeldt, "molech" is the Punic sacrificial term mlk; "to Molech" means "as a molk-offering," possibly even offered to the LORD, which the law forbids.
Source: O. Eissfeldt, Molk als Opferbegriff im Punischen und Hebräischen (1935)
Scholarly reconstruction
The tophets were places of child sacrifice, as Greek and Roman authors reported.
Source: L. E. Stager and S. R. Wolff, "Child Sacrifice at Carthage: Religious Rite or Population Control?" BAR 10:1 (1984); P. Xella et al., "Phoenician Bones of Contention," Antiquity 87 (2013); Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 20.14 (1st century BC)
Scholarly reconstruction
The tophets were cemeteries for infants who died naturally; accusations of sacrifice were hostile propaganda.
The Bible consistently condemns child sacrifice and claims it reached Judah under some kings. Carthage shows that a practice of this kind existed in the Phoenician world, though its interpretation is debated. Evidence from Carthage cannot by itself confirm what happened in Jerusalem, and the identity of Molech remains open.
What the evidence shows
Source: L. E. Stager and S. R. Wolff, "Child Sacrifice at Carthage: Religious Rite or Population Control?" BAR 10:1 (1984)
Source: O. Eissfeldt, Molk als Opferbegriff im Punischen und Hebräischen (1935)
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) ↗
Source: J. Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament (1989)