Younger-God Theology in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Myth

This study examines the evidence for what will be called “younger-god theology” in a selection of mythic texts from across the ancient Near East. Coming from a broad geographic and chronological range, the narratives of these texts revolve around the heroic deeds of the gods Ninurta, Marduk, Baal, and Yhwh. In each instance, the younger god confronts and defeats a threat to cosmic order and, in the process, ensures the continued maintenance of the divine sphere. These heroic acts lead to his rise to a station outpacing those of his similarly ranked peers. Ultimately, the younger god’s preservation of order is so consequential that it establishes them as the ordained successor for divine rule, causing them to approach the rank of the pantheon’s supreme figure. As will become clear, the younger god’s ascent was not just a recurrent literary trope or theme in ancient Near Eastern literature, but an important theological concept bound up in ideas regarding the nature of the gods, the proper transfer of power, and the inevitability of decline and death.