CODEX Entry 1521: Giving seed to the Molech
Called Baal or Molech worship in Canaanite and Israelite documents, it involved the offerings of semen at temple, a practise prevalent between 2500 BC and 500 BC. Historians have put these gods in the general category of fertility Gods, as this ritual was not clearly understood. Much of the confusion arises from modifications to the rituals after 500 BC, when the gods were no longer taking the offerings. The animal blood, milk, and semen would all then be taken to the ‘waste bowl’ at the temple entrance, and distributed to worshippers to apply in their herb gardens, rich in nutrients. Early chroniclers therefore assumed the ritual was performed to ensure a bountiful harvest.
In the Bible or Tanakh, when semen was left on the floor, or on clothing¹, זָֽרַע in the Hebrew, and semine in the Latin Vulgate Bible, it was translated as semen. But, when semine was used in reference to giving it to the Molech, earlier bibles such as the King James Bible, and throughout the 19th century in the Webster and English Revised Bible, gave it the more generic translation of ‘seed’. This was because early translators did not understand the nature of this ritual, finding the idea of giving semen to a god strange. Translators began to confuse the two rituals of giving semen to the Molech, and sacrificing the first born. The meaning was then lost entirely in 20th century translations, where the NIV and NLT versions simply replaced it with the wording ‘sacrifice of children’². This is why it is often repeated twice in two consecutive verses.
Semen was generally collected by the kadesh (temple boys) in bowls, with milk and egg yolk, which helped to preserve the sperm at room temperatures. In turn, honey, which has a very high hydrogen peroxide level, helped to preserve the milk. Yahweh was strongly against this, and demanded only the Blood Ritual, using animal blood, marrow, and the fat around the internal organs³. This was why Yahweh referred to Canaan with the derogatory term ‘the land of milk and honey’. This was not an agricultural metaphor.
Saturday, or Sabbatu, allowed no sex, masturbation, or wet dreams. Meals contained high protein, during the two days prior to temple. This combination of rest, abstinence, and protein could suggest some interest in the quality and quantity of spermatogonia stem cells. These stem cells are unique; self-renewing; maintaining the undifferentiated state through numerous cell divisions; multipotent, with the capacity to differentiate into any type of mature cell. These are the eternal germ cells present from birth to death, residing in the basal layer of the seminiferous tubules of the testes.
References:
¹ Lev. 15:16-17
² Lev. 20:2 – 5
³ Lev. 8:15-17