There can be no doubt that the Phoenicians were a people in whose minds religion and religious ideas occupied a very prominent place.  Religiousness has been said to be one of the leading characteristics of the Semitic race;[0111] and it is certainly remarkable that with that race originated the three principal religions, two of which are the only progressive religions, of the modern world.  Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism all arose in Western Asia within a restricted area, and from nations whose Semitic origin is unmistakable.  The subject of ethnic affinities and differences, of the transmission of qualities and characteristics, is exceedingly obscure; but, if the theory of heredity be allowed any weight at all, there should be no difficulty in accepting the view that particular races of mankind have special leanings and aptitudes.

Still, the religiousness of the Phoenicians does not rest on any a priori arguments, or considerations of what is likely to have been.  Here was a nation among whom, in every city, the temple was the centre of attraction, and where the piety of the citizens adorned every temple with abundant and costly offerings.  The monarchs who were at the head of the various states showed the greatest zeal in continually maintaining the honour of the gods, repaired and beautified the sacred buildings, and occasionally added to their kingly dignity the highly esteemed office of High Priest.[0112] The coinage of the country bore religious emblems,[0113] and proclaimed the fact that the cities regarded themselves as under the protection of this or that deity.  Both the kings and their subjects bore commonly religious names—­names which designated them as the worshippers or placed them under the tutelage of some god or goddess.  Abd-alonim, Abdastartus, Abd-osiris, Abdemon (which is properly Abd-Esmun), Abdi-milkut, were names of the former kind, Abi-baal (= “Baal is my father"), Itho-bal (= “with him is Baal"), Baleazar or Baal-azur (= “Baal protects"), names of the latter.  The Phoenician ships carried images of the gods[0114] in the place of figure-heads.  Wherever the Phoenicians went, they bore with them their religion and their worship; in each colony they planted a temple or temples, and everywhere throughout their wide dominion the same gods were worshipped with the same rites and with the same observances.

In considering the nature of the Phoenician religion, we must distinguish between its different stages.  There is sufficient reason to believe that originally, either when they first occupied their settlements upon the Mediterranean or before they moved from their primitive seats upon the shores of the Persian Gulf, the Phoenicians were Monotheists.  We must not look for information on this subject to the pretentious work which Philo of Byblus, in the first or second century of our era, put forth with respect to the “Origines” of his countrymen, and attributed to Sanchoniatho;[0115]