For an ancient historian, the word cult does not have the kind of negative connotations it may have today—referring to a wild sectarian religion with bizarre beliefs and practices. It is simply a shortened version of the term cultus deorum, which means “care of the gods,” a close equivalent to what today we would call “religion”
I was not aware of this meaning when I started Seminary forty years ago, so when I heard my Old Testament professor use the word I had to learn it in an entirely different context.
