[Carry_Okie]

Why the adoption of a new paganism, not even the old Canaanite paganism?

What was "new" about it? The children of Israel were already half way there. The reason Israel fell was the adherence to the Ba'al worship of Jeroboam son of Nebat. Read Kings II for a stirringly repetitive and boring recount. My take is that the "new" paganism of the Celts was reasonably coherent with that of Israel.

[VadeRetro]

I was unaware of the Celts worshipping El, Baal, and that crowd. I would have expected people who do that kind of thing for a living to notice if there was something nearly identical going on there.