Baal

For other uses, see Baal (disambiguation).
Bronze figurine of a Baal, ca. 14th–12th century BC, found at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) near the Phoenician coast. Musée du Louvre.

Baal, also rendered Baʿal (Biblical Hebrew בַּעַל, pronounced [ˈbaʕal]), is a North-West Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord"[1] that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu. A Baalist or Baalite means a worshipper of Baal.

"Baal" may refer to any god and even to human officials. In some texts it is used for Hadad, a god of thunderstorms, fertility and agriculture, and the lord of Heaven. Baal is often represented by the symbol of the bull. Since only priests were allowed to utter his divine name, Hadad, Ba‛al was commonly used. Prior to the discovery of the Ugaritic texts it was sometimes thought that there were various and quite-separate gods called Baal. However, it is now generally accepted that there was one great Canaanite storm-and-fertility deity Baal-Hadad, and local manifestations of this one god.[2] Despite the tendency in the Hebrew Bible to avoid the use of the word as a proper name, it is now quite clear that by pre-Israelite times the term had become the usual name of the weather-god of Syria-Palestine.[3]

Etymology

Baʿal (bet-ayin-lamedh) is a Semitic word signifying "The Lord, master, owner (male), keeper, husband", which became the usual designation of the great weather-god of the Western Semites.[4] Cognates include Standard Hebrew (Bet-Ayin-Lamed); בַּעַל / בָּעַל, Báʿal (Hebrew word #1166 in Strong's Concordance), Akkadian Bēl and Arabic بعل. In Hebrew, the word ba'al means "husband" or "owner", and is related to a verb meaning to take possession of, for a man, to consummate a marriage. The word "ba'al" is also used in many Hebrew phrases, denoting both concrete ownership as well as possession of different qualities in one's personality.

The feminine form is Baʿalah: Hebrew: בַּעֲלָה‎, Baʕalah, signifying "a mistress: -that has, a mistress";[5] Arabic: بعلـة‎, baʿalah, a rare word for "wife".[6]

The words themselves had no exclusively religious connotation; they are honorific titles for heads of households or master craftsmen, but not for royalty. The meaning of "lord" as a member of royalty or nobility is more accurately translated as Adon in biblical Hebrew.

In modern Levantine Arabic, the word báʿal serves as an adjective describing farming that relies only on rainwater as a source of irrigation. Probably it is the last remnant of the sense of Baal the god in the minds of the people of the region. In the Amharic language, the Semitic word for "owner" or "husband, spouse" survives with the spelling bal. The Lebanese city of Baalbeck was named after Baal.[7]

Deities called Baal and Baalath

Because more than one god bore the title "Baal" and more than one goddess bore the title "Baalat" or "Baalah," only the context of a text, the definitive article, or a genetive following the word in construct can denote which particular god,[8] a text is speaking of.

Hadad in Ugarit

The stele of Baal with Thunderbolt found in Ugarit
Main article: Hadad

In the Bronze Age, Hadad (or Haddad or Adad) was especially likely to be called Baal; however, Hadad was far from the only god to have that title.

In the Canaanite pantheon as attested in Ugaritic sources, Hadad was the son of El, who had once been the primary god of the Canaanite pantheon. El and Baal are often associated with the bull in Ugaritic texts, as a symbol both of strength and fertility.[9]

Prior to the discovery of the Ugaritic texts it was supposed that 'the Baals' referred to distinct and local Canaanite deities. However, according to John Day, in Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, these texts have revealed that these are simply local manifestations of one great, cosmic deity named Hadad.[10]

Of special interest is the designation ʿAliy(ʿly) which is twice applied to Baal in the Ugaritic poem Legend of Keret (also known as 'krt poem') among other references made to Ba'al:

To the earth Baal rained,
To the field rained ʿAliy.
Sweet to the earth was Baal's rain
To the field the rain of ʿAliy.

Before the discovery and recognition of this name in Ugaritic, Henrik Samuel Nyberg had restored it in Deuteronomy 33:12; I Samuel 2:10; II Samuel 23:1; Isaiah 59:18, 63:7; and Hosea 7:16. Following the verification of the authenticity and antiquity of this divine name in Ugaritic, additional instances have been claimed as occurring in the Psalter and also in Job.[11]

The worship of Ba'al in Canaan was bound to the economy of the land which depends on the regularity and adequacy of the rains, unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, which depend on irrigation. Anxiety about the rainfall was a continuing concern of the inhabitants which gave rise to rites to ensure the coming of the rains. Thus the basis of the Ba'al cult was the utter dependence of life on the rains which were regarded as Baal's bounty.[12] In that respect, Ba'al can be considered a rain god.

Baal of Tyre

Melqart is the son of El in the Phoenician triad of worship. He was the god of Tyre and was often called the Baal of Tyre. 1Kings 16:31 relates that Ahab, king of Israel, married Jezebel, daughter of Eth-baal, king of the Sidonians, and then "went and served Baal, and worshipped him". The cult of this god was prominent in Israel until the reign of Jehu, who – according to the biblical account in 2 Kings – put an end to it: "And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them. 27 And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day. 28 Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel." (2Kings 10:26-28)

Josephus (Antiquities 8.13.1) states clearly that Jezebel "built a temple to the god of the Tyrians, which they call Belus" which certainly refers to the Baal of Tyre, or Melqart.

30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that [were] before him. 31 And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. 32 And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. (1Kings 16:30-33)

Baal of Carthage

The worship of Baal-hamon flourished in the Phoenician colony of Carthage. Baal-hamon was the supreme god of the Carthaginians, and is believed that this supremacy dates back to the 5th century BC, apparently after a breaking off of relationships between Carthage and Tyre at the time of the Punic defeat in Himera.[13]

Baal-hamon was generally identified by the Greeks, by interpretatio Graeca with Greek Cronus and similarly by the Romans with Saturn. The Phoenician god Baal (not always synonymous with Baal-hamon) is generally identified either with the Northwest Semitic god El or with Dagon.[14]

The meaning of Hammon or Hamon is unclear. In the 19th century when Ernest Renan excavated the ruins of Hammon (Ḥammon), the modern Umm al-‘Awamid between Tyre and Acre, he found two Phoenician inscriptions dedicated to El-Hammon. Since El was normally identified with Cronus and Ba‘al Hammon was also identified with Cronus, it seemed possible they could be equated. More often a connection with Hebrew/Phoenician ḥammān 'brazier' has been proposed, in the sense of "Baal (lord) of the brazier". He has been therefore identified with a solar deity.[15] Frank Moore Cross argued for a connection to Khamōn, the Ugaritic and Akkadian name for Mount Amanus, the great mountain separating Syria from Cilicia based on the occurrence of an Ugaritic description of El as the one of the Mountain Haman.

Classical sources relate how the Carthaginians burned their children as offerings to Baal-hamon. From the attributes of his Roman form, African Saturn, it is possible to conclude that Hammon was a fertility god.[16] (See Moloch for a discussion of these traditions and conflicting thoughts on the matter.)

Yigael Yadin thought Baal-hamon to be a moon god. Edward Lipinski identifies him with the god Dagon.[17] Inscriptions about Punic deities tend to be rather uninformative.

In Carthage and North Africa Baal-hamon was especially associated with the ram and was worshiped also as Baal Karnaim ("Lord of Two Horns") in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein ("the two-horned hill") across the bay from Carthage.

Baal-hamon's female cult partner was Tanit.[18] He was probably not ever identified with Baal Melqart, although one finds this equation in older scholarship.

Ba`alat Gebal ("Lady of Byblos") appears to have been generally identified with ‘Ashtart, although Sanchuniathon distinguishes the two.

Priests of Baal

The Priests of Baal are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible numerous times, including a confrontation with the Prophet Elijah (1Kings 18:21-40), the burning of incense symbolic of prayer (2Kings 23:5), and rituals followed by priests adorned in special vestments (2Kings 10:22) offering sacrifices similar to those given to honor the Hebrew God. The confrontation with the Prophet Elijah is also mentioned in the Quran (37:123–125)

Baal as a divine title in Israel and Judah

For the early Hebrews, “Baal” referred to the Lord of Israel, just as “Baal” farther north designated the Lord of Lebanon or of Ugarit:[19]

At first the name Baal was used by the Jews for their God without discrimination, but as the struggle between the two religions developed, the name Baal was given up by the Israelites as a thing of shame, and even names like Jerubbaal were changed to Jerubbosheth: Hebrew bosheth means "shame".[20]

It was the program of Jezebel, in the 9th century BCE, to introduce into Israel's capital city of Samaria her Phoenician cult of Baal as opposed to the worship of Yahweh that made the name anathema to the Israelites.[21] The competition between the priestly forces of Yahweh and of Baal in the ninth century is attested in 1Kings 18. Elijah the prophet challenged Baal's prophets to settle the question whether it was Ba'al or Yahweh who supplied the rain. Elijah offered a sacrifice to Yahweh; Baal's followers did the same. According to the Hebrew Bible, Baal did not light his followers' sacrifice, but Yahweh sent heavenly fire to burn Elijah's sacrifice and altar to ashes, even after it had been soaked with water. Directly after that event, Elijah had the prophets of Ba'al slain, and it soon began to rain.

Since Baal can simply means 'master', there is no obvious reason that it could not be applied to Yahweh as well as other gods. In fact, Hebrews generally referred to Yahweh as Adonai ('my lord') in the Sh'ma prayer.Deuteronomy 6:4-9 The judge Gideon was also called Jerubaal, a name which seems to mean 'Baal strives', though the Yahwists' explanation in Judges 6:32 is that the theophoric name was given to mock the god Baal, whose shrine Gideon had destroyed, the intention being to imply: "Let Baal strive as much as he can ... it will come to nothing."

After Gideon's death, according to Judges 8:33, the Israelites started to worship the Baalim (the Baals) especially Baal-berith ("Lord of the Covenant.") A few verses later (Judges 9:4) the story turns to the citizens of Shechem, who support Abimelech's attempt to become king by giving him 70 shekels from the House of Baal-berith. It is hard to dissociate this Lord of the Covenant who is worshiped in Shechem from the covenant at Shechem described earlier in Joshua 24:25, in which the people agree to worship Yahweh. It is especially hard to do so when Judges 9:46 relates that all "the holders of the tower of Shechem" (kol-ba‘alê midgal-šəkem) enter bêt ’ēl bərît 'the House of El Berith', that is, 'the House of God of the Covenant'. Either "Baal" was here a title for El, or the covenant of Shechem perhaps originally did not involve El at all, but some other god who bore the title Baal. Whether there were different viewpoints about Yahweh, some seeing him as an aspect of Hadad, some as an aspect of El, some with other perceptions cannot be unambiguously answered.

Baal appears in theophoric names. One also finds Eshbaal (one of Saul's sons) and Beeliada (a son of David). The last name also appears as Eliada. This might show that at some period Baal and El were used interchangeably; even in the same name applied to the same person. More likely a later hand has cleaned up the text. Editors did play around with some names, sometimes substituting the form bosheth 'abomination' for ba‘al in names, whence the forms Ish-bosheth instead of Eshbaal and Mephibosheth which is rendered Meribaal in 1Chronicles 9:40. 1Chronicles 12:5 mentions the name Bealiah (also rendered be‘alyâ) meaning whose Lord is Jah.[22]

It is difficult to determine to what extent the 'false worship' which the prophets stigmatize is the worship of Yahweh under a conception and with rites that treated him as a local nature god, or whether particular features of gods more often given the title Ba‘al were consciously recognized to be distinct from Yahwism from the first. According to Mark S. Smith, the worship of Baal threatened Israel from the period of the Judges to the Monarchy.[23]

Certainly some of the Ugaritic texts and Sanchuniathon report hostility between El and Hadad, perhaps representing cultic and religious differences reflected in Hebrew tradition also, in which Yahweh in the Tanakh is firmly identified with El and might be expected to be somewhat hostile to Baal/Hadad and the deities of his circle. But for Jeremiah and the Deuteronomist it also appears to be monotheism against polytheism (Jeremiah 11:12-13):

12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. 13 For [according to] the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and [according to] the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to [that] shameful thing, [even] altars to burn incense unto Baal.

Multiple Baals and Astartes

One finds in the Tanakh the plural forms bə'ālîm 'Baals' or 'Lords' and aštārôt 'Ashtaroth' or 'astartes', though such plurals don't appear in Phoenician or Canaanite or independent Aramaic sources.

One theory is that the people of each territory or in each wandering clan worshipped their own Baal, as the chief deity of each, the source of all the gifts of nature, the mysterious god of their fathers. As the god of fertility all the produce of the soil would be his, and his adherents would bring to him their tribute of first-fruits. He would be the patron of all growth and fertility, and, by the use of analogy characteristic of early thought, this Baal would be the god of the productive element in its widest sense. Originating perhaps in the observation of the fertilizing effect of rains and streams upon the receptive and reproductive soil, Baal worship became identical with nature-worship. Joined with the Baals there would naturally be corresponding female figures which might be called Astartes, embodiments of Astarte. Baal Hadad is associated with the goddess "Virgin" Anat, his sister and lover.

Through analogy and through the belief that one can control or aid the powers of nature by the practice of magic, particularly sympathetic magic, sexuality might characterize part of the cult of the Baals and Astartes. Post-Exilic allusions to the cult of Baal-peor suggest that orgies prevailed. On the summits of hills and mountains flourished the cult of the givers of increase, and "under every green tree" was practised the licentiousness which was held to secure abundance of crops. Human sacrifice, the burning of incense, violent and ecstatic exercises, ceremonial acts of bowing and kissing, the preparing of sacred cakes (see also Asherah), appear among the offences denounced by the post-Exilic prophets; and show that the cult of Baal (and Astarte) included characteristic features of worship which recur in various parts of the Semitic (and non-Semitic) world, although attached to other names. But it is also possible that such rites were performed to a local Baal Lord and a local Astarte without much concern as to whether they were the same as that of a nearby community or how they fitted into the national theology of Yahweh who had become a ruling high god of the heavens, increasingly disassociated from such things, at least in the minds of some worshippers.

Another theory is that the references to Baals and Astartes (and Asherahs) are to images or other standard symbols of these deities, statues, and icons of Baal Hadad, Astarte, and Asherah set-up in various high places as well as those of other gods, the author listing the most prominent as types for all.

A reminiscence of Baal as a title of a local fertility god (or referring to a particular god of subterraneous water) may occur in the Talmudic Hebrew phrases field of the Baal and place of the Baal and Arabic ba'l used of land fertilised by subterraneous waters rather than by rain.

The identification of Baal as a sun-god in historical scholarship came to be abandoned by the end of the 19th century as it became clear that Baal was the title of numerous local gods and not necessarily a single deity in origin. It also became clear that the "astralizing" (association or identification with heavenly bodies) of Ancient Near Eastern deities was a late (Iron Age) development in no way connected with the origin of religion as theorized by some 19th-century schools of thought.[24]

Baal-zebub

Main article: Beelzebub
Beelzebub as depicted in Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal (Paris, 1825).

Baal Zebub (Hebrew בעל זבוב) occurs in 2 Kings 1:2–6 as the name of the Philistine god of Ekron.

But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, [Is it] not because [there is] not a God in Israel, [that] ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? KJV, 1611

Ba‘al Zəbûb is variously understood to mean "lord of flies",[25][26][27][28] or "lord of the (heavenly) dwelling".[29][30][31] Originally the name of a Philistine god,[32] Ba'al, meaning "Lord" in Ugaritic, was used in conjunction with a descriptive name of a specific god. Jewish scholars have interpreted the title of "Lord of Flies" as the Hebrew way of calling Ba'al a pile of dung, and comparing Ba'al followers to flies.[33][34] The Septuagint renders the name as Baalzebub (βααλζεβούβ) and as Baal muian (βααλ μυιαν, "Baal of flies"), but Symmachus the Ebionite may have reflected a tradition of its offensive ancient name when he rendered it as Beelzeboul.[35]

New Testament

Beelzebub, also Beelzebul, is also identified in the New Testament as Satan, the "prince of the demons".[36][37] In Arabic the name is retained as Ba‘al dhubaab / zubaab (بعل الذباب), literally "Lord of the Flies". Biblical scholar Thomas Kelly Cheyne suggested that it might be a derogatory corruption of Ba‘al Zəbûl, "Lord of the High Place" (i.e., Heaven) or "High Lord".[38] The word Beelzebub in rabbinical texts is a mockery of the Ba'al religion, which ancient Hebrews considered to be idol (or, false god) worship.[39]

Quran

The word Baal appears in the Quran. The Quran (37:125) mentions that Elias (Elijah) a prophet of God was sent to his people to tell them not to worship Baal but to worship the one true God.

And Elias was most surely of the messengers, he asked his people: 'do you not fear (God)?, will ye call upon Baal and forsake the best of creators, God is your Lord and the Lord of your fathers, the ancients'. but they rejected him, and they will certainly be called up (for punishment), except the sincere and devoted servants of God (among them), and we left (this blessing) for him among generations (to come) in later times, peace be upon Elias.

Milton and Christian demonology

John Milton in his epic poem Paradise Lost of 1667 describes Satan's "Legions, Angel Forms" immediately after the fall from heaven collecting themselves and gathering around their "Great Sultan" (Satan). Milton names and describes the most prominent of these whose names in heaven had been "blotted out and ras'd", but who would acquire new names "wandring ore the Earth", being worshipped by man ("Devils to adore for Deities"). In the following section, Milton refers to the plural forms of Baal and Astarte [Book 1, lines 419-423]:

With these came they, who from the bordring flood
Of old Euphrates to the Brook that parts
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general Names
Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male,
These Feminine.

The 17th century grimoire, the Goetia, also contains a demon called Baal.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Serge Lancel, Carthage, a History, p. 194.
  2. ↑ Day, J. (1992). Baal (Deity). In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 1, p. 547). New York: Doubleday
  3. ↑ Encyclopaedia Judiaca vol 3 pg 10
  4. ↑ Encyclopedia Judaica, Ba-Blo, pg 11, Baal worship
  5. ↑ Hebrew word #1172 in Strong's Concordance
  6. ↑ Wehr, Hans. A dictionary of modern written Arabic. J. Milton. Cowan (1976 ed.). Ithaca, N.Y.: Spoken Language Services. p. 67. ISBN 0879500018.
  7. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/baalbek-myth-megalith
  8. ↑ From Gods to God: The Dynamics of Iron Age Cosmologies, Baruch Halper, Mohr Siebeck, 2009, pg 64
  9. ↑ Miller, Patrick (2000).Israelite religion and Biblical theology: collected essays. Continuum International Publishing Group, p. 32. ISBN 1-84127-142-X
  10. ↑ John Day (2000). Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan. Sheffield Academic Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-1850759867. The Ugaritic texts revealed, however, that Baal, 'the Lord', was the epithet (though becoming a personal name) of one great cosmic deity, Hadad, so that the local Baals were, in fact, simply local manifestations of this particular deity, analogous to the local manifestations of the Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church.
  11. ↑ Encyclopedia Judaica, Second Edition, Vol 3, Ba-Blo, pg 12
  12. ↑ "Baal Worship". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2008. Retrieved 2014-04-29.
  13. ↑ Moscati, Sabatino (2001). The Phoenicians. Tauris, p. 132. ISBN 1-85043-533-2
  14. ↑ "Carthaginian Religion by Roy Decker". About.com. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
  15. ↑ Walbank, Frank William (1979). A Historical Commentary on Polybius, Volume 2, Clarendon Press, p. 47
  16. ↑ Serge Lancel, Carthage, a History, p. 197.
  17. ↑ Lipinski, Edward. Dictionnaire de la civilisation phenicienne et punique, 1992. ISBN 2-503-50033-1
  18. ↑ Serge Lancel, Carthage, a History, p. 195.
  19. ↑ Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2006. p. 102. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
  20. ↑ Zondervan's Pictorial Bible Dictionary (1976) ISBN 0-310-23560-X.
  21. ↑ Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions Pg 121, and pg 43
  22. ↑ see also s:Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)/Bealiah
  23. ↑ The Early History of God, Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel, Mark S. Smith, Ch 2, Yahweh and Baal, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002
  24. ↑ In 1899, the Encyclopædia Biblica article Baal by W. Robertson Smith and George F. Moore states:
    That Baal was primarily a sun-god was for a long time almost a dogma among scholars, and is still often repeated. This doctrine is connected with theories of the origin of religion which are now almost universally abandoned. The worship of the heavenly bodies is not the beginning of religion. Moreover, there was not, as this theory assumes, one god Baal, worshipped under different forms and names by the Semitic peoples, but a multitude of local Baals, each the inhabitant of his own place, the protector and benefactor of those who worshipped him there. Even in the astro-theology of the Babylonians the star of Bēl was not the sun: it was the planet Jupiter. There is no intimation in the OT that any of the Canaanite Baals were sun-gods, or that the worship of the sun (Shemesh), of which we have ample evidence, both early and late, was connected with that of the Baals ; in 2 Kings 23:5-11 the cults are treated as distinct.
  25. ↑ "Βεελζεβούλ, ὁ indecl. (v.l. Βεελζεβούβ and Βεεζεβούλ W-S. §5, 31, cp. 27 n. 56) Beelzebul, orig. a Philistine deity; the name בַּעַל זְבוּב means Baal (lord) of flies (4 Km 1:2, 6; Sym. transcribes βεελζεβούβ; Vulgate Beelzebub; TestSol freq. Βεελζεβούλ,-βουέλ).", Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (3rd ed.) (173). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  26. ↑ "1. According to 2Kings 1:2-6 the name of the Philistine god of Ekron was Lord of the Flies (Heb. ba‘al zeaûḇ), from whom Israel’s King Ahaziah requested an oracle.", Balz, H. R., & Schneider, G. (1990-). Vol. 1: Exegetical dictionary of the New Testament (211). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans.
  27. ↑ "The etymology of Beelzebul has proceeded in several directions. The variant reading Beelzebub (Syriac translators and Jerome) reflects a long-standing tradition of equating Beelzebul with the Philistine deity of the city of Ekron mentioned in 2 Kgs 1:2, 3, 6, 16. Baalzebub (Heb ba˓al zĕbûb) seems to mean “lord of flies” (HALAT, 250, but cf. LXXB baal muian theon akkarōn, “Baal-Fly, god of Akkaron”; Ant 9:2, 1 theon muian).", Lewis, "Beelzebul", in Freedman, D. N. (1996). Vol. 1: The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (639). New York: Doubleday.
  28. ↑ "On the basis zebub, ‘flies’, the name of the god was interpreted as ‘Lord of the flies’; it was assumed that he was a god who could cause or cure diseases.", Herrmann, "Baal Zebub", in Toorn, K. v. d., Becking, B., & Horst, P. W. v. d. (1999). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible DDD (2nd extensively rev. ed.) (154). Leiden; Boston; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brill; Eerdmans.
  29. ↑ "It is more probable that b‘l zbl, which can mean “lord of the (heavenly) dwelling” in Ugaritic, was changed to b‘l zbb to make the divine name an opprobrius epithet. The reading Beelzebul in Mt. 10:25 would then reflect the right form of the name, a wordplay on “master of the house” (Gk oikodespótēs).", McIntosh, "Baal-Zebub", in Bromiley, G. W. (1988; 2002). Vol. 1: The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (381). Wm. B. Eerdmans.
  30. ↑ "An alternative suggested by many is to connect zĕbûl with a noun meaning “ (exalted) abode.”", Lewis, "Beelzebul", in Freedman, D. N. (1996). Vol. 1: The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (639). New York: Doubleday.
  31. ↑ "In contemporary Semitic speech it may have been understood as ‘the master of the house’; if so, this phrase could be used in a double sense in Mt. 10:25b.", Bruce, "Baal-Zebub, Beelzebul", in Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996). New Bible dictionary (3rd ed.) (108). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.
  32. ↑ "For etymological reasons, Baal Zebub must be considered a Semitic god; he is taken over by the Philistine Ekronites and incorporated into their local cult.", Herrmann, "Baal Zebub", in Toorn, K. v. d., Becking, B., & Horst, P. W. v. d. (1999). Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible DDD (2nd extensively rev. ed.) (154). Leiden; Boston; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brill; Eerdmans.
  33. ↑ Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Beelzebub". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.
  34. ↑ Beelzebub Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  35. ↑ Catholic Encyclopedia
  36. ↑ "In NT Gk. beelzeboul, beezeboul (Beelzebub in TR and AV) is the prince of the demons (Mt. 12:24, 27; Mk. 3:22; Lk. 11:15, 18f.), identified with Satan (Mt. 12:26; Mk. 3:23, 26; Lk. 11:18).", Bruce, "Baal-Zebub, Beelzebul", Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996). New Bible dictionary (3rd ed.) (108). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.
  37. ↑ "Besides, Matt 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15 use the apposition ἄρχων τῶν δαιμονίων ‘head of the →Demons’.", Herrmann, "Baal Zebub", in Toorn, K. v. d., Becking, B., & Horst, P. W. v. d. (1999). Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible DDD (2nd extensively rev. ed.) (154). Leiden; Boston; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brill; Eerdmans.
  38. ↑ Michael Wex, Born to Kvetch, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2005, ISBN 0-312-30741-1
  39. ↑ Manfred Lurker, Books.google.com, The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons

Further reading

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Baal.