'Ba`al' ('';Arabic,بعل; Hebrew: בעל) (ordinarily spelled 'Baal' in English) is a
Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the
Levant, cognate to
Assyrian ''
Bēlu''.
"Ba`al" can refer to any god and even to human officials; in some texts it is used as a substitute for
Hadad, a god of the rain, thunder, fertility and agriculture, and the
lord of Heaven. Since only priests were allowed to utter his divine name Hadad, Ba`al was used commonly. Nevertheless, few if any
Biblical uses of "Ba`al" refer to
Hadad, the lord over the assembly of gods on the holy mount of Heaven, but rather refer to any number of local spirit-deities worshipped as
cult images, each called ''ba`al'' and regarded as a false god.
Deities called Ba`al and Ba`alath
Because more than one god bore the title "Ba`al" and more than one goddess bore the title "Ba`alat" or "Ba``alah," only the context of a text can indicate which Ba`al 'Lord' or Ba`alath 'Lady' a particular inscription or text is speaking of.
Though the god
Hadad (or Adad) was especially likely to be called Ba`al, Hadad was far from the only god to have that title. The
Ugaritic texts (mainly preserved in the
Ba`al cycle) place the dwelling of Baal on Mount Saphon,
[1] so references to Baal Zephon in the
Tanach and in inscriptions and tablets referring to the Baal of Mount Saphon may indicate the storm-god Hadad. It is said that
Ba`al Pe’or, the Lord of Mount Pe’or, whom Israelites were forbidden from worshipping () was also Hadad. In the
Canaanite pantheon, Hadad was the son of
El, who had once been the primary god of the Canaanite pantheon, and whose name was also used interchangeably with that of the
Hebrew God,
Yahweh.
Melqart, the god of
Tyre, was often called the Ba`al of
Tyre. relates that
Ahab, king of
Israel, married
Jezebel, daughter of
Ethba’al, king of the
Sidonians, and then served ''habba’al'' ('the Ba`al'.) The
cult of this god was prominent in Israel until the reign of
Jehu, who put an end to it ():
And they brought out the pillars (''massebahs'') of the house of the Ba`al and burned them. And they pulled down the pillar (''massebah'') of the Ba`al and pulled down the house of the Ba`al and turned it into a latrine until this day.
It is uncertain whether "the Ba`al" 'the Lord' refers to Melqart, to Hadad, who was also worshipped in Tyre, or
Ba`al Shamîm 'Lord of Heaven' who was also worshipped in Tyre and often distinguished from Hadad.
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 Melqart. But Josephus may be relying on likelihood rather than knowledge. Hadad is generally a rain god but Melqart is not known to be connected with bringing of rain. But so little is known of Melqart's cult that such reasoning is not decisive.
In any case, King Ahab, despite supporting the cult of this Ba‘al, had a semblance of worship to Yahweh (1Kings 16-22). Ahab still consulted Yahweh's prophets and cherished Yahweh's protection when he named his sons
Ahaziah ("Yahweh holds") and Jehoram ("Yahweh is high.")
Ba`al of Carthage
The worship of Ba`al Hammon flourished in the
Phoenician colony of
Carthage. Ba`al Hammon was the supreme god of the Carthaginians and is generally identified by modern scholars either with the northwest Semitic god
El or with
Dagon, and generally identified by the
Greeks with
Cronus and by the
Romans with
Saturn.
The meaning of ''Hammon'' or ''Hamon'' is unclear. In the 19th century when
Ernest Renan excavated the ruins of Hammon (), the modern Umm between
Tyre and
Acre, he found two Phoenician inscriptions dedicated to El-Hammon. Since El was normally identified with Cronus and Hammon was also identified with Cronus, it seemed possible they could be equated. More often a connection with
Hebrew/
Phoenician '' 'brazier' has been proposed. Frank Moore Cross argued for a connection to '', 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 Ba`al Hammon. See '
Moloch' for a discussion of these traditions and conflicting thoughts on the matter. Such a devouring of children fits well with the Greek traditions of Cronus.
Scholars tend to see Ba`al Hammon as more or less identical with the god El, who was also generally identified with Cronus and Saturn. However, Yigal Yadin thought him to be a moon god. Edward Lipinski identifies him with the god
Dagon in his ''Dictionnaire de la civilisation phenicienne et punique'' (1992: ISBN 2-503-50033-1). Inscriptions about Punic deities tend to be rather uninformative.
In Carthage and North Africa Ba`al Hammon was especially associated with the ram and was worshiped also as Ba`al Qarnaim ("Lord of Two Horns") in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein ("the two-horned hill") across the bay from Carthage.
Ba`al Hammon's female cult partner was
Tanit. He was probably not ever identified with Ba`al
Melqart, although one finds this equation in older scholarship.
Ba`alat Gebal ("Lady of Byblos") appears to have been generally identified with , although
Sanchuniathon distinguishes the two.
Priests of Ba`al
The Priests of Ba`al are mentioned in The Bible numerous times, including a confrontation with the Prophet Elijah (), the burning of incense symbolic of prayer (), and rituals followed by priests adorned in special vestments () offering sacrifices similar to those given to honor YaHWeH (
Jehovah in English). The confrontation with the Prophet Elijah is also mentioned in the Qur'an (
37:123-125)
''Ba‘al'' as a divine title in Palestine
::At first the name Ba`al was used by the
Jews for their God without discrimination, but as the struggle between the two religions developed, the name Ba`al was given up in Judaism as a thing of shame, and even names like Jerubba`al were changed to Jerubbosheth: Hebrew ''bosheth'' means "shame". ''Zondervan's Pictorial Bible Dictionary (1976) ISBN 0-310-23560-X''
Since ''Ba‘al'' simply means 'Lord', there is no obvious reason why it could not be applied to Yahweh as well as other gods. In fact, Hebrews generally referred to Yahweh as ''Adonai'' ('My Lord') in prayer (the word ''Hashem'' - 'The Name' - is substituted in everyday speech). The judge
Gideon was also called Jeruba`al, a name which seems to mean 'Ba‘al strives' though makes the claim that the name was given to mock the god Ba‘al, whose shrine Gideon had destroyed, the intention being to imply: "Let Ba‘al strive as much as he can ... it will come to nothing."
After Gideon's death, according to , the Israelites went astray and started to worship the Ba‘alîm (the Ba‘als) especially Ba‘al Berith ("Lord of the Covenant.") A few verses later () the story turns to all the citizens of
Shechem — actually ''kol-ba‘
alê š
əkem'' another case of normal use of ''ba‘al'' not applied to a deity. These citizens of Shechem support
Abimelech's attempt to become king by giving him 70 shekels from the House of Ba‘al Berith. It is hard to dissociate this Lord of the Covenant who is worshipped in Shechem from the covenant at Shechem described earlier in in which the people agree to worship Yahweh. It is especially hard to do so when relates that all "the holders of the tower of Shechem" (''kol-ba‘
alê midgal-š
əkem'') enter ''bêt ’ēl b
ərît'' 'the House of El Berith', that is, 'the House of God of the Covenant'. Was Ba‘al then here just a title for El? Or did the covenant of Shechem perhaps originally not involve El at all but some other god who bore the title Ba‘al? Or were there different viewpoints about Yahweh, some seeing him as an aspect of Hadad, some as an aspect of El, some with other theories? Again, there is no clear answer.
One also finds Eshba`al (one of
Saul's sons) and Be`eliada (a son of
David). The last name also appears as Eliada. This might show that at some period Ba‘al 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 substuting the form ''bosheth'' 'abomination' for ''ba‘al'' in names, whence the forms ''Ishbosheth'' instead of ''Eshba`al'' and ''Mephibosheth'' which is rendered ''Meriba`al'' in . mentions the name Be`aliah (more accurately ''b
e‘alyâ'') meaning "Yahweh is Ba‘al."
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 which 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. Certainly some of the Ugaritic texts and
Sanchuniathon report hostility between El and Hadad, perhaps representing a cultic and religious differences reflected in Hebrew tradition also, in which Yahweh in the ''
Tanach'' is firmly identified with El and might be expected to be somewhat hostile to Ba`al/Hadad and the deities of his circle. But for
Jeremiah and the
Deuteronomist it also appears to be
monotheism against
polytheism ():
Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry to the gods to whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to the abominination, altars to burn incense to the Ba‘al.
Does this refer to other gods and one particular god, perhaps Hadad, who is especially "the Ba‘al"? Or does it refer to altars to burn incense to "the Ba‘al" to which each altar is raised, that is to as many different Ba‘al's as there were altars?
Multiple Ba‘als and ‘Ashtarts
One finds in the ''Tanach'' the plural forms ''b
ə‘ālîm'' 'Ba‘als' or 'Lords' and ''‘aštārôt'' '‘Ashtarts', though such plurals don't appear in Phoenician or Canaanite or independent Aramaic sources.
One theory is that the folk of each territory or in each wandering clan worshipped their own Ba‘al, 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 Ba‘al 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, Ba‘al worship became identical with nature-worship. Joined with the Ba‘als there would naturally be corresponding female figures which might be called ‘Ashtarts, embodiments of
‘Ashtart. Ba`al 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 Ba‘als and ‘Ashtarts. Post-Exilic allusions to the cult of Ba‘al Pe'or 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 mystic cakes (see also
Asherah), appear among the offences denounced by the post-Exilic prophets; and show that the cult of Ba‘al (and ‘Ashtart) 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 Ba‘al 'Lord' and a local ‘Ashtart without much concern as to whether or not 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 Ba‘als and ‘Ashtarts (and Asherahs) are to images or other standard symbols of these deities, that is statues and icons of Ba‘al Hadad, ‘Ashtart, 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. The Deuteronomistic editor is as angered and saddened by worshipping of images as by worshipping other deities than Yahweh and wishes to emphasize the plurality of false deities as opposed to true worship of Yahweh at his single temple in Jerusalem as called for in the reforms of
Josiah.
A reminiscence of Ba‘al 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 ba‘al'' and ''place of the ba‘al'' and
Arabic ''ba‘l'' used of land fertilised by subterraneous waters rather than by rain.
Common confusion over ''Ba‘al''
Because the word Ba`al is used as a common substitute for the sacred name Hadad, confusion often arises when the same word is used for other deities, physical representations of gods and even people.
Historically, this confusion was resolved in the nineteenth century as new archaeological evidence indicated multiple gods bearing the title Ba‘al and little about them that connected them to the sun. 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 K. 235 cp 11 the cults are treated as distinct.
The demon entitled ''Baal''
Main articles: Baal (demon)
The ''Dictionnaire Infernal'' illustration of Baal.
''Other spellings'': Bael, Baël (French), Baell.
Baal is sometimes seen as a
demon in
Christianity. This is a potential source of confusion.
Until archaeological digs at
Ras Shamra and
Ebla uncovered texts explaining the
Syrian pantheon, the demon Ba‘al Zebûb was frequently confused with various Semitic spirits and deities entitled Baal, and in some Christian writings, it might refer to a high-ranking devil or to
Satan himself.
In the ancient world of the
Persian Empire, from the
Indian Ocean to the
Mediterranean Sea, worship of inanimate idols of wood and metal was being rejected in favor of "the one living God". In the
Levant the idols were called "ba`als", each of which represented a local spirit-deity or "demon". Worship of all such spirits was rejected as immoral, and many were in fact considered malevolent and dangerous.
Early
demonologists, unaware of Hadad or that "Ba`al" in the Bible referred to any number of local spirits, came to regard the term as referring to but one personage. Baal (usually spelt "Bael" in this context; there is a possibility that the two figures aren't connected) was ranked as the first and principal king in
Hell, ruling over the East. According to some authors Baal is a duke, with 66 legions of demons under his command.
During the English
Puritan period, Baal was either compared to Satan or considered his main lieutenant. According to
Francis Barrett, he has the power to make those who invoke him invisible.
While the Semitic high god Ba`al Hadad was depicted as a human, ram or a bull, the demon Bael was in
grimoire tradition said to appear in the forms of a man, cat, toad, or combinations thereof. An illustration in
Collin de Plancy's 1818 book ''
Dictionnaire Infernal'' rather curiously placed the heads of the three creatures onto a set of
spider legs.
Ba`al Zebûb
Main articles: Beelzebub
Another version of the demon Baal is
Beelzebub, or more accurately Ba‘al Zebûb or Ba‘al Z
əbûb (Hebrew בעל-זבוב, Ba`al zvuv), who was originally the name of a deity worshipped in the
Philistine city of
Ekron. Ba‘al Zebûb might mean 'Lord of Zebûb', referring to an unknown place named Zebûb, a
pun with 'Lord of flies', ''zebûb'' being a
Hebrew collective noun meaning 'fly'. This may mean that the Hebrews were derogating the god of their enemy. Later, Christian writings referred to Ba‘al Zebûb as a
demon or
devil, often interchanged with 'Beelzebul'. Either form may appear as an alternate name for Satan (or the Devil) or may appear to refer to the name of a lesser devil. As with several religions, the names of any earlier foreign or "
pagan" deities often became synonymous with the concept of an adversarial entity. The
demonization of Ba‘al Zebûb led to much of the modern religious personification of Satan as the adversary of the
Abrahamic God.
Some scholars have suggested that Ba`al Zebul which means 'lord prince' was deliberately changed by the worshippers of Yahweh to Ba`al Zebub ('
lord of the flies') in order to ridicule and protest the worship of Ba`al Zebul. (NIV Study Bible published by Zondervan)
Non-religious usage of ''Ba`al''
'' (
Bet-
Ayin-
Lamed; 'בַּעַל' / 'בָּעַל',
Standard Hebrew '',
Tiberian Hebrew '' / '') is a northwest
Semitic word signifying 'The Lord, master, owner (male), husband' cognate with
Akkadian ''
Bēl'' of the same meanings. The feminine form is
Phoenician 'בעלת' '', Hebrew 'בַּעֲלָה' '' signifying 'lady, mistress, owner (female), wife'.
The words themselves had no exclusively religious connotation, just as "father" or "lord" are used in religious meaning today—but they were not used in reference between a superior and an inferior or of a master to a slave. The words were used as titles in reference to one or various
gods and goddesses, either in declaration of the deity as the Lord or Lady of a particular place (or rite), or standing alone as a term of
reverence.
In
Wales, there are many Hebrew place names left over from a
religious revival that happened a few centuries ago. There is a village called '
Bryn-y-Baal' between
Buckley and
Mold in
Flintshire in Wales. However the 'Baal' has no religious connection.
Bryn-y-Baal takes its name from the a Middle English word 'bale' (rhymes with
non-rhotic 'Carl') meaning small hill. It was then written in a Welsh form as 'bâl' with a ''tor bach'' ('little roof' or 'circumflex' in English) over the 'â'. This has the effect in Welsh of lengthening the 'a' rather than the usual short 'a' (as in cat) in Welsh. This form appears on early Ordnance Survey maps. Eventually it was written in the Anglised form 'Baal' - still correctly pronounced to rhyme with 'Carl' and not 'bale' (as in hay) or bail (as in 'get out of jail') !! For full details of the researched origins - see 'Flintshire Place Names' by Hwyl Wyn Owen ISBN 978-0-7083-1242-1 published in 1995.
Also,
Ba'al is a fictional
Goa'uld portrayed by
Cliff Simon in the television series
Stargate SG-1 who makes appearances in seasons 5 through 10.
Baal is the name of one of the three brother demons in the video game .
''Ba`al'' in Judaism
From the
Tanach: '' 'lords of the covenant of Abram', i.e. 'holders of an agreement with Abram', i.e. 'confederates of Abram' or 'allies of Abram'; : '' 'lady of a lord', i.e. 'wife of a man'; : '' 'lord of the dreams', i.e. 'the one who made himself important in his dreams' or simply 'the dreamer'; : '' 'lord of a woman', i.e. 'married man'; : '' 'lord of the woman', i.e. 'husband of the woman'; : '' 'who (is) lord of matters', i.e. 'whoever possesses some matter', i.e. 'whoever has a problem'; : '' 'lord in his people', i.e. 'man of importance among his people'; : '' 'her lord the former', i.e. 'her former husband'; and so forth. But these should suffice to show the range of the words.
In medieval Judaism, a
rabbi versed in mysticism was called
Ba‘al Shem 'Master of the Name' with no perception of any connection with ''Ba‘al'' as a title for a pagan god. Rabbi
Israel ben Eliezer (
1698–
1760) who founded the
Hassidic movement, was commonly known during his later life as
Ba‘al Shem Tov ("Good Master of the Name") and is still commonly called by that title today.
See also
★
Hadad
★
Canaanite religion
★
Baal Peor
★
Ba‘al Shamîm
★
Beelzebub
★
Bel
★
Belial
★
El-Gabal
★
Melqart
★
Moloch
★
The Lesser Key of Solomon
★
Ars Goetia
★
Adon
★
Adonis
★
Ba'al (Stargate)
Notes
1. "This mountain on the northern horizon of Ras Shamra, modern Jebel el-Aqra and Mount Kasios of the Greeks, was the seat of Baal, who was thus Baal-Saphon. Classical and archaeological evidence suggests that Baal Zephon mentioned in the Exodus from Egypt (Exod. xiv.2) was a shrine of the Canaanite Baal". J. Gray, "Texts from Ras Shamra" in D. Winton Thomas, ''Documents from Old Testament Times''
External links
★
Article 'Baal, Baalim' from ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''.
★
Article 'Baal' by W. Robertson Smith and George F. Moore in ''Encyclopædia Biblica'', edited T. K. Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, MacMillan: London, 1899) (PDF format. Still quite accurate.)
★
Bartleby: American Heritage Dictionary: Semitic roots: bcl.
★
Scarce Punic images of Baal Hammon described.
★
Iconography of Baal (PDF-article)
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