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He was the god that provided - food - for the people. Study the god Baal, Baal worship, and the presentation of Baal in the Bible. Nevertheless, despite the biblical tendency 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. Dated to c. 1750 B.C.E. Ugaritic texts tell of other fertility aspects of Baal, such as his relations with Anath, his consort and sister, and also his siring a divine bull calf from a heifer. These people, who became known as the Samaritans, feared the Lord but worshipped their own gods. Huffmon, Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts (1965), 174; W.F. Baal worship was rooted in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor, and pervert the way of the humble." Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle (1994). What made the very name Baal anathema to the Israelites was the program of Jezebel, in the 9th century bce, to introduce into Israel her Phoenician cult of Baal in opposition to the official worship of Yahweh (I Kings 18). Dig into the illuminating world of the Bible with a BAS All-Access membership. The name Baal in the Bible is most commonly associated with the Canaanite and Phoenician god of fertility, the rain, the sun, and the storm. This chapter reports on the behavior of the people placed in Israel after Israel's conquest and deportation by Assyria between 722-720 BC. Elijah had to take drastic measures to prevent Baal worship from completely eradicating the worship of the true God (I Kings 18:20-40). Christianity.com is a member of the Salem Web Network of sites including: Copyright 2023, Christianity.com. Portions of ancient Baal liturgy were adapted to the praise of Israel's God, as the Ugaritic poems have shown. In this article, well discuss what Scripture has to say about Baal, what we know from history about Baal, and why this ultimately matters to us today. Baal Worship Baal-Berith Berbers Bet (Ha)-Midrash Bet Din Bethar Bibliophiles Bloodletting Chronicles of Kings of Israel Episcopus Judaeorum Essenes Exile Fable Flood Forced Baptism Garden of Eden Glass Golden Calf Goliath Great Revolt Great Synagogue Hannah and her Seven Sons Hasmoneans/Maccabees Hebrew Printing Hekdesh Herod Herodian Dynasty Whoever is missing shall not live.". They become "settled on their lees," as it says in Zephaniah 1:12. He takes something loathsome and vile, something that is a direct affront to almighty God, a pagan idol, and turns it into a cute little children's fairy tale, so that you can buy the book, see the movies, get the cuddly toy, and bingo! 2:11; 3:7; 8:33), while the singular of the word in combination with other terms apparently designated minor or local gods, such as Baal-Berith, Baal-Gad, Baal-Hamon, Baal-Hazor, Baal-Hermon, or, in the feminine form, a goddess, Baalat-Beer, Baalat-Gebal. Today,. He established a feast in the eighth month to replace the true Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh. Child sacrifice was a fundamental aspect of Baal worship. All Rights Reserved. Recall the mention in Hosea 10:1 of increasing and embellishing altars just before Israel fell to Assyria. There are several ideas as to exactly what Elijah meant by "How long will you falter between two opinions?" The building materials, gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, were procured and the architect-builder Koshar was invited to dinner and consultation. One of the rooms in this temple had a bench, where offerings would have been placed, and an altar made of . In another room was a round base that likely supported a wooden pillar. Omissions? Unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, which depend on irrigation, the Promised Land drinks water from the rain of heaven (Deut. In Hebrew, it is rendered Yehoshua, and in Aramaic, Yeshua. Baal is said to be one of the first of Solomon's 72 demons. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. 11:17; I Kings 8:3536; Jer. They believed in a Creator God, but they worshipped Him at the shrines they erected to the Baals. He was also called the Lord of Rain and Dew, the two forms of moisture that were indispensable for fertile soil in Canaan. The songs of His Temple would ordinarily be happy and joyous songs of praise to God, but He will turn the songs of their templesung to Baal in the name of the Lordto wailing, for the numbers of the dead will be unimaginable. Not a BAS Library member yet? So it was in the northern kingdom of Israel after its division from the kingdom of Judah. Thus, they developed a syncretic religious system, a blending of the truth of God and outright paganism. Charles Whitaker Who were the Sidonians of the Iron Age (c. 1200586 B.C.E.)? It was this Israelite worship of Baal which was challenged by the Hebrew prophet Elijah in his famous conflict with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in I Kings 18, when he challenged the. The Bible is full of colorful characters, from Noah to Moses to Jesus. When the rain failed, it was inevitable that some would question YHWH's power and resort to Baal. ADD. Archeological excavations have dated information about Baal back as far as the second millennium BC, and the spread of Baal worship caught fire in Egypt in 1400 BC. Some become discouraged with the church because we are always being toldto some measure anywaydisturbing things about ourselves. In the El-Amarna letters the logogram for the weather-god is conventionally read Addu, but that it is sometimes to be read Baluis indicated by the addition of the phonetic complement-lu, as well as by the names like Mut dIm written syllabically as mu-ut-ba-a-lum. Of special interest is the designation Aliy (ly) which is twice applied to Baal in the Krt Epic: Before the discovery and recognition of this name in Ugaritic, H.S. The Septuagint (LXX) rendered Joshua, the son of Nun, in Greek as Iesous; the same was used for Christs name in the NT. Corrections? God wants to transform us from people who are bent on pleasing ourselves to people who show concern for others. At one point in A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton, he deals with soldiers who left the service of their armyeither the Confederate army or the Union army. Issuing a challenge to his enemy Mot (death), who presumed to rule gods and men, Baal dispatched his messengers to Mot's infernal, filthy abode, warning them not to get close to Mot's rapacious jaws. 29:35, 32:26; Nah. But God has a different perspective; He says they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17). Isaiah 29:13 clarifies what God means: "Therefore the LORD said: 'Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men.'" For Constantine, the acceptance of Christianity was done solely TO UNIFY TERRITORY, RELIGIONS, AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS. A series of bad years, which were apparently believed to come in seven-year cycles (cf. Another idea is that it pictures a person shifting his weight from one foot to the other, indicating a degree of lameness. . Recall God's prophecy in Deuteronomy 32:15, predicting that when Israel prospered, then it would rebel. No doubt, we cant cover the breadth of verses on Baal here, but we should make a note that Baal becomes a big player in the book of Judges and during the time of the kings when Israel appears to succumb most to the foreign pantheons. How could you worship Baal? But if we dont exercise extreme discernment, we may find ourselves doing the same with modern-day baals. Or about Yahweh? More than 1400 of her works have been featured in various publications. In Psalms 48:23, Mount Zion is equated with "the recesses of afon" (the phrase quoted above from Isa. The sum of what Elijah said is actually spiritually dangerous, due to the fact that God is judging. Burning incense, worship of the sun, moon, astrology, and ancestor worship are all earmarks of the Baal religion. But Jezebels religion is not Jewish whereas the religion of the Tamils is more like that of the Jews. Actually, there were two gods which were essentially worshiped the same way, Baal and Ashtoreth. A religion with such a beginning was doomed to fail, bringing the nation down with it. His opinion of his holiness as compared with God's judgment is so far off base, it causes Jesus Christ to regurgitate him from His body. In Psalms 89:13 afon and yamin, in parellelism with Tabor and Hermon, hardly designate the directions north and south; yamin is almost certainly a corruption of Amana, the southern portion of the Taurus mountains, the alteration of amanah to yamin being occasioned by the misunderstanding of afon as the direction rather than the name of the holy mountain. Before we explore what Scripture says about Baal, lets establish a brief depiction of the Canaanite deity. Elijah is quite instructive here. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1998 - 2023 American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. With Baal's functions accredited to YHWH, it was natural and fitting that some of Baal's titles would also be taken over. I prefer transliterating the sheva with [*] rather than any other English vowel letter, so I prefer Y*HWaH to YuHWaH or to YaHWeH, for that matter. In some cases, they attempted to attach this practice to worship of the Lord (Ezek 23:39). Knowledge of Baals personality and functions derives chiefly from a number of tablets uncovered from 1929 onward at Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), in northern Syria, and dating to the middle of the 2nd millennium bce. The judge Gideon was also named Jerubbaal (Judges 6:32), and King Saul had a son named Ishbaal (I Chronicles 8:33). Baal & Asherah. The latter name (Amarna, Addu) is to be related to Arabic hadda ("break," "crash") with reference to thunder. The latter title has a biblical echo in the corrupted form Baal-Zebub (II Kings 1:2ff. That made God so angry that a plague spread through their ranks; Phinehas stood up and pled their case and the . It was under the Sol Invictus cult that CHRISTIANITY as a religion BEGAN TO BE ACCEPTED AND GROW, but THERE WAS A BIG PRICE THE EARLY ROMAN CHURCH HAD TO PAY. A frequent epithet is "Cloud Rider" (rkb rpt) which has an almost identical parallel in Psalms 68:5. He began to prophesy in a time of immediate crisis, one that would become far worse before it ever improved. Remember, this falling away sets the stage for the man of sin, who will have tremendous influence over humanity. Human-Ram Deity from Sidon. The Bible tells us that there were dire consequences for Israel worshiping a false god (Judges 2). The eschatological traits were taken over with the Canaanite myths. 10:25, 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15, 18). A vivid description of theophany in a thunderstorm is found in Psalms 18:715 (= II Sam. God's first command to destroy any forms of idol worship came early in the Bible in Exodus 34:13. . 22:816). Baal was the title of the "god" worshiped in ancient Canaan and Phoenicia. God's pattern is being established. Because of their self-absorption, God's "sudden" punishment will stun the people of the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, and the other nations of modern Israel, including some members of the true church. The Baal-worship so often alluded to and described in Holy Writ might, perhaps, be better styled Cid-worship, moon-worship, Melek ()-worship, or Hadad-worship, according to places and circumstances.Many of the practices mentioned were most probably common to the worship . In spite of the fact that the word is used as the theophorous element in personal names, such as Eshbaal, Merib-Baal, Jerub Baal, it was long believed that the term remained an appellation and did not become a proper name, except in the case of the Mesopotamian Bel and in late theological speculation. Well dive more into this in the historicity of Baal in a few sections. Baal is said to be one of the first of Solomon's 72 spirits. linked to Molech (also called Milcom in the Bible). Bible Study Hosea Old Testament. The myth may refer in part to the construction of Baals own temple in the city of Ugarit. It will be far more terrible than anything ever seen on this earth! Gen. 41; II Sam. Recall God's wrath when Aaron made a golden calf at the urging of the Israelites in the wilderness and proclaimed a feast to the Lord (Exodus 32:1-5). Even as the Canaanite religion waned, Baal took on a new role as Zeus in the Ancient Greek pantheon. They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, And ate the sacrifices of the dead. But when a falling away happens around us, perhaps even beginning before we were born, it is easy for our minds to adjust to the point that we almost forget the continuing rebellion against God and His way. Revelation 2:14 "THE DOCTRINES OF . Indeed, religion flourished, as Amos, Hosea's contemporary, clearly reports (see Amos 5:21-27). Today, music performers entice young and old in the practice of the worship of Baal-Peor Sacred sex was a key component. It is urgent that we understand what is involved here because it reveals the cause of God's anger that led to Israel's defeat and scattering. By the time of the prophet Hosea (mid-8th century bce) the antagonism to Baalism was so strong that the use of the term Baal was often replaced by the contemptuous boshet (shame); in compound proper names, for example, Ishbosheth replaced the earlier Ishbaal. He views them as personally rejecting Him and His Word. In daily life, they conformed to and reflected the Babylonish system just as Israel does today. Looking at these two definitions we can say . The violence and injustice in Israelite society ultimately stemmed from the false teaching proclaimed from the pulpits. Does that way of life conform to the God of the Bible, or does it spring from the mind of men? This connects with the curse of Laodiceanism because God shows in the Laodiceans what can happen spiritually as people increase materially. And she has taken over many so-called churches. One would think that, if altars increase during this period of prosperity, then religion is flourishing. Baal's response to Mot's invitation to come and be devoured is abject surrender: "Thy slave am I, thine eternal." This second, universal interpretation is a better fit because, when we look at the whole passage, the events and personalities are worldwide in scope. Consequently, during this tumultuous time, most Jews kept their faith and identity outwardly but bowed to Baal when necessary to appease Jezebel as well as mainstream culture. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The bird cannot make up its mind where it wants to settle down, so it just keeps hopping around. Baal Worship The prophet Amos particularizes the epidemic of social injustice in the Kingdom of Israel. The variant form Hadad (hdd) is attested to only once in Ugaritic. Superstitious fear and sexual rites on the one hand fought against faith and loyalty on the other. 1:711). 11:1011). The Berean: Daily Verse and Comment Sign up for the Berean: Daily Verse and Comment, and have Biblical truth delivered to your inbox. He may have replaced the Sabbath with Sunday worship. The word bal, common Semitic for "owner, master, husband," became the usual designation of the great weather-god of the Western Semites.