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BAAL

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 89 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BAAL , a Semitic word, which primarily signifies See also:

lord, owner or inhabitant,' and then, in accordance with the Semitic way of looking at See also:family and religious relations, is specially appropriated to See also:express the relation of a See also:husband to his wife and of the deity to his worshipper. In the latter usage it indicated not that the See also:god was the lord of the worshipper, but rather the possessor of, or ruler in, some See also:place or See also:district. In the Old Testament it is regularly written with the See also:article, i.e. " the Baal "; and the baals of different tribes or sanctuaries were not necessarily conceived as identical, so that we find frequent mention of Baalim, or rather " the Baalim " in the plural. That the Israelites even applied the See also:title of Baal to Yahweh himself is proved by the occurrence of such names as Jerubbaal (See also:Gideon), Eshbaal (one of See also:Saul's sons) and Beeliada (a son of See also:David, r Chron. xiv. 7). The last name appears in 2 Sam. v. 16 as Eliada, showing that El ' Cf. its use as a noun of relation, e.g. a ba'al of See also:hair, " a hairy See also:man " (2 See also:Kings i. 8), b. of wings, " a winged creature," and in the plural, b. of arrows, " archers (Gen. xlix. 23), b. of See also:oath, " conspirators " (Neh. vi. 18).usual forms Ishbosheth, Mephibosheth. The See also:great difficulty which has been See also:felt by investigators in determining the See also:character and attributes of the god Baal mainly arises from the See also:original appellative sense of the word, and many obscure points become clear if we remember that when a title becomes a proper name it may be appropriated by different peoples to quite distinct deities.

Baal being originally a title, and not a proper name, the innumerable baals could be distinguishedby the addition of the name of a place or of some See also:

special attribute.2 Accordingly, the baals are not to be regarded necessarily as See also:local See also:variations of one and the same god, like the many Virgins or Madonnas of See also:Catholic lands, but as distinct numina. Each community could speak of its own baal, although a collection of allied communities might See also:share the same cult, and naturally, since the attributes ascribed to the individual baals were very similar, subsequent See also:syncretism was facilitated. The Baal, as the See also:head of each worshipping See also:group, is the source of all the gifts of nature (cf. Hos. ii. 8 seq., Ezek. xvi. 19); as the god of fertility all the produce of the See also:soil is his, and his adherents bring to him their See also:tribute of first-fruits. He is the See also:patron of all growth and fertility, and, by the " uncontrolled use of See also:analogy characteristic of See also:early thought," the Baal is the god of the productive See also:element in its widest sense. Originating probably, in the observation of the fertilizing effect of rains and streams upon the receptive and reproductive soil, baalism becomes identical with the grossest nature-See also:worship. Joined with the baals there are naturally found corresponding See also:female figures known as Ashtoreth, embodiments of Ashtoreth (see See also:ASTARTE; See also:ISHTAR). In accordance with See also:primitive notions of analogy,' which assume that it is possible to See also:control or aid the See also:powers of nature by the practice of " sympathetic magic " (see MAGIC), the cult of the baals and Ashtoreth was characterized by See also:gross sensuality and licentiousness. The fragmentary allusions to the cult of Baal Peor (Num. See also:xxv., Hos. ix. xo, Ps. cvi. 28 seq.) exemplify the typical See also:species of Dionysiac orgies that prevailed.' On the summits of hills and mountains flourished the cult of the givers of increase, and "under every See also:green See also:tree" was practised the licentiousness which in primitive thought was held to secure abundance of crops (see Frazer, See also:Golden Bough, 2nd ed. vol. ii. pp.

204 sqq.). Human See also:

sacrifice (Jer. xix. 5), the burning of See also:incense (Jer. vii. 9), violent and ecstatic exercises, ceremonial acts of bowing and kissing, the preparing of sacred mystic cakes, appear among the offences denounced by the Israelite prophets; and show that the cult of Baal (and Astarte) included the characteristic features of See also:heathen worship which recur in various parts of the Semitic See also:world, although attached to other names.' By an easy transition the local gods of the streams and springs which fertilized the increase of the See also:fields became identified with 2 Compounds with See also:geographical terms (towns, mountains), e.g. Baal of See also:Tyre, of See also:Lebanon, &c., are frequent; see G. B. See also:Gray, Heb. Proper Names, pp. 124-126. Baal-berith or El-berith of See also:Shechem (Judg. ix. 4, 46) Is usually interpreted to be the Baal or God of the See also:covenant, but whether of covenants in See also:general or of a particular covenant concluded at Shechem is disputed. The BaXµdpscos (near See also:Beirut) apparently presided over dancing; another See also:compound (in See also:Cyprus) seems to represent a Baal of healing.

On the " Baal of flies " see See also:

BEELZEBUB. The general analogy shows itself further in the See also:idea of the deity as the husband (ba'al) of his worshippers or of the See also:land in which they dwell. The Astarte of Gabal (Byblus) was regularly known as the ba'alath (See also:fern. of baal), her real name not being pronounced (perhaps out of reverence). See further Clermont-Ganneau, See also:Pal. Explor. Fund Quart. Slat., 1901, pp. 239, 369 sqq.; Buehler, Rev. d'etudes juives, 1901, pp. 125 seq. The extent to which elements of heathen cult entered into purer types of See also:religion is illustrated in the worship of Yahweh. The sacred cakes of Astarte and old See also:holy See also:wells associated with her cult were later even transferred to the worship of the Virgin (Envy. Bib. See also:col.

3993 ; See also:

Rouvier, in See also:Bull. Archeol., 1900, p. 170). (God) was regarded as See also:equivalent to Baal; cf. also the name Be'aliah, " Yahweh is baal or lord," which survives in i Chron. xii. 5. However, when the name Baal was exclusively appropriated to idolatrous worship (cf. Hos. ii. 16 seq.), abhorrence for the unholy word was marked by See also:writing bdsheth (shameful thing) for bawl in compound proper names, and thus we get the the See also:common source of all streams, and proceeding along this See also:line it was possible for the numerous baals to be regarded eventually as See also:mere forms of one See also:absolute deity. Consequently, the Baal could be identified with some supreme See also:power of nature, e.g. the heavens, the See also:sun, the See also:weather or some See also:planet. The particular line of development would vary in different places, but the See also:change from an association of the Baal with earthly See also:objects to heavenly is characteristic of a higher type of belief and appears to be relatively later. The idea which has See also:long prevailed that Baal was properly a See also:sky-god affords no explanation of the local character of the many baals; on the other See also:hand, on the theory of a higher development where the gods become heavenly or astral beings, the fact that ruder conceptions of nature were still retained (often in the unofficial but more popular forms of cult) is more intelligible: A specific Baal of the heavens appears to have been known among the See also:Hittites in the See also:time of See also:Rameses II., and considerably later, at the beginning of the 7th See also:century, it was the title of one of the gods of See also:Phoenicia. In Babylonia, from a very early See also:period, Baal became a definite individual deity, and was identified with the planet See also:Jupiter.

This development is a See also:

mark of See also:superior culture and may have been spread through Babylonian See also:influence. Both Baal and Astarte were venerated in See also:Egypt at See also:Thebes and See also:Memphis in the XIXth See also:Dynasty, and the former, through the influence of the Aramaeans who borrowed the Babylonian spelling See also:Bel, ultimately became known as the See also:Greek Belos who was identified with See also:Zeus. Of the worship of the Tyrian Baal, who is also called Melkart (See also:king of the See also:city), and is often identified with the Greek Heracles, but sometimes with the Olympian Zeus, we have many accounts in See also:ancient writers, from See also:Herodotus downwards. He had a magnificent See also:temple in insular Tyre, founded by Hiram, to which gifts streamed from all countries, especially at the great feasts. The See also:solar character of this deity appears especially in the See also:annual feast of his awakening shortly after the See also:winter See also:solstice (See also:Joseph. C. See also:Apion. i. 18). At Tyre, as among the See also:Hebrews, Baal had his symbolical pillars, one of See also:gold and one of smaragdus, which, transported by phantasy to the farthest See also:west, are still See also:familiar to us as the Pillars of See also:Hercules. The worship of the Tyrian Baal was carried to all the Phoenician colonies., His name occurs as an element in Carthaginian proper names (See also:Hannibal, See also:Hasdrubal, &c.), and a tablet found at See also:Marseilles still survives to inform us of the charges made by the priests of the temple of Baal for effering sacrifices. The See also:history of Baalism among the Hebrews is obscured by the difficulty of determining whether the. false worship which the prophets stigmatize is the heathen worship of Yahweh under a conception, and often with See also:rites, which treated him as a local nature god; or whether Baalism was consciously recognized to be distinct from Yahwism from the first. Later religious practice was undoubtedly opposed to that of earlier times, and attempts were made to correct narratives containing views which had come to be regarded as contrary to the true worship of Yahweh.

The Old Testament depicts the history of the See also:

people as a See also:series of acts of See also:apostasy alternating with subsequent penitence and return to Yahweh, and the question whether this gives effect to actual conditions depends upon the precise character of the elements of Yahweh worship brought by the Israelites into See also:Palestine. This is still under dispute. There is strong See also:evidence at all events that many of the conceptions are contrary to See also:historical fact, and the points of similarity between native Canaanite cult and Israelite worship are so striking that only the persistent traditions of See also:Israel's origin and of the See also:work of See also:Moses compel the conclusion that the germs of specific Yahweh worship existed from his See also:day. The earliest certain reaction against Baalism is ascribed to the reign of See also:Ahab, whose See also:marriage with See also:Jezebel gave the impulse to the introduction of a particular See also:form of the cult. In See also:honour of his wife's god, the king, following the example of See also:Solomon, erected a temple to the Tyrian Baal (see above). This, however, did not prevent him from remaining a follower of Yahweh, whose prophets he still consulted, and I' The See also:sanctuary of Heracles at See also:Daphne near See also:Antioch was properly that of the Semitic Baal, and at See also:Amathus Jupiter Hospes takes the place of Heracles or Malika, in which the Tyrian Melkart is to be recognized (W. R. See also:Smith, Rel. Sem. and ed. pp. 178, 376). See further PHOENICIA.89 whose See also:protection he still cherished when he named his sons See also:Ahaziah and See also:Jehoram (" Yah[weh] holds," " Y. is high "). The antagonism of See also:Elijah was not against Baalism in general, but against the introduction of a See also:rival deity.

But by the time of See also:

Hosea (ii. 16 seq.) a further advance was marked, and the use of the See also:term " Baal " was felt to be dangerous to true religion. Thus there gradually See also:grew up a tendency to avoid the term, and in accordance with the idea of Ex. See also:xxiii. 13, it was replaced by the contemptuous bosheth, " shame " (see above). However, the books of See also:Deuteronomy and See also:Jeremiah (cf. also Zeph. i. 4) afford See also:complete testimony for the prevalence of Baalism as See also:late as the See also:exile, but prove that the clearest distinction was then See also:drawn between the pure worship of Yahweh the god of Israel and the inveterate and debased cults of the gods of the land. (See further See also:HEBREW RELIGION; See also:PROPHET.) Baal " in the Amarna tablets (Palestine, about 1400 n.c.) see Knudtzon, Beitr. z. Assyriol. (1901), pp. 320 seq., 415; other See also:cuneiform evidence in E. See also:Schrader's Keilinsch. u. Alte Test.

3rd ed. p. 357 (by H. Zimmern; see also his See also:

Index, sub voce). On Baal-Shamem B. of the heavens) M. Lidzbarski's monograph (See also:Ephemeris, i. 243-26o, ii. 12o) is invaluable, and this work, with his Handbuch d. nerd-semi'. Epigraphik, contains full See also:account of the epigraphical material. See Baethgen, Beitr. z. semit. Religionsgesch. pp. 17-32; also the articles on Baal by E. See also:Meyer in See also:Roscher's Lexikon, and G.

F. See also:

Moore in Ency. Bib. (On See also:Beltane fires and other apparent points of connexion with Baal it may suffice to refer to Aug. Fick, Vergleich. Woiterbuch, who derives the element bel from an old See also:Celtic See also:root meaning shining, &c.) (W. R. S.; S. A.

End of Article: BAAL

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