But God has a different perspective; He says they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17). 25:111; Ps. In Phoenician he was called Baal Shamen, Lord of the Heavens. In Tamil Nadu, the following words payachi paarai, Peyazhwar, payans, pai (meaning devil) are currently in use. So the word Jezebel finally means one who is a good musician. Horrendous and repulsive aspects of the worship sexual excesses and perversions (Isa. . Their commitment went one way, and then it went the other way. As an example, notice Amos 2:6-7, where Amos chides the Israelites: ". Rejection of God's Law. Baal's 450 prophets worked themselves into a frenzy, cutting themselves, dancing, and chanting to their god. The variant form Hadad (hdd) is attested to only once in Ugaritic. *Romans 1:25 "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and WORSHIPPED AND SERVED THE CREATURE MORE THAN THE CREATOR". At Ras-Shamar, Baal was referred to as the son of Dagon, the Philistines chief god. With the help of the sun-goddess Shapsh, Anath locates the dead Baal, carries him to the height of apn, and weeping buries him with funerary sacrifices. What Is Coptic and Who Were the Copts in Ancient Egypt? This daily newsletter provides a starting point for personal study, and gives valuable insight into the verses that make up the Word of God. 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 Tetragrammaton should be rendered as Yahoah, with the vav being pronounced as the o in Torah, menorah, Eloah (singular form of Elohim), and Yehoshua (=Joshua, Christs REAL name). What the Bible says about Baal Worship ( From Forerunner Commentary ) 1 Kings 12:26-33 The religion of Israel began with a man, Jeroboam I, who changed the true worship of God. Hosea exposes the problem between God and Israel. The Semitic original of this name has been recognized in one of Baal's names in Ugaritic: (The name is to be connected with the root dmr, "be strong, brave," and is probably the same as that of Abraham's son Zimrn (damarn), the -n afformative being preserved in the genitive case of the Greek form Demarountos). Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered!only to go on doing all these abominations? Many of the practices mentioned were most probable common to the worship of all the Baals; a few others are certainly specific. Verse 15 points out that the people "rejected [God's] statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them." Jehu's massacre of the Baal worshipers (II Kings 10:1828) did not eradicate bull worship (II Kings 10:31). This establishes the fact that the Cannanites (Phoenicians) has connections with the Tamil speaking ancient Kerala mariners. In contrast, the church has had periods of strength and weakness all throughout its historyit goes through cycles of rallying around truth and then gradually letting it slip. (II Kings 17:35-38). Baal Worship 19 Now therefore, call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. Today Jezebel has built Baal altars in the name of 'church' and led many to Baal worship. Those familiar with the Biblical text will recall that Sidon was an influential, wealthy Phoenician city when the kings of Israel and Judah ruled during the Iron Age. The Israelites "caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger" (verse 17). 30 Verses to Reflect on in the Book of Hebrews. . 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. The above comment is by Prof. Abraham Joseph, M.Sc., M.Phil. The Name] instead of prouncing the YHWH word even though the Masoretes added the sheva below the Y and the Qamats below the W. Biblical narrative incorporates tales of Baal worship into the traditions of the wilderness wandering, thus tracing Baal worship to the earliest period of Israel's existence. A solution has been supplied by a tradition ascribed to the ancient Phoenician priest Sakkunyaton (Greek Sanchuniathn) that when El-Kronos defeated Ouranos, he captured in the battle Ouranos' pregnant concubine and gave her to Dagn. 22:816). The Lord calls for the worship of him and his idols to be uprooted and destroyed, and for the people to turn away from his false . So the word Poeni can be rewritten as Peyeni or as Payani or as Payan. One of the rooms in this temple had a bench, where offerings would have been placed, and an altar made of piled and unhewn stones, which recalls the Biblical command to make altars of uncut stones (see Exodus 20:25). At the foundation of every community is a way of life that its people live and teach their children. Not a BAS Library member yet? First was sexual orgies "under every green tree," where promiscuity and perverted sex acts were the norm. (the Middle Bronze Age). Not only do the Jews have to deal with the abomination of Zeus and Antiochus Epiphanes IV (Daniel 8), but the Greek pantheon later gets repeated in the Roman pantheon, and practices from both the Greeks and Romans still exist today. In Hosea 10:2, God charges Israel with having a divided heart. We are seeing the same thing today, but at times, it is harder to recognize because we are accustomed to it, and it is not happening overnight. Baal's abode was Mount apn, identified as Jebel el-Aqra ("Mount Baldy") some 30 mi. Once Elijah began preaching, their conscience pricked them, and it encouraged them to worship the true God. Various forms of Baal worship are still going on in the Catholic church; even though these pagan idols were incorporated into Catholicism centuries ago, the worship of the sun still exists to this day. (From Forerunner Commentary). As such, Baal designated the universal god of fertility, and in that capacity his title was Prince, Lord of the Earth. Groves and high places were places of worship erected to Canaanite gods and goddesses. They used the name of God frequently, saying they trusted Him, but they filled the nation with stealing, lying, and murder. Sidon is the birth place of Jezabel. It seemed they couldnt border a single person who didnt try to destroy them or convince them to worship their own gods. Ritual prostitution only served to erode the family, eventually leading to the destruction of the nation. He views them as personally rejecting Him and His Word. 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. Asherah (Hebrew ), also spelled Ashera, was a major northwest Semitic mother goddess, appearing also in Akkadian sources as Ashratu, in Hittite as Asherdu and in Ugaritic as Athirat.She was the consort of the chief deity El and the mother of 70 other gods.. In those God calls outthose who, by faith, will voluntarily yield to HimHe is building character based on outgoing love. The cosmic character of afon leads to its use as a synonym for "sky" in Job 26:7: "who stretched out afon on emptiness who suspended earth on naught." Although Baal is mentioned almost 100 times in the Bible, he is best known from the narratives of I and II Kings which include the story of the Phoenician princess Jezebel (d. c. 842 BCE), who encouraged his worship, and her struggle with the prophet Elijah, champion of the cult of Yahweh. He was to be an aid in getting them from their state of being merely "churched" to that of being truly religious and servants of the Most High God. He may have replaced the Sabbath with Sunday worship. Yet, he was in trouble his whole life, from his teenage years on. In Hebrew, it is rendered Yehoshua, and in Aramaic, Yeshua. Baal worship is and has always been pagan; today it is replacing the laws and beliefs based upon Judaeo-Christian roots, which honours the GOD of the Bible, His laws and His ways. The beliefs and practices of the Canaanites were not only detestable, but they also . This second, universal interpretation is a better fit because, when we look at the whole passage, the events and personalities are worldwide in scope. He is the king of the east and governs an army of 66 legions of demons." Did you catch that? Did the Ancient Israelites Think Children Were People. ADD. Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 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. The open-air altar shrine, called a bamah (plural bamot), is known through several books of the Biblical canonbut none more so than the Book of Kings, where they play a prominent role in assessing the performance of a king.Often referred to as "high places" in translations of the Bible, bamot were worship sites that usually contained an altar. ed., 1965); H.B. Tamil is connected with the Phoenician. And Asherah and Baal led the way together (Judges 3:7, 1 Kings 18:19, 2 Kings 23:4). He may have replaced the Sabbath with Sunday worship. Some suppose Baal to correspond to the sun and Ashtoreth to the moon; others that Baal was Jupiter and Ashtoreth Venus. While it is acceptable to say that it was in what is now Jordan, to point to a particular cave and say, This is it. is ridiculous. In other words, God is saying that He was driven to defeat and scatter Israel because they were guilty of exactly the same sin as the Samaritans! Searching for Israel (Part Six): Israel Is Fallen, Is Fallen. Whatever the case, there is no doubt about Elijah's intent: "How long will you keep shifting from one opinion to the other?" How Is Harry Potter a Literary Christ Figure? 106 a ). Baal was also worshipped by various communities as a local god. Jesus says, "They are blind leaders of the blind. O. Eissfeldt, Beitraege zur Religionsgeschichte des Altertums I (1932); H.L. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch" (Matthew 15:14). The summer drought did not mean that YHWH had died (like Baal), nor did the return of the rains signal the resurrection. In Canaan, however, when the solar theology had absorbed the older beliefs, Baal, passing into a sun-god and the goddess who stood at his side becoming a representative of the moon--the pale reflection, as it were, of the sun- -Ashtoreth came to be regarded as the consort of Baal and took the place of the solar goddesses of Babylonia. The prophet Haggai attributed the drought and scarcity in his day to the failure to rebuild the Temple (Hag. One was 260 days and was used for . Kings Ahaz and Manasseh, Ashtoreth was the fertility goddess consort of Molech. More than 1400 of her works have been featured in various publications. In addition to Baal still influencing religions and pagan practices today, we must take note of what happened to the Israelites and vigilantly watch our churches. Dated to c. 1750 B.C.E., the handle pictures the storm god as a leonine dragon. . 27:1). A third is that he is describing somebody teetering on a tightrope and trying to maintain his balance. . Baal worship was rooted in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. In an Akkadian catalogue of Ugaritic deities Baal apn is listed as dIM be-el hurn a-zi, "Storm-God, Lord of Mount azi" (see above; az [z] i being the Hurrian name of Mount apn which survives in the Greek and Latin Kasios/Casius as the name of the storied mountain of the gods). Elijah had to take drastic measures to prevent Baal worship from completely eradicating the worship of the true God (I Kings 18:20-40). In Ugaritic and Hebrew, Baals epithet as the storm god was He Who Rides on the Clouds. After a sortie against the sea-god, Baal returned to his house and ordered Koshar to install a window; Koshar laughed, reminded Baal of the debate, and complied. Certainly not those of east Asia. Our nation has embraced the old ancient paganism that we read about in the Bible. The judge Gideon was also named Jerubbaal (Judges 6:32), and King Saul had a son named Ishbaal (I Chronicles 8:33). 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. How many pagan ideas have we let seep in? In the Bible, Jezebel is notorious for persecuting the worship of Yahweh and for demanding that the Israelites worship Baal. In mythological texts from the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550-1200 B.C.E) city-state of Ugarit, she is called "the creatress of the gods"; her consort at Ugarit, the god El, is . The handle displays an impression of a ship with the leonine dragon Uumgal, the storm god Adads attendant, next to it. Check out her books at hopebolinger.comfor clean books in most genres, great for adults and kids. The worship of Baal penetrated Jewish religious life during the period of the Judges (Judges 3:7), became common in Israel during the rule of Ahab (1 Kings 16:31-33), and also influenced Judah (2 Chronicles 28:1-2). The eschatological traits were taken over with the Canaanite myths. Two practices in particular are mentioned in Scripture. (NASB). He began to prophesy in a time of immediate crisis, one that would become far worse before it ever improved. Before descending to the realm of death, Baal copulates with a heifer and begets a male offspring. It indeed produces great material prosperity, but it is consumed through self-indulgent gorging. Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cults and with a variety of unrelated patron deities, but inscriptions have . Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The Macedonian Cleopatra planned to send her son to India through the Red Sea. If you will not be committed to Him, you are going to die.". Silapadikaram, a Tamil Classic, mentions more than 200 musical instruments. Even those who have vaguely heard of the name Baal in the Bible know it doesnt have a good connotation. 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. They clash violently until both are prostrate and the Sungoddess warns Mot not to fight with Baal lest El hear and overthrow him. The Septuagint (LXX) rendered Joshua, the son of Nun, in Greek as Iesous; the same was used for Christs name in the NT. That made God so angry that a plague spread through their ranks; Phinehas stood up and pled their case and the . Did the Carthaginians Really Practice Infant Sacrifice? Ahab accommodated his wife's idolatry to the point of building a . The ancient Tamils had connections with the Syrians and Sidon. These Israelites were lethargic in terms of true, spiritual matters. Most of the information they gave turned out to be wrong, to be lies. In the Bible, Jezebel is notorious for persecuting the worship of Yahweh and for demanding that the Israelites worship Baal. * Jesus is a transliteration of the Latin; it is NOT a translation! Baal worship is something I associated only with Old Testament Bible days. Charles Whitaker From Easton's Bible Dictionary:Baal-peor: lord of the opening, a god of the Moabites (Numbers 25:3; 31:16; Joshua 22:17), worshipped by obscene rites. The written form Moloch (in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament), or Molech (Hebrew), is the word Melech or king, transformed by interposing the vowels of bosheth or 'shameful thing'. BAAL WORSHIP AND SEMITIC RACISM This term was used as a title and name of various local deities worshipped as guardians, heroes, and kings. The word is used as the name of a town in ancient Israel in Deuteronomy 1:4, Joshua . Moffatt renders this, "They worshipped the Eternal, and they also served their own gods.". At Shittim they attached themselves to Baal-Peor, ate sacrifices for the dead, and indulged in sacred sexual orgies (Num. And the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall be careful to observe forever; you shall not fear other gods. Baal was the god of agriculture and fertility in Canaan, becoming a fallen angel and a demon. For Constantine, the acceptance of Christianity was done solely TO UNIFY TERRITORY, RELIGIONS, AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS. In other words, God is saying that He was driven to defeat and scatter Israel because they were guilty of exactly the same sin as the Samaritans! In the first encounter, Baal is invited to a banquet at which he is to be both guest and main course. He was considered superior to his father, El, the chief of the deities. Thus, according to Sakkunyaton, Baal's natural father was Ouranos and Dagn became his foster-father, while El-Kronos effected the transfer. This corrupt blending of a holy God with a pagan goddess became part of everyday religious practice, which is why evil king Manasseh put an Asherah pole . A common designation of Baal in the Ugaritic myths is bn-dgn "son of Dagn"; but Baal is also considered the son of El who is called "Bull El his [i.e., Baal's] father; El King who begot him [Baal]" (tr il abh; il mlk dyknnh). . However, God shows there is a possible harmful, secondary effect: As people become financially secure, their attention is diverted from His purpose to vain and unimportant things. Baal was the god of rain, wind, and fertility. 1:711). 26:1920). I know the firstborn of Creation through and for Him everything was made would appreciate it! Sidons Storm God. For a while, both sidesthe Confederate and the Unionaccepted those turncoats and took their information. In the books of Kings and Chronicles, we can read the record of a given king who turned away from God and served the Baals, and the foolishness sounds quick and casual because we are reading a summary. Elijah is quite instructive here. Isaiah 14:13 alludes to this divine abode as "the Mount of Assembly in the recesses of afon" (har moed be-yarkete afon), the latter phrase being the equivalent of Ugaritic mrym pn or rrt pn, the height or fastness of apn. After a textual gap, there is a report that Baal's corpse has been found. Near Baals temple was that of Dagon, given in the tablets as Baals father. Baal's worshipers appeased him by offering sacrifices, usually animals such as sheep or bulls (1 Kings 18:23). These soldiers would surrender themselves to the other side to be given a bit of favor and put into prison. The spectacular victory for Yahwism did not have a lasting effect. When Elijah preached his message, it put the people in a bind because they knew their conscience was telling them that they had to commit themselves to God or to Baal. A major question about II Thessalonians 2 is the scope of the described events. Through the window, a cleft in the clouds, Baal gave forth his holy voice which convulsed the earth and sent his enemies scurrying to the hills and woods. Who were the Sidonians of the Iron Age (c. 1200586 B.C.E.)? Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1998 - 2023 American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Only the individual could decide which side he would be on, because Elijah made it clear, "God does not want you the way you are. 2008 The Gale Group. Prepare to Meet Your God! The biblical allusions to YHWH's victory over the sea preserve echoes of the older exploit of Baal (cf. 14:2, 9; Num. Baal is a Canaanite and Phoeniciandeity and the son of the chief god El. John W. Ritenbaugh And one of the most famous instances of Israel going head to head with the prophets of Baal comes from 1 Kings 18. Your email address will not be published. Burning incense, worship of the sun, moon, astrology, and ancestor worship are all earmarks of the Baal religion. Baal was different from his adherents merely in that he was above them. The longest of the texts deals with the construction of Baal's house on top of Mount apn. Thus in any year anxiety about the rainfall would be a continuing concern of the inhabitants which would suffice to give rise to rites to ensure the coming of the rains. In others, they rejected Yahweh worship altogether and fully turned themselves over to the idols of Canaan (2 Kgs 17:14-17). The Jordan River (Nahar ha-Yarden) qualified as a mikveh as its flowing living waters originated from a natural spring (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_River). It proved extremely hard for a monotheistic faith to compete against the Canaanite fertility cult. 3:10; cf. Learn about the Canaanite-Phoenician deities who were called Baal, which means Lord. Most modern translations use "false," "deceitful," or "faithless," and none of these are wrong, including "divided." Even now some ancient Jews (white and black) live in Cochin, Kerala, India. The practice of Baal worship was wide spread in Bible times and was very evil. The lesson for us becomes clear, because Jesus says the same thing (Matthew 6:24; 12:25). Learn more about Biblical Sidon and Sidonian religion in Claude Doumet-Serhals article SidonCanaans Firstborn in the July/August 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. The proposition for the concept is as follows: The Latins called the Phoenicians as Poeni. The rains were fully controlled by YHWH who called them from the sea and poured them out on the surface of the earth (Amos 5:8b; 9:6b). So it was that, about 250 years after it was established, the ten-tribed northern kingdom became extinct as a sovereign nation. 18For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. What was the rationale behind this perverse, immoral act? And of all the foreign gods the Israelites came into contact with, they appeared to struggle the most with worshipping this one. Isai is music in Tamil and Vallavi means an expert. Ashtaroth is mentioned 12 times in the Old Testament. People like to feel comfortable. In the Bible, Baal (also rendered Baal) was an important Canaanite god, often portrayed as the primary enemy of the Hebrew God Yahweh. . Your email address will not be published. Baal and Asherah were two giant stumbling blocks for the people of Israel. Payment of the full tithe to the food stores of the Temple, some thought, would guarantee that YHWH would open the windows of heaven and pour down overflowing blessings (Mal. 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. Recall the mention in Hosea 10:1 of increasing and embellishing altars just before Israel fell to Assyria. 106:28). God set up the Levites within Israel to function as the teachers of His way of life, and He sent the prophets as watchdogs on the Levites and civil leaders. This describes to a T what Israel did then and their descendants are continuing to do today. 14:2). 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. For those early Hebrews, Baal designated the Lord of Israel, just as Baal farther north designated the Lord of Lebanon or of Ugarit. See what over 150,000 subscribers are already receiving each day. This time, Baal puts up a fight and holds Mot off in battle. The bulk of the Ugaritic mythological texts is concerned with the activities of Baal. Even as the Canaanite religion waned, Baal took on a new role as Zeus in the Ancient Greek pantheon. FREE ebook: Israel: An Archaeological Journey. Evil practices never go away. Elijah was sent by God, and he was fulfilling the responsibility of a prophet, to prod the people to whom he was sent to their responsibilities. God wants to transform us from people who are bent on pleasing ourselves to people who show concern for others. God's pattern is being established. The worship of Baal extended in this region to the Jews, Canaanites and the Phoenicians. In the mythology of Canaan, Baal, the god of life and fertility, locked in mortal combat with Mot, the god of death and sterility. But when heat is applied, and the blood begins rushing into the affected areas, pain immediately occurs. Jer 32:29. Child sacrifice was a fundamental aspect of Baal worship. But God. ), from an original Baal-Zebul, which is preserved in this form in the New Testament (Matt. Updates? In other words, prosperity turns people's heads. The king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. Unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, which depend on irrigation, the Promised Land drinks water from the rain of heaven (Deut. II Kings 17:33 illustrates their worship: "They feared the LORD, yet served their own gods - according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away." This god also, apparently according to Canaanite lore, defeated El and had associations with the sun and thunder. He then merely floats, going through the motions, even feeling good about himself as he neglects so great salvation (Hebrews 2:3). What modern-day Baals have we worshipped in place of God? There are indications that Baal and other gods and goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon were associated in the minds of their worshipers with certain heavenly bodies. The association of the name Baal-Zephon with Israel's exit from Egypt (Ex. He was also called the Lord of Rain and Dew, the two forms of moisture that were indispensable for fertile soil in Canaan. The triumph of Baal recounted in the myths and perhaps reenacted in ritual drama gave assurance of help in the present and the future as in the past. l /), or Baal (Hebrew: baal), was a title and honorific meaning 'owner', 'lord' in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity.From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods. 8. Observing Christmas and Easter in the name of Christ is no different. He was the god that provided - food - for the people. Child sacrifice was even practiced in the Valley of Hinnom just outside of Jerusalem.
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