Thus, they developed a syncretic religious system, a blending of the truth of God and outright paganism. In correlating the sequence of events, Baal's victory over the sea-god, Yamm, is probably to be placed near the beginning of the action, since it was presumably this exploit which gained him the dominant position among the gods, just as *Marduk achieved preeminence by defeating the sea-monster Tiamat. Its is right up there with the thought that we know where Jesus was born, or that one can see a descendant of the original burning bush, etc.. Baal was the title of the "god" worshiped in ancient Canaan and Phoenicia. 1:711). 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. 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). What the Bible says about Israel "walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD had cast out from before the children of Israel." 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. (Jeremiah 7:8-10). 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). By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. The Septuagint (LXX) rendered Joshua, the son of Nun, in Greek as Iesous; the same was used for Christs name in the NT. El and Anath mourn violently, mutilating their faces and bodies. The basis for this view was the fact that in biblical usage the plural of the term, with the article, "the Baalim," appears to designate minor local gods (Judg. In Tamil Nadu, the following words payachi paarai, Peyazhwar, payans, pai (meaning devil) are currently in use. The Kingdom of Israel fell below the historian's radar. A biblical pharaoh's border monument. It disturbed them. Ahaz fostered Baal worship (II Chron. He replaced the Levitical priesthood with men of his own choosing. The god Baal was the heathen sun-god spoken of in the Old Testament. Whether it turns out to be the falling away remains to be seen. 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. 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. Once Elijah began preaching, their conscience pricked them, and it encouraged them to worship the true God. God's first command to destroy any forms of idol worship came early in the Bible in Exodus 34:13. . Sift through the storied history of ancient Israel. Baal was a god of prosperity, god of harvest, sex and fertility. 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 . linked to Molech (also called Milcom in the Bible). They also worshiped him as a fertility god who provided children. He was considered superior to his father, El, the chief of the deities. (Iron Age) temple. Most modern translations use "false," "deceitful," or "faithless," and none of these are wrong, including "divided." Who were the Sidonians, and what do we know about their religion? Everything Joshua* (Yehoshua) did was in accordance with the TaNaKh, which is an acrostic for Torah (=Law/Instruction), Neviim (=Prophets), and Ketuvim (=Writings). 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. How many pagan ideas have we let seep in? "Christian" religions of this world have mixed the traditions of paganism with some of the truth of God's Word. Baal's objection to the window somehow concerned his three daughters and the sea-god (Yamm), but the text is broken at this point. In Ugaritic and Hebrew, Baals epithet as the storm god was He Who Rides on the Clouds. 19Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. With the help of wonder weapons supplied and blessed by the versatile Koshar (the craftsman god), Baal was able to defeat and rout the sea-god. John W. Ritenbaugh No doubt, we cant cover the breadth of verses on Baal here, but we should 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. The Bible is full of colorful characters, from Noah to Moses to Jesus. You have a cuddly little Baal idol in your child's bedroom without even suspecting it. This second, universal interpretation is a better fit because, when we look at the whole passage, the events and personalities are worldwide in scope. Valimai means strengh, or force or weight. O. Eissfeldt, Beitraege zur Religionsgeschichte des Altertums I (1932); H.L. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. ( The first is the Assyrian crisis, discussed here.) Notably, an impressed handle found near a Canaanite grave at the site depicts Sidons storm god and a ship. Now that He has announced Israel's imminent calamity, God begins to show how His punishment would alter the lives of the people. Murder and sexual immorality was a part of Baal worship. The practice of Baal worship was wide spread in Bible times and was very evil. God's pattern is being established. Recall the mention in Hosea 10:1 of increasing and embellishing altars just before Israel fell to Assyria. That there were minor Baalim also at Ugarit is indicated by a god list in Akkadian (see Ugaritica, 5, p. 44 ll. The Sidonians were the inhabitants of ancient Sidon, a seaport on the Mediterranean Sea in modern Lebanon. Mot refused and boasted how he had mangled Baal. But who is Baal? Hope Bolingeris an acquisitions editor at End Game Press, and the author 21+ books. Doumet-Serhal explains the significance of the handles iconography: The dragon epitomizes the most fundamental ancient mythical perception of the Mesopotamian storm god. Most often, it condemns Baal worship. He began to prophesy in a time of immediate crisis, one that would become far worse before it ever improved. Alternate titles: Baal Shamen, Baal Shemin, Baalim. Possibly even more treacherous than this was a parallel development: mixing the worship of Yahweh and Baal. Dig into the illuminating world of the Bible with a BAS All-Access membership. Thus, IF one is to pronounce the Tetragrammaton according to the masoretic vowel-markings, then it should probably be pronounced something like yuh-WAH or yuh-HWAH. 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.. And Asherah and Baal led the way together (Judges 3:7, 1 Kings 18:19, 2 Kings 23:4). In the Bible, the followers of the one true God encounter other gods, or previously worshipped idols themselves. This is no different from what Israel was doing when Amos wrote back in 760 BC. Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. Photo: Courtesy of Claude Doumet-Serhal. 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. 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. Baal was a cruel, sensuous, and revolting false god whose worship involved sexual degradation and lewdness. * Jesus is a transliteration of the Latin; it is NOT a translation! Remember, this falling away sets the stage for the man of sin, who will have tremendous influence over humanity. He just goes to sleep as he is freezing to death. God's difference from us is that He is holy; He is moral and we are immoral. What was the rationale behind this perverse, immoral act? Usually the storm god is illustrated as a striding human figure, but sometimes he is represented by one of his symbols, such as the bull or leonine dragon. Ashtoreth was the fertility goddess consort of Molech. The Israelites displayed a pandemic failure to love their fellow man. . All rights reserved. Revelation 2:14 "THE DOCTRINES OF . With Baal's functions accredited to YHWH, it was natural and fitting that some of Baal's titles would also be taken over. After a textual gap, there is a report that Baal's corpse has been found. 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. None of the foolish practices of the heathen could bring the rains; only YHWH could and did (Jer. In the Judeo-Christian tradition Asherah is considered a false Canaanite deity and a major source of temptation to the Israelites. The motifs of these myths were adopted and adapted in Jewish and Christian eschatology. Who Was Baal? (verses 9-11). (the Middle Bronze Age). One interpretation is that it is a localized occurrence, in the sense of it happening just within the little flockthe church. 3:10; cf. Baal, god worshipped in many ancient Middle Eastern communities, especially among the Canaanites, who apparently considered him a fertility deity and one of the most important gods in the pantheon. ; Job 3:8, 7:12, 9:13, 26:1213, 38:811, 40:25). The Bible tells us that there were dire consequences for Israel worshiping a false god (Judges 2). Since their rejection of the house of David under Jeroboam I, the Israelites had practiced a syncretistic religion (Amos 5:21-26; 8:14; I Kings 12:25-33). More than 1400 of her works have been featured in various publications. 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. Virtually all reference to Baal's consort, the violent "Virgin Anath" with whom Baal copulates by the thousand in one of the Ugaritic mythological fragments has been excluded from the Bible, but the goddesses Ashtart (Judg. Sign up to receive our email newsletter and never miss an update. It may be, however, that these extra Baalim are Baal's attendants, mentioned as the seven or eight lads whom Baal is ordered to take with him in his descent into the netherworld. 10:25, 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15, 18). The combined letters o and e is joined to pronounce the sound ye. The tablets, although closely attached to the worship of Baal at his local temple, probably represent Canaanite belief generally. 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 . 11:1011). When Ashtoreth is mentioned in scripture, she is linked to Molech, (also called Milcom in the Bible).