Baal, Baalim
(Hebrew Bá'ál; plural, Be`alîm.)
A
word which belongs to the oldest stock of the Semite vocabulary
and primarily means "lord", "owner". So in Hebrew, a man is
styled baal of a house (Ex., xxii, 7: Judges, xix, 22), of
a field (Job, xxi, 39), of cattle (Ex., xxi, 28; Isa., i,
3) of wealth (Eccles, v, 12), even of a wife (Ex, xxi, 3;
cf. Gen., iii, 16). The women's position in the Oriental home
explains why she is never called Bá`alah of her husband).
So also we read of a ram, "baal" of two horns (Dan, viii,
6, 20), of a baal of two wings (i.e. fowl: Eccles., x, 20).
Joseph was scornfully termed by his brother a baal of dreams
(Gen., xxxvii, 19). And so on. (See IV Kings, i, 8: Isa.,
xli, 15; Gen., xlix, 23; Ex., xxiv, 14, etc.) Inscriptions
afford scores of evidence of the word being similarly used
in the other Semitic languages. In the Hebrew Bible, the plural,
be`alîm, is found with the various meanings of the
singular; whereas in ancient and modern translations it is
used only as a referring deities. It has been asserted by
several commentators that by baalim the emblems or
images of Baal (hámmanîm, máççebhôth, etc.) should
be understood. This view is hardly supported by the texts,
which regularly points out, sometimes contemptuously, the
local or other special Baals.
BAAL
AS A DEITY
When
applied to a deity, the word Baal retained its connotation
of ownership, and was, therefore, usually qualified. The documents
speak, for instance, of the Baal of Tyre, of Harran, of Tarsus,
of Herman, of Lebanon of Tamar (a river south of Beirut),
of heaven. Moreover, several Baals enjoyed special attributions:
there was a Baal of the Covenant (Bá`ál Berîth (Judges,
viii, 33; ix 4); cf. 'El Berîth (ibid., ix, 46}; one
of the flies (Bá`ál Zebub, IV Kings, i, 2, 3, 6, 16,);
there also probably was one of dance (Bá`ál Márqôd);
perhaps one of medicine (Bá`ál Márphê), and so on.
Among all the Semites, the word, under one form or another
(Bá`ál in the West and South; Bel in Assyria;
Bal, Bol, or Bel im Palmyra) constantly
recurs to express the deity's lordship over the world or some
part of it. Not were all the Baals -- of different tribes,
places, sanctuaries -- necessarily conceived as identical;
each one might have his own nature and his own name; the partly
fish shaped Baal of Arvad was probably Dagon; the Baal of
Lebanon, possible Cid "the hunter"; the Baal of Harran, the
moongod; whereas in several Sabean Minaean cities, and in
many Chanaanite, Phoenician, or Palmyrene shrines, the sun
was the Baal worshipped, although Hadad seems to have been
the chief Baal among the Syrians. The diversity of the Old
Testament intimates by speaking of Baalim, in the plural,
and specifying the singular Baal either by the article
or by the addition of another word.
What
the original conception was is most obscure. According to
W.R. Smith, the Baal is a local God who, by fertilizing his
own district through springs and streams, becomes its lawful
owner. Good authorities, nevertheless, oppose this view, and
reversing the above argument, hold that the Baal is the genius-lord
of the place and of all the elements that cause its fecundity;
it is he who gives "bread, water, wool, flax, oil, and drink"
(Os, ii, 5; in the Hebr. text 7); he is the male principle
of life and reproduction in nature, and such is sometimes
honoured by acts of the foulest sensuality. Whether or not
this idea sprang from, and led to the monotheistic conception
of supreme deity, the Lord of Heaven, of whom the various
Baals would be so many manifestations, we shall leave to scholars
to decide. Some deem that the bible favours this view, for
its language frequently seems to imply the belief in a Baal
par excellence.
BAAL-WORSHIP
AMONG THE GENTILES
The
evidence is hardly of such weight as to justify us in speaking
of a worship of Baal. The Baal-worship so often alluded to
and described in Holy Writ might, perhaps, be better styled,
Çid-worship, moon-worship, Melek (Moloch)-worship, or Hadad-worship,
according to places and circumstances. Many of the practices
mentioned were most probable common to the worship of all
the Baals; a few others are certainly specific.
A
custom common among Semites should be noticed here. Moved,
most likely, by the desire to secure the protection of the
local Baal for their children, the Semites always showed a
preference for names compounded with that of the deity; those
of Hasdrubal (`Azrû Bá`ál), Hannibal (Hanni Bá`ál),
Baltasar, or Belshazzar (Bel-sar-Ushshur), have become famous
in history. Scores of such names belonging to different nationalities
are recorded in the Bible, and in ancient writers, and in
inscriptions.
The
worship of Baal was performed in the sacred precincts of the
high places so numerous throughout the country (Num., xxii,
41; xxxiii, 52; Deut., xii, 2, etc) or in temples like those
of Samaria (III Kings, xvi, 32; IV Kings, x, 21-27) and Jerusalem
(IV Kings, xi, 18), even on the terraced roofs of the houses
(IV Kings, xxiii, 12; Jer., xxxii, 29). The furniture of these
sanctuaries probably varied with the Baals honoured there.
Near the altar which existed everywhere (Judges, vi 25; III
Kings, xviii, 26; IV Kings, xi, 18; Jer., xi, 13, etc.), might
be found, according to the particular place, either an image
of the deity (Hadad was symbolized by a calf), or the bætylion
(i.e. sacred stone, regularly cone-shaped in Chanaan) supposed
to have been originally intended to represent the world, abode
of the god; of the hammanim (very possible sunpillars;
Lev., xxvi, 30; II Par., xxiv, 4, etc.), and asherah
(wrongly interpreted grove in our Bibles; Judges, vi, 25;
III Kings, xiv, 23; IV Kings, xvii, 10; Jer., xvii, 2 etc.),
a sacred pole, sometimes, possible, a tree, the original signification
of which is far from clear, together with votive or commemorative
stelae (máççebhôth, usually mistranslated images),
more or less ornamented. There incense and perfumes were burned
(IV Kings, xxii, 5; Jer., vii, 9, xi, 13, and according to
the Hebrew, xxxii, 29), libations poured (Jer., xix, 13),
and sacrifices of oxen and other animals offered up to the
Baal; we hear even (Jer., vii, 31;xix, 5;xxxii, 35; II Par.,
xxviii 3) that children of both sexes were not infrequentlly
burned in sacrifice to Melek (D. V. Moloch, A.V. Molech),
and II Par., xxviii, 3 (perhaps also IV Kings, xxi, 6 ) tells
us that young princes were occasionally chosen as victims
to this stern deity. In several shrines long trains of priests,
distributed into several classes (III Kings, xviii, 19; IV
Kings, x, 19; xxiii, 5; Soph., i, 4, etc.) and clad in special
attire (IV Kings, x, 22) performed the sacred function; they
prayed, shouted to the Baal, led dances around the altar,
and in their frenzied excitement cut themselves with knives
and lancets, till they were all covered with blood (III Kings,
xviii, 26-28). In the meantime the lay worshippers also prayed,
kneeling, and paid their homage by kissing the images or symbols
of the Baal (III Kings, xix, 18; Os., xiii, 2, Hebr.), or
even their own hands. To this should be added the immoral
practices indulged in at several shrines (III Kings, xiv,
24; IV Kings, xxiii, 7; cf. Deut., xxiii, 18) in honour of
the Baal as male of reproduction, and of his mate Asherah
(D.V. Astarthe, A. V. Ashtaroth).
BAAL
WORSHIP-AMONG THE ISRAELITES
Nothing
could be more fatal to a spiritual faith than this sensual
religion. In fact, no sooner than the Israelites, coming forth
from the wilderness, been brought into contact with the Baal-worshippers,
than they were, through the guile of the Madianites, and the
attractions of the licentious worship offered to the Moabitish
deity (probably Chamos), easily seduced from their allegiance
to Yahweh (Num., xxv, 1-9). Henceforth the name of Beelphegor
remained like a dark spot on the early history of Israel {Os.,
ix, 10; Ps. ev (In the Hebr. cvi), 28}. The terrible punishment
inflicted upon the guilty sobered for awhile the minds of
the Hebrews. How long the impression lasted we are hardly
able to tell; but this we know, that when they had settled
in the Promised Land, the Israelites, again forsaking the
One True God, paid their homage to the deities of their Chanaanite
neighours (Judges, ii, 11, 13 etc.). Even the best families
could not, or did not dare, resist the seduction, Gedon's
father, for instant, albeit his faith in his Baal seems to
have been somewhat lukewarm (Judges, vi, 31), had erected
an idolatrous altar in Ephra (Judges, vi, 25). "And the Lord,
being angry against Israel, delivered them into the hands
of their enemies that dwelt round about." Mesopotamians, Madianites,
Amalecites, Ammonites, and, above all, Philistines, were successively
the providential avengers of God's disregarded rights.
During
the warlike reigns of Saul and David, the Israelites as a
whole thought little of shaking Yahweh's yoke; such also was,
apparently, the situation under Solomon's rule, although the
example given by this prince must have told deplorably upon
his subjects. After the division of his empire, the Northern
Kingdom, first led by its rulers to an unlawful worship of
Yahweh, sank speedily into the grossest Chanaanite superstitions.
This was the more easy because certain customs, it seems,
brought about confusion in the clouded minds of the uneducated
portion of the people. Names like Esbaal (I Par., viii, 33;
ix, 39), Meribbaal (I Par., viii, 34; ix, 40), Baaliada (I
Par., xiv, 7), given by Saul, Johnathen, and David to their
sons, suggest that Yahweh was possibly spoken of as Baal.
The fact has been disputed; but the existence of such a name
as Baalia ( i.e. "Yahweh is Baal", I Par., xii, 5) and the
affirmation of Osee (ii, 16) are arguments that cannot be
slighted. True, the word was used later on only in reference
to idolatrous worship, and even deemed so obnoxious that bosheth,
shame, was frequently substituted for it in compound proper
names, thus giving, for instance, such inoffensive forms as
Elioda (II Kings, v, 16), Yerubbesheth (II Kings, xi, 21,
Hebr.)., Isboseth (II Kings, ii, 10) and elsewhere, Miphiboseth
(II Kings, ix, 6; xxi, 8); but these corrections were due
to a spirit which did not prevail until centuries after the
age with which we shall presently deal.
Achab's
accession to the throne of Israel inaugarated a new era, that
of the official worship. Married to a Sidonian princess, Jezebel,
the king erected to the Baal of her native city (Cid or Melkart)
a temple (III Kings, xvi, 31, 32) in which a numerous body
of priests officiated (III Kings, xviii, 19). To what a forlorn
state the true faith in the Northern Kingdom fell Elias relates
to III Kings, xix, 10, 14: The children of Israel have forsaken
thy covenant: they have thrown down thy altars, they have
slain thy prophets with the sword. There remained but seven
thousand men whose knees had not been bowed before Baal (III
Kings, xix, 18). Ochozias, son of Achab and Jezebel, followed
in his parents footsteps (III Kings, xxii, 54) and although
Joram, his brother and successor, took away the maccebhoth
set up by his father, the Baal-worship was not stamped out
of Samaria (IV Kings, iii, 2, 3) until its adherents were
slaughtered and its temple destroyed at the command of Jehu
(IV Kings, x, 18-28). Violent as this repression was, it hardly
survived the prince who had undertaken it. The annals of the
reigns of his successors witness to the religious corruption
again prevailling; and the author of IV Kings could sum up
this sad history in the following few words: They forsook
all the precepts of the Lord their God: and made to themselves
two molten calves, and groves [asherah], and adored
all the host of heaven : and they served Baal. And consecrated
their sons, and their daughters through fire: and they gave
themselves to divinations, and soothsayings: and they delivered
themselves to do evil before the Lord, to provoke him. And
the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from
his sight . . . . and Israel was carried away out of their
land to Assyria, unto this day. (IV Kings, xvii, 16-18, 23).
Meanwhile
the kingdom of Juda fared no better. There, also, the princes,
far from checking the drift of the people to idolatry, were
their instigators and abettors. Established by Joram (IV Kings,
viii, 18), probably at the suggestion of Athalia his wife,
who was the daughter of Achab and Jezebel, the Phoenician
worship was continued by Ochozias (IV Kings, viii, 27). We
know from IV Kings, xi, 18 that a temple had been dedicated
to Baal (very likely to Baal honoured in Samaria) in the Holy
City, either by one of these princes or Athalia. At the latter's
death, this temple was destroyed by the faithful people and
its furniture broken to pieces (IV Kings, xi, 18; II Par.,
xxiii, 17). If this reaction did not crush utterly the Baal-worship
in Juda, it left very little of it alive, since, for over
a century, no case of idolatry is recorded by the sacred writers.
In the reign of Achaz, however, we find the evil not only
flourishing again, but countenanced by public authority. But
a change has taken place in Juda's idolatry; instead of the
Sidonian Baal, Melek (Moloch), the cruel diety of the Ammonites,
had become the people's favourite (II Par., xxviii, 2; IV
Kings, xvi, 3, 4). His barbarous rites rooted out Ezechias,
appeared again with the support of Manasses, by whose influence
the Assyro-Babylonian astral deities were added to the Pathenon
of the Judean idolaters (IV Kings, xxiii, 4, 5) produced no
lasting results, and after his death the various superstitions
in vogue held sway until "the Lord cast out from his face
Juda and Jerusalem" (IV Kings, xxiii, 32, 37; xxiv, 9, 19,
and elsewhere).
The
Babylonians invasions dealt to the Baal-worship in Palestine
a deadly blow. At the restoration Israel shall be Yahweh s
people, and He their God (Exech., xiv, 11), and Baal will
become altogether a thing of the past.
Selden,
De diis syris (1617); Gigot, Biblical Lectures
(Baltimore, 1901), V; Id., Outlines Of Jewish History
(New York 1905); PEAKES in HASTINGS, Dict. bible, s.v.
Baal; THATCHER, ibid., s.v. Phoenicia; OTTLEY, The
Religion Of Israel (Cambridge, 1905): SAYCE, The Gods
Of Canan, in Contemporary Review for Sept., 1883;
W.R. Smith, The Religion Of The Semites (Edinburgh,
1889); BOURQUENOU ET DUTAC, Etudes archeologiques in Etudes
Religieuses (1864-1866); LAGRANGE, Etudes sur les religions
semitiques (Pairs, 1903); MASPERO, Histoire ancienne
des peuples de l'Orient classique (Paris, 1898); REVILLE,
La religion des Pheniciens in Revue des deux mondes,
for 15 May 1873; TIELE, La religion phenicienne, in
Revue de l'histoire des religions (1881), III; VIGOUROUX
in Dict. de las bible, s.v. Baal; Id., La
bible et les decouvertes modernes (Paris, 1889), III;
Id., Les pretres de Baal et leurs successeurs dans l'antiquite
et dans le tempra present, in Revue bibilique for
April (1896); DE VOGUE, Melanges d'archelogie orientale
(Paris 1868); BATHGEN, Beitrage zur semitisches Religionsgeschichte
(Berlin, 1888); BAUDISSIN, Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte
(1876-78); Id., in HERZOG Realencyklopadie, s.v. Baal
und Bel; MARTI, Geschichte der israelitiechen,
Religion (1897); MEYER, Ueber einige semitische Gotter,
in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft
(1877); MOVERS, Die Phonizier (1841-56); OORT, Dienst
des Baal in Israel (Leyden, 1864); SCHRADER, Baal und
Bel, in Theologische Studien und Kritiken (1874); SMEND,
Lehrbuch der alttestamentlischen Religionsgeschichte
(Greiburg, Leipzig, 1893, 1899)
For use of the plural (Baalim), DRIVER, Notes on the Hebrew
Text of the Books of Samuel, on I Sam., vii, 3; BURNEY,
Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Kings, on
I (III), xviii 18.
by
CHARLES L. SOUVAY
Transcribed by Beth Ste-Marie
The
Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume II
Copyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
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