The Worship of
Baal
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| This bronze figurine
of Baal reveals a haughty look, given to him by a Canaanite
craftsmen. |
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Baal the Life Giver
Baal (ba'al) was an ancient Canaanite and Mesopotamian deity associated
with agriculture. He was believed to be the "giver of life"
and mankind was dependant upon him for providing what was necessary to
sustain the farms, flocks and herds. He was also called the "son of
Dagon" (who was in control of the grain), and "Hadad" the
storm god who would provide plentiful rains after hearing his voice
(thunder).
The Canaanites
The land of Canaan was devoted to the worship of Baal.
The Semitic word Baal means "lord" or "master" and
the Canaanites believed that Baal was in absolute control over nature
and over people. They believed that the only god who was superior to
Baal was his father El, but Baal was the principal deity of the land. It
was he who was in charge of the rain and the weather, and man's survival
was dependent upon Baal's provision.
"One may question that those ancient enemies of
Israel were as evil as the Bible claims that they were, but even a
superficial glance at Canaanite religion alone ably demonstrates their
iniquity. Base sex worship was prevalent, and religious prostitution
even commanded; human sacrifice was common; and it was a frequent
practice--in an effort to placate their gods--to kill young children
and bury them in the foundations of a house or public building at the
time of construction: Joshua 6:26 "In his days did Hiel the
Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his
firstborn..."
Howard E. Vos, "An Introduction To Bible Archaeology" Revised
ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1953) pp. 17-19.
Archaeological Discoveries
Many clay tablets have been unearthed from Ras Shamra the prehistoric
city of Ugarit of the Amarna Letters, many of them revealing the myths
told about the deities of the Canaanite pantheon including its chief
male god Baal. One story reveals an interesting account about Baal's
conflict with Mot, the powerful god of death, who was represented by
drought and sterility. The Canaanites saw this conflict between Baal and
Mot as ongoing. Mot demanded Baal, the life givers' surrender, and the
cry when forth:
"Baal is dead! What will return him to life;
whereupon all nature blossomed again and El proclaimed: "Baal the
conqueror lives; the prince, the lord of the earth, has revived."
The Powerful Attraction to
Baal in Israel and Judah
1 Kings 16:30-34 Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil
in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. And it came
to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the
sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the
daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal
and worshiped him. Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of
Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab
did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings
of Israel who were before him. In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho.
He laid its foundation with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest
son Segub he set up its gates, according to the word of the LORD, which
He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.
Yahweh, the God of Israel, continually condemned the
worship of Baal, and the Lord sent His prophets to warn them of this
idolatry and of the corruption of Baal's fertility rites. During the
period of the kings of Israel Baal worship was prevalent, and even
commanded. Queen Jezebel, the Phoenician wife of king Ahab, had 450
prophets of Baal as her court counselors. Elijah challenged them on
Mount Carmel and Yahweh proved to be the true God.
It wasn't long before the Kings of Judah followed in
the footsteps of their brother in the North:
1 Kings 14:22-24 Now Judah did evil in the sight of
the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they
committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also
built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on
every high hill and under every green tree. And there were also
perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the
abominations of the nations which the LORD had cast out before the
children of Israel.
Baal worship was a powerful attraction to the people
of Israel and eventually led to their destruction and exile. The
Northern Kingdom of Israel wanted idolatry and the Lord gave them over
to Assyria, the Southern Kingdom of Judah wanted idolatry and the Lord
gave them over to Babylon, both lands filled to the brink with idolatry.
Various Names of Baal in
Scripture
Baal-gad ( "lord of good fortune," Josh
11:17)
Baal-hamon ( "lord of wealth," Song 8:11)
Baal-hazor ( "Baal's village," 2 Sam 13:23)
Baal-meon ( "lord of the dwelling," Num 32:38)
Baal-peor ( "lord of the opening," Deut 4:3)
Baal-tamar ( "lord of the palm tree," Judg 20:33), and others.
Ba'al-ze'bub was the form of the name of Baal who was
worshiped at the Philistine city of Ekron. Baal, under this aspect of
worship, was viewed as the producer of flies and therefore able to
control this pest so common in the East..
Some Interesting Quotes about
Baal
In Biblical Canaan "on the
hillsides are grown vines and lives, which, with natural pine and cedar
forests in the Lebanon and Amanus, were the main products of the land.
Moreover, soil which is eroded builds up fertile pockets of earth and
even considerable plains. Such cultivable land was regarded as 'Baal's
land', that is to say, land where cultivation depends on the activity
of the god manifest in the autumn and winter rains. These rains are
heralded by thunder, and 'the lord' (Baal) was known to the Canaanites
by his proper name Hadad, 'the Thunderer', or Rimmon, which means the
same. The term 'Baal-land' as distinct from irrigated land has survived
down to the present day in Muslim law when making tax assessment for
poor relief."
- John Gray, Near
Eastern Mythology
"Baal, one of the sons of El
[the chief god of the Canaanites], was the executive god of the
pantheon, the god of thunder and winter storms, the dynamic warrior god
who champions the divine order against the menacing forces of chaos. He
is also identified with vegetation and the seasonal fertility
cycle...Baal is sometimes called the 'son of Dagon'. Dagon was also a
god of vegetation, specifically corn, which is what his name
means....As the summer drew to an end and the rains were due, the
peasants would suffer a crisis of anxiety - would the rains come? By
calling upon Baal, the rain god, and encouraging his intervention by
rituals of imitative magic involving sexual union, their tensions were
released and purged."
- Magnus Magnusson, BC -
The Archaeology of the Bible Lands
"The goddess peculiarly
associated with Baal is Anat, like Ishtar a goddess of love and war.
She complements Baal, abetting him in his conflict and vindicating him
when he succumbs, possibly reflecting the role of women at the critical
seasons of transition in popular religion or when the order of the gods
is temporarily in eclipse. Related to such phases is certainly the
weeping of the women in Jerusalem for Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14) and
possibly the annual lamentation of the maidens of Israel, which may be
only secondarily related to the mourning for Jephthah's daughter
(Judges 11-39-40)."
- John Gray, Near
Eastern Mythology
"Verily Baal has
fallen to the earth,
Dead is Baal the Might!
Perished is the Prince, lord of the earth!
Then the Kindly One, El the Merciful
Comes down from his throne, he sits on the footstool,
And (coming) off the footstool, he sits on the ground
He sprinkles dirt signifying grief on his head,
On his pate the dust in which he wallows;
For clothing he covers himself with a loincloth;
He scrapes his skin with a stone,
With a chipped flint as a razor
He cuts off side-whiskers and beard;
He rends his shoulder (with his finger-nails);
He scores his chest as a garden plot,
Even as a valley-bottom his trunk he lacerates.
He raises his voice and cries:
Baal is dead! What will become of the people?
The Son of Dagan (is dead)! What of the multitudes (of men)?
After Baal I shall go down to the underworld!
- Ras
Shamra texts
"Here we have the
mourning rites, familiar among the ancient Semites and in Israel.
Generally at death, which is a crisis in society when the community is
especially open to the influences of the supernatural, normal
activities were suspended to thwart those forces. Thus the normal
resorts were avoided, one forsook one's usual seat to sit on the
ground, like Job on the village midden (Job 2:8), or begrimed the
personal or the clothes with dust and scored the face or the body. that
last practice was specifically banned in Israel (Deuteronomy 14:1) in
protest against what was seen as a barbarous Canaanite rite."
- John Gray, Near
Eastern Mythology
Written by Rusty Russell (Bible
History Online)
Webmaster: rusty@bible-history.com
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