For instance, Hezekiahs son rebuilds the shrines of Baal and the Canaanite goddess Asherah that Hezekiah had torn down: He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. 6:30; II Kings 16:3233) are associated with him. Alternate titles: Baal Shamen, Baal Shemin, Baalim. The beliefs and practices of the Canaanites were not only detestable, but they also . Everything Joshua* (Yehoshua) did was in accordance with the TaNaKh, which is an acrostic for Torah (=Law/Instruction), Neviim (=Prophets), and Ketuvim (=Writings). Actually, there were two gods which were essentially worshiped the same way, Baal and Ashtoreth. The worship of Baal was popular in Egypt from the later New Kingdom in about 1400 bce to its end (1075 bce). Ashtoreth was the fertility goddess consort of Molech. He may have replaced the Sabbath with Sunday worship. "Christian" religions of this world have mixed the traditions of paganism with some of the truth of God's Word. The myths also tell of Baals struggle to obtain a palace comparable in grandeur to those of other gods. Our nation has embraced the old ancient paganism that we read about in the Bible. 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. l, b . Like ancient Israel, we can easily fall back into our former ways. 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 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. Canaanite Religions and Baal Worship by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson Audio (12:51) Free E-mail Bible Study Grace: Favor for the Undeserving. What will happen will affect the entire world, even though the world will not grasp the spiritual significance. That Baal appears to be a relative newcomer in the Ugaritic pantheon has been generally recognized, and it may be that Sakkhunyaton's story about Baal's paternity reflects a mythologizing of the process by which Baal was integrated into the family of El. In exchange, they would offer information about their unit. The Kingdom of Israel fell below the historian's radar. 27:1). One was 260 days and was used for . All Rights Reserved. ; contact address: [emailprotected]. When a person is freezing to death, he feels a pleasant numbness that he does not want to end. These Israelites were lethargic in terms of true, spiritual matters. In Judah the murder of the queen mother, *Athaliah , and of Mattan, priest of Baal, and the smashing of the altars and cult images in the Baal temple (II Kings 11:18) did not wipe out the cult (II Kings 12:34). JezaBel can be respelLt as JezaVel ~ JezaVAl ~ IezaVAL ~ Isaval-lavi ~ an expert in music. The sum of what Elijah said is actually spiritually dangerous, due to the fact that God is judging. As we study the operation of the spirit of Baal in the Bible, one can see the fruit of its operation in the USA.. Today, some evangelicals attempt to prepare the people for what is to come, but their teaching is a mixture of right and wrong. Baal rejoiced and celebrated with a banquet. He was considered superior to his father, El, the chief of the deities. The judge Gideon was also named Jerubbaal (Judges 6:32), and King Saul had a son named Ishbaal (I Chronicles 8:33). When religion is ungodly, its power is destructive, and every institution in the nation suffers. Baal and Asherah were two giant stumbling blocks for the people of Israel. Whatever the case, there is no doubt about Elijah's intent: "How long will you keep shifting from one opinion to the other?" One interpretation is that it is a localized occurrence, in the sense of it happening just within the little flockthe church. Near Baals temple was that of Dagon, given in the tablets as Baals father. 19:5ff.). Adad roughly equates with the later Phoenician storm god Baal, the worship of whom is championed by the nefarious queen Jezebel in the Bible. 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! The only trouble is that people like to feel comfortable in moral mediocrity. Before descending to the realm of death, Baal copulates with a heifer and begets a male offspring. (Iron Age) temple. They believed by their actions they could control and manipulate the Gods. The heyday of Baal worship in Israel came in the days of Elijah, when the Phoenician princess Jezebel launched a massive campaign to promote Baal. The worship of this idol consisted in exposing that part of the body which all persons usually take the utmost care to conceal. 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. The right remedy, according to Israel's prophets, was to repudiate Baal completely and to seek and return to Israel's true God (Isa. Jun 2. During the summer months the rains cease, but the temporary drought is no threat unless it is abnormally prolonged. This is no different from what Israel was doing when Amos wrote back in 760 BC. Perhaps the clearest example of this is Jeremiah, who moaned and complained to God, "This is more difficult than You ever told me it would be. They used the name of God frequently, saying they trusted Him, but they filled the nation with stealing, lying, and murder. But when heat is applied, and the blood begins rushing into the affected areas, pain immediately occurs. 1:4; Hab. 9:20 presents a parallel is mistaken since the Ugaritic text mentions the sea-god and not Death (Mot) in connection with the window.) 2008 The Gale Group. There was, therefore, continuity in Sidons population from the Bronze to the Iron Age. Jews nowadays say Ha-Shem [i.e. Depending on the tradition, she was either Baal's mother, lover, or both. His ministry took place about 150 years before Israel was to fall, becoming the Lost Ten Tribes, so God was beginning to make a powerful witness to them. The Berean: Daily Verse and Comment Sign up for the Berean: Daily Verse and Comment, and have Biblical truth delivered to your inbox. In other words, prosperity turns people's heads. The religion of Israel began with a man, Jeroboam I, who changed the true worship of God (I Kings 12:26-33). The spectacular victory for Yahwism did not have a lasting effect. Another idea is that it pictures a person shifting his weight from one foot to the other, indicating a degree of lameness. "like a bird in a tree. In this chapter, the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal have a show-down to prove the power of their God and gods. Revelation 2:14 "THE DOCTRINES OF . Gray, The Legacy of Canaan (rev. In the Ugaritic mythological texts Balu (bl) is the name of the god which is used more than twice as often as his next most frequent name, Haddu (hd). In Ugaritic and Hebrew, Baals epithet as the storm god was He Who Rides on the Clouds. Theoretically, the Israelites did not believe in idols, but in reality, they did. They also worshiped him as a fertility god who provided children. Yet such fluidity in the use of the term baal did not prevent it from being attached to a god of distinct character. Evil practices never go away. Whether it turns out to be the falling away remains to be seen. BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. Hermann, in: DDD, 13238; M.S. Combine a one-year tablet and print subscription to BAR with membership in the BAS Library to start your journey into the ancient past today! 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! Who were the Sidonians of the Iron Age (c. 1200586 B.C.E.)? This is a prophet's job, a hallmark of a prophet of God. One would think that, if altars increase during this period of prosperity, then religion is flourishing. *Romans 1:25 "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and WORSHIPPED AND SERVED THE CREATURE MORE THAN THE CREATOR". Can we stop with the Yahweh pronunciation once and for all? 11:17; I Kings 8:3536; Jer. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (1968); Albright, Arch Rel; S.M. We may not sacrifice our children on altars for everyone to see; instead, we sacrifice them behind closed doors at a doctor's . (From Forerunner Commentary). 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 is typical Israeliltish syncretism, but it will not work. The proposition for the concept is as follows: The Latins called the Phoenicians as Poeni. 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. 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. It may seem easy to point the finger at the ancient Israelites and say, How could you let a bull statue into Israel? "But there was no voice. The tablets, although closely attached to the worship of Baal at his local temple, probably represent Canaanite belief generally. The conflict of Yahwism and Baalism reached a crisis with Elijah's challenge to Baal's prophets to settle the question whether it was Baal or YHWH who really supplied the rain (I Kings 18). In the parallel Ugaritic list, which is unfortunately very fragmentary, the "Weather-god, Lord of Mount azi" apparently corresponds to Baal apn, while those following are termed simply Baalim (blm). In Hebrew, it is rendered Yehoshua, and in Aramaic, Yeshua. In the Hebrew Bible, Moloch is presented as a foreign deity who was at times illegitimately given a place in Israel's worship as a result of the syncretistic policies of certain apostate kings. He is often accused of causing their pain. Some suppose Baal to correspond to the sun and Ashtoreth to the moon; others that Baal was Jupiter and Ashtoreth Venus. Did the Carthaginians Really Practice Infant Sacrifice? The worship of Moloch, which was practiced at a special site (outside the walls of Jerusalem in the valley of Ben-Hinnom) called Topheth, became firmly established in the time of King Manasseh, his son Amon, and at the beginning of Josiah's reign. Photo: Courtesy of Claude Doumet-Serhal. He describes Israel as a luxuriant grape vine sending runners in every direction, indicating a bountiful crop. 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.. Claude Doumet-Serhal of the British Museum details recent excavations at Sidon in her article SidonCanaans Firstborn, published in the July/August 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Sun worship came from the ancient pagan religion of Baal. And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. A god Baal apn was known from Egyptian and Akkadian sources before the discovery of the Ugaritic documents. Life in a land dependent on rainfall enhanced the appeal of the Baal cult and its pervasive influence persisted through the centuries, as the unrelenting protests of the prophets and the sporadic efforts at reform attest. Recall the mention in Hosea 10:1 of increasing and embellishing altars just before Israel fell to Assyria. For seven days a fire burned inside the building, and when it subsided, the house was plated with gold, silver, and lapis lazuli. Then stood up Phinehas, and exe Then they linked up with Baal Peor, attending funeral banquets and eating idol food. Most of them were just saving themselves and making themselves comfortable in their situation. In the Bible, Baal (also rendered Baal) was an important Canaanite god, often portrayed as the primary enemy of the Hebrew God Yahweh. 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).