BAAL

Chief god of the Canaanites, son or grandson of the sky god el, and consort of Asera (Asherah). Baal was the most popular god of the Canaanite pantheon, since he was the administrator of divine favors, the high god El being treated as a shadowy and distant figurehead. In the mythology of ugarit, Baal was the champion of the gods in their fight against the sea Dragon Yam; when he killed

him, he was acclaimed king and hailed as Zabul, "the exalted lord of the earth," and Baal Samen, "lord of the heavens." He was likewise known as "the rider of the clouds" (an Old Testament title of Yahweh as well) and "the lord of the storm," whose voice was thunder. Thus, he was the god who controlled the rain. Since the Canaanites were entirely dependent on rain for the growth of their crops, they fervently sought the good will of Baal. Later he was identified with the storm god Hadad (Adad). In Akkadian, Baal was pronounced as Bel.

The Canaanite word ba’al (lord, master, owner, husband) was originally one of Baal's titles, but by the 15th or 14th century b.c. it was used almost exclusively as his proper name. Since Yahweh was the lord and master (and even husband) of His people Israel, the early Israelites often called Him ba’al;, but when they indulged in the fertility cult of the Canaanite Baal, this appellation for Yahweh was forbidden (Hos 2.18–19). Before this time many Israelite names were formed with ba’al as a title for Yahweh, e.g., Meri-Baal, a son of Saul (2 Sam 21.8) and a son of Jonathan (2 Sm 4.4); Ish-Baal, another son of Saul (1 Chr 8.33); and Baaliada, a daughter of David (1 Chr 14.7). Later scribes changed ba’al in some of these names to bōšct (shame). Place names were likewise formed with ba’al, e.g., Baala in northern Juda (Jos 15.9), Baal-Gad (Jos 11.17), Baal-Hermon (Jgs 3.3), etc.; but most, if not all, of these place names went back to the Canaanites, and their full form was probably as in Beth-Baal-Maon (house, i.e., sanctuary of the Lord of Maon; cf. Nm 32.38 with Jos 13.17).

The Old Testament (Jgs 2.11; 8.33; 10.10) speaks of Baals (in the plural), not because there were many different Baals, but because the same god was worshiped at different sanctuaries, e.g., at Baal-Phogor (Dt 4.3; Hos9.10) and at the temple of Baal-Berith (the lord of the covenant) in Shechem (Jgs 8.33; 9.4). The commingling of the Israelites with the Canaanites led to more and more religious syncretism. Even among the Israelites, Baal had his high places (Jer 19.5; 32.35), his altars (Jgs 6.25–30), his sacred stones (2 Kgs 11.18; 2 Chr 23.17), and his prophets (1 Kgs 18.19, 22). The struggle between Yahweh and Baal came to a climax under King Ahab of Israel and his wife jezebel, who built a temple in Baal's honor at Samaria and supported 450 of his prophets (1 Kgs 16.32). Elijah successfully challenged these prophets on Mt. Carmel (1 Kgs 18.20–40). Although almost eradicated by Jehu (2 Kgs 10.18–28), the cult revived and remained until the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (2 Kgs 17.10). Promoters of the Baal cult in Judah were Ahab's daughter Athalia, who was married to King Jehoram of Judah (2 Kgs 11.18), and King Manasse (2 Kgs 21.3). Although strenuously opposed by the Prophets Jeremiah (Jer 2.23; 11.13) and Ezekiel (Ez 6.4–6), the cult continued in Judah until the destruction of the Southern Kingdom. Many of the attributes of Baal are paralleled by those applied to Yahweh, and perhaps some of the Psalms were influenced by the cultic hymns of Baal worship [e.g., Ps 28(29)].

Bibliography: Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, tr. and adap. by l. hartman (New York 1963) 182–183. a. s. kapelrud, Baal in the Ras Shamra Texts (Copenhagen 1952). g. r. driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends (Edinburgh 1956). j. gray, The Legacy of Canaan: The Ras Shamra Texts and Their Relevance to the Old Testament (Vetid Testamentum Suppl. 5; 2d ed. 1964). r. dus-saud, "Le Vrai nom de Ba’al," Revue de l'histoire des religions 113 (1936) 5–20.

[h. mueller]