![]() Thus, the worship of Baʿal in Canaan-where he eventually supplanted El as the leader of the gods and patron of kingship-was connected to the regions' dependence on rainfall for its agriculture, unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, which focused on irrigation from their major rivers. The dry summers of the area were explained as Baʿal's time in the underworld and his return in autumn was said to cause the storms which revived the land. Nonetheless, Ugaritic records show him as a weather god, with particular power over lightning, wind, rain, and fertility. Musée du Louvre.īaʿal is well-attested in surviving inscriptions and was popular in theophoric names throughout the Levant but he is usually mentioned along with other gods, "his own field of action being seldom defined". See also: Baal Cycle Bronze figurine of a Baal, 14th–12th century BCE, found at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) near the Phoenician coast. Suggestions in early modern scholarship also included comparison with the Celtic god Belenus, however this is now widely rejected by contemporary scholars. The feminine form is baʿalah ( Hebrew: בַּעֲלָה Arabic: بَعْلَة), meaning 'mistress' in the sense of a female owner or lady of the house and still serving as a rare word for 'wife'. They also appear in some contexts concerning the ownership of things or possession of traits. ![]() Báʿal ( בַּעַל) and baʿl still serve as the words for 'husband' in modern Hebrew and Arabic respectively. Ĭognates include the Akkadian Bēlu ( □), Amharic bal ( ባል), and Arabic baʿl ( بعل). In the Northwest Semitic languages- Ugaritic, Phoenician, Hebrew, Amorite, and Aramaic-the word baʿal signified ' owner' and, by extension, 'lord', a 'master', or 'husband'. In close transliteration of the Semitic name, the ayin is represented, as Baʿal. In such contexts, it follows the anglicized pronunciation and usually omits any mark between its two As. The word's biblical senses as a Phoenician deity and false gods generally were extended during the Protestant Reformation to denote any idols, icons of the saints, or the Catholic Church generally. ![]() These forms in turn derive from the vowel-less Northwest Semitic form BʿL ( Phoenician and Punic: □□□). The spelling of the English term "Baal" derives from the Greek Báal ( Βάαλ which appears in the New Testament and Septuagint, and from its Latinized form Baal, which appears in the Vulgate. That use was taken over into Christianity and Islam, sometimes under the form Beelzebub in demonology. The Hebrew Bible includes use of the term in reference to various Levantine deities, often with application towards Hadad, who was decried as a false god. Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cults and with a variety of unrelated patron deities, but inscriptions have shown that the name Ba'al was particularly associated with the storm and fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods. əl/), or Baʻal ( Hebrew: בַּעַל baʿal), was a title and honorific meaning 'owner', ' lord' in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity.
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