Baal (Ba'al = 'Lord, Master, Owner') (BAAL (BA'AL = «SIGNORE, PADRONE, POSSESSORE»))

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

BAAL (ba'al = «lord, master, possessor»). - Divinity worshipped by almost all peoples of the Near East and in Africa. In the Bible it is designated with the article (hab-ba'al), omitted in the documents of Ras

Article illustration — BA - Representation of the soul in the form of a bird with a human head. Wall fresco in the tomb of Queen Nefertari (19th Dynasty, 12th century B.C.) - Thebes, Valley of the Queens.
(phot. Musci Vaticani)

Šamrah. It is uncertain whether the cult of B. was of Semitic or Hittite origin. B. was the spirit of fertility, the male principle, to whom the bull was sacred (his consort, the female principle, was Baalat, or 'Ašērāh [v.] or Bilith, or Beltis). He presided over the phenomena of nature and uttered his voice through thunder, hurled lightning bolts, rode the clouds, and poured down the rain. He is depicted with weapons and a spear in hand, a radiate diadem (sun?) and the ḥammānīm (according to Rašī "solar columns"; according to Ingholt and Vincent "altar for burning incense"; according to Albright "brazier"). Not a few ancients identified him with Kronos or Saturn, later with Jupiter and in particular with the Heliopolitan Jupiter (sun god) Ba'albek (v.).

From the place where he was worshipped, or toward which he was supposed to have a predilection, or from the functions attributed to him, arose numerous denominations (hypostases) of B. (Baalim): Baalsamin (Balsamen) = B. of heaven, B. of Lebanon, B. Bērīth (of the covenant), B. Markodes (of the dance?), B. Mrp (healer), Beelphegor (v.), Beelsephon (v.), Beelsebub (v.). The Canaanite territory, before the Israelite invasion, was full of Baalim. Among some peoples, B. was worshipped under another name, but with the same prerogatives: Mekal at Beisan, Rešēph-Seth in Egypt, B. Šamin, Malak Bel, Jarchi Bel, Agli Bol at Palmyra, B. Hammōn at Carthage, Tešup among the Hittites and the Hurrians, Melqart (v.) at Tyre, Hadad (v.) among the Canaanites.

E. Dhorme connects the cult of B. with the idea that nomads had of the protective divinity, who, in symbiosis with the members of the tribe, was considered not only father, mother, brother, relative, but also «master» or Baal; with the multiplication of gods, the Baalim multiplied, so that each city had its B. and its Baalat (1 Sam. 7:3 ff.; 12:12); from the Amorite cult of the «B. of the high peaks» arose the B. of heaven, B. Šim, Balsamen. According to F. Cumont, B. is the god of the tribe from whom, in exchange for protection, he demanded worship; his sovereignty extended by considering foreign worshippers as clients, whereby B. became a universal god; «master» of the earth because he fertilizes it, he resides in heaven from where he bestows rain and heat (B. of fertility). According to W. R. Smith, there was a shift from the concept of the land of B. (fertile zone, therefore favored by the god) to that of B. as the owner of that land. As god of fertility, he became the controller of waters and rain, the one who presides over the production of animal life and sexual relations, hence the husband of the earth; the masculine principle. It is considered more probable, with Vigouroux and Lagrange, that the name B. implies an attribute of the divinity, presupposing the existence of a god who is master and lord of the universe.

The documents of Ras Šamrah (v.) illuminate his figure. According to the myth of Baal and Alejan-Baal, B. is one of the 70 sons of Ašerat of the sea and father of Alejan-B. Unlike the other gods, he has no temple until 'Ašērāh obtains the construction of one for him, built with bricks and cedars on the heights of Šaphon (Mt. Casius?) by Košer, Hasis, and Hjōn, who open a skylight in it so that B. «the rider of the clouds» can utter his holy voice through II. The dedication is celebrated with hecatombs of oxen, rams, goats, calves, and lambs. B. (with Alejan-B.), being in conflict with Mōt, the genius of the summer harvests (and therefore of drought), is the god of the beneficial waters that make plants sprout and grow. Eliminating each other in turn, B. (and Alejan-B.) descends into the bowels of the earth at harvest time, and Mōt at the time of the rains. From his dark abode, Mōt sends a message that, to reach B., would have to pierce Līn (the biblical Leviathan?), the twisting seven-headed serpent. To B. (and Alejan-B.) belong the clouds, the wind, the thunderbolt, the rains, the seven youths, the eight swine, the house of light, and the lightning. Resurrected, B., accompanied by his daughters (Pidrija, daughter of light; Talija, daughter of abundance; and Arsija), ascends the heights of Šaphon, where the gold is, casting out its usurper Šaphon. After this, 'Anat slays Mōt, thus restoring to the earth the spirit of vegetation.

B. was worshipped on the rooftops of houses (Jer. 32:29; 2 Kings 23:12), in temples (1 Kings 16:32; 2 Kings 10:21-27; 11:18), and especially on the bāmōth (v. BRAHMÃ); cf. Jer. 19:5; 32:35; 1 Kings 18:20. Around the altars ḥammānīm were erected, and human victims were also offered to B. Such rites, cruel and utterly shameless, are execrated by the Bible (1 Kings 18:19-25; 2 Kings 10:19; Jer. 19:5; 32:35).

The cult of B., despite the strict prohibition of Mosaic legislation, was also dear to the Israelites. In the time of the Judges they worshipped the Baalim and the 'Ašērīm (Judg. 2:11-13). Under Ahab, son-in-law of Ithobaal II of Tyre, there were 450 prophets of B. and 400 of 'Ašērāh in the kingdom of Israel, and only 7,000 men refused his worship. The energetic reaction of Elijah culminated in the contest on Carmel (1 Kings 16; 18:16-40). Promoted again by Ahaziah, it was opposed by Joram and uprooted by Jehu (1 Kings 22:54; 2 Kings 3:2; 10:18-28). Athaliah introduced it into Jerusalem as well, but Joash abolished it (2 Kings 11:18; 2 Chron. 23:17). Restored to honor by Ahaz and Manasseh, it was fought against by Hezekiah and Josiah (2 Kings 18:4; 21:3; 23:4-5). Yet the priests of B. continued to operate until the exile, after which the cult of B. disappears (Jer. 2:8, 23; 7:9; 9:14 ff.). Some biblical names ending in B. were later altered with bōšeth («shame»): Ishbosheth for Ishbaal, Mephibosheth for Mephibaal, etc.

BIBL.: F. VIGOUROUX, s. V. in DB. I. cols. 1315-21; F. Cumont, s. V. in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, II, cols. 2647-52; M. J. Lagrange, Études sur les religions sémitiques, Paris 1903, pp. 83-90; W. R. Smith and S. A. Cook, Lectures on the religion of the Semites, London 1927, pp. 93 ff.; 108 f., 533 ff.; H. Vincent, Le B. canonéen de Bryson et sa parèdre, in Revue Biblique, 38 (1928), pp. 512-543; id., La notion biblique du Haut-Lieu, ibid., 51 (1948), pp. 245-278; S. Langdon, Semitic mythology, Boston 1931; R. Dussaud, La mythologie phénicienne d'après les tablètes de Ras Shamra, in Revue de l'histoire des religions, 104 (1931), pp. 353-408; id., Le sanctuaire et les dieux phéniciens de Ras Shamra, ibid., 105 (1932), pp. 245-302; id., Le vrai nom de Ba'al, ibid., 110 (1936), pp. 5-20; id., Les découvertes de Ras Shamra (Ugarit) et l'Ancien Testament, Paris 1937, pp. 68-81; E. Dhorme, L'évolution religieuse d'Israel, I: La religion des Hébreux nomades, Brussels 1937, p. 313 ff.; H. Seyrig, Iconographie de Malakhôl, in Syria, 18 (1937), pp. 108-209; G. Furlani, in Storia delle religioni di P. Tacchi-Venturi, II, 2nd ed., Turin 1939, pp. 83-125; id., La frusta di Adad, in Rendiconti dello R. Accad, naz. dei Lincei, 8 (1932), pp. 374-86; H. Ingholt, Le sens du mot hammān, in Mélanges-Dussaud, II, Paris 1939, pp. 795-802; B. Mariani, Daniel « il patriarca sapiente » nella Bibbia, nella tradizione, nella leggenda, Rome 1945, pp. 156-59, 330-351; W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, Baltimore 1946. Bonaventura Mariani