BELIAL. — A term which in the Hebrew Bible (28 times) denotes the hidden wickedness active in the world, later becoming the name of the supreme genius of evil (Satan).
The Hebrew bēlijā' al is composed of bēli (“not,” “without”) and a noun of uncertain origin and meaning, probably jā' al (from jā' al, used only in hiph' il); hence b. = “without usefulness” would be a litotes (cf. Lat. nequam, Fr. vaurien). St. Jerome, however (in Eph. 4, 27; PL 26, 544), together with the ancient rabbis (Sanhedhrin, III b), sees in it 'ōl, “yoke,” whence his gloss id est absque iugo (= bēli 'ōl) in Iudc. 19, 22 (Vulg.). T. K. Cheyne, H. Gressmann (who adduces the Babylonian goddess of the underworld Belili), and others, seeing in II Sam. 22, 5 (= Ps. 17, 5), where B. is in parallelism with “death,” an allusion to the subterranean abyss, which does not allow the dead to rise again, derive jā' al from 'ālah, “to rise,” and understand b. (“without ascent”) as originally a synonym of šē'ōl (v.).
It seems that b. was originally an abstract noun (“perdition”), which underwent a semantic development similar to that of the rarer abaddon (v.). It is used in an ethical sense, except perhaps in II Sam. 22, 5 (Ps. 17, 5). In the Old Testament the abstract meaning predominates, especially in expressions in which it is a genitive of qualification or destination: “son of b.” (cf. “son of iniquity”: II Sam. 3, 34; 7, 10; Ps. 88, 23; “son of death”: I Sam. 20, 31; 26, 16; II Sam. 12, 5); Deut. 13, 13 (Heb. 14); Iudc. 19, 22; 20, 13; I Sam. 1, 16; 2, 12; 10, 27; 25, 17; I Reg. 21, 10, 13; II Par. 13, 7; and “man of b.” ('īl b. or hab-b. with the article [only 3 times]; cf. “man of death”: I Reg. 2, 26, “of iniquity”: Iob. 34, 36); I Sam. 25, 25; 30, 22; II Sam. 16, 7; 20, 1; I Reg. 21, 13; Prov. 6, 12; 16, 27; 19, 28 (Eccli. 11, 32). Used alone, elliptically (for 'īl b.), b. is equivalent to “wicked” (II Sam. 23, 6; Iob. 34, 18) or “destroyer” (Nah. 2, 1), assuming a concrete sense, as a noun or adjective. B. expresses moral evil and applies to everything (things, thoughts, actions) that tends toward it or proceeds from it (Deut. 15, 9; Ps. 40, 9; 100, 3; Nah. 1, 11; I Sam. 20, 10 Septuagint; perhaps II Sam. 22, 5 [Vulg. Belial] and Ps. 17[18], 5 Vulg.: torrentes iniquitatis, where many see šē'ōl in b.). P. Jolion (p. 183) sees in b. “a concrete name, an appellative, also used as a proper name.” The assonance of b. with the names of false gods such as bēl and bā' al may have contributed to the formation of the term.
The Septuagint (and likewise the Targumim) ignore b. as a proper name: they did not retain the term (only cod. A in Iudc. 20, 13; Bēliam), understand b. vaguely, and translate it either as a concrete noun or appellative (παράνομος, ἀσβῆς, ἀμύρωλος, ἄρρων), or as an abstract noun (ἀνομία, ἀνόμημα, ἀποστασία, often λοιμός, “plague”: παλώσις: Nah. 2, 1). Aquila translates b. as ἀποστάτης, and so the Suda interprets II. Theodotion transcribes Bēliam, treating it as a proper name, Iudc. 19, 22.
The Vulgate displays an equal variety. St. Jerome often considers b. a personification of the devil (I Reg. 21, 13 filii diaboli... diabolici; but in Eph., the passage cited: filii pestilentiae = λοιμός) and retains B. (regarded as an appellative, a proper name) only in the expression “son of B.” (and twice vir B.: II Sam. 16, 7; 20, 1). Elsewhere: praevacicatio (πονηρά): Nah. 1, 11; praevacicatori (ἀπαράνομος): II Sam. 23, 6; iniquus (ὁ λοιμός): I Sam. 25, 25 and 30, 22; apostata: Iob. 34, 18; iniustus (παράνομος): Ps. 100, 3; inquis (ἄρρων): Prov. 16, 27.
B. was identified with Satan in Hasidic circles of the second century B.C. (K. Kohler). As a personification of the devil, B. is absent from rabbinic-Talmudic literature. Only in the Middle Ages does the Cabbala oppose 'Ādhām B. to 'Ādhām Qadhmān.
In Jewish apocalyptic literature, B. became the proper name of “the wicked one” par excellence, Satan. This personification is produced in the Old Testament by the elliptical and absolute use of b. to designate a maleficent force (Nah. 1, 15; Vulg. Belial). The established form is now Beliar (sometimes Berial), resulting from euphonic dissimilation, perhaps under Aramaic influence; confusion with bēl jā'ar, “lord of the forest,” is also possible. In the Testam. XII Patriarch. (second century B.C., with Christian revisions), B. continually designates the chief of the evil spirits, Satan (Ruben 4, 7, 11; 6, 3; Simeon 5, 3; Levi 3, 3; 18, 12; 19, 1; Isachar 6, 1; 7, 7; Zabulon 9; Dan 1, 4-5; Aser 1, 3; Beniamin 3, 6-7; etc.), as in Iubil. 1, 20; 15, 33, and in the first part of the Ascensio Isaiae (1-5), 2, 1-4 (“angel of iniquity,” “power of this world”); B. is also called Sammael and Matanbukus); 3, 11, 13; 4, 2-16; 5, 1-4. 15. B. is God’s antagonist; he has his own kingdom and court of darkness (Test. Joseph 20, 10; Nephilal 2, 6; Beniamin 9; Dan 6), whose “seven evil spirits,” opposed to the “seven archangels,” pour every evil upon the earth (Ruben 2, 1-2). At the end of time B. will fight the Messiah, or “new Priest” (Test. Levi 18, 12), who will defeat him and cast him into the fire (Test. Iud. 5, 10 ff.; 25, 3; Ruben 6, 12; cf. Asc. Is. 3, 11-4, 18); cf. Apec. 20, 2-3. B. (Satan) occurs in the Sadoqite document (ca. A.D. 200) of the Damascus sect (6, 9; 7, 19; 9, 12; 14, 5). Bēliam or Bēliam of Sibyll. III, 63-76 (cf. II, 167) is usually identified with the Antichrist (J. Geffcken, R. H. Charles), and the passage was prefaced by the title (later, but consonant with it): περὶ τοῦ ἀπέτεινος δαίμονος τοῦ Ἀντιχριστοῦ. But here too B. is rather a spirit, chief of the demons.
St. Paul (II Cor. 6, 15) likewise calls Bēliam (some MSS. Bēliam, accusative of Bēliam; Vulg. Belial, but some ancient Latin witnesses read Beliar or Belial) the chief of the evil spirits manifesting themselves in pagan life, opposed to Christ-God (in the Synoptics he is called “Beelzebul”: Mt. 10, 25; 12, 24, 27; Mc. 3, 22), and the Pēšittā translates it as “Satan.” The Syrians explained Beliar as “lord of the air,” from bél and 'ojar (ἀφρ): cf. Eph. 2, 2; St. Jerome, “cocca angustia, sive coecum lumen vel filius praevurications” (Nom. hebr. 76: PL 23, 853 ff.). M. Friedländer and R. H. Charles are wrong to maintain that B. Antichrist (v.); in St. Paul’s time B. was synonymous with Satan, clearly distinct from the Antichrist. W. Bousset and T. K. Cheyne see in ἀνθρώπος τῆς ἀνομίας of II Thess. 2, 3 the equivalent of 'it 6; one might also hold that ὁ ὁίος τῆς ἀπολείας there translates belijd'al; ἀνοίως of II Thess. 2, 8 might translate B. (sometimes rendered by the Septuagint as παράνομος), but rather reproduces the ἀνοίος of Is. 11, 4, Heb. rāfa). Only the brief Christian apocalypse (ca. A.D. 100) of Ascensio Is. 2, 13-4, 19 lends itself to Charles’s hypothesis of a mixture of traditions concerning Beliar, the Antichrist, and Nero returned to life (Asc. Is. 4, 1-14).
Among the Fathers, B. remained in use as a synonym for Satan, more often in the form Βελίας (Ps.-Ignatius, Ad Philipp.: PG 5, 933; St. Hippolytus, Horr.; St. Gregory Nazianzen: PG 37, 996). The Latins used Belia (Tertullian, De habitu mul., 2: “Christo et Beliae”; Prudentius, Hamartig., 5, 20; Psychom., 714 “praeceptor Belia”), Belias (Potamius: PL 8, 1416), and sometimes Beliar (Cassian, Coll. 12, 16).
The practice of calling the prince of demons B. declined during the Middle Ages. The book composed (1382) by Giacomo da Teramo, Consolatio peccatorum or Belial (or Lis Christi et Belial), published at Augsburg in 1472 with interesting woodcuts, was widely circulated. Milton calls B. the demon of impurity (Paradise Lost, I, 490-505; Paradise Regained, II, 150).