View Message

Ba'al is not "a" Canaanite god. The word was used as a title for many Canaanite gods, and originally for YHWH as well. In other contexts it is translated "master", "owner", "husband", or "citizen". Beelzebub is a derogatory Hebrew pun on the name of one such god. The OT refers to "the Baals", and reformers seeking to purify Hebrew religious practice insisted that YHWH was not just one of the many Baals and the title is only used of foreign gods in the received texts. Be'l is the common Chaldean form, Ba'l or Ba'al the Phoenician/Punic (as in Hannibal). Jezebel itself may be a derogatory Hebrew pun on her Phoenician name, in reference to her being "thrown down" to her death.