BAAL, the name of a god, is properly a Semitic word signi fying lord or owner. The word is used more generally as a noun of relation, e.g. a ba`al of hair, "a hairy man" (2 Kings i. 8), b. of wings, "a winged creature," and in the plural, b. of arrows, "archers" (Gen. xlix. 23), b. of oath, "conspirators" (Neh. vi. 18).
In the Old Testament it is regularly written with the article, i.e. "the Baal"; and the baals of different tribes or sanctuaries were not necessarily conceived as identical, so that we find fre quent mention of Baalim, or rather "the Baalim" in the plural. That the Israelites even applied the title of Baal to Yahweh himself is indicated by the occurrence of such names as Jerub baal (Gideon), Eshbaal (one of Saul's sons) and Beeliada (a son of David, I Chron. xiv. 7). The last name appears in 2 Sam. v. 16 as Eliada, showing that El (God) was regarded as equivalent to Baal; cf. also the name Be`aliah, "Yahweh is baal or lord," which survives in i Chron. xii. 5. However, when the name Baal was exclusively appropriated to idolatrous worship (cf. Hos. ii. 16 seq.), abhorrence for the unholy word was marked by writing boslieth (shameful thing) for baal in compound proper names and thus we get the forms Ishbosheth, Mephibosheth.
The innumerable baals could be distinguished by the addition of the name of a place or of some special attribute. Accordingly, the baals are not to be regarded necessarily as local variations of one and the same god, like the many Virgins or Madonnas of Catholic lands, but as distinct numina. The Baal, as the head of each worshipping group, is the source of all the gifts of nature (cf. Hos. ii. 8 seq., Ezek. xvi. i 9) ; as the god of fertility all the produce of the soil is his, and his adherents bring to him their tribute of first-fruits. He is the presiding genius, patron or cause of all growth and fertility, and baalism, originating, prob ably, in the observation of the fertilizing effect of rains and streams upon the receptive and reproductive soil, became gross nature-worship. Joined with the baals there are naturally found corresponding female figures known as Ashtaroth, embodiments of Ashtoreth (see ASTARTE ; ISHTAR). In accordance with primi tive ideas which assume that it is possible to control or aid the powers of nature by the practice of "sympathetic magic" (see MAGic), the cult of the baals and Ashtaroth was characterized by gross sensuality and licentiousness. The fragmentary allusions to the cult of Baal Peor (Num. xxv., Hos. ix. io, Ps. cvi. 28 seq.) exemplify the typical species of Dionysiac orgies that prevailed.
On the summits of hills and mountains flourished the cult of the givers of increase, and "under every green tree" were practised the cults believed to secure abundance of crops. Human sacri fice (Jer. xix. 5), the burning of incense (Jer. vii. 9), violent and ecstatic exercises, ceremonial acts of bowing and kissing, the preparing of sacred mystic cakes, appear among the offences denounced by the Israelite prophets, and show that the cult of Baal (and Astarte) included the characteristic features of heathen worship which recur in various parts of the Semitic world, although attached to other names.
A Baal of the heavens appears to have been known among the Hittites in the time of Rameses II. ; and considerably later, at the beginning of the 7th century, it was the title of one of the gods of Phoenicia. In Babylonia, from a very early period, Baal became a definite individual deity (Bel), and was identified with the planet Jupiter. This development is a mark of superior cul ture and may have been spread through Babylonian influence. Both Baal and Astarte were venerated in Egypt at Thebes and Memphis in the 19th dynasty, and the former, through the influ ence of the Aramaeans who borrowed the Babylonian spelling Bel, ultimately became known as the Greek Belos who was identi fied with Zeus. Of the worship of the Tyrian Baal, who is also called Melkart (king of the city), and is often identified with the Greek Heracles, but sometimes with the Olympian Zeus, we have many accounts in ancient writers, from Herodotus down wards. He had a magnificent temple to which gifts streamed from all countries, especially at the great feasts. The solar character of this deity appears especially in the annual feast of his awaken ing after the winter solstice (Joseph, contra Apionem i. 18). At Tyre, as among the Hebrews, Baal had his symbolical pillars, one of gold and one of smaragdus, which, transported by phantasy to the farthest west, are still familiar to us as the Pillars of Hercules. His name occurs as an element in Carthaginian proper names (Hannibal, Hasdrubal, etc.), and a tablet found at Mar seilles still survives to inform us of the charges made by the priests of the temple of Baal for offering sacrifices.
The history of Baalism among the Israelites is obscured by the difficulty of determining whether the false worship which the prophets stigmatize is the heathen worship of Yahweh under a conception, and often with rites, which treated him as a local nature god; or, whether Baalism was consciously recognized to be distinct from Yahwism from the first. The earliest certain reaction against Baalism is ascribed to the reign of Ahab, whose marriage with Jezebel gave the impulse to the introduction of a particular form of the cult. In honour of his wife's god, the king, following the example of Solomon, erected a temple to the Tyrian Baal. This, however, did not prevent him from remain ing a follower of Yahweh, whose prophets he still consulted, and whose protection he still cherished when he named his sons Ahaziah and Jehoram ("Yah [weh] holds," "Y. is high"). The antagonism of Elijah was not against Baalism in general, but against the introduction of a rival deity. But by the time of Hosea (ii. 16 seq.) a further advance was marked, and the use of the term "Baal" was felt to be dangerous to true religion. Thus there gradually grew up a tendency to avoid the term, and in accordance with the idea of Ex. xxiii. 13, it was replaced by the contemptuous bosheth, "shame" (see above). However, the books of Deuteronomy and Jeremiah (cf. also Zeph. i. 4) afford complete testimony for the prevalence of Baalism as late as the exile, but prove that the clearest distinction was then drawn between the pure worship of Yahweh the god of Israel and the inveterate and debased cults of the gods of the land. (See further HEBREW RELIGION ; PROPHET.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-W. Robertson Smith, Relig. Semites, 3rd ed. pp. Bibliography.-W. Robertson Smith, Relig. Semites, 3rd ed. pp. 93-113 and the additional notes pp. 532-536 with the references. On Beltane fires and other apparent points of connection with Baal it may suffice to refer to Aug. Fick, Vergleich. W orterbuch, who derives the element bel from an old Celtic root meaning shining, etc.
(W. R. S.; S. A. C.)