BAAL or Bel, the God of the Phœnicians or Canaanites. Baal and Astaroth are commonly joined together; and as it is believed that Astaroth denotes the Moon, we may with good reason say that Baal is put for the Sun. The name of Baal is used in a generical sense, for the great God of the Phœnicians, Chaldæans, Moabites, &c. Baal in Hebrew signifies Master, Lord, Husband. It is joined often with the name of some other false God; as Baal-peor, Baal-zebub or Beelzebub, Baal-gad, Baal-zephon, Baal-berith. Baal is the most ancient God of the Jerem. xxxii. 35. xix. 5. 2 Kings xvii. 16. 2 Kings xxiii. 4, 5, 12. 1 Kings xviii. 22. 2 Kings x. 19. 1 Kings xiv. 24. xv. 12. and xii. 47. 2 Kings xxiii. 7. Hosea iv. 14.Canaanites. The Hebrews too often imitated the Idolatry of the Canaanites, in adoring Baal. They offered human Sacrifices to him, they erected Altars for him in groves, upon high places, and upon the terrasses of houses. Baal had Priests and Prophets consecrated to his Service. All sorts of infamous and immodest actions were committed in the Festivals of Baal and Astarte.
Some learned Men have asserted, that the Baal of the Phœnicians was no other than Saturn; and there was indeed a great conformity between the human Sacrifices offered to Saturn, and what the Scriptures tell us of the Sacrifices of Baal. Others are of opinion, that Baal was the Phœnician or Tyrian Hercules, a God of great antiquity in Phœnicia. But we have endeavoured to shew in our Dissertation on the Phœnician Deities, that Baal was the Sun, and that upon this suppossition, all the marks we find in Scripture of this God may be easily explained.
This great Luminary was adored over all the East, and is the most ancient Deity, the worship whereof is acknowledged among the Heathens1. The Greeks paid divine honours to Men, and spread their false Religion among the Romans, and almost throughout the whole Earth, ; but the Eastern people adored the Stars and Elements. The very Egyptians, who were afterwards so lavish of their worship to men, animals, and things insensible, in the beginning had no other Deities but the Heavens, the Stars, and Elements. Their lo. Religion, which to us appears, and in reality is, so monstrous and ridiculous, becomes so principally by their endeavouring to blend the Theology of the Greeks with theirs: and at last the Egyptians, Greeks and Latins, who were made ashamed of such an extravagant Religion, and of their vicious and mortal Gods, bethought themselves of returning to the simplicity of the Ancients, who worshipped the Air, Sun, Moon, Earth and Elements, and under these names meant nothing more than Nature the Mother of all things.
But it is impossible to excuse the absurdities of the Heathen Religion, whatever colours may be given it, or with what pretences soever it may be covered. The worship of a Star or Element is no more reasonable than that of any other Creature; and if the Heathens instead of making vicious and corrupt men and women the objects of their adorations, had chosen persons venerable for their innocency and virtue, they would have been condemned only for having worshipped the creature, and not reproached with having deified sin and lewdness.
They who held that the Stars were pure intelligences, or believed them to be animated and directed by Angels, were less inexcusable. Supposing this, they saw nothing in nature more perfect than the Sun, Stars and Planets: they were blameable only in that they did not rise from the Creature to the Creator, and did not pay to Rom. i. 21. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3, 5.God the Honour which was due to him.
The Hebrews sometimes described the Sun by the name of Baal Shemesh, Baal the Sun. Manasseh adored Baal, planted groves, and worshipped all the Host of 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 11.Heaven : and Josiah desirous to repair the evil wrought by Manasseh, put to death the idolatrous Priests that burnt incense unto Baal, to the Sun, and to the Moon, and to the Planets, and to all the Host of Heaven. He commanded all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Grove, and for all the Host of Heaven, to be brought forth out of the Temple. Lastly, he took away the horses that the Kings of y Plato in Cratyof Judah had given to the Sun, and burnt the chariots of the Sun with fire. Here the Worship of the Sun is particularly described, and the Sun itself represented by the name of Baal.
The Temples and Altars of the Sun, or Baal, were generally upon eminences: As the Temple of the God of Israel was situated on a mountain. Manasseh placed in the two courts of it Altars to all the host of 2 Kings xxi. 5, 7.Heaven, and in particular the Idol of Astarte or the Moon. Jeremiah threatens those of Judah who had sacrificed to Baal Jerem. xxxii. 29. 2 Kings xxiii. 12.upon the house-top. Josiah destroyed the Altars which Ahaz had erected on the terrass of his palace.
Human Victims were offered to Baal, as they were likewise to the Sun. Mithrah, who was the same as the Sun, was honoured with the like Sacrifices2. Apollo sometimes required Victims of the same nature3. Moloch the God of the Ammonites is celebrated throughout the Scripture, for the Children which were made to pass through the fire in honour of him. Jeremiah reproaches the Inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem with building the high places of Baal to burn their Sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal.
We shall not examine in this place whether these Victims were really burnt, or made to pass only through the fire. The Reader may consult if he please the Article Moloch, and our Dissertation concerning this false Deity.
The Scripture has a particular term for describing the Temples consecrated to the Levit. xxvii. 30. Isai. xvii. 8. xxvii. 9. and 2 Chr. xxxiv. 4.Sun or Baal: it calls them Chamanim4: these were places enclosed with walls wherein there was kept up a perpetual fire. They were very frequent in the East, particularly among the Persians; and the Greeks called them Pyreia, or Pyratheia, from a word derived from the Greek, Pyr, Fire, or Pyra, a Funeral-pile. There was, as Strabo says, an Altar in them, abundance of ashes, and a fire which was never suffered to go out5. Maundrel in his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem observed likewise some footsteps of these enclosures in Syria. In most of them there were no Statues; in others there were some, but there was nothing uniform in the figure of them.
Several Criticks have thought, the Belus of the Chaldæans and Babylonians to be no other than Nimrod their first King: whereas others have taken him for Belus the Assyrian, Father of Ninus6; and others again for one of Semiramis’s Sons7. Lastly, many have supposed Belus to be the same with Jupiter. But we adhere to what we have said, that Baal was worshipped for the Sun among the Phœnicians and Canaanites; and that he was often taken in general for the great God of the Eastern people. And as to the Chaldæans and Babylonians, it is very credible that Belus was one of their first Kings, but whether Ashur, or Nimrod, or Thuras, or Belus the Father of Ninus, or Belus the Son of Semiramis, no one knows.
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