Skip to main content

Baal

Index: Fragmento de una tablilla de barro descifrada por Edmund Bishop en 1867, CONJ,Los conjurados. Madrid: Alianza, 1985. 37.

ancient Semitic fertility god

Fishburn and Hughes: "The Semitic for 'Lord': the name of many ancient near-eastern fertility gods. In Babylon, Baal was identified with the planet Jupiter and later became one of their chief gods. Though used at times to designate the god of Israel, the name is normally associated in the Old Testament with lesser, more local gods and condemned by the Hebrew prophets. Jeremiah associates the cult with heathen practices of a violent and cruel kind. Given the fluidity of the worship of Baal, it is difficult to establish the mysteries alluded to. The cult was based on magic, on violent and ecstatic exercises and on human sacrifice." (20)