Who is Baal in The Bible?

Answer 1

A:Baal was one of the most important West Semitic gods, worshipped as the High god among Phoenicians, but also important in Judah, Israel, Aram and elsewhere. In early times, he was a storm god, but during the eighth century BCE took on characteristics of a solar deity. Keel and Uehlinger (Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel) say that Yahweh (YHWH) and Baal were almost synonymous in Israel during Iron Age IIB, the period from approximately 925 to 722 BCE and the end of the Israelite kingdom.
AnswerBa'al ("Lord") was a West Semitic storm god during early biblical times. He was worshipped by the Canaanites, Aramaeans and other west Semitic people, including the early Hebrews.

Ba'al was worshipped in various forms, one of which, Ba'al Hammond, became the chief god of Carthage in North Africa.

Answer 2

The term 'baal' by itself is first noted in the time of Moses as a place of pagan worship circa mid 15th Century B.C.:

Numbers 22:41 New King James Version (NKJV) Balaam's First Prophecy 41 So it was, the next day, that Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Baal, that from there he might observe the extent of the people.

Some historians and biblical scholars have determined that this 'title' was given to Nimrod (Ninus) and means 'The Lord.' His father Cush was called 'Bel' which means 'The Confounder' and he too may have also been called Baal. This was the time of the first apostasy post the world-wide Flood.

As the name baal developed further by Hosea' time, it became the most important deity of the Canaanite pantheon - one who blesses the continuance of human life, and preserves the social order. A fertility deity and provider of children, bringer of rains and makes crops grow, who could defeat the enemies of the devotees. Baal could overcome the other deities of 'Yamm,' the god of the chaotic sea and 'Mot' the god of death and the underworld.

Yet the God of Israel, Yahweh, actively opposed this false religious system from the very beginning of Israel's history. Only He is God and Israel's rightful King (see Exodus 15). Only He has sovereignty over the elements of the storm (Exodus 9 and 24 etals) and demonstrated His powers over the chaotic seas and the realm of the dead (Exodus 15). And only He could provide children to the infertile (see 1 Samuel 2:5).

The attack of baalism climaxed with Elijah on Mount Carmel - proving God's authority as the only real God (1Kings 18: 38, 39). Yet, physical Israel continued to fall back to their sensual nature - attraction to the base of human nature vis-a-vis the strict obedience to the moral and ethical standards of God's Law. We humans usually take the easy road and are double-minded meaning we want our cake and to eat it as well - say we follow God but do our desires right or wrong. One day in the future as The Bible says, the Laws of God will be written upon each new heart (see Ezekiel 11:19; Hebrews 8:10) and the firstfruits will be there to see we all follow it and not the ways of this world's god - ha Satan.

Answer: "Baal" in Hebrew means master or owner. This idolatrous weather-deity was depicted with differing imagery in various locales, so the plural "baalim" ("baals") is sometimes used (Judges 3:7). So we find baal-zephon (Exodus 14:2), baal peor (Numbers 25:3), beelzebub (2 Kings 1:16), baal-berith (Judges 9:4), baalbeq (short for baal beqaa, lord of the Valley), baal-gad, baal-hamon, baal-hazor, baal-hermon, etc.

Worship of the baal occurred intermittently among Israelites, but they were aware that they weren't supposed to be doing that. When things got bad, they habitually returned to the One God of their fathers (Judges 3:9, 3:15, 6:6, 10:10).

Answer 3

A:Baal was one of the most important West Semitic gods, worshipped as the High god among Phoenicians, but also important in Judah, Israel, Aram and elsewhere. In early times, he was a storm god, but during the eighth century BCE took on characteristics of a solar deity. Keel and Uehlinger (Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel) say that Yahweh (YHWH) and Baal were almost synonymous in Israel during Iron Age IIB, the period from approximately 925 to 722 BCE and the end of the Israelite kingdom.
AnswerBa'al ("Lord") was a West Semitic storm god during early biblical times. He was worshipped by the Canaanites, Aramaeans and other west Semitic people, including the early Hebrews.

Ba'al was worshipped in various forms, one of which, Ba'al Hammond, became the chief god of Carthage in North Africa.

Answer 4

Baal (Baalim) was used many times in the Bible. A famous usage is when the Elijah called for the rain to stop.

"Well into the third year of the drought, Elijah presented himself to King Ahab and prayed for rain -- and it rained. You would think that experience would be enough to convert Ahab, but it was not. He continued to promote Baal worship in Israel.

After that, Elijah had a power encounter with the prophets of Baal, a "showdown" of sorts. Both set up altars and prepared sacrifices and called on their God to send fire down to consume the sacrifice. The prophets of Baal went first. They cried out to Baal for hours and did not have any success. Then Elijah went at the time of the evening offering and God immediately sent the fire.. proving to all of the spectators that He was God. The Israelites worshipped God and executed all of the prophets of Baal."

For more information go to: http://www.godspeak.net/ps_lessons/ps51_week16.html

I Was just looking for the answer and I found it, hope this helps.

Additional Answer:

While the Greek term 'Belus' often represents both 'baal' and 'bel,' they are separate titles. Baal simply means lord, owner, master while bel means confounder. These two titles were often given to the same person/god. Some believe Cush was the original Bel and instigator of the first rebellious act against God - the Tower of Babel. His son, Nimrod, would have received this title as well. He was the founder of Babel or Babylon.

The Canaanite peoples worshipped Baal. God had warned the Israelites not to follow these people's ways for they practiced self mutilation, ritual prostitution, and even infant sacrifice. Yet despite His warnings, the Israelites adopted Baal worship which played a major factor to God's punishments in Judges and Jeremiah.

Answer 5

The Old Testament references to Baal were written in Judah towards the end of the monarchy as well as during and after the Babylonian Exile. Baal was a West Semitic god worshipped not only by the Canaanites and other peoples of the region, but in Israel and, perhaps to a lesser extent in Judah, throughout the period of the Judges and the early monarchy. However, when the Old Testament was written, Baal was no longer worshipped by the Jews and the priests sought to remove him from the historical record of both nations. As a result, the Bible consistently provides a negative historical image of Baal and his followers, suggesting that he was only a foreign god and only worshipped irregularly, when the people of Israel or Judah backslid.

Yahweh (Hebrew: YHWH) was more important than Baal in Israelite belief since quite early times. Both began as storm gods and evolved into solar deities, although only Yahweh went on to become a transcendent God. Mark S. Smith (The Early History of God) say that in early Israel, Yahweh gradually took on more of the attributes of Baal, making Baal less important and less necessary to the people. Some texts indicate that Israelites often did not distinguish between Baal and Yahweh, considering them as the same in essence. In the same way as Baal and Yahweh were becoming identified together in Israel, Baal and Melqart were being identified as a unity in nearby Tyre.

Smith says that Baal clearly had an important temple in the environs of Samaria, in addition to the temple of Yahweh, the national god. The Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions contain the names of Baal and Yahweh in the same texts, identified as (northern) Israelite Hebrew dialect.

Answer 6

Balaam was a seer of Balak, the rule of the country of Moab, who hired him to curse Israel.

You may read all about him in Numbers chapters 22 to 24 in the Bible