The lecture explores the question, "Who was Baal?" starting with theophoric names (names that bear a god).
Examples of theophoric names include Christian ("believer in Christ"), Christopher ("Christ Bearer"), Marcus/Martin (related to Mars), and many biblical names ending or beginning with "El" (meaning "God"), like Daniel, Elizabeth, Emmanuel, Israel, Michael, and Nathaniel.
Theophoric names related to Yahweh (God's name in the Hebrew Bible) include Haaiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonathan, Joseph, Matthew, and Jesus (Joshua/Yahoshua).
The Bible also contains theophoric names from Baal, such as Ishbaal (later changed to Ishbosheth), Drew Baal, and Jezebel.
Jezebel is famous as a foreign queen and enemy of Yahweh who worshipped Baal, while Ishbaal was King Saul's son, and Meth was Saul's grandson.
Gideon, a heroic judge, also had a Baal-theophoric name (Jeruel), possibly altered by Deuteronomic historians to align with their narrative.
The Hebrew Bible uses various words for God/Lord, including Yahweh, El Shaddai, El Elyon, and Elohim (a plural term translated as God).
Bible Gateway's "Names of God Bible" translation highlights the underlying Hebrew word for God.
Elijah's Contest with the Prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18):
A famous story illustrating Yahweh's power against Baal's impotence.
King Ahab gathers Baal's prophets (450 men) at Mount Carmel, while Elijah is the only prophet of Yahweh left.
Elijah proposes a contest: two bulls, cut in pieces, laid on wood, with no fire. Baal's priests call upon their god, and Elijah calls upon Yahweh. The God who answers by fire is God.
Bulls are sacred to both Baal and Yahweh, especially Baal.
Baal's prophets cry out from morning till noon, limping around their altar, but there is no voice, no answer.
Elijah mocks them, suggesting Baal is musing, relieving himself, on a journey, or asleep.
Baal's prophets cry louder and cut themselves, but still no answer.
Elijah repairs Yahweh's altar with 12 stones (representing the tribes of Israel) and makes a trench around it.
He pours 15 liters of water over the burnt offering and wood three times, soaking everything.
Elijah prays to Yahweh, and fire falls from heaven, consuming the offering, wood, stones, dust, and licking up the water.
The people fall on their faces, proclaiming, "Yahweh, he is God!"
Elijah orders the seizure and slaughter of Baal's prophets at the Kishon Brook.
Elijah's name is a "double theophany," meaning "My El (God) is Yahweh," reinforcing the slogan "Yahweh, he is El" for Yahwist henotheism (worshipping only one god while acknowledging others).
Interpretation of the Elijah Story:
The story is a polemic against Baal, contrasting Yahweh's power with Baal's impotence.
This type of story became a precedent for Christians who later toppled statues of old gods to demonstrate their God's power.
The story tells us there was a longstanding question about which God (Yahweh or Baal) should be considered the god of Israel.
Baal enjoyed royal patronage, with 450 prophets implying royal financial support.
The story admits an open question about the god of Israel and Baal's ascendance, but claims Yahweh's priority (Elijah repairing an ancient, abandoned altar implies a prior worship of Yahweh).
Ahab's wife, Jezebel (a Phoenician princess), is blamed for introducing foreign gods into Israel, a common scapegoating of women in biblical texts.
The biblical narrative often presents a core monotheism from the beginning, with people increasingly becoming polytheistic, leading to the destruction of Israel and Judah.
However, historical and archaeological studies suggest that Israelites were largely polytheists until the destruction of Israel, and henotheism (worship of one god among many) was a new reform.
This reform was associated with kings and high priests centralizing worship in royal-patronized temples.
The Bible's literal reading of Israelite history is "upside down" to actual history because the texts are late, written/edited by henotheists and later monotheist reformers who portrayed their ideas as ancient.
Archaeology supports this newer understanding, and the Bible itself contains traces of actual history within its polemic narratives.
The presence of Baal-theophoric names and mentions of Baal worship helps reconstruct the development of Yahwism.
The historical context of these texts is the time of the authors, not necessarily the time of the characters.
The Book of Kings, part of the Deuteronomistic histories, was likely composed towards the end of the Kingdom of Judah or during/after the Babylonian exile.
This period (7th-6th centuries BCE) was during the decline of the Assyrian Empire, when Judah prospered as a client kingdom.
Jerusalem, a minor hill town in Elijah's time, became an urban center, welcoming exiles from the destroyed northern kingdom and producing literature (origins of the Bible).
The myth of a united Kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon, central biblically, lacks historical archaeological evidence and was likely created by northern exiles and priests to connect with Davidic patrons in Jerusalem.
While a historical Elijah likely existed in the 9th century BCE, the stories were composed two centuries later, making them mythic and literary with supernatural interventions.
Jeremiah, active when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, is a historical figure whose writings survive within the book bearing his name and align with Deuteronomistic themes.
Baal Worship in Jeremiah's Day:
Jeremiah's writings indicate Baal worship remained widespread in Judah long after Israel's fall.
Jeremiah warns that Judah will be destroyed like Israel if Baal worship doesn't cease.
Henotheist reformers (Deuteronomists, Jeremiah) saw Yahweh-only worship as a conditional covenant.
Jeremiah predicts Baal will not rescue Judah from the Babylonians, unlike Elijah's mythic contest where Yahweh intervenes.
Jeremiah complains about the many altars to Baal in Jerusalem, equivalent to the number of streets.
Interestingly, Yahweh also doesn't save the people from the Babylonians in Jeremiah's account.
Yahwist Reforms and Reversals:
King Hezekiah of Judah (late 8th/early 7th century BCE) initiated early Yahwist reforms, successfully resisting the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem.
He sought to centralize worship by destroying "high places" (local shrines where Levites offered sacrifices to Yahweh and other gods).
He also destroyed the Nehushtan (a bronze serpent believed to be a Mosaic relic) because reformers promoted iconoclasm (no images of God).
Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, reversed these reforms, restoring the Israelite pantheon to the temple (including altars to Baal and Asherah, and child sacrifice).
Manasseh had a long, peaceful, and prosperous reign (55 years), which contradicted the Deuteronomistic theology that evil deeds should be punished.
Manasseh's son Ammon was assassinated, leading to the opportunity for another reversal under Josiah.
King Josiah (late 7th century BCE) reinstated and intensified Hezekiah's reforms, during which Jeremiah became active.
In Josiah's 18th year, the chief priest Hilkiah "found" the "book of Moses' teachings" (likely Deuteronomy, composed around this time), which justified Josiah's reforms.
Josiah ordered the removal and burning of all utensils made for Baal, Asherah, and the "entire army of heaven" from Yahweh's temple.
He abolished pagan priests, tore down houses of male temple prostitutes, and burned weaving for Asherah, indicating widespread paganism in the temple until Josiah's time.
Ironically, despite Josiah's reforms, he was unexpectedly killed by Pharaoh Necho II in 609 BCE, contradicting the Deuteronomistic theology that obedience to Yahweh leads to prosperity.
Who Was Baal? A Deeper Dive:
Baal is a title meaning "Lord" or "owner" in ancient Northwest Semitic languages (similar to Adon).
Adonis, the Greek god, is a loanword from Adon.
Ugarit, a wealthy Northwest Semitic kingdom destroyed in the Bronze Age collapse (1185 BCE),