The key to early Hebrew history is that they were immigrants. They arrived in a strange land, the victims of persecution from far-off Egypt, and carved out a home for themselves there amidst those who had lived in the region for far longer.
Why were they able to do this? The only surviving text which covers this period is of course the Bible, and the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were allowed to flourish because the Hebrews were the chosen people of capital-G God. More practically they fought their neighbors until they defeated them, but it was this blessing from God, a promise made in even-farther-off Mesopotamia, which ensured their survival.
“There is no other God than me” the Hebrew God told them, and fair enough, they thought. So, who were these “other Gods” whom God was so worried about the Hebrews worshipping that he devoted the first ten of the Ten Commandments towards underlining this point?
Well, if you in the area when the Hebrews arrived out of Egypt, then the answer was probably Ba’al.
I am the Lord, your God
Firstly there were quite a few gods named “Ba’al”, if we’re being honest. The name itself means “lord” or “master”, and this is the first hint that this god is a close parallel to the Hebrew God who came after. “You shall know my name is the Lord” after all.
Worshipped by the Canaanites and Phoenicians in the area, Ba’al was originally “Ba’al Hadad”, a storm and fertility god. Baal Hadad was venerated across the Levant, celebrated as the bringer of rain, thunder, and bountiful harvests: elements essential for the survival and prosperity of agrarian societies.
So his name was the same as that of the Hebrew God, and so was his job. He brought prosperity to his chosen people, and in their success they showed thanks by venerating him.
This is the self-fulfilling prophecy behind all religion: those who emerge triumphant and endure do so through the grace of those gods, and therefore it is those gods who are the true gods and who remain so until the fall of their people. Ba’al was god until the Hebrews arrived and he was replaced by their God, but their roles were essentially unchanged.
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Some might think this a stretch, and point out the myriad differences between Ba’al and the later Hebrew (and ultimately Christian and Muslim) God. And it is true that God may have morphed into something different, but to see where He started it is worth looking at the story of Elijah and the 450 prophets of Ba’al in the Bible.
Recorded in 1 Kings 18, this story occurred after the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel, but during a time when the worship of the Hebrew God was being eroded in favor of other gods, which seems to have happened a lot more than you might think. In particular Ba’al was making a comeback, but the prophet Elijah was having none of it.
He challenged the priests of Ba’al to a miracle competition. If their god could produce a miracle upon Mount Carmel, then they were clearly right and Elijah would accept that the worship of Ba’al was true and just. The 450 priests then went about their religious incantations and processions, dancing and shuffling about, and nothing happened.
Elijah then stepped up and his God immediately produced a miracle, a fire which sprung up and burnt Elijah’s altar. Elijah then had the 450 priests (and 400 priests of Asherah who had also fancied their chances in the competition) killed. The Hebrew God was back in the saddle, and everyone had seen it.
But what was the inciting incident which had precipitated this face-off between Gods? Things had come to a head because of a severe crisis in the Levant: there had been a drought. Here we see the essential equivalence of the various gods called upon to fix the problem.
Both the Hebrew God and Ba’al were called “Lord” and both were storm gods. Unlike Mesopotamia or Egypt, the Levant has no major rivers on which to rely for irrigation. They need the rains, or the people die.
Elijah’s triumph at Mount Carmel came with a promise to the king that the rains would come soon. The subsequent arrival of these rains, definitely for holy and not for seasonal reasons, cemented the Hebrew God as the One who they should worship. Again.
Ba’al the Survivor
The transition of Ba’al’s image from a revered deity to a demonized figure is therefore closely linked to the rise of the monotheistic religions in the region, Judaism and Christianity. As these religions sought to establish their dominance and distinct identity, polytheistic practices were increasingly viewed with disdain and labeled as idolatrous.
Ba’al, being a major deity in the regions surrounding the early Judeo-Christian communities, became a prime target for demonization. Had the miracle occurred during the incantations of the priests of Ba’al on Mount Carmel, it would be that god who was remembered and worshipped as the One who produced results.
The transformation of Ba’al into a symbol of evil and devilry in Christian mythos can be seen in various biblical texts, where the worship of Ba’al is condemned and associated with moral and spiritual corruption. This demonization served a dual purpose: it delegitimized the existing religious practices tied to Ba’al and reinforced the monotheistic message of Christianity by equating polytheism with wickedness.
But the cult of Ba’al was not finished with this defeat by Judaism. He would endure as a popular god in other regions, from Mesopotamia where he probably originated even into the pantheon of Egypt.
In the latter, Ba’al was assimilated into the local pantheon during periods of Canaanite influence and rule, particularly during the Hyksos dynasty. Ba’al’s role as a storm and fertility god resonated with the Egyptians, mirroring their own deities who controlled the Nile’s flooding.
This syncretism highlights the fluidity of ancient religious identities and the ease with which deities could be integrated into new cultural frameworks. The Egyptians, or course, made it easy, they never threw a useful god in the trash.
Similarly, in ancient Rome, Ba’al was identified with Saturn and worshipped particularly by the African Roman provinces. The integration of Ba’al into Roman religion underscores the empire’s cosmopolitan nature and its capacity to absorb and reinterpret the gods of conquered peoples within its vast territories.
This spread of Ba’al worship can be attributed to the mobility of ancient peoples through trade, migration, and conquest, facilitating the exchange of ideas and religious practices. Ba’al’s attributes as a fertility and storm god made him particularly appealing to agrarian societies, for whom the forces of nature were both life-giving and potentially destructive. Agriculture was the success story of the age, and gods who helped with that were popular.
By way of contrast, the demonization of Ba’al by monotheistic religions, was driven by the desire to establish religious supremacy and unity. By portraying polytheistic practices as morally inferior, monotheistic leaders could justify the subjugation or conversion of polytheistic communities, thereby consolidating their own power and influence.
Ultimately Ba’al was a survivor, and his story runs alongside the established narratives of later religions. The Bible’s account is undermined by his presence throughout: if God keeps producing miracles and at the same time is the “Only God” then whence comes this co-located cut which endured for thousands of years alongside Him?
The Canaanite Ba’al shows us that the Levant of the Hebrew Bible was a much more colorful place with regards to religion than the texts would suggest. Shorn of the selected highlights of the Hebrew God’s activities, we can look back beyond what He became to the point where He was just one storm god amongst many. Could Ba’al have risen to be the One True God? Maybe.
Top Image: Ba’al was a storm god, like the Hebrew God, because storms brought rain and without the rains everything died. Source: Furyon / Adobe Stock.
By HM Editorial Staff
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