Beelzebub

Beelzebub (more accurately Ba‘al Zebûb or Ba‘al Zəbûb), appears as the name of a deity worshipped in the Philistine city of Ekron. It is later the name of a demon or devil, often interchanged with Beelzebul.

Related Topics:
Philistine - Ekron - Demon - Devil

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In ancient context, there may be little meaningful distinction between Beelzebub and Ba‘al the ancient Semitic god. In Christian writings, either form may appear as an alternate name for Satan (or the Devil) or may else appear to refer to the name of a lesser devil. As with several religions, the names of any earlier foreign or "pagan" deities often became synonymous with the concept of an adversarial entity. The demonization of the ancient deity led to much of the modern religious personification of Satan, as the adversary of the God.

Related Topics:
Ba‘al - Semitic - God - Devil - Pagan - Demonization - Satan - God

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Ba‘al Zebûb might mean 'Lord of Zebûb', referring to an unknown place name Zebûb, or 'Lord of flies', zebûb being a Hebrew collective noun meaning 'fly'. This may mean that the Hebrews were derogating their enemies' god by referring to him as dung. Thomas Kelly Cheyne suggested that it might be a corruption of Ba'al Zebul, 'Lord of the High Place'. The SeptuagintA renders the name as Baalzeboub, SeptuagintB as Baal myîan 'Baal of flies', but Symmachus the Ebionite may have reflected a tradition of its offensive ancient name when he rendered it as Beelzeboul (Cath.Ency.).

Related Topics:
Hebrew - Thomas Kelly Cheyne - Septuagint - Symmachus the Ebionite - Cath.Ency.

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The source for the name Ba‘al Zebûb / Beelzebub is in 2 Kings 1.2–3,6,16 where King Ahaziah of Israel, after seriously injuring himself in a fall, sends messengers to inquire of Ba‘al Zebûb, the god of the Philistine city of Ekron, to learn if he will recover. Elijah the Prophet then condemns Ahaziah to die by Yahweh's words because Ahaziah sought council from Ba‘al Zebûb rather than from Yahweh.

Related Topics:
2 Kings - Ahaziah - Israel - Ekron - Elijah - Yahweh

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In Mark 3.22, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of driving out demons by the power of Beelzeboul prince of demons, the name also appearing in the expanded version in Matthew 12.24,27 and Luke 11.15,18–19. The name also occurs in Matthew 10.25. It is unknown whether Symmachus was correct in identifying these names or not since we otherwise know nothing about either of them. Zeboul might derive from a slurred pronunciation of zebûb; from 'zebel', a word used to mean 'dung' in the Targums; or from Hebrew zebûl found in 1 Kings 8.13 in the phrase bêt-zebûl 'lofty house' and used in Rabbinical writings to mean 'house' or 'temple' and also as the name for the fourth heaven.

Related Topics:
Mark - Pharisee - Matthew - Luke - 1 Kings

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In summary, either or both of these names might be the a genuine divine title, or might be a corruption of such a title, possibly a purposeful corruption to make a mockery of it. The two names might refer to the same original or might not.

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In any case the form Beelzebub was substituted for Belzebul in the Syriac translation and Latin Vulgate translation of the gospels and this substitution was repeated in the King James Version of the Bible, the result of which is the form Beelzebul was mostly unknown to western European and descendant cultures until some more recent translations restored it.

Related Topics:
Syriac - Vulgate - King James Version of the Bible

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See also Baal.

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