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The Theophoric Element Ba(Al in Ancient Phoenician Inscriptions

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The Theophoric Element Ba(Al in Ancient Phoenician Inscriptions Perichoresis Volume 10. Issue 1 (2012): 67-93 DOI 10.2478/v10297-012-0004-6 THE THEOPHORIC ELEMENT BA(AL IN ANCIENT PHOENICIAN INSCRIPTIONS * AURELIAN BOTICA Emanuel University of Oradea ABSTRACT. The following study analyzes the usage of the name Baal in ancient Phoenician inscriptions. The analysis starts with the premise that the deity named Baal played a major role in Canaanite religion, including the religion of the people of Israel. First of all, in order to understand correctly this phenomenon, our study sketches in broad lines the historical and religious context of the ancient Near East. Second, the study takes into account a series of cor- ollary issues, like the concepts of “fertility” and the “Sacred Marriage”, in order to obtain as clear a picture as possible of the identity and character of the god Baal. Third, the study fo- cuses on a number of inscriptions from Phoenicia. A number of scholars have argued that these inscriptions represent our best evidence from Phoenicia to reconstructing the identity of Baal. KEY WORDS: Baal, Phoenicia, Old Testament, religion, names Introduction There exists a fundamental distinction between the ancient Near Eastern (ANE) and the modern understanding of personal names. The contempo- rary mentality has rarely shown any interests outside the boundaries of fam- ily lineage or esthetic preferences. In fact, it was the rise of the Greek dual- istic world view that marked the beginning of the demise of the ANE logic of continuity, where symbol and reality were not clearly distinguished. The context underlying the ANE view of the name is infinitely vast, combining elements from religion, philosophy and social life. The ancient man saw a * AURELIAN BOTICA is Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Emanuel University of Oradea, Romania. © EMANUEL UNIVERSITY of ORADEA PERICHORESIS 10.1 (2012) 68 AURELIAN BOTICA very close relation between the name and the nature of the entity that was named. 1 Thus: When it is believed that the nature of a thing is comprehended in its name, then on the one hand emphasis is laid on the idea that knowledge of the name medi- ates a direct relationship with the nature, and on the other the name is regarded as to such an extent an expression of the individual character of its owner that it can, in fact, stand for him, become a concept interchangeable with him. 2 However, in the following study we will focus not so much on the general philosophy of names in the ANE, but on the connotations carried by the name Ba al, as this appears in several of the old Phoenician inscriptions. The name Ba al was a very familiar expression to, say, a tenth century man or woman living the land of Canaan. First, people would use the name to refer to the god Ba al, one of the most important deities in the Ancient Near East. 3 Second, the name—as a theophoric element—could be part of a person’s name or could be the individual name of that person. 4 Indeed, both Phoenician inscriptions and the Old Testament bear witness to this practice. 5 Third, the name Ba al could also refer to the name of a region or locality, in the sense that the god Ba al would have been the protector of 1 Thus Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1961), 1:206ff.; 2:40ff.; Hawthorne, “Name”, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ISBE (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986), 3:481-483. 2 Eichrodt, Theology , 2:40. 3 The Old Testament mentions the god Ba al for the first time in Numbers 25:3, 5, 18, under the title Ba al-peor. It is possible that this deity was venerated on the summit of a mountain (see Numbers 23:28). For the relationship between Israelite and pagan names for deities see Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel (New York, NY: Continuum, 2001), 596. 4 “Theophoric element” or “God-form” element in names. In other words, names that contain the name of God or Lord within them (e.g., Elimelech [my God is king], Eliyahu [my God is Lord]). 5 See Bright, A History of Israel , 3rd ed. (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1981), 241, for the name Itto’ba’al, the king of Tire, and father of Jezebeel. See also Merrill, Everlasting Dominion (Nashville, TN: Broadman, 2006), 396; Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel , 591ff., and Smith, The Early History of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 76ff. For Ba al as a theophoric element see Ba al-hanan (Genesis 36:38); See 1 Chronicles 5:5, Ba al, the son of Reaiah; 1 Chronicles 8:29-30; 9:36, Ba al, the son of Gibeon. Perhaps the best example is the name Jerubbaal (Let Baal contend against him), that people gave Gideon when he destroyed Ba al’s altar (Judges 6:32). For other exam- ples of Ba al epithets see Block, “God (1.5. Ba al)”, ed. by B. T. Arnold, Dictionary of Old Testament Historical Books (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2005), 341ff. PERICHORESIS 10.1 (2012) ( The Theophoric Element Ba al in Ancient Phenician Inscriptions 69 the respective city. Invariably, in most of these cities people would build altars and worship Ba al. 6 In Phoenicia, the name Ba al appeared in inscriptions with reference to both human and divine characters. For example, many of the inscriptions were written in order to narrate the achievements of the person buried in sarcophagi, and thus to immortalize (often appealing to the divine Ba al) his or her fame for all future generations. As Schmitz noted, “with the ex- ception of Phoenician inscriptions, all sources of information about the reli- gion of Phoenicia are secondary”. 7 As we will show later, scholars have also had to take into account the earlier mythology about Baal from the tablets of Ugarit. Historical and Religious Background Geographically, Phoenicia existed along the “Syrian littoral north of Pales- tine”, as a “conglomerate of city-states that were distinguished from adja- cent areas by its preferred dealings with Indo-Europeans and Greeks”. 8 An important presence in the Mediterranean world, Phoenicia never achieved 6 Thus Stuart, “Names, Proper”, ISBE , 3:484, and Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel , translated by M. Greenberg (New York: Schoken Books, 1960), 123. For examples in the Old Testament see Ba al-zephon (Exodus 14:9); Ba al-Gad , in the valley of Leba- non, bellow Mount Hermon (Joshua 11:17); Ba al-Shalisha (2 Kings 4:42). One may note the fact that the name Ba al was not always an indication of pagan presence in Is- rael. As 2 Samuel 13:23 shows, certain Israelite regions could use this name even when the majority of the inhabitants were Hebrews ( Ba al-hazor ). It is nevertheless possible that names such as these might have been inherited and kept unchanged by the Israel- ites from pre-occupation times. See also Numbers 32:38 (Ba al-meon) and Joshua 19:8 (Ba alat-beer for Ramat) for occasions when the occupying Israelites did change the Canaanite names that contained the theophoric element Ba al. One may also note Tigay, You Shall Have No Other Gods. Israelite Religion in the Light of Hebrew Inscriptions (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1986), 30, for the theory that, in naming certain geo- graphical locations with the form ba al , some Israelites may have meant YHWH (as was the case with David in 2 Samuel 5:20). 7 “Phoenician Religion”, The Anchor Bible Dictionary , ABD (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1922), 5:358, and Lipinsky, “The Phoenicians”, ed. by J. M. Sasson, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East , 2 volumes (New York: Scribner, 1995), 2:1321-22. For the problem of deriving an account of the religious world of the Phoenicians from inscriptions see Ribichini, “Beliefs and Religious Life”, ed. by S. Moscati, The Phoenicians (New York: Abbeville Press, 1989), 120ff. 8 Pekham, “Phoenicia: History of”, ABD , 5:349ff.; Liverani, “Phoenicia”, ISBE , 3:853; Lipinsky, “The Phoenicians”, 1321; Noegel, “Phoenicia/Phoenicians”, ed. by B. T. Ar- nold, Dictionary of the Old Testament Historical Books (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 2005), 792ff. PERICHORESIS 10.1 (2012) 70 AURELIAN BOTICA the established status of a nation. In fact, the name Phoenicia was originally given by the Greeks to the “coastal region of the eastern Mediterranean”. 9 The early history of the culture may go back to the fifth millennium, alt- hough the first non-biblical attestation comes from the fourteen century and it informs us about the “inhabitants of Canaan”, who were “calling them- selves in Akkadian Kinahu or Kinanu”. 10 However, the religious worldview of Phoenicia, and its impact upon Israel, were far greater than the cultural and the economic influence. In the area of religion, the Phoenicians inherited a complex polytheistic tradition from the earlier cultures, especially from the practical and written cult of Ugarit. 11 Even though the name Ba al appeared in sources earlier than these texts, the Ugaritic worldview made a profound impact upon the neighboring cultures that followed. For example, the fourteen century Ba al Cycle is one of the documents that laid the ground for all subsequent derivations in Ba al theology. 12 In a way, Phoenician religion is properly Canaanite. The names Ba al, El, and Ashtoreth (with “possible” derivations to Astarte/Anat) represented three of the pillar gods of the Canaanite pan- theon. As we mentioned, the gods evolved from the earlier sources of the old Akkad and Ugarit, but received names that resembled more the Ca- naanite pantheon. 13 9 Lipinsky, “The Phoenicians”, 2:1321. 10 Harden, The Phoenicians (New York, NY: Frederick A.
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