Ba'al Zevuv

Some time ago a friend requested my assistance in tracking down info regarding the idolatrous deity Ba'al Zevuv (Beelzebub). I believe he was interested in modern scholarship on the matter and in particular was hoping there'd be archeological data that would shed light on the mystery. So I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. Spoiler: I didn't find too much, but there are some interesting suggestions out there.

Ba'al Zevuv appears in two verses in Melachim 2:1:2-3:

"Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber at Samaria and was injured. So he sent messengers, whom he instructed: “Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.” But an angel of GOD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go and confront the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, ‘Is there no God in Israel that you go to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?"

After which Eliyahu informs Achazyah (ibid. 4):

"Assuredly, thus said GOD: You shall not rise from the bed you are lying on, but you shall die.’” And Elijah went."

We see that according to Tanach, Ba'al Zevuv was a god of Ekron, meaning he was a Plishtite deity, and from the fact that Achazyah sent people with a query regarding his medical future, we see that he was either a god of medicine, or a god of divination. According to Malbim, the prophets of Ba'al Zevuv could tell a person whether he was going to live or die.

We can also tell from the inclusion of the title "Ba'al" in his name that he was related to the various "Ba'al"-type deities popular in Greater Canaan.

Other than that, we don't really know anything about him from tradition sources. So what does academic scholarship say on the matter?

A common view suggests that the name "Ba'al Zevuv" is a distortion of "Ba'al Zevul" (בעל זבול) which means "Exalted Ba'al" (see e.g. Garsiel, pp. 151-152 [Hebrew], Neuberg, p. 216), the idea being that the Tanach purposely distorted the name to mock idolatry, similar to the distortions of the names Mefiboshet, Ish-boshet and Yeruboshet from Meriv-ba'al, Ish-ba'al and Yeruba'al respectively.

I've also discovered two original suggestions:

1. Stephen R. Berlant suggested that an Ekronite deity mentioned in a 7th century BCE inscription found in excavations at the site of Ekron (Tel Miqne) was called Patryah, from the Semitic root PTR (solve), and was also a divination goddess, like Ba'al Zevuv. There's also a possibility that she was identified as the daughter of Ba'al Zevuv.

2. David Cielontko discussed the matter with regards to a demon named Beelzebub/Beelzebul that the Jews in the NT claimed Jesus to be in cahoots with. He presented new arguments in favor of an old, marginal suggestion that the name originated in the Aramaic and Akkadian Ba'il Devav(a) (בעיל דבב(א)), which means "enemy". In Semitic languages, including Hebrew, the letters Dalet and Zayin are interchangeable, especially considering that in ancient sources, the D of Devav(a) is actually a Dhalet, which is much closer phonetically to a zayin.

Comments

  1. AlexSeptember 19, 2023 at 12:14 AM

    Note also Talmud, Shabbos 83b, which speaks of זבוב בעל עקרון and understands it as a tiny, fly-sized statuette. Malbim on the verse comments that since flies are associated with death (cf. Koheles 10:1), its priests would tell people whether they would live or die.

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