| Part of a series onAncient Semitic religion |
| Levantine mythology |
|---|
| Deities |
Baʿal Berith (Hebrew:בעל ברית,lit. 'Baʿal of the Covenant') andEl Berith (Hebrew:אל ברית,lit. 'God of the Covenant') are titles of a god or gods worshiped inShechem, in ancientCanaan, according to theBible.
The term for "covenant" (Hebrew:ברית,romanized: bərīt) appears also inUgaritic texts (second millennium BCE) asbrt (𐎁𐎗𐎚), in connection withBaʿal, and perhaps asBeruth inSanchuniathon's work.
Judges is the only Biblical book that mentions Baʿal Berith and El Berith inJudges 8 and9. It is not clear whether they are actually one god, nor whether they are separate forms of Baʿal andEl. Scholars suppose that he or they may have been worshipped for connections to fertility and vegetation, based on Judges 9:27. Also unclear is what covenant or covenants are referred to by the nameBerith.
According toYehezkel Kaufmann, "Baal-berith and El-berith of Judges 9:4,46 is presumablyYHWH", as "ba'al was an epithet of YHWH in earlier times".[1]
Elsewhere, some of the Shechemites are called "men of Hamor" in Judges 9:28. This is compared to "sons of Hamor", which in the ancient Middle East referred to people who had entered into a covenant sealed by the sacrifice of ahamor, anass.[2] "Children of Hamor" or "sons of Hamor" itself appears in theBook of Genesis[3] andJoshua 24:32. in both of which, as in Judges,[4] Hamor is called the father of Shechem.Genesis 33:18 features a man named Hamor who ruled in the area ofShechem and had a son named "Shechem".
In hiseuhemeristic account of thePhoenician deities,Sanchuniathon says that a certainElioun, called also "the Most High", and a female namedBerouth orBeruth dwelt in the neighbourhood ofByblos, on the coast of present-dayLebanon. They had two children—a male called Epigeius/Autochthon/Sky and a daughter called Earth. Because of the latter pair's beauty, the sky and the earth, respectively, were named after them. According to Sanchuniathon it is from Sky and Earth thatEl and various other deities are born, though ancient texts refer to El as creator of heaven and earth. A relationship with Hebrewbərīt ("covenant") or with the city nameBeirut have both been suggested forBeruth. However, Robert R. Stieglitz showed howBerouth is best connected tobʾrôt, a name for the primordial sea,tehom.[5]
Rabbinic tradition equates Baʿal Berith withBeelzebub, "the lord of flies," the god ofPhilistineEkron (2 Kings 1:2).[6] He was worshipped in the shape of a fly; and Jewish tradition states that so addicted were the Jews to his cult that they would carry an image of him in their pockets, producing it, and kissing it from time to time. Baʿal Zebub was called Baʿal Berith because such Jews might be said to make a covenant of devotion with the idol, being unwilling to part with it for a single moment.[7] According to another conception, Baʿal Berith was an obscene article ofidolatrous worship, possibly asimulacrumpriapi.[8] This is evidently based on the later use of the word "berit" to refer tocircumcision.[6]
According to theAdmirable History written bySébastien Michaëlis in 1612, Baʿal Berith once possessed a nun inAix-en-Provence. In the process of the exorcism, Baʿal Berith volunteered not only his own name and the names of all the other demons possessing her, but the names of the saints who would be most effective in opposing them.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."Baal-berith".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
.svg)