Bible Lexicons

Βάαλ (so accented also by Pape (Eigenn. under the word), Kuenen and Cobet (Rom. as below); but L T (yet the name of the month, 1 Kings 6:5 (38), Βάαλ) Tr WH etc. Βάαλ; so Etym. Magn. 194, 19; Suidas 1746 a. etc. Dindorf in Stephanus' Thesaurus, under the word Βάαλ or Βάαλ), ὁ, ἡ, an indeclinable noun (Hebrew בַּעַל, Chaldean בּל contracted from בְּעֵל), lord: Romans 11:4. This was the name of the supreme heavenly divinity worshipped by the Shemitic nations (the Phoenicians, Canaanites, Babylonians, Assyrians), often also by the Israelites themselves, and represented by the Sun: τῇ Βάαλ, Romans 11:4. Cf. Winers RWB (and BB. DD.) under the word and J. G. Müller in Herzog i., p. 637ff; Merx in Schenkel i., 322ff; Schlottmann in Riehm, p. 126f. Since in this form the supreme power of nature generating all things, and consequently a male deity, was worshipped, with which the female deity Astarte was associated, it is hard to explain why the Sept. in some places say ὁ Βάαλ (Numbers 22:41; Judges 2:13; 1 Kings 16:1; 1 Kings 19:18, etc.), in others ἡ Βάαλ (Hosea 2:8; 1 Samuel 7:4, etc. (yet see Dillmann, as below, p. 617)). Among the various conjectures on tiffs subject the easiest is this: that the Sept. called the deity ἡ Βάαλ in derision, as weak and impotent, just as the Arabs call idols goddesses and the rabbis אֱלֹהות; so Gesenius in Rosenmüller's Repert. i., p. 139 and Tholuck on Romans, the passage cited; (yet cf. Dillmann, as below, p. 602; for other opinions and references see Meyer at the passage; cf. Winer's Grammar, § 27, 6 N. 1. But Prof. Dillmann shows (in the Monatsbericht d. Akad. zu Berlin, 16 Juni 1881, p. 601ff), that the Jews (just as they abstained from pronouncing the word Jehovah) avoided uttering the abhorred name of Βάαλ (Exodus 23:13). As a substitute in Aramaic they read טעות, דחלא or פתכרא, and in Greek αἰσχύνη (cf. 1 Kings 18:19, 25). This substitute in Greek was suggested by the use of the feminine article. Hence, we find in the Sept., ἡ Βάαλ everywhere in the prophetic books Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Hosea, etc., while in the Pentateuch it does not prevail, nor even in Judges, Samuel, Kings (except 1 Samuel 7:4; 2 Kings 21:3). It disappears, too (when the worship of Baal had died out) in the later versions of Aq., Symm., etc. The apostle's use in Romans, the passage cited accords with the sacred custom; cf. the substitution of the Hebrew בֹּשֶׁת in Ish-bosheth, Mephi-bosheth, etc. 2 Samuel 2:8, 10; 2 Samuel 4:4 with 1 Chronicles 8:33, 34, also 2 Samuel 11:21 with Judges 6:32; etc.)