I really want to know about plural "ba'al"

[AppleDumplingHead]

Does anyone have solid understanding of this? To my understanding, in Ugaritic text, Ba'al is a storm god, a singular entity of sorts, maybe like a Thor or a Lei Gong. This seems to also be the case when referenced biblically, represented by the golden calf. Sometime in history, though, Ba'al gets names, as Ba'al Hadad, Ba'al Melqart (Ba'al Sur) or Ba'al Zebub. So when, exactly, and how did this happen?

Was Ba'al always an informal reference to a patron deity, or lord, like today how we might say "god", therefore there was never really only one Ba'al, but many ba'al (many patron deity lords of many city states) and the observer would call his specific one "Ba'al",(and I'm completely misunderstanding Ugaritic references), or was there truly, once, one Ba'al, and he kinda branched off as others adopted his veneration, similar to what happened in Egypt so they ended up with, like, Ra-Horakhty? OR is the Ugaritic Ba'al completely unrelated to the variously named ba'al and it just a language thing I don't understand?

Who or what is Ba'al, is there one with many names or many and we think it's one? What's going on there, and if there's a difference, when did it happen?

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

Personally, I've always wondered how it was pronounced. In both church and academic occasions I've heard it pronounced either like "Bale" or like "Ball or Ba-all".

I tend to go with the "Ball/ Ba-all" pronunciation as that's the way it was pronounced in my archaeology class by a professor of near east archaeology. However I've gotten enough experience in academia to know that not all "authorities" are of the same worth.

 

[Agent327]

Does anyone have solid understanding of this? To my understanding, in Ugaritic text, Ba'al is a storm god, a singular entity of sorts, maybe like a Thor or a Lei Gong. This seems to also be the case when referenced biblically, represented by the golden calf. Sometime in history, though, Ba'al gets names, as Ba'al Hadad, Ba'al Melqart (Ba'al Sur) or Ba'al Zebub. So when, exactly, and how did this happen?

Was Ba'al always an informal reference to a patron deity, or lord, like today how we might say "god", therefore there was never really only one Ba'al, but many ba'al (many patron deity lords of many city states) and the observer would call his specific one "Ba'al",(and I'm completely misunderstanding Ugaritic references), or was there truly, once, one Ba'al, and he kinda branched off as others adopted his veneration, similar to what happened in Egypt so they ended up with, like, Ra-Horakhty? OR is the Ugaritic Ba'al completely unrelated to the variously named ba'al and it just a language thing I don't understand?

Who or what is Ba'al, is there one with many names or many and we think it's one? What's going on there, and if there's a difference, when did it happen?

What you are talking about is called religious syncretism. In short, it means that over time a god can assume qualities of other (possibly minor) gods. For instance, Alexander went to the Siwa oasis, to be greeted as Zeus Ammon (more properly Zeus-Amun, Amun being an ancient Egyptian god). It's basically a result of intercultural (or inter-religious) contact. One of the most obvious cases of religious syncetism is, of course, the Christian God, who is ultimately derived from a Hebrew tribal god. He is known under many names, Lord probably being the most common one

 

[sophie]

Personally, I've always wondered how it was pronounced. In both church and academic occasions I've heard it pronounced either like "Bale" or like "Ball or Ba-all".

I tend to go with the "Ball/ Ba-all" pronunciation as that's the way it was pronounced in my archaeology class by a professor of near east archaeology. However I've gotten enough experience in academia to know that not all "authorities" are of the same worth.

The latter is correct with the glottal stop, if you want to be correct-correct.

 

[daft]

Many of those ancient deities are interconnected, Sun-gods, Storm or Thunder Gods, and such. Seems people of many nations and cultures thought in similiar ways, or were influenced by similiar aliens, and called the same persons or beings a different name-based (because of) on their language-linguistic differences, only.

 

[Agent327]

Many of those ancient deities are interconnected, Sun-gods, Storm or Thunder Gods, and such.

The fact that weather gods existed in various cultures rather points to the fact that weather existed for various cultures. But yes, weather is very much interconnected.

 

[Evie]

Well, technically speaking, the sun can be defined as an extraterrestrial entity which has appeared to cultures all over the planet.

 

[Agent327]

I'm sure, but technically different cultures look at 'the sun' differently.

 

[JohannaK]

Ba'al I have read was basically a title meaning something like Lord, so either it derives from the god for his preeminent position in the pantheon or Ba'al became the name of the god by metonymy.

 

[Flying Pig]

As a word of caution on that sort of thing, the Greeks referred to Castor and Pollux - two otherwise pretty minor gods - simply as 'the kings', from time to time.