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Baal (Rom_11:4 in a quotation from 1Ki_19:18) was a generic name for a god among Semitic peoples, the literal meaning being ‘owner’ or ‘lord.’ Attempts have been made to show that this was the original name of the Sun-god, or that it represents the Supreme Being worshipped by the Canaanites. Neither of these contentions can be proved; indeed it is evident that the Baal of one place differed from that of another. Thus the reference in the text is to Melkart, the Baal of Tyre. The feminine article ( ôῇ ÂáÜë ) in the Greek of Rom_11:4 is due to the frequent substitution of bôsheth (in Greek áἰó÷ýíç ), ‘shame,’ for Baal by the Hebrews.* [Note: Hence frequently in LXX ἡ ÂáÜë (= ἡ áἰó÷ýíç ), though in 1Ki_19:18 the reading is ôῷ ÂáÜë .]
Literature.-A. S. Peake, article ‘Baal’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) ; G. F. Moore in Encyclopaedia Biblica ; L. B. Paton in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics ; W. R. Smith, RS [Note: S Religion of the Semites (W. Robertson Smith).] 2, London, 1894, p. 93ff.
F. W. Worsley.