William Henry Bennett

“ The Mahommedans, also, have various fables concerning Balaam. He was one of the Anakim, or giants of Palestine; he read the books of Abraham, where he got the name Yahweh, by virtue of which he predicted the future, and got from God whatever he asked. It has been conjectured that the Arabic wise man, commonly called Luqmān (q.v.) , is identical with Balaam. The names of their fathers are alike, and “Luqman” means devourer, swallower, a meaning which might be got out of Balaam by a popular etymology. ”

“ In the New Testament we meet with Beelzebul, [7] which some of the versions, especially the Vulgate and Syriac, followed by the Authorized Version, have changed to Beelzebub, under the influence of 2 Kings. In Matt. x. 25, Christ speaks of men calling the master of the house, i.e. Himself, Beelzebul. [8] In Mark iii 22-27, [9] the scribes explain that Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul [10] and is thus enabled to cast out devils. The passage speaks of Beelzebul as Satan and as the prince of the demons. ”

“ No place Zebub, however, is known; and it has been objected that the Baal of some other place would hardly be the god of Ekron. These objections are hardly conclusive.
Usually Zebub is identified with a Hebrew common noun zebub = flies, [1] occurring twice in the Old Testament, [2] so that Baalzebub “is the Baal to whom flies belong or are holy. As children of the summer they are symbols of the warmth of the sun, to which . ”

“ At the age of 105 he begat Enos; he lived in all 912 years. Seth was born after the murder of Abel, and in iv. 25 a popular etymology is given of his name—Adam's wife called his name Seth, “For God,” saith she, “hath appointed, shéth, me another seed instead of Abel.” It is further said that after Enos was born, men began to worship Yahweh. Apparently Gen. iv. 25, 26 had no original connexion with J.’s story of the creation, which speaks of Yahweh freely from the outset. As Enos is a Hebrew word for man, it is probably derived from a tradition in which Enos was the first man. ”

“ BEELZEBUB, Beelzebul, Baalzebub. In 2 Kings i. we read that Ahaziah ben Ahab, king of Israel, fell sick, and sent to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of the Philistine city Ekron, whether he should recover. There is no other mention of this god in the Old Testament. Baal, “lord,” is the ordinary title or word for a deity, especially a local deity, cf. ”

“ A. Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients, p. 278, adopts Marquart’s view that the “River” (nahar) is the so-called “River” (better “Ravine” nahal) of Egypt or Musri, on the southern frontier of Judea. ”

“ Baal stands in close relation. Divination by means of flies was known at Babylon.” [3] There are other cases of names compounded of Baal and an element equivalent to a descriptive epithet, e.g. Baalgad, the Baal of Fortune. ”

“ For the analysis into earlier documents, see also the Oxford Hexateuch, Estlin Carpenter and Harford-Battersby. (W. H. Be.)
↑ Quoted Neh. xiii. 1 f. ↑ Josh. xxiv. 9, 10. E; cf. Micah vi. 5. ↑ Num. xxxi. 8 (quoted Josh. xiii. 22) , 16. These references are not necessarily inconsistent with JE; but they are probably based on an independent tradition. The date of the Priestly Code is ca. 400 B.C. ↑ Gen. xxxvi. 32. ↑ For names and reasons, see Gray, Numbers, 314. ↑ 2 Peter ii. 16, 17 (also refer to the ass speaking) , Jude xi. ↑ Ant. iv. 6. ↑ Quod. Det. ”