world religion home
 links
 maps
 symbols

 

Encyclopedia of Religion entry for

Baal Berith

see BERITH MILAH. BAAL-BERITH. A local Baal (q.v.) referred to in the Old Testament (Judges is. 4), also called " El-berith " (" God of the covenant," Judges ix. 46). This was a Canaanite Baal who was worshipped at Shechem. In ordinary Hebrew baal-berith means " covenant ally," literally " possessor of covenant." Here, however, the god seems to be so called as " the Baal who presides over covenants, or rather over the special covenant by which the neighbouring Israelites were bound to the Canaanite inhabitants of the city " (W. R. Smith, R.S.). Or the covenant may have been between Shechem and neighbouring Canaanite towns. Another view is that the Baal was possessor of a covenant between himself and his worshippers. There was a temple of Baal-berith which is associated with several episodes in Hebrew history (Judges ix. 4, 27, 46). See Encycl. Bibl.

citations: Encyc. of Rel., Canney

article created 2006-04-12 , last updated 2006-04-12

article titles
article content
    

Browse Topics

© 2009 world-religion.org

admin Be ordained with free online ordination