Tool Beta
The Gods of the Bible
Every named divine being in Scripture, what the text calls it, and what the ancient world thought it was.
Beelzebul
The name Jesus's opponents used for the ruler of demons when they accused him.
Matthew 10:25, in every translation this tool compares.
When Jesus's opponents want to explain how he casts out demons, this is the name they reach for: the ruler of the demons. His answer is the one about a divided kingdom, and about tying up the strong man before robbing his house.
The charge against Jesus is that he casts out demons by their ruler, and his answer is the divided kingdom and the binding of the strong man. Cross-reference the Hebrew form at 2 Kings 1. DDD reads the name as a corruption story running opposite to what the spelling suggests. The god of Ekron whom Ahaziah consults is Ba'al Zebub, "Lord of the Flies," but Ugaritic texts use the title zbl b'l ars, "Prince, Lord of the Underworld," for Baal, and the philological consensus DDD follows (Dietrich and Loretz) reads the Hebrew as a deliberately mocking misspelling of the real epithet zbl, "Prince," with the Masoretic Text turning Baal the Prince into Baal the Fly on purpose. The New Testament's Beelzeboul keeps the older, correct form of the title, and "Beelzebub" in some English versions is a later correction back toward the Old Testament's insulting spelling.
G954, 7 occ
- Matthew 10:25
- Matthew 12:24-27
- Mark 3:22
- Luke 11:15-19
- 2 Kings 1:2-3,6,16
- W. Herrmann, DDD s.v. "Baal Zebub," 154-155
- see also "Beelzebul"
