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.
Belial / Beliar
A Hebrew word for worthlessness that hardened into a name for the enemy of God.
2 Corinthians 6:15, in every translation this tool compares.
In Hebrew it is a noun meaning worthlessness, which is why older Bibles have phrases like sons of Belial. By the time Paul uses it, it has become a name, set directly opposite Christ.
In the Hebrew Bible a noun, "worthlessness" or "destruction," in phrases like "sons of Belial." In Paul a personal name set opposite Christ. DDD (S. D. Sperling) weighs several etymologies and settles on beli plus ya'al, "without worth," the construction behind Hebrew al-mawet, "deathlessness." What counts as a Belial deed in the Hebrew Bible is a list of specific crimes against the community: inciting idolatry (Deuteronomy 13:14), perjury (1 Kings 21:10,13), breaking hospitality (Judges 19:22), usurping a throne (2 Samuel 16:7-8), profaning a sanctuary by drunkenness (1 Samuel 1:13-17), and priests sexually exploiting the women who served at the tabernacle (1 Samuel 2:12-22). In 2 Samuel 22:5, with Psalm 18:4-5, "torrents of Belial" runs parallel with "breakers of Death," likely a faded personification of death and chaos at this stage and not a full demonic name.
G955 (Βελιάρ), 1 occ
The Qumran sectarian texts use Belial as the name of the opposing power throughout, bridging the two usages, and the Damascus Document is probably the earliest literary evidence of Belial as an unambiguous proper name. He is the commonest title at Qumran for the prince of darkness (angel of wickedness, ruler of this world, head of the demonic powers), and the War Scroll frames a struggle between Michael, Prince of Light, and Belial, Prince of Darkness, while keeping Belial subordinate to God ("who made Belial to corrupt, an angel of hatred"). DDD traces the dualism to Zoroastrianism, where the personified Drug, "Falsehood," opposes Asha, "Righteousness," a pairing the Pseudepigrapha echo by punning on Beliar as beli 'or, "without light." Paul's single New Testament use, "What harmony has Christ with Beliar?" (2 Corinthians 6:14-15), runs the same contrast of light and darkness. The Sibylline Oracles (3:63-64) later identify Beliar with a returning Nero, reading Sebastenon (from Sebastos, "Augustus") as a coded reference to the imperial line.
- 2 Corinthians 6:15
- Deuteronomy 13:13
- Judges 19:22
- 1 Samuel 2:12
- Psalm 18:4
- 1 Samuel 1:16
- 1 Samuel 10:27
- 1 Samuel 25:17
- 2 Samuel 16:7
- 2 Samuel 22:5
- 1 Kings 21:10,13
- Nahum 1:15
- John M'Clintock and James Strong, "Belial," Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, 1:732
- Gabriele Boccaccini, "Belial," Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, 163
- Torleif Elgvin, "Belial, Beliar, Devil, Satan," Dictionary of NT Background, 156
- Heiser, *Demons*, 100
- S. D. Sperling, DDD s.v. "Belial," 169-170
