My fate for being a non-believer is obvious in all its musical glory. I am condemned to eternal head banging whilst singing "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Beelzebub or Ba‘al Zebûb appears as the name of a deity worshipped in the Philistine city of Ekron. There appears to have been little, if any, meaningful distinction between Beelzebub and the polytheistic Semitic god named Ba‘al. Monotheistic Jewish reference to Baal was almost certainly pejorative, and grew to be used among other terms for Satan. Hence the name also later appears as the name of a demon or devil, often interchanged with Beelzebul.
The demonization of the deity is thought to have been one basis for the personification of Satan as the adversary of the Abrahamic god, though other influences such as the Zoroastrian Daeva may have contributed.
The source for the name Beelzebub is in 2 Kings 1.2 – 3,6,16 where King Ahaziah of Israel, after seriously injuring himself in a fall, sends messengers to inquire of Ba‘al Zebûb, the god of the Philistine city of Ekron, to learn if he will recover. Elijah the Prophet then condemns Ahaziah to die by Yahweh's words because Ahaziah sought council from Ba‘al Zebûb rather than from Yahweh.
(Tsk Tsk. God competition rears its ugly head.)
So, if "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me" does this mean a devil whose specific purpose is to torture and harrass me, or is it one that I get to annoy? Now if the latter is the case, what would be the best way to annoy it? I figure the complete collection of Billy Ray Cyrus music should just about do the trick. :)
LINKS: ~
Well, I'm gonna put it into context with the preceding bits;
ReplyDelete"Bismillah, we will not let you go...momma mia, momma mia, momma mia let me go..."
Bismillah comes from an Arabic phrase; Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim which is commonly translated as "In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate" so Bismillah basically means "In the name of Allah". That being the case, I'm going for a devil whose specific purpose is to torture and harrass me. Billy Ray would probably do the trick in this instance as well though...:)
I've been working up to a post on the history of the devil, so if you'll excuse me for a moment Beep...:)
There's reason to suggest that during more congenial and polytheistic times, Baal was the general of Yahweh's armies and that Yahweh was merely a member of the pantheon. It seems that at some point there was a falling out and Yahweh spends a lot of time and effort taking over. Throughout the Pentateuch (first five books) he tells people to destroy alters to Baal and poles errected to Asherah (top God of the Caananite pantheon "worshiped by your forfathers" - Judges 2:13) and seemingly usurping the throne. He and his prophets then demonise them throughout the rest of the old testament. Although Satan probably get's his beginnings here, both his eventual personality and popular imagery are subjected to a number of cultural influences and we end up with nothing like Baal (basically, a man pictured on a bull who dealt in fertility). It's an interesting cultural and literary history...
Yeah I know, I'm a nerd. Sorry Beep. Now back to Freddy and the boys...:)
How the 'devil' would I know, Beep, what lies in store for you? Probably the same as me: a hole in the ground, a nice, deep, comfortable hole that is very quiet and very peaceful (until future developers build a high-rise apartment on the site). Cheers!
ReplyDeleteJust stopping by to say hi. "Bohemian Rhapsody" rocks. :-) I am too tired to say anything meaningful other than... let the believers have all their deities. Perhaps they deserve them... :-)
ReplyDeleteRE ted: Interesting extra info, ty for that. When you post your article concerning the devil/satan I will be sure to read it.
ReplyDeleteRE daniel: I figure a long sleep of nothingness doesn't sound too bad to me, but don't tell the believers, they will be pissed..
RE sh: People seem to always have required a superior anthropomorphic version of themselves to look up to. I have never been much of a hero worshipper, either the heroes in real life or the heroes of mythology, so I don't get it at all.
Finally got your site linked on mine, Beep.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing about the believers. They really can't handle the fact that folk like us can just accept the reality of what life is and still get on with it. Live and let live I say! Why can't they?
And then there's this.
ReplyDeleteBeep,
ReplyDeleteThought I'd let you know that El Diablo Part I is up here.
And shamelessly plug my blog as well...:)
RE ted:
ReplyDeleteShameless blog plugging is allowed. Especially as I do it all the time myself.