Posted on 06/16/2015 10:25:52 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
Thanks for the information.
The Ten Commandments include "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" as if the other gods exist, but Yahweh must be honored and worshipped above the others.
Carthage was a colony of the Phoenician city Tyre--a lot of Carthaginian personal names have the element -bal in them (Hannibal, Hasdrubal, etc.), which is the same as the Hebrew Ba'al.
The only part where I think I disagree with you is the suggestion that the name Baal was not associated with a false god until after Saul's time. The Israelites strayed after Baal even before entering the promised land (Numbers 25); continued after they were in Canaan, before Saul's time (Judges 3:7, many others); and were still committing the same sin after Saul's time (I Kings 18:16-40). So if you're implying that Saul didn't know what he was doing when he gave one son a YHWH-based name and one son a Baal-based name, I have to disagree.
Sorry, FRiend, but politicians weren't any different then than now. Saul was the first King the Israelities ever had, and we know from elsewhere in I Samuel that he was concerned (paranoid, in fact) about being replaced or overthrown. So I believe he was trying to curry favor with every element of the population. Hence the redactors' "shame."
If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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First Person: Banning Baal
March/April 2016
Biblical Archaeology Review
Hershel Shanks
04/04/2016
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/first-person-banning-baal/
[snip] Was the proper name Eshbaalman of Baalbanned in Judah after King Davids time? A recent analysis suggests that it was. [/snip]
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