BEELZEBUL

Beelzebul is a name used in the New Testament for "the prince of demons" (Mt 12.24; Lk 11.15). The enemies of Jesus said that He was possessed by Beelzebul (Mk 3.24), that He was Beelzebul in person (Mt 10.25), and that it was by the power of Beelzebul that He cast out demons (Mt 12.24–26; Lk 11.15, 18–19). Although Beelzebub, rather than Beelzebul, appears in older Catholic translations of the Bible, Beelzebub is found only in the Latin and the Syriac versions; almost all the Greek manuscripts have Bεελζεβούλ (Beelzebul). The New American Bible (1970) has Beelzebul, reflecting the orthography of the Greek manuscripts. A comparison of Mt 12.24 with Mt 12.26 shows that this name, whatever its correct form may have been, was used interchangeably with that of satan or the devil. Since both Satan in Hebrew (śātān ) and devil in Greek (διάβολος) have the meaning of adversary, accuser, and slanderer, the peculiar Gospel name for the same evil spirit may rightly be surmised to have the same meaning. The form Beelzebub cannot be disconnected from the Aramaic word b ^e' el-d ^ebābā, which has precisely the same meaning as the above-mentioned Hebrew and Greek words (i.e., adversary, accuser, Satan) and is itself a loanword from the Akkadian term bêl dabābi (literally "master of speech," but in usage, "litigant, adversary in a lawsuit"). Both Beelzebub (Baal-Zebub) and Beelzebul (Baal-Zebul) draw upon divine epithets for non-Israelite deities. The explanations, in the Masoretic text, of Beelzebub (Baal-Zebub) to mean "lord of the flies" or "lord of the dung" reflect popular etymologies. If they are ancient, they would express Israelite disparagement of the Philistine deity of Ekron (2 Kgs 1:2–16) or of the Satan, the adversary in the heavenly court. Beelzebul probably means "lord of the temple" or "lord of the dwelling." It is likely that z ^ebûl in this term meant "dwelling, temple" (cf. Is 63.15; 1 Kgs 8.13), or it is to be connected with the Ugaritic word zbl, meaning prince, ruler. The rendering of ba’al z ^ebûl as Bεελζεβούβ (Beelzebub) by the Septuagint and Symmachus was probably due to its phonetic resemblance with the Aramaic word for Satan.

Bibliography: j. schnackenburg, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. 2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 2:97. Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, tr. and adap. by l. hartman (New York 1963) 218. w. foerster, in g. kittel, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament (Stuttgart 1935–) 1:605–606.

[m. r. ryan/eds.]