Baal, or Bel—Moloch

Ques. Who were these divinities?

Ans. The names Baal and Moloch seem to have been, at first, different appellations of the Sun; later they assumed another signification, and were applied to distinct deities.

Ques. Where was the Sun worshipped under the name of Baal or Bel (the Lord)?

Ans. In Babylon. The famous tower of Babel or Belus, was there devoted to his worship, although the highest apartment of the edifice served also as an observatory, and was the repository of the most ancient astronomical observations. Some writers have imagined that the Chaldeans and Babylonians worshipped Nimrod under the name of Belus, but it is generally believed that with these nations, and the ancient Canaanites, this was one of the many appellations of the Sun.

Ques. What proof have we of the popularity of this god among the Phœnicians and Carthaginians?

Ans. In their proper names; as among the former, Ethbaal, Jerubbaal; among the latter, Hannibal, Asdrubal.

Ques. By whom was the worship of Baal introduced among the Israelites?

Ans. By King Achab or Ahab. They offered human sacrifices to Baal in groves, or high places, and on the terraces of their houses. Jeremias reproaches the Jews with building “the high places of Baalim, to burn their children with fire for a holocaust to Baalim.” This text shows the extent to which the apostate Hebrews carried this abominable worship.

Moloch

Ques. Who was Moloch?

Ans. He was a divinity of the Ammonites. The Phœnicians were also particularly devoted to his worship. Young children and infants were offered as holocausts to this cruel god. These horrid sacrifices were most frequent in Carthage. When the Sicilian Agathocles threatened that city, we are told that five hundred infants, many the first-born of noble parents, were consumed in one day on the altar of Moloch.

Ques. How was this god represented?

Ans. By a brazen image, which was so contrived that when a child was laid upon its extended arms, they were lowered, and the little victim immediately fell into the fiery furnace placed at the foot of the idol.

Ques. Was Moloch worshipped by the Jews?

Ans. Yes; it would seem that they were addicted to this idolatry before their departure from Egypt, since Moses in many places forbids the Israelites, under pain of death, to dedicate their children to Moloch, by passing them through fire. Solomon built a temple for his worship on the Mount of Olives. Later human sacrifices were offered to him in the valley of Hinnom, called also Tophet, which lay to the east of Jerusalem.

Ques. Where does Milton refer to this god?

Ans. Assuming that the demons or fallen angels received the worship of men, under the names of different heathen divinities, he thus describes Moloch amid the host of Satan:

“First, Moloch, horrid king, besmear’d with bloodOf human sacrifice, and parents' tears;Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,Their children’s cries unheard, that passed through fire,To his grim idol. Him the AmmoniteWorshipp’d in Rabba and her watery plain,In Argob and in Basan, to the streamOf utmost Arnon; nor content with suchAudacious neighborhood, the wisest heartOf Solomon he led by fraud to buildHis temple right against the temple of God,On that opprobrious hill: and made his groveThe pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thenceAnd black Gehenna call’d, the type of Hell.”

Ques. Who was Astaroth?

Ans. This goddess, called by the Greeks Astarte, represented the moon, in the same manner as Baal was held to be identical with the sun. The Hebrews always connected the worship of these two divinities. According to Cicero, Astarte was the Syrian Venus, and it is certain that in her worship, and the festivals celebrated in her honor, there is some foundation for this idea. Where human sacrifices were offered to Baal, wheaten cakes, wine and perfumes were laid upon the altar of Astaroth.

Notwithstanding these more innocent offerings, her worship was rendered infamous by the license which prevailed during these festivals, and the open immorality practised by her votaries.

Thammuz

Ques. Who was Thammuz?

Ans. This was another name for Adonis, whose story is of Eastern origin. His death, which we have already referred to in connection with the goddess Venus, is said to have taken place in the mountains of Libanus, from which the river Adonis flows to the sea. The Assyrian women mourned for him in the autumn-time. It was believed that at this season the river changed its color, and ran red, as if tinged with blood. To this Milton alludes:

“Thammuz came next behind,Whose annual wound in Lebanon alluredThe Syrian damsels to lament his fateIn amorous ditties all a summer’s day;While smooth Adonis from his native rockRan purple to the sea, supposed with bloodOf Thammuz yearly wounded.”

The prophet Ezekiel, in relating the iniquities committed in Jerusalem, says that he saw women sitting by the north gate of the temple, who mourned for Adonis. (In the Hebrew, Thammuz.)

Oannes

Ques. Who was Oannes?

Ans. He was a god of the Assyrians, half man, half fish, who was said to dwell in the sea, from which he came at stated times, to instruct the Babylonians in wisdom and science. Oannes is the Dagon of the Philistines.