Bel

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

or Belus a name by which many Heathens, and particularly the Babylonians, called their chief idol. But whether under this appellation they worshipped Nimrod, their first Baal, or lord, or Pul, king of Assyria, or some other monarch, or the sun, or all in one, is uncertain. It is, however, probable, that Bel is the same as the Phenician Baal, and that the worship of the same deity passed over to the Carthaginians, who were a colony of Phenicians. Hence the names Hannibal, Asdrubal, &c, compounded with Bel or Baal, according to the custom of the east, where great men added the names of the gods to their own. Bel had a temple erected to him in the city of Babylon, on the very uppermost range of the famous tower of Babel, wherein were many statues of this pretended deity; and one, among the rest, of massy gold, forty feet high. The whole furniture of this magnificent temple was of the same metal, and valued at eight hundred talents of gold. This temple, with its riches, was in being till the time of Xerxes, who, returning from his unfortunate expedition into Greece, demolished it, and carried off the immense wealth which it contained. It was, probably, the statue of this god which Nebuchadnezzar, being returned to Babylon after the end of the Jewish war, set up and dedicated in the plain of Dura; the story of which is related at large, Daniel 3. See Babel .

BEL AND THE Dragon an apocryphal and uncanonical book. It was always rejected by the Jewish church, and is extant neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldee languages; nor is there any proof that it ever was so, although the council of Trent allowed it to be part of the canonical book of Daniel, in which it stands in the Latin Vulgate. There are two Greek texts of this fragment, that of the Septuagint, and that found in Theodotion's Greek version of Daniel. The Latin and Arabic versions are from the text of Theodotion. Daniel probably, by detecting the mercenary contrivances of the idolatrous priests of Babylon, and by opening the eyes of the people to the follies of superstition, might furnish some foundation for the story; but the whole is evidently charged with fiction, though introduced with a pious intent. St. Jerom gives it no better title than, "The fable of Bel and the Dragon." Selden thinks that this history ought rather to be considered as a poem or fiction, than a true account: as to the dragon, he observes, that serpents, dracones, made a part of the hidden mysteries of the Pagan religion, as appears from Clemens Alexandrinus, Julius Firmicus, Justin Martyr, and others. See Serpent .

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

BEL , originally one of the Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] triad, but synonym, in OT and Apocr. [Note: Apocrypha, Apocryphal.] with Merodach, ‘the younger Bel,’ the tutelary god of Babylon (  Jeremiah 50:2;   Jeremiah 51:44 ,   Isaiah 46:1 , Bar 6:41 ). See also Baal, Assyria and Babylonia. ‘Bel and the Dragon’ (in art. Apocrypha, § 7).

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) A thorny rutaceous tree (Aegle marmelos) of India, and its aromatic, orange-like fruit; - called also Bengal quince, golden apple, wood apple. The fruit is used medicinally, and the rind yields a perfume and a yellow dye.

(2): (n.) The Babylonian name of the god known among the Hebrews as Baal. See Baal.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

One of the gods of Babylon, supposed by some to be the Babylonish name of Baal.  Isaiah 46:1;  Jeremiah 1:2;  Jeremiah 51:44 .

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Isaiah 46:1 Jeremiah 50:2 51:44Baal

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Isaiah 46:1 Jeremiah 50:2 Jeremiah 51:44

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Bel. See Baal .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Bel.  Isaiah 46:1. See Baal.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The chief idol of the Babylonians.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. id. בֵּלּ , contracted from בְּעֵל , the Aramaic form of בִּעִל ; Sept. Βήλ and Βῆλος ) is the name under which the national god of the Babylonians is cursorily mentioned in  Isaiah 46:1; Jeremiah 1, 2;  Jeremiah 51:44. The only passages in the (apocryphal) Bible which contain any farther notice of this deity are  Baruch 6:40, and the addition to the book of Daniel, in the Sept., 14:1, sq., where we read of meat and drink being daily offered to him, according to a usage occurring in classical idolatry, and termed Lectisternia ( Jeremiah 51:44?). But a particular account of the pyramidal temple of Bel, at Babylon, is given by Herodotus, 1:181-183. (See Babel). It is there also stated that the sacrifices of this god consisted of adult cattle ( Πρόβατα ), of their young, when sucking (which last class were the only victims offered up on the golden altar), and of incense. The custom of providing him with Lectisternia may be inferred from the table placed before the statue, but it is not expressly mentioned. Diodorus (2, 9) gives a similar account of this temple; but adds that there were large golden statues of Zeus, Hera, and Rhea on its summit, with a table, common to them all, before them. Gesenius, in order to support his own theory, endeavors to show that this statue of Zeus must have been that of Saturn, while that of Rhea represented the sun. Hitzig, however, in his note to  Isaiah 17:8, more justly observes that Hera is the female counterpart to Zeus-Bel, that she is called so solely because it was the name of the chief Greek goddess, and that she and Bel are the moon and sun. He refers for confirmation to Berosus (p. 50, ed. Richter), who states that the wife of Bel was called Ormorca, which means moon; and to Ammian. Marcell, 23:3, for a statement that the moon was, in later times, zealously worshipped in Mesopotamia. The classical writers generally call this Babylonian deity by their names, Zeus and Jupiter (Herod. and Diod. 1. c.; Pliny Hist. Nat. 6, 30), by which they assuredly did not mean the planet of that name, but merely the chief god of their religious system. Cicero, however (De Nat. Deor. 3, 16), recognises Hercules in the Belus of India, which is a loose term for Babylonia. This favors the identity of Bel and Melkart. (See Baal). The following engraving, taken from a Babylonian cylinder, represents, according to Munter, the sun-god and one of his priests. The triangle on the top of one of the pillars, the star with eight rays, and the half moon, are all significant symbols. (See Cuneiform Inscriptions).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Bel is the name under which the national god of the Babylonians is cursorily mentioned in  Isaiah 46:1;  Jeremiah 50:2;  Jeremiah 51:44. This deity is also noticed in Letter of Jeremiah 6:40, and the apocryphal addition to the book of Daniel, where we read of meat and drink being daily offered to him, according to a usage occurring in classical idolatry. A particular account of the pyramidal temple of Bel, at Babylon, is given by Herodotus, who also states that the sacrifices of this god consisted of adult cattle, of their young, when sucking, and of incense.

The question whether the sun or the planet Jupiter was the power of nature adored under the name of Bel, is discussed under the article Baal.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bel , bāl ( בּל , bēl ): Appellative name of a Babylonian god (compare Baal ), in the Old Testament and Apocrypha identified with Marduk or Merodach, the tutelary deity of Babylon (compare  Isaiah 46:1;  Jeremiah 51:44; Baruch 6:41). See Babylonia And Assyria , The Religion Of .