Baalism

[bey-uh-liz-uhm, bey-liz-]

noun

1. the worship of Baal.

2. idolatry.

Other Word Forms

• Baalist noun
• Baalite noun
• Baalistic adjective
• Baalitical adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Baalism¹

First recorded in 1615–25; Baal + -ism

Example Sentences

The fact points to an age when Sumerian animism had already been succeeded by Semitic Baalism; the spirit or ghost had become a god in human shape, who begat children and required an envoy.

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Originating probably, in the observation of the fertilizing effect of rains and streams upon the receptive and reproductive soil, baalism becomes identical with the grossest nature-worship.

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The history of Baalism among the Hebrews is obscured by the difficulty of determining whether the false worship which the prophets stigmatize is the heathen worship of Yahweh under a conception, and often with rites, which treated him as a local nature god; or whether Baalism was consciously recognized to be distinct from Yahwism from the first.

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The antagonism of Elijah was not against Baalism in general, but against the introduction of a rival deity.

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The earliest certain reaction against Baalism is ascribed to the reign of Ahab, whose marriage with Jezebel gave the impulse to the introduction of a particular form of the cult.

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