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BELIAL

(Heb. beliyyaʿal; Gk. Beliár)

In ancient Hebrew literature, the possessive “(of) beliyyaʿal” (e.g., Deut. 13:13[MT 14]; Judg. 19:22) provides an evil connotation to people or things (lit., “sons of beliyyaʿal”). Although the etymology of the word remains uncertain, from the parallelism with Mot and Sheol in 2 Sam. 22:5-6 = Ps. 18:4-5(5-6) scholars recognize an original mythological background. However, the actual biblical context and the Greek translation of the LXX always gave to the word the generic meaning of wickedness.

In the late Hellenistic-Roman period, some Jewish groups (including the early Christians), in line with the theology of the Book of the Watchers (1 En. 1–36), claimed belief in the angelic origin of evil. At a certain point, these groups took the term Belial as one of the names of the chief demon — the devil. We do not know exactly when this phenomenon first occurred. The two references in the book of Jubilees (mid-2nd century b.c.e.) are still ambiguous and could be more properly translated as “spirit of wickedness” (Jub. 1:20) and “sons of wickedness” (15:33), similar to the biblical usage of the term as a common name. It is in the Qumran literature that Belial first appears unambiguously and repeatedly as a proper name (e.g., 1QH, 1QS, 1QM). The Damascus Document is thus probably the earliest extant literary evidence of this usage (CD 4:13, 15; 5:8). No specific theology of the role and function of the devil seems to be attached to the devil’s denomination as Belial (or its variant Beliar). The name was used by ideologically diverse documents, notably the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Lives of the Prophets (Liv. Pro. 4:6, 20; 17:2), the Sibylline Oracles (Sib. Or. 2:167; 3:63, 73), the Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah (e.g., Mart. Isa. 1:8, 9; 2:4), and 2 Cor. 6:15.

After the 1st century c.e., both rabbinic and Christian traditions would occasionally retain the name Belial as part of their common heritage. The name, however, never regained its former popularity.

Bibliography. P. Sacchi, Jewish Apocalyptic and Its History. JSP Sup 20 (Sheffield, 1997); J. A. Emerton, “Sheol and the Sons of Belial,” VT 37 (1987): 214-17.

Gabriele Boccaccini

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BELIAL

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)