The Lost Ten Tribes continued their Pagan Practices!
Baal ("Bel" in Mesopotamia) Hebrew means "master, lord." Baal was a sun god. One of the forms of Baal worship was that of "Molech." Molech involved offering children or animals up as sacrifices to fire. It could also mean (as explained by Maimonides) simply moving the offered person or animal through or over the flames.
In Ireland, Scotland, Northern England, Scandinavia, and elsewhere the Beltain (meaning "Fire of Bel") was practiced. Beltain means "Fire of Bel." Bel was a major sun-god. He is recorded in Irish and Welsh mythology and in numerous place-names. The Beltain involved jumping over fires and leading animals, etc., through the fires. In the past animals and humans were offered up as actual sacrifices to Bel. This is the same as the worship of Moloch described in the Bible.
Scripture tells us:
Jeremiah (NASB) 32: 35 They built the high places of Baal that are in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire to Molech, which I had not commanded them, nor had it entered My mind that they should do this abomination, to mislead Judah to sin.
Here we see the practice of Moloch associated with Baal i.e. Bel. Bel in the west was therefore the same as Bel in the east had been. It sounded the same, meant the same, did the same and it was practiced by a people whose linguistic roots indicate that they came from the same region.
Wikipedia has an article on a Celtic deity named "Belenus" who it says (in parentheses), was also known as "Bel."
Extracts:
Belenus (also Belenos, Belinus, Bel, Beli Mawr) is a sun god from Celtic mythology... he was one of the most ancient and most-widely worshiped Celtic deities and is associated with the ancient fire festival and modern Sabbat Beltane..... There are 51 known inscriptions dedicated to Belenus... Images of Belenus sometimes show him to be accompanied by a female, thought to be the Gaulish deity Belisama…..
Suggestions in early modern scholarship also included comparison with Semitic Bel, Belus. In this context, linguistically Bel is an East Semitic form cognate with Northwest Semitic Baal with the same meaning; however, the aforementioned similarities can only remain theory, due to how distant the cultures in question are….
Beli Mawr (i.e. "Beli the Great"), an ancestor figure in medieval Welsh literature, has also been connected to the theonym.... Diodorus Siculus named Cornwall (Cornovii, that can originate from "horn") Belerion, the first recorded place name in the British Isles. …
We had previously noted that:
"Bel" is how the name "Baal" was pronounced in Assyria and Babylon. Bel was the main god of the "Celts" in Britain and Ireland and also in Gaul. Both "Baal (i.e. Bel) of the Middle East and of the West were sun gods."Baal" is both a generic and a particular god. The worship of Moloch involved ceremonies similar to those of the Beltane in Britain. The name "Beltane" means "Fire of Bel."
The name "Bel" (also known as "Baal") looks like "Bel" in Britain, Ireland and Gaul. It sounds like it. It had the same meaning, fulfilled the same function, applied to an idol that was worshiped in a similar way. Proof of contact between the two regions exists. It is therefore quite feasible that one became the other. The two names look the same, sound the same, mean the same, apply to the same. I would say the onus should be on the side claiming they are not the same.
Dax Theo quoting from accepted academic opinion claims that Baal (Bel) of the Middle East cannot be the same.
This is in a Comment to our article,
Theo said:
# Just because there have been some potential ancient connections does not mean that a single word/belief/grammatical structure has come along as well. That is not evidence of Ba’al worship in Ireland or anywhere in the Celtic world - if anything its evidence against it. That is because words, languages, and beliefs change over time. #
He quotes from the Video Clip:
Strange Similarities between Semitic and Celtic Languages
Duration: 13.11 minutes
Theo opines:
The West Asian Farmer theory which is how a West Asian language ends up in Ireland/Wales would have them arrive in Ireland in 5000 BC, which means leaving Anatolia at least 7000BC, but probably earlier. The first attestations of “Ba’al” worship in the levant are around 1000 BC - fully 4000 years after this language would have already have been in Ireland and 6000 years (up to a whopping 10,000 years) after the ancestors of those people had already left the levant. There is no way that the religion and word could have remained the same after all those years.
This is circular argumentation. If I find people in China speaking Perfect English it must mean they learnt it, somehow or somewhere, from English-speakers or were born such themselves. If the time slot in which I find these English-speakers does not correspond with the time when English existed then the time slot must be wrong.
See Also:
In Britain and Ireland numerous Celtic place-names retain the term "baal" or derivations of it: Baal-y-bai, Beal-Tene, Balhomais, Ballinluig, Balmuick, Balnaguard, etc. In Ireland "baal" place-names are especially numerous. In Britain place-names associated with baal are usually near stone circles or other megalithic remains. In Britanny (Celtic France) a priest is called a "belloc" meaning "priest of bel". "Bel" was also a name for Israel in the terminology of Greek Mythology where Danaus and Belus represent the Tribe of Dan and the rest of Israel. This is also reflected in Welsh Mythology which gives us the Children of Don and Bile and the Irish tradition giving the Descendants of Bile (Milesians) and the Tuatha de Dana.
The practice of Beltain came to Ireland and the West with Exiled Israelites. After ca. 700 BCE (or later according to Revised Chronologies) Israelites together with Philistines, Phoenician Canaanites, Edomites, and others moved by various paths to Western Europe and settled there. Their descendants are still there. Settlers of Hebrew descent were especially predominant in parts of Ireland and Britain. The so-called “Celts” who settled in the British Isles did not call themselves “Celt” but rather IBERI or “Hiberi.” This name is a form of the Hebrew word usually translated as “Hebrew.” The term “Hiberni” derives from this source.
See too:
Yair Davidiy's answer to Why are Hebrew names and Britton names (from Brittany, France) so similar?
Yair Davidiy's answer to How are the Celtic and Semitic languages similar and different?
Extract:
From the list of Charles Edwards, L.G.A. Roberts (1919) made a selection. We have selected examples from Roberts after slightly modernizing the Hebrew transliterations: It should be noted that when account is taken for likely and known dialectical changes of pronunciation the examples given in effect show identical Welsh parallel phrases for the Hebrew original. There are different ways of transliterating Hebrew. The original version by Charles Edwards used a form of transliteration then extant in his time that further emphasized the inherent similarities between Welsh and Hebrew.
I, Yair Davidiy who is quoting this source, does not know Welsh. Nevertheless, others do. I was told by a reliable source, Derryl Bishop, from Rhondda in Wales, that the examples we gave him were placed before at least one person who is expert in Welsh. Their reliability, on the whole, was confirmed. So too, Griffin Parry, who speaks Welsh confirmed the reliability of the examples given below.
Baal was a Canaanite god not a Hebrew one. Nevertheless the Ancient Israelites worshiped Canaanite deities. That is why they were exiled:
2-Kings (NASB) 17: 8 They also followed the customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out from the sons of Israel... 10 And they set up for themselves memorial stones and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, ...16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves cast metal images: two calves. And they made an Asherah, and worshiped all the heavenly lights, and served Baal.
17 Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire....
Other articles:
Were the ancient British tongues related to Hebrew? by "thebookblog"