THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
house " (Matt, x, 25), seems to play upon be'el zebul (be' el being the Aramaic form for the Hebrew ba'al). Nothing more than a play upon the word is to be .sought in oikodespotes, which is not a translation of the Aramaic; "master of the (Satanic) kingdom " would be a meaningless designation of the prince of hell. In spite of the correctness of the reading Beelzeboul, it is justifiable to trace this name to the much older name Baal-zebub, which is found in the Old Testament as that of an idol.
Baal-zebub was honored in Ekron, where he had a temple and an oracle, which was consulted by Ahaziah, king of Israel (II Kings i, 2, 3, 16). The name as it stands means " lord of flies "; the Septuagint calls the god directly " fly "; so also Josephus (Ant., IX, ii, 1). In classical mythology, there was a god who protected from flies. It is related that Hercules banished the flies from Olympia by erecting a shrine to Zeus Apomuios (" averter of flies "); and the Romans called Hercules Apomuios. A similar deity is mentioned as acting and honored in different places, the excuse for such worship being the plague which flies cause in those warm countries. Both the sending of flies and the driving them away were referred to the same divinity. As may be inferred from the name Baal, the Baalzebub of the Philistines was essentially identical -with the principal god or gods of the Phenicians. He may have been lord of flies as sun-god, because flies are most numerous in midsummer, when the sun is hottest. And that he had an oracle is to be explained by a substitution of effect for cause. Flies come obedient to certain atmospheric conditions.; hence the god was considered to have caused these conditions, and so at length his control was extended to other events, and accordingly he was consulted (see Baal).
Beelzebul was early identified with Baal-zebub, and, as was so often the case, was turned into a bad demon, in accordance with later Jewish ideas. Since Lightfoot (flora Heb., s.v.), it has been common to say that the name of the demon Beelzebul was purposely made out of Beel-zebub, in order to express contempt and horror; i.e., " lord of dung," instead of " lord of flies." But, inasmuch as such a name for Satan does not occur outside of the New Testament, it is better to seek its derivation in the old Ekronic worship, which might, in New Testament times, have still existed. Beelzebul may therefore be looked upon as the same name as Beel-zebub, and therefore as having the same meaning.
Bibliography: E. C. A. Riehm, Handworterbuch des biblischen Alterthums, s.v., Bielefeld, 1893-94 (revives the theory that the Syriac form may have meant simply " an enemy," cf. KAT, p. 461); J. Selden, De dis Syris, London, 1617; J. Lightfoot, Horce hebraicce on Matt, xii, 24, and Luke xi, 15, ib. 1675; F. C. Movers, Die Phonizier i, 260-261, Bonn, 1S41; idem, in J A, 1878, pp. 220-225; P. Scholz, Gotzendienst und Zau^erwesen bei den alten Hebraern, pp. 170-173, Regensburg, 1877; Nowack, Archaologie. ii, 304-305; EB, i. 514-515; JE, ii, 629-630.
BEER, ber, GEORG: German Lutheran; b. at Schweidnitz (31 m. s.w. of Breslau) Nov. 12, 1SG5, He studied in Berlin and Leipsic (Ph.D., 1887), taught in Erbach 1889-91, and became privat-docent at Breslau in 1892. Two years later he went in the
same capacity to Halle, and in 1900 to Strasburg as associate professor of the Old Testament. Became ordinary professor of Old Testament at Heidelberg, 1909. He has written Al-Gazzdli's Makdsid al-faldsifat, i, die Logik (Leyden, 1888) ; Individualund Gemeinde-psalmen (Marburg, 1894); and Der Text des Buches Hiob untersucht (1897); besides preparing the translation of the Martyrdom of Isaiah and of the Book of Enoch for E. Kautzsch's Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments (Tubingen, 1900).
BEER, RUDOLF: German Protestant; b. at Bielitz (40 m. w.s.w. of Cracow) Dec. 5, 1863. He was educated at the universities of Vienna and Bonn, and since 1893 has been reader in Spanish at the latter university, as well as a custodian at the Imperial and Royal Library at Vienna since 1888. He is a collaborator on the Vienna Corpus patrum ecclesiasticorum latinorum. In theology he advocates " the scientific investigation of Christian revelation." Among his works special mention may be made of his Die Anecdota Borderiana Augustineischer Sermonen (Vienna, 1887); Heilige Hohen der Griechen und Romer (1891); Die Quellen fur den liber diurnus concilii Basiliensis des Petrus Bruneti (1891); and Urkundliche Beitrdge zu Johannes de Segovia (1896); in addition to editions of Wyclif's De compositione hominis (London, 1887); and De ente prmdicamentali qucestiones tredecim (1891), and of the Monumenta conciliorum generalium (3 vols., Vienna, 1892-96).
BEET, bit, JOSEPH AGAR: English Wesleyan; b. at Sheffield Sept. 27, 1840. He attended Wesley College, Sheffield (1851-56), and took up mining engineering, but afterward studied theology at the Wesleyan College, Richmond (1862-64). He was pastor 1864-85 and professor of systematic theology in Wesleyan College, Richmond, 1885-1905. He was also a member of the faculty of theology in the University of London 1901-05. He delivered the Fernley Lecture on The Credentials of the Gospels in 1889, and lectured in America in 1896. Though long recognized as one of the ablest theologians and exegetes of his denomination, his sympathy with the modern critical school of interpretation and particularly his views on eschatology have occasioned much criticism. In The Last Things _ (London, 1897; 2d ed., 1905) he opposed the belief that the essential and endless permanence of the soul is taught in the Bible and denied that eternal punishment necessarily means endless torment, holding that the sinner may suffer a relative annihilation of his mental and moral faculties and sink into a dehumanized state. He reiterated these views in The Immortality of the Soul (1901 ). Charges of heresy were brought against him at the Conference of 1902, but he was reelected to his professorship on condition that he refrain from expressing his opinions on immortality and future punishment. To regain liberty of speech in 1904 he gave notice that he would retire from his chair in twelve months. His other works are: Commentary on Romans (London, 1877); Holiness as Understood by the Critics of the Bible (1880); Commentary on Corinthians (1881); Commentary on Galatians