Ancient records have nothing at all to say about Baalbek, it seems, though human habitation there is quite old. Archaeological digs reveal evidence of human habitation at least back to 1600 BCE and possibly going to 2300 BCE. The name Baalbek means "Lord (God, Baal) of the Beqaa Valley" and at one time archaeologists thought that it was the same place as the Baalgad mentioned in Joshua 11.
Read Article: Baalbek, Temple of Jupiter Baal (Heliopolitan Zeus): Site of Worship of Canaanite God Baal
Given that “baal” and “beelzebub” are other terms for “satan”, it’s clear that the jews and christians did the same thing said of the Romans in the item: they rewrote history. But unlike the Romans who tried to incorporate and override foreign myths, the christians and jews turned foreign myths into evil beings.
Before “baal” was rewritten as “satan”, was there an evil being in jewish mythology? Probably not. This was likely just an attempt to label neighboring countries as worshippers of “evil”, to claim alleged superiority for themselves.
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Wow, a fascinating story of a place I never knew existed!
I find the shift from integrating gods as political control changed, to replacing total religions as political control changed, to be fascinating. Were one to credit the bible, in the middle east it started with the Jews capturing lands and eliminating the existing population, but clearly that either didn’t work very well or the tales are blown out of proportion, because IIRC that sneaky Baal kept creeping back into Jewish religious observance, and prophets kept railing against him. Yet even the Romans left the Jewish religion pretty much alone.
Yet, again if I recall correctly, the later Roman empire went through bouts of alternately encouraging and prohibiting Christianity. Seems like a way to create huge unrest in your (already fracturing) empire. I wonder what it would have been like if the Romans had insisted the religions must exist side by side…