[Avodah] Eshbaal

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

>From http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/first-person-banning-baal
or http://j.mp/1VdtbxE

:-)BBii!
-Micha

    Biblical Archaeology Society
    First Person: Banning Ba'al
    As published in the March/April 2016 Biblical Archaeology Review
    Hershel Shanks -- 04/04/2016

    Was the proper name Eshbaal -- man of Ba'al -- banned in Judah after
    King David's time? A recent analysis suggests that it was.

    Ba'al, meaning lord or master, was a common divine appellative in
    Canaan and neighboring areas during Biblical periods, most frequently
    referring to the storm god.

    Very recently an inscription was uncovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa
    -- a site already famous for a late 11th-10th-century B.C.E.
    inscription -- about 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem. According
    to excavator Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University, the site is
    probably an imposing fortress erected by King David facing the
    Philistines.
    ...
    The name 'Ishba'al or, more commonly, Eshbaal, is well known from
    the Bible. It means "man of Ba'al." (The name Beda` appears for the
    first time in this inscription.)
    ...
    In the Bible various Ba'al names appear of people who lived in
    King David's time or earlier (Jerubbaal [Judges 6:32], Meribbaal
    [1 Chronicles 9:40], etc.). But the Bible mentions no Ba'al names
    after this -- neither Ba'al nor Eshbaal.

    Ba'al names simply do not appear in the Bible after David's time.

    The archaeological situation is a bit, but not completely, different.
    We have more than a thousand seals and seal impressions (bullae) and
    hundreds of inscriptions from Israel and Judah from the post-David
    period (ninth-sixth centuries B.C.E.). The name Eshbaal is not to
    be found among these names. The situation with the name Ba'al is
    slightly different; it does occasionally appear in Israel -- and of
    course in Philistia, Ammon and Phoenicia. But not in Judah!

    It seems that Ba'al and Eshbaal were banned in David's kingdom. One
    reason may have been that, at least officially, Judah was
    monotheistic. Thus, names constructed with a form of a foreign
    deity's name -- especially of Ba'al, who was Yahweh's rival --
    would not have been considered kosher.

    In addition, David's predecessor and rival, King Saul, fathered a
    son named Eshbaal (1 Chronicles 8:33 [2]) who reigned for two years
    (2 Samuel 2:10) -- another good reason to bar the name in David's
    kingdom.

    [2] "Ishbosheth" in the account in 2 Samuel 2-4.