Actually, you’re completely off the mark. The Semitic peoples definitely did not use the Julian calendar in ancient times, any more than they do now.
The Romans festival of Saturnalia started in mid-December and ended on January 1st (the Romans, having invented the Julian calendar, did in fact have a December :)). In an effort to curb the celebration of the pre-Christian holiday, Christmas was moved to coincide with the festival and a lot of its trappings were adopted by the Christian holiday. Christmas wasn’t “assigned” to December 25th until 350 CE.
I’ll have to check my source for Baal’s day of Sacrifice… I was under the impression that April 19th-20th is the Julian equivilant or translation for the coinciding day ‘semitacly’. I was also under the impression that the 25th of December had been a significant celebration long before Rome, and was translated much the same…
Which Baal? I mean, Baal just means “Lord”, so most of the Canaanite male deities were named Baal-something. There is a major god named Baal in the Ugarit texts. Do you mean him?
Also, the modern Christian conception of Satan is probably based more on the Persian god Ahramain, not on any of the Baals, who were mainly agricultural and rain gods.
420 was current in the 1970-1974 period when I went to High School as code for something or just about anything to do with smoking pot. When I first heard it, asked “Why 420?” and was told it was the police code for a pot bust. I heard soon afterward from someone with knowledge of police stuff that this wasn’t the case, and that this also had become known to the pot heads (not “dopers”). But since the “code” or whatever you’d call it had become part of the lingo already, it stuck.
In other words, whether or not it really was police code at any one time, it was comonly beleived to have been such. Even when it was found out to be untrue, it remained in use.
I am somewhat surprised to see from the OP that some things still haven’t changed. I thought pot smoking was bad for the memory.
August West (of London?) says: “…Waldos from San Rafael.
The gist of the story is that the group of friends, who called themselves the Waldos, would meet next to a statue of Louis Pasteur at 4:20 after school to get high.”
As it happens, I went to High School in San Rafael. I never heard of these Waldos, but 420 was most definitely very common knowledge as pot-related, even among the non-pot-heads.
I guess JCHeckler’s early 70’s cite shoots my theory to all to hell: if you look at the CD release of Boston’s first album, you’ll notice that the song “Smokin’”, an obvious pot song, clocks in at 4min 20seconds. The original vinyl version is listed as a few seconds shorter, so perhaps whoever remastered the album for CD fudged it on purpose. Strangely, the song “Rock & Roll Band” is listed as being 2min 60seconds long, instead of just 3min, indicating that someone was smoking something.
Although I’ve been a regular pot smoker since about 1984, I’d never heard of 420 until about 5 years ago. it seems to be a case of local slang that somehow went national. I even see it on the Price Is Right. Usually it’ll be some college kid who has no idea what to bid, so he’ll say, “…uh…uh…420 Bob!”
“Brother of the goddess Anat, Baal reflects the confrontation theme, first established in Near Eastern religions, of a god constantly and energetically engaged with the forces of disorder. It is a combat that causes his temporary ill-fortune but from which, annually, he emerges triumphant. Baal is said to have sired a bull calf, the guarantee of his power in absence, before descending to the underworld to challenge the forces of chaos in the form of the god Mot; he dies, is restored through the efforts of Anat and in the seventh year, kills Mot. Victory was celebrated at the Autumn festival of New Year in the month of Tisri pending the arrival of the rains. Baal-zebul (VT) derives from Baal and ‘zbl’ meaning prince.”
Beelzebub (Satan) obviously bears some resemblance to Baal-zebul … give the word three thousand years (which is the time between the Bible’s Beelzebub and the name Baah-zebul), and the first may have morphed into the second… I’ll have to do more research on it though. When you think ‘prince of darkness’ and the fact that ‘zebul’ translates as prince, it becomes a little more interesting, but still unverified ‘by me’ right now. I’ll find the 4:20 source for the sacrificial date of innocent blood for Baal as well, still haven’t dug that up. The first quote can be pulled right out of the “Encyclopedia of Gods”.
Those crazy Satanists! Baal isn’t satan, in fact it was an old Jewish god. I believe it was a good of either fertility or harvest. My memory is a little strained here but I believe the reason God said “have no gods before me” is a direct reference to this. As I said the ancient Jewish/hebrew people originally believed in 3 gods, one main one and two side ones.
I could go dig up some cites on this I’m sure. My memory is fuzzy but I remember one is from the “history of hell” and the other is from a guy named Robert nigosheun (that’s how it’s pronounced). It think the book was called “religions of the near east” or something to that effect.
Well, that’s a possible etymology…actually, Baal-Zebul would probably translate better to “Lord of the House…Lord of the Mansion”, suggesting a type of gatekeeper god.
It’s possible also the original name was Baal-zebub, which translates to “Lord of flies”, making him a god with control over sickness. (this has biblical support, actually. One of the kings of Judah is dying, and he sends sacrifices to Baalzebub in the hopes of curing his illness.
Of course, there’s the saying “The gods of one religion become the demons of the next”, and that’s probably what happened there. Ba’al, who was to the Canaanites a benevolent god, became, by the time of Jesus, when the old Canaanite religion was gone, some sort of demon.
Wow, Captain Amazing ! I am under the impression that your education in this area is first rate, I’m just a lowly web searcher
Now I’m curious about the links between Baal and El !
Since both seem to be fertility Gods.
As for the statement about the inversion of deities over time; the NT pretty much takes a stance that gods like Baal in general are ‘pagan’ Gods; and the epitomy of what is evil and idolitrous in life. Call it the competition for theocracies to overthrow deocracies to improve the technology of tax revenue generation to win wars =P Your expertise in this area is rapidly beginning to nullify my own… however, the general idea stands as to the origination of 4:20. If I can continue to find provocative source along these lines, I’ll continue to post them… otherwise, this appears to be left as one for the experts at this point.
Ack! lots of questions are coming to mind now… but I’ve narrowed it down to one…
If Ba’al translates as Lord, does that mean all instances of Lord (the most frequently used word in the Bible) are originally written as Ba’al. If so, then why is Ba’al singled out in certain passages?
I guess this goes back to the links between El and Ba’al…
