# Where did Beelzebub come from?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-beelzebub-come-from/21491>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 5, 2000, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-beelzebub-come-from/21491 "2000-06-05T21:31:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2000, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-beelzebub-come-from/21491/21 "2000-06-08T03:26:05Z")

</div>

**Iguana Boy** – excellent source (immediately added to my bookmarks). 🙂

The way I read it the Catholic Encyclopedia’s answer its own question; _“If the New Testament name be considered a transformation of the old,  
the question arises as to how the god of the little town of Accaron came to give a name to the Prince of Darkness”_ is:

[ul]  
[li]Ekron was scarcely 25 miles west of Jerusalem.[/li][li]Beelzebub was well known.[/li][li]Jews may have derived the idea of Beelzebub as a special adversary of God because of the events in _2 Kings 1_.[/li][/ul]  
So, Christ’s detractors were attempting to discredit him by stating that we was not acting as an agent of God, but was rather  
casting out demons by invoking this locally well known name for the adversary.

PS: _1 Kings 22:53_ also says of Ahaziah son of Ahab, "He served and worshiped Baal and provoked  
the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger, just as his father had done. (verses 52-53).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2000, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-beelzebub-come-from/21491/22 "2000-06-08T03:26:29Z")

</div>

**Thank you all very much!**

I have started to wrap the search up - between what I have learned here, the Catholic Encyclopedia and the Jewish Encyclopedia, I now know more than I ever wanted to about this stinky deity.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-beelzebub-come-from/21491.md?page=1)