Where did Beelzebub come from?

Factual Questions
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Iguana Boy – excellent source (immediately added to my bookmarks). :slight_smile:

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).

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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!