-Bible Dictionary, 617-8 “The Lord” among ancient Semites; consort of Mother Astarte, whose favours he shared with Yamm, the Lord of Death (from Hindu Yama). Old Testament Jews worshipped many baalim as past or present consorts of the Goddess Zion (Hosea 2: 2-8). Yahweh shared these other gods’ temples for a long time, until his priesthood managed to isolate his cult and suppress the others. Since nearly all gods were sacrificial victims in their earthly incarnations, Baal may have derived from Sanskrit Bala or Bali, a sacrificial offering. Baal was often used as the title of a mortal king, especially one whose reign might be terminated by a ritual sacrifice. In the time of Esarhaddon of Assyria, the king of Tyre was Baal, or “God.” Baal became a favourite Christian name for a devil because biblical writers denounced all the baalim indiscriminately as devils (2 Corinthians 11:15; 1 Corinthians 10:20, Revelation 9:20). -Walker, 84 Both large and small fragments of tablets containing poetic mythological texts in which the leading role is played by the rain- and fertility-god Baal and the next importance by the warrior-goddess Anath came to light in the french excavations of Ras-Shamra-Ugarit. -Pritchard, 92 These writings, from around 1400 BC, detail that the female consort of El Elyon was called Asherah (or Ashtoreth). For the Israelites, the god-and-goddess concept came to an end when they dismissed Ashtoreth and pledged their allegiance to the one and only Jehovah, who was appropriated from El Elyon, being in essence the same character. But this pledge of singular allegiance was not made in the time of Abraha, nor even in the time of Moses — it occurred much later, in the time of Samuel the judge, when ‘the children of Israel did put away Baal and Ashtoreth, and served the Lord only’ (1-Samuel 7:4). This was in about 1060 BC. -Gardner, 30
e. Lucifer Lucifer means "light bringer," and such was the Latin title for the morning star, Venus, who preceded the birth of the sun. Canaanites called him Shaher, whose twin brother, Shalem, the evening star, spoke the word "shalom" to the dying sun, hence, Jeru-salem, the "house" thereof. The verse: "How thou hast fallen from heaven, helel's son shaher! Thou didst say in thy heart, I will ascend to heaven, above the circumpolar stars I will raise my throne... I will be like unto Elyon," was originally canaanite but later attributed to Isaiah. It was by this verse later that Jesus, in Luke 10:18, fulfilled prophecy by seeing Satan as a seraph, or fiery serpent, and from thence after the two have been confused. In the middle ages the Inquisitors charged Satan could appear as a luminous angel. They persecuted the goths and gnostic hebrew qabalists who still saw the light brought by Lucifer as representing wisdom. origins: Thou shall be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit. -Isa 14:15 This “pit” was the same as Helel, or Asherah, the god’s own Mother-bride, and his descent as the lightning serpent into her Pit represented the fertilization of the abyss by masculine fire from heaven. In short, the Light-bringer challenged the