Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible Online

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I. Name Aion does not occur as a divine name or concept in the Bible, although Reitzenstein (1921) followed by others (BAGD, s.v.) considered Aion in Eph. 2.2, Eph. 7; Eph. 3.9 and Col. 1.26 a deity, the evil ruler of the cosmos. Aion in Greek has a wide range of meanings, ‘lifetime, life, age, generation, period, eternity’ (LSJ, s.v.; TWNT I, 197–204), and can even be identical with cosmos. II. Identity Reitzenstein (1921) identified Aion with Persian zervan akarana, ‘the endless time’, and believed it a deity with a real cult. He based his opinion on a passage in Epiphanius, Haer. 52.22.8–10,…

I. Name Heb. Ali or Eli (< ʿly) and Alu or Elu (< ʿlw) have been identified as the shorter and more ancient forms of the term Elyon ( ʿlywn), ‘Most High’, mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Elyon is a well documented divine name or epithet in biblical traditions and poetic passages like 2 Sam. 22.14 (= Ps. 18.14) and Ps. 21.8 unequivocally associate Elyon with the divine name YHWH (Yahweh). Nevertheless, modern scholarship has identified Elyon as originally the name of an ancient Canaanite deity or as a divine epithet, that only with the passage of time made…

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I. Name The noun עישׁ occurs in the Bible in Job 38.32, vocalized ʿayiš. The term ʿāš, which appears in Job 9.9, is generally considered a variant reading or a less correct form of ʿayiš; it has also been considered a dittography of ʿśh, which immediately precedes it (B. Duhm, Das Buch Hiob erklärt [KHAT; Tübingen 1897] ad loc.). The context of both occurrences in Job clearly shows that ʿayiš is the name of a star or constellation. Its etymological parallels Jewish Aramaic yûtāʾ and Syr. ʿyûtoʾ and ʿiyûtoʾ always denote a star or constellation. Some scholars have deduced …

I. Name The negation lōʾ revocalized as lēʾ has been interpreted as a divine epithet ‘Victor’ (e.g. M. Dahood, Psalms I 1–50 [AB 16; New York 1966] 46; Viganò 1976; Cooper 1981) derived from the root lʾy. The same root is at the basis of the Baal epithets aliyn and aliy qrdm and the element lʾy/lʾt in a number of West Semitic names, ancient titles of Baal and his consort (Sznycer 1963). The name of Jacob’s wife Leah (לאה, Gen. 29.16; Ruth 4.11) has been connected with the same root ( HALAT 487). II. Identity Aliyan, usually translated as ‘almighty, victorious, puissant’, is a frequently…

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I. Name pantokratōr, ‘almighty’, ‘all-sovereign’, ‘controlling all things’, as a divine designation, occurs both as an adjective and as a noun. Found relatively rarely in pagan literature, it is used frequently for God in the LXX and in early Jewish writings. In the NT this is continued in the Revelation of John, which calls God pantokratōr 9 times. Otherwise, the word can be found once more in Paul ( 2 Cor. 6.18), and there it is a quotation from the OT. II. Identity In the pagan sphere, pantokratōr occurs from time to time as an attribute of deities such as Hermes (Epigr. Graeca 815, 11; PGM 7…

I. Name The word ‘altar’ ( mizbēaḥ) occurs more than 400 times in the text of the Old Testament. It derives from the root zbḥ ‘to slaughter’: the most important offering consisted of sacrificial animals. Although offerings could be made on natural elevations, constructed altars seem to be have been customary. A main characteristic of the ancient Israelite altar was the presence of ‘horns’ ( qĕrānôt). For the OT altar in general see Haak 1992. In the Bible there are hardly any traces of deification of the altar, but other sources from the ancient Near Ea…

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I. Name ʿAm(m) occurs widely as a theophoric element in Semitic proper names, although in the cuneiform texts it is not ordinarily marked by the determinative indicating divinity. Among the names that are commonly classified as “Amorite”, there are over two hundred with ʿAmm as an element. This represents by far the largest group; but ʿAm(m)-names are also attested in epigraphic Arabic (Qatabanian, Safaitic, and Thamudic), Hebrew, Ugaritic, Old Aramaic, Phoenician, Punic, Ammonite, Moabite, and, perhaps, Eblaite. Occurrences of the deity ʿAm(m) in the Hebrew Bible are limite…

I. Name In the Old Testament, the tribe of Amalek is one of Israel’s enemies of old ( Exod. 17.8–16; Num. 13.29 etc.). Their ancestor is seen as a grandson of Esau ( Gen. 36.12–16). Amalek can also designate a topographical area as in the expression har hāʿămālēqî ‘the mountain of the Amalekites’ ( Judg. 12.15). An etymological explanation of the name Amalek has been impossible until now (Weippert 1974:252). The suggestion has been made to relate the name Amalek to a mountain deity ḥmrq known from an Egyptian source (Görg 1987:14–15). II. Identity The Egyptian Leiden Magical Papyru…

I. Name Amaltheia is the name of the goat that suckled baby Zeus right after his birth (so Callimachus, Apollodorus, Diodorus Siculus), or of the nymph who nursed and fed him on goat’s milk (so Ovid and Hyginus). The ‘Horn of Amaltheia’ (Ἀμαλθείας Κέρας) was one of the horns of this goat or, according to others, a horn possessed by the nymph, which provided in abundance whatever one wished, and became the well-known image of the ‘horn of plenty’ or cornucopia. This occurs in the LXX of Job 42.14 and in T. Job 1, 3 as the name of one of Job’s second set of three daughters. Etymologically, ἀ-μάλθε-…

I. Name The Amazons were a mythical race of brave female warriors that lived, according to the oldest Greek versions of the saga, on the southern and western coast of the Black Sea and were eventually defeated by men in an Amazonomachia. They do not occur in the Bible except possibly in an addition to the biblical text by the Septuagint translator of 2 Chron. 14.14, where they seem to be said to have been part of the booty destroyed or captured by the Judaean king Asa in his victory over the Cushite king Zera. II. Identity The etymology of the name Amazons is unclear. Ancient popular etymol…

I. Name Amun, ʒmn, from jmn ‘to hide’: the “Hidden one”. The Greeks identified Amun with Zeus because of his function as chief of the Egyptian pantheon. Amun occurs as divine name in Jer. 46.25 ( ʾāmôn minnōʾ Amon of No: Amon of Thebes) and Nah. 3.8 ( nōʾ ʾāmôn No-Amon: the city of Amon). II. Identity The original nature of Amun is determined by two factors: 1. the close relationship with Min of Koptos, the god of kingship, fertility and virility; 2. the role of Amun as one of the personifications of preexistence (cf. Pyr. 466: Amun and Amaunet as feminine counterpart, alongside Njw and Naun…

I. Name Amurru is the eponymous god of the nomadic peoples of the western desert that began to manifest themselves in Mesopotamia from the late third millennium bce onward. These peoples are known in cuneiform sources as ‘Amorites’ ( Amurru, Sum. mar-tu). Their god, known as Amurru (Akkadian) or Martu (Sumerian), is best characterized as a storm god, comparable in type with Hadad or Yahweh. References to Amurru in the Hebrew Bible are either indirect or debated. As the god is eponymous, his name can be heard in the ethnic designation ʾĕmōrî, ‘Amorite’. The name Amraphel ( Gen. 14.1, Gen. 9…

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I. Name Anammelech is a god whom the people of Sepharvaim, settled in Samaria by the Assyrians, worshipped beside Adrammelech, 2 Kgs. 17.31. On Sepharvaim as a West Semitic settlement in Babylonia, see Adrammelech. II. Identity Many explain the divine name as a combination of Babylonian Anu with West Semitic melek, ‘Anu is king’ (Gray 1977: 596; cf. J. A. Montgomery & H. S. Gehman, Kings [ICC; Edinburgh 1951] 476; M. Cogan & H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB 11; New York 1988] 212). However, the ancient Sumerian sky-god’s name is never written in cuneiform with any hint of an ini…