Chapter 4: Baal-Peor — The First Foreign God

The first foreign god worshipped by the Israelites was Baal-peor, or Baal-phegor — this was a Moabite idol — snares were laid against the Israelites in its worship by the Midianites under the instruction of Balaam — the origin of the name Pehor — whether Baal-peor was Priapus — the obscene practices commonly said to have been employed in the worship of this idol — sacrifices of the dead — the Moabite mountain called Pehor — Baal thereby called Baal-peor. I. The first foreign god by whose worship the people, having returned from Egypt, defiled themselves was Baal-peor. He is first mentioned in Numbers 25:3: "Israel joined itself to Baal-peor." Also in Psalms 106:28: "They also joined themselves to Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead." And in Hosea 9:10: "They came to Baal-peor, and separated themselves to that shameful thing." He is also called simply Pehor in Numbers 25:18: "They plotted against you in the matter of Pehor;" and in Joshua 22:17: "We have not yet cleansed ourselves from the iniquity of Pehor."

II. Now Baal-peor was a Moabite idol. Yet the Midianites also offered sacrifices to it along with the Moabites. For they employed their snares against the Israelites who were sacrificing to it; and they did so with Balaam as their instructor (Numbers 31:15, 16); and in the New Testament, the enticements to fornication are called "the doctrine of Balaam" (Revelation 2:14). By what seductions and schemes the Midianite women lured the Israelites into the deceit and crime of a twofold adultery, Josephus reports in Antiq. lib. iv. cap. vi.

III. What kind of idol it was is greatly disputed. Perhaps this name was given by the Holy Spirit in contempt to the abomination of the Midianites or Moabites, since the worshippers called it by a different name. For many say that Pehor signifies something obscene and filthy; it is indeed a word of very uncertain origin. The root means "to open"; also in Chaldean, "to discharge what has been eaten"; also "to lay bare" and "to uncover." From this Bucerus derives the origin of the word in his commentary on Psalms 106, the etymology of which Calvin also mentions in his note on the same passage; but he does not venture to embrace it. The Rabbis use this word most especially when they make mention of this idol: "Uncovering oneself before Baal-peor," Tractat. Sanhed. fol. 60.

IV. Most of the ancients believed that Baal-peor was Priapus: so Jerome, in his commentary on Hosea 9, and in his work against Jovinian, lib. i. cap. xxxii.; for no other reason, I think, than because the Midianites, having enticed the Israelites into acts of fornication, defiled them at the same time with the rites of this idol. But Priapus had not yet been born — the one from Lampsacus, that is, of Pontus, who, having been driven from his homeland on account of his shameful deeds, was afterward admitted into the number of the gods, for reasons which it would be shameful to recount. Furthermore, those acts of fornication did not belong to the rites of the idol; for the well-known story of Zimri and Cosbi proves that some committed that crime within the very camp of the Israelites themselves.

V. Now from the meaning of the root word meaning "to open," and from the fiction regarding Priapus attributed to it —

326 CORRUPTION OF MOSAIC THEOLOGY. [Book 5. — some seize the occasion, in explaining the mysteries of this idol, to bring forth obscenities of this kind, which can be neither pleasing to modest minds and ears, nor ought to be thrust upon others. Let anyone who wishes consult Cl. Voss. de Origin. Idol. lib. ii. cap. i. In a word, this is what the Hebrews say in brief. But other reasons could also be given as to why the idol received its name from the root meaning "to open." Perhaps it was so called from the immense gaping of the mouth with which it was carved; or, as Isidorus says, because others gazed at the image with open and gaping mouths. But it seems highly probable that, just as the fornications of the Israelites gave Christians occasion to think that this idol was Priapus, so likewise from the meaning of the word the Jews seized occasion to attribute all things filthy and obscene to its worship.

VI. To the worship of this idol is joined the eating of the sacrifices of the dead, in Psalms 106. Some understand this to refer to rites celebrated in honor of the spirits of the dead. But that superstition had not yet grown up — indeed it had scarcely been born. We have shown above that all idols are and are called dead with respect to their power and efficacy. Baal-peor was one of these; and those who ate from the sacrifices offered to him, having forsaken the living God, ate the sacrifices of the dead.

VII. It is therefore still not established what god this Baal-peor was. We shall consider Baal later; all the difficulty is produced by the addition of Pehor. From it the various conjectures we have recounted have arisen. But Pehor was a Moabite mountain: Numbers 23:28, "Balak led Balaam to the summit of Pehor." On that mountain a sacred shrine had been built, which was called Beth-pehor; in Deuteronomy 34:6, Moses is said to be buried "in the valley in the land of the Moabites, over against Beth-pehor" — that is, the mountain on which the sacred shrine was built. The idol itself, therefore, was simply called Baal; and it is so named absolutely in Numbers 22:41, "Balak led Balaam to the high places of Baal." Thus Baal received the name Baal-peor from the place where he was worshipped among the Moabites, just as Jupiter was called Capitolinus and Olympius, and the Virgin was called of Halle or of Loreto. And this explanation of the surname is given by Suidas in his article on Beel-peor: Beel, he says, is Chronos, and Peor is the place in which he was worshipped. And Theodoret likewise in Psalms 106. Now one who was called Pehor from the place of worship absolutely, as Capitolinus or Olympius, without the marker of Baal, is also called Baal, without the addition of Pehor. Baal-peor is therefore Baal worshipped on Mount Pehor. Let the learned filth, therefore, which scholars heap up here, be done away with. Baal alone remains, concerning whom we shall observe some things in the next chapter.