Baal, il Signore proibito | Mauro Biglino

Who was Baal really in the Bible? We're used to thinking of him as a foreign, idolatrous deity, condemned by the prophets and set against Yahweh. But the name Baal, in the beginning, wasn't really a name: it was an epithet. It meant "lord," "master," and could indicate the owner of a house, a field, or even a husband as "master" of his wife. In this new video, Mauro Biglino explores the figure of Baal, starting from the original meaning of the term and the Canaanite, Ugaritic, and Phoenician worlds. Through the Bible and comparison with Giovanni Garbini's studies on the Poem of Baal, a much more complex picture emerges than that handed down by traditional religious interpretation: Baal is not a single, simple figure, but a title attributed to various deities, often accompanied by specific epithets such as Baal Ṣafon, Baal Peor, Baal Zebul, or Baal Zebub. The journey touches on some of the most sensitive themes of the Old Testament: the relationship between Baal, El, Adad, and Yahweh; the worship of Baal among the Canaanites, Phoenicians, Midianites, and even the Israelites; the figure of Moses before Jethro, a priest of Yahweh; the extermination linked to Baal Peor in the book of Numbers; Queen Jezebel, and the famous clash between Elijah and the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. Mauro Biglino offers a concrete, non-theological reading of the biblical text, demonstrating how Israel's religious history did not arise from an already established monotheism, but rather from a context of plurality of Elohim, power struggles, religious reforms, and the progressive transformation of Yahweh into the one God of subsequent tradition. From the Poem of Baal to biblical texts, from cults on the hills to baetyls, from Baal Peor to Beelzebub, this video invites us to read the Bible as an ancient, historical, and political document, without erasing the traces of the cults that tradition has sought to condemn, transform, or demonize. Was Baal really just a "pagan idol"? Or was he one of the many "lords" who competed for peoples, territories, and power in the ancient world? "The Unexpected God" is the new book by Mauro Biglino and Gian Matteo Corrias, published by Tuthi Edizioni: a bold, well-documented, and surprising investigation into Nuragic Sardinia, the sacred writing of the ancient Sardinians, and the traces of the name of Yahweh in the heart of the western Mediterranean. 🔎 Discover and purchase the book here: https://www.maurobiglino.com/il-dio-i... 📚 Discover the other books in the Tuthi Edizioni catalog: https://www.tuthi.com