Was/is Baal a demon?

[JackVk]

Okay, so we’re all familiar with Baal, the pagan god frequenly mentioned in the Old Testament. But I was watching the recently-made movie The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins. Towards the end, Father Lucas (Hopkins) is possessed, and it’s up to seminarian Michael Kovak to liberate Father Lucas. When he asks the demon its name, it responds “Ba’al”. Also, St. Paul somewhere in one of his letters writes that pagans “sacrifice to demons”. So is this plausible?

 

[NihilObstatINRI]

It is fairly common for the strongest demons to take Biblical names like Asmodeus, Legion, Belial, etc… There’s debate among exorcists and Catholics generally whether or not these are strictly speaking the same demons, so in a sense the jury is out.
In most or all cases, the name of the demon represents its ‘modus operandi’. Weaker demons may be named pride, wrath, lust, etc., so it stands to reason then that those who take a Biblical name will behave like their Scriptural counterparts, whether or not it is literally the same entity.

 

[Dave_Noonan]

Okay, so we’re all familiar with Baal, the pagan god frequenly mentioned in the Old Testament. But I was watching the recently-made movie The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins. Towards the end, Father Lucas (Hopkins) is possessed, and it’s up to seminarian Michael Kovak to liberate Father Lucas. When he asks the demon its name, it responds “Ba’al”. Also, St. Paul somewhere in one of his letters writes that pagans “sacrifice to demons”. So is this plausible?

Ba’al is a Northwestern Semitic word for “Lord.” In the New Testament, Satan is sometime referred to by the derivative Beelzebul = “Lord of the flies”

 

[Bible_Reader]

Yes, according to a widely held demonology, the demon Baal is one of the seven princes of hell.