Word: baal
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...century B.C.E., decades after Hosea issued his sermons, Israel was still awash in religious pluralism. The Jerusalem Temple itself, according to the Bible, was home not just to Yahweh but also to Asherah, a goddess who, scholars increasingly believe, was Yahweh's consort. And there were "vessels made for Baal," the Canaanite...
Then, in 640 B.C.E. came an intense Israelite King named Josiah who would lend brutal support to the monolatrist cause and push Israel closer to monotheism. He took the figure of Asherah out of the Temple and "beat it to dust." The vessels for Baal didn't fare well either...
...long as polytheism reigned, there were lots of those prophets. At one point, Israel contained "400 prophets of Asherah" and "450 prophets of Baal," the Bible reports darkly. Josiah's cleansing of the Temple was good strategy in a zero-sum game: the less influence these prophets had, the more...
...powerful. In what has to be the first ever presidential candidate shout-out to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Huckabee made his case for the little guy. "It's a lot better to be with David than Goliath," he declared. Or with Elijah than 850 prophets of Baal. Or with Daniel and the lions than the Babylonians. The point was not lost on the crowd of Sunday school veterans: the Bible is, after all, jam-packed with stories of the seemingly weak who triumph, heroes who shock the naysayers...
...favorites--Italy's Ivan Basso, Germany's Jan Ullrich and Spain's Francisco Mancebo, who finished second, third and fourth, respectively, behind Armstrong in the 2005 Tour--being forced out of the race the day before its start. The French newspaper L'Equipe called it a "decapitation." Says Daniel Baal, former president of the French Cycling Federation: "The credibility of the Tour has been called into question." It's certainly the most damaging crisis to hit the race since the 1998 "Tour de Shame," when the team sponsored by watchmaker Festina was ejected after officials discovered a veritable pharmacy...