Beël′zebub (Βεελζεβούλ, BEELZEBUL) is the name assigned (Matt.

10:25; 12:24; Mark 3:24;

Luke 11:15 sq.) to the prince of the dæmons. It is remarkable that, amid all the
dæmonology of the Talmud and rabbinical writers, this name should be exclusively
confined to the New Testament. There is no doubt that the reading Beelzebul is the one
which has the support of almost every critical authority; and the Beelzebub of the
Peshito (if indeed it is not a corruption, as Michaelis thinks, Suppl. p. 205), and of the
Vulgate, and of some modern versions, has probably been accommodated to the name
of the Philistine god BAAL-ZEBUB (q. v.). Some of those who consider the latter to have
been a reverential title for that god believe that Beelzebul is a wilful corruption of it, in
order to make it contemptible. It is a fact that the Jews are very fond of turning words
into ridicule by such changes of letters as will convert them into words of contemptible
signification (e.g. Sychar, Beth-aven). Of this usage Lightfoot gives many instances (Hor.
Hebr. ad Matth. 12:24). Beelzebul, then, is considered to mean   , i. q. dung-god.
Some connect the term with 䵨 h , habitation, thus making Beelzebul = οἰκοδεσπότης
(Matt. 10:25), the lord of the dwelling, whether as the “prince of the power of the air”
(Eph. 2:2), or as the prince of the lower world (Paulus, quoted by Olshausen, Comment.
in Matt. 10:25), or as inhabiting human bodies (Schleusner, Lex. s. v.), or as occupying a
mansion in the seventh heaven, like Saturn in Oriental mythology (Movers, Phöniz. i,
260). Hug supposes that the fly, under which Baalzcbub was represented, was the
Scarabæus pillularius, or dunghill beetle, in which case Baalzebub and Beelzebul might
be used indifferently.—Kitto, s. v; Smith, s. v. See BAALIM; FLY.1

sq. sequent. = following.

q. v. quod vide = which see.
i. q. idem quod = the same as.
s. v. sub verbo = under the word.
s. v. sub verbo = under the word.
1
M’Clintock, J., & Strong, J. (1880). Beël′zebub, Beelzebul. In Cyclopædia of Biblical,
Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (Vol. 1, p. 722). New York: Harper & Brothers,
Publishers.