Hierombalus (Ίερομβάλος)nominative; sic Ίερομβάλου was a priest of Ieuo, mentioned in

Sanchuniathon Sanchuniathon (; Ancient Greek: ; probably from , " Sakkun has given"), variant ''šknytn'' also known as Sanchoniatho the Berytian, was a Phoenician author. His three works, originally written in the Phoenician language, survive only in partial ...

's mythistory, known only through later historian

Philo of Byblos Philo of Byblos (, ''Phílōn Býblios''; ; – 141), also known as Herennius Philon, was an antiquarian writer of grammatical, lexicon, lexical and historical works in Greek language, Greek. He is chiefly known for his Phoenician history ...

via early Christian writer

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

. Philo emphasizes the reliability of Sanchuniathon's historical account of the Jews by explaining that latter got his information from Hierombalus, who was a priest of the god Ieuo (Yahweh) and that Hierombalus dedicated his work to Abibalus, the king of

Berytus Berytus (; ; ; ; ), briefly known as Laodicea in Phoenicia (; ) or Laodicea in Canaan from the 2nd century to 64 BCE, was the ancient city of Beirut (in modern-day Lebanon) from the Roman Republic through the Roman Empire and late antiquity, Ear ...

, and was endorsed by the king's scholars. The name Hierombalus (or -os) has been equated with Jerubba'al/

Gideon Gideon (; ) also named Jerubbaal and Jerubbesheth, was a military leader, judge and prophet whose calling and victory over the Midianites is recounted in of the Book of Judges in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible. Gideon was th ...

, Hiram or Yerem-Ba'al, an equivalent of Jeremiah. Early commenters saw a problem with the

Ba'al Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord' in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods. Scholars previously associated the t ...

theophoric A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a god's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that de ...

name: "How can one imagine a priest of YHWH writing for the king of Beirut at the time of the Trojan War?" Baumgarten saw nothing preventing it.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{cite book , title=The Phoenician history , author=Philo of Byblos , via=Internet Archive , date=1981 , others=Introduction, Critical Text, Translation, Notes by Harold W. Attridge and Robert A. Oden, Jr. , url=https://archive.org/details/phoenicianhistor0009phil/mode/2up , publisher=The Catholic Biblical Association of America , location=Washington , isbn=0-915170-08-6 Jewish priests