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<p>[QUOTE="Herodotus, post: 4635631, member: 111387"]Scholars have suggested that Melqart was also associated with Beelzebub or Ba'al Zebub(meaning 'Lord of the Flies') in early Abrahamic beliefs. </p><p><br /></p><p>Some suspect that the term 'Beelzebub' is a play on words of the original name: Ba'al Zebul(Meaning 'Lord of the Heavens').</p><p><br /></p><p>The thinking that Ba'al was dung and as such, his followers were akin to the flies attracted to the dung.</p><p><br /></p><p>What I find interesting (as it relates to coinage) was the role of the money-changers in the temple(referenced in the bible). Their function was to exchange the coinage of the pilgrims/tourists that were visiting with the reasoning that the iconography of the common Roman and Greek coinage was considered to be not suitable for religious purposes. Yet, the Tetradrachm(shekel) minted in Tyre was acceptable for temple purposes(despite its portrayal of Melqart).</p><p><br /></p><p>The real reason of course had nothing to do with religious reasoning, rather the Tyrian coinage was known to be much higher in silver content than its Roman/Greek counterparts at the time, and subsequently, was the preferred currency of choice.</p><p><br /></p><p>Religious taboos seem to be more easily overlooked where cold hard cash is concerned. </p><p><br /></p><p>It is referenced that these money-changers were notorious for ripping off these tourists exchanging their money, and perhaps this (along with them taking up space meant for worship) was the reasoning behind that one guy hailing from Nazareth smashing up their tables and purging them from the temple.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Herodotus, post: 4635631, member: 111387"]Scholars have suggested that Melqart was also associated with Beelzebub or Ba'al Zebub(meaning 'Lord of the Flies') in early Abrahamic beliefs. Some suspect that the term 'Beelzebub' is a play on words of the original name: Ba'al Zebul(Meaning 'Lord of the Heavens'). The thinking that Ba'al was dung and as such, his followers were akin to the flies attracted to the dung. What I find interesting (as it relates to coinage) was the role of the money-changers in the temple(referenced in the bible). Their function was to exchange the coinage of the pilgrims/tourists that were visiting with the reasoning that the iconography of the common Roman and Greek coinage was considered to be not suitable for religious purposes. Yet, the Tetradrachm(shekel) minted in Tyre was acceptable for temple purposes(despite its portrayal of Melqart). The real reason of course had nothing to do with religious reasoning, rather the Tyrian coinage was known to be much higher in silver content than its Roman/Greek counterparts at the time, and subsequently, was the preferred currency of choice. Religious taboos seem to be more easily overlooked where cold hard cash is concerned. It is referenced that these money-changers were notorious for ripping off these tourists exchanging their money, and perhaps this (along with them taking up space meant for worship) was the reasoning behind that one guy hailing from Nazareth smashing up their tables and purging them from the temple.[/QUOTE]
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