Beliar

Other Names / Variants:	Beliel - yet another variant of Ba'al
Meaning of Name:	"Worthless"

Beliar - Interchangeable, in most sources, with Beliel. Beliar is mentioned in Deuteronomy, Judges, and I Samuel, always as evil, its symbol or personification. In apocryphal writings Beliar is the prince of darkness, supreme adversary of God. In The Martyrdom of Isaiah he is the angel of lawlessness. In The Gospel of Bartholomew, Bartholomew asks Beliar to tell who he is, and Beliar answers: "At first I was called Satanel, which is interpreted as messenger of God, but when I rejected the image of God my name was called Satanas, that is, an angel that keepeth Hell (Tartarus)...I was formed the first angel.....Michael second, Gabriel third, Uriel fourth, Raphael fifth, Gabriel sixth....These are the angels of vengeance that were first formed." [Rf. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 175] In Waite, The Lemegeton, Beliar is said to have been created "next after Lucifer." As a fallen angel Beliar boasts that he "fell first among the worthier sort." According to the Schoolmen, Beliar was once partly of the order of angels and partly of the order of virtues. However, Glasson, Greek Influence in Jewish Eschatology, argues that Beliar was never an angel and compares him with Ahriman, chief devil in Persian mythology, who was "independent of God and God's opposite equal." The tradition that Beliar is Hell's primate is carried on in the work of two modern writers, Thomas Mann and Aldous Huxley, both of whom regard Beliar as the exemplar and epitome of evil. (a)