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Bael vs Beelzebub

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Frequently conflated, though the Goetia lists them as distinct.

Demonic · Goetic Spirit · c. 400 BCE

Bael

also called Baël, Baal

First of the seventy-two and, by the Goetia's own account, chief among them — a three-headed thing on spider's legs, ruling in the east and granting invisibility. The name is the Canaanite storm god Baal, three thousand years and one demotion later.

Alignment
Infernal
Rank
King
First attested
Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon · c. 900–100 BCE
Named there as
Baal
Texts naming it
4
Powers attributed
2
66attestedSolomonicFolk & Demonological

Demonic · Infernal Court · c. 400 BCE

Beelzebub

also called Baalzebub, Beelzebul, Lord of the Flies, Baal-Zebul, Ba'al Zəbûb, Baal Zebub, Ba'al Zəbûl, Baal muian, Beelzeboul, Baʿl-zabūl, Baʿal Zəvûv, Baal Zebul, Ba'al Zebul, בַּעַל זְבוּב

'Lord of the Flies' — a Philistine god of Ekron whose name was almost certainly deformed as a Hebrew insult, then inherited by Christian demonology as the second power of hell.

Alignment
Infernal
Rank
Prince
First attested
Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon · c. 900–100 BCE
Named there as
Baal-zebub
Texts naming it
6
Powers attributed
5
100attestedChristianJewishSolomonicFolk & Demonological

Where do they actually overlap?

Texts naming both

Powers credited to both

Commands Legions

Common questions

Are Bael and Beelzebub the same figure?

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Frequently conflated, though the Goetia lists them as distinct. ColossiansOne records the link rather than asserting the identity: where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is what gets shown.

Which is older, Bael or Beelzebub?

Both are first attested in the same period, around c. 400 BCE.

Do any texts name both Bael and Beelzebub?

Yes — 2 texts name both. A single text naming both figures is the strongest evidence available here that its author treated them as distinct, whatever later writers did with the pair.
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