I rely here mainly upon John Day,
Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan.
1. Ba'al is a rider upon the clouds.
A common epithet for Ba'al is
rkb 'rpt ("rider of the clouds"), according to Day on page 91. Yahweh, too, apparently rides the clouds:
Psalm 68.33-34 (LXX 67.34-35): 33 To Him who rides upon the highest heavens, which are from ancient times, behold, He speaks forth with His voice, a mighty voice. 4 Ascribe strength to God; His majesty is over Israel and His strength is in the clouds [ἐν ταῖς νεφέλαις, בַּשְּׁחָקִֽים].
Psalm 104.3 (LXX 103.3): 3 He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind.
The one like a son of man in the book of Daniel also seems to be associated with the clouds:
Daniel 7.13-14: 13 “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. 14 And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
The synoptic apocalypse (Olivet Discourse) has the son of man, in a gospel context meaning Jesus, coming upon the clouds (Matthew 24.30), in clouds (Mark 13.26), or in a cloud (Luke 21.27). Revelation 1.7 says that Jesus is coming with the clouds.
2. Ba'al is a storm god.
Ba'al is described as having control over the clouds, winds, rains, and thunder:
Ba'al and Môt, Column 5, lines 6-7: And as for you, take your clouds, your winds, your thunder-bolts, your rains....
Yahweh likewise controls the elements of the storm:
Psalm 18.13 (LXX 17.14): Yahweh also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire.
Psalm 78.48 (LXX 77.48): He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones, And their herds to bolts of lightning.
Isaiah 28.2: Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent; As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction, Like a storm of mighty overflowing waters, He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.
John Day writes on pages 96-97:
I have pointed out a further striking parallel with Baal mythology that was previously unnoted. This is the sevenfold manifestation of the deity in the thunder, the qol yahweh (vv. 3a, 4a, 4b, 5, 7, 8, 9). In KTU2 1.101.3b-4 (Ugaritica, V, 3.3b-4), it is said of Baal:
- 3bSb't. brqm. [[.?]] Seven lightnings...
4tmnt. 'isr r't. 's. brq. y[ ] Eight storehouses of thunder. The shaft of lightning...
Now, the numerical sequence 7/8 is capable of meaning simply seven in Ugaritic, the second number having the nature of what has been called 'automatic parallelism'13 (cf. KTU2 1.6.V.8-9 and KTU2 1.19.1.42-44). It therefore seems that this is a reference to Baal's seven thunders as well as lightnings....
He compares these thunders to the sevenfold repetition of "the voice of the Lord" in Psalm 29, adding that...:
...the parallel to Psalm 29 [is] even closer when it is noted that in KTU2 1.101.1-3a, immediately before the reference to Baal's seven thunders and lightnings, we read of Baal's enthronement like the flood: b'l. ytb. ktbt. gr. hd. r[] kmdb. btk. grh. '// spn. b[tk] gr. tViyt, 'Baal sits enthroned, like the sitting of a mountain, Hadad [ ] like the flood, in the midst of his mountain, the god of Zaphon in the [midst of] the mountain of victory', just as Ps. 29.10 states, 'The Lord sits enthroned over the flood, the Lord sits enthroned as king for ever'. The fact that the seven thunders of Psalm 29 go back to Baal mythology means that they are an integral part of the original psalm....
Seven thunders show up in Revelation 10.3-4, as well. And Jesus calms a storm at sea in Matthew 8.23-27 = Mark 4.35-41 = Luke 8.22-25.
3. Ba'al is victorious over the dragon.
Day writes on pages 98-99:
The Old Testament contains a number of allusions to Yahweh's battle with a dragon and the sea. Sometimes this is associated with the time of the creation of the world, at other times the dragon or sea is historicized, alluding to a hostile nation or nations, and occasionally the imagery is eschatologized, referring to some hostile power at the end time.
....
In the Old Testament the dragon is sometimes called Leviathan, and he is said to have had more than one head (Ps. 74.14) and is referred to as a tannin 'dragon' and is described as a 'twisting serpent' (Isa. 27.1). In the Ugaritic texts we similarly read of a seven-headed dragon (tnri) called Itn, frequently vocalized by modern scholars as Lotan, but more probably Litan,19 and he is referred to as having been defeated by the god Baal (KTU2 1.5.1.1-3) as well as by the goddess Anat (KTL/2 1.3.III.40-42).
On pages 105-106 he adds:
In accordance with the Urzeit wird Endzeit principle, the divine conflict with the dragon and the sea becomes projected into the future in connection with the Eschaton. The earliest known example of this is in Isa. 27.1, where we read that 'On that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the twisting serpent, Leviathan the crooked serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea'. The language used of Leviathan here is remarkably similar to that employed almost a thousand years earlier in the Ugaritic Baal epic, where Mot says to Baal that 'you smote Leviathan the twisting serpent and made an end of the crooked serpent' (KTLf2 1.5.1.1-2), and elsewhere in the Ugaritic Baal epic Leviathan is called a dragon (tnn, KTlf1 1.3.III.40), just as in Isa. 27.1 (tannin). The Ugaritic parallel makes it clear that simply one dragon, not three, is being referred to in Isa. 27.1.
Here are a couple of the passages in question:
Psalm 74.14 (LXX 73.14): 14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
Isaiah 27.1: In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent with His fierce and great and mighty sword, even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.
John speaks of a seven-headed a dragon in Revelation 12.1-17, where it is Michael who is victorious.
4. Ba'al is victorious over the sea.
Day writes of Ba'al on page 99:
The Ugaritic texts only give brief allusions to the victory of Baal and Anat over Leviathan. On the other hand, we have a detailed account of the victory of Baal over Yam.
He writes of Yahweh on pages 99-100:
Quite a number of the references to God's conflict with the dragon and the sea at the time of creation occur in the Psalms. Both Psalms 74 (cf. vv. 12-17) and 89 (cf. vv. 10-15 [ET 9-14]) cite Yahweh's defeat of the dragon (Leviathan or Rahab) and the sea as grounds of hope in Yahweh's power in the exile when the temple and Davidic monarchy had come to an end and the powers of chaos appeared to have triumphed. Such use of the Chaoskampf motif implies that it was already well known in the pre-exilic period. Psalms which have this theme that are probably pre-exilic include Pss. 93.3-4, 65.7-8 (ET 6-7), 104.6-9, which set the conflict with the waters in the time of the creation of the world, and Ps. 29.3, 10, which associate it with Yahweh's continuing lordship over creation.
....
In addition to the Psalms another book which has a considerable number of references to God's conflict with the dragon and the sea is Job (Job 3.8, 7.12, 9.8, 13, 26.12-13, 38.8-11, 40.15-41.26 [ET 34]). In some of these passages the context of the conflict is clearly implied to be the creation of the world (Job 9.8, 13, 26.12-13, 38.8-11), and this is probably the case with the others too.
Jesus walks upon the sea in Matthew 14.22-33 = Mark 6.45-52 (John 6.16-21) in a scene reminiscent of Yahweh elsewhere:
Psalm 77.16-19 (LXX 76.17-20): 16 The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You, they were in anguish; the deeps also trembled. 17 The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth a sound; Your arrows flashed here and there. 18 The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; the lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook. 19 Your way was in the sea and Your paths in the mighty waters, and Your footprints may not be known.
Job 9.8: ... 8 Who alone stretches out the heavens and tramples down the waves of the sea.
Isaiah 43.16: 16 Thus says the LORD, Who makes a way through the sea And a path through the mighty waters....
Sirach 24.5: 5 Alone I have made the circuit of the vault of heaven and have walked in the depths of the abyss. [Wisdom is speaking here.]
And Revelation 21.1 affirms that there will be no more sea in the world to come.
5. Ba'al is a dying and rising god.
Day writes on pages 116-118:
I hope to demonstrate that the first clear reference to the literal resurrection of the dead in the Old Testament in Dan. 12.2 is a reinterpretation of the verse in Isa. 26.19 about resurrection, which, I shall argue, refers to restoration after exile, rather than literal life after death. Isaiah 26.19 in turn, I shall argue, is dependent on the death and resurrection imagery in the book of Hosea, especially on a reinterpretation of Hos. 13.14. Finally, the imagery of death and resurrection in Hosea (both in chs. 5-6 and 13-14), which likewise refers to Israel's exile and restoration, is directly taken over by the prophet from the imagery of the dying and rising fertility god, Baal.
That Baal was regarded as a dying and rising god cannot seriously be disputed. ....
Further evidence that Baal was a dying god is revealed by the reference in Zech. 12.11 to 'the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo', Hadad being another name for Baal.
Now, Day does not actually argue that Yahweh is also, like Ba'al, a dying and rising deity. But, given the many other similarities between the two storm gods, I have to wonder, especially in light of the following parallel:
Ba'al and Môt, Column 3, lines 18-21: Even I may sit down and be at ease, and (my) soul within me may take its ease; for mightiest Baal is alive, for the prince lord of earth exists.
Psalm 18.46 Masoretic (18.47 Masoretic, 17.47 LXX): Yahweh lives, and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of my salvation.
Ben.