BEL, or Belus, the supreme god of the ancient Chaldeans or Babylonians. He was the reputed founder of the Babylonian empire, and is supposed to be the Nimrod of Scripture, as well as identical with the Phœnician Baal. He had a temple erected to him in the city of Babylon, on the uppermost range of the famous tower of Babel, in which there were many statues of the god, including one of massive gold forty feet in height. This temple, with its riches, was in existence till the time of Xerxes; but the Persian monarch, on his return from his unfortunate expedition into Greece, demolished it, and carried off the immense wealth which it contained. It was the statue of this god which Nebuchadnezzar set up and dedicated in the plain of Dura, on his return from the Jewish war.
BEL and the Dragon, the history of, an apocryphal book of Scripture. This book has always been rejected by the Jewish church, and it is not extant either in the Hebrew or in the Chaldaic language, nor indeed is there any proof that it ever was; and hence St Jerome calls it the Fable of Bel and the Dragon.