Beelzebub, which means fly Lord , or Lord of the fly , was the name of a famous god of Ekron, as referred to in IV Kings 1 . Some authors believed that the Jews gave him this name out of derision, because in the temple of Jerusalem no flies were seen on victims. Scaliger is of this opinion. But it is much more probable that people of Ekron themselves had given this name to their god; this can be proved through the words of Ochosias, who was sent to consult this god beelzebub ; there is no evidence that he would have wanted to consult a god he mocked. Maldonet is of the latter belief, in his commentary on Matthew 10. This idol was therefore called the fly Lord or Lord of the fly because one invoked it against flies. Those from Arcadia offered sacrifices every year to a similar god called Myagros . The Jews, who were horrified by this idol, would call it the devil beelzebub ; one reads nevertheless in most Greek versions of the New Testament beelzebul , or god of excrement , which the Jews would have been able to derive from the word beelzebub , out of scorn for this idol, as noted in the previous article. Therefore one should be able to read beelzebub in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament; and beelzebul is an old error of Greek copyists. See Baal.