In Ezekiel 8:9, we find that sun worship had entered the ranks of the Israelites and caused them to turn their backs on the Lord. The text says, "And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east."

In various places Baal came to be identified with Helios (the sun), with Hercules, or with the chief Greek god, *Zeus (the Roman Jupiter).

When the Paul was returning from his 3rd Missionary Journey, probably in a.d. 58 (Acts 21:1). he came to the island of Rhodes. There, in its harbor, was the Colossus of Rhodes, a 100-ft. (c.30.5 m.) bronze statue of the sun-god Helios, or Apollo, which the Greeks counted among the Seven Wonders of the world. It was erected by Chares about the 280 B.C., and was thrown down by an earthquake in 224 B.C. In the 7th century A.D. it was sold by the conquering Saracens to a Jew, who reportedly had it hauled away by 900 camels  as piecemeal.