Myth, Power, and the Architecture of Modern Conspiracy: The Baal Cult Allegations and the Epstein Files

Abstract

The 2025 release of court documents connected to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein included a wire transfer label reading “Baal name”—a typographical anomaly that ignited viral claims connecting Epstein’s network to an ancient Canaanite child-sacrifice cult. This paper examines how a probable transcription error migrated into a conspiracy narrative accumulating tens of millions of platform views, and why this narrative persists despite overwhelming archaeological and historical evidence to the contrary. Drawing on the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Carthaginian tophet archaeology, and Khazar historiography, the analysis demonstrates that the alleged continuity between Bronze Age religious practice and Epstein’s crimes is historically impossible. It further argues that the Khazarian hypothesis functions as an antisemitic framework that redirects legitimate public anger about documented elite impunity toward mythologically inexhaustible and legally unactionable targets. The paper concludes by examining how engagement-driven recommendation systems structurally reward emotionally intense content regardless of evidential validity, and proposes that archaeologists, journalists, and policymakers bear a professional responsibility to counter such misappropriation with accessible, evidence-based public communication.