El

File:Abram-melchizedek.jpg

Melchizek blesses Abraham in the name of Elyon El, "God Most High."

Ēl (אל) is a northwest Semitic word and name translated into English as either 'god' or 'God.' The Canaanite El was the supreme deity, the father mankind and all creatures, the husband of the goddess Asherah, and the parent of many other gods. In the Bible, El was the deity worshipped by the Hebrew patriarchs. Later, to Moses, this "El" revealed his true name, Yahweh. The semantic root of the Islamic word "Allah" is related to the semitic word El.

The word El appears in Assyrian and Pheonician as an ordinary name of God. As an element in proper names, it is found in anient Aramaic, Arabic, and Ethiopic dialects, as well as Hebrew. Biblical examples of its use include: El (God), Elohim (God[s]), El Elyon ("most high God"), El Shaddai ("God Almighty"), El Olam ("everlasting God"), El Hai ("living God"), El Ro'i ("God of seeing"), El Elohe Israel ("God, the God of Israel"), El Gibbor ("Hero God"). El and Elohim are normally translated as "God," while Yahweh is translated as "The Lord."

The theological position of Jews and Christians is that the names Ēl and ’Ĕlōhîm, when used to mean the supreme God, refer to the same being as Yahweh — the one supreme deity who is also the God of Israel. Whether or not this was the original belief of the earliest biblical writers is a subject of much debate. Many modern scholars have concluded that the Hebrew tribes, just as their Canaanite neighbors, were originally polytheistic, only gradually coming to identify Yahweh with El, and even later coming to accept the idea of monothesism.

Ēl in the Bible

The Patriarchs and El

In Exodus 6.2–3, Yahweh states:

I revealed myself to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as Ēl Shaddāi, but was not known to them by my name Yahweh.

Genesis indicates that not only the Hebrew patriarchs, but also their neighbors in Canaan, worshipped God as El. For example, the king of the town of Salem (the future Jerusalem) greeted and blessed Abraham in the name of the "God Most High" — Elyon El in Hebrew:

Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High [Elyon El], and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High." (Gen. 14:19)

Soon after this, Abraham swore an oath to the king of Sodom in the name of Elyon El, identifying him as "The Creator of Heaven and earth." (Gen. 14:22) Later, when God established the covenant of circumcision with Abraham, he identified himself as El Shaddai — God Almighty. (Gen. 17:1) It is also El Shaddai who blessed Jacob and told him to change his name to "Isra-el" (Gen. 35:10-11). And it is in El Shaddai's name that Jacob conferred his own blessing to his sons, the future patriarchs of the Tribes of Israel, describeing El Shaddai as:

...your father's God, who helps you... the Almighty [Shaddai], who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb. (Gen. 49:25)

In Genesis 22, Abraham planted a sacred tamarisk tree in Beersheba, calling upon the name of "El Olam," the Everlasting God. At Shechem, he established an altar in the name of "El Elohe Israel" — God, the God of Israel. (Gen. 33:20)

Finally, in Genesis 35, "Elohim" appeared to Jacob and ordered him and his clan to travel to the town of Luz, there to build an altar to commemorate God's appearance. Jacob complied, erecting an altar to "El," and renaming the town "Beth-el" — the house, or place, of El.

Debate over Origins

While the traditional view is that El later revealed himself to Moses as Yahweh, some scholars believe that Yahweh was originally one of many gods — or perhaps the god of one particular Israelite tribe — and was not necessarily identified with Ēl at first. They cite as evidence the fact that in some biblical verses, Yahweh is clearly envisioned as a storm god, something not true of Ēl so far as is known.

The voice of the Lord [Yahweh) is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters...The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. (Psalm 29:3-7)

Complicating the debate is the fact that parts of Genesis contradict the story in Exodus, indicating instead that the patriarchs indeed "called upon the name of the Lord" long before God supposedly revealed it for the first time to Moses. It is also debated whether such names as Ēl Shaddāi, Ēl ‘Ôlām, and Ēl ‘Elyôn were originally understood as one God with different titles or as separate local divinities.

Various forms of El

The plural form ’Ēlim (gods) occurs only four times in the Bible. Psalm 29 begins: "Ascribe to Yahweh, sons of gods (bənê ’Ēlîm)." Psalm 89:6 has: "For who in the skies compares to Yahweh, who can be likened to Yahweh among the sons of gods (bənê ’Ēlîm)." One of the other two occurrences is in the "Song of Moses", Exodus 15:11: "Who is like you among the gods (’ēlim), Yahweh?" The final occurrence is in Daniel 11.35: "And the king will do according to his pleasure; and he will exalt himself and magnify himself over every god (’ēl), and against the God of gods (’ēl ’ēlîm)."

Another plural form, Elohim, was the normal word for both for the God of the Hebrews and the gods of the Canaanites. Elohim — translated "God" —appears in the Hebrew Bible more frequently than any word for God except Yahweh. The singular form ’ēl also appears frequently — 217 times in the Masoretic (Hebrew) text: including 73 times in the Psalms and 55 times in the Book of Job. The word Shaddai is also used independently as a name of God, chiefly in the Book of Job. It is commonly rendered "the Almighty." The name 'Elyon occurs with El, with Yhwh, with Elohim, and also alone, chiefly in poetic passages.

There are also places where the word ’ēl (god) is use to refer to a deity other than the God Israel, especially when it is modified by the word "foreign," such as in Psalms 44:20 and 81:9, Deuteronomy 32:12, and Malachi 2:11.

Finally, archaelogists note that the form ’ēl appears in Israelite personal names from every period in which records survive, including the name Yiśrā’ēl 'Israel', meaning 'ēl strives' or 'God strives'.

The Council of El

Psalm 82 presents a vision of God that may harken back to the age in which El was seen as Israel's chief diety, rather than as the only God:

’elōhîm ('God') stands in the council of ’ēl
he judges among the gods (elohim). (Psalm 82:1)

In context, this appears to signify that God stands in the divine council the supreme deity, judging the other gods. He goes on to pronounce that although they are "sons of god" (bene elohim) these beings shall no longer be immortal, but shall die, as humans do.

I said, 'You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.' But you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler." (Ps. 82:6-7)

The passage thus could mark a point in which from the earlier polytheistic tradition of Israel was giving way to a monotheistic tradition in which God no longer co-existed with other lesser deities. Defenders of strict biblical monotheism, however, insist that Psalm 82 does not refer to a literal council of "the gods," but to a council in which God judged either the fallen angels or human beings who had put themselves in the position of God.

Another version of the heavenly council appears in I Kings 22, in which Yahweh is the supreme Lord, and his council consists of himself and the "hosts of heaven":

I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the Lord said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?' (I Kings 22:19-20)

By the time of the Book of Job, the Hebrew concept of the heavenly council had evolved from the more primitive version expressed in Psalm 82 to one in which "the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them." (Job 1:6)

Northern El versus Southern Yahweh?

File:Jeroboal-bull.jpg

Jeroboam's bull-calf statue at Bethel: "Here is Elohim."

Historically, as well as in the biblical narrative, Yahwhistic monotheism took root first in the southern kingdom of Judah, and the Temple of Jerusalem was its center. According the documentary hypothesis, various strands in the Pentateuach — the first five books of the Bible — reflect the theological views of several different authors. The verses that use "El" are normally thought to represent a tradition characteristic of the northern tribes, while the verses that speak of Yahweh come from a southern tradition.

The north/south theological split is also refered to directly in the Bible itself. When Israel and Judah went their separate ways during the reign of Jeroboam I of Israel, Jeroboam stressed his kingdom's spiritual independence from Judah by establishing two northern religious shrines, one just north of Jerusalem at Bethel, the other further north in Dan. He is recorded as announcing:

"It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here is Elohim, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." (1 Kings 12:28)

English translations usually render "elohim" in this case as "gods," but it is more likely "God." Since El was often associated with a sacred bull (see below), it is also likely that the golden bull-calf statues erected at these shrines represented an affirmation of El (or Yahweh/El) as the chief diety — if not the only god — of Israel.

Ēl outside the Bible

Canaanite Literature

El was found at the top of a list of gods in the ruins of the Royal Library of the Ebla civilization in Syria, dated to 2300 B.CE.. For the Canaanites, El or Il was the supreme god and the father of mankind, although a distant and somewhat aloof one. He may have been a desert god originally, as the myths say that he built a sanctuary in the desert for himself, his wives and their children. El fathered many gods, the most important being Hadad, Yaw and Mot, sharing similar attributes to the Roman-Greco gods: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades respectively.

In ancient Canaanite inscriptions, Ēl is often called Tôru ‘Ēl (Bull Ēl or 'the bull god'). He is bātnyu binwāti (Creator of creatures), ’abū banī ’ili (father of the gods), and ‘abū ‘adami (father of man). He is called qāniyunu ‘ôlam (creator eternal), as well as your patriarch, the grey-bearded ancient one, full of wisdom, king, father of years, and Ēl the warrior.

In the Ugaritic Ba‘al cycle, Ēl is introduced as dwelling on (or in) Mount Lel (Lel possibly meaning 'Night') at the fountains of the two rivers at the spring of the two deeps. He dwells in a tent, as did Yahweh in pre-monarchical Israel, which may explain why he had no temple in Ugarit.

Specifically named as sons of Ēl in the Ugaritic texts are Yamm (Sea), Mot (Death), Ashtar and Ba‘al/Hadad. The latter, however, is often identified as in the lineage of Dagan, with Ēl is in the position of a distant clan-father or grandfather to all the gods. In the episode of the "Palace of Ba‘al", the god Ba‘al/Hadad invites the "70 sons of Athirat" to a feast in his new palace. These sons of the goddess Athirat are thought to be fathered by Ēl.

In the wider Levantine region, the following probably references to El have been discovered by archaeologists:

• An ancient mine inscription from the area of Mount Sinai reads ’ld‘lm — interpreted as to 'Ēl Eternal' or 'God Eternal'.

• A Phoenician inscribed amulet of the 7th century B.C.E. has been interpreted as reading:

The Eternal One (‘Olam) has made a covenant oath with us,

Asherah has made (a pact) with us.
And all the sons of El,
And the great council of all the Holy Ones.

With oaths of Heaven and Ancient Earth.

• In several inscriptions, the title 'Ēl creator of Earth' appears. In Hittite texts, this expression becomes the single name Ilkunirsa, a title aslo given to the divine husband of Asherdu/Asherah and father of (variously) 77 or 88 sons.

• In a Hurrian hymn to Ēl the deity is called ’il brt and ’il dn which Cross (p. 39) takes as 'Ēl of the covenant' and 'Ēl the judge' respectively.

See Ba‘al Hammon for the possibility that Ēl was identical with Ba‘al Hammon who was worshipped as the supreme god in Carthage.

In some inscriptions the name ’Ēl qōne ’arṣ 'Ēl creator of Earth' appears, even including a late inscription at Leptis Magna in Tripolitania dating to 2nd century (KAI. 129). In Hittite texts the expression becomes the single name Ilkunirsa, this Ilkunirsa appearing as the husband of Asherdu (Asherah) and father of 77 or 88 sons.

In an Hurrian hymn to Ēl (published in Ugaritica V, text RS 24.278) he is called ’il brt and ’il dn which Cross (p. 39) takes as 'Ēl of the covenant' and 'Ēl the judge' respectively.

See Ba‘al Hammon for the possibility that Ēl was identical with Ba‘al Hammon who was worshipped as the supreme god in Carthage.

Some Muslim scholars contend that El should be pronounced 'AL' since the first letter of El is 'alef, which is pronounced A always. Unless there is a hidden vowel after it is E, like in when Hebrew Elohim means Gods or a God. Some Muslim scholars assert that the second letter could be pronounced double L, and that all semitic civilizations never wrote vowels and then the A after L is also not pronounced. Also the H in Allah is not written at the end of words in Arabic and Hebrew. They contend thus that the word EL found in Antiquity as far as Ebla civilization ( destroyed in 2300 B.C.E.) is actually non other than Allah when pronounced according to the tradition of Semitic languages as explained. They bring a proof that the mail sent by Muhammad to Caesar (?) and other kings had the word Allah written as AL only. Such letters are available to view on the internet.^{[citation needed]})

Sanchuniathon's Account

The writings of the legendary Phoenician writer Sanchuniathon, partially preserved by the early church historian Eusebius of Caesaria, provide a fascinating account of the way in which the El of Canaanite mytholgy relates to later Greek myths. Here, Ēl is called both by the name Elus and its Greek equivalent of Cronus. However, he is not the creator god or first god. Ēl is rather the son of Sky and Earth. Sky and Earth are themselves children of ‘Elyôn — the "Most High." Ēl is brother to the god Bethel, to Dagon, to an unknown god similar to the Greek Atlas, and to the goddesses Aphrodite/Astarte, Rhea/Asherah, and Dione/Ba’alat Gebal. Ēl is father of Persephone, and of Athene.

Sky and Earth have separated from one another in hostility, but Sky insists on continuing to force himself on Earth and attempts to destroy the children born of such unions. Ēl, the son of Sky and Earth, with the advice of Thoth and Ēl's own daughter Athene, attacks his father Sky with a sickle and spear of iron and drives him off for ever. In this way, El and his allies, the Eloim gain Sky's kingdom. In a later passage it is explained that Ēl castrated Sky. However, one of Sky's concubines, who was given to Ēl's brother Dagon, was already pregnant by Sky. The son who is born of this union, called by Sanchuniathon Demarûs or Zeus, is markedly similar to Hadad, the "Ba‘al" of the Ugaritic texts, who now becomes an ally of his grandfather Sky and begins to make war on Ēl.

Ēl had three wives, his sisters or half-sisters Aphrodite/Astarte, Rhea/Asherah, and Dione. The latter is identified by Sanchuniathon with Ba‘alat Gebal the tutelary goddess of Byblos, a city which Sanchuniathon says that Ēl founded.

Ēl and Poseidon

A bilingual inscription from Palmyra (KAI. 11, p. 43) dated to the 1st century equates Ēl-Creator-of-the-Earth with the Greek god Poseidon. Going back to the 9th century B.C.E. the bilingual inscription at Karatepe in the Taurus Mountains equates Ēl-Creator-of-the-Earth to Luwian hieroglyphs read as ^da-a-ś, this being the Luwian form of the name of the Babylonian water god Ea, lord of the abyss of water under the earth. (This inscription lists Ēl in second place in the local pantheon, following Ba‘al Shamim and preceding the Eternal Sun.

Poseidon is known to have been worshipped in Beirut, his image appearing on coins from that city. Poseidon of Beirut was also worshipped at Delos where there was an association of merchants, shipmasters and warehousmen called the Poseidoniastae of Berytus founded in 110 or 109 B.C.E. Three of the four chapels at its headquarters on the hill northwest of the Sacred Lake were dedicated to Poseidon, the Tyche of the city equated with Astarte (that is ‘Ashtart), and to Eshmun.

Also at Delos that association of Tyrians, though mostly devoted to Heracles-Melqart, elected a member to bear a crown every year when sacrifices to Poseidon took place. A banker name Philostratus donated two altars, one to Palaistine Aphrodite Urania (‘Ashtart) and one to Poseidon "of Ascalon".

Though Sanchuniathon distinguises Poseidon from his Elus/Cronus, this might be a splitting off of a particular aspect of Ēl in an euhemeristic account. Identification of an aspect of Ēl with Poseidon rather than with Cronus might have been felt to better fit with Hellenistic religious practice, if indeed this Phoenician Poseidon really is Ēl who dwells at the source of the two deeps in Ugaritic texts. More information is needed to be certain.

Linguistic forms and meanings

Cognate forms are found throughout the Semitic languages with the exception of the ancient Ge'ez language of Ethiopia. Forms include Ugaritic ’il, pl. ’lm; Phoenician ’l pl. ’lm, Hebrew ’ēl, pl. ’⁏lîm; Aramaic ’l, Arabic Al; Akkadian ilu, pl. ilāti. The original meaning may have been 'strength, power'. In northwest Semitic usage ’l was both a generic word of any 'god' and the special name or title of a particular god who was distinguished from other gods as being the god, or even in our modern sense God. Ēl is listed at the head of many pantheons. El was the father god among the canaanites. But because the word sometimes refers to a god other than the great god Ēl it is often difficult to be certain whether Ēl followed by another name means the great god Ēl with a particular epithet applied or refers to another god entirely. For example, in the Ugaritic texts ’il mlk is understood to mean 'Ēl the King' but ’il hd means 'the god Hadad'. We know this only from context.

In Ugaritic an alternate plural form meaning 'gods' is ’ilhm, equivalent to Hebrew ’^elōhîm 'gods'. But in Hebrew this word is also used for singular 'God' or 'god', is indeed by the most normal word for 'god' or 'God' in the singular (as well as for 'gods').

The stem ’l is found prominently in the earliest strata of east Semitic, northwest Semitic and south Semitic groups. Personal names including the stem ’l are found with similar patterns both in Amorite and South Arabic which indicates that probably already in Proto-Semitic ’l was both a generic term for 'god' and the common name or title of a single particular 'god' or 'God'.

References and external links

• Bruneau, P. (1970). Recherches sur les cultes de Délos à l'époque hellénistique et à l'époque imperiale. Paris: E. de Broccard.
• Cross, Frank Moore (1973). Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674091760.
• Rosenthal, Franz (1969). "The Amulet from Arslan Tash". Trans. in Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 3rd ed. with Supplement, p. 658. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691035032.
• Teixidor, James (1977). The Pagan God Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691072205
• Bartleby: American Heritage Dictionary: Semitic Roots: ʾl
• The Divine Council: "Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God", by Michael S. Heiser (PDF.)
• The tablets of Pyrgi
• The Rise of God
• Biblaridion magazine: Bene-ha-elohim: Deuteronomistic theology as an interpretive model for the ‘Sons of God’ in Genesis 6:1-4

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