El
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
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 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, and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High." (Gen. 14:19)
Soon after, Abraham swears 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)
In Genesis 22, Abraham planted a sacred tamarisk tree in Beersheba, calling upon the name of "El Olam," the Everlasting God. And 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" appears to Jacob and orders him and his clan to travel to the town of Luz and build an altar to commemorate God's appearance to him. Jacob complies, erecting an altar to "El," and renaming the town "Bethel" — 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.
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.
Psalm 82 presents a vision of God that may harken back to the age in which El was seen as the 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 as Ēl judging among the other gods.
Historically, as well as in the biblical narrative, Yahwhistic monotheism took root first in 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 split during the reign of Jeroboam I of Israel, Jeroboam stressed spiritual independence from Jerusalem by establishing two northern religious shrines, one at Bethel, the other 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/Yahweh as the chief diety — if not the only god — of Israel.
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'.
Ēl outside the Bible
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.
Lists of deities found at Ugarit begin with the four gods ’il-’ib, Ēl, Dagnu (or Dagon), and Ba’l Ṣapān (or Hadad). Ugarit had a large temple dedicated to Dagon and another to Hadad, but apparently no temple dedicated to Ēl.
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 qāniyunu ‘ôlam creator eternal (the epithet ‘ôlam appearing in Hebrew form in the Hebrew name of God ’ēl ‘ôlam 'God Eternal' in Genesis 21.23). He is called your patriarch, the grey-bearded ancient one, full of wisdom, malku 'king', ’abū šamīma 'father of years', ’ēl gibbōr 'Ēl the warrior'.
The mysterious Ugaritic text "Shachar and Shalim" tells how (perhaps near the beginning of all things) Ēl came to shores of the sea and saw two woman who bobbed up and down. Ēl was sexually aroused and took the two with him, killed a bird by throwing a staff at it and roasted it over a fire. He asked the women to tell him when the bird is fully cooked, and to then address him either as husband or as father, for he would thenceforward behave to them as they call him. They salute him as husband. He lies with them and they gave birth to Shachar 'Dawn' and Shalim 'Dusk'. Again Ēl lies with his wives and the wives give birth to the gracious gods, cleavers of the sea, children of the sea. The names of these wives are not explicitly provided, but some confusing rubrics at the beginning of the account mention the goddess Athirat who is otherwise Ēl's chief wife and the goddess Rahmay 'Merciful', otherwise unknown.
In the Ugaritic Ba‘al cycle Ēl is introduced 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 according to some interpretations of the text which may explain why he had no temple in Ugarit. As to the rivers and the spring of the two deeps, these might refer real streams, or to the mythological sources of the salt water ocean and the fresh water souces under the earth, or to the waters above the heavens and the waters beneath the earth.
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. Presumably these sons have been fathered on Athirat by Ēl in following passages they seem be the gods (’ilm) in general or at least a large portion of them. The only sons of Ēl named individually in the Ugaritic texts are Yamm 'Sea', Mot 'Death', and ‘Ashtar, who may be the chief and leader of most of the sons of Ēl. Ba‘al/Hadad is a few times called Ēl's son rather than the son of Dagan as he is normally called, probably because Ēl is in the position of a clan-father to all the gods.
The fragmentary text RS 24.258 describes a banquet to which Ēl invites the other gods and then disgraces himself by becoming outrageously drunk and passing out after confronting an otherwise unknown Hubbay, "he with the horns and tail". The text ends with an incanation for the cure of some disease, possibly hangover.
Ēl in the greater Levant
A proto-Sinaitic mine inscription from Mount Sinai reads ’ld‘lm understood to be vocalized as ’il dū ‘ôlmi, 'Ēl Eternal' or 'God Eternal'.
The Egyptian god Ptah is given the title dū gitti 'Lord of Gath' in a prism from Lachish which has on its opposite face the name of Amenhotep II (c. 1435–1420 B.C.E.) The title dū gitti is also found in Serābitṭ text 353. Cross (1973, p. 19) points out that Ptah is often called the lord (or one) of eternity and thinks it may be this identification of Ēl with Ptah that lead to the epithet ’olam 'eternal' being applied to Ēl so early and so consistently. (However in the Ugaritic texts Ptah is seemingly identified instead with the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis.)
A Phoenician inscribed amulet of the 7th century B.C.E. from Arslan Tash may refer to Ēl. Rosenthal (1969, p. 658) translated the text:
An eternal bond has been established for us. Ashshur has established (it) for us, and all the divine beings and the majority of the group of all the holy ones, through the bond of heaven and earth for ever, ...
However the text is translated by Cross (1973, p. 17):
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 some inscriptions the name ’Ēl qōne ’arṣ 'Ēl creator of Earth' appears, even including a late inscription at Leptis Magna in Tripolitania dating to 100s (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.
Ēl according to Sanchuniathon
In the euhemeristic account of Sanchuniathon Ēl (rendered Elus or called by his standard Greek counterpart Cronus) 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 'Most High'. Ēl is brother to the god Bethel, to Dagon, and to an unknown god equated with the Greek Atlas, and to the goddesses Aphrodite/’Ashtart, Rhea (presumably Asherah, and Dione (equated with Ba’alat Gebal. Ēl is father of Persephone who dies (presumably an otherwise unknown Semitic goddess of the dead) and of Athene (presumably the goddess ‘Anat). 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 until at last Ēl, son of Sky and Earth, with the advice of the god Thoth and Ēl's daughter Athene attacks his father Sky with a sickle and spear of iron and drives him off for ever. So he and his allies the Eloim gain Sky's kingdom. In a later passage it is explained that Ēl castrated Sky. But one of Sky's concubines who was given to Ēl's brother Dagon was already pregnant by Sky and the son who is born of this union, called by Sanchuniathon Demarûs or Zeus, but once called by him Adodus, is obviously 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 has three wives, his sisters or half-sisters Aphrodite/Astarte (‘Ashtart), Rhea (presumably Asherah, and Dione (identified by Sanchuniathon with Ba‘alat Gebal the tutelary goddess of Byblos, a city which Sanchuniathon says that Ēl founded.
Unfortunately Eusebius of Caesarea, through whom Sanchuniathon is preserved, is not interested in setting the work forth completely or in order. But we are told that Ēl slew his own son Sadidus (a name that some commentators think might be a corrupton of Shaddai, one of the epithets of the Biblical Ēl) and that Ēl also beheaded one of his daughters. Later, perhaps referring to this same death of Sadidus we are told:
But on the occurrence of a pestilence and mortality Cronus offers his only begotten son as a whole burnt-offering to his father Sky and circumcises himself, compelling his allies also to do the same.
A fuller account of the sacrifice appears later:
It was a custom of the ancients in great crises of danger for the rulers of a city or nation, in order to avert the common ruin, to give up the most beloved of their children for sacrifice as a ransom to the avenging daemons; and those who were thus given up were sacrificed with mystic rites. Cronus then, whom the Phoenicians call Elus, who was king of the country and subsequently, after his decease, was deified as the star Saturn, had by a nymph of the country named Anobret an only begotten son, whom they on this account called Iedud, the only begotten being still so called among the Phoenicians; and when very great dangers from war had beset the country, he arrayed his son in royal apparel, and prepared an altar, and sacrificed him.
The account also relates that Thoth:
... also devised for Cronus as insignia of royalty four eyes in front and behind ... but two of them quietly closed, and upon his shoulders four wings, two as spread for flying, and two as folded. And the symbol meant that Cronus could see when asleep, and sleep while waking: and similarly in the case of the wings, that he flew while at rest, and was at rest when flying. But to each of the other gods he gave two wings upon the shoulders, as meaning that they accompanied Cronus in his flight. And to Cronus himself again he gave two wings upon his head, one representing the all-ruling mind, and one sensation.
This is the form under which Ēl/Cronus appears on coins from Byblos from the reign of Antiochus IV (175–164 B.C.E.) four spread wings and two folded wings, leaning on a staff. Such images continued to appear on coins until after the time of Augustus.
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.
Ēl in Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Hittite texts
A proto-Sinaitic mine inscription from Mount Sinai reads ’ld‘lm understood to be vocalized as ’il dū ‘ôlmi, 'Ēl Eternal' or 'God Eternal'.
The Egyptian god Ptah is given the title dū gitti 'Lord of Gath' in a prism from Lachish which has on its opposite face the name of Amenhotep II (c. 1435–1420 B.C.E.) The title dū gitti is also found in Serābitṭ text 353. Cross (1973, p. 19) points out that Ptah is often called the lord (or one) of eternity and thinks it may be this identification of Ēl with Ptah that lead to the epithet ’olam 'eternal' being applied to Ēl so early and so consistently. (However in the Ugaritic texts Ptah is seemingly identified instead with the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis.)
A Phoenician inscribed amulet of the 7th century B.C.E. from Arslan Tash may refer to Ēl. Rosenthal (1969, p. 658) translated the text:
An eternal bond has been established for us. Ashshur has established (it) for us, and all the divine beings and the majority of the group of all the holy ones, through the bond of heaven and earth for ever, ...
However the text is translated by Cross (1973, p. 17):
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 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])
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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