'El Mar'', 1958

(also Il, uga, 𐎛𐎍 ''ʾīlu''; phn, 𐤀𐤋 ''ʾīl''; he, אֵל ''ʾēl''; syr, ܐܺܝܠ ''ʾīyl''; ar, إيل or ; cognate to akk, 𒀭, ilu) is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "god" or "deity", or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, ''ila'', represents the predicate form in Old Akkadian and in Amorite. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-, meaning "god".

Specific deities known as ''El'', ''Al'' or ''Il'' include the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Mesopotamia's Early Dynastic Period. Among the Hittites, El was known as Elkunirsa.

Linguistic forms and meanings

Cognate forms of ʼĒl are found throughout the Semitic languages. They include Ugaritic , pl. ; Phoenician pl. ; Hebrew , pl. ; Aramaic ; Akkadian , pl. .

In northwest Semitic use, ʼĒl was a generic word for any god as well as the special name or title of a particular god who was distinguished from other gods as being "the god". ʼĒl is listed at the head of many pantheons. In some Canaanite and Ugaritic sources, ʼĒl played a role as father of the gods, of creation, or both. Semitic civilizations referred to the god Saturn as “El”.

However, because the word ʼĒl sometimes refers to a god other than the great god ʼĒl, it is frequently ambiguous as to whether ʼĒl followed by another name means the great god ʼĒl with a particular epithet applied or refers to another god entirely. For example, in the Ugaritic texts, ''ʾil mlk'' is understood to mean "ʼĒl the King" but ''ʾil hd'' as "the god Hadad".

The Semitic root ''ʾlh'' (Arabic ', Aramaic ''ʾAlāh'', ''ʾElāh'', Hebrew ''ʾelōah'') may be ''ʾl'' with a parasitic h, and ''ʾl'' may be an abbreviated form of ''ʾlh''. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning "gods" is , equivalent to Hebrew "powers". In the Hebrew texts this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for "god" by biblical commentators. However the documentary hypothesis developed originally in the 1870s, identifies these that different authors – the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source – were responsible for editing stories from a polytheistic religion into those of a monotheistic religion. Inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis.

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

Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Hittite texts

The Egyptian god Ptah is given the title ''ḏū gitti'' 'Lord of Gath' in a prism from Tel Lachish which has on its opposite face the name of Amenhotep II (c. 1435–1420 BCE). The title ''ḏū 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 ʼĒl with Ptah that lead to the epithet ''olam'' 'eternal' being applied to ʼĒl so early and so consistently. (However, in the Ugaritic texts, Ptah is seemingly identified rather with the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis.) Yet another connection is seen with the Mandaean angel Ptahil, whose name combines both the terms Ptah and Il.

In an inscription in the Proto-Sinaitic script, William F. Albright transcribed the phrase ''ʾL Ḏ ʿLM'', which he translated as the appellation "El, (god) of eternity".

The name Raphael or Rapha-El, meaning 'God has healed' in Ugarit, is attested to in approximately 1350 BCE in one of the Amarna Letters EA333, found in Tell-el-Hesi from the ruler of Lachish to 'The Great One'

A Phoenician inscribed amulet of the seventh century BCE from Arslan Tash may refer to ʼĒl. The text was translated by Rosenthal (1969, p. 658) as follows:

However, Cross (1973, p. 17) translated the text as follows:

In some inscriptions, the name ''Ēl qōne 'arṣ'' ( Punic: 𐤀𐤋 𐤒𐤍 𐤀𐤓𐤑 ''ʾl qn ʾrṣ'') meaning "ʼĒl creator of Earth" appears, even including a late inscription at Leptis Magna in Tripolitania dating to the second century. 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 a Hurrian hymn to ʼĒl (published in ''Ugaritica V'', text RS 24.278), he is called ''il brt'' and ''il dn'', which Cross (p. 39) takes as 'ʼĒl of the covenant' and 'ʼĒl the judge' respectively.

Ugarit and the Levant

For the Canaanites and the ancient Levantine region as a whole, ʼĒl or ʼIl was the supreme god, the father of mankind and all creatures. He also fathered many gods, most importantly Baal, Yam, and Mot, each sharing similar attributes to the Greco-Roman gods: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades respectively.

As recorded on the clay tablets of Ugarit, El is the husband of the goddess Asherah.

Three pantheon lists found at Ugarit (modern — ar, رأس شمرا, rtl=yes, Syria) begin with the four gods ''il-'ib'' (which according to Cross; is the name of a generic kind of deity, perhaps the divine ancestor of the people), ʼĒl, Dagnu (that is Dagon), and Ba'l Ṣapān (that is the god Haddu or Hadad). Though Ugarit had a large temple dedicated to Dagon and another to Hadad, there was no temple dedicated to ʼĒl.

ʼĒl is called again and again ''Tôru ʼĒl'' ("Bull ʼĒl" 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 21.33. He is ''ḥātikuka'' ("your patriarch"). ʼĒl is the grey-bearded ancient one, full of wisdom, ''malku'' ("King"), ''abū šamīma'' ("Father of years"), ''El gibbōr'' ("ʼĒl the warrior"). He is also named ''lṭpn'' of unknown meaning, variously rendered as Latpan, Latipan, or Lutpani ("shroud-face" by ''Strong's Hebrew Concordance'').

"El" (Father of Heaven / Saturn) and his major son: "Hadad" (Father of Earth / Jupiter), are symbolized both by the bull, and both wear bull horns on their headdresses.

In Canaanite mythology, El builds a desert sanctuary with his children and his two wives, leading to speculation that at one point El was a desert god.

The mysterious Ugaritic text ''Shachar and Shalim'' tells how (perhaps near the beginning of all things) ʼĒl came to shores of the sea and saw two women who bobbed up and down. ʼĒl 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 was fully cooked, and to then address him either as husband or as father, for he would thenceforward behave to them as they called him. They saluted him as husband. He then lay with them, and they gave birth to ''Shachar'' ("Dawn") and ''Shalim'' ("Dusk"). Again ʼĒl lay with his wives and the wives gave 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 ʼĒl's chief wife, and the goddess Raḥmayyu ("the one of the womb"), otherwise unknown.

In the Ugaritic Ba'al cycle, ʼĒl 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 to real streams, or to the mythological sources of the salt water ocean and the fresh water sources 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 "seventy sons of Athirat" to a feast in his new palace. Presumably these sons have been fathered on Athirat by ʼĒl; in following passages they seem to be the gods (''ilm'') in general or at least a large portion of them. The only sons of ʼĒl 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 ʼĒl. Ba'al Hadad is a few times called ʼĒl's son rather than the son of Dagan as he is normally called, possibly because ʼĒl is in the position of a clan-father to all the gods.

The fragmentary text R.S. 24.258 describes a banquet to which ʼĒl 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 incantation for the cure of some disease, possibly hangover.

Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew form ( אל) appears in Latin letters in Standard Hebrew transcription as El and in Tiberian Hebrew transcription as ʾĒl. ''ʼĒl'' is a generic word for ''god'' that could be used for any god, including Hadad, Moloch, or Yahweh.

In the Tanakh