(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 A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

", 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 Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied lar ...

. 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 The Canaanite religion was the group of ancient Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from at least the early Bronze Age through the first centuries AD. Canaanite religion was polytheistic and, in some cases ...

and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Mesopotamia's Early Dynastic Period. Among the

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...

, El was known as Elkunirsa.

Linguistic forms and meanings

Cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...

forms of ʼĒl are found throughout the

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...

. They include Ugaritic , pl. ; Phoenician pl. ;

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, pl. ;

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

;

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...

, 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 Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

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 Hadad ( uga, ), Haddad, Adad (Akkadian: 𒀭𒅎 '' DIM'', pronounced as ''Adād''), or Iškur ( Sumerian) was the storm and rain god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions. He was attested in Ebla as "Hadda" in c. 2500 BCE. ...

". The Semitic root ''ʾlh'' (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

', 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 The documentary hypothesis (DH) is one of the models used by biblical scholars to explain the origins and composition of the Torah (or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). A vers ...

developed originally in the 1870s, identifies these that different authors – the

Jahwist The Jahwist, or Yahwist, often abbreviated J, is one of the most widely recognized sources of the Pentateuch (Torah), together with the Deuteronomist, the Priestly source and the Elohist. The existence of the Jahwist is somewhat controversial, ...

Elohist According to the documentary hypothesis, the Elohist (or simply E) is one of four source documents underlying the Torah,McDermott, John J., ''Reading the Pentateuch: A Historical Introduction'' (Pauline Press, 2002) p. 21. Via Books.google.com.a ...

Deuteronomist The Deuteronomist, abbreviated as either Dtr or simply D, may refer either to the source document underlying the core chapters (12–26) of the Book of Deuteronomy, or to the broader "school" that produced all of Deuteronomy as well as the Deutero ...

, and the

Priestly source The Priestly source (or simply P) is perhaps the most widely recognized of the sources underlying the Torah. It is both stylistically and theologically distinct from other material in the Torah, and includes a set of claims that are contradicted b ...

– 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

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 In Mandaeism, Ptahil ( myz, ࡐࡕࡀࡄࡉࡋ) also known as Ptahil-Uthra (uthra = angel or guardian), is the Fourth Life, the third of three emanations from the First Life, Hayyi Rabbi, after Yushamin and Abatur. Ptahil-Uthra alone does not con ...

, whose name combines both the terms Ptah and Il. In an inscription in the

Proto-Sinaitic script Proto-Sinaitic (also referred to as Sinaitic, Proto-Canaanite when found in Canaan, the North Semitic alphabet, or Early Alphabetic) is considered the earliest trace of alphabetic writing and the common ancestor of both the Ancient South Arabian ...

William F. Albright William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891– September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars." ...

transcribed the phrase ''ʾL Ḏ ʿLM'', which he translated as the appellation "El, (god) of eternity". The name

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

or Rapha-El, meaning 'God has healed' in Ugarit, is attested to in approximately 1350 BCE in one of the

Amarna Letters The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, for "El Amarna") are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between t ...

EA333, found in

Tell-el-Hesi Tell el-Hesi ( he, תל חסי), or Tell el-Hesy, is a 25-acre archaeological site in Israel. It was the first major site excavated in Palestine, first by Flinders Petrie in 1890 and later by Frederick Jones Bliss in 1891 and 1892, both sponsored b ...

from the ruler of Lachish to 'The Great One' A

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

n 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 Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by other names Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent fil ...

Tripolitania Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

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 {{Cat main, Canaan See also: * :Ancient Israel and Judah Ancient Levant Hebrew Bible nations Ancient Lebanon 0050 Ancient Syria Wikipedia categories named after regions 0050 Phoenicia Amarna Age civilizations ...

and the ancient

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

ine 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 Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during Ancient Near East, antiquity. From its use among people, it cam ...

, Yam, and

Mot Mot or MOT may refer to: Media * Ministry of Truth, the propaganda ministry in George Orwell 1949 novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' * ''mot'' (magazine), former German car magazine * Mot (Star Trek), a minor character in ''Star Trek: The Next Gene ...

, each sharing similar attributes to the Greco-Roman gods:

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D� ...

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ch ...

, and

Hades Hades (; grc-gre, ᾍδης, Háidēs; ), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also ...

respectively. As recorded on the

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...

s of

Ugarit ) , image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg , image_size=300 , alt = , caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit , map_type = Near East#Syria , map_alt = , map_size = 300 , relief=yes , location = Latakia Governorate, Syria , region = F ...

, El is the husband of the goddess Asherah. Three pantheon lists found at

(modern — ar, رأس شمرا, rtl=yes,

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

) 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 Dagon ( he, דָּגוֹן, ''Dāgōn'') or Dagan ( sux, 2= dda-gan, ; phn, 𐤃𐤂𐤍, Dāgān) was a god worshipped in ancient Syria across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many attes ...

), and Ba'l Ṣapān (that is the god Haddu or

). 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 Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

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 The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

and saw two women who bobbed up and down. ʼĒl was sexually aroused and took the two with him, killed a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

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 Asherah (; he, אֲשֵׁרָה, translit=Ăšērā; uga, 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚, translit=ʾAṯiratu; akk, 𒀀𒅆𒋥, translit=Aširat; Qatabanian: ') in ancient Semitic religion, is a fertility goddess who appears in a number of ancient so ...

, 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

form ( אל) appears in Latin letters in

Standard Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved t ...

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

Moloch Moloch (; ''Mōleḵ'' or הַמֹּלֶךְ‎ ''hamMōleḵ''; grc, Μόλοχ, la, Moloch; also Molech or Molek) is a name or a term which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly co ...

, or

Yahweh Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he posse ...

. In the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''

'^elōhîm'' is the normal word for a god or the great God (or gods, given that the 'im' suffix makes a word plural in Hebrew). But the form ''El'' also appears, mostly in poetic passages and in the patriarchal narratives attributed to the

of the

. It occurs 217 times in the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

: seventy-three times in the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

and fifty-five times in the

Book of Job The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars ar ...

, and otherwise mostly in poetic passages or passages written in elevated prose. It occasionally appears with the definite article as ''hā'Ēl'' 'the god' (for example in ). The theological position of the Tanakh is that the names ''ʼĒl'' and ''Ĕlōhîm'', when used in the singular to mean the supreme god, refer to Yahweh, beside whom other gods are supposed to be either nonexistent or insignificant. Whether this was a long-standing belief or a relatively new one has long been the subject of inconclusive scholarly debate about the prehistory of the sources of the Tanakh and about the prehistory of Israelite religion. In the P strand, may be translated:

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

However, it is said in that

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...

accepted the blessing of El, when

Melchizedek In the Bible, Melchizedek (, hbo, , malkī-ṣeḏeq, "king of righteousness" or "my king is righteousness"), also transliterated Melchisedech or Malki Tzedek, was the king of Salem and priest of (often translated as "most high God"). He is f ...

, the king of

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada Ontario * Bruce County ** Salem, Arran–Elderslie, Ontario, in the municipality of Arran–Elderslie ** Salem, South Bruce, Ontario, in the municipality of South Bruce * Salem, Dufferin County, Ontario, part ...

and high priest of its deity

El Elyon Elyon ( he, ''ʿElyōn'') is an epithet of the God of the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible. ' is usually rendered in English as "God Most High", and similarly in the Septuagint as ("God the highest"). The term also has mundane uses, such as " ...

blessed him. One scholarly position is that the identification of Yahweh with ʼĒl is late, that Yahweh was earlier thought of as only one of many gods, and not normally identified with ʼĒl. Another is that in much of the Hebrew Bible the name El is an alternative name for Yahweh, but in the

and Priestly traditions it is considered an earlier name than Yahweh. Mark Smith has argued that Yahweh and El were originally separate, but were considered synonymous from very early on. The name Yahweh is used in the Bible Tanakh in the first book of ; and says that at that time, people began to "call upon the name of the LORD". In some places, especially in , Yahweh is clearly envisioned as a storm god, something not true of ʼĒl so far as we know (although true of his son, Ba'al Haddad). It is Yahweh who is prophesied to one day battle Leviathan the serpent, and slay the dragon in the sea in . The slaying of the serpent in myth is a deed attributed to both Ba'al Hadad and ' Anat in the Ugaritic texts, but not to ʼĒl. Such mythological motifs are variously seen as late survivals from a period when Yahweh held a place in theology comparable to that of Hadad at Ugarit; or as late

henotheistic Henotheism is the worship of a single, supreme god that does not deny the existence or possible existence of other deities. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primi ...

/monotheistic applications to Yahweh of deeds more commonly attributed to Hadad; or simply as examples of eclectic application of the same motifs and imagery to various different gods. Similarly, it is argued inconclusively whether Ēl Shaddāi, Ēl 'Ôlām, Ēl 'Elyôn, and so forth, were originally understood as separate divinities. Albrecht Alt presented his theories on the original differences of such gods in ''Der Gott der Väter'' in 1929. But others have argued that from patriarchal times, these different names were in fact generally understood to refer to the same single great god, ʼĒl. This is the position of

Frank Moore Cross Frank Moore Cross Jr. (1921–2012) was the Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages Emeritus at Harvard University, notable for his work in the interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, his 1973 ''magnum opus'' ''Canaanite Myth and ...

(1973). What is certain is that the form 'El does appear in Israelite names from every period including the name ''Yiśrā'ēl'' ("Israel"), meaning "El strives". According to ''The Oxford Companion to World Mythology'',

It seems almost certain that the God of the Jews evolved gradually from the Canaanite El, who was in all likelihood the "God of Abraham" ... If El was the high God of Abraham—Elohim, the prototype of Yahveh—Asherah was his wife, and there are archaeological indications that she was perceived as such before she was in effect "divorced" in the context of emerging Judaism of the 7th century BCE. (See .)

The apparent plural form ''Ēlîm'' or ''Ēlim'' "gods" occurs only four times in the Tanakh.

Psalm 29 Psalm 29 is the 29th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength". The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and ...

, understood as an enthronement psalm, begins:

Psalm 89 Psalm 89 is the 89th psalm in the biblical Book of Psalms, part of the Hebrew Bible, described as a maschil Charles H. SpurgeonPsalm 89 in "Treasury of David" or "contemplation". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septua ...

:6 (verse 7 in Hebrew) has: Traditionally ''b^ênê 'ēlîm'' has been interpreted as 'sons of the mighty', 'mighty ones', for ''El'' can mean 'mighty', though such use may be metaphorical (compare the English expression '' yGod awful''). It is possible also that the expression ''ēlîm'' in both places descends from an archaic stock phrase in which ''lm'' was a singular form with the ''m''-enclitic and therefore to be translated as 'sons of ʼĒl'. The ''m''-enclitic appears elsewhere in the Tanakh and in other Semitic languages. Its meaning is unknown, possibly simply emphasis. It appears in similar contexts in Ugaritic texts where the expression ''bn 'il'' alternates with ''bn 'ilm'', but both must mean 'sons of ʼĒl'. That phrase with ''m''-enclitic also appears in Phoenician inscriptions as late as the fifth century BCE. One of the other two occurrences in the Tanakh is in the "

Song of Moses The Song of Moses is the name sometimes given to the poem which appears in Deuteronomy of the Hebrew Bible, which according to the Bible was delivered just prior to Moses' death on Mount Nebo. Sometimes the Song is referred to as Deuteronomy 32, ...

", :

Who is like you among the Gods (''ēlim''), Yahweh?

The final occurrence is in :

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 (''El 'Elîm'') he will speak outrageous things, and will prosper until the indignation is accomplished: for that which is decided will be done.

There are a few cases in the Tanakh where some think ''El'' referring to the great god ʼĒl is not equated with Yahweh. One is in , in the taunt against a man who claims to be divine, in this instance, the leader of Tyre:

Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: "Thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Because your heart is proud and you have said: "I am ''ēl'' (god), in the seat of ''^elōhîm'' (''gods''), I am enthroned in the middle of the seas." Yet you are man and not ''El'' even though you have made your heart like the heart of ''^elōhîm'' ('gods').

Here ''ēl'' might refer to a generic god, or to a highest god, ʼĒl. When viewed as applying to the King of Tyre specifically, the king was probably not thinking of Yahweh. When viewed as a general taunt against anyone making divine claims, it may or may not refer to Yahweh depending on the context. In we find ''Ēl B^êrît'' 'God of the Covenant', seemingly the same as the ''Ba'al B^êrît'' 'Lord of the Covenant' whose worship has been condemned a few verses earlier. See

for a discussion of this passage. says: This could mean that Yahweh judges along with many other gods as one of the council of the high god ʼĒl. However it can also mean that Yahweh stands in the

Divine Council A Divine Council is an assembly of deities over which a higher-level god presides. Historical setting The concept of a divine assembly (or council) is attested in the archaic Sumerian, Akkadian, Old Babylonian, Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, ...

(generally known as the Council of ʼĒl), as ʼĒl judging among the other members of the council. The following verses in which the god condemns those whom he says were previously named ''gods'' (''Elohim'') and ''sons of the Most High'' suggest the god here is in fact ʼĒl judging the lesser gods. An archaic phrase appears in , ''kôkk^êbê 'ēl'' 'stars of God', referring to the circumpolar stars that never set, possibly especially to the seven stars of

Ursa Major Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...

. The phrase also occurs in the Pyrgi Inscription as ''hkkbm 'l'' (preceded by the definite article ''h'' and followed by the ''m''-enclitic). Two other apparent fossilized expressions are ''arzê-'ēl'' 'cedars of God' (generally translated something like 'mighty cedars', 'goodly cedars') in (in Hebrew verse 11) and ''k^êharrê-'ēl'' 'mountains of God' (generally translated something like 'great mountains', 'mighty mountains') in (in Hebrew verse 6). For the reference in some texts of to seventy sons of God corresponding to the seventy sons of ʼĒl in the Ugaritic texts, see

`Elyôn Elyon ( he, ''ʿElyōn'') is an epithet of the God of the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible. ' is usually rendered in English as "God Most High", and similarly in the Septuagint as ("God the highest"). The term also has mundane uses, such as " ...

Sanchuniathon

Philo of Byblos Philo of Byblos ( grc, Φίλων Βύβλιος, ''Phílōn Býblios''; la, Philo Byblius; – 141), also known as Herennius Philon, was an antiquarian writer of grammatical, lexical and historical works in Greek. He is chiefly known for ...

(c. 64–141 AD) was a Greek writer whose account ''

Sanchuniathon Sanchuniathon (; Ancient Greek: ; probably from Phoenician: , "Sakon has given"), also known as Sanchoniatho the Berytian, was a Phoenician author. His three works, originally written in the Phoenician language, survive only in partial paraphras ...

'' survives in quotation by

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian ...

and may contain the major surviving traces of Phoenician mythology. ʼĒl (rendered ''Elus'' or called by his standard Greek counterpart

Cronus In Ancient Greek religion and mythology, Cronus, Cronos, or Kronos ( or , from el, Κρόνος, ''Krónos'') was the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans, the divine descendants of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and ...

) is not the

creator god A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatris ...

or first god. ʼĒl is rather the son of Sky (

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars (mythology), Mars), grandfather ...

) and Earth ( Ge). Sky and Earth are themselves children of 'Elyôn 'Most High'. ʼĒl is brother to the God

Bethel Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanct ...

, to

and to an unknown god, equated with the Greek

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

and to the goddesses

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...

/ 'Ashtart, Rhea (presumably Asherah), and

Dione Dione may refer to: Astronomy *106 Dione, a large main belt asteroid *Dione (moon), a moon of Saturn *Helene (moon), a moon of Saturn sometimes referred to as "Dione B" Mythology *Dione (Titaness), a Titaness in Greek mythology *Dione (mythology) ...

(equated with Ba'alat Gebal). ʼĒl is the father of

Persephone In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after ...

and of

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

(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. At last, with the advice of his daughter Athena and the god

Hermes Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus (from grc, Wiktionary:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "Hermes the Thrice-Greatest"; Classical Latin: la, label=none, Mercurius ter Maximus) is a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a Syn ...

(perhaps

Thoth Thoth (; from grc-koi, Θώθ ''Thṓth'', borrowed from cop, Ⲑⲱⲟⲩⲧ ''Thōout'', Egyptian: ', the reflex of " eis like the Ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a ...

), ʼĒl successfully attacks his father Sky with a sickle and spear of iron. He and his military allies the ''Eloim'' gain Sky's kingdom. In a later passage it is explained that ʼĒl castrated Sky. One of Sky's concubines (who was given to ʼĒl's brother Dagon) was already pregnant by Sky. The son who is born of the union, called Demarûs or Zeus, but once called 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 ʼĒl. ʼĒl 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 ʼĒl founded). El is depicted primarily as a warrior; in Ugaritic sources Baal has the warrior role and El is peaceful, and it may be that the ''Sanchuniathon'' depicts an earlier tradition that was more preserved in the southern regions of Canaan.

, through whom the ''Sanchuniathon'' is preserved, is not interested in setting the work forth completely or in order. But we are told that ʼĒl slew his own son Sadidus (a name that some commentators think might be a corruption of ''Shaddai'', one of the epithets of the Biblical ʼĒl) and that ʼĒl also beheaded one of his daughters. Later, perhaps referring to this same death of Sadidus we are told: A fuller account of the sacrifice appears later: The account also relates that Thoth: This is the form under which ʼĒl/Cronus appears on coins from Byblos from the reign of

Antiochus IV Epiphanes Antiochus IV Epiphanes (; grc, Ἀντίοχος ὁ Ἐπιφανής, ''Antíochos ho Epiphanḗs'', "God Manifest"; c. 215 BC – November/December 164 BC) was a Greek Hellenistic king who ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his deat ...

(175–164 BCE) four spread wings and two folded wings, leaning on a staff. Such images continued to appear on coins until after the time of

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

Poseidon

A bilingual inscription from Palmyra dated to the 1st century equates ''ʼĒl-Creator-of-the-Earth'' with the Greek god

. Going back to the 8th century BCE, the bilingual inscription at Karatepe in the

Taurus Mountains The Taurus Mountains ( Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar'') are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğirdir ...

equates ''ʼĒl-Creator-of-the-Earth'' to Luwian hieroglyphs read as ''^da-a-ś'', this being the Luwian form of the name of the

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...

n water god Ea, lord of the abyss of water under the earth. (This inscription lists ʼĒl in second place in the local pantheon, following Ba'al Shamîm and preceding the ''Eternal Sun''.) Poseidon is known to have been worshipped in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, his image appearing on coins from that city. Poseidon of Beirut was also worshipped at

Delos The island of Delos (; el, Δήλος ; Attic: , Doric: ), near Mykonos, near the centre of the Cyclades archipelago, is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. The excavations in the island are ...

where there was an association of merchants, shipmasters, and warehousemen called the Poseidoniastae of Berytus founded in 110 or 109 BCE. Three of the four chapels at its headquarters on the hill northwest of the Sacred Lake were dedicated to Poseidon, the

Tyche Tyche (; Ancient Greek: Τύχη ''Túkhē'', 'Luck', , ; Roman equivalent: Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity who governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny. In Classical Greek mythology, she is the daughter of Aphrodite a ...

of the city equated with Astarte (that is 'Ashtart), and to

Eshmun Eshmun (or Eshmoun, less accurately Esmun or Esmoun; phn, 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍 '; akk, 𒅀𒋢𒈬𒉡 ''Yasumunu'') was a Phoenician god of healing and the tutelary god of Sidon. History This god was known at least from the Iron Age period at S ...

. Also at Delos, that association of Tyrians, though mostly devoted to

Heracles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...

Melqart Melqart (also Melkarth or Melicarthus) was the tutelary god of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre and a major deity in the Phoenician and Punic pantheons. Often titled the "Lord of Tyre" (''Ba‘al Ṣūr''), he was also known as the Son of ...

, elected a member to bear a crown every year when sacrifices to Poseidon took place. A banker named Philostratus donated two altars, one to Palaistine Aphrodite Urania ('Ashtart) and one to Poseidon "of Ascalon". Though Sanchuniathon distinguishes Poseidon from his Elus/Cronus, this might be a splitting off of a particular aspect of ʼĒl in a euhemeristic account. Identification of an aspect of ʼĒl with Poseidon rather than with Cronus might have been felt to better fit with Hellenistic religious practice, if indeed this Phoenician Poseidon really is the ʼĒl who dwells at the source of the two deeps in Ugaritic texts. More information is needed to be certain.

Footnotes

References

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External links

Bartleby: American Heritage Dictionary: Semitic Roots: ʾl

Pronunciation (audio) of El
{{DEFAULTSORT:El (Deity) Baal Creator gods Deities in the Hebrew Bible God Hebrew words and phrases in the Hebrew Bible Levantine mythology Names of God in Christianity Names of God in Judaism Phoenician mythology Sky and weather gods Ugaritic deities West Semitic gods Cattle in religion