Ēl is a
northwest Semitic word and name translated into English as either ’God’
or ’God’
or left untranslated as El, depending on the context.
In the Levant as a whole, El or Il was the supreme God, the father of
mankind and all creatures. The word El was found at the top of a list of
Gods as the Ancient of Gods or the Father of all Gods, in the ruins of
the Royal Library of the Ebla civilization, in the archaeological site
of Tell Mardikh in Syria dated to 2300 BC. He may have been a desert God
at some point, as the myths say that he had two wives and built a
sanctuary with them and his new children in the desert. El had fathered
many Gods, but most important were Hadad, Yaw and Mot, each of whom has
similar attributes to the Greco-Roman Gods Zeus, Ophion and Thanatos
respectively. Ancient Greek mythographers identified El with Cronus (not
Chronos).
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 GodĒl 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’.
Ēl in the Tanakh
The Hebrew form (אל) appears in Latin letters in Standard Hebrew
transcription as El and in Tiberian Hebrew transcription as ʾĒl.
In the Tanakh ’elōhîm is the normal word for a God or the great God (or
Gods). But the form ’ēl also appears, mostly in poetic passages and in
the partiarchal narratives attributed to the P source according the
documentary hypothesis. It occurs 217 times in the Masoretic text: 73
times in the Psalms and 55 times in the Book of Job, 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 2 Samuel 22.31,33–48).
There are also places where ’ēl specifically refers to a foreign God as
in Psalms 44.20;81.9 (Hebrew 44.21;81.10), in Deuteronomy 32.12 and in
Malachi 2.11.
The theological position of the Tanakh is that the names Ēl, ’Ĕlōhîm
when used in the singular to mean the supreme and active ’God’ refers to
the same being as does Yahweh. All three refer to the one supreme God
who is also the God of Israel, beside whom other supposed Gods are
either non-existent or insignificant. Whether this was a longstanding
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 Yahweh
claims in Exodus 6.2–3:
I revealed myself to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as Ēl Shaddāi, but
was not known to them by my name Yahweh.
The identity of Yahweh with either Ēl in his aspect Shaddāi or with a
God called Shaddāi is affirmed. Also affirmed is that the name Yahweh is
a more recent revelation. One scholarly position is that the
identification of Yahweh with Ēl is late, that Yahweh was earlier
thought of as only one of many Gods and not normally identified with Ēl.
In some places, especially in Psalm 29, Yahweh is clearly envisioned as
a storm God, something not true of Ēl so far as we know. It is Yahweh
who fights Leviathan in Isaiah 27.1; Psalm 74.14; Job 3.8;40.25, a deed
attributed both to Ba’al/Hadad and ‘Anat in the Ugaritic texts, but not
to Ēl. 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/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 indeed
generally understood to refer to the same single great God Ēl. This is
the position of Frank Moore Cross (1973). What is certain is that the
form ’ēl does appear in Israelite names from every period including the
name Yiśrā’ēl ’Israel’, meaning ’ēl strives’ or ’God strives’.
The apparent plural form ’Ēlîm or ’Ēlim ’Gods’ occurs only four times in
the Tanakh. Psalm 29, understood as an enthronement psalm, begins:
A Psalm of
David.
Ascribe to Yahweh, sons of Gods (bənê ’Ēlîm),
Ascribe to Yahweh, glory and strength
Psalm 89:6 (verse 7 in
Hebrew) has:
For who in the
skies compares to Yahweh,
who can be likened to Yahweh among the sons of Gods (bənê ’Ēlîm).
Traditionally bənê ’ēlîm has
been interpreted as ’sons of the mighty’, ’mighty ones’, for, indeed ’ēl
can mean ’mighty’, though such use may be metaphorical (compare the
English expression God-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 Ēl’. 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 Ēl’. That phrase with m-enclictic also appears in Phoenician
inscriptions as late as the 5th century BCE.
One of the other two occurrences in the Tanakh is in the "Song of
Moses", Exodus 15.11a:
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) 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 ’ēl referring to the great God Ēl is not equated
with Yahweh. One is in Ezekiel 28.2 in the oracle against 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, in the seat of ’elōhîm (God or
Gods), I am enthroned in the middle of the seas." Yet you are
man and not ’ēl even though you have made your heart like the heart
of ’elōhîm (’God’ or ’Gods’).’"
Here ’ēl might refer to a
generic God, not necessarily the high God Ēl and if it does so refer,
the King of Tyre is certainly not thinking specifically of Yahweh.
In Judges 9.46 we find ’Ēl Bərît ’God of the Covenant’, seemingly the
same as the Ba‘al Bərît ’Lord of the Covenant’ whose worship has been
condemned a few verses earlier. See Baal for a discussion of this
passage.
Psalm 82.1 says:
’elōhîm (’God’)
stands in the council of ’ēl
he judges among the judges.
This could mean that God,
that is Yahweh, judges along with many other Gods as one of the council
of the high God Ēl. However it can also mean that God, that is Yahweh,
stands in the divine council (generally known as the Council of Ēl), as
Ēl judging among the other members of the Council. The following verses
in which God condemns those to whom he say were he had previousl named
angels and sons of the Most High suggest God is here indeed Ēl judging
the lesser Gods.
An archaic phrase appears in Isaiah 14.13, kôkkəbê ’ēl ’stars of God’,
referring to the circumpolar stars that never set, possibly especially
to the seven stars of Ursa Major. 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 Psalm 80.10 (in Hebrew verse 11) and
kəharrê-’ēl ’mountains of God’ (generally translated something like
’great mountains’, ’mighty mountains’) in Psalm 36.7 (in Hebrew verse
6).
For the reference in some texts of Deuteronomy 32.8 to 70 sons of God
corresponding to the 70 sons of Ēl in the Ugaritic texts see ’Elyôn.
Ēl in Christian
theology
According to patristic tradition, El was the first Hebrew name of God.
Dante Alighieri in his De vulgari eloquentia suggests that the name was
the first sound emitted by Adam: While the first utterance of humans
after birth is a cry of pain, Dante assumed that Adam could only have
made an exclamation of joy, which at the same time was addressing his
creator. In the Divina commedia, however, Dante contradicts this by
saying that God was called I in the language of Adam, and only named El
in later Hebrew, but already before the confusion of tongues (Paradiso,
24.134).
Ēl among the
Amorites
Amorite inscriptions from Zinčirli refer to numerous Gods,
sometimes by name, sometimes by title, especially by such titles as
ilabrat ’God of
the people’(?), il abīka ’God of your father’, il abīni ’God of our
father’ and so forth. Various family Gods are recorded, divine
names listed as belong to a particular family or clan, sometimes by
title and sometimes by name, including the name Il ’God’. In
Amorite personal names the most common divine elements are Il (’God’), Hadad/Adad, and
Dagan. It is likely that Il is also very often the God called in
Akkadian texts Amurru or Il Amurru.
Ēl in Ugarit and
among the Canaanites
For the Canaanites, El or Il was the supreme God, the father of mankind
and all creatures. He may have been a desert God at some point as the
myths say that he had two wives and built a sanctuary with them and his
new children in the desert. El had fathered many Gods, but most
important were Hadad, Yaw and Mot, each share similar attributes to the
Roman-Greco Gods: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades respectively.
Three pantheon lists found at Ugarit begin with the four Gods ’il-’ib
(which according to Cross [1973; p. 14] is the name of a generic kind of
deity, perhaps the divine ancestor of the people), Ēl, 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 Ēl.
Ēl is called again and again 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 ḥātikuka your
patriarch. Ēl is the grey-bearded ancient one, full of wisdom, malku
’king’, ’abū šamīma ’father of years’, ’ēl gibbōr ’Ēl the warrior’. He
is also named lṭpn of unknown meaning, variously rendered as Latpan,
Latipan, or Lutpani.
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 BCE) The title dū gitti is also found in Serābitṭ text
353. Cross (1973, p. 19) points out that Ptah is ofen 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 BCE 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 possiblity 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 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.
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 BCE 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 BCE. 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 BCE) 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 BCE 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 possiblity that Ēl was identical with Ba‘al
Hammon who was worshipped as the supreme God in Carthage. Muslim
scholars contend that El should be pronounced ’AL’ since the first
letter of El is Alef which is pronounced A always, unless if the hidden
vocal after it is E like in when hebrew Elohim means Gods or a God.
Muslem scholars contend also that the second letter could be pronounced
double L, and that all semetic civilizations never wrote vocals 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 BC) is actually non other than Allah when pronounced according to
the tradition of Semetic 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.