While the traditional view is that El later revealed himself to Moses as Yahweh, some scholars believe that Yahweh was originally thought to be one of many gods—or perhaps the god of one particular Israelite tribe, or the Kenite god of Moses’ wife—and was not necessarily identified with Ēl at first (Smith 2002). Canaanite mythology about El may have directly influenced the development of the later Greco-Roman stories of the gods. The semantic root of the Islamic word for God “Allah” is related to the semitic word El. 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.
Translation of el – Spanish-English dictionary
Scholars have found much extra-biblical evidence of Canaanite worship of El as the supreme deity, creator of heaven and earth, the father of humankind, the husband of the goddess Asherah, and the parent of many other gods. Ba’al Hadad is a few times called El’s son rather than the son of Dagan as he is normally called, possibly because El is in the position of a clan-father to all the gods. Presumably, these sons have been fathered on Athirat by El; in following passages, they seem to be the gods (ʾilm) in general or at least a large portion of them.
It is more likely that different locales held different views of El. Eventually, El’s cult became central to the ethnogenesis of the Iron Age Israelites, but so far, scholars are unable to determine how much of el paso bookkeeping services the population were El worshippers. Tribal organizations in West Semitic culture also influenced El’s portrayal as a “treaty partner” in covenants, where the clan is seen as the “kin” of the deity. Personal names including the stem ʾl are found with similar patterns in both the Amorite and Sabaic languages. However, according to the documentary hypothesis, at least four different authors – the Jahwist (J), Elohist (E), Deuteronomist (D), and Priestly (P) sources – were responsible for editing stories from a polytheistic religion into those of a monotheistic religion.
- In Ugaritic and Levantine mythology, El presided over a council of gods and fathered major deities like Baal, Yam, and Mot.
- As recorded on the clay tablets of Ugarit, El is the husband of the goddess Asherah.
- It is feminine but we use “el” so it sounds better.
- Asherah was El’s wife and a Canaanite mother-goddess.
- The latter, however, is also identified as descending from the god Dagon, with Ēl is in the position of a distant clan-father.
- But this is arguably a misinterpretation since El had complementary relationships with other deities.
El outside the Bible
Some scholars see parallels between the story of Keret and the Book of Job. In the legend of Keret, the main character, Keret, is a mortal son of El, but he suffers great misfortunes. The death god, Mot, challenges and kills Baal, but Anat avenges Baal by slaying Mot and cutting him into little pieces. Anat, Baal’s sister, beseeches El, their father, to grant Baal a palace he can call his own. Baal and Yam, the god of the sea, have a great rivalry. The mythology and stories concerning El and his wife, Asherah, are in some ways similar to other Mediterranean mythologies, such as those in ancient Greece involving Zeus and Hera.
Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Hittite texts
They cite as evidence, for example, 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. Jacob complied, erecting an altar to “El,” and renaming the town “Beth-el”—the house, or place, of El. At Shechem, he established an altar in the name of “El Elohe Israel”—God, the God of Israel. I revealed myself to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as Ēl Shaddāi, but was not known to them by my name Yahweh. Some form of monotheism probably existed among the Israelites from an early date, but scholars debate the extent to which they borrowed or inherited numerous polytheistic ideas from their Canaanite neighbors and forebears.
- The only sons of El 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 El.
- As you can see in the last examples, when combined with the prepositions ‘a’ and ‘de’, el is part of the Spanish contractions al and del.
- She further highlights inscriptions referencing “Yahweh and his Asherah”, indicating a former divine consort akin to El’s spouse—an element later removed during proto‑monotheistic reforms.
- Originally a Canaanite deity known as ‘El, ‘Al or ‘Il was the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia (c. 2900 – c. 2350 BCE).
- The passage bears striking similarities to a Canaanite text (see below) uncovered at Ugarit, describing El’s struggle against the rebellious Baal and those deities who supported him.
- Christians and Jews believe that Elohim refers to Yahweh, as does El.
And keep reading cause coming up next I’ll tell you something very important… But what about words that don’t follow these endings? In general, nouns that end with these terminations are masculine and use “el”. Welcome to the world of grammatical genders in Spanish! Today I’ll explain when we use the articles EL and LA, I’ll show you which words are masculine and which are feminine. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues.
Translation of el PASSWORD Spanish–English Dictionary
When the Most High gave nations their homesAnd set the divisions of humankind,The boundaries of peoples were fixedIn relation to Israel’s numbers.For the ETERNAL’s portion is this people;Jacob, God’s own allotment. This is in contrast to the Elohist and Priestly source sources, in which El is regarded as an earlier deity than Yahweh. But this is arguably a misinterpretation since El had complementary relationships with other deities. As to the rivers and the spring of the two deeps, these might refer to real streams, 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.
El is a common Semitic root for god, and it is related to the Arabic word Allah. El is the name of the supreme god of the Canaanites, but in the Hebrew Bible, “el” is a generic word for a god, while Elohim refers to Yahweh, the God of Israel. Elohim is a related, plural word used for God in the Hebrew Bible from the same root as “el.” The singular form of Elohim is “eloha”, and it is another generic word for a god. Yahweh is referred to as the god of Israel, implying that other nations have other gods. El was worshipped as a high god by most Levantine people, including those in ancient Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. The god El was the father of most of the lesser Canaanite gods, and he was married to the head goddess, Asherah, who bore him many children.
Since they’re both crucial, in the following sections, you’ll learn their differences by learning when and how to use each term. El vs él are terms with specific roles and, as such, they work with different elements and constructions. El vs él are two different words.
Sometimes, El was called El Elyon, meaning “God Most High”. However, because Canaan encompassed the entire region, the residents of Judea and Samaria as well as the Phoenicians from Tyre and Sidon were all “Canaanites” and spoke similar languages. Because readers of the Hebrew Bible have been accustomed to seeing the history of the region from the Judean perspective, some tend to think of the Israelites as one group of people and all the others as Canaanites. El was the proper name of the chief god of the Canaanites. El and Yahweh were not originally the same deity from a comparative Semitic perspective.
At last, with the advice of his daughter Athena and the god Hermes Trismegistus (perhaps Thoth), El successfully attacks his father Sky with a sickle and spear of iron. El is the father of Persephone and of Athena (presumably the goddess ‘Anat). El 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). El (rendered Elus or called by his standard Greek counterpart Cronus) is not the creator god or first god.
The Personal Pronouns él, ella and usted
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’ Wyatt, however, notes that in Ugaritic texts, Ptah is seemingly identified with the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis, not El. Yet another connection is seen with the Mandaean angel Ptahil, whose name combines both the terms Ptah and Il. Frank Moore Cross points out that Ptah is often called the Lord (or one) of eternity and thinks it may be this identification of El with Ptah that led to the epithet ʿolam ‘eternal’ being applied to El so early and so consistently. She further highlights inscriptions referencing “Yahweh and his Asherah”, indicating a former divine consort akin to El’s spouse—an element later removed during proto‑monotheistic reforms.
However, just as Christians and Jews speaking English refer to their deity as “God” with a capital “G,” the Canaanite people called their supreme god El. It’s like the English word “god” with a lower case “g,” which can refer to any deity and is not a proper name of one particular god. Because of this, when the word “el” is used in the Hebrew Bible, there is some confusion as to whether it refers to a specific god and, if so, which one. This god is called Demarus or Zeus, but he is markedly similar to the “Baal” who rebelled against El in the Ugaritic texts. He is the brother of the goddesses Aphrodite/Astarte, Rhea/Asherah, and Dione/Baalat, as well as of the gods Bethel, Dagon, and an unnamed god similar to the Greek Atlas. He is called “creator eternal,” as well as “your patriarch,” “the gray-bearded ancient one,” “full of wisdom,” “King,” “Father of years,” and “the warrior.”
{She was also a sea-goddess and in some accounts is referred to as “Lady of the Sea”. Asherah was El’s wife and a Canaanite mother-goddess. The food served was the food of death and when Baal ate it, he found himself trapped in the underworld. This angered Mot, who decided to invite him to the underworld, as he was the god of death.}