El (deity)

Template:Short description Template:Infobox deity Template:Fertile Crescent myth (Levantine) Template:Middle Eastern deities Template:Pre-Islamic Arabian deities Template:Contains special characters ElTemplate:Efn 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, Template:`ila, represents the predicate form in the Old Akkadian and Amorite languages.Template:Sfn The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-.<ref>Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter. p. 147.</ref>

Originally a Canaanite deity known as Template:`El, Template:`Al or Template:`Il the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religionTemplate:Sfn and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia.Template:Sfn Among the Hittites, El was known as Elkunirša (Template:Langx Template:Tlit).

Although El gained different appearances and meanings in different languages over time, it continues to exist as El-, -il or -el in compound proper noun phrases such as Elizabeth, Ishmael, Israel, Samuel, Daniel, Michael, Gabriel (Arabic: Jibra'il), and Bethel.

Linguistic forms and meanings

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

In Northwest Semitic use, ʼel 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".Template:Sfn El is listed at the head of many pantheons. In some Canaanite and Ugaritic sources, El played a role as father of the gods, of creation, or both.Template:Sfn

However, because the word el sometimes refers to a god other than the great god El, it is frequently ambiguous as to whether El followed by another name means the great god El with a particular epithet applied or refers to another god entirely. For example, in the Ugaritic texts, Template:Tlit is understood to mean "El the King" but Template:Tlit as "the god Hadad".Template:Sfn

The Semitic root ʾlh (Arabic Template:Tlit', Aramaic Template:Tlit, Template:Tlit, Hebrew Template:Tlit) may be ʾl with a parasitic h, and ʾl may be an abbreviated form of ʾlh. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning 'gods' is Template:Tlit, equivalent to Hebrew Template:Tlit 'powers'. In the Hebrew texts this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for "god" by biblical commentators.<ref>For example: Template:Cite book</ref> 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. These sources were joined together at various points in time by a series of editors or "redactors". Inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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 the Amorite and Sabaic languages.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Historical development

File:Gebel el-Arak Knife back side.jpg

Gebel al-Arak knife Possible depiction of El with two lions, B.C. 3450<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

There is evidence that the Canaanite/Phoenician and Aramaic conception of El is essentially the same as the Amorite conception of El, which was popularized in the 18th century BCE but has origins in the pre-Sargonic period. Any "changes" in El's status can be explained by the randomness of available data. 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.

Eventually, El's cult became central to the ethnogenesis of Iron Age Israelites but so far, scholars are unable to determine how much of the population were El worshippers. It is more likely that different locales held different views of El.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>

Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Hittite texts

The Egyptian god Ptah is given the title Template:Tlit 'Lord of Gath' in a prism from Tel Lachish which has on its opposite face the name of Amenhotep II (Template:Circa). The title Template:Tlit is also found in Serābitṭ text 353. 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 lead to the epithet ʿolam 'eternal' being applied to El so early and so consistently.Template:Sfn Yet another connection is seen with the Mandaean angel Ptahil, whose name combines both the terms Ptah and Il.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Wyatt, however, notes that in Ugaritic texts, Ptah is seemingly identified with the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis, not El.Template:Sfn

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".<ref>Albright, Wm. F. (1966) The Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions and their Decipherment, p. 24</ref>

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'<ref>Robert William Rogers, ed., Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (New York: Eaton & Mains, & Cincinnati, Ohio: Jennings & Graham, 1912), pp. 268–278.</ref>

A Phoenician inscribed amulet of the 7th century BCE from Arslan Tash may refer to El. The text was translated by Rosenthal as follows:

However, Cross translated the text as follows:

In some inscriptions, the name ʾĒl qōne ʾarṣ (Punic: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Tlit) meaning 'El creator of Earth' appears, even including a late inscription at Leptis Magna in Tripolitania dating to the 2nd century.<ref>Donner & Röllig 1962–1964, No. 129.</ref> In Hittite texts, the expression becomes the single name Template:Tlit, this Ilkunirsa appearing as the husband of Asherdu (Asherah) and father of 77 or 88 sons.Template:Sfn

In a Hurrian hymn to El (published in Ugaritica V, text RS 24.278), he is called Template:Tlit and Template:Tlit, which Cross takes as 'El of the covenant' and 'El the judge' respectively.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn 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 Template:TlitTemplate:SndTemplate:Langx, Syria) begin with the four gods ʾil-ʾib (which according to Cross;Template:Sfn is the name of a generic kind of deity, perhaps the divine ancestor of the people), El, Dagnu (that is Dagon), and Ba'l Ṣapān (that is the god Haddu or Hadad).Template:Sfn Though Ugarit had a large temple dedicated to Dagon and another to Hadad, there was no temple dedicated to El.

El had a variety of epithets and forms. He is repeatedly referred to as ṯr il ('Bull El' or 'the bull god') and ʾil milk ('El the King').<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref> He is bny bnwt ('Creator of creatures'),<ref name=":0">Cassuto, Umberto. The Goddess Anath: Canaanite Epics on the Patriarchal Age. Bialik Institute, 1951, pp. 42–44 (in Hebrew)</ref> Template:`abū banī 'ili ('father of the gods'),<ref name=":3">Template:Harvnb</ref> and ʾab ʾadm ('father of man').<ref name=":0" /> The appellations of "eternal", "creator" and "eternal" or "ancient creator" are "characteristic designations of 'El in Canaanite myths and liturgies".<ref name=":2" /> He is ḥātikuka ('your patriarch'). El is the grey-bearded ancient one, full of wisdom, malku ('King'), ʾab šnm ('Father of years'),<ref name=":0" /> ʾEl gibbōr ('El the warrior').<ref name=":3" /> He is also called lṭpn ʾil d pʾid ('the Gracious One, the Benevolent God') and lṭpn wqdš ('the Gracious and Holy One').<ref name=":1" />

"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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Ugaritic text Shachar and Shalim tells how (perhaps near the beginning of all things) El came to shores of the sea and saw two women who bobbed up and down. El 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 El 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 El's chief wife and the goddess Raḥmayyu ('the one of the womb').Template:Citation needed

In the Ugaritic Ba'al Cycle, El is introduced having an assembly of gods on Mount Lel (Lel possibly meaning "Night"),<ref>KTU 1.2 III AB B</ref> and dwelling on (or in) the fountains of the two rivers at the spring of the two deeps.<ref>KTU 1.2 III AB C</ref> 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. A few miles from the swamp from which the Litani (the classical Leontes) and the Asi (the upper Orontes) flow, Baalbek may be the same as the Template:Tlit ('Source of the Two Rivers'), the abode of El in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle<ref>KTU 1.4 IV 21.</ref> discovered in the 1920s and a separate serpent incantation.<ref>KTU 1.100.3.</ref>Template:Sfnp

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 El; in following passages they seem to be the gods (ʾilm) in general or at least a large portion of them. 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. 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.

The fragmentary text R.S. 24.258 describes a Marzēaḥ banquet to which El 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 for a hangover.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

El's characterization in Ugarit texts is not always favorable. His authority is unquestioned, but sometimes exacted through threat or roundly mocked. He is "both comical and pathetic" in a "role of impotence".Template:Sfn But this is arguably a misinterpretation since El had complementary relationships with other deities. Any "differences" they had pertained to function. For example, El and Baal were divine kings but El was the executive whilst Baal was the sustainer of the cosmos.<ref name=":1" />

Hebrew Bible

One scholarly position is that the identification of Yahweh with El is a later interpretation. Earlier Yahweh was thought of as one of many gods, separate from El. Theological interpretations of the Hebrew Bible consider El as an alternative name for Yahweh. This is in contrast to the Elohist and Priestly traditions in which El is considered to be an earlier deity than Yahweh.<ref>Hendel, R. S. (1992). Genesis, Book of. In D. N. Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 2, p. 938). New York: Doubleday.</ref> Mark Smith has argued that Yahweh and El were originally separate, but were considered synonymous from very early on.Template:Sfn The name Yahweh is used in Template:Bibleverse, while Template:Bibleverse says that at that time, people began to "call upon the name of the Template:LORD". El's title of "El Shaddai", which envisions him as the "god of the steppe", may also derive from the cultural beliefs of Upper Mesopotamian (i.e. Amurru) immigrants, who were ancestors of the Israelites.<ref name=":1" />

In Deuteronomy 32, as preserved in the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Yahweh was described as a son of El.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Poem quoteIn Template:Bibleverse Abraham accepted the blessing of El, when Melchizedek, the king of Salem and high priest of its deity El Elyon blessed him.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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 Template:Bibleverse.)Template:Sfn

In some instances, such as in Template:Bibleverse, Yahweh is envisioned as a storm god,Template:Sfn something not true for El.<ref name="Roberts2002">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite dictionary</ref> It is Yahweh who is prophesied to one day battle Leviathan the serpent, and slay the dragon in the sea in Template:Bibleverse.<ref name="Ballentine2015">Template:Cite book</ref> 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 El.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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 and 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

But others have argued that from patriarchal times, these different names were generally understood to refer to the same single great god, El. This is the position of Frank Moore Cross (1973).Template:Sfn What is certain is that the form 'El does appear in Israelite names from every period including the name Template:Tlit ("Israel"), meaning 'El strives'. There are verses where El and Yahweh are unambiguously conflated (Template:Bibleverse) but some scholars believe this is an attempt to portray El as a warrior god, as Israelite society grew and evolved into a nation-state.<ref name=":1" />

Jewish interpretation

File:Destruction of Leviathan.png

The Destruction of Leviathan by Gustave Doré (1865)

The Hebrew form {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} appears in Latin letters in Standard Hebrew transcription as El and in Tiberian Hebrew transcription as ʾĒl. Template:Tlit is a generic word for god that could be used for any god, including Hadad, Moloch, or Yahweh.

In the Tanakh, Elohim (Template:Tlit) is the normal word for a god or the great God (or gods, given that the Template:Tlit suffix makes a word plural in Hebrew). But the form Template:Tlit also appears, mostly in poetic passages and in the patriarchal narratives attributed to the Priestly source of 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 Template:Tlit 'the god' (for example in Template:Bibleverse).

The theological position of the Tanakh is that the names Template:Tlit and Template:Tlit, when used in the singular to mean the supreme god, refer to Yahweh, while the plural is interpreted to refer to other unspecified heavenly beings, such angels.<ref>Reinhard Gregor Kratz, Hermann Spieckermann: Götterbilder, Gottesbilder, Weltbilder: Griechenland und Rom, Judentum, Christentum und Islam. Mohr Siebeck, 2006, ISBN 978-3-16-148807-8 (German)</ref>

Sanchuniathon

Philo of Byblos (c. 64–141 AD) was a Greek writer whose account Sanchuniathon survives in quotation by Eusebius and may contain the major surviving traces of Phoenician mythology. El (rendered Template:Tlit or called by his standard Greek counterpart Cronus) is not the creator god or first god. El is rather the son of Sky (Uranus) and Earth (Ge).<ref name=Miller /> Sky and Earth are themselves children of 'Elyôn 'Most High'.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 is the father of Persephone and of Athena (presumably the goddess 'Anat).<ref name=Miller />

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 (perhaps Thoth), El successfully attacks his father Sky with a sickle and spear of iron. He and his military allies the Eloim gain Sky's kingdom.<ref name=Miller />

In a later passage it is explained that El castrated Sky. One of Sky's concubines (who was given to El'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 El.

El 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 El 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.<ref name=Miller>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=Green2003>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

Eusebius, through whom the Sanchuniathon is preserved, is not interested in setting the work forth completely or in order. But we are told that El slew his own son Sadidus (a name that some commentators think might be a corruption of Shaddai, one of the epithets of the Biblical El) and that El 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.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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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.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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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.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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This is the form under which El/Cronus appears on coins from Byblos from the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (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.

Poseidon

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} A bilingual inscription from Palmyra<ref>Donner & Röllig 1962–1964, No. 11, p. 43. and No. 129.</ref> dated to the 1st century equates El-Creator-of-the-Earth with the Greek god Poseidon. Going back to the 8th century BCE, the bilingual inscription<ref>Donner & Röllig 1962–1964, No. 26.</ref> at Karatepe in the Taurus Mountains equates El-Creator-of-the-Earth to Luwian hieroglyphs read as ^da-a-ś,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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 El 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, 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 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 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 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 El in a euhemeristic account. Identification of an aspect of El 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 El who dwells at the source of the two deeps in Ugaritic texts. More information is needed to be certain.

See also

• Elagabalus (deity)
• Divine Council
• Ancient Semitic religion
• Anu
• Enki
• Names of God in Judaism
• Theophory in the Bible
• Ahura Mazda

References

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Further reading

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External links

• Bartleby: American Heritage Dictionary: Semitic Roots: ʾl
• Pronunciation (audio) of El