Tool Beta
Hebrew and Greek Without Learning Either
A walk through Genesis, the Psalms, and John, plus the key Hebrew and Greek words worth knowing. Each card is a place the English Bibles part company, and what in the Hebrew or Greek made them.
el
God. The shortest word for deity, and also the name of the high god of Canaan.
Genesis 14:18, in every translation this tool compares.
Lord is an English common noun and also a title someone holds. The same word doing both jobs is normal and only becomes confusing when you are reading about a rival.
Because the same three letters are a Hebrew word for God and a Canaanite proper name, which is why the compound titles in Genesis matter and why the divine council passages use it.
Every version reads God, or transliterates in compound names like El Shaddai and El Elyon.
אֵל el · H410
El is the general Semitic word for a god and the personal name of the head of the Canaanite pantheon at Ugarit. Genesis uses compound titles, God Most High and God Almighty, which is both ordinary Hebrew and a claim about who that figure actually is.
English has no word that is simultaneously the common noun and a rival's proper name.
A Hebrew word for God inside a compound title needs the compound looked up, not just the word alone. The compounds are where the argument is.
God is the majority rendering; the compounds are usually transliterated.
- El Elyon: Genesis 14:18-22
- El Shaddai: Genesis 17:1
- El as the head of the pantheon in the Ugaritic texts
