Tool Beta
The Gods of the Bible
Every named divine being in Scripture, what the text calls it, and what the ancient world thought it was.
El
The ordinary word for god in the region, and also the name of the chief god of Israel's neighbors.
Genesis 14:18-22, in every translation this tool compares.
Baker is a job, and it is also somebody's surname. El works that way across the ancient Near East: the ordinary word for a god, and the personal name of the god at the top of Canaan's pantheon. Israel used it of Yahweh anyway, without apology or explanation.
The generic West Semitic word for god, and also the proper name of the head of the Ugaritic pantheon. Israel used it of Yahweh without apology (Genesis 33:20). DDD lists a cluster of other El names with a Canaanite background still visible in the Hebrew: el berit (Judges 9:46), el olam (Genesis 21:33), el elyon (Genesis 14:18-22), el roi (Genesis 16:13), and el shadday. When the king of Tyre claims a divine seat "in the heart of the seas" in Ezekiel 28:2, he is borrowing the same Ugaritic geography as El's own dwelling at "the fountainhead of the two rivers."
H410 (אֵל), 241 occ
El at Ugarit is the aged father of the gods who presides over the assembly, and the biblical writers take his vocabulary while refusing his mythology. Ugaritic texts call him "the benevolent, good-natured El" (ltpn il dpid), describe the grey hair of his beard, and give him the epithet tr, "bull," for his strength and dignity. Israel keeps the aged, bearded image and hangs it on Yahweh: Daniel's Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:9) is El's beard on Yahweh's frame.
- Genesis 14:18-22
- Genesis 33:20
- Genesis 35:1-7
- Numbers 24:4
- Psalm 82:1
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/psalm-82\/","n":"Psalm 82","s":"God stands in the divine assembly and passes sentence on the elohim He put in charge.","r":"Psalm 82"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/elohim\/","n":"elohim","s":"God, gods, divine beings. A category word, and plural in form even when it means one.","r":"Psalm 82:1"}
- DDD s.v. "El," 274-279
- Gibson, *Canaanite Myths and Legends*
