El 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, ila, represents the predicate form in the Old Akkadian and Amorite languages. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-.Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses. Berlin: De Gruyter. p. 147.
Originally a Canaanite deity known as El, Al or Il was the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion. Some scholars like Ignace Gelb and Frank Moore Cross speculate he may have also been the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia (c. 2900 – c. 2350 BCE). Among the Hittites, El was known as Elkunirša ( ). 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, Israel, Michael, and Bethel, most of which are theophoric given names.
El is often described as the father of the gods and the creator of humanity. El had many epithets, including "Bull El," "El the King," and "Father of Mankind," reflecting his authority, wisdom, and paternal role. One of many models proposes that over time, in Israelite religion, Yahweh absorbed many of El’s characteristics, gradually merging their identities through a process scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou called "pantheon reduction".
In Ugaritic and Levantine mythology, El presided over a council of gods and fathered major deities like Baal, Yam, and Mot. He was depicted as wise and kingly, yet occasionally vulnerable, complementing Baal's role as a sustaining warrior. Archaeological texts show El's association with eternity, creation, and divine authority, often with a consort similar to Asherah. Later sources, including Phoenician and Hellenistic writings, sometimes equated El with other deities such as Cronus or Poseidon.
Linguistic forms and meanings Cognate forms of El are found throughout the Semitic languages. They include Ugaritic , pl. ; Phoenician pl. ; Hebrew , pl. ; Aramaic ; Akkadian , pl. .
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". 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.
As the word el sometimes refers to a god other than the named deity El, it is frequently ambiguous as to whether El followed by another name means the god El with a particular epithet applied or refers to another god entirely. For example, in the Ugaritic texts, is understood to mean "El the King" but as "the god Hadad".
The Semitic root ʾlh (Arabic ', Aramaic , , Hebrew ) may be ʾl with a parasitic h, and ʾl may be an abbreviated form of ʾlh. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning 'gods' is , equivalent to Hebrew 'gods; divinity'. In the Hebrew texts, this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for "god" by biblical commentators.For example: The documentary hypothesis theorizes that 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, and that these sources were joined together at various points in time by a series of editors or "redactors". Some believe inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis.
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.
Historical development
There is evidence that the Canaanite/Phoenician and Aramean 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 the 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.
Francesca Stavrakopoulou has argued that Yahweh was originally a storm‑warrior deity operating under the authority of the patriarch-god El, and traces how, through a process she terms "pantheon reduction", Yahweh gradually assumed El’s status and characteristics within Israelite religion, rather than immediately replacing him in a sudden shift to monotheism. Drawing on Near Eastern archaeological and textual parallels, Stavrakopoulou argues that the biblical Yahweh was originally depicted in early texts with a fully anthropomorphic, sexualised, and sometimes bull-horned body—including feet, limbs, torso, face, and genitals—before later Greek–Platonic influence recast the deity as immaterial and disembodied. 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.
Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Hittite texts The Egyptian god Ptah is given the title 'Lord of Gath' in a prism from Tel Lachish which has on its opposite face the name of Amenhotep II (). The title 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 led to the epithet ʿolam 'eternal' being applied to El so early and so consistently. Yet another connection is seen with the Mandaean divinty Ptahil, whose name combines Ptah and ʾIl. Wyatt, however, notes that in Ugaritic texts, Ptah is seemingly identified with the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis, not El.
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".Albright, Wm. F. (1966) The Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions and their Decipherment, p. 24
The name Raphael 'God has healed', is attested to in approximately 1350 BCE in Ugarit in one of the Amarna letters, EA333, found in Tell el-Hesi from the ruler of Lachish in the Shephelah to 'The Great One'Robert William Rogers, ed., Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (New York: Eaton & Mains, & Cincinnati, Ohio: Jennings & Graham, 1912), pp. 268–278.
A Phoenician-inscribed Arslan Tash amulet of the 7th century BCE 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 'El, Creator of Earth' ( ) appears, even including a late inscription at Leptis Magna in Tripolitania dating to the 2nd century.Donner & Röllig 1962–1964, No. 129. In Hittite texts, the expression becomes the single name , this Ilkunirsa appearing as the husband of Asherdu (Asherah) and father of 77 or 88 sons.
In a Hurrian hymn to El (published as KTU 1.128 or Ugaritica V RS 24.278), he is called and , which Cross takes as 'El of the Covenant' and 'El the Judge', respectively.
Ugarit and the Levant In Canaan and the ancient Levant as a whole, ʼĒl or ʼIl was the supreme god, the father of humankind and all creatures. 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, ʾEl is the husband of the goddess Athirat (Asherah). Three pantheon lists found at Ugarit in Syria begin with the four gods (which, according to Cross, is the name of a generic kind of deity, perhaps the divine ancestor of the people), ʾEl, Dagnu (that is Dagon), and Ba'l Ṣapān, who is Haddu. Although Ugarit had a large temple dedicated to Dagnu and another to Hadad, there was no temple dedicated to El.
ʾEl had a variety of epithets and forms. He is repeatedly referred to as 'Bull El' or 'bull god' and 'ʾEl the King'. He is 'Creator of creatures',Cassuto, Umberto. The Goddess Anath: Canaanite Epics on the Patriarchal Age. Bialik Institute, 1951, pp. 42–44 (in Hebrew) ʾabū banī 'ili 'father of the gods', and ʾab ʾadm 'father of man'. The appellations of "eternal", "creator" and "eternal" or "ancient creator" are "characteristic designations of ʾEl in Canaanite myths and liturgies". He is ḥātikuka 'your patriarch'. El is the grey-bearded ancient one, full of wisdom, malku ('King'), ʾab šnm ('Father of years'), ʾEl gibbōr ('El the warrior'). He is also called lṭpn ʾil d pʾid ('the Gracious One, the Benevolent God') and lṭpn wqdš ('the Gracious and Holy One').
ʾEl and his major son, Hadad are symbolized both by the bull, and both wear bull horns on their headdresses.
The Ugaritic text Shahar and Shalim tells how, perhaps near the beginning of all things, ʾEl came to the shores of the sea and saw two women who bobbed up and down. ʾEl 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 a husband. He then lay with them, and they gave birth to Shahar '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'.
In the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, El is introduced having an assembly of gods on Mount Lel (Lel possibly meaning "Night"),KTU 1.2 III AB B and dwelling on (or in) the fountains of the two rivers at the spring of the two deeps.KTU 1.2 III AB C 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, 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 River (the classical Leontes) and the Orontes River flow, Baalbek may be the same as the ('Source of the Two Rivers'), the abode of ʾEl in the Baal CycleKTU 1.4 IV 21. discovered in the 1920s and a separate serpent incantation.KTU 1.100.3.
In the episode of the "Palace of 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 () 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 ʾEl. Hadad is a few times called ʾEl's son rather than the son of Dagan, possibly because ʾEl is in the position of a clan-father to all the gods.
The fragmentary text R.S. 24.258 describes a marzēaḥ to which ʾEl 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.