EL
Canaanite Creator God
Self styled 'Creator of All Created Things' and 'Father of Gods'
As Canaanite Godfather he likes to remain aloof and inscrutable sitting high on his throne wearing his bull horn crown. The spot he picked to rule from was between two rivers — and may have been the greenbelt area later selected for the Garden of Eden.
El is a tricky God to pin down because at the time his name was basically the universal word for ‘deity’ in the Middle-East. We’re talking Arabic, Hebrew, Ugaric, Phoenician and many more. So when some ancient text reveals that ‘El did this’ or ‘El did that’, you’re never quite sure whether it’s him or someone else they’re talking about.
The Urgaric tablets, discovered as late as 1929, are very fragmentary with pieces missing, so much is conjecture. There are Hebrew scholars who believe El to have been part of the Elohim, who fused himself into one identity to become Eloah, the singular version. This may have led to mono-God status and gotten him into the Old Testament under the name Yahweh.
El Facts and Figures
Name: El
Pronunciation: Coming soon
Alternative names:
Gender: Male
Type: God
Area or people: Canaan, Phoenicia
Celebration or Feast Day: Unknown at present
Role:
In charge of: Creating
Area of expertise: Creation
Good/Evil Rating: Unknown at present
Popularity index: 18250
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Article last revised on May 19, 2019 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders
References: Coming soon.