show_no_mercy

From my understanding (which could be wrong) El is the name of god. The Elohim would be translated as "gods" correct?

If "El" is the name or word for "god" then what is the relationship between that word and the suffix "el" at the end of all of the angels' names? Like Daniel, Gabriel, Michael, and so on? Does this mean that they're literally gods too?

Buster Daily

Half the proper names in the old testament have El in them (excuse my hyperbole). I would be curious if those proper names were formed when El was a proper name for a particular god or came later when El became the general word for god or later when it was re-personified to be the monotheistic god of the Israelites.

Buster Daily

After a quick look on wikipedia:

Daniel = "my judge is El"
Gabriel = "man of El", "hero of El", or "El has shown himself mighty"
Michael = "who is like El?"

Does everyone agree? Why the wide range for Gabriel? What does "who is like El?" mean?

Steven Avery

There is simply nothing in the Tanach itself that places 'El' or any form thereof as the name or a name of God. Tis a title, or a description, like the word God, or Mighty One, not a name. This is one of the few accurate teachings from the sacred name movement.

The folks who tell you that El is a name will be using scholarly reconstructions and theories rather than the Tanach as their base. If that is done, at least the underlying base should be made clear -- "not Bible".

Shalom,
Steven Avery

Buster Daily

Do you disagree that there was a Caananite God named El? I would trust a cuneiform tablet that was found in situ at an archaeological site.

Steven Avery

Sure, thats reasonable.

While taking exception to his use of 'yahweh', and his omission in not stating that in Tanach no form of "El" is EVER a "name", Glenn Miller has a lot of good material at ...

http://www.christian-thinktank.com/elwho.html
The biblical El is "thus a general term and does not refer to the personal name of the Ugaritic god El", except in clearly polemical contexts. (Myth and Mystery: An Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World by Jack Finegan)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1113436
El in the Ugaritic Texts
El as a Word Meaning 'God'
The etymology of the name El is an interesting one. El is common to all the Semitic languages except Ethiopic as the general appellative meaning 'god' in the broadest sense. It is also the most frequent element of theophorous proper names all over the ancient Semitic world. The word el in fact appears very often in ancient texts, and does regularly simply mean god, even in the Old Testament, where it is sometimes employed to refer to the god of the Hebrews. However, from reading the Ugaritic tablets, scholars have been left in no doubt that the word was also a proper name, referring to one single, personal god, with a distinct character and his own attendant myths. How this incongruity came about is a mystery. It seems likely that el was originally an appellative, common to all gods, and that it came to represent one god over the course of time. It could be that the name could have come to be used by a tribe to describe only their own god, until such time as his original name fell into oblivion.

One simple possibility was the Canaanite appropriation of the common title for Deity, a title back from antiquity, as one of the members of their pantheon.

Shalom,
Steven Avery
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic

John Kesler

I think that Genesis 33:20 and 46:3 provide examples of El's use as a name rather than a title:

Dr. Mark S. Smith concurs with this conclusion. In The Origins of Biblical Monotheism (or via: amazon.co.uk), page 141, he writes that, "West Semitic El lies behind the god of the patriarchs in Genesis 33:20 and 46:3 (and possible elsewhere)."

Loomis

Get ready for the Two El theory. It goes something like this …

Loomis

Let’s play “Good El - Bad El.”

Good el?

Or,

Bad El? :devil2:

Loomis

Let’s play more Good El - Bad El:

Good el?

Or,

Bad El? :devil2: