El (deity)

El is both a generic term for " divine being " or " divine nature " in many Semitic languages ​​, on the other hand, the name of the supreme god in the pantheon of Ugariter, Canaanites and Phoenicians in the second millennium BC. The Hebrew plural of El, Elohim ( "gods" ), was in the Tanakh to the alternative name for the revered as the only God is God of the Israelites, YHWH. El is also the root of the Arabic title of God Allah ( "the God ").

• 3.1 clan god of the Aramaeans and Hebrews
• 3.2 attributions
• 3.3 Identification with YHWH
• 3.4 Theophores element in place and proper names

Ugarit

For the first time appeared the name El around 1400 BC to the cuneiform texts from Ugarit. Depending on the context, the word means the proper name of God or the generic term. In the Ugaritic mythology ʿ El is with the inscription from the Ugaritic il, plural or dual ilm as the " architect of the built ", " father of mankind" or creator of the creation "( bny bnwt ) circumscribed. The word ilm occurs in large mythological texts, where it usually means the plural of the generic name in some phrases. So the sun goddess Sapa carries the predicate nrt ilm, " Light of the Gods". Even in the small texts from Ugarit the plural refers mainly to the general concept of God. In contrast, the singular il referred mainly to proper names.

El had at times for some of the Ugaritic population, the position of the supreme God. He was given the nickname " king ", " the friendly " or " bull " award. The call "Bull El " to emphasize its outstanding strength and power, and suggests that the bull was his symbol.

Myths

Long ago, El created the world. His home was the source of the two streams of subterranean depth. A cuneiform tablet (the " myth of the friendly and beautiful gods " ) tells how he surprised the goddesses ( Athirat and Šapsu ) at a fountain and it impregnates. This he first testifies Sahar, the god of dawn and his brother Salim, the god of dusk, later anonymous demons. The totality of all such begotten gods is called Banu Elima ( " El- sons ").

The name of Els Erstgemahlin Asherah, the mother of the gods, is present in various circumlocutions like Athirat, Eilat and Qudšu that mean in translation " the female deity " or "the saints." It is also called "Lady Athirat of the sea" and has a private residence not far from El. Decisions are made by their well alone. With her ​​El fathered seventy gods and goddesses. More children conceived follow from his second wife Šapsu.

The gods society appear regularly before El on a high mountain. There is decided to actions taking place, as each child God has to follow the instructions Els. So Ba'al has only to ask, for example for permission before he can kill the sea god Yam. Ba'al's sister, the moon goddess Anat reached Els consent for Baal projects only after they threatened with violence.

Representation

El is depicted in human form and in royal robes. In pictures he is seen as a sign of his advanced age, with gray hair. A 13- centimeter -high bronze sculpture depicts a seated god with a beard and an Egyptian Atef crown. He wears a long coat with Syrian Wulstsaum and sandals. The right hand is raised in a gesture of blessing. The bull's horns, an object in his left hand and the throne on which sat are not clearly identified with El figure are gone. On the right 47 inches high so-called " El stele " from serpentine sits a bearded god with a long coat and horns crown, his feet resting on a stool. Opposite him stands as worshipers of the king with a crown on his head, in his hands he holds a scepter and a pitcher of offerings.

Worship

The texts from Ugarit from the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC are the most important testimonies about El represents a typical prayer to El is:

Oh El! Oh sons Els! Oh assembly of the sons Els! Oh gathering of the sons Els ... Oh and El Ashirat Be merciful, O El Be rest, oh El El, rush, El, come quickly To help Zaphons, To help Ugarit With the spear, O El, with the raised, oh el. With the ax, O El, with the crushing, oh el.

With the invasion of the so-called Sea Peoples around 1200 BC, a sudden transformation of the role Els at Ugarit begin. The town itself is destroyed by the Sea Peoples. El lose within the next two hundred years in this region is becoming increasingly important. From about 1000 BC, the name Athirat, his first wife will not reappear. A new God, Ba'alšamen ( Phoenician ) or Be'elšamen ( Aramaic ) replaces about 1000 BC in Ugarit El definitively from.

Philistines and Phoenicians

With the advance of the Sea Peoples new names appear on the horizon. The Bible calls the Philistines as inhabitants of the coastal region of Palestine and early enemies of the Israelites in pre-state period. They are believed to be related to the Phoenicians, who settled mainly in the coastal area in the region of the destroyed Ugarit to Sidon.

El lost in these regions in importance. Athirat was mentioned only with the Philistines. Just as in the region of the destroyed Ugarit the new god Ba'alšamen / Be'elšamen now gets preference over ʿ El.

In Philo of Byblos the Phoenician deities pedigree begins with Eliun and his wife Beruth whose descendants Uranus and Ge together witnessed a pedigree of seven generations with over 40 deities. Among them was El (Kronos ), who, after he had grown up, his father Uranus defeated and took his place as ruler.

Bible

Clan god of the Aramaeans and Hebrews

In the first book of Moses El is combined with the name of the semi-nomadic clan chiefs, whom he had first appeared. This El is like a name used:

• " God of my ( your ) father "
• " God of our ( your ) fathers "
• " God of Abraham " (El Avraham )
• " God of Isaac " (El Jitzchaq )
• " God of Jacob " (El Ja'aqov )

The combination of " God of my father ," referring probably originally only to their own father (Gen 26:24; 46.1 ), so that its God differed from other family gods. This show old patriarchal stories as the encounter between Jacob and his relatives the Aramean Laban (Gen 31,5.29.42 ). Also in the Joseph story (Gen 43.23 ) states dissociating and singular: Your God and God of your father, hath given you treasure ... In Gen 31,53 it says clearly: The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor - the God of their father! - Judge between us. Only after several clans merged into one tribe, was from the " God of my ( your, your, their ) father " of the " God of our ( your, their ) fathers."

The combination Els with personal names is often regarded as an early stage of an ancient Near Eastern monotheism in which God was still nameless. It is disputed whether the name referred fictional ancestors of clans and tribes or real persons. From the finds of clay tablets from the Mesopotamian city of Mari from about 1900 BC are known names like Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, the designated individual Aramaic people.

In the course of a suspected Aramaic second wave of migration (about 1500 BC) were groups of semi-nomadic people from Mesopotamia and Syria, or from the Sinai Peninsula in the seasonal grazing changes in the fertile agricultural land of Canaan, where they met and exchanged their stories. In this case, so that progressions such as " God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob " (Ex 3:6) their deities were probably already identified with each other, arise and could be summarized as " God of our ( your ) fathers " (Ex 3:16).

Based on such observations presented the Old Testament scholar Albrecht Alt 1929, the influential thesis of the " God of the fathers " as a precursor of YHWH religion. For him was " ... not the strong bond to a place but the constant relationship with a group of people the key feature ". As in the later all Israel YHWH faith emphasized the fathers religion, the relationship between God and man, God and social group. The lack of local bond she made loud Alt " ... the more motile in responding to any changes the fate of the worshiper circles".

The gods did not need fathers pilgrimage to a fixed sanctuary and no mediation by priests, whose duties took over the family man. They were her people always present and were probably worshiped without image. Only in cultivated land them sacrifices were offered (Gen 31.54; 46.1 ). Their job was to protect the family traveling from all kinds of dangers (Gen 28:15; 31,3.5, 35.3, 46.4 ) to go with them (Gen 26,3.24.28 ) and for their right to life to worry. As the protective gods of the clan, they were responsible particularly for the gifts of which depended the future of all: country, descendants and peace with the neighboring nations (Gen 12:1-3 ).

Attributions

El is combined in the Bible with different attributes. Hagar the outcast of Abraham's first wife, Sarah maid and mother of Ishmael, God calls after her rescue from dying of thirst El- Roi (Hebrew אל רועי ): " God who sees me " (Gen 16:13).

A combination that is considered very old, joins El Shaddai with the attribute שדי (Gen 17:1; Ex 6,3). They often appear in connection with the name of Jacob, the third patriarch of Israel. The importance of the attribute is unclear: Traditionally it has been translated " Almighty ". Also a connection with the Hebrew verb שדד schaddad has been suggested ( "violent be " " devastate " ). Then Shaddai would be like with " Destroyer" translatable. Sometimes Shaddai is also fed back to the Hebrew word indemnify ( " chest "). Some exegetes initiated the attribute from the Akkadian word schadu ( "mountain", as a verb: " to rise " ) from and then translated the name as "God the Almighty " or "God the Most High ." Other introduced it in terms of areas such as gene 49,25 and Ps 68.15 from Neo-Assyrian schaddaju ( " mountain people " ) from and translated the name as "God of the Mountains". The Canaanite god El was inseparable from the mountains.

Identification with YHVH

In the second book of Moses, the actual history of Israel begins as a own people: Therefore progressions withdraw from fathers name from there. The combination of "God of Moses " is missing, although it was called like the patriarchs according to Ex 3. Instead, names now dominate as " God of the Hebrews " or " God of Israel ".

In the vocation story of Moses ( Ex 3 ), the El, known as the God of the fathers provides for the first time with his own name before YHWH ( v. 14). After Ex 6.3 YHWH is the one who was known to the fathers under the name El Shaddai. This refers back to the self- conception of God as El Shaddai in Genesis 17. This striking periodization of the history of salvation was often regarded as characteristic of a hypothetical source and redaction of the Pentateuch, the exilic Priestly source. Pentateuchtexte who describe God as El Shaddai, this source have been assigned.

After EU 14.18-24 gene already identified with Abraham El YHWH. After a victorious battle, he was the priest-king Melchizedek of Salem (later Jerusalem) encountered. This had blessed him in the name of El Aeljon, " the one who has created heaven and earth ." Then Abraham Melchizedek was the " tithe of everything", ie paid his share of the spoils of war and " YHWH made ​​the heavens and the earth," his God as designated. From this one concludes that the residents of Salem, the Jebusites, v. around 1200 BC a creator god El Aeljon ( " the Most High God " ) worshiped, which was not identical to the fathers gods. Similarly, the city god of Beersheba El Olam was called ("God the Eternal ," Gen 21:33 ). The attributes Aeljon and " Creator of heaven and earth" (ie, the entire known universe ) are not used in the finds from Ugarit; also an associated creation myth is missing. Outside of the Bible testify to ancient inscriptions only one " El, creator of the earth"; the attribute " creator of heaven " is missing. However, a correlation of El Aeljon is assumed to be a Canaanite creation mythology. Whether the Melchisedekszene reflected an early recognition of this Canaanite creator God through Hebrew semi-nomadic or first created retrospectively to legitimize Jerusalem as a place of worship YHWH, is controversial. It is certain that YHWH was referred to in the Bible late as the creator of the world and the creator attribute from the religion of Canaan came from.

According to another religious-historical thesis Israelites and Canaanites worshiped originally both the same God El, from which YHWH had developed. Here, the father of the gods known from Ugarit El had been so identified with YHWH, that YHWH was first worshiped as the highest, then as the only God and the last development step, the existence of other gods had been denied.

Theophores element in place and proper names

The name El is the first book of Moses often combined with location and proper names and then readjusted:

• Isra -El, " the struggles with God " or "God fights (for us) " (Gen 32:29 )
• Ishmael: " God hears you" (Gen 16:11)
• Bethel " House of God", a place of worship Els later in northern kingdom of Israel, which the infiltrating nomads took over (Gen 31:13 ). The origin legend (etiology ) this is Jacob's vision of the ladder to heaven, and he this God a cairn erected (Gen 28:10-22 ).

• Penu -El: " face of God " (Gen 32:31 )
• Gabriel
• Michael
• Samuel

And others.