In
the Hebrew Bible, El is identified with YHWH, the God of Israel. In the words
of Mark Smith, “The original god of Israel was El” (Smith, Early History of
God, 32). The name “Israel” alludes to El rather than YHWH. In Exod 6:3 God
tells Moses: “I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shadday, but by
name YHWH I did not make myself known to them.” El Shadday is one of several
variations of the divine name in Genesis. Others include El Olam (Gen 21:33)
and El Elyon (Gen 14:18-20) (Cross, Canaanite Myth, 46-47). The latter
epithet is associated with pre-Israelite Jebusite Jerusalem in Gen 14, and with
the later Jerusalem cult in Ps 46:5 (Eric E. Elnes and Patrick D. Miller, “Elyon,”
DDD2, 293-99, esp. 297-98). Despite the frequency of polemic
against Canaanite worship in the Hebrew Bible, there is no polemic against El.
Nonetheless,
some evidence has survived that El and YHWH were once distinguished. Most
notable is Deut 32:8-9, where YHWH appears to be one of the sons of El:
When
Elyon gave the nations their inheritance
when he separated human beings [literally, the sons of ‘ādām]
he fixed the boundaries of the nations
according to the number of the sons of El.
For YHWH’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage. (author’s trans.)
The
Masoretic Text, the traditional text of the Hebrew Bible, reads, “According to
the number of the sons of Israel”; but the Septuagint reads, “of the angels of
God” (in most manuscripts) or “of the sons of God” (in some). The latter
reading is now corroborated by a fragment from Qumran, 4QDeutj (Patrick
W. Skehan, “A Fragment of the ‘Song of Moses’ from Qumran,” BASOR 136 [1954]:
12-15; and Smith, God in Translation, 195-96). Mark Smith argues that “in
view of the larger context of Deut 32 (especially verses 12, 17, 21, 31, and
39), it is evident that the composer presupposed the monotheistic
identification of Yahweh in verse 9 with Elyon in verse 8” (Smith, God in
Translation, 211). But he grants that “the original composer of the text drew
on an old polytheistic picture. This polytheistic picture did not belong simply
to some prebiblical culture, but in fact was at home in early Israel” (Ibid.,
210). We do not know when Deut 32 was written, but evidently the old idea that
YHWH, like Baal, was subordinate to El had not entirely died out.
Further
evidence of early Israelite polytheism is found in Ps 82: “God ‘ĕlōhîm)
takes his stand in the council of EL; in the midst of gods (‘ĕlōhîm) he
judges.” Many commentators have assumed that the text originally read, “YHWH
takes his stand,” and that the reading was changed in the redaction of the
Elohistic Psalter (Pss 42-83) (So e.g., Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 60-150: A
Commentary [trans. H. Oswalt; Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1989], 154).
At the least, it is likely that the ‘ĕlōhîm who arises is YHWH (Erich
Zanger, “Psalm 82,” in F.-L Hossfeld and E. Zenger, Psalms 2: A Commentary
on Psalms 51-100 [trans. L. Maloney; Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress,
2005], 329n3). He pronounces judgment on the other “sons of Elyon” because they
have failed to execute justice, and declares that they will die like human
beings (Zenger, “Psalm 82,” 331). The gods of the nations, then, are
demythologized, but the proceedings still take place in “the council of El” (E.
Theodore Mullen, The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature
[HSM 24; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1980]). The psalm concludes by declaring that ‘ĕlōhîm
(=YHWH) will inherit all the nations. Whether or not the psalm is deliberately
responding to Deut 32, it says in effect that the allotment of the nations to
the various sons of El is now superseded (Marl Smith, The Origins of
Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts [Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001], 48-49). But it still preserves the council of
El as the context in which these things are decided. (John J. Collins, “The
Legacy of Canaan in Ancient Israel and Early Christianity,” in Biblical
Essays in Honor of Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, and Richard J. Clifford, SJ:
Opportunity For No Little Instruction, ed. Christopher G. Frechette,
Christopher R. Matthews, and Thomas D. Stegman [New York: Paulist Press, 2014],
73-75)