Dear Editor,

For some references to the point I have made in my earlier letter, I offer this as a place to start from notes in a book I am writing:

(In Genesis 14) Phoenician/Canaanite El Elyon or: ‘êl `elyôwn: God Most High. The religious conditions of Canaan and Phoenicia were very similar (CHB), and El Elyon was a compound name of gods of the Phoenician pantheon (NJB). Elyon, or Hebrew `elyôwn (elevation, lofty, the Supreme), is used later in the Bible especially in Psalms (NJB). `El’ or ‘êl is the oldest name of the deity amongst many Middle Eastern people (CHB). `El’ continued to be used in the Bible to refer to God, for example:

Elohim or ‘elôhîym: deities or The Deity, plural of: elôahh: deity or the Deity, a prolongation of ‘êl: God, the Almighty, mighty.

Beth-el or Bêyth-'Êl: house of God.

Ishma-el or Yishmâ`ê’l: will hear God -God will hear.

Emmanu-el or Immânûw’êl: with us God -God with us.

‘El’ was the current name for God, in the form of Elah,[1][1] in the Aramaic language of Christ. LAMSA gives the Aramaic for God, from the date of the Eastern biblical manuscripts (Peshitta) until now, as Alaha, which can be easily recognized in the Arabic Allah, the name also used by Christian Arabs.

El Shaddai, an ancient divine name possibly brought from Mesopotamia, is another regional (Canaanite) name of a deity introduced into the Bible (eg used frequently in Job -see PART II Problem Passages, Introduction). NRSV indicates the meaning as the Accadian: “God, the One of the Mountains.” Another is El Olam, Hebrew 'êl `ôlâm, “The Everlasting God” -Genesis 21:33 “an ancient divine name, once associated with the pre-Israelite sanctuary of Beer-Sheba, which Israel adopted as a title for the Lord” (RSV).

Steve Summers
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada