Biblical Hebrew Forum

[barre AT access1.com]

Dear Members,

Previously here and in an essay posted at my website, I have argued that El 
was always the 
god of Israel as long as this people existed.  El appears as the god of 
Israel not only at his 
cult sites (Bethel, Penuel, El Berith in Shechem, the altar near Shechem 
called "El is the god 
of Israel!") but also in the oracles of Balaam, Psalms 29 and 82 and in Deut 
32:8-9.  To this 
evidence I would add the Elohistic Psalter and also these two texts from 
Kintullet ajrud:

wb'rh.'l.b . . .

"and in the ways of El . . ."

sm.'l.bym.ml . . .

"the name of El in the days of . . ."

These texts have been confidently dated to the middle of the 8th century, 
probably during the 
reign of Jeroboam II (c. 783-743).  Since it is extremely unlikely that El 
would disappear 
sometime after Jeroboam II and before the Assyrians conquest of Israel in 
722, my claim that 
El remained the god of Israel until its destruction is confirmed by these 
texts.  Yahweh never 
eclipsed El as the traditional (reaching back to Aram )and perpetual god of 
his people Israel.







L. M. Barre, Ph.D.

barre AT access1.com
www.angelfire.com/ca2/AncientIsrael

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