EL. — The primitive and personal name of God among all the ancient Semites: Hebrew and Aramaic 'ēl, Akkadian ilu, Arabic ilāh, as evidenced by the very ancient and frequent theophoric names compounded with "E." (M. Noth, *Die israelitischen Personennamen*, Stuttgart 1928, pp. 83-91); and the texts from Rās Shamrah (cf. *Revue biblique*, 48 [1939], p. 153; G. B. Roggia, p. 570 sq.). Nomadic herdsmen, the Semites best preserved the primitive idea of the High God (W. Schmidt, *Der Ursprung der Gottesidee*, I, 2, Münster in West. 1912, pp. 672-93).
This original monotheism began to fade as the various Semitic groups came into contact with peoples of other religions. In Mesopotamia, already in the time of Abraham, the monotheistic notion was confused, and the patriarch returned to it through revelation from the same God. Thus in the Old Testament "El" is the most ancient appellation of the one God, who as "God of Israel" would be called Yahweh; it distinctly expresses the divine nature. It is usually joined with a specification: an attribute ("God who sees me," etc.) or another divine name ("El-Shaddai," "El-Elyon"); only in poetic language is it found alone and without the article (75 times in the Psalms, 53 times in Job). In an improper sense, it is also used for the false gods of other peoples, just as the plural 'elîm (Ex. 15:11; Dan. 11:36). Cf. P. Zorell, p. 51 sq.
The etymology of 'El is uncertain: "the powerful one," from 'āl, or "El was powerful," or from 'ālāh "was strong" (cf. Gen. 31:20; Deut. 28:32). According to H. Bauer, just as the Arabic *intu* ("he") indicates Allah, so the Proto-Semitic *il ("that one there") would have become the name of the Supreme Being (G. B. Roggina, p. 564).