El-elohe-israel (Hastings' Dictionary)

Upon the 'parcel of ground' whicii he had bought from the RCnd-Hamor, Jacob erected a. Tna^fibdh (so W vW. , 682 EL ELYON ELEMENT Kautzsch, Socin, Ball, Dillm., etc.), and built an altar, giving to the latter the name El-elohe- Israel, 'El, the god of Israel,' Gn332"(E). This appears a strange name for an altar, hence Delitzsch ((((? loc.) supposes it to be meant, as it were, of its inscription.

The LXX reads ^jr£Ko\^<raTo rbf 0{ov 'lapaiiX, ' he called upon the God of Israel ' ; and it is just possible that this is correct, and that we should emend the MT ^s S'? trjjj'i to Sn^ ki.P'!. See God. J. A. Selbie. EL ELYON (iV^y Sn) occurs in RVm of Gn 14"- 19. au. a „.iiere KV (text) has ' God most High,' and AV ' the most high God.' It is probably a proper name, the appellation of a Canaanite deity. In v.

^ ' I have lift up mine hand unto J", God most High,' there can be little doubt that the introduc- tion of the word ' J" ' and the identification of tlie latter with El Elyon are due to a redactor (so Ball, Kautzsch-Socin, Hommel, etc.) The word J" is wanting in the LXX {Oebp rbv O^iotov), and tlie collocation of names reminds one of ' Jahweh- Elohim ' of Gn 2-3. See further under GoD.

It has been proposed by Sayce to identify El Elyon with the ' mighty king ' referred to in the letters of Ebed-tob (or, as Hommel writes the name, Abdi-khiba) to the Pharaoh Amenflphis (c. B.C. 1400).

This 'mighty king' is indeed gener- ally supposed to be the king of Egypt ; but Hommel, while agreeing with Driver, against Sayce, that an earthly potentate is meant, argues, from the use of the term in the letter of Rib-Adda of Gebal, that it cannot be intended to designate the Pharaoh, but was more probably the king of the Hittites. He suggests, further, that the title 'mighty king' had originnlbj a religious significance.

He remarks tliat tlie thrice- repeated asseveration of Abdi- khiba, that he owed his exalted position not to his father or his motlier, but to the ' arm of the mighty king,' sounds like the eclio of some ancient sacreil formula. ' To the Pharaoh, of course, the "mii^hty king" meant nothing more than his rival tlie king of the Hittites; but in Jerusalem the original signihcance of the words " not my father and not ray mother, but the arm of the mighty king" (i.e.

of El Elyon), must still have been per- fcittly familiar.' It is well, however, to remember that this is pure conjecture. There is no reason why a title lilce the ' mighty king ' should not have been applied to more monarchs than one. In the letters of Abdi-khiba it may refer to the Hittite king, as elsewhere it may designate the king of Egypt or tlie kin" of Babylon, but that it has ever anything to do with El Elyon remains to he proved. LiTKKATUHE.— Dillm. and Del. on On U ; Kittel, Hiet.

of nebTfws, i. 179 t. I Hommel, Anc. Ueb. Tradilion (1807), 161 ff., InOff., 226; a series of papers in the Expository Times, vols, vii.-viii. (1896-97), on 'Melchizedek,' by Sayce, Driver, and HommeL J. A. SeLBIE.