Alright homies, here’s something you’ve probably never heard before.
Brace yourself because I think you’re gonna find this quite surprising.
You know the world EL from the word ELOHIM.
Well, that ain’t a Hebrew word folks.
That’s right.
It’s actually a Canaanite word that the Israelites borrowed and integrated into their own language.
EL was the typical name for Canaan’s Highest God.
In other words, EL was the top dog deity amongst the pantheon of Canaanite gods.
El was considered the father of not just all the other gods but all other human beings as well.
However, what’s interesting was just because EL was the father didn’t mean he was the strongest of all the gods.
Actually, that attribute was reserved for the Canaanite deity BA’AL.
I’m sure you’ve heard of BA’AL before.
Well, BA’AL was the one considered to be the most powerful of the gods even though EL was his papa.
In Abraham’s time, the hierarchy of gods generally went this way:
EL was the father god.
And Asherah (El’s wife) was the mother of all the gods and also of all humanity.
What we can ascertain from this is that the gods gave birth to other gods and their mother was Asherah.
Ba’al, the mightiest of the gods, held authority over the storms and fertility.
And a god by the name of ASTARTE or ASHTORETH (NOT to be confused with Asherah) was closely connected to BA’AL.
Oh by the way, I’ve said this before but it bears repeating.
The Anglo-Saxon name for ASTARTE is ISHTAR which morphed into EASTER.
This makes sense because all of the Christian rites involving Easter eggs and rabbits are associated with fertility.
However, ASTARTE was not just the goddess of fertility but was also the goddess of love and war.
She was BA’AL’s companion.
Truthfully, there were a ton of pagan deities flourishing in the land of Canaan, but the four biggies constantly mentioned in Scripture are…
…EL, ASHERAH, BA’AL and ASTARTE.
Alrighty, see you all next time.
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