A scribe in the 8th century BCE, working by lamplight in a stone chamber at Kuntillet Ajrud, dips his reed pen and writes a blessing: “I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria and by his Asherah.” He does not write “by Elohim.” He writes the personal name. A few centuries later, another scribe in Jerusalem copies a psalm that says “Elohim stands in the divine assembly; among the gods he pronounces judgment” (Psalm 82:1). The same God, two names, and the difference between them tells us how the people who wrote these texts understood who they were speaking to.
El and Elohim are not synonyms. El is the older, singular name of the chief deity in the Canaanite pantheon, adopted by early Israelite religion. Elohim is a plural noun that, in the Hebrew Bible, almost always takes a singular verb and refers to the God of Israel, but its grammatical number preserves a memory of a divine council. The distinction is not theological abstraction. It is a fossil of how monotheism grew out of polytheism, visible in the text itself.
Where Do the Names El and Elohim Come From?
The name El appears in Ugaritic texts from the 14th–13th centuries BCE, excavated at Ras Shamra in modern Syria. In those tablets, El is the father of the gods, the creator, the one who sits on a throne at the source of the rivers. He is old, bearded, wise, and distant. His consort is Asherah. He is not the only god, but he is the highest.
The Israelites inherited this name. In the Hebrew Bible, El appears as a divine name in compounds: El Shaddai (God Almighty), El Elyon (God Most High), El Olam (Everlasting God). These are not titles. They are the name El with an epithet attached, exactly as the Ugaritic texts name El.
Elohim is a different word. It is the plural of eloah, a less common noun for a god. In Canaanite contexts, elohim could mean “gods” in the plural, as in the phrase “no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). But when the Hebrew Bible refers to the God of Israel, Elohim takes a singular verb: “In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The verb bara is singular. The noun is plural.
This grammatical oddity has generated centuries of debate. The simplest explanation is that Elohim is a plural of majesty or plural of intensity, a grammatical form used in Hebrew for abstract nouns and for God. But that explanation is a medieval Jewish rationalization, not a historical one. The older view, still defended by some scholars, is that Elohim retains the memory of a divine council: the one God who presides over a court of other beings.
What Each Name Meant to the People Who Used Them
The difference is not academic. It shaped how people prayed.
When the patriarchs in Genesis call on El Shaddai, they are using a name that connects them to the Canaanite high god, but with a specific attribute: the one who makes fruitful, who gives children. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob do not use the name Yahweh in the early Genesis narratives. They use El. The God they know is the old, distant creator, not yet the personal deliverer of the Exodus.
When Moses asks for God’s name at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14), the answer is Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, “I Am Who I Am,” and the narrator says this is Yahweh. From that point forward, Yahweh becomes the personal name of the God of Israel. But the texts continue to use Elohim and El interchangeably, often in the same verse.
The effect is layered. Elohim emphasizes the transcendent power and the divine assembly. Yahweh emphasizes the covenant relationship and the personal presence. El emphasizes the ancient, fatherly authority.
A concrete example: in the Book of Job, the characters almost always speak of Elohim or Shaddai. They do not use Yahweh. The frame story uses Yahweh. The poetic dialogues use Elohim. The author is making a deliberate choice: the suffering man does not address God by the intimate covenant name. He uses the more distant, cosmic name.
How These Names Are Used in Practice
In Jewish liturgy, the name Elohim appears in every blessing: Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam. “Blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the universe.” The word Eloheinu is “our God,” from Elohim. The name El appears in the phrase El rachum v’chanun, “God merciful and gracious” (Exodus 34:6), recited in the penitential prayers.
In Kabbalistic tradition, the two names correspond to different sefirot (divine emanations). Elohim corresponds to Gevurah (severity, judgment). Yahweh corresponds to Tiferet (beauty, mercy). El corresponds to Chesed (lovingkindness). These are not arbitrary assignments. They derive from the numerical values and the contexts in which each name appears in the Torah.
A practitioner of Jewish meditation or theurgical Kabbalah might intone Elohim when seeking to invoke divine judgment or boundary-setting, and El when seeking the flow of compassion. The difference is felt in the mouth. Elohim has four syllables, a heavier sound. El is a single syllable, a breath.
In Christian esoteric traditions, the names are often used in ceremonial magic. The Key of Solomon, a grimoire from the 14th–15th centuries, includes Elohim among the divine names to be pronounced during the consecration of tools. El appears as a name of power in the conjurations. The distinction is preserved: Elohim is the name of the creator in the first chapter of Genesis, and El is the name of the ancient one.
Elohim vs. El: A Comparison
| Aspect | El | Elohim |
|---|---|---|
| Grammatical number | Singular | Plural (with singular verb) |
| Primary context | Canaanite high god, patriarchal narratives | Creator, divine council, Israel’s God |
| Associated attribute | Father, ancient, distant | Power, judgment, assembly |
| Typical epithets | Shaddai, Elyon, Olam | Elohim Chayim (living God), Elohe Yisrael |
| In Kabbalah | Chesed (lovingkindness) | Gevurah (severity) |
| In liturgy | El rachum v’chanun | Eloheinu in every blessing |
Common Misconceptions
Misconception 1: Elohim is a “plural of majesty” and has no connection to polytheism. This is the most common explanation in Jewish apologetics, but it is anachronistic. The plural of majesty is attested in later Hebrew (for kings and masters), but the earliest biblical texts use Elohim in contexts that clearly assume a divine council (Psalm 82, Deuteronomy 32:8–9 in the Septuagint). The plural form is a relic, not a grammatical invention.
Misconception 2: El and Elohim are the same name in different forms. They are different roots. El is a primitive Semitic word for “god.” Elohim is derived from eloah, which itself may be a loanword. They are not interchangeable in every context. The Bible never calls Yahweh “El” in the same way it calls him “Elohim.” El appears mostly in poetry and archaic formulas.
Misconception 3: The distinction is only relevant for scholars. It matters for anyone who reads the Bible closely. The choice of name changes the tone. When the Psalmist says “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1), the Hebrew is Eli, Eli. He is calling on El, not Elohim. The intimacy is different. Jesus on the cross quotes this psalm in Aramaic: Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? He uses the name of the father, not the judge.
FAQ
Is El a different god from Yahweh? In the earliest Israelite religion, El and Yahweh were likely separate deities. El was the high god of the Canaanite pantheon; Yahweh was a warrior god from the south (Edom, Midian, Seir). Over time, they were identified as one. The Hebrew Bible preserves traces of this merger, such as Deuteronomy 32:8–9, where Elyon (El) gives the nations their inheritance and Yahweh receives Israel as his portion.
Why does Genesis 1 use Elohim and Genesis 2 use Yahweh? This is the classic documentary hypothesis. The two creation accounts come from different sources. The Priestly source (Genesis 1) uses Elohim, emphasizing cosmic order. The Yahwist source (Genesis 2) uses Yahweh, emphasizing personal relationship. The difference in divine names is one of the primary clues that led scholars to identify multiple authors.
Can Elohim ever mean “gods” in the plural? Yes. In Exodus 12:12, God says “against all the gods (elohim) of Egypt I will execute judgment.” In Psalm 82, “Elohim stands in the divine assembly; among the elohim he pronounces judgment.” The context determines whether the word refers to the one God or to other divine beings.
How do Jewish mystics use the distinction? In Kabbalah, each divine name corresponds to a specific sefirah and a specific function. Meditating on El invokes the flow of Chesed. Meditating on Elohim invokes Gevurah. The practitioner aligns their intention with the attribute they wish to draw down.
The Names Are Not Interchangeable
The scribe at Kuntillet Ajrud wrote a blessing by Yahweh and his Asherah. A later scribe would have found that blasphemous. The names changed meaning as the religion changed. El became a title. Elohim became a name. The grammatical plural became a theological singular.
What remains is a text that refuses to smooth over its own history. The Hebrew Bible does not explain why God has two names. It simply uses both, side by side, and leaves the reader to wonder. That is the kind of text we work with: one that preserves its contradictions because they are true to how people actually believed.
For more on the divine names and their place in angelology, see our guide to angelology. The names El and Elohim appear in many angelic titles, such as Gabriel (El is my strength) and Michael (who is like El?). You can also explore the glossary of divine names for a full list of biblical epithets. And if you want to understand how these names function in ritual, read our guide to the divine names in Kabbalah.