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Elyon
Elyon or El Elyon (Hebrew: אֵל עֶלְיוֹן ʼĒl ʻElyōn), is an epithet that appears in the Hebrew Bible. ʾĒl ʿElyōn is usually rendered in English as "God Most High", and similarly in the Septuagint as ὁ Θεός ὁ ὕψιστος ("God the highest"). The title ʿElyōn is a common topic of scholarly debate, sometimes interpreted as equal to the Abrahamic God, and otherwise theorized as a reference to a separate deity of its own kind, potentially above that of Yahweh.
Outside of biblical context, the term also has mundane uses, such as "upper" (where the ending in both roots is a locative, not superlative or comparative), "top", or "uppermost", referring simply to the position of objects (e.g. applied to a basket in Genesis 40:17 or to a chamber in Ezekiel 42:5).
The compound name ʼĒl ʻElyōn 'God Most High' occurs in Genesis 14:18–20 as the God whose priest was Melchizedek, king of Salem. The form appears again almost immediately in verse 22, used by Abraham in an oath to the king of Sodom. In this verse the name of God also occurs in apposition to ʼĒl ʻElyōn in the Masoretic Text but is absent in the Samaritan version, in the Septuagint translation, and in Symmachus. Its occurrence here was one foundation of a theory first espoused by Julius Wellhausen that ʼĒl ʻElyōn was an ancient god of Salem (Jerusalem), later equated with God.[citation needed] The only other occurrence of the compound expression is in Psalms 78:35: "And they remembered that God [ʼĒlōhīm] was their rock, and the high God [ʼĒl ʻElyōn] their redeemer." The name is repeated later in the chapter, but with a variation: verse fifty-six says ʼElohim ʻElyōn.
It has been suggested that the reference to "ʼĒl ʻElyōn, maker of heaven and earth" in Genesis 14:19 and 22 reflects a Canaanite background. The phrasing in Genesis resembles a retelling of Canaanite religious traditions in Philo of Byblos's account of Phoenician history, in which ʻElyōn was the progenitor of Ouranos ("Sky") and Gaia ("Earth").
The name ʽElyōn (Most High) standing alone is found in many poetic passages, especially in the Psalms. It appears in Balaam's verse oracle in Numbers 24:16 as a separate name parallel to Ēl. It also appears in Moses' final song in Deuteronomy 32:8 (a much-discussed verse). A translation of the Masoretic text:
When the Most High (ʽElyōn) divided nations,
he separated the sons of man (Ādām);
he set the bounds of the masses
according to the number of the sons of Israel
Many Septuagint manuscripts have angelōn theou (angels of God) in place of "sons of Israel", while a few others have huiōn theou (sons of God). The Dead Sea Scrolls fragment 4QDeutj, however, reads bny ’lwhm, (sons of God, or sons of ’Elohim). The New Revised Standard Version translates this as "he fixed the boundaries ... according to the number of the gods." However, the identification of ʽElyōn in the passage is disputed.
This passage appears to identify ʽElyōn with ’Elohim, but not necessarily with Yahweh. It can be read to mean that ʽElyōn separated mankind into 70 nations according to his 70 sons (the 70 sons of Ēl being mentioned in the Ugaritic texts), each of these sons to be the tutelary deity over one of the 70 nations, one of them being the God of Israel, Yahweh. Alternatively, it may mean that ʽElyōn, having given the other nations to his sons, now takes Israel for himself under the name of the Tetragrammaton. Both interpretations have support, although viewing ʽElyōn as a higher deity than Yahweh may be against most monotheistic standards of modern Abrahamic dogmas.
Elyon
Elyon or El Elyon (Hebrew: אֵל עֶלְיוֹן ʼĒl ʻElyōn), is an epithet that appears in the Hebrew Bible. ʾĒl ʿElyōn is usually rendered in English as "God Most High", and similarly in the Septuagint as ὁ Θεός ὁ ὕψιστος ("God the highest"). The title ʿElyōn is a common topic of scholarly debate, sometimes interpreted as equal to the Abrahamic God, and otherwise theorized as a reference to a separate deity of its own kind, potentially above that of Yahweh.
Outside of biblical context, the term also has mundane uses, such as "upper" (where the ending in both roots is a locative, not superlative or comparative), "top", or "uppermost", referring simply to the position of objects (e.g. applied to a basket in Genesis 40:17 or to a chamber in Ezekiel 42:5).
The compound name ʼĒl ʻElyōn 'God Most High' occurs in Genesis 14:18–20 as the God whose priest was Melchizedek, king of Salem. The form appears again almost immediately in verse 22, used by Abraham in an oath to the king of Sodom. In this verse the name of God also occurs in apposition to ʼĒl ʻElyōn in the Masoretic Text but is absent in the Samaritan version, in the Septuagint translation, and in Symmachus. Its occurrence here was one foundation of a theory first espoused by Julius Wellhausen that ʼĒl ʻElyōn was an ancient god of Salem (Jerusalem), later equated with God.[citation needed] The only other occurrence of the compound expression is in Psalms 78:35: "And they remembered that God [ʼĒlōhīm] was their rock, and the high God [ʼĒl ʻElyōn] their redeemer." The name is repeated later in the chapter, but with a variation: verse fifty-six says ʼElohim ʻElyōn.
It has been suggested that the reference to "ʼĒl ʻElyōn, maker of heaven and earth" in Genesis 14:19 and 22 reflects a Canaanite background. The phrasing in Genesis resembles a retelling of Canaanite religious traditions in Philo of Byblos's account of Phoenician history, in which ʻElyōn was the progenitor of Ouranos ("Sky") and Gaia ("Earth").
The name ʽElyōn (Most High) standing alone is found in many poetic passages, especially in the Psalms. It appears in Balaam's verse oracle in Numbers 24:16 as a separate name parallel to Ēl. It also appears in Moses' final song in Deuteronomy 32:8 (a much-discussed verse). A translation of the Masoretic text:
When the Most High (ʽElyōn) divided nations,
he separated the sons of man (Ādām);
he set the bounds of the masses
according to the number of the sons of Israel
Many Septuagint manuscripts have angelōn theou (angels of God) in place of "sons of Israel", while a few others have huiōn theou (sons of God). The Dead Sea Scrolls fragment 4QDeutj, however, reads bny ’lwhm, (sons of God, or sons of ’Elohim). The New Revised Standard Version translates this as "he fixed the boundaries ... according to the number of the gods." However, the identification of ʽElyōn in the passage is disputed.
This passage appears to identify ʽElyōn with ’Elohim, but not necessarily with Yahweh. It can be read to mean that ʽElyōn separated mankind into 70 nations according to his 70 sons (the 70 sons of Ēl being mentioned in the Ugaritic texts), each of these sons to be the tutelary deity over one of the 70 nations, one of them being the God of Israel, Yahweh. Alternatively, it may mean that ʽElyōn, having given the other nations to his sons, now takes Israel for himself under the name of the Tetragrammaton. Both interpretations have support, although viewing ʽElyōn as a higher deity than Yahweh may be against most monotheistic standards of modern Abrahamic dogmas.