Bethel and the Persistence of El: Evidence for the Survival of El as an Independent Deity in the Jacob Cycle and 1 Kings 12:25–30

Abstract

According to a common scholarly model of Israelite religion, the deity El disappears under a rising tide of Yahwism sometime in the early monarchic period. In this article, by contrast, I use several texts preserved in the Jacob cycle to argue that El remained a distinct deity at Bethel until at least the eighth century BCE and possibly much later. I also argue on the basis of 1 Kgs 12:25–30 that El did not begin to lose ground to YHWH at Bethel until Jeroboam II introduced YHWH to Bethel as a subordinate deity in the eighth century BCE.

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