In Mark 15:34, Jesus says, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). Did Jesus call God “Eloi”? A: BDEhrman November 6, 2026 – The “i” means “my” and El is the name of God; In Hebrew “my God my God” would be Eli Eli (as in matthew) in Aramaic (a related language) it would be Eloi Eloi
From Claude.ai
Passages Where YHWH Is Identified as El or an El-Compound
The NASB almost always renders ‘ēl as “God” and ‘ēl compounds as “God Almighty,” “Most High God,” and so on, so the English alone won’t show which verses use El. The list below is built from the Hebrew. I’ve given references with short paraphrases rather than reproducing NASB text at length, since it is copyrighted. Look up each verse in your NASB, and I can quote short phrases from any of them on request.
1. Explicit El-Compounds Tied to YHWH
- El Elyon (God Most High): Gen 14:18-22. Abram swears by “YHWH, El Elyon, possessor of heaven and earth” (v. 22), which identifies the two. Also Ps 78:35, which pairs ‘ēl ‘elyôn with the Redeemer, and Num 24:16.
- El Shaddai (God Almighty): Gen 17:1 (YHWH appears to Abram); 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3; Exod 6:3, where God says he appeared to the patriarchs as El Shaddai and was not known to them by the name YHWH.
- El Olam (Everlasting God): Gen 21:33, where Abraham calls on the name of YHWH, El Olam.
- El Roi (God Who Sees): Gen 16:13, spoken of the YHWH who addressed Hagar.
- El Elohe Yisrael: Gen 33:20, Jacob’s altar at Shechem.
- El Qanna (Jealous God): Exod 20:5; 34:14; Deut 4:24; 5:9; 6:15.
- El Hannora (Awesome God): Deut 7:21; 10:17; Neh 1:5; 9:32; Dan 9:4.
- El Hay (Living God): Josh 3:10; Ps 42:2; 84:2; Hos 1:10.
- El Gibbor (Mighty God): Isa 9:6; 10:21; Jer 32:18.
- El Elohim YHWH: Josh 22:22; Ps 50:1.
2. YHWH Called “El” Directly
- Exod 15:2: after “YHWH is my strength and song,” the poem says “this is my God” (‘ēlî). Exod 15:11 asks who is like YHWH among the ‘ēlim.
- Exod 34:6: YHWH proclaims himself “YHWH, YHWH, a God (‘ēl) compassionate and gracious.”
- Num 23:8, 19, 22; 24:8: Balaam speaks of El, who brought Israel out of Egypt, in a context that identifies him with YHWH (23:21).
- Deut 7:9; 32:4, 18: the faithful God (ha-‘ēl ha-ne’ĕmān); the Rock whose work is perfect.
- 2 Sam 22:31-33, 48 // Ps 18:30-32, 47: “As for God (‘ēl), his way is blameless.”
- Ps 10:12; 16:1; 22:1; 31:5; 77:13-14; 95:3; 118:27: YHWH addressed as El. Ps 118:27 reads “YHWH is El,” and Ps 95:3 calls him a great El.
- Isa 12:2; 42:5; 45:14, 22: “Behold, God (‘ēl) is my salvation”; “Thus says God (ha-‘ēl), YHWH”; “I am El, and there is no other.”
- Hos 11:9: “I am God (‘ēl) and not man.”
- Nah 1:2: the LORD is a jealous and avenging God.
3. Scholarly Context
- Merging of El and YHWH. Frank Moore Cross argues that YHWH and El were identified early and that El epithets were absorbed into the YHWH cult (Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, 1973, ch. 1).
- Origins of YHWH. Mark S. Smith treats Gen 14:22 and Exod 6:3 as evidence of that identification (The Early History of God, 2nd ed., 2002, chs. 1-2).
- Deut 32:8-9. Smith also discusses this passage, where the MT reads “sons of Israel,” but 4QDeut-j and the LXX have “sons of God.” In that reading Elyon allots the nations and YHWH receives Israel as his portion, which implies a distinction between the two that was later collapsed.
- Exod 6:3. Many source critics read this as P’s account of a progressive revelation of the divine name.
Would you like this turned into a table with the Hebrew forms, or a closer look at the Deut 32:8-9 textual problem?
