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Why do Angel Names always seem to end with "-el"?

... like Michael, Gabriel, Azezel, Raphael, Azrael, etc.

Do you suppose that the ancient pre-Biblical Yahwistic priests might have thought of them as being sort of like lower-ranking gods at one time?

18 Answers

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  • Corey
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Yes. Early Judaism was a henotheism, in which most of the pagan gods from the Canaanite version of the Panbabylonian religion, and any leftover gods from when Egypt conquered the Levant were demoted to minor gods. But you're preaching to the choir* with me.

    edit: Lucifer means light-bearer in Latin, so it was a name that post-dated the semetic origins of the angels. And according to legend his angelic name was Sama-el. Shamash was the sun god. So if you were to say Lord Shamash in ancient semetic languages, it could be rendered Sama-el in some dialects.

    Gibil was an Assyro-Babylonian god of fire and metalurgy, Aser was the Egyptian god of the dead.

    Source(s): *I don't know if you noticed, but that was a pune, or play on words.
  • ?
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    Angel Names

  • 1 decade ago

    El is a name or partial name refering to God, like El Shaddai.

    Lucifer was an angel once. his name does not end in -el.

  • 1 decade ago

    el is short for Jehovah in Hebrew. It is not just names of angels either. Daniel, Joel, Nathanael, Ezekiel, the list is very long.

  • 1 decade ago

    Actually what the western religions call angels were once called gods, lesser gods. the el is just that a designation as a god. I like what the Druids told the christians, "While it is true there is only one god. That god has many faces." Angels, demigods, are the many faces of God.

  • 1 decade ago

    El is the singular form of the word God.

    For instance the name Michael means "(he) who is like God"

  • 1 decade ago

    El was the chief Babylonian God and like in Israel it is there to signify obedience to their chief God!

    To answer your question; the stars were the Angels and yes, they were thought of as lower ranking Gods.

  • Robin
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    Biblically speaking.... those names are descriptions of the angels as servants of god (el being translated as god)

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Don't forget Jor-El.

  • 1 decade ago

    One of the ancient names of god was "Elohim" or "Eloheynu"

    "el" at the end of a name mean "like god" or "of god"

    Daniel - Servant of god

    Rachel - Lamb of god

    Michael - Who is like god

    I don't know the translations of the other names you mentioned, but that is meaning/origin of "el"

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