they represented different gods, each originating as the eponym of a tribal ancestor and (in large measure) each associated with a different tribe. Only at a later time did the stories of the different tribal ancestors, originally unrelated, merge into a single line of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob. Alt also identified the divine names compounded with El as originating in the urban cult centers. Thus El-Elyon in Jerusalem (Gen. 14:18–22), El-Olam in Beersheba (Gen. 21:33), El-Bethel at Bethel (Gen. 35:7),
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