Overview
El Olam (אֵל עוֹלָם) reveals God as the Everlasting God, eternal and unchanging.
Biblical Context
First mentioned in 33 when Abraham plants a tamarisk tree at Beersheba and calls upon the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.
Theological Significance
- Emphasizes God’s eternal nature
- Contrasts God’s permanence with human temporality
- Provides comfort in God’s unchanging character
Source Criticism
Documentary Hypothesis attribution: J source (most commonly), or JE
El Olam appears once in the Torah, in 33, where Abraham plants a tamarisk at Beersheba and calls on “YHWH, El Olam.” The passage’s use of YHWH as the primary divine name and its etiological character (explaining the sacred status of Beersheba) are consistent with J source material. Most documentary hypothesis scholars assign Gen 21:22-34 (the Beersheba treaty and well) to J or to a combined JE tradition.
The broader Beer-sheba traditions in Genesis span multiple source attributions: Gen 26:23-33 (Isaac at Beer-sheba) is typically assigned to J, while other Beer-sheba material shows signs of multiple hands. El Olam as a divine epithet — the Everlasting God — does not appear elsewhere in the Torah, making a source-characteristic pattern impossible to establish from a single occurrence.
Scholarly Debate
The precise source assignment of Gen 21:22-34 is disputed. Some scholars assign it entirely to J; others see E material in vv.22-31 (noting the presence of Phicol and the well-dispute motif that parallels the E-attributed Gen 20) and J material in vv.33-34 where El Olam appears. The epithet may represent an ancient divine name associated with the Beer-sheba sanctuary that was incorporated into the J narrative. See Documentary Hypothesis for broader methodological context.
Traditional scholarship reads Gen 21:22-34 as a unified account, treating El Olam as one of several divine epithets revealed to Abraham at different sacred sites.
Textual Transmission
Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
El Olam (אֵל עוֹלָם) appears once in the Torah at Genesis 21:33, when Abraham plants a tamarisk at Beersheba and “called there on the name of YHWH, El Olam.” The epithet olam typically means “eternity” or “age/world” — in this context, the eternal dimension of the divine character.
Paleo-Hebrew Script
The compound 𐤀𐤋 𐤏𐤋𐤌 is cognate with Phoenician divine epithets emphasizing divine permanence; the root ‘lm (eternity, hidden time) appears in Ugaritic as well, situating this epithet within ancient Near Eastern theology of divine permanence. Paleo-Hebrew form: 𐤀𐤋 𐤏𐤋𐤌
Greek (Septuagint)
The LXX renders El Olam as θεὸς αἰώνιος (theos aionios, “the eternal God”), using the Greek word aionios that would become central to New Testament theology. This is one of the most theologically loaded translation choices in the Septuagint’s handling of divine names.
Latin (Vulgate)
Jerome rendered El Olam as Deus aeternus (“the Eternal God”), using the standard Latin philosophical term for eternity. This translation anchors the Hebrew theological concept to classical Latin metaphysics.
Aramaic (Targum Onkelos)
Onkelos renders El Olam as אֱלָהָא עָלְמָא (Elaha Alma, “the God of eternity/the world”), using alma — the standard Aramaic term that can mean both “eternity” and “world” depending on context. This same Aramaic phrase appears in the later Jewish liturgical Aleinu prayer.
Syriac (Peshitta)
The Peshitta renders El Olam as ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ ܕܥܳܠܡܳܐ (Alaha d’alma, “God of eternity/the world”), a near-identical cognate to the Aramaic. The Syriac alma carries the same double valence of eternity and world as the Aramaic cognate.