The collated story strikes right at the heart of our religiosity and resolves the enigma of why the God of Israel appeared so cruel to his Chosen, the Israelites, yet, at the same time, was lovingly called “the Merciful One”.
Actually, these were two different beings later and unfortunately merged into one for reasons we will explain. The god “El”, Ugaritic texts inform us, was called “the Merciful One” and we can conclusively link him with a god called Su-en (Sin) in Sumer (now Iraq), At-en in Egypt, Ad-on-ai/Sin-ai in Canaan, Ad-on-is in Greece, and Al-At in Arabia – all meaning “Multiplying (i.e. fertile) God” – because their common insignia was the crescent-moon. The other god was Ishkur. Esh-kur means “fiery mountain”. He is thus also Vulcan: a volatile Nordic god who gave “volcano” its name. His Hittite name “Teshub”, Setswana unravels, means “he who burns”, and his Assyrian name “Ashur” is made up of Esh and hur: “fiery mountain”! Their main commonality was that they were both sons of the god Enlil, whose name means “Lord of the Illi (gods)”.
