BETHEL

[Judaic] A Syrian local tutelary god, named after the sanctuary with the same name (located north of Jerusalem). He was possibly worshipped in the 7th century BCE by Jewish military colonists on the Egyptian island Elephantine (in the Nile). Bethel ("house of God") is mentioned in the Bible (Jeremiah: 48:14), as well as in the Ras Shamra texts (a treaty between the Hittites and the Ugarits from the 14th century BCE).