Talk:Eli (biblical figure)

Spelling of Name
- The spelling of the Hebrew name was incorrect. It’s meaning is indeed “ascent,” but it should begin with ayin (עלי) and not alef, and it is cognate with the Arabic name “‘Ali” (علي) as well as the second word in the name of Isra&rsquo;eli airline El Al (אל־על “to the heights”). The spelling with initial alef (אלי) means “my God” not “ascent.” Although I have encountered the name “Eli” spelled alef-lamed-yod, it is considered to be short for “Elyahu”/“Elijah”/“Elias” and therefore unrelated to “Eli” spelled ayin-lamed-yod. --Elyaqim 19:57, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Samuel-is-really-Saul material
User:FDuffy appears to have identified a single source for claims that critical scholars believe that Samuel in the story of Hannah (Bible) really refers to Saul. This article references "footnotes in the New American Bible (insufficiently specific -- need a page # -- couldn't identify notes). User:FDuffy identified a source in the King Saul article, as the personal web site of Rabbi Moshe Reiss,, a self-published source. Per WP:RS,


 * A self-published source is a published source that has not been subject to any form of independent fact-checking, or where no one stands between the writer and the act of publication. It includes personal websites, and books published by vanity presses. Anyone can create a website or pay to have a book published, and then claim to be an expert in a certain field. For that reason, self-published books, personal websites, and blogs are largely not acceptable as sources.

None of the exceptions to self-published sources (e.g. by someone known to be highly regarded in a field) appear to apply here. Accordingly, it appears that this content is not reliably sourced and should be deleted. --Shirahadasha 13:42, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Here is the material deleted:

Though the text at face value states that the child was Samuel, most textual scholars believe that it originally referred to Saul (since the explanation given for Samuel's name is awkward, but a far better fit for Saul's).


 * Has "critical" "scholarship" really sunk to this new low? Str1977 (smile back) 16:09, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

That website is not my source, and it is quite disingenuous to claim that my source is the website. I have not even seen that Rabbi's name, let alone his website, until reading this. My source is the Jewish Encyclopedia. You can also see it for example, in the footnote of the New American Bible(a fairly significant translation) - (footnote for 1 Samuel 1:20) --User talk:FDuffy 14:15, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Identity Material
Regarding the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of the "Identity" section, where is the reference for this material? I see the reference for the 1st paragraph (#4) but nothing for the 2nd and 3rd. I'd like to know the source of that material.

Gavin (talk) 19:02, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

The 2nd and 3rd paragraph of the identity section are completely untenable. The name of Eli the priest is not a variant of the name of the god El, they begin with two completely different letters of the alphabet (Eli starts with an ayin, El with an aleph). The name Eli comes from the root ayin-lamed-heh meaning to go up or ascend, as correctly noted in the introductory paragraph. It has no relation to the root aleph-lamed-heh from which the name El and the Hebrew word for god elohim are derived. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.90.150.226 (talk) 18:51, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Not Jewish
No one of this time identified themselves as "Jewish." I removed the reference in the first line. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.62.169.16 (talk) 04:07, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Well, who IS "Eli" ???
Wouldn't it make some sense to BEGIN this article with some description of WHO 'Eli' is, rather than starting with 'Hannah' and then later mentioning Eli in the third paragraph??? After all, the article is supposed to be about Eli! Maybe this is relevant? http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112391/jewish/Eli-The-High-Priest.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.6.230.113 (talk) 01:24, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

gods/Gods
Hello, User:MuhannadDarwish, I noticed that you recently changed a "Gods" in quoted text to "gods". The one potential problem here is that the change was made in a block of quoted text -- so whether the capitalization is wrong or right, we need to match the book quoted. Have the seen the passage quoted in the original book? Alephb (talk) 00:21, 29 December 2018 (UTC)