Footnote

b While opinions vary, some identify the temple of Dagan as the temple of El. Roland de Vaux, a French scholar and professor at the Jerusalem School of Biblical Studies, suggested that Dagan​—the Dagon of Judges 16:23 and 1 Samuel 5:1-5—​is the proper name of El. The Encyclopedia of Religion comments that possibly “Dagan was in some sense identified with or assimilated to [El].” In the Ras Shamra texts, Baal is called the son of Dagan, but the meaning of “son” here is uncertain.