The Semitic root "ʾlh" (Arabic "", Aramaic "ʾAlāh", "ʾElāh", Hebrew "ʾelōah") may be "ʾl" with a parasitic h, and "ʾl" may be an abbreviated form of "ʾlh". In Ugaritic the plural form meaning "gods" is , equivalent to Hebrew "powers". In the Hebrew texts this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for "god" by biblical commentators. However the documentary hypothesis developed originally in the 1870s, identifies these that different authors – the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source – were responsible for editing stories from a polytheistic religion into those of a monotheistic religion. Inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis.