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Superman was born on Krypton with the name Kal-El in the House of El. Does this term "El" in Superman relate in any way to the Hebrew word "El" which kind of means God (and IIRC is linguistically related to Arabic "Al" in "Allah")? Either related within the Superman canon or externally said to relate by the authors of the canon?

For example did Kryptonians come to Earth in ancient times and inspire belief in God/gods? Or did the original author pull this name from Hebrew to bring some cosmic weight to the Superfolk?

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There is no canon confirmation that this is the case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman#Influences covers this: while the "-El" origin in Hebrew has been speculated, Shuster and Siegel (Superman creators) never stated this as an influence.

The only canon idea of Kryptonians visiting in the past that I know of is in "Smalville" TV series, which significantly post-dates the "house of El" idea.

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  • The point is, of course, that Shuster and Siegel were both Jewish.
    – Daniel Roseman
    Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 21:37
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    @DanielRoseman - there are other, significantly more interesting theories on why Superman was "jewish" (though official Word of God was he was methodist), some covered on Wiki (Moses analogy with baby in a boat, etc..) and some not (brunette, hates Nazis, immigrated to America and became mild mannered newspaperman)
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 21:39

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