Genesis 35:7

El-beth-el. The nearby Canaanite city, henceforth known among the Hebrews as Bethel, was then called Luz (see on ch. 28:19). The form in which the name here appears has ever posed a problem to translators and commentators. Some have rendered this passage, he “called the place of God Beth-el.” Others have suggested that the first “El,” God, may not have been in the original text, but represents a copyist’s error. The fact that it is missing in the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac versions lends weight to this possibility. However, in view of the name of El-elohe-Israel, given to the altar erected at Shechem (ch. 33:20), it would not seem altogether strange to find Jacob naming the place of the altar near Luz, “God of Beth-el.” By this he may have meant, “[Dedicated to] the God of Beth-el,” that is, to the One who had appeared to him there on his flight to Haran. In calling Jacob to leave Padan-aram, God had identified Himself to Jacob as “the God of Beth-el” (ch. 31:13). It is most likely, therefore, that Jacob dedicated the altar with this in mind, in token of the fact that he had now reached the spot referred to by God in the command to return.