Erik Benzelius (the Elder) (16 December 1632 – 17 February 1709) was a Swedish theologian and Archbishop of Uppsala.

Benzelius was born at the Bentseby farm in the parish of Luleå in northern Sweden, son of the farmer and lay assessor (nämndeman) Henrik Jakobsson.

He took a family name derived from his birthplace, rather than using the patronymic as was common in the Swedish peasantry.

He was hired by Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie as a tutor for his sons in 1660 and accompanied one of them on a foreign journey stretching from 1663 to 1665, visiting Copenhagen, the most important universities of Germany, and continuing to Paris, London, Oxford, and Leiden.

Benzelius was a typical representative of 17th-century Swedish Lutheran orthodoxy, was careful not to deviate from established theological principles, and lacked originality in his writing.