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AMURRU

THE HOME OF THE NORTHERN
SEMITES

A Study Showing that the Religion and

Culture of Israel are Not of

Babylonian Origin

ALBERT T. CLAY, Ph.D.

PROFESSOR OF SEMITIC PHILOLOGY AND ARCHEOLOGY,
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

PHILADELPHIA : .

®tyv &nnuay School Stmra (Unmpatty
1909

PROFESSOR EDGAR FAHS SMITH

Ph.D. Sc.D. LL.D.

Vick Provost of the University of Pennsylvania

BELOVED BY COLLEAGUES
AND STUDENTS

IN GRATEFUL APPRECIATION

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

Microsoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/amurruhomeofnortOOclayuoft

PREFACE

These discussions are the outgrowth of The Reinicker
Lectures for the year 1908, delivered at the Protestant
Episcopal Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Virginia.
Instead of publishing the lectures as delivered, which
covered the subject, "Recent Discoveries in Bible Lands,"
it seemed preferable to present a special phase of the sub-
ject, which is here treated more fully than in the lectures.

In the author's work, Light on the Old Testament
from Babel, a protest was expressed against the claims
of the Pan-Babylonists that Babylonia had extensively
influenced the culture of Israel. Continued researches
have opened up new vistas of the subject, which confirm
the contention that the Pan-Babylonists have not only
greatly overestimated the influence of the Babylonian
culture upon Israel, but that the Semitic Babylonians
came from the land of Amurru; that is, Syria and Pales-
tine, and that their culture was an amalgamation of what
was once Amorite or West Semitic and the Sumerian
which they found in the Euphrates valley.

In order to make the main outlines of the subject
as well as the discussions which bear directly upon the
Old Testament more readable, the technical material
has been confined largely to Part II, but frequent refer-
ences to it are made in Part I. Instead of quoting the
numbers of the pages referred to, they will be found in

6 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

the Index. The author realizes that in a number of
instances other interpretations of certain individual
facts are possible. Modification of views presented must
necessarily follow new discoveries as they are made ; but
nevertheless the writer believes that the main conten-
tions will remain undisturbed.

To my colleagues, Prof essor J. A. Montgomery and Pro-
fessor Morris Jastrow, Jr., I am deeply grateful for their
generous help and encouragement during the preparation
of this book. And I also extend my hearty thanks for the
kind assistance rendered by my friends, Professor G. A.
Barton, of Bryn Mawr ; Professor W. Max Muller, of Phila-
delphia; Professor Arthur Ungnad, of Jena; the Rev. Dr.
C. H. W. Johns, Fellow at Cambridge University;
Dr. Hermann Ranke, of Berlin; Dr. Arno Poebel, of
Eisenach; and Dr. William Hayes Ward, of New York.
To all it gives me pleasure to acknowledge my indebted-
ness and extend my warm gratitude. Let me add, in
mentioning the names of these scholars, that they are
in no wise responsible for the views expressed in these
lectures.

Albert T. Clay.
University of Pennsylvania.

CONTENTS

PART I.

PAGE

Introductory Remarks 13

Creation Story 44

The Sabbath 55

Antediluvian Patriarchs 63

Deluge Story 71

Original Home of Semitic Culture 83

PART II.

Amurru in the Cuneiform Inscriptions 95

Amurru in West Semitic Inscriptions 150

APPENDIX.

I. Ur of the Chaldees 167

II. The Name of Jerusalem 173

III. The Name of Sargon 181

IV. The Name NIN-IB 195

V. The Name Yahweh 202

ABBREVIATIONS

A. D. D. — Johns, Assyrian Deeds and Documents.
A. J. S. L. — American Journal of Semitic Languages.

A. K. G. W. — Abho,ndlungen der philologisch-historischen Classe der

Konigl. Sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften.
Altbab. Priv. — Meissner, Beitrage zum Altbabylonischen Privatrecht.
Asien. — Miiller, Asien und Europa nach Altagyptischen Denkmalern.

B. A. — Beitrage zur Assyriologie, edited by Delitzsch and Haupt.

B. E. — Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania,

Vol. I, 1 and 2, Hilprecht; VI, 1, Ranke; VI, 2, Poebel; VIII, 1,

Clay; IX, Hilprecht and Clay; X, Clay; XIV, Clay; XV, Clay;

and XX, Hilprecht.
Babyloniaca. — Edited by Virolleaud.
Bezold, Catalogue. — Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyun-

jik Collection.
Brown, Heb. Die. — Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English

Lexicon of the Old Testament.
Brunnow, List — A Classified List of Cuneiform Ideographs.

C. T. — Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc, in the British

Museum, by King, Pinches and Thompson.
Decouvertes — de Sarzec Heuzey, Dccourvertes en Chaldee.
Del. en Perse — Scheil, Textes Elamites Semitiques, Delegation en

Perse.
Ephemeris — Lidzbarski, Ephemeris fur Semitische Epigraphik.
J. B. L. — Journal of Biblical Literature.
J. R. A. S. — Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Harper, Letters — Assyrian and Babylonian Letters, Vols. I to VII.
H. W. B. — Delitzsch, Assyrian Handworterbuch.
Huber, Personennamen — Die Personennamen in der Keilschrift-

urkunden aus der Zeit der Konige von Ur und Nisin.
Jastrow, Rel. — Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens.
K. — Kouyunjik Collection in Bezold1 s Catalogue of the British Museum.
K. A. T? — Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, by Zimmern

and Winckler.

10 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

K. B. — Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek.

King, Chronicles — Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings,

Vols. I and II.
Meissner, Ideogr. — Seltene Assyrische Ideogramme.
Meissner, Supplement — Supplement zu den Assyrischen Worter-

buchern.
Muss-Arnolt, Diet. — Concise Dictionary of the Assyrian Languages.
Noldeke, Festschrift — Orientalische Studien Theodor Noldeke sum

siebzigsten Geburtstag.
0. L. Z. — Orientalistische Literatur-Zeitung, edited by Peiser.
Prolegomena — Delitzsch, Prolegomena eines neuen Hebraisch-

Aramdischen Worterbuch zum Alien Testament.
P. S. B. A. — Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology.
Ranke, P. N . — Early Babylonian Personal Names, B. E., D, Vol. III.
R., I., etc., or Rawlinson — The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western

Asia, Vols. I to V.
Rev. Ass. — Revue d) ' Assyriologie.

R. S. — Revue Scmitique. .

Rec. Tab. Chal. — Thureau-Dangin, Recueil de Tablettes Chaldiennes.
Strassmaier, Nbk., Nbn., etc. — Babylonische Texte, Inschriften von

Nabuchodonosor.
Tallqvist, Namenbuch — N eubabylonisches Namenbuch zu den Ges-

chiiftsurkunden .
V. B. — Thureau-Dangin, Die Sumerischen und Akkadischen Kon-

igsinschriften — Vorderasiatische Bibliothek, I, Ab. 1.
V . S. — Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler,Vo\s.III,VII, etc., TJngn&d.
Z. A. , or Zeit. fur Ass. — Zeitschriftfur Assyriologie, edited by Bezold.
Z. A. T. W. — Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, —
Z. D. M. G. — Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft.

PART I

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

The current theory of Semitic scholars concerning
the origin of the Semitic Babylonians is that they came
from Arabia, and that after their culture had developed
in Babylonia it was carried westward into Amurru
(i.e., Palestine and Syria1) generally known as the land
of the Amorites.

Without attempting to determine the ultimate
origin of the Semites, the writer holds that every indi-
cation, resulting from his investigations, proves that
the movement of the Semites was eastward from Amurru
and Aram (i.e., from the lands of the West) into Baby-
lonia. In other words, the culture of the Semitic
Babylonians points, if not to its origin, at least to a
long development in Amurru before it was carried
into Babylonia.

As a matter of fact, the earliest name for Northern
Babylonia in the inscriptions is tlri. Shumer or
Southern Babylonia, was called Engi, and Northern
Babylonia was called tlri; i.e., Babylonia, as well as
the district extending to the shore of the Mediterranean,
was called tlri or Ari. The name t)ri or Ari, it will be
shown, is very probably derived from Amurru,the name of
the West country. This shows that the name of Baby-

1 See Barton, Semitic Origins, chap. I, and Paton, Early History
of Palestine and Syria, chaps. Ill— VIII.

14 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Ionia, which is tfri in the earliest known period of
Semitic Babylonian history, is a geographical extension
of the land in the West, known as Amurru or tJri.
Not only was the name of the country Amurru carried
to that region, but it will also be demonstrated that the
culture of the Semitic Babylonians was largely transported
from the West. The Amorites in moving eastward
into Babylonia carried with them not only their religion,
but their traditions, such as their creation story, ante-
diluvian patriarchs, deluge legend, etc. In considering
the position taken by the Pan-Babylonists in Part I,
concerning these and other subjects, the above state-
ments, which are fully discussed in Part II, should be
kept constantly in mind.

A little more than a decade ago there appeared in
Germany a school of critics known generally as the
Pan-Babylonian or Astral-mythological School. The
parallels to certain features of the Bible stories that are
found in the Babylonian literature determined for the
Pan-Babylonists that the origin of much of the
Hebrew culture is to be found in Babylonian mythology.
The work of Stucken, Astralmythen, Part I, on Abraham,
published in 1896, which was followed by Part II, on
Lot, in 1897, may be said to be the beginning of these
efforts; although similar conceptions of the Old Testa-
ment antedate this work.

Professor Winckler, of Berlin, may be said to be the
real founder of the school. In a series of contributions
from his pen, following his Geschichte Israels, Vol. II,
which was published in 1900, he has unfolded his theory

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 15

of the Universe. The world consists of heaven and
earth. The heavens are subdivided into the northern
heavens, the zodiac, and the heavenly ocean. The
earthly part of the universe also consists of a threefold
division, the heaven, the earth, and the waters beneath
the earth. In this system the signs of the zodiac play
the important part, for the planets as they passed
through the heavens enabled the astrologers to inter-
pret the will of their deities. Upon these ideas a com-
plete cosmological system is worked out. The heavens,
corresponding to the earth, reflect their influence upon
it, with the result that everything in heaven has its
counterpart on earth. The gods of heaven have dwell-
ings on earth, presided over by earthly kings, who
as representatives of the gods are considered their
incarnations. The heavens reveal the past, present,
and the future for those who could read them. What
occurs on earth is only a copy of what occurred in
heaven. Astrology, therefore, was the all-important
test and interpreter of ancient history. All ancient
nations, including Israel, practised it or were influenced
by it.

The periodic changes in the positions of the heavenly
bodies gave rise to certain sacred numbers. These
Winckler uses to show the bearing of the Babylonian
astral mythology upon things Israelitish. According
to his views, not only is the Israelitish cult dependent
upon Babylonian originals, but also the patriarchs
and other leaders of Israel, such as Joshua, Gideon,
Saul, David, and others, are sun or lunar mythological
personages.

16 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Abraham and Lot are the same as the Gemini,
called by the Romans Castor and Pollux. Abraham,
together with his wife, who was also his sister, are
forms of Tammuz (who was a solar god) and Ishtar,
the former being the brother and bridegroom of the
latter. As Ishtar was the daughter of Sin, the moon-
god, Abraham must be a moon-god; for he went from
Ur to Haran, two places dedicated to that deity. Many
circumstances of the myths concerning Abraham cor-
roborate this. The 318 men who were Abraham's
allies, in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, are the 318
days of the year when the moon is visible. All Baby-
lonian gods were represented by numbers. Kirjath-
arba, the one center of Abraham myths, means the
"city of Arba, or four." Arba must then be the moon-
god which has four phases. Beersheba, "the seven
wells," another center with which Abraham myths were
identified, also represents the moon, because there are
seven days in each phase of the moon. Isaac, who
lived at Beersheba, must, therefore, also be a moon
deity. The four wives of Jacob show that he also is
the same. His twelve sons are the twelve months.
Leah 's seven sons are the gods of the week. The twelve
hundred pieces of silver which Benjamin received
represent a multiple of the thirty days of the month;
and the five changes of garments that he received are
the five intercalary days of the Babylonian year.

In Joseph, Winckler sees a Tammuz, or sun-myth.
His dream shows the priority of the sun. Esau identi-
fied with Edom is the same, as is shown by his
"redness." The stories of Moses, Joshua (who is an-

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 17

other form of Moses), Ehud, Gideon, are sun-myths.
In David, Winckler finds more evidence of a solar origin
than in all other biblical characters. Solomon and
others are explained as having the same origin. The
recurrence of characteristic numbers is the chief cri-
terion by which these supposed facts are determined.
Professor Zimmern, of Leipzig,1 also belongs to this
school, but pays more attention to analogies, and
to the dependence of the Hebrew stories upon Baby-
lonian originals, than to the recurrence of numbers.
Features of the Old Testament stories that are parallel
to certain features in the Babylonian literature point,
he believes, unmistakably to Babylonian origin. The
incorporation of the Babylonian creation story in the
Old Testament shows that in Israel the writer considered
Yahweh to be identical with Marduk. Later, these same
elements of the Marduk cult were applied to Christ by
the Christian Jews. The story of the birth of Christ
has its origin in the fabled birth of Marduk. Babylonian
elements are also found in the regal office of Christ, as
well as in His passion. Ashurbanipal, as a "penitent
expiator," gave rise to the story of His weeping over
Jerusalem and His agony in the garden. His death
is suggested by that of Marduk and Tammuz ; and the idea
of His descent into Hades comes from the goddess Ishtar 's
descent. The resurrection is a repetition of Marduk
and Tammuz myths, etc.2

1 See Keilinschrifttexten und das Alte Testament.

2 For a fuller statement of the views of Winckler and Zimmern,
see Barton, Biblical World, 1908, pp. 436 ft'.

18 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Dr. Alfred Jeremias, of Leipzig, by his publication,
Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients, has popu-
larized the views of this school, but fortunately makes
his position more reasonable by admitting the possi-
bility that the patriarchs may be historical personages;
for example, the twelve sons of Jacob, he says, repre-
sent the zodiacal signs, and yet it is possible that they
may be historical persons.

Professor Jensen, of Marburg, in a work published
in 1906, of over a thousand pages, Das Gilgamesch-
Epos in der Weltliteratur, finds the origin of the biblical
characters of Abraham down to Christ, including John
the Baptist, in this Babylonian collection of sun-myths.
The Gospels he calls " Mythographs. " Even references
to biblical characters in the ancient monuments are
explained away, or no account is taken of them.
In short, the origin of what we know as Israelitish is
really an adaptation by late Hebrew writers of the
Babylonian sun-myths, which had been woven together
into what is known as the Gilgamesh epic.

In one of the pamphlets issued this year by Jensen,
entitled Moses Jesus Paidus, he defends his views
against his critics. His position is stated in the words:
"The old Israelitish history, the history of Jesus of
Nazareth, has collapsed, and the apostolic history has
been exploded. Babylon has laid Babylon in ruins — a
catastrophe for the Old and New Testament science,
but truly not undeserved; a catastrophe for the mythol-
ogy of our church and synagogue, which reaches into
our present time like a beautiful ruin."

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 19

By the expression, "Babylon has laid Babylon in
ruins," Prof. Jensen evidently means that the discoveries
which have been used to establish the historical value of
the Old Testament are now used to show that the founda-
tions upon which the Christian and Jewish theology rest
are borrowed from Babylonian mythology. The same
phrase in question is, however, equally applicable in
these lectures, for the claim is that Babylonian researches
show that the contentions of the Pan-Babylonists are
without foundation, and that the literature of Israel is
not to be regarded as being composed of transformed
Babylonian and Assyrian myths.

Some of these scholars and their followers hold that
only a change of names has taken place. On the one
hand, all that originally belonged to Marduk is trans-
ferred to Christ ; and on the other, the legends of Gilga-
mesh have been adopted and adapted by the Hebrews,
so that all which refers to the life of Christ — his passion,
his death, his descent, his resurrection and his ascen-
sion— are to be explained as having their origin in Baby-
lonian mythology.

Although these theories have been advanced by
some of the foremost scholars, they need more proof
before they can be seriously considered as more than
conjectures similar to those that have been based on
Greek and Roman mythology for centuries. The
anthropomorphic character of the gods enables one to
find parallels, in one form or another, for practically
everything that took place in the lives of all biblical
characters, even in that of the Nazarene. For example,

20 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

in Greek mythology, Tammuz, the darling of Aph-
rodite, was slain; but on the third day they rejoiced
at the resurrection of this lord of light — who also was
known by the name of law. A more striking parallel
could not be desired. Further, this name law has
rightly been said to represent closely the divine name
Yahweh, as it appears in the inscriptions; hence addi-
tional far-reaching conjectures could be offered. As a
matter of fact, Greek mythology offers far more interest-
ing parallels than the Babylonian.

The German savants who belong to this school
have their counterparts in England and on this
side of the Atlantic. The celestial light has penetrated
these shores and we have seen in the past and are
beginning to see more and more the reflections flare
up in a modified as well as in an intensified form.

The dependence of the culture of Israel upon
Babylonia seems to be conceded by almost every
scholar. This conception has grown steadily within
the last few decades, so that the edifice which has been
reared has now reached its full height, the capstone
has been set, and the structure is complete. A change
of names, that is all, and a Babylonian deity, Marduk
or Bel, becomes Christ.

The writer feels that the very height to which
this creation has attained is the salutary feature of the
whole effort, for the foundation upon which it rests is
of such a character that it will surely cause the entire
structure to fall. It is not the purpose of this discussion
to take down one stone after another and submit them

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 21

to an examination, and so endeavor to reduce the
height and keep the building within proper proportions;
but it is the purpose to examine carefully the very
foundation stones of the structure and ascertain upon
what it rests.

Before discussing some of the important claims of these
critics, a word may be said with reference to the Baby-
lonian astral ideas and Israel. In the first place, contrary
to the position taken by Winckler and his school that as-
tronomy took its rise in the early period of Babylonian
history, it is now maintained by Kugler,1 Jastrow,2 and
others, that the period when the science of astronomy was
developed in Babylonia was between the fourth and
second centuries B.C., that is to say, during the period
of Greek influence in the Euphrates Valley. Kugler3
dates the earliest astronomical tablet 522 B.C., although
he admits that it shows evidence of being revised from
an earlier tablet. While an argument e silentio is pre-
carious, this absence of astronomical inscriptions of the
character that is supposed to have influenced Israel is
strikingly significant.

More important is the fact that there is absolutely
no proof for the existence of such an astral conception
of the universe in the Old Testament. In fact, as far
as is known to the writer, there is an utter lack of data

1 Kulturhistorische Bedeutung der Babylonischen Astronomie, p.
38 ff.

2 Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, XL VII,
No. 190, 1908, p. 667.

3 Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel, I, p. 2.

22 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

upon which these astral theories rest.1 Surely the
injunction to have nothing to do with astrology cannot
be construed as countenancing it. In Deuteronomy
12 : 2-7, the law required that the man who worshiped
the sun, moon, or any of the host of heaven, should be
put to death. The same spirit is maintained in Deu-
teronomy 4 : 15, 19. See also in what contempt and
ridicule the prophet (Is. 47 : 13) spoke of the astrologers,
star-gazers, and monthly prognosticators, when he tells
the people to let these save them from the coming
disasters. That the people of Canaan, or rather of
Amurru, worshiped the sun, moon and stars, and
perhaps divined by them, seems to be evident from
these injunctions; but the legislation against astrology
in Israel surely is sufficient proof that it had not pene-
trated the cult, even if some of the people were influenced
by it.

The same is true of liver divination, which serves
as another illustration of Israel's attitude towards such
practises. The requirement of the Mosaic law to
destroy the so-called " caul " above the liver is a proof
that in Israel divination by the liver was not sanctioned.
VvTe know that the Babylonians believed that by
inspecting the liver of the sheep they could ascer-
tain what the gods desired to communicate to them.
Through the researches of Professor Jastrow,2 we have
obtained an excellent understanding of this practise
of the Babylonians. The Greeks, Romans, and

1 See Rogers, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 220.
J See his Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, II, p. 174 ff.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 23

Etruscans also divined by the liver. To what
extent the peoples of Amurru practised hepatoscopy is
not known. But in the Pentateuch, in no less than
ten passages a protest is implied against this kind of
divination.1 The ordinance provides for the burning
of the "caul above the liver," which Professor Moore
has shown refers to the finger-shaped appendix of the
caudate lobe, although the rest of the liver was permitted
to be eaten. The reason they were required to burn
this part of the liver, as Professor Jastrow has suggested,
is that it was a symbolical protest against the use of the
liver for divination purposes. By destroying this
portion, which played such an important part in hepa-
toscopy, the people were warned not to divert the
sacrifice into a form of divination. We reach, there-
fore, the same conclusion. The cult, while recognizing
the existence of such practises, cannot be said to be
even tainted with them; but by its protests emphasizes
the importance of holding aloof from them. And, at
the same time, it cannot be said that these regulations
were directed especially against Babylonian influences;
because astrology and liver divination appear to have
been widespread in antiquity, and doubtless were in vogue
among other peoples beside those already mentioned — in
all probability among the Canaanite nations.

Many theories of these and other scholars have
arisen and have found acceptance, on the supposition
that there is no antiquity for the Hebrew culture as 'early

1 See Ex. 29 : 13, 22 ; Lev. 3:4, 10, 15 ; 7 : 4 ; 8 : 16, 25 ; 9 :
10, 19.

24 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

as Abraham 's time. The ancestors of the Hebrews are
considered by many of these writers to be nomadic Arabs
who came up from Arabia about the time of Abraham;
not because one iota of evidence has been produced to
discredit the accounts concerning the origin of the
Hebrews, as preserved in the Old Testament, namely,
that they came from Aram (or Aram-Naharaim),
but simply because the speculations of these scholars
have led them to such conclusions. And yet, contrary
to what has been claimed, many discoveries that have
been made in the past decades of research and investi-
gation tend to show the historical value of these relics
of antiquity.

Let us inquire what the excavations have thus far
revealed concerning this interpenetration of the Baby-
lonian culture in Israel. During the past years explora-
tions have been conducted principally at four sites in
Palestine belonging to the early period, namely, Lachish
and Gezer in the South, and Ta'annek and Megiddo in
the North. On first impressions these excavations might
serve the Pan-Babylonists better than anything else
with arguments for the mythological character of the
entire history of Israel. If we did not know that Israel
actually lived in Palestine, we would scarcely have
inferred it from what these excavations have revealed.
However, according to the recent report of Macalister, an
interesting old Hebrew calendar inscription has been
found at Gezer. Macalister placed the date of it in the
sixth century B.C., but Lidzbarski thinks it is the oldest,
or at all events one of the oldest, of West Semitic

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 25

inscriptions.1 Unfortunately, systematic excavations in
Amurru proper, i.e., the Lebanon district, have not yet
been conducted. This deprives us of the proper tests for
this thesis.

The lack of archaeological remains is due to two
important facts. Israel used a perishable material for
ordinary writing purposes; and the nation, like other
pure Semitic peoples, while possessing a literature,
apparently did not develop the plastic arts. We need
not expect to find great creations in sculpture and
architecture by the Hebrews or, in fact, by any other
pure Semitic people of ancient times. The antiquities
of artistic value found in Babylonia were in all proba-
bility produced by foreigners, perhaps the Sumerians,
who belonged to a non-Semitic race. While some work
discovered in Assyria is of a comparatively high order,
especially in the depicting of animals, we must bear in
mind that the black-headed Sumerian was still extant
in that land. When Israel was ready to build the
temple, Phoenician artificers were secured. While the
Phoenicians spoke a Semitic tongue, their art, which
is generally acknowledged to be hybrid Egyptian,
may indicate also a mixture in race. The works of
art accredited to them would be sufficient proof for
this conjecture. In short, the archaeological remains
discovered in Palestine are of such a character that,
up to the present time, there is little to show that Israel
developed an art — yes, even to show that such a people
actually occupied the land.

1 See Palestine Exploration Fund, January, 1909, p. 26.

28 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

This much can be emphasized, without taking into
consideration the clay tablets found in that district which
will be discussed later: the excavations conducted
in Palestine do not show any Babylonian influence in
the early period of Israelitish history, nor in the pre-
Israelitish. In the late Assyrian period, when the
armies of that nation again and again overran the land,
when Assyrian officials in many cases were set over
cities and put into control of affairs, it is perfectly
natural that traces of the Assyrians should be discovered;
especially when we know that towns were repeopled
with Assyrians after the natives were carried into exile.
While proofs depending upon antiquities discovered
up to the present which show such an occupation are
exceedingly slight, it is perfectly proper to expect, if
certain cities are excavated, to hear at any time of the
finding of many importations from Assyria, such as
arms, utensils, seals, etc. But, as stated above, these
will be found to belong to the time when Assyria was
the dominant power in Western Asia.

After surveying the results of the excavations con-
ducted in Palestine we must, therefore, agree with
Nowack, who in his review1 of the work of Schumacher
and Steuernagel at Tel el-Mutesselim (1908), takes
issue with those who claim predominant influence of
Babylonian culture in Palestine from the third mil-
lennium on. He says : " It is a disturbing but irrefutable
fact that until down to the fifth stratum — i.e., to the

1 Theol. Literaturzeitung, 1908, No. 26.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 27

beginning of the eighth century — important Assyrian
influences do not assert themselves." "It is most
significant that in Megiddo not a single idol (Gottesbild)
from the Assyrian-Babylonian Pantheon has been
found." "Some proofs of Assyrian-Babylonian in-
fluence are first met in the fifth and sixth stratum;
while this is limited, so far as I can see, to the seals
found there."1

On the other hand, the relations with Egypt are
shown by the antiquities discovered to have existed
as early as the twelfth dynasty; and much evidence
has been secured to prove that the Semites in Canaan
were strongly influenced from that quarter. This is
not surprising because of the proximity of Egypt,
and, as regards Israel, because the Hebrews for centuries
lived in that land; but it fails to substantiate the
completely Babylonian nature of Canaanitish civili-
zation in the centuries before the Exodus, or in fact
at any other time.

This predominance of Egyptian influence as against
the Babylonian is well established in the art as repre-
sented upon the seal cylinders coming from this district.
Sellin's excavations at Tell Ta'annek show that the
Palestinians imported seal cylinders from Babylonia, but
engraved upon them Egyptian hieroglyphic symbols.
In the seals which came from Phoenicia, including Pales-
tine and the Hauran — in other words, the Amorite land, or

1 See Vincent, Canaan d'apres I' exploration recente, pp. 341, 439,
and Cooke, The Religion of Ancient Palestine, p. 112 f.

28 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

the land called Amurru in these discussions — the Egyp-
tian influence is predominant as early as the third millen-
nium B.C. Such elements as the Egyptian hawk, apron,
crux ansata, papyrus flower, lion sphynx, vulture, etc.,
are much in evidence.1

As set forth in Part II, on Amurru in the West
Semitic Inscriptions, the excavations by Macalister and
others in Palestine point to the fact that the dominant
people in the Westland, whom we call Amorites, in the
millennium preceding the time of Moses, were Semites;
and further, as shown in Part II, on Amurru in the
Cuneiform Inscriptions, there are evidences which deter-
mine that in the earliest known historical period the
Amorite culture was already fully developed, and that it
played an important role in influencing other peoples.
Very appropriately, therefore, inquiry should be made
whether the Egyptian inscriptions throw any light upon
the question. Do they show that there was a culture in
that land in the early period? If so, was it a Semitic
culture? And finally, are there any evidences that this
culture influenced other peoples?

'A-ma-ra or 'A-mu-ra in the Egyptian inscriptions is
known as a geographical term, and refers to the Lebanon
region. It may even include the coast, being a vague
term for central Syria. The race of the Amorites,
according to the Egyptian pictures, is Semitic, and in no

1 See Ward, Cylinders and other Ancient Seals in the Library of
J. Pierpont Morgan, p. 89.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 29

way distinguished from the other inhabitants of southern
and middle Syria.1

The monuments of Egypt not only furnish ample
evidence to prove that the civilization of Syria-Palestine
is Semitic, and is as old as that of Egypt,2 but, on the
authority of Prof. W. M. Miiller, it may be stated that
the beginnings of civilization in the Nile valley seem to
have been extensively influenced by the Western Semites.
Contrary to the views of most Semitists, who have fol-
lowed the writer of the Egyptian " Prunkinschriften,"
which misrepresents the Asiatics by describing them as
miserable, hungry, dirty "sand wanderers," or the
Sinuhe novel, which endeavors to give the impression
that the people of Palestine were in a state of barbarism
2000 B.C., Prof. Miiller maintains that in the districts of
arable land the people were agricultural, and had
attained a fair degree of civilization. The Egyptian
pictures of the nomadic or half nomadic traders and mer-
cenaries coming to Egypt at that time show their skill
in metal working and weaving. Remarkable weapons
and handsomely decorated garments are depicted.

1 This I learn on the authority of Prof. W. M. Miiller. The com-
parison made by Prof. Sayce, Patriarchal Palestine, p. 48, with the
Libyan type (which strongly resembles the Semitic type) was based
on a rather poor picture of "the prince of 'A-ma-ra" (L. D., 209, or
Rosellini, Mon. Stor., p. 143, etc. ; also Petrie, Racial Types). Better
pictures of the Amo rites, who are always represented as Semites,
are to be found in Sethos I attacking "the land of Qadesh of the land
of Amar" (Rosellini, Mon. Stor., p. 53; or Champollion, Monuments,
p. 295); and also the picture of the prince of that city in W. M.
Miiller, Egyptol. Researches, II, pi. 7.

2 See Miiller, Orien. Lit. Zeit., XI, p. 403.

30 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Already at this time a papyrus speaks of Pharaoh's
messengers going to Syria with inscribed bricks tied in
their loin cloths.1 This gives us an earlier date for the
use of the cuneiform script in Egypt and Western Asia.
Pharaoh Pepy, about 2500 B.C., describes his Asiatic
enemies as largely agricultural, and living in strongly
fortified cities. It would seem that some of the walls of
their cities were no less than fifty feet high.2 The
adoption of Syrian loan words shows powerful influence
exercised by the Semites on Egypt before 3000 B.C.2
Even prior to Menes this Semitic civilization played an
important part in the development of Egyptian culture.
Prof. Miiller further informs me that, according to
linguistic and racial indications, in the earliest time no
other than the Semite appears to have lived in the
Amurru region, where he became sedentary and agricul-
tural as early as the Egyptian in the Nile valley.3

In this connection a word is appropriate with refer-
ence to the influence of Babylonian and Sumerian civil-
ization upon Egypt. There is little doubt that the
Sumerian culture will eventually be shown to have
existed at a much earlier date than thus far ascertained
by the excavations in Babylonia. But to call Egyptian
civilization a branch of the Babylonian, or Sumerian,
seems to be a statement without support. Contrary to
the claims of Prof. Hommel, although it is quite likely

1 See Muller, Orien. Lit. Zeit., IV, p. 8.

2 Petrie, Deshasheh, pi. 4, represents an Asiatic city stormed by
Egyptians in the 5th dynasty.

3 See Muller, Orien. Lit. Zeit., X, p. 403.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 31

that the beginnings of Egyptian civilization were brought
from Asia, not a single Sumerian loan word has been
shown to exist in Egyptian, and yet the Sumerian
continued in use as late as 2000 B.C., and the Babylonian
language was extensively a mixture of the Sumerian and
the Semitic. The elements of culture that migrated
from Babylonia or Shumer to Egypt must have first
been adopted by the Semitic inhabitants of Syria, and
transmitted by them. Naturally, this forces us to regard
the barbarous Syrian of this early age in another light.
And it also forces us to realize that the references to
Amurru in the oldest cuneiform inscriptions are indica-
tions of the correctness of the contentions for the early
civilization of that land. In short, all this attests the
credibility of the claims made on the basis of the Pales-
tinian excavations and other researches, that an ancient
Semitic people, with a not inconsiderable civilization,
lived in Amurru prior to the time of Abraham.

It is well known that Babylonian and Sumerian
rulers in the earliest known historical period — that is,
in the third and fourth millenniums before Christ —
conquered and held in subjection the land of Syria and
Palestine. In this period Gudea is found importing
limestone, alabaster, cedars, etc., from the West, even
gold from the Sinaitic peninsula. A succession of
Babylonian rulers claimed suzerainty over this land
until it fell into the hands of Elam. With the over-
throw of that land, Amurru (Palestine and Syria) came
again into the possession of Babylonia in Hammurabi's
time. Later, during the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt,
it is found in the control of the Pharaohs.

32 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

The military conquest and enforced subjection of
the country for such a long period resulted in the estab-
lishment of the Babylonian language and script as the
official tongue of the entire district controlled, as well
as of other parts of Western Asia and Egypt. The
ability to master this complicated and difficult system
of writing, many have thought, speaks volumes for the
intelligence of the civilized peoples of Western Asia.
Education of scribes must have been widely spread;
for the learned knew how to write this cumbersome
ideographic and phonetic script of the Babylonians.
We find the Hittite. the Mitannsean, the Egyptian, the
Amorite, and other peoples using it; but the Hebrews,
who have handed down a literature of a very high order,
purporting to deal with and to come from this period,1
we are informed by critics, were uncivilized or
semi-barbarous nomads; not that any evidences of
an archseological or any other character have been
produced in substantiation of this view, but simply
because their theories demand such conclusions.

Perhaps the most important argument used by
scholars to show the influence of Babylonia upon
Canaan has been the fact that among the tablets dis-
covered at Tel el-Amarna, in Egypt, two Babylonian
epics were recovered. This fact also furnished a defi-
nite time when the supposed Babylonian influence was
exerted upon Canaan. One of these myths contains

1 The writer is one of the small minority who believes that
Hebraic (or Amoraic) literature, as well as Aramaic, has a great
antiquity prior to the first millennium B.C.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 33

what is known as the Adapa legend, and the other
refers to Ereshkigal, the consort of the god Nergal, and her
messenger Namtar. These, as has been inferred, were
used as text-books in learning the language, as is
shown by the fact that they were inter punctuated,
the words being separated by marks made with ink,
in order to facilitate their study.

It seems the rinding of these so-called Babylonian
myths in Egypt offers no better proof for the influence
of Babylonian ideas upon the cults of the West than
the discovery of text-books in French at the present
time upon one of the islands of the Pacific would show
influence from France upon the cult of the inhabitants.
It would, knowing certain facts, show that both lan-
guages were used for diplomatic and social intercourse
between nations; the former in the second millennium
before Christ, and the latter in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries of the Christian era ; but until it can
be shown that the people of the Western lands actually
adopted or assimilated Babylonian myths or religious
ideas (many of which the writer holds are Western),
no such far-reaching conclusions, based upon the theory
that when Israel entered Canaan all these Babylonian
ideas were a part of the mental possession of the people,
can be maintained. Discoveries in Egypt, Phoenicia,
or any other nation of the West do not show traces of
this influence. These nations had cults oPtheir own,
showing a long history of development, prior to the
Amarna period. Moreover, Israel, entering Canaan
about that time, surely was not in a position and in a

34 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

frame of mind to select from the older and current
beliefs what should constitute her faith. The cult of
the Israelites grew up under unconscious influences
quietly at work during the generations which preceded,
reaching far back into the ages. It is, however, quite
reasonable to suppose that the culture of Canaan had more
or less influence in one way or another upon Israel. It is
not improbable also that the Kenites with whom Moses
sojourned, and with whom Israel came into contact,
influenced the Hebrew cult, but to what extent can
be determined only when we know more about their
civilizations.

Naturally, if it is assumed that the Babylonians
were the only people who had a religion in that era in
Western Asia, the theory would appear more reasonable.
But, of course, this cannot be maintained. Philology
and archaeology have extended our horizon, so that
our conception of the civilizations of that age is. that
they were of a highly developed character. With the
Amorites and Aramaeans in the North, the Egyptians
and Arabians in the South, as well as the old Amorite
culture in the land which they occupied, it seems
unreasonable to assume such a wholesale dependence
upon far-off Babylonian culture, simply because in
certain periods Amurru was under the control of Baby-
lon, or because certain literature, some of which is
Western, has been preserved for us by reason of the fact
that it was written upon clay, whereas most of the other
nations wrote on perishable material; and also because
two practically indestructible tablets containing so-

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 35

called Babylonian myths happened to have been found
in Egypt. On the contrary, as the discussion pro-
ceeds, we shall see how Babylonia was invaded by West
Semitic peoples who carried their culture thither.

It must be acknowledged that the Hebrew, during
the many ages of his history, has been peculiarly subject
to the influences of his environment. A notable char-
acteristic of the race is the adaptability of the people to
their surroundings. But here we should also recall that
Herodotus said that the Persians more easily than
others adopted foreign customs. The influence of
Babylonia upon the habits and life of Israel after the
exile is well recognized. But even this is greatly over-
estimated, for many things that are actually Aramaean
have been regarded as Babylonian. Persian and Hel-
lenic influences also are recognized. We must not
fail to remember, however, that during these periods
the nation was disorganized. But still, in the pre-exilic
period we have only to read the prophets and the codes,
to see how susceptible Israel apparently was to the
influences at work about them, and how prone the
people were to wander.

We also learn that the high standard required by
the codes was in many points not realized, so that pre-
cept and practise were widely separated. There seems
to have taken place, in many instances, what may prop-
erly be called an accommodation to the actual practises of
the people, which crept into Israel in spite of the efforts
of the leaders to keep them out. Moreover, it would
be unfair to the ancient lawgiver, and to the leaders

36 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

of Israel, if we acknowledged that the cult itself was
even subject to modification as the people became
acquainted with or were influenced by the practises of
their environment.

Gunkel holds that " as long as the Israelitic religion
was in its vigor it assimilated actively this foreign
material; in later times, when the religion had become
relaxed in strength, it swallowed foreign elements,
feathers and all." If this statement of the readiness
of Israel to assimilate, in such a wholesale manner, the
ideas of foreign peoples depends upon what has been
shown to have been actually assimilated in the late period,
the verdict must be, it rests upon weak premises.

That Delitzsch, in his Babel und Bibel lectures, " is
right in calling Canaan at the time of the Exodus a
domain of Babylonian culture," is a statement most
difficult to understand in the light of the known
facts. If it were true, should we not expect the
chief deity of the Babylonians to figure prominently in
the West? If the influence of the Babylonian religion
upon the West were as great as is asserted by scholars,
should we not expect to find in the early literature of
that land, for instance, the name of Marduk, who for
half a millennium prior to the Exodus had been the
head of the Babylonian pantheon? This name was
used extensively in the nomenclature, — the name
above all names, the god that had absorbed the attri-
butes and prerogatives of all other gods. Surely, if the
influence was so extensive upon the West, we ought to
find the name Marduk figuring prominently in the

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 37

Amarna letters, in the Ta'annek inscriptions, in the
Cappadocian tablets published by Delitzsch, Sayce,
and Pinches, and in the portions of the Old Testament
belonging to the early period. But, with one exception
in the Amarna letters, where is the name? The argu-
ment e silentio is unscientific, but this silence at least
is most significant. And where is the epithet of Marduk,
namely, Bel, which was taken from ElliU According
to the revision of the Amarna texts by Knudtzon,
the only occurrence is the questionable [B]e-[e]l-[sh]a~
a[m}-m[a], every character of which is in doubt. And
where is the name Ellil in these letters,1 from whom
the title Bel was taken, except in the name of Kadash-
man-Ellil, the Babylonian ruler? Ellil is the lord of
lands, to whom the rulers of the country, ancient as well
as modern, did obeisance at the great Nippurian sanc-
tuary, and whose name figures so prominently as an
element in personal names. Why, it can properly be
asked, is the mention of this deity (who was considered
by the Assyrians to be the god par excellence of the
Babylonians) not found in Palestine? In the inscrip-
tions of the Cassite period, Nusku is a most important
deity in the nomenclature. At Nippur the name of
Nusku, together with that of Ellil and NIN-IB, is used
in the oath formula; but where is this deity found in the
literature of Canaan of this period? The same is true
of Nergal, the god of Cutha, with the exceptions of the
Babylonian myth found in Egypt. Nergal's name in

1 A certain Ellil-bdni occurs in the Cappadocian tablets pub-
lished by Savce. and by Pinches.

38 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

the Cassite period is also extensively used in the nomen-
clature.1 In a tablet found at Tell el-Amarna from Ala-
shia, which is supposed to be Cyprus, a godM ASH-MASH
occurs, which has been read Nergal, but for which a
better reading would be LUGAL Urra, "King Uru,"
which is equivalent to Nergal, but which is one of the
names in the inscriptions for the great solar deity of
the West (see Part II). And where is NIN-LIL or
Nana or Bau or GU-LA or any other form of the goddess
Ishtar found? Only in the letters from Mitanni, which
is north of and in proximity to Assyria, does the name
Ishtar occur. Instead, we find Ashirta or Ashrati,
which is the name of the goddess indigenous to the
land.

Among the deities in the Amarna letters, the Baby-
lonian writing IB and NIN-IB are found; but, as we
shall see in Part II, these are cuneiform signs which
probably stood for the West Semitic Eshu and the Ba'al
of Amurru or Mdshu. In other words, they represent
deities or epithets of the solar god or gods of the land
in which the letters were written, namely, Amurru.
Shamash, Adad, Uru, Dagan, etc., are also found, but,
as we shall see, the West is their proper habitat. In
Part II it will be shown that Marduk, Nergal, and other
deities are Amoritish. Then an explanation why
these names are not found in the early literature of the
West is in order. As we shall see in Part II, while
they are West Semitic, they represent originally only

1 See Clay, B. E., XIV and XV.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 39

different forms of the same name of the same solar
deity of the West; and that these different writings
arose in different centers through the adoption of the
cuneiform script of the Sumerians, whose scribes were
the first to write upon clay for the Semites who
entered the Tigro-Euphrates valley. The very absence
of these names, generally speaking, is proof that the
theory advanced is correct; although it is most sur-
prising that sporadic occurrences of Babylonian names
compounded with these elements in the names of the
West, like Ellii-b&ni in the Cappadocian tablets, should
not be found. From this point of view, therefore, it
must be acknowledged that the dependence of Canaan
upon Babylonia in the period of the Exodus is grossly
exaggerated. If the same claim had been made for the
Hittites, more evidence would be found in the Amarna
letters to substantiate it. Let me repeat, the argumen-
tum e silentio is precarious, but when in the nomen-
clature of Babylonia the Hittite, the Mitannaean, and
other West Semitic influences are so apparent, we have
every right to expect to find traces of Babylonian
influence, if what scholars have claimed is more than a con-
jecture. Afresh discovery may produce some of the re-
quired data, but still the position taken by the Pan-Baby-
lonists cannot be maintained, for the evidence against it
from many points of view is overwhelming.

It has been asserted that the Babylonian rule having
been extended over this land by military conquest,
not only the general culture and the alien language was
enforced upon the people, but also the Babylonian sys-

40 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

tern of law. Hammurabi having been suzerain over
Amurru, it was quite natural to suppose that this great
lawgiver established his laws there as well as in Baby-
lonia, but this does not seem to have been the case.
We find interesting parallels of customs practised among
the patriarchs, as, for instance, the adoption of his ser-
vant, Eliezer, by Abraham; Sarah's giving Hagar to
her husband for wife, and the subsequent treatment of
her; Rachel giving her handmaid Bilhah to Jacob for
wife, etc.

While there are no parallels for these practises in
the Mosaic law, the existence of such Babylonian customs
in the case of Abraham and his immediate clan is
exactly what we should have expected; for he and his
family had lived in Babylonia. It is, therefore, not
necessary on account of these facts to assume that
Hammurabi established his laws in Palestine. In
truth, these very facts are merely interesting and impor-
tant exceptions, assuring us that we have a veritable
historical personage in the patriarch to deal with, and
not the creation of a Hebrew fiction writer. His early
life was spent in Babylonia, where he received his edu-
cation. His emigration to Palestine and residence there
as a shaykh among his people — a law unto himself — would
not require us to suppose that he had forgotten his
early training, and especially with reference to affairs of
everyday life. At the same time, it would be unreason-
able to suppose that the laws of Canaan were influ-
enced by this petty shaykh, who we are told could
gather only three hundred and eighteen men, which

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 41

included those of several allies, when he went to recover
Lot. Naturally, his own tribe, perhaps for generations,
was more or less influenced by this Babylonian heritage ;
but contact for four or five centuries with the laws of
Palestine, Egypt, and other lands gradually effaced
the traces of this influence, as is evident by a comparison
of Babylonian laws with the Mosaic code.

There are laws in both codes which are parallel.
The lex talionis is common to both; but this continues
to exist in Oriental lands at the present time, and doubt-
less will be found in other ancient Semitic codes that may
be discovered. Without taking into consideration the
laws arising from this barbarous law of retaliation,
those which are similar can all be explained as coinci-
dences which have arisen from similar conditions.
Even a common origin for both cannot be proved.
Not a few scholars have come to the conclusion that the
points of agreement are due to independent develop-
ment from the same primitive customs.1

Not only is it claimed that the people of the West
adopted the language, the culture, the religion, and the
laws of Babylonia, but that the literature was also
absorbed as its own. The early stories in Genesis of
the Creation, Sabbath, antediluvian patriarchs, and
the Deluge have furnished the principal material for
the support of this theory. Under these several heads
this question will be discussed.

1 For a fuller discussion of the question as to whether the Mosaic
code is dependent upon the Hammurabi, see the writer's Light on
the Old Testament from Babel, p. 223 ff.

42 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

It is not my desire to attempt to minimize the influ-
ences from the Tigro-Euphrates valley upon the culture
of the neighboring nations in general, including Israel.
Unquestionably such a civilization as the Sumerian,
which, as far as we know, was highly developed as early
as the fifth millennium B.C., and also the Assyro-
Babylonian, exerted an influence upon neighboring
peoples. What that influence was upon the center of the
Semites from which the Semitic Babylonians came, of
course, is a different question. It is well to bear in mind
that while the Sumerians, on the one hand, greatly
influenced the Semitic culture which was brought into
the country, the Semites, on the other, had a great
influence upon the Sumerians — not so much in their art
as in their culture in general, for the Semite seems to
have had little art worth imitating. By taking this more
into account it is not improbable that many of the diffi-
culties brought to light by the Halevy school will find
their solution, for it is evident that the Semitic hordes,
as they are called, which came into Babylonia greatly
influenced the culture of that land. But beyond such
influences as are due to commercial relations, and perhaps
the script, it does not appear that the culture of Amurru,
according to all that we know from the excavations and
the monuments, was modified by Babylonian forces. In
short, a careful consideration of the data at our dis-
posal confirms the contention that many extravagant
statements have been made concerning the indebtedness
of Israel and the Western Semites to Babylonia.

Farther North it is apparent that the contact between

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 43

the Hittite and the Babylonian culture was closer.
Whether the peoples will ultimately be shown to have
had intimate relations with one another remains to be
determined. Mutual influences, however, are shown by
a study of the art.1 The Babylonian influence upon that
region is also apparent in the so-called Cappadocian
tablets, as well as in the inscriptions from Mitanni. The
influences from Babylonia or Shumer which found their
way into Europe, doubtless, were largely transmitted
through the medium of these peoples in Asia Minor.2
In fact we are justified in looking for influences, at least
in orthography, among all the nations that adopted the
Babylonian script for their own language. This would
include a people like the Amorites, in so far as they
adopted the cuneiform script for their own language.

1 See Ward, Cylinders and other Ancient Seals in the Library of
J. Pierpont Morgan, p. 93, who finds Babylonian influences on the
seal cylinders classed definitely as Hittites. This region he claims
also gave in return more than one deity to the Babylonian pantheon.

2 An interesting illustration of this is the Babylonian origin of the
Platonic number, 12,960,000, which has been demonstrated by
Aures and Adam, and recently discussed by Hilprecht, in Babylonian
Expedition, Vol. XX, pt. 1, and by Barton, "On the Babylonian
Origin of Plato's Number," Journal American Oriental Society, Vol.
29, p. 210.

CREATION STORY

It is a widely current theory that the cosmology of
the Hebrews, as reflected in Genesis 1-2 : 4a, as well
as in the prophets and in the poetic productions of
Israel, was borrowed from the Babylonians; or, as an
eminent scholar has expressed himself, "in fact,
no archaeologist questions that the biblical cosmog-
ony, however altered in form and stripped of its
original polytheism, is in its main outlines derived
from Babylonia."1 Certain scholars, however, while
assigning for literary reasons all the passages in the Old
Testament dealing with the so-called " Yahweh-Tehom
myth," in their extant form, to a period as late as the
exile, hold that there was a long development of the
Babylonian myth on Palestine soil. Or, as another writer
puts it, the Hebrew was founded upon the Babylonian
soon after the invasion of Canaan.2 "Yes," says Sayce,
" the elements, indeed, of the Hebrew cosmology are all
Babylonian; even the creative word itself was a Baby-
lonian conception, as the story of Marduk has shown
us."3 Gunkel, followed by others, assumes a dependence

1 Driver, Commentary on Genesis, p. 30. Barton, in his article
on "Tiamat, " Jour. Amer. Orien. Soc, Vol. XV, 1-27, was one of
the first writers to make an extended comparison between the
Creation story of the Babylonians and Genesis. See also Jastrow,
Jewish Quarterly Review, 1901, p. 622.

2 Rogers, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 139.

3 Religions of Egypt and Babylonia, p. 395.

CREATION STORY 45

of the biblical story in Genesis, including several rem-
nants in the Old Testament, upon the Babylonian; but
the former was separated from the latter by a long
space of time. These represent the views generally
adopted by writers on the subject, namely, that it
was out of this circle of influences that the beginning
of Israel's conscious thinking about the work of crea-
tion arose.

The sole argument of value that has been advanced
for the Babylonian origin is, that in purely Israelite
environment it is impossible to see how it should have
been supposed that the primeval ocean alone existed
at the beginning, for the manner in which the world
rises in the Hebraic story corresponds entirely to Baby-
lonian climatic conditions, where in the winter water
holds sway everywhere until the god of the spring sun
appears, who parts the water and creates heaven and
earth. This cosmology, it is held, must therefore
have had its origin in the alluvial plains, such as those
of Babylonia, and not in the land of Palestine, still less
in Syria or the Arabian desert. It also involves a
special deity of spring or of the morning sun, such as
Marduk was, and Yahweh was not.

It must be admitted that the fundamental conceptions
expressed in the Hebrew story are not Palestinian in color,
and that in all probability they are based upon a common
inheritance. There is a Sumerian cosmology, the fun-
damental idea of which is that water is the primeval
element, "for all the earth was sea." "In those days
was built Eridu," which is in the region where the

46 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Hebrews are generally regarded to have placed Eden,
"out of which a river went, and from thence it was parted
and became into four heads." The biblical cosmology
not only places Eden in an alluvial plain, but it recog-
nizes water as the primeval element. These ideas were
held also by the Egyptians, Phoenicians and others, and
it is altogether reasonable to assume that the Amorites
and Aramaeans had something similar. In so far, it must
be admitted that the biblical story embraces cosmological
conceptions similar to those found among the Sumerians
and other peoples; but, as Pinches pointed out,1 when he
published this Sumerian legend which belongs to an in-
cantation tablet, nothing is said in the fragment of a
conflict between Marduk and Tiamat, the chief theme
of the Babylonian legend.

The Marduk-Tiamat myth, which belonged to the
Library of Ashurbanipal, is a late and elaborated attempt
to explain the origin of things. The chief purpose of
the legend, as it has been handed down, is the glorifica-
tion of the god Marduk, who, as is well known, absorbed
the prerogatives and attributes of the other gods, after
Hammurabi caused him to be placed at the head of
the Babylonian pantheon. That is to say, it is quite
apparent that the writer composed the work from
existing legends.2

Professors Jastrow, Sayce,3 and others recognize
two different schools of thought represented in the

1 Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1891, p. 393 ff.

2 Cf . Jastrow, Rel. of Bab. and Ass., p. 407 ff.
J Religion of Egypt and Babylonia, p. 376.

CREATION STORY 47

myth, as is shown by the attempt to harmonize
two conflicting conceptions. In the chaos symbolized by
Tiamat is seen the relic of a cosmology which emanated
from Nippur. This, it is claimed, was adopted and
combined with the cosmology of Eridu that made
water the origin of all things. With the Sumerian
legend, found by Rassam at Sippara, before us, which
doubtless came from Eridu, it seems quite clear
that the Tiamat cosmology is entirely independent of it.
But, contrary to the asserted claims, it cannot be said
to have emanated from Nippur. I can agree with
Professor Jastrow, who, in assuming the composite
character of the Babylonian Creation story,1 sees a
version underlying it which represents a conflict between
Ea and Apsu. This version, which emanated from
Eridu, must be viewed as the establishment of order
in place of chaos. But I fail to appreciate the claim
made by certain Assyriologists that there is a distinct
version of the episode which originated at Nippur, in
which Bel or Ellil and Tiamat are the contestants.
The arguments adduced in support of the theory are
by no means conclusive. The transfer to Marduk of
the prerogatives of Ellil cannot be used to explain
the origin of all that belongs to Marduk, for that deity
had an existence with proper attributes before Ham-
murabi conquered the Elamites, and was able to make
him supplant the old bel mdtdti, "lord of lands." This
transfer of titles is definitely set forth in the myth, where

1 See Noldeke, Festschrift, p. 971 ff.

48 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

the compiler, in his efforts to glorify Marduk, bestows
upon him all the attributes which belonged to other
deities, as well as Ellil. But the statement which is
used to prove that Marduk supplanted Ellil in this
conflict is not justified by any known facts, namely,
that the description in the fourth tablet of the equip-
ment of the god — that is, the four winds, lightning, the
storm chariot, and the storm weapons — only fits Ellil
of Nippur, and is totally incongruous in the case of
Marduk, because one is a storm-god and the other a
solar deity. The argument, I repeat, has little or no
weight, for, as will be seen below, Marduk, the god of
light, is also a storm-god.1 Adad, another representation
of a solar deity in the West, is also the god of the
winds and storms. The Sumerian Nin-Girsu is simi-
larly a solar and agricultural deity. This is perfectly
natural, as the sun recalls to life the slumbering powers
of nature; but fertility is not only dependent upon the
sun, but also upon rain.

This conflict between Marduk and Tiamat, as Zim-
mern2 has held, is manifestly one of light against darkness,
i.e. the god of light with the god of darkness, while the
Sumerian symbolizes the establishment of order out of
chaos. Ellil was not a god of light, but a deity of an
altogether different character. Marduk, on the other
hand, is pre-eminently a solar deity; and therefore,
until some indisputable facts are produced to show
that Marduk is not the original deity of the legend,

1 See Jensen, K. B., VI, p. 563.
J Encyclopedia Biblica, col. 733.

CREATION STORY 49

no other view should be countenanced. Further, in
Part II it will be shown that Marduk (or Amar-utuk) has
been introduced into Babylonia from the West.

Not only is Marduk, the god of light, an importa-
tion from the West, but also Tiamat, the mythical
monster who personified the sea, the god of darkness.
Scholars have indeed assumed that the Hebrew Tehom,
translated "deep abyss," was borrowed from the Baby-
lonian Tiamat. The latter, in Babylonian, is written in a
form slightly different from ti'amtu or tdmdu, the word
for "sea," perhaps for the purpose of differentiation.
This name, as far as published inscriptions are concerned,
is confined to the primeval deity in the Marduk-Tiamat
legend. The root to which this word, as well as tdmdu
meaning " sea, " belongs does not seem to be in use in
Babylonian, except in these two words.

On the other hand, there are several roots in Hebrew
Din, nOH and DDjI, which mean "to make a noise,
to confuse, to discomfit, to disquiet," to one of which
Tehom probably belongs ; though it is also possible, as De-
litzsch1 maintains, that there is also a root DUD. At the
same time there are a number of derivatives, used in con-
veying ideas connected with "the deep sea, the abyss, con-
fusion, the primeval ocean, the depth"; in fact, there is a
wealth of synonyms, belonging to the very fiber of
the Hebrew language and thought. And yet scholars
have held that Israel borrowed the conception from
the Babylonians, who, as far as is -known, simply used

Prolegomena, p. 113.
4

50 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

the word tdmdu, "sea," and also Tiamtu in this legend.
The chaos seems to be a Phoenician idea also (see below).1

The absence of the use of the stem in Babylonian,
as above stated, considered in connection with these
facts, makes the hypothesis that the Hebrews borrowed
this idea from the Babylonians exceedingly precarious;
in fact, it is unreasonable to assume that the Hebrew
Tehdm is a modification of a Babylonian pattern. The
deity furthermore is surely not Sumerian, at least it has
not been proved to be such. To say, therefore, that the
origin of the Marduk-Tiamat myth is to be found in a
Nippurian version, originally known as Ellil-Tiamat,
is utterly without foundation. With our present
knowledge, the only conclusion at which we can reason-
ably arrive is, that this is an importation from the West.

The art as represented in the seal cylinders offers a
weighty argument for the comparatively late intro-
duction of this myth into Assyria. A characteristic
design of the Assyrian period of the first millennium
B.C. is the conflict between the deity of order and
disorder, which has incorporated certain elements from
the earlier cylinders depicting the battle between
Gilgamesh and wild beasts. The composite production,

1 In Pognon, Inscriptions Mandaites des coupes de Khoudbir,
Nos. 27, 33, the word is also found in Mandaic, which is an Aramaic
dialect. The passage is K"Knn K'Din K'pDlJ?3. Pognon (p. 65) sug-
gests here a scribal error and proposes K'Dmfi, i.e., "black," but
Professor Montgomery, who called my attention to the passage,
translates "in the depth, the lower abysses." That is NDIfi is the
same as the Hebrew Dinn.

CREATION STORY 51

however, is intended generally to portray the conflict
between Marduk and Tiamat, though it is important to
bear in mind that the battle between Marduk and
Tiamat is never represented in the early Babylonian
art.1 It belongs, as far as we know, to the Assyrian
period, which therefore justifies us in seeking for the
origin of the myth elsewhere than in Babylonia.

Such a conflict, as has been shown, is reflected in the
Old Testament, where Yahweh put down a power of
darkness. This, in fact, is a distinctive mark of Hebrew
theology reflected throughout the Old Testament.
It passed over into the New Testament, and has become
the heritage of the Christian Church in the doctrine
of the fallen angels. Under the guidance of a primeval
leader, certain angels did not persevere in wisdom and
righteousness, but apostatized, in consequence of which
the chief, together with his followers, was banished to
the eternal desertion of God. Augustine, it is interest-
ing to note, maintained that the fall of these angels
took place during the age represented by the second
verse of Genesis, although he does not seem to have
taken into consideration the passages in Job, Isaiah
and the Psalms which refer to the conflict before the
creation of the heavens and the earth between Yahweh
and this primeval power of darkness, under the names
Rahab, Leviathan, Dragon or Tehom and the "helpers."2

1 Ward, Cylinders and Other Ancient Seals in the Library of J.
Pierpont Morgan, p. 17.

'See Gunkel, Schbpfung und Chaos; Clay, Light on the Old
Testament from Babel, p. 69.

52 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

The Israelitish conception of Sin presupposes influence
from this primeval power of darkness and its allies.
In Babylonian demonology the lillu, etimmu, utukku,
and other destructive demons played an important
role, but the knowledge of such a conflict between light
and darkness, or between the god of light and the god
of darkness, as far as is known in the literature of Baby-
lonia, is confined to this myth.

Similar ideas seem to prevail also in the creation
story of the Phoenicians. Eusebius, who reproduces
what "a certain Sanchoniathon has handed down to
posterity, a very ancient author who they testify
flourished before the Trojan war/'1 says the Phoeni-
cians believed "that the beginning of all things was
a dark and condensed windy air, or a breeze of dark air,
and a chaos turbid and black as Erebus." In the
Phoenician also B6.au, i.e., "emptiness,"2 figured as a
wife of avefxos xoXma, from whom sprang the primeval
men. The xveufia, which is the same as the Hebrew
rtiah in the chaos, also figured prominently in the
Phoenician.

Nor is it strange that such a conception as a monster
in the figure of a dragon should prevail in Israelite
environment, as some have claimed, when we take a
slightly broader view of the situation, and realize that
we cannot localize this motive to-certain inland cities
occupied by Israel. Huge monsters are familiar

1 See Cory, Ancient Fragments, p. 1.
1 Cf . im of Genesis 1 : 2.

CREATION STORY 53

even now on the coast of Amurru. It is only
necessary to refer to the story of Jonah, with its
classical counterpart in the myth of Perseus- Andromeda,
localized at Joppa, to meet this objection. In fact,
according to our present knowledge, we must conclude
that this idea is distinctively Palestinian, instead of
Babylonian.

What is true of Tidmtu can be said of other elements
in the story, e.g., the deity Apsu is also West Semitic.
As will be seen in Part II, besides other elements Lafamu
and Laf^amu are the same.

The composite character of the Babylonian Creation
myth being well established, and likewise that the amalga-
mation of the diversified elements took place some time
prior to the establishment of Ashurbanipal's library, it
seems reasonably certain that the two cosmologies, which
are clearly distinguishable, represent a Semitic myth com-
ing from the West, in which Marduk, the god of light, is
arrayed against Tiamat, the god of darkness, and a
Sumerian myth, presumably from Eridu, resulting in
the establishment of order by Ea, as against the chaos,
which is personified by Apsu.

Scholars are mistaken in assuming that there has
been a complete transplanting of the Babylonian myth
to the soil of Yahwism, or that the author of the biblical
story had before him not only the cosmological system
of the Babylonians, but that particular form which has
been incorporated into the Assyrian epic. On the
contrary, in the light of these discussions, it seems
reasonably certain that the Western Semites who emi-

54 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

grated to Babylonia1 carried their tradition with them
to that land, which in time was combined with the
Sumerian, resulting in the production discovered in the
library of Ashurbanipal.

1 On the movements from the West to the East in the third
millennium B.C., see Clay, Jour. Amer. Or. Soc, XXVIII, p. 142 ft".,
and Ranke, 0. L. Z., March, 1907. This has been accepted by Meyer,
Geschichte des Altertums2, I, § 436.

THE SABBATH

For some years a number of Assyriologists who
have written upon the Sabbath of the Hebrews have
reached the conclusion that not only " the word Sabbath
is Babylonian indeed,"1 but also that the institution
originated in the Tigro-Euphrates valley. This is well
expressed in the statement, "the Sabbath rest was
essentially of Babylonian origin."2 Or, as is asserted
by Gunkel : " The history of religion, however, indicates
that the observance of such a holy day is a remnant of
an earlier time in the history of religion when man
believed in gods, who according to their kind belonged
to certain days."3 Following are the facts upon which
these conclusions rest.

In Rawlinson, Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. II,
32a-6, 16, the equation sha-pat-tum = um nu-ufy lib-bi
is found. This has been translated, "day of rest of
the heart," and was supposed to contain the germ
of the Hebrew Sabbath. The word shapattum, which
can also be read shabattum, occurs in several syllabaries,4
and has been explained by Professor Jensen to mean
"appeasement (of the gods), expiation, penitential

1 Rogers, Religion of Bab. and Ass., p. 226.

2 Sayce, Religion of Egypt and Babylonia, p. 476.

3 Gunkel, Israel und Babylonien, p. 21.

4 Cf. Zeit. fur Ass., IV, 274 f.

56 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

prayer/' from a root which means "to conciliate."
Professor Zimmern conjectured that the root means "to
desist."1 But up to the present the only explanation
of shdbattum from Babylonian sources is that it is a
synonym of gamdru2 and means "to be complete, to be
full." And this meaning becomes perfectly intelligible
in the light of the list of Sumerian and Babylonian days
of the month published by Pinches,3 from which we
learn that shabattum was the name of the fifteenth day
of the month; and considered in connection with the
synonym gamdru, "to be complete," it doubtless had
reference, as has been suggested, to the full moon in the
middle of the month.

The idea originally advanced that Hm nUJ} libbi is a
"day of the appeasement (of the gods)" or "the day
for appeasing the anger of the deity" seems to be correct.
This is further illustrated by personal names such as
Linuh,-libbi-Ellil, "May the heart of Ellil be appeased,"4
or Linuji-libbi-ildni,5 or Nu]i-libbi-ilani.6 It is not
improbable that on the day shapattian, when the moon

1K.A. T.3, p. 593.

2 Raw., V, 28, 14e-/. Hehn ("Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den
Babyloniern und im Alten Testament," Leipziger Semitische
Studien) holds that shab&tu originally meant "to be complete," like
gamdru; and that "to rest" is a secondary meaning. Another im-
portant treatise recently published on the Sabbath is Sabbat und
Woche im Alten Testament, by Meinhod, who takes a different view.

3 Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records, p. 527.

4 Cf. Clay, B. E., vol. VIII.

5 B. E., vol. X.

• B. E.. vol. VIII.

THE SABBATH 57

was full, appropriate exercises were observed in con-
ciliating the gods. But until some evidence is forth-
coming, we cannot justifiably assume with Delitzsch
(Babel und Bibel) that there was a "cessation (of work),
keeping holiday, " or that it was a rest day from human
labor. No other conclusion, therefore, can be reached
than that the Babylonians did not observe a day in
every seven, that was called the Sabbath. And, until
further light on the subject is produced, this must be
clearly understood to be the fact.

The nearest approach to any resemblance to the
Hebrew Sabbath that is to be found in the cuneiform
inscriptions is on the so-called calendar of festivals for
the intercalary month, Second Elul, and Marchesvan,1
in which the duties of the shepherd or king are prescribed
for the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, twenty-eighth
and nineteenth days. While the other days of the
month were regarded as favorable, these were regarded
both as favorable and unfavorable. It runs thus:

"The seventh day is a holy day of Marduk and Sar-
panitum, a fortunate day, an evil day. The shepherd
of the great nation shall not eat meat roasted by the
fire, which is smoked(?), he shall not change his garment,
he shall not dress in white, he shall not offer a sacrifice.
The king shall not ride in his chariot, the priestess shall
not pronounce a divine decision, in a secret place the
augur shall not make (an oracle) ; a physician shall not
touch a sick man; (the day) is unsuitable for doing

1 Raw., IV, 32-33.

58 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

business. The king shall bring his offering at night
before Marduk and Ishtar, he shall make an offering;
his prayer shall be acceptable to god."

This UD-gUL-GAL, or "evil day," observed not
every seven days, but according to the lunar month,
was not a day of rest for the people. As seen, there
were some superstitious requirements demanded of the
king on that day, but not of the common people.
The investigations of Johns1 show that in the Assyrian
period in the eighth and seventh centuries before Christ
(720-606), the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and
twenty-eighth days do not show any marked absten-
tion from business transactions. The nineteenth day,
however, does. In examining the dated tablets of the
First dynasty of Babylon, i.e., the time of Abraham,
he concluded that there is a noticeable abstention on
these days, but especially on the nineteenth day. Of a
total of 356 tablets, the number dated on the first day
of the month was 39; on the seventh, only 5; on the
fourteenth, 5; on the twenty-first and twenty-eighth,
each 8. Considering the month to have thirty days,
the average for each day of the month would be 11 and
a fraction.

Johns does not state whether his investigations
show that other days besides the first of the month
were especially auspicious for business transactions as
determined by the dated contracts. If there were,
the figures do not prove anything. In the Cas-

1 Expository Times, XVII, p. 567.

THE SABBATH 59

site period the Temple Archives show that the
average amount of business was transacted on those
days as well as on the nineteenth. As Johns observes,
however, most of the Cassite documents referring to
the affairs of the temple may necessitate their being
considered from another point of view. In the time of
the First dynasty of Babylon and in the Assyrian period,
the nineteenth day stands out as one upon which Sabbata-
rian principles as regards the doing of business may
have been at least partially observed. It seems it might
have been a certain kind of a holy day.

Besides this hemerology for the intercalary month
Elul and Marchesvan, no further light on the subject
has been recovered. In the Hammurabi Code of laws,
or in fact in the thousands of tablets that have been
published, scholars have not been able to find anything,
beyond what has been discussed, which even by inference
would seem to show that the Babylonians observed
such a rest every seven days.

This hemerology, or religious calendar, was found in
the Library of Ashurbanipal, and, knowing the nature
of that Library, it is not unreasonable to assume that
his scribes, having collected every kind of literature,
ancient and modern, found in some section of the country
that such a lunar day was observed by officials. Know-
ing as we do that Israel and Judah were carried to
Babylonia and Assyria and placed in captivity, a custom
that was practised in all probability for millenniums;
and that this gave rise to many communities of West-
ern Semitic peoples in the Euphrates valley, it is not

60 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

unreasonable to assume that at least in some places,
where this element predominated, the Sabbath was
observed in much the same manner as it was in Canaan.
Knowing also that most of the published contracts of
the First dynasty (when, as was noticed by Johns, there
was at least a falling off of business transactions on
certain days) come largely from a West Semitic center,
it is not impossible to see here the results of a West
Semitic influence.

Further, it must be noted that the Library of
Ashurbanipal belonged to the century following the
fall of Samaria and the deportation of Israel, during
which century also Tiglathpileser (745-727 B.C.) took
Ijon, Abel-Beth-Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor,
Gilead and Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali, and
carried them captive to Assyria (2 Kings 15 : 29).
That is, in the century prior to the time the Library of
Ashurbanipal was gathered, thousands of Palestinian
captives were brought to Assyria. This fact makes it
altogether reasonable to expect to find some traces of
the Hebrew institution.

Then also it can properly be assumed that other
Western Semites besides the Hebrews observed the
Sabbath, as, for example, the Aramaeans, whence the
Hebrews sprung.1 As there is every indication in the
Old Testament that the institution existed prior to
Israel, and knowing how for centuries prior to the
time of Ashurbanipal the Aramaeans and Amorites

1 Nielsen, Der altarabische Mondkult, shows that in Arabia there
were seven and ten-day periods observed.

THE SABBATH 61

were the prey of the Eastern kings, we have every
reason to expect to find some reflections of the observ-
ance of the day even from other than Hebrew sources
in that land.

This much seems to be certain: The Sabbath
as a day of rest, observed every seven days, has not
been found in the Babylonian literature. While the
hemerology of the late Assyrian period has preserved
a knowledge of a regulation involving the king and his
officials on the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, twenty-
eighth and nineteenth days of two months of the year,
which days were regarded as "evil days" and were
to be observed according to certain restrictions in order
to appease the gods, it cannot even be justifiably assumed
at the present time (except perhaps for the nineteenth
day) that there was any cessation from business of any
kind or that there was a rest day for the people.

The very root from which the word is derived, if
in use in the Assyro-Babylonian language, is almost
unknown, and cannot be shown with our present knowl-
edge to have the meaning "to rest, cease or desist."
It is only necessary, on the other hand, for one to glance
at a dictionary of Hebrew words to be impressed with
the widely extended usage of the root shabath, " to cease,
desist, rest," to which the word "Sabbath" belongs.
And knowing what this institution was to the Hebrew,
as is indicated in all the Old Testament codes — that it
was not a day depending upon the lunar month, but
was observed every seventh day, although there was
in addition the new-moon festival which was also a

62 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

day of rest; and further appreciating how extensive
was the legislation concerning it — that it meant not only
abstention from daily pursuits, but was a day of con-
secration, one which the people sanctified by a proper
observance ; that it was not an austere day for the king,
so that the anger of the gods would be appeased, but
a day of rest for slave, stranger, and even beast;
and that it was an institution without parallel
in ancient as well as in modern times, yes, the day
par excellence among the Hebrews — it seems evident,
without any elaborate discussion of the question, that
the Pan-Babylon ists, and others who hold similar views,
are mistaken when they find the origin of the institu-
tion in Babylonia.

ANTEDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS

For some years Assyriologists have declared that
the names of the antediluvian patriarchs of Genesis
were borrowed from Babylonia, as represented in the
antediluvian mythological kings in the list handed down
by Berosus. Zimmern,1 Hommel,2 Jeremias,3 Sayce,4
and others hold that the names of the Hebrew list, in
part at least, are direct translations of the Babylonian
names. Some even hold that they are the work of a
learned priest of the period of the Babylonian exile.
Following is a list of the Chaldean kings as quoted
by Berosus, from Eusebius.5 The forms of the Armenian
translation are here presented in Latin.6

1. "AX<vpo$} Aloros.

2. "AXaTzapo?, Alaporus, Alapaurus, Alaparus.

3. 'AixdXapos, 'Af/.TjXiov, Almelon.

4. 'AfjLfievwv, Ammenon.

5. HhyaAapos, MeyaXavo$f AmegalaruS.

6. Jaww?, Jaw?, Da(v)onus.

7. Euzdu)pa%o<;, Euzdwpeazos, Edoranchus, Edoreschus.

8. "AiJLstuinvos, Amemphsinus.

*K. A. 77, 539 ff.
2 Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1893, 243 ff.
■ Das Alte Testament, etc., p. 119.
4 Expository Times, May, 1899, p. 353.
11 Chron. liber prior, edited by Schoene, p. 7 ff.
• See Zimmern, K. A. T.3, p. 531.
63

64 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES
9. "QrtapTrjs, 'Apdarrjs, OtiarteS.

10. EHjooOpos, ZifTou0po$, Ztvtffpos, Xisuthrus.

The first name, "A\wpo$, is considered to be the equiv-
alent of the Babylonian Aruru.1 In the light of the
discussion which is found in Part II, it is without doubt
the name of the chief deity of the Amorites, which is
written El-Ur or El-Or pV?K) in the recently dis-
covered inscription of Zakir, published by Pognon.

These scholars all regard the second name, "AXaizapo<;,
to be equivalent to Adapa. It is, however, not
necessary to resort to such violence, and especially
when it can be translated as a good West Semitic name.
The full name is as above, or as the Latin version has it,
namely, Alaporus. An additional element must be
recognized besides Alap, namely, the name of the god
tJru.2 This would give us Alap-tJru, "Friend or Ox
of Urn," with which we can compare the Babylonian
name Rim-Sin, "Ox of Sin," etc.3 Eleph (ffjtf), which
is a place name in Benjamin (Joshua 18 : 28), may also
be compared.

These scholars have said Enosh, "man," the third
name in the Hebrew list, is a translation of "Ap.rjXwv or
amelu, because the latter also means "man." The
fuller form of the third name, "AptUapo?, must

1 See Jeremias, Das alle Testament, p. 119.

2 Zimmern (K. A. T.3, p. 531) recognized that the endings of
several of the names were similar: "Die Endung pog konnte dabei
derjenigen in 'Alupoc, 'Apillapoc, Meyalapnc nachgebildet sein."

3 In Kings, Chronicles, II, p. 17, Rim(AMA) is written. Cf.
also Agal-Marduk, "Calf of Marduk," etc.

ANTEDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS 65

naturally be considered in preference to the abbre-
viated form. And here again attention is called to
the second element which is XJtu. This gives us
instead of Amelu, which is only part of a name,
Amel-Uru, a common proper name formation. In this
connection we must remember that the first element
may be also West Semitic, for compare the name Amal
(7D#) of a man in the tribe of Asher, which is from
the stem meaning "to labor." It is, therefore, safe
to conclude that both elements of the name are in all
probability West Semitic.

The fourth name, "Annevwv, which is regarded as the
equivalent of the Babylonian word ummdnu, "work-
master," it is declared was translated into Hebrew and
became Cain = Qenan, "smith." It seems, inasmuch
as no such personal name as Ummdnu exists among the
more than ten thousand known Babylonian names,
that we must look for another explanation.

The fifth name, HkyaXapo?, does not seem to have
been explained by Zimmern and Jeremias, but Hommel
suggests1 that it is a corruption of Amilalarus, i.e., Amil-
Aruru, "man of Arum." Again, it should be said
there is no need to alter the name in order to explain it.
This can also be West Semitic, i.e., Megal-Vru, for com-
pare Mikloth (m^pD), the name of a man in the tribe
of Benjamin (I Chron. 8 : 32) and of a general in David's
army (I Chron. 27 : 4).

The seventh name, EueSwpa^oq, has been identified

1 Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1893, p. 243 ff.
5

66 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

with En-me-dur-an-ki (written in Sumerian), the name
of a mythological king of Sippar, who received reve-
lations from his deity and ruled three hundred and sixty-
five years. The king has been identified with Enoch, also
the seventh in the list of the Hebrew patriarchs, "who
walked with God," and lived before his translation
the same number of years, namely, three hundred and
sixty-five. While no connection between the names is
suggested, there is good reason for supposing that these
facts point to a common origin.

The eighth name, 'Apeppwos (Amemphsinus) , Hom-
mel1 and other scholars think is a corruption of
Amilsinus, i.e., Amel-Sin, "man of the moon-god Sin,"
and compare it with the eighth Hebrew name, Methu-
Salah, "man of Salah or of the javelin." This, Sayce2
suggests, is a variation of Mutu-sha-Irkhu, " man of the
moon-god, " which is equivalent to the Hebrew Methu-
sha'el. These explanations and comparisons do not
appear to be convincing.

The ninth name, QnapTrj<s, which Alexander Poly-
histor writes 'Apdarys, is made equivalent by these
scholars to Ubar-Tutu, the father of the Babylonian
hero of the deluge. No effort is made to compare
this name with Lamech, which is the ninth in the Hebrew
list. It should be noted that the form given by Poly-
histor may perhaps be nearer the original, in which case
the first element in the name probably is the god tlru,
which frequently appears as Aru (see Part II). The

1 Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1S93, p. 243 ff.
1 Expository Times, 1899, p. 353.

ANTEDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS 67

second element may be represented in the name
Dati, a scribe of the time of Sargon, as well as in the
name Dati-Ellil, the well known father of Sargon of
Akkad. Compare also Ardata, a place name along the
coast of the Mediterranean in the Amarna letters.

The tenth is that of the hero of the deluge, which is
regarded as an epithet of UT-napishtim, the Babylonian
Noah. Although no relationship between the names is
apparent, the fact that the tenth name ends both lists
with the diluvian hero points to some connection be-
tween them. And this gives rise to the usual question
asked in connection with discussions of this character,
Is the Babylonian derived from the Hebrew, or the
Hebrew from the Babylonian, or have they a common
origin?

As stated above, the view which has been widely
accepted, is that a learned priest secured these legends
from the Babylonians while in exile; that he translated
the names into Hebrew, and appropriated the list for
the history of his race. The conclusions which these
scholars reach seem to demand that the Jews allowed
an extensive influence to be exerted upon them by this
polytheistic people, who had robbed them not only
of their independence and the actual possession of their
territory, but also even deported them and held them in
bondage. That is, their kings and priests and people
were torn from their ancestral home; their women and
children were forced to endure the awful hardships
entailed upon them in being transferred, after having
been subjected to atrocious indignities of every imagin-

68 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

able character, and then held as slaves in this alien land.
Is the theory reasonable that the priests, learned in
their ancient cult and in their ancestral history, should
have adopted at this time as their own antecedents
these mythological kings of Babylonia, who, Berosus
tells us, ruled, on an average, four hundred and thirty-
two thousand years?

The Jews were carried to Babylonia by Nebuchad-
rezzar, and many were deposited in the vicinity of
Nippur.1 In the time of Artaxerxes I. and Darius II.
the country seems to have abounded with them. While
many returned to their own land, a large population
continued to reside there. The Babylonian Talmud
was written in that land by the descendants of those
that remained. Naturally, if the Jews who returned
to Palestine had been so extensively influenced by the
Babylonian religion and history, we should suppose
that the Jews who remained in the land certainly, by
reason of their attachment for it, would have been
influenced even more in this direction. But this does
not seem to have been the case.

The spoken language of Babylonia when the Jews
lived in exile was the Aramaic.2 When they returned
to Palestine they found that Aramaic, which was the
lingua franca at that time of Western Asia and Egypt,
was generally spoken in the land. To accept the con-
clusion of these scholars we are required also to explain

1 See Clay, Light on the Old Testament, p. 403 ff.

2 See Winckler, Geschichte Bab. und Ass., p. 179; Clay, Bab.
Exp., X, p. 10, and Light on the Old Testament from Babel, p. 397 f.

ANTEDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS 69

why these late Hebrew priests or scribes should have
adopted the language of the earlier period for these
myths and legends which they are supposed to have
introduced in Jewry, and why they interspersed their
writings with many archaic forms. Did these religious
innovators by so doing desire to give their borrowed
stories an ancient appearance, and thus deceive the
people by their literary forgeries?

As mentioned above, the fact that Edoranchus
and Enoch, respectively the sixth of each list, both
conversed with their deities, and the former ruled three
hundred and sixty-five years, the same number that
the latter lived on earth, and the further fact that the
tenth and last of each list are the heroes of the deluge,
seem to be points that cannot be considered simply
as coincidences. But, as is further shown above, the
argument that the Hebrew is a translation of the Baby-
lonian is utterly without proof.

In the light of all these facts, the most reasonable
conclusion seems to be, that inasmuch as most of the
names can be explained as being West Semitic, they are
such and not Babylonian. This follows from the fact
that the chief deity of the Amorites (discussed in Part II),
here written Qpo<s, Oros and Aurus, figures in five of
the ten names. Since the list of these mythological
kings is headed by 'AXwpos, "God Uru" we must
conclude that it was brought into Babylonia by the
Semites from the West. It is perfectly natural that
the Semitic Babylonians, who were not indigenous to
Babylonia, but, as I maintain, in all probability were

70 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

from Amurru, should have preserved after they entered
Babylonia their ancient list of kings, headed by the
name of their chief deity. This enabled them, naturally,
to regard their rulers as having divine origin. Instead,
therefore, of finding the origin of this legendary list of
kings in Babylonia, together with their culture, it is to
be traced back to a common stock of Semitic traditions,
which had their origin in the great land Amurru.

DELUGE STORY

The most important proof of the absolutely unques-
tionable dependence of the biblical narrative upon a
Babylonian archetype that scholars have found is the
story of the Deluge. Gunkel is right in saying that
almost all Assyriologists and Old Testament scholars
regard the Deluge story indubitably of Babylonian
origin.1 Delitzsch and others incline even to the opinion
that the biblical author had the Babylonian legend
before him, and that he translated and revised it.
Even Rogers says that it is " quite clear that the material
of the Hebrew narrative goes back undoubtedly to the
Babylonian original."2

The Babylonian story of the Deluge is so well known
that it is not necessary to recapitulate it here. The
striking resemblances to the biblical story have so fre-
quently been noted that they need not be repeated;
nor is it necessary to emphasize the fact that they show
a common origin for both narratives.3 In so far all
scholars are agreed.

Gunkel, however, taking the position generally
held, thinks that those who are unwilling to agree that

1 Israel und Babylonien, p. 16. Cf. also Jastrow, Rel. of Bab. and
Ass., p. 506.

2 Religion of Bab. and Ass., p. 209.

3 See Clay, Light on the Old Testament from Babel, p. 84 ff., or
other works of the same character.

72 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

the Hebrew account is dependent on the Babylonian,
but who say that both are versions of the same event,
have over-anxious temperaments. He claims that inas-
much as the stories coincide in so many minor details,
they are related as narratives. To prove that the
Israelitish story was borrowed from Babylonia, he
sums up his views in his Israel und Babylonien (p. 19)
in two arguments.

First, the great age of Babylonian civilization and
of the deluge narrative as well; second, the frequent
occurrence of floods is very natural in the flat plain of
Babylonia, which lies close to the sea and is watered by
two great streams.

The argument advanced by Zimmern, who holds
also that the narrative was transplanted from Baby-
lonia, its birthplace, is practically the same as the
arguments of Gunkel. He says that the story, which
was primitive, was indigenous in Babylonia, and was
transplanted to Palestine; because the very essence of
the Babylonian narrative presupposes a country liable
to inundations, like Babylonia. He regards the story
simply as a "nature myth," representing the phenomena
of winter, which in Babylonia is a time of rain.1

These writers hold the theory advanced by Dillman,
as well as by others, that there was a common Semitic
tradition which developed in Israel in one way and in
Babylonia in another, is to be rejected. Those who

1 Encyclopedia Biblica, I, p. 1059. See also Driver, Commentary
on Genesis, p. 107.

DELUGE STORY 73

fail to be convinced that there was no such common
source are accused by Gunkel of being possessed with
anxious piety in a sad combination with a pitiful lack
of culture.

Besides the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh epic,
which contains the deluge story, three other fragments
have been found. The one, which is too small to be of
any value, belonging to the early age, refers to the Baby-
lonian hero. The second, now in the library of Mr.
J. Pierpont Morgan, was written in the reign of Ammi-
zaduga, about 2000 B.C., and represents a god calling
upon Adad to cause a destructive rainstorm, and Ea
interposing in order to save the diluvian hero. There
are indications that even this is a copy of an earlier
tablet. Scheil, who has given an account of the tablet,
thinks this story was current in Sippara. We, therefore,
have a Babylonian version of a deluge, distinct from the
other, several centuries prior to the time of Moses. A third
is in the Berlin Museum. Moreover, early seal-cylinders
clearly indicate that scenes from the Gilgamesh epic
were favorite themes for the lapidary of Babylonia or
Shumer in a very early period. It is not improbable
that some represent a Sumerian Noah in his ark.
But this only proves the antiquity of some of the ele-
ments of which the epic is composed.

It is a well recognized fact that the Gilgamesh series
is a collection of stories which became the national epic
of the late Babylonians. Its composite character has
already been pointed out; the work of the redactor in
combining the different elements being an accepted

74 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

fact.1 In the epic are found relics of ancient Sumerian
mythology combined with Semitic sun-myths ; and some
of the latter at least, the writer claims, have come from
an ancient stock of legends possessed by the Western
Semites.

It is not a question whether Israel borrowed the
Deluge story from this Babylonian composition, or the
Babylonians from Israel, but whether the Semitic
elements in the Gilgamesh epic are indigenous to
Southern Babylonia (i.e., to the Sumerians) ; or whether
they had their origin with the Semitic Babylonians
who entered the land; or whether they go back to that
Semitic center from which they came. It seems that
most of the theories on the subject which result in saying
the Hebrews borrowed their story from the Babylonians
emanate from a very contracted view of the situation;
as if the only civilized peoples in Western Asia that
possessed a literature or mythology were the Baby-
lonians or Sumerians and Israel. That the Babylonian
legend is of a great antiquity offers no difficulty. The
almost universal character of a tradition of the event,
which marked an epoch for ancient peoples, the writer
thinks, is based upon the recollection of an actual inun-
dation of an extraordinary character. The Babylonian
and the Hebrew narratives, both of which can be said to
belong to a comparatively late period in the history of
man, have many points, as we have seen, in common.
Doubtless the Sumerians also possessed a narrative,

1 See Jastrow, Rel. Bab. and Ass., p. 470.

DELUGE STORY 75

which may yet be found, some of the elements of which
are included in the Gilgamesh series; but which may
have been a story altogether different in character from
the Hebrew and the Babylonian.

A fact to be constantly kept before us is that the
biblical account makes the ark rest upon the mountains
of Ararat (i.e., Urartu of the inscriptions), while the
Babylonian fixes the place at Mt. Nisir. If Nisir is a
mountain, east of the Tigris, across the Little Zab, as
has been declared, it can be said to be in Urartu, for
that country included the highlands north of Assyria.
It is a question whether in ancient times Urartu included
the lofty mountainous plateau now known as Armenia.
But the point to be emphasized is that both the Hebrew
and the Babylonian stories localized the second beginning
of man's history, not only in the same region, but also
outside of Babylonia.

The biblical story contains some features which
are acknowledged to be distinctively Palestinian.
These, it is claimed, made their appearance after the
story reached Palestine and was appropriated by the
Hebrews. They are "Noah," "the olive leaf," which
is characteristic of Palestine; "the ark," instead of a
ship, because there are no large navigable rivers in that
land; and the beginning of the deluge on the seventeenth
day of the second month, as that is the month the rains
begin in Canaan, whereas the Babylonian deluge began
in the eleventh month, the time the rains begin to fall in
Babylonia. This latter is based on the fact that the
epic was written on twelve tablets, which Rawlinson

76 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

suggested represented the months; the eleventh tablet,
therefore, corresponding to the eleventh month. There
seems to be about as much proof for this assertion as
if it were said that all books containing 365 pages rep-
resent the days of the year. Further, I fail to see that
"Noah" is distinctively Palestinian. There is but
one Noah known in the literature of Palestine, whereas
the element Nub is frequently found in Babylonian
nomenclature. It would seem that the Pan-Baby lonists
have here overlooked an important argument.

The statement that "olives" are characteristic of
Palestine is most interesting, but it would have been more
correct to have said Palestine and Syria, or still more
appropriately Amurru, for at Beirut and Tripolis there
are olive groves five miles square. Little or nothing is
known of the origin of the word "ark" (tebah), although
some declare it is of Egyptian origin. These supposed
features, due to Palestinian influences after the story was
borrowed from the Babylonian, do not offer very weighty
arguments in support of the theory that the Deluge
story originated in Southern Babylonia.

The Babylonian epic, as stated above, is composed
of Semitic and Sumerian elements, the latter, it seems,
growing up especially at Erech. The stories are made
to revolve about the hero, named Gilgamesh, who is
either a sun-god or his representative. As Sayce has
said, "The story of the Deluge, which constitutes the
eleventh book, has been foisted into it by an almost
violent artifice."1 The scenes are shifted from Erech,

1 Rel. of Egypt and Bab., p. 423.

DELUGE STORY 77

and the hero starts on a journey to his ancestor UT-
napishtim, in order to learn the mystery of his apo-
theosis, and to be relieved of a loathsome disease.

A very prominent feature in the path of this celestial
voyager, before he embarked upon the sea of death or
darkness, which was the Mediterranean, was the gate of
the setting sun. This was at the mountain Mdshu.
Its entrance was guarded by monsters daily from sun-
rise to sunset. This would imply from the rising of
the sun until it passed through the gate at even, when
it was closed. Jensen properly considers that this
mountain was in Amurru, near the shore of the Medi-
terranean,1 and that perhaps it is to be identified with
the gap made by the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon
mountains.

This gate is the place of the erib shamshi, " the entering
of the sun," or, to give its earlier Sumerian form, the place
of MAR-TU, i.e., "the entering in of Mar" (see Part
II). In the Gilgamesh epic, of which the Deluge story
is a part, the hero, who is a solar god, or the repre-
sentative of that deity, is thus made to figure promi-
nently in connection with the Western mountain of
the world, in Amurru, " whose back extends to the dam
of heaven, and whose breast reaches down to Arallu
(Hades)." This association with the Western gate of
the sun, located in the land of Amurru, points to indis-

1 Cf. K. B., p. 575 f . Jensen, ibid., p. 467, as well as Hommel,
Anc. Heb. Trad., p. 35, had previously considered the mountain
to be in Arabia.

78 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

putable connections with the great Shamash or Oru
of the Western Semites.

The name Gilgamesh seems to be Semitic, although
most of the scenes of the legend are depicted at Erech
(see page 142), in Babylonia. The syllabary published by
Pinches1 determined the reading of the name Gilgamesh
for the late period, i.e., GISH-TU-MASH = Gi-il-ga-
mesh. This enabled scholars to identify the deity with
the mythical king rdyafio? mentioned by Aelian.2

A fuller and earlier form of the name, however, has
been found on a little square tablet in the University
of Pennsylvania Museum,3 referring to a building in
Erech (which city figured so prominently in the legend),
dedicated to a deity whose name is written dGISH-BIL-
GA-MISH.

The final element of the name, it will be noticed,
is written in three different ways, MISH, MASH and
MESH. This looks as if the name is not Sumerian,
but quite probably represents a Semitic element.
In this connection we recall that the Nineveh temple
E-M ASH-MASH is written E-MISH-MISH in the
Hammurabi Code (IV, 61). The element MISH is
also in the name of the Nergal temple at Cutha, E-MISH-
LAM; and MASH is in the name of the temple E-UL-

1 Bab. and Orien. Rec, IV, 1890, p. 264.

2 See Sayce, Academy, 1890, 8, Nov., p. 24.

3 The text was published by Hilprecht, B. E., I, part 1, No. 26,
and was first translated by Hommel, P. S. B. A., XVI: 13. Poebel
also found the name in texts which he recently published, cf . B. E.,
VI, 2, No. 26, 111:6.

DELUGE STORY 79

MASH at Agade, etc. As Gilga-mesh is a solar deity
and figures in connection with the mountain Mdshu
(see also discussion, page 126 f, on Sha-Mash, Di-Mash-
qi, etc.), a plausible conjecture is that the name of the
deity of the mountain is contained in the name.1 If
this is true, the same element in temple names would
show extraordinary influence from the West.

The name of the diluvian hero, the ancestor of
Gilgamesh, whom he visited, and who related his experi-
ences, has been a subject of considerable controversy for
years. If not altogether it is partly Semitic; and there
are good reasons for regarding it as containing an
element foreign to the Semitic Babylonian, which
probably is from the West. Many different readings

1 The first element of the name is written GISH-BIL-GA and
GISH-TU (or TUN). GISH-TU = pdshu, which Jensen translates
"axe"; cf. K. B.t VI, p. 187; also Zimmern, Ritualtafeln, 141, note
?. The ideogram TV also= pa-la-qu (cf. P. S. B. A., December,
1880, PI. If., li. 34). Paldqu, perhaps the same as baldqu, means
"to destroy, kill, ravage" (cf. Muss-Arnolt, Die, p. 810), from
which pilaqqu, "axe," is derived. In the Hammurabi period the
name Belaqu occurs a number of times (cf. Ranke, P. N.); and in
the Cassite period Bilaqqu (cf. Clay, B. E., XV). With these names
we can compare the biblical Balak (p/3). As a mere conjecture
I would like to propose that the name Gilgamesh in view of the
writing 9%shBilga-Mish, means the "Axe of Mash." This when
written in Sumerian appeared with the determinative which was
pronounced, and in time became Semitized into Gisbilga and later
became Gilga. The axe in the myth appearing frequently as his
weapon (cf. also the representations of Adad-Teshup given by
Jeremias, in Roscher), it is not an unreasonable conjecture. This
being true, it is altogether reasonable to assume, especially in the
light of other facts here considered, that Gilgamesh was originally
Amoritish.

80 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

and explanations have been offered for the name.1
The second element is clearly napishtim, but the first
has been read UT, Pir, Per, §it, Shamash, Nufa, etc.
The sign UD has properly also the value Bir,2 and the
name can be read Bir-napishtim; and if so, perhaps it is
an abbreviation for a name like Bir-napishtim-usur,
"0 Bir, protect the life"; like NabH-napishtim-usur, a
common formation among Babylonian names. This
reading seems to be supported by the tablet now in the
J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, which was discovered
by Scheil, who found Pi-i[r] where he thought the name
was broken away. This reading of the name would
explain why the determinative for deity is omitted,

1 Pir-napishtim, "offspring of life" (Delitzsch, Schrader, Jas-
trow); Par-napishti?n (Haupt, Muss-Arnolt) ; Sit-napishtim, "the
saved one" (Jensen, Jeremias); NHJi-napishtim, "rest of the soul"
(Hommel, Ball); Shamash-napishtim, "sun of life" (Hommel);
Um-napishtim, "day of life"; UT -napishtim (Jensen). Zimmern,
K. A. T.3, p. 545, thinks Jensen in translating "he saw (uta, ut)
the life," i.e., "he found life," has finally solved the difficulty;
but a parallel name in Babylonian nomenclature does not exist.
The same is true of the other explanations. If UT or Shamash
were considered to be deities, and the name regarded as a hypo-
choristicon for a name like Bir-napishtim-usur, as above, the diffi-
culties are removed. Naturally some of the explanations are given
on the supposition that the name is symbolical of the part played
by the hero; but even in that case we should expect a regular for-
mation.

2 In Strassmaier, Dar. 365 : 20, the name of an individual is
written dMUR-ibni, and in Dar. 366 : 18, the same name is written
dUT-ibni, which must be read Mur or Bir. Inasmuch as Mur,
Mir, Bir, etc., are variations of the same name (see below and K. A.
T? 443 ff.) the reading is plausible.

DELUGE STORY 81

because Bir was regarded as a foreign god in Assyria;
and in such instances, because of religious prejudices,
the scribes frequently omitted the determinative (see
Part II).

It should be added, however, that there is one diffi-
culty in connection with this explanation. The fragment
of the version in Berlin1 gives the hero's name twice
U-ta-na-ish-tim, which would support the reading UTA
or UT, and the translation, "he saw or found lire,"
perhaps symbolical of the part played by the hero. The
element na-ish-tim then stands for napishtim; but, as
far as is known to the writer, unless it be assumed that
the scribe made the same mistake twice, this phonetic
change is peculiar to the name, and is difficult to explain.
Whether the scribe who copied the myth from an earlier
tablet was familiar with the proper reading of the name
remains to be seen. If he was not, it would be possible
to explain his writing U-TA for UT otherwise. Besides
the peculiar transmission of the name Gilgamesh,
mentioned above, and the name Enkidu (usually read
Ea-bdni), which is written EN-KI-DU and EN-GI-DU*
perhaps the writing Uta-napishtim also indicates a
partial semitizing of a Sumerian writing.

This hero of the flood, as Prof. Zimmern has said,3
must also have been a sun-god. Bir or Shamash

1 See Meissner, Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschafl,
1902, No. 1.

: This reading was communicated to me by both Ungnad and
Poebel, who seem to have reached the same conclusion independently.

3 Encyclopedia Biblica, I, Col. 1058.
6

82 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

would therefore be quite appropriate for the name.
Moreover, in consideration of what follows in Part II,
the name appears to show connections with the culture
that came from the West. Buzur-KUR-GAL, the pilot
of the ship in the Babylonian deluge story, now to be
read Buzur-Oru, also shows West Semitic influence, as
the name is compounded with the chief deity of Amurru.
Also, the gods which figured in the narrative are mostly
those which are recognized as being different representa-
tions of the sun-god, brought into Babylonia from
the West, prominent among them being Shamash and
Urra-gal.

In view of these considerations, we may conclude
that predominant elements in this and other parts of
the Gilgamesh epic are connected with the sun-deity
and the land of the Western Semites, and that the origin
of the Semitic portion of the epic, which doubtless
includes those features which are common to the biblical
narrative, goes back to a West Semitic narrative,
which is parent also to the biblical version.

We are, therefore, led to conclude, in the light of
these facts, that the influence of Babylonia upon Israel
or even Amurru has been greatly overestimated. In
fact, exactly the reverse seems to be the case, i.e., many
of the elements of the Semitic Babylonian religion and
literature are not indigenous to the land, but in all
probability came from the West; at least they had their
natural development in that part of Western Asia. The
ultimate origin may belong elsewhere, but that does not
affect these conclusions.

ORIGINAL HOME OF SEMITIC
CULTURE

Some scholars have held that Southern Babylonia
was the original seat of the Semites, or of the Semitic
culture; others say the eastern confines of Africa; still
others Armenia; but the great majority of scholars
hold that the interior of the Arabian peninsula or
Southern Arabia was the cradle of the Semites.1

The one important argument in support of the
Arabian theory, which has met with such wide accept-
ance, is that the Arabic represents the purest Semitic
language. This seems to have little force, however,
when we take into consideration that, as far as we
know, there was no important center of culture in Arabia
which would have experienced as rapid a development
from what was primitive as would be found elsewhere
under other conditions. It is the opinion of some
scholars that the Ethiopic language is even purer
than the Arabic; why not assume that Abyssinia is the
cradle of the Semites?

The arguments advanced from a study of the social
and economic conditions seem to be rather precarious.
The earliest influence upon Babylonia from Arabia
claimed by some scholars, is the time known as the First

1 For a full discussion of the various theories on this question
see Barton, Semitic Origins, pp. 1 ff.

84 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

dynasty of Babylon, about 2000 B.C. Even though it
be admitted that the rulers of the First dynasty are
Arabian, they came into possession of Babylonia many
centuries after the Semites had entered that land; and,
like the Cassite kings and their subjects, they did not,
as far as has, been shown, seem to have influenced the
Babylonian culture. We therefore have no light
from early inscriptions upon this mooted question,
for the earliest from Arabia are the Minaean, which
belong to about the fifteenth century B.C.

The Semites must have migrated to Babylonia at
the latest in the fourth or perhaps fifth millennium B.C.,
entering from the North, and slowly but effectually
crowding out the Sumerians. As the Semitic Baby-
lonian is more closely related to the Aramaic and Hebraic
(or Amoraic) than to the Arabic and Abyssinian,1 it
ought to follow that the Babylonian, Hebraic and
Aramaic tongues were at one time the same language.

1 Hommel, Ungnad, Brockelmann and others divide the Semitic-
languages in to Eas t and Wes t Semitic . They maintain that the former,
i.e., the East Semitic, is represented by the Assyro-Babylonian.
The latter, i.e., West Semitic, is divided into South Semitic (Arabic
.ad Ethiopic) and North Semitic (Hebraic and Aramaic). The
separation of the Babylonian from the others into a separate class
has been prompted largely by grammatical differences. These, it
seems to me, must be explained as being greatly due to the influence
of the Sumerian script and language. Linguistically the Babylonian
is closer to the Hebraic and Aramaic than the other Semitic lan-
guages. The following classification seems preferable, namely:
The North Semitic, which is represented by the Amoraic, Aramaic
and Assyro-Babylonian, and the South Semitic, which is repre-
sented by the Arabic and Ethiopic.

ORIGINAL HOME OF SEMITIC CULTURE 85

If we account for the development of the Amorite cul-
ture before the fourth or fifth millennium B.C., we are
so far removed from the time the Semitic cradle rocked
that until we get some glimpses into the early history
of this culture before this time, or even of the Arabic
before what we now know, such purely hypothetical
speculations can only be taken for what they are worth.
There is, however, no support for the view advanced by
some scholars, that the language of Palestine (known to
us as Hebraic), in the days of Abraham, was simply a
dialect of Arabia; or that in Abraham's time the Ara-
maeans were still a part of the Arab race. Such theories
are wholly baseless and absurd in the light of fact and
tradition. If in the main my contentions are correct, a
readjustment of the extravagant statements advanced is
in order; and especially in view of what follows in Part
II.

The inscriptions and archaeological finds of cotempo-
raneous peoples have corroborated in a remarkable
manner the early history in the Old Testament of the
nations of antiquity, while at the same time they have
restored the historical background and an atmosphere
for the patriarchal period, so that even a scientist can
feel that the old Book has preserved not only trust-
worthy traditions to be used in the reconstruction of
the history of that period, but also the knowledge of
veritable personages in the patriarchs. Nothing has
been produced to show that they are not historical ; and
on the other hand every increase of knowledge, gained
by the spade or by the skill of the decipherer, helps to

86 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

dissolve the conclusions of those who have relegated the
patriarchs to the region of myth.

An interesting discovery has recently been made by
Prof. Arthur Ungnad, of the name " Abram " belonging
to the age when the patriarch lived.1 The fact that the
name had not been found in the cuneiform literature,
owing to the patriarch's sojourn in Chaldea, gave rise
to many different views; for example, it was claimed that
it was an idealized name created by a late Hebrew writer,
and meant "The sublime father." The discovery of
the name written in three ways, A-ba-ra-ma, A-ba-am-
ra-am, and A-ba-am-ra-ma, puts this important question
beyond any further discussion.2

The discovery of the divine name Yahweh in cunei-
form literature also has important bearings on the point
under discussion. Contrary to the views of those who
hold the Kenite theory concerning the origin of the
worship of Yahweh, or that it came from a Canaanitic
Jahii, or from the Babylonian Ea, or that it is a develop-
ment from a tribal polytheism into henotheism and then
into monotheism, etc., for which there is no historical
proof, the Old Testament furnishes the only light on the
subject, which is that the name and worship of Yahweh
came from the Aramaeans. And as Abraham and his
descendants, as well as his ancestors, were Aramaeans,3
it follows that the name and worship of Yahweh was
familiar to the Aramaeans.

1 See Bei. zur Ass., VI, 5, p. 82.

2 See also Part II.

1 See Appendix on Ur of the Chaldeaa.

ORIGINAL HOME OF SEMITIC CULTURE 87

The investigations of Dr. William Hayes Ward1
in connection with ancient seals have led him to the
conviction that among the figurative expressions under
which Yahweh is represented in the Old Testament, there
are those which point to an Aramaean origin. This conclu-
sion is evidenced by the symbolic representations under
which the Aramaean deity Adad appears in ancient art.

The worship of Yahweh in the Old Testament is
largely identified with the mountains; so, for example,
the Syrians, in explaining their defeat to Benhadad,
said concerning Israel's deity, " Their god is a god of the
hills" (I Kings 20:23). The stories of Sinai, Horeb,
Moriah, Carmel and Paran further testify to this.
Yahweh is represented also as a god of storms, thunder
and lightning, as is shown by many passages in the Old
Testament, particularly in the Psalms and Prophets.
He is frequently regarded also as a god of battles:
"Yahweh is a man of war," the god of hosts. And
further, Yahweh was represented symbolically in the
art as the calf or young bull.2 The golden calf that
Aaron made, as well as the shrines at Bethel and Dan,
so vehemently denounced by Hosea and Amos, are
indicative of this.

The same characteristics are found in the art depict-
ing the Aramaean Adad, who in the language of the
prophet concerning Yahweh, " treads on the high places
of the earth." He is the god of the clouds, thunder,
lightning, rain, storm, deluge, etc. In Babylonian art he

1 "The Origin of the Worship of Yahwe," in the Amer. Jour, of
Sem. Lang., XXV, p. 175 ff.

2 American Journal of Semitic Languages, p. 181.

88 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

is represented as carrying a thunderbolt. As the god of
war, he carries the bow, club and ax. When Adad is
represented in his complete form, he holds in his hand a
cord attached to a ring in the nose of a bull or wild ox.
He is appropriately designated "the divine heavenly
bull (DINGIR GUD AN-NA), the god of Amurru."1
These distinguishing marks have led Dr. Ward to
remark that "he cannot help believing that he (Adad)
was the pagan Yahweh before Yah weh emerged as the
universal god of monotheism;2 and again, "it is not
unlikely that the monotheistic worship of Yahweh
originated in that of Addu.'n

Naturally there is no more proof for saying that the
worship of Yahweh is derived from that of Adad, than
that the worship of Adad came from that of Yahweh.
Although we are better acquainted with the worship of
Adad from extra biblical sources of the early period,
because the deity was adopted into the Babylonian
pantheon, still it would be safer perhaps to say that these
characteristic marks which both deities have in common
point to their Aramaean origin; and especially as the
Old Testament associates Yahweh with the Aramaeans,
and also because the inscriptions clearly show the same
source for the worship of Adad.4

1 Decouvertes, XXX, 10.

2 See American Journal of Semitic Languages, XXV, p. 185.

s See Cylinders and other Ancient Oriental Seals in the Library of
J. Pierpont Morgan, p. 19.

* Amurru is also the "Lord of the Mountains," MU-LU QAR-
SAG-GA GIT, i.e., be-lu sha-di-i (see Part II). This is further proved
by the use of the ideogram KUR-GAL for Amurru, which means
"Great mountain."

ORIGINAL HOME OF SEMITIC CULTURE 89

For some years certain scholars have consistently
maintained that the divine name was to be found in
several personal names of the Hammurabi period, as
Ja'wi-ilu, etc.1 Few, however, accepted this conclusion.
But if the name was used prior to the age of Abram, as
is inferred from the Old Testament, we should expect to
find it in the early cuneiform literature, as well as the
names of other Aramaean deities. This has turned out
to be the case.

The name of Yahweh is found on a tablet said to be
from Kish, in the reign of Rim-Anum, who ruled in the
latter part of the third millennium B.C. The tablet is
in the Morgan Library Collection, and will be published
by the Rev. Dr. C. H. W. Johns, Fellow of Cambridge
University. It is found also in another unpublished
tablet, dated in the reign of Sumu-abum of the Hammu-
rabi dynasty, which is in the possession of Prof. Delitzsch,
of the University of Berlin. In both the name occurs in
the oath formula.

The two deities usually mentioned in the oaths of the
contract tablets from Kish are Zamama and Urash.
In these two tablets Ja-wu-um takes the place of
Urash. Urash, the god of Dilbat, is in all probability a
Western deity.2 Za-am-ma (or Za-mal-mal) , the god of
Kish, which is another form of NIN-IB, is also a Western
deity.

These tablets, like those from Dilbat and Sippar,
contain names of Western Semites, which make it

See Appendix on the name Yahweh.
2 See Part II.

90 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

quite reasonable to expect such a variation as the use
of the name Yahweh, if, as represented, the deity was
Aramaean or West Semitic.

But, as a matter of fact, the name Yahweh, when
compounded with elements in proper names, is found in
the early literature in connections which also point to
Aramaean or Amoritish origin. It is claimed in the
discussion of the name and native country of Sargon1
that he was a Western Semite, perhaps an Aramaean.
The name of his great-granddaughter is Lipush-Jaum.
According to our present knowledge, the only conclusion
at which we can arrive is that Jaum represents the name
Yahweh.2 Further, the name of the First dynasty,
Qali-Jaum, son of Jawum,3 also contains this element.
Jawum, which at least is the exact form of the divine
name, together with Qali-Jaum are foreign names, and
in all probability West Semitic.

In considering these different facts in connection
with the name and worship of Yahweh, it seems that the
Kenite, the Babylonian, the Canaanite, and all other
theories must give way to that which is gathered from
the Old Testament, namely, that the worship of Yahweh
came from the country of the ancestors of Abram, the
Aramaean. Recent discoveries thus furnish a greater
antiquity for things biblical than is usually accorded to
them, and point to the ancestral home of Abram, i.e.,

1 See Appendix on the name Sargon.

2 See Appendix on the name Yahweh.

3 See Ranke, Personal Names, p. 114.

ORIGINAL HOME OF SEMITIC CULTURE 91

Aram, which was identified closely with Amurru,
instead of Babylonia, as the source of Israel's culture.

It is necessary, therefore, to differ radically from even
those who, like Professor Rogers, say that "the first
eleven chapters of Genesis in their present form, as also
in the original documents into which modern critical
research has traced their origin, bear eloquent witness
to Babylonia as the old home of the Hebrew people,
and of their collection of sacred stories."1 But, let
me add, in appreciation of what the same writer says,
even when he includes those elements which he thinks
were borrowed from the Babylonians: "When all
these are added up and placed together, they are small
in number and insignificant in size when compared
with all the length and breadth and height of Israel's
literature"2 But the writer ventures to go even farther
and to claim that the influence of Babylonian culture
upon the peoples of Canaan was almost nil.

The story of Babel in Genesis at this point becomes
especially interesting; for in it we may see a reflection as
handed down by the biblical writer of the movement
of the Semites from the West, who made Babel a promi-
nent center. "As they journeyed East they found a
plain in the land of Shinar." Here these mountaineers
used "brick instead of stone/' to which they had been
accustomed in their native land; and "bitumen"
instead of "mortar." This became naturally a city

1 Rogers, Religion of Bab. and Ass., p. 219.
' Rogers, ibid., p. 226.

92 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

sacred to their chief deity, Amar, whose name the
Sumerian scribes wrote in the cuneiform script,
Amar-uduk.

It has been asserted that the ziggurrats or towers
in Babylonia were preceded by tombs of the gods in the
center of fire necropoles. This may be correct, but the
name ziggurrat points to a Semitic origin for the tower.
Also the idea of the ziggurrat being the representation
of a mountain surely originated with a people from a
mountainous district.

PART II

AMURRU IN THE CUNEIFORM
INSCRIPTIONS

Recent investigations on the part of the writer
have resulted in the conviction that most of the deities
of the Semitic Babylonians, which have been recognized
by scholars as original sun-gods, had their origin in the
great solar deity of the Western Semites, known as
Amar or Mar and tlr, which was written in the script
of the West, *1DN or 1*2 and "TIN, or *T), also known
as WOW. This deity, after having been transplanted
to Babylonia by the Semites, appeared under different
written forms in different localities, as NE-URU-GAL
at Cutha, AMAR-UTUG at Babylon, etc. This is
due to the fact that the Semites adopted the non-Semitic
cuneiform script of the Sumerians. These Sumerian
forms in time were semitized and became Nergal and
Marduk, as the Sumerian EN-LIL, " Lord of the LIL,"
became Ellil and the Sumerian NIN-GAL, "Great
mistress," became Nikkal, etc. With later streams of
immigration coming from the West, as, for instance, in
the Nisin dynasty (third millennium B.C.), the name
in its original form continued to be brought into the
country ; but coming in when the early Sumerian forms
of the Semitic names, as well as the religion, had been
babylonized, they were treated as distinct deities.
These, however, were not admitted at once into the

96 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Babylonian pantheon of gods, but were treated for
centuries as alien deities, as is shown by the fact that
the determinative for deity in many cases was omitted.
Naturally an important point to be determined is
that these movements from the West actually took
place. In a paper read before the American Oriental
Society in Philadelphia (Easter week, 1907) the writer
referred to the fact that at the time of the First dynasty
of Babylon (2000 B.C.), the personal names show that
the country was filled with foreigners, notably Western
Semites; and also endeavored to show that the names
of the kings of the Isin dynasty (third millennium B.C.)
indicate West Semitic influence upon Babylonia, and
that the capital of this dynasty doubtless was a strong-
hold of that people. Before the paper appeared in
print, Dr. Hermann Ranke, of Berlin, appears to have
reached similar conclusions from an entirely different
point of view. He called attention to a date on a tablet
which he believed referred to the invading Amorites
at the time of Libit-Ishtar, a ruler of this same dynasty.1
The preceding dynasty, namely, that of Ur (Urumma)
was Sumerian. In the reign of Gimil-Sin we learn that
the king built "the wall of the country of the West,"
which was called Murtk Tidnum, "the wall that wards
off the Tidnu." As we shall see below, Tidnu is another
name for the land of Amurru. This fact points to active
interference on the part of the Amorites already at this
time. As is usually understood, the rulers of the pre-

1 See O. L. Z., March, 1907, also Meyer, Geschichte des Alter-
tums, I, § 416.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 97

ceding dynasties were Semites, and were not indigenous
to the land but came from some Semitic quarter.
This the writer holds was Amurru.

As is known, Amurru, the name of the land, occurs
in the inscriptions as early as the time of Sargon, king
of Akkad.1 The title of the early Sumerian rulers,
LUGAL AN-UB-DA TAB-TAB-BA, and its Semitic
equivalent, shar kibrat arba'im, which being translated
means "king of the four quarters," implies suzerainty
over this land. Gudea mentions two mountains of
Amurru, namely, Subsalla and Tidanu, i.e., Tidnu,
by which the entire land apparently became known.
The kings of the Ur and Nisin dynasties also ruled
over the land. Kudur-Mabug in an inscription used
the title ADDA KUR-MAR-TU,2 "suzerain of Amurru.3
This title, therefore, included sovereignty over the
region ruled by the five kings mentioned in the four-

1 See especially Amurram(MAR-TU-am), V. B., p. 225, and
Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, § 400.

2 Rawlinson, Inscriptions of Western Asia, I, p. 2, No. III.

3 The fact that Kudur-Mabug, otherwise known as ADDA
Emutbal, called himself ADDA MARTU in the votive inscription
dedicated to Nannar, has caused certain scholars to conclude that
MAR-TU is not the so-called "West-land" of the shores of the
Mediterranean, but is the name of a Western district of Elam,
and probably another designation of Emutbal. It surely does not
follow because a ruler used a different title in another inscription
that the one must be synonymous with the other. Compare the
change in the titles of Sargon and Dungi referred to below; or the
fact that Hammurabi in some inscriptions calls himself "king of
Babylon, " and in one found at Diarbekir, "king of Amurru." Before
accepting the name MAR-TU for West Elam, where a non-Semitic
language was spoken, other proof must be forthcoming.

98 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

teenth chapter of Genesis. Later it became the pos-
session of Hammurabi after his thirty-first year. In
an inscription found at Diarbekir, the single title used
by Hammurabi is "king of Amurru."1 During the First
dynasty of Babylon many Amorites seem to have
dwelt in the vicinity of Sippar, where there was a city
called Amurru. But we cannot follow Toffteen,2 and
those who hold the view, that the Amorites of the
West emigrated from this place through pressure from
Elam, and in this way the name was transferred to the
West-land. This was a settlement of Amorites, like
the Jewish settlement in the vicinity of Nippur during
the captivity and after it, having been deported perhaps
to that locality by a predecessor of Chedorlaomer (see
Appendix on " Ur of the dial dees ").

This title passed down to his successors; among them
Ammi-ditana is mentioned as having enjoyed it.
Nebuchadrezzar I, Tiglathpileser I, Ashurnasirpal and
Shalmaneser II refer to the land. Adad-nirari III
conquered Khatti (Hittite land), Amurru, Tyre, Sidon
and Omri (Israel). Sargon includes the Khatti in the
"widely extended" land of Amurru, as well as Phoeni-
cia, Philistia, Moab, Amnion and Edom. Ashurbani-
pal, Nabonidus and Cyrus also refer to the land.3

In the first and second millenniums B.C., the cunei-
form inscriptions lead us to believe that Amurru had
become a general appellation for Syro-Palestine, a por-

1 See Sayce, Archceology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions, p. 143.
1 Researches in Assyrian and Babylonian Geography, p. 30.
3 See Toffteen, ibid., p. 29.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 99

tion of which was controlled by the Hittites; that is,
the borders of Khatti seem to have been extended so
that the rule embraced a considerable portion of what
was once Amurru. In the time of Rameses II the
Hittites, we learn, occupied the land of Amur. If,
as a people, the Amorites ever dominated politically
that land in an organized manner, their history belongs
to the third or earlier millenniums. It is not unlikely
that the order was always that of petty principalities,
and that the name was generally regarded as a geo-
graphical designation of the land.

To Delattre1 belongs the credit for having deter-
mined the Semitic reading Amurru for the Sumerian
MAR-TV ', instead of Afiarru. Jensen2 further substan-
tiated the reading. The passage in a hymn published
by Reisner,3 namely, DINGIRA-MAR-TU{-E) =
dA-mur-ru, as is known, fully and definitely corrobo-
rated the reading. It would seem that very early
DINGIR-MAR-TU and KUR-MAR-TU were read
respectively the deity and country of the Amorites,
as the transliterations, especially for the latter, i.e.,
Amurru, occasionally contain an additional final vowel,
as if an adjectivum relationis.

In the earliest inscriptions, as we have seen, MAR-TU

1 Proceedings of Society Biblical Archaeology, 1891, p. 233 ff.

2 Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, Vol. XI, p. 304, 5.

3 Sumerisch-babylonische Ilymnen, 24, Rev. II, 5, etc.

4 For the benefit of those who have not paid attention to
Semitics, it might be mentioned that what is printed in capital letters
like DINGIR, in italics, is Sumerian, and what is in smaller type
like ilu, is Semitic Babylonian.

100 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

is the Sumerian ideogram for the name Amurru and the
question arises, Why was this combination of characters
selected to represent this country?

MAR, which is also frequently used as the name of
the land alongside of MAR-TU,1 is doubtless, as has been
suggested, a shortened form of Amar, which became
Amur under the influence of the labial.2 MAR is one
of the names of the sun-deity, as will be shown in the
pages which follow. As a deity in personal names
under that form in the Assyrian period, it occurs in
Mar-larimme, Mari-larim, Mar-bVdi, Mar-irrish, Mar-
suri, etc.,3 and also in such names as *pD")2, etc.,
from West Semitic inscriptions discussed farther on.
TU in Sumerian has the value erebu, "to enter."4
MAR-TU like UD-TU (or erib shamshi), therefore,
means trib Alar, "entering in of Mar" (or Amar,
i.e., "the setting light or sun"). This, of course, shows
that Mar (= Amar) meant the "sun" originally, and
in all probability was the chief deity, the Shamash of
the Amorites.5 To the Babylonian it was also the name
of the land, for Amurru was the "land of the setting

JCf. Zimmern, K. A. T.3, p. 415, note 1; also Toffteen, Ass.
Bab. Geog., p. 32. MAR has also the value Amurru, "West,"
alongside of IM-MAR-TU, cf. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst,
p. 23.

2 Rawlinson, II, 35 : 19, is perhaps to be restored [MAR]-TU-u
= A-ma-rum] but cf. also the following line A-ru = A-ma-rum.

3 See Johns, Assyrian Deeds and Documents.
* Cf . Prince, Sumerian Lexicon, p. 233.

6 In Job 31 : 26, "Vlt*, "sun," ia used instead of shemesh in
parallelism with the "moon."

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 101

sun." Here properly the Gilgamesh epic should be
recalled which refers to the gate of the setting sun, as
being located in the land of Amurru at the mountain
Mdshu.

In the earliest known inscriptions of the Sumerians
and Babylonians the West Semitic Mar (or Arnar) figures
prominently, as is determined by the fact that the Sume-
rians wrote MAR-TU for Amurru. This shows that the
sun-cult of the West was well established in the earliest
known period of Babylonian history, and doubtless
already had had a long history of development.1 This
might have been inferred already from the fact that the
earliest known rulers extended their conquests into the
region Amurru.

Besides this ideogram for the deity Amur or Amar,
another sign occurs in the Neo-Babylonian proper
names, which usually has been read $UR, Marduk,
etc. It occurs in Amar-ra-pa-\ Amar-a-pa-' (per-
haps the same as the previous name), Amar-na-ta-nu
(son of Addu-taqummu2) and Amar-sha-al-ti (whose son,
Ilu-arapa,3 also bears a West Semitic name). About
one-half of the names with Amar are compounded with
foreign or West Semitic elements, indicating unmistak-
ably that the deity Amar belongs in the West.

In The Babylonian Expedition of the University of
Pennsylvania (Vol. X, pp. 7 ff.), the writer showed that
in the Aramaic reference notes scratched on the clay

1 See also Part I.

1 See Tallqvist, Namenbuch.

■ See Clay, B. E., Vol. VIII.

102 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

tablets, the transcription *HN, which occurs in several
names, represented KUR-GAL; and that these charac-
ters are to be read Amurru = Awurru (or tlru), and not
Bel or Shadu-rabU as generally read. Such names
as Amurru-fiaJia,1 Amurru-natannu,2 Amurru-nazabi,3
Amurru-shama,* containing foreign elements in connec-
tion with the name of the deity Amurru, seem to
substantiate the view that Amurru (or Vru as in tJru-
milki5 and Milkuru,0 see below) was a foreign god.

Peiser7 verified completely this identification, by
showing that the name MAR-TU-irish, KUR-GAL-
erish, and Amurria belonged to a single individual,
the latter being a hypochoristicon with the ending ia,
like " Sammy " from Samu-el. In other words, we get
the formula MAR-TU = KUR-GAL = Amurru = TIN
(or Vru).

Of special interest and importance is the fact that
a single ideogram has the values Akkadti, Amurru and
Urtu*

Uri BUR-BUR Akkadti

Tidnu BUR-BUR Amurru

Tilla BUR-BUR Urtti

1 Strassmaier, Nbk. 66 : 3.

2 Nbk. 459 : 4.

3 Nbk. 132 : 2.

4 Nbk. 42 : 5.

* K. B., II, p. 90.

8 Amarna Letters, K. B., V, 61 : 54, etc.

7 Urkunden aus der Zeit der dritten babylonischen Dynastie, p.
VIII.

8 See Delitzsch, Ass. Les.s, Syl. B, 72-74, and Weissbach,
Miscellen, p. 29.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 103

In another text, instead of Tidnu = Amurru, is found
Ari= Amurru} Tidnu is the name of a mountain in
Amurru mentioned already in the time of Gudea (see
above).2 Tilla3 is the name of a deity, as well as the
name of a land in the region called Urtu or Armenia.

In other words, the usual ideogram for the country
Ori or Akkad (i.e., Babylonia) stood also for the coun-
tries Ari or Amurru and Urtu or Armenia. Here should
be mentioned again the monument of Hammurabi,
found at Diarbekir, in Southern Armenia, in which the
single title used is "King of tJru (Amurru)."

1 See Meissner, Ideogramme, No. 5328.

2 Cf. Vor. Bib., I, p. 70.

3 Tilla is the name not only of the land but of a deity, cf . Qu-di-
ib-TU-la, Ash-tar-T il-la and Ta-i-Til-la of my B. E., vol. XV, and
A-qar-Til-la of B. E., vol. XIV; also cf. Te-hi-ip-T il-la and Ishtar-
ki-Til-la, Pinches, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1897, p.
589 ff., and Ti-vii-T il-la, Orien. Literaturzeitung , 1902, p. 245. Cf.
also Me-Tilla, chief of the Hittites in the treaty of Rameses II.
Additional names compounded with Tilla have been published re-
cently by Ungnad (B.A., VI: 5, p. 14), I -ri-ir- Til-la, Mish(?)-ki-
Til-la, Shur-ki-Til-la and Shi-mi-Til-la. Others will appear in
my forthcoming volume of Temple Documents. Bork rightly re-
garded the first name mentioned above to be Mittannsean, cf . 0. L. Z.,
1906, p. 591. This seems to be corroborated by the names which are
quoted from the tablet published by Pinches. My attention has
been called by Dr. A. T. Olmstead to a place Tillah, mentioned by
Layard (Nineveh and Babylon, p. 41), at the junction of the East
and West Tigris, which is on the direct route from Assyria to the
Lake Van district. Another site Tela is mentioned by Ashurnasir-
pal (I, li. 113 f.), which later was called Constantia and now
Viranshehir, between Urfa and Mardin and S. E. of Diarbekir.
The ruins are important, but not early. Olmstead thinks the
Assyrian site of this city is to be fixed to the N. W. at the near-by
mound of Tell Gauran.

104 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

An important argument for the movement of the
Amorites into Babylonia is to be found in this fact, that
the name of that land in the third and fourth millenniums
before Christ, after the Semites had entered, is the same
as the name of the country from which they came, or,
in other words, the Amorite land called Amurru or
tJru was geographically extended so that it included
that part of the Euphrates valley occupied by the
Semitic Babylonians.

The fact that Akkad or Northern Babylonia is called
Uri, and that Amurru is called Ari, raises the question
whether there is a connection between Amurru and Uri
or Ari. We have seen that in the late period the Aramaic
equivalent for Amurru which is scratched on cuneiform
tablets is Tltf. The representation of the Babylonian
m by the Aramaic w, or vice versa, is well known; for
example, J^l^ is written in Aramaic for Shamash,
fVD for Simanu, and fljnN for argamanu. Perhaps the
most striking illustration of this is the transcription
of the Hebrew ffifi* by Jdma in Babylonian.1

Naturally it is possible that the Aramaic equivalent
*T)K for Amurru was pronounced by the Aramaeans
Amur, although ordinarily w in such instances became a
vowel letter, as '6r for 1MI, "light," etc. In Babylonian
the elision of a w between two vowels, after which a
monopthongizing of the vowels takes place, is well

1 See Appendix on the name Jahweh. The phonetic change of m
to the semi-consonant u, after which it frequently disappears, is
well known, cf. shumdti = shudti, etc. This is due, of course, to the
fact that the m was sounded like w.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 105

established, cf. inufa from inawufa, imttit from imtawut,
etc.1 The Babylonian Uru Hrru is doubtless the same
word. The fact that D^JJHIK is written Ursalimmu
in cuneiform, and the West Semitic name lpd*VW
is written Uru-milki, etc., make it quite probable that
the name was read XJru or tJrru. This is the way the
Talmudic form NHIK, which is the late form of
Amurru, is read (see below). This being granted, it is
possible to conclude that the word written Amurru and
Amuru, which represents the 'Amdr of the West, was
pronounced Awuru by the late Babylonians, and that
this became tJru. In other words, we have the formula
AmurrlX= Orru or Vru.

The question arises, can this be said to hold true also
for the early period? In the early inscriptions there are
several words written with w which have m in the later
period. This rests entirely upon the reading of the
character PI as having the values wa, wi, wu, and we.
Formerly the sign was read with the values ma, mi, mu, me,
etc. The stems or words which occur in the early period
that show this change are awelu, awdtu, foawiru, naiu&ru,
and a verbal form uwaeiranni. It is, therefore, main-
tained that the stems originally contained w, which
later became m. This necessitates the assumption that
the change from w to m had already taken place in the
Hammurabi period, for in the contract literature, which
more clearly represents the spoken language, such names

1 Cf. Delitzsch, Assyrische Grammatik, p. 118; Ungnad, Babylon-
isch assyrische Grammatik, p. 47; and Meissner, Assyrische Gram-
matik, p. 51.

106 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

are found as Namratum, which is considered to belong
to the stem nawdru;1 Shamash-li-wi-ir, the father of
Ibgatum, written Shamash-li-me-ri,2 and A-wi-ir-tum,
written A-me-ir-rum.3 In the Cassite period, with the
exception of an example like A-wi-lu-tum* these words,
as far as they occur, have m.

This change of consonant is in reversed order from
that of the late period. Considering also that initial w
of the early period, as in war ad, etc., is dropped and also
w is dropped between two vowels, as in fetrtu, i^ir from
feaw&ru, and that there is practically no support from
the cognate languages for the view that w is original in
these stems, except the late Aramaic NIP?, which it
is claimed is the stem of aw&tu, it seems as if the last
word has not been written on the subject. Moreover, if
in the late period the m of Amurru, amelu, and perhaps
amdtu was pronounced like w; and amelu, amatu, and
the other words contained w in the early period, it is
not improbable that Amurru was also pronounced
Awurru in the early period. Yet it must be admitted
that the absolute proof of the identification of amur
with tiru in the early Babylonian period, as well as in
the West Semitic inscriptions, has not yet been furnished.

It is very inviting to suggest that perhaps this change
of consonants was due to dialectical differences in the
languages from the West, of which all traces are lost.

1 See Ungnad, B. A., VI, 5, p. 127.

2 See Ranke, P. N., p. 145.

3 See Poebel, B. E., VI, pi. 2, 4: 1, 12, 16, 22 and 8 : 14.
* See Clay, B. E., XIV, 58 : 1.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 107

This would obviate the necessity of assuming that the
original and the later stems, nawdru and nam&ru, were
both in use in the Hammurabi period; and this would
also account for such synonyms as 'am&ru and 'aw&ru.1
On this supposition the identification of the West
Semitic stem from which the word "Amorite" comes
with *Y1X, would become reasonable. However, while
the other considerations seem to support the view that
the differences are dialectical, and it would throw much
welcome light on the subject, it is here offered only as a
plausible conjecture.

The word for " West, sunset, " etc., in the Babylonian
Talmud is 't)rya (ttHIN) = Awurrti, = AmurrU.2 In
this connection we are reminded of the Talmudic 'Vr
OIK), "sunset, twilight, evening," and even 'Orta'
(NmiN*), "night," and the difficulty the Jews in Baby-
lonia experienced in trying to understand how 'Or OIK),
which ordinarily means "light," in this connection
meant "darkness" or "the West." In the Babylonian
Talmud the question is asked, " Why is the West called
'Orya? (HH1K, variant ^Vltt)," and the answer was
because it means divine air (variant, light), meaning
Palestine.3 In other words, they did not appreciate the

1 See Delitzsch, Prologomena, p. 28; and Halevy, in Muss-Arnolt,
Assyrian Dictionary, p. 52. The fact that among the values of the
cuneiform MASH, we find amdru and amiri (perhaps the same as
Amir, "summit," in Hebrew) alongside of shamshu, ellu, ibbu,
namaru, etc., seems to support the view of these scholars that
'amaru and 'awdru are synonyms.

2 See Meissner, Supplement, p. 10.

3 See Jastrow, Talmudic Dictionary, p. 34.

108 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

origin of the term. While 'Or (*V)N), the name of the
country, means "light," to the Semite living in the
East, i.e., Babylonia, it also meant "evening, darkness,
West, " etc.,1 because Amurru or Oru was the land of
the West, or of the sunset, i.e., the land of the "going
in of the sun."

OTHER NAMES OF AMAR.

The chief arguments for the view that the movement
was eastward into Babylonia are to be found in the fact
that the culture of the Amorites was carried into that
land. This, as we have seen, shows itself in such legends as
Marduk-Tiamtu, Gilgamesh, etc., but especially in the
worship of the great solar deity or deities of the West by
the Babylonians. Besides the names Amar or Mar and
Amur, already discussed, the following variant forms of
the name of this same deity, considered in connection
with the theory concerning the way they arose,
strengthens the thesis here maintained.

1 D,~iK of Isaiah 24 : 15, is usually translated, "region of
light," "East," cf. Buhl-Gesenius, Hebrew Dictionary. It is quite
natural to assume that the word "11X in Palestine should mean
"East," i.e., the place of the rising of the light, and especially by
reason of an antithesis with the word "isles," which were in the
West. However, as mp is the usual word for "East," and the
word in question means "West" in Aramaic, it is quite probable
that the meaning is the same in Hebrew. It must be noticed that
the phrase which follows, referring to the "isles of the sea," can just
as well be understood as being parallel, which would require the
meaning "West."

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 109

URU.

A name of the solar deity of the West, as mentioned
above, was tfru. This name appeared in a number of
variations, due to the different characters employed in
writing it. In considering them it is necessary con-
stantly to bear in mind that in representing Semitic
words the Sumerian scribes employed ideograms irre-
spective of their value in the Sumerian language. For
example, there were a number of different signs, meaning
respectively "city," "dwelling/' "servant," etc., all
of which were pronounced URU. In writing this name
of the god of the Semitic hordes that came from the West,
the Sumerians used these and other signs which were
pronounced exactly the same as the name of the deity.

In Ranke's work, Personal Names of the Hammurabi
Dynasty, there are a large number of names compounded
with the deity Urra, the god of Cutha, who is identified
with Nergal. In the tablets of the Ur and Nisin dynas-
ties, no less than fourteen different names are com-
pounded with this element Urra (written NIT A, which
has the value ur, see below, with the phonetic comple-
ment ra)} In the name of the founder of the Isin

1 See Huber, Personennamen aus der Zeit der Konige von Ur
und Nisin, who reads Uru-ra. Although he places the element in
the list of deities, he reads ardu, and translates "servant." Cf.
ibid., p. 170. Ranke, ibid., p. 208, has shown that the character
NIT A also had the value ur. This element is, therefore, to be read
Ur-ra, and the names are to be read Urra-b&ni, "Ur is creator";
Urra-BA-TIL, "Ur has given life," etc.

110 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

dynasty, Ishbi-Urra, both elements seem to be West
Semitic.1

In these same texts there is also a deity Uru or Ur,
written NIT A without the phonetic complement ra,
and also USH.2 Here should be mentioned also the
name NITA(or GIR)-A-MU,3 which probably is to
be read t}ra(a)-iddin, " tlra has given, " or t)ra-apil-
iddin, " tlra gave a son, " unless MU in the early period
does not have the value nadanu.

This discussion throws additional light upon the king's
name now generally read Warad-Sin or Arad-Sin, and
identified by some with Arioch of the fourteenth chapter
of Genesis. The identification is highly plausible,
because Warad-Sin was the king of Larsa, which city

1 Ishbi is a Babylonianized form of a West Semitic element,
cf. Ja-ash-bi-i-la, found in Ranke, Personal Names, p. 144. 132'" of
2 Samuel 21 : 16, may also represent the element.

2 Huber, Personennamen, p. 57, note 1, grouped these together,
and says = ardu, "servant." URU-DINGIR-RA translated Arad-
ili, "servant of god," makes sense, but something seems to be
wrong with the common URU-MU (= URU-iddin), if trans-
lated "a servant has given"; or URU-LIG-GA, which Huber,
feeling that ardu cannot be correct, translates "The strong URU."
Further, such names as GAL(Amclu)-URU, "man of servant,"
GIR-URU, "slave of servant, " and DUMU-URU, "son of servant, "
would give strange meanings if URU were translated "Knecht."
Huber appreciated this, and added that "In many names URU =
URU-RA seems to have been used as an equivalent for a god's
name, or, he asks, is it a synonym of abdu, "servant"? Unques-
tionably we have here also the name of the god Uru, and the
names mean "Uru has given," " Uru is mighty," "servant of
Uru" and "the son of Uru."

3 Scheil, Manishtusu, D. 5:2.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 111

is identical with Ellasar of the Old Testament, over
which Arioch ruled. He was also a cotemporary of
Amraphel,1 the Hammurabi of the inscriptions, and his
father, Kudur-Mabug, the king of Emutbal, or Elam,
was king of Syria and Palestine at this particular time,
which is in strict accordance with Genesis, where we learn
that Elam was the suzerain power in that land. The
identification is based especially upon the fact that the
second element of the name can be read Aku as well as
Sin, and that the first character, read Ardu, has also
the dialectical value Eri.

These facts, which are well known, have been accepted
by a large number of scholars, but some seem to exercise
more than ordinary critical caution with reference to
the identification. In the first place, the name list of
the Isin and Ur dynasties show that Aku or Agu was
frequently used in personal names.2 Further, in these
Sumerian centers it cannot be shown by phonetically
written examples that the element was read Wardu or
Ardu in the early period. In all probability it was
read Ur or Eri. Where the element is followed by the
name of a god, although another translation is possible,
namely, " tfru is Aku/' we would naturally translate
"servant of Aku." At the same time, the fact that

1 Since the appearance of my Light on the Old Testament from
Babel, Thureau-Dangin has shown that Warad-Sin and Rim-Sin
were two personages, both being sons of Kudur-Mabug.

2 See Huber, Personennamen, p. 167; also cf. A-ku-i-lum, and
A-ku-Ea of the Manishtusu Obelisk.

112 AMURRTJ HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

there is an Elamite deity Eria1 must not be lost sight
of, and especially as the king's father, Kudur-Mabug,
was ruler over Emutbal, a name of or part of Elam.
Moreover, it seems to me that the only conclusion at
which we can arrive is, that the ruler's name was not
pronounced Ar ad-Sin, but Uri(or Eri)-Aku.

Two other ideograms which have the reading XJru are
found in names of the early period, tJri(BUR-BUR)-DA2
and Cru-DA.3 Huber4 says " Uru = the holy city, a
god's name(?)." While I question the reading dlu,
"city," it must be recalled that there is a deity or
epithet, A-li, frequently found in the names of the First
dynasty, e.g., A-li-ba-ni-shu, "Mi is his creator, " etc., s
and also that the name of a deity often appears as sub-
stitutes for the patron deity in names. Very probably,
however, we have here also the name of the deity Uru.
With this understanding the above names make sense.

The names of the early kings, Uru-MU-USH e and

1 See Hinke, Nebuchadrezzar I, p. 222.

2 See Cuneiform Texts, X, 24, 14,313, Ob. 1.

3 t)RU in the latter means "city" in Sumerian. Huber,
Personennamen, p. 56, reads the name Itti-ali(?) , "with a city."
Also Uru(URU)-MU, he reads dlu-iddin, which translated would
be "the city has given." Uru(URU)-ki-bi he translates "Die
Stadt spricht"; Uru(URU)-KA-GI-NA he translates "Die Stadt
verstummt(?)"; Uru{URU)-NI-BA-AGA, "Seine Stadt ist
Liebling;" Uru(URU)-BA-SAG-SAG = dlu-udammiq, etc.

4 Cf. ibid., p. 189.

5 See lists in Ranke, Personal Names, his B. E., vol. VI, pt. 1,
and Poebel, B. E., vol. VI, pt. 2.

8 Perhaps mush is Semitic, cf . ^ID, etc., of the Old Testa-
ment. King, Proceedings of Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol.
XXX, 1908, p. 239, suggests the reading Ri-?nu-ush.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 113

Uru-KA-GI-NA, which would be equivalent to the
Semitic Ikun-pi-Uru, "true or established is the word of
Uru," receive new light.1 This reading of URU = Uru
may also throw welcome light on the title of Sargon,
namely, shar-URU, hitherto considered part of the name
and read Shargani-shar-ali, and more recently Shar-
Gani-sharri (see Appendix on "The Name of Sargon").

This discovery of additional forms under which the
god Uru occurs by no means exhausts the occurrences
of the name in the early literature, it being the purpose
to give simply the various writings of the name; but
from these considerations we are forced to recognize
the prominence of this deity Uru in the early period.

In the early Sumerian and Semitic inscriptions,
therefore, the name is written UR-RA, VR-A, NIT A
(more correctly UR), USH (perhaps better URU), URU
(dlu), BUR-BUR (= Uri), KUR-GAL (= Uru),7 URU
(shubtu), see below, and BIL-LIL, see below, all
of which = Uru, Uri, Ura or Urra; and perhaps also
MAR-TU (=frrw).

This solar deity throughout the early period must
have been recognized as foreign, because until the time
of Hammurabi it did not, as Ranke3 has noted, have
the determinative for god.4 Just as the scribe of the

1 For similar names, see Ranke, Personal Names.

2 If the name Uru-KA-GI-NA of the early ruler of Shirpurla
contains the name Uru, it is possible also that A-KUR-GAL, of the
same dynasty, contains the name or an epithet of the same deity.

3 Personal Names, p. 208.

4 There are, however, exceptions, as GAL-dUR-RA, Reissner,
Urkunden, 94, I, 35.

114 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Cassite documents at Nippur, as a rule, did not prefix
the determinative to the names of the Cassite deities
(with the exception of Shuqamuna, who had been
introduced into the Babylonian pantheon) in the same
way, the Sumerian scribes in the early period probably
regarded this god of the Amorites as foreign. This, it
seems to be evident, was done because of the religious
prejudices of the scribes. And yet it must be borne in
mind that such deities as Sin or Nannar in this as well
as the earlier period are frequently written without the
determinative. The Legend of Urra, which echoes
severe conflicts waged against certain Babylonian
cities by some rival power, also points to a foreign dis-
trict over which the god presided.

It may be of interest to add that the earliest inscribed
object dedicated to the god Urra, is a vase which is in
the Morgan Library Collection. It is dedicated by or
for a son of Lugal-kisalsi, who belongs perhaps to the
fourth millennium B. C.1 The name of the god is written
DINGIR BIL-LIL, which, according to Rawlinson, IV,
5, 66a, is to be read Urra.

NERGAL.

Nergal, the patron deity of Cutha, is also a solar
deity,2 who in the late period is the god of the burning heat
of the sun, or the god of the all-destroying midday

'See Banks. "A Vase Inscription from Warka," American
Journal of Semitic Languages, XXI, p. 63.

2 See Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 484 f.; Zimmern, K. A. T?, p. 412,
and Jastrow, Rel, Bab, und Ass., p. 157.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 115

sun. The great heat of the sun in Babylonia has a highly
destructive power, which doubtless gave rise to the
attributes attached to this deity when he became the
god of pestilence, death and the underworld.1 One
of the Sumerian ideograms for the deity is NE-URU-
GAL, which gave rise to the familiar Nergal. Scholars
have considered this ideogram to mean " Lord of the great
dwelling" (i.e., Hades). Haupt, following Delitzsch,2
and others have thus regarded it.3 In the light
of these investigations, there can be little doubt that
this sign URU, which ordinarily has the meaning
"dwelling," was selected by the Sumerian scribes at
Cutha, as mentioned above, simply because it represented
the sound Vru. The last two elements of the name
would then mean " great Vru. " The name of the god is
frequently found written in this abbreviated form, as
U-ri-gal-la,* Urra-gal, etc. Further, the first element
NE5 does not seem to mean "lord,"8 but nuru, "light,"7
although it should be borne in mind that the meaning
"Lord Vru," if NE is translated "lord," would be
parallel to "King Vru" (i.e., LUGAL-URU), another
name of this deity. The name then of this Amorite

1 See Jensen, Kosmologie, pp. 476-487.

2 American Journal of Philology, VIII, p. 274, and Proceedings
of American Oriental Society, October, 1887, XI.

'See also Zimmern, K. A. T.3, p. 412.
* Strassmaier, Nbk. 305 : 4.

8 In the Naram-Sin inscription found in Susa a deity NIN-NlH-
URU(UNU) occurs, cf. Thureau-Dangin, Vor. Bib., I, p. 168.
6 The sign, however, has the value gashru ; cf . Brvinnow, List.
1 Cf . Meissner, Seltene Ideogramme, No. 6920.

116 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

sun-god, when written by the Sumerian scribes at Cutha,
meant " The light of the great Cru, " or perhaps "Lord
Urugal."

The deity dLUGAL-URU has also been identified
with Nergal, as above. In a passage from Rawlinson,
Inscriptions of Western Asia,1 we seem to have proof
that this deity is from Amurru. It reads : dShar-ra-pu =
DINGIR LUGAL-UR-RA MAR-KI, i.e., "The deity
Sharrapu (the burner) = Lugal-Urra (Lord Urn) of
Amurru. "2

MARDUK.

Another striking proof of the transmission is to be
seen in the name of the god Marduk, whose solar charac-
ter is attested by Berosus, which was first pointed
out by Sayce.3 After Hammurabi placed this god of
light at the head of the pantheon, and made him sup-
plant the other gods, his solar features were over-
shadowed by the many other attributes with which he
was invested, and as a consequence they were more or
less lost sight of.

The deity under the name Marduk is not known in
the Hebrew of the early period, and with one exception,
i.e., DI -Marduk, the name does not occur in the Amarna
letters. This is significant, and shows, as stated (p. 36),
that the supposed great influence exerted by Babylonian

1 V, 46c-d, 22.

2 Cf. K. A. T?, p. 415, note I.

3 Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1893, II, p. 246; cf. alao Jensen,
Kosmologie, p. 88.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 117

culture upon the West is more or less a myth, since
this deity, who was at the head of the Babylonian
pantheon for more than a half millennium prior to
the Amarna period, the god that Hammurabi
made supplant Ellil, lord of lands, and to whom
was given the attributes of the other gods, is scarcely
known by that name in Palestine and Syria. Hence it
follows that the original name of the god, if indigenous
in the West, must have been different; in which case
it is reasonable to inquire whether the deity cannot be
DINGIR-MARTU, the deity of Amurru, perhaps also
known as tJru. In this connection the personal name
U-ri-Marduk, " Uri is Marduk, " of the Cassite period,
is most interesting,1 but especially the formula AMAR-
UTU = dA-ma-ru.2

The Sumerian scribes in Babylonia wrote the name
of this deity AMAR-UTU or AMAR-UTUG. Some
scholars have proposed, in order to account for the
writing Marduk or Maruduk, that the second character
is to be read UTUG. This is quite reasonable, for there
is a sign having the value U-tu-ki, which also means
the god Shamash (dUTU).3 UTU may have the value

1 See Clay, B. E., vol. XV, p. 45.

2 Cf . Briinnow, List 11,566. This is equivalent to Avaru =
"I1K = Uru. Cf. here also LUGAL-UDDA, quoted as an epithet
of Marduk by Jensen, K. B., VI, 562. Of course, UDDA has also
the value uru. Now LUGAL-URRU is another name of Nergal
(see above), in which case we have direct evidence of the connection
between Nergal and Marduk.

3 See Briinnow, List, No. 12,219.

118 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

utuk, for it is well known that a final G, including the
vowel, in Sumerian is often apocopated.1

Jensen explains AMAR-UT to mean "the son of the
sun."2 This explanation, however, is based on a frag-
ment of questionable value. Pinches' explains AM AR-
UDUG to mean "the brightness of the day. " Hommel4
considers AMAR to mean "young wild ox," which
explanation he feels is confirmed by one of the dates of
Bur-Sin, where his name is written Amar-Sin.5 Sayce8
explains the name as having a punning etymology,
Amar-utuk, " heifer of the goblin. "

It is possible to understand how a deity like Marduk
could have an epithet, "Son of Shamash;" but it does
not seem appropriate to explain the name of the patron
deity of Babylon in that way. And notwithstanding

1 See Leander, Sumerische Lehnworter, p. 34.

2 Cf. K. B., VI, p. 562. li AMAR-UT -mar = puru = 'Junges'-
mari-shamashu, d. i. ein 'Sonnenkind' oder 'Sonnensohn' der
Gotter, aber nicht 'Sonne' schlechthin."

3 Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Inscriptions, etc.,
p. 54.

4 Sumerian Lesestiicke, p. 51.

5 It is quite evident that the names of both, the son of Dungi
of the Ur dynasty, and the son of Ur-NIN-IB of the Isin, are not
to be read Bur-Sin; and designated, as is usually done, Bur-Sin I,
and Bur-Sin II. In every instance where the former occurs, the
sign AM AR is written, cf. C.T., XXI, 24, 25, 27, and Hilprecht,
B.E., I, pt. 1, 20, 22, XX, 47 : 3, etc., whereas the latter name is
written with BUR, cf. B. E., I, pt. 1, 19, and XX, 47 : 15. Moreover
in B. E., XX : 47, both names appear. Until, therefore, a phonetic
writing is found, although AMAR may be read Bur, the reading
Amar-Sin for the former and Bur-Sin for the latter is preferable.

6 Religion of Egypt and Babylonia, p. 325.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 119

the other explanations, it does not seem out of place to
offer still other conjectures.

If Amar is a synonym of ~)Mi, " light, " as has been
suggested, which Pinches apparently had in mind in
translating " brightness, " then the first element of the
name could also be a synonym of NE (= nuru), which
is found in NE-URU-GAL, "Light of the great Oru,"
and also of SIR (= nuru or naptifou) in #/.R-(usually
read BU)NE-NE, " Light or flame of the fire," the
charioteer of Shamash of Sippar. In this case AMAR-
UTUG would mean "Light of Utuk, " i.e., the sun.
A-ma-ru, which, as we saw above, is equivalent to
Marduk, would then represent perhaps only the first
element. This would mean, if correct, that in writing
this name the Amorite element Amar was used in con-
nection with the Sumerian UTUG or the Babylon-
ized utuk.

Another explanation is perhaps more plausible.
Words were compounded in Babylonian in other than
the Semitic construct relation.1 Many of these com-
positions doubtless arose through the influence of
Sumerian writing.2

1 See Delitzsch, Assyrische Grammatik.

2 In this connection I desire to call attention to several names
of woods, stones, animals and plants, some of which may eventually
be shown to be similar in formation. The name of the country
Amurru, being the same as the deity, among the many variations
in form in which the name appears we have Amar, Mar, Amur,
Mur, Ur and Ar.

Plants: A-mur-tin-nu (II R., 45, 58); A-mur-ri-qa-nu (also a
sickness of the eye, cf. Arabic araq and uraq, "grain sickness");

120 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

As is customary at the present time to designate the
origin of animals, woods, etc., by mentioning the name of
the country, as, for example, "Scotch terrier," "Italian
marble," etc., it seems natural to postulate that the
Babylonians did the same in naming foreign materials.
And this being the case, Amurru should figure promi-
nently in that respect, for frequently we read in the
inscriptions, as early as the time of Gudea, that this
land was the forest that furnished woods for their
temples, and the quarry where they got certain kinds
of stone. Amar-utuk may, therefore, mean "the
Amorite Utuk," i.e., "the Amorite sun-god." One
other explanation seems probable and worth considering.

AMAR-UTUG, being an Amorite deity, contains
as its first element Amar, meaning the deity (see above) .
In the light of these considerations, therefore, is it not
reasonable to suggest that the name means "Amar

Awa-ar-ka-sir (II R., 43 : 67a and 6); Awa-ar-si-qir (ibid.); Awa-ar-
sa-na-bu (Delitzsch, H. W. B.t p. 51), etc. Woods: Ur-fea-lu-ub (Vor.
Bib., I, pp. 30, 96) seems to belong to Amurru; Ur-karinnu (Esar-
haddon, I : 20) is brought with cedar from Sidon ; Mar-eriqqu (Muss-
Arnolt, Die, 4148), etc. Stones: Mur-ar-na-tim (Briinnow, 12803);
Mur-siparru (Briinnow, 13279); Ar-gaman, which is Phoenician dye.
|DJ in Syriac means "color, " etc. Animals: A-mur-sa-nu; A-mur-si-
gu (Meissner, Supplement, p. 5); Awa-ar-i-lum ( = Mur-babillu, Muss-
Arnolt, Die, p. 90, and Delitzsch, H. W. B., p. 51); Mur-nisqi
(Muss-Arnolt, Die, p. 584, root nasdqu), etc.

These words, the etymology of nearly all of which is in doubt,
taken from a fuller list, I simply offer in order to raise the question
whether some of them at least cannot be explained as containing
perhaps the element discussed, and especially as we have similar
formations, as ashar-edu, perhaps arisen from the Sumerian.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 121

is Utuk," or the " Amar-Utuk," like Bel-Marduk, El-
Shaddai, Bir-Hadad, Yahweh-Sebaoth? This being
true, the Sumerian scribes, perhaps, in this way
differentiated in writing the name of the sun-god of
the Semites from their own solar deity, UTU or UTUG.
Moreover, even though none of these conjectures
shall eventually prove to be correct, it does seem that
the first element AMAR represents the name or epithet
of the chief deity of the Amorites.

NIN-IB.

NIN-IB, who so frequently interchanges with Nergal,
is also a Babylonian solar deity that was imported from
the West; or, to express it differently, the name repre-
sents another writing of the Amoritic sun-god.1 The
Aramaic equivalent which the writer published several
years ago, namely, nt^UN, and which he consistently
maintained was correctly read against the views of
others, has recently been placed beyond doubt by
the discovery of Professor Montgomery of the name
written on an ostracon no less than five times (see
Appendix). This Aramaic equivalent has received
thus far about fifteen different explanations. The writer,
however, feels that the one he recently offered,1 namely,
n&VX = EN-MASHTU for EN-MAR-TU, which
is Sumerian for bel Amurru, " Lord of Amurru or Uru, "
like LUGAL-Uru, which has practically the same

1 See Clay, "The Origin and Real Name of NIN-IB," Journal
of American Oriental Society, vol. XXVIII, 1907; also the Appendix
on "The Name of NIN-IB."

122 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

meaning, has not been improved upon. There is, how-
ever, another plausible explanation of this name, which
may eventually be found to be correct.

We have seen in Part I that the mountain Mdshu
figures prominently in the Gilgamesh epic, and that it
is located in the land of Amurru. We have further
seen how in the name Gilga-mesh and in the names of
several temples in Babylonia the element Mash or
Mesh figures, and that this element in all probability
is foreign. Now, as is well known, another common
ideogram for NIN-IB is MASH. The first element
NIN meaning "Lady or Mistress," and the name NIN-IB,
" Lady IB, " who was the consort of the god IB, shows
that originally the deity was feminine. As there was a
West Semitic deity called Mash, his consort should be
called Mashtu. In Babylonian, there is a deity Mash and
also his consort Mashtu. Knowing as we do that this
deity, like Nin-Girsu and others, became masculinized, it is
altogether reasonable to assume that even in early times
the deity became EN -Mashtu, that is, " Lord Mashtu. "
This as well as the above explanation identifies the
deity with the West, which is further discussed, and for
which additional proofs are given in the Appendix on
"The Name NIN-IB."

URASH.

The god Urash, written IB and perhaps also IB-BA,1
who was the local deity of Dilbat, is doubtless also a

1 See Clay, B. E., vol. XIV, p. 59.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 123

solar deity from Amurru. This follows from the deter-
mination of NIN-IB, who was originally the consort of
IB, as being Amorite.

It occurs in Ebed-Urash in the Amarna letters.
Now in a Punic inscription of the third century B.C.
there occurs the name 2HN""1D,T, which in all proba-
bility is the same; compare also N8JHJOD.1 Urash
may be a contraction of £W")N, Ur-esh, i.e., Vru-Esh,
like Bir-Adad or Amar-Utuk, etc. (see above). The first
element in Esh-ba'al (^JDtPtt), son of Saul, and Ashbel
(^DL^tf, IaafaX), the name of a son of Benjamin (Gen.
46 : 21), may of course be VPtt, "man," but I prefer to
see in it the deity Esh, "fire-god"; compare Ishum
especially in the Hammurabi period.2 IB = Urash has
the value aqmu,5 perhaps " I burned, " and considering
that IB is the consort of NIN-IB, a solar deity, the
above explanation seems at least plausible.4

SHAMASH.

Shamash, whose temple was at Sippar, is naturally
recognized as the great solar deity of the Babylonian
Semites. At the same time, we have only to recall the
fact that in the Amarna letters Shamash is the one all-

1 Cooke, North Semitic Inscriptions, p. 70, compares the root KHK,
which in Assyrian (ereshu) = "desire, request," and the Hebrew
ntJhX; but ibid., p. 129, in discussing t!nK"Dy, he thinks it is a deity,
and compares 'Apj??.

2 See Ranke, Personal Names.

3 See Briinnow, List No. 10481.

* For another explanation of Urash see Dhorme, O. L. Z., 1909.

124 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

important deity, so frequently named in the salutation.
The Pharaoh addressed is called "my Shamash, rny
god (Hi,1 i.e., pluralis intensivus), my lord." These
three terms correspond to the Hebrew Yahweh, Elohim,
"god/' and Adonai, "lord." It is not impossible
that the Egyptian sun-god Re, or the foreign impor-
tation Aten was meant, who the Egyptians believed
was incarnated in the Pharaoh; but if that were true,
we would expect at least a single variant, in which
one or the other was referred to by that name. It is
more probable that the Amorite writer meant his own
sun-deity which he associated with the deity of the

1 In spite of the pronounced views of others who have differed
with the explanations offered for DINGIR-DING1R or DINGIR
MESH = Elohim (DTI^X), the generic name of the god among
the Hebrews and the people of the West (cf. Hilprecht, Editorial
Preface to my B. E., vol. X, p. IX), I continue to maintain that
this explanation offered by Barton (Proc. Amer. Orien. Soc, April,
1892) is in all probability correct. That DINGIR-MESH = Sx,
in the names of the Achaemenian period, I have conclusively shown
in my paper on Aramaic Endorsements in the Harper Memorial
Volume (I, p. 287 ff.). Unless it can be proved that the word
Elohim of the Old Testament was not in use as early as the second
millennium B.C., there is every reason to expect to find it in the
literature of Palestine, and especially in the Amarna letters. This
being true, there are good reasons for believing that in the name
Warad-DINGIR-DINGIR-MAR-TU we must recognize the generic
name for "God" used by the Western Semites; that is, instead of
translating "gods of Amurru, " the writer believes that in the early
period, as well as in the late, the scribes differentiated between
ilu and bx or D'riSx. Moreover, a modification of this view might
be suggested, which is that the name was probably read Warad-
El-Uru. Considered in connection with "ll^N in the Pognon inscrip-
tion, this explanation appears reasonable.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 125

Egyptian, which he knew was also solar. Without
taking into consideration place names, such as
Beth-Shemesh, etc., or perhaps names as Samson
(Shimshon) in Palestine, it must be acknowledged that
the Amorites and Aramaeans used extensively the name
Shamash or Shemesh for their chief deity. Not only
the Amarna letters show this, but also the so-called
Cappadocian tablets published by Sayce, Delitzsch
and Pinches.

The Sumerian chirographers, in writing the name
Shamash at Sippar, used the same ideogram UTU
which stood for their own solar deity, whose seat of
worship was at Larsa. That the Semitic name Shamash
prevailed in that city is an indication that the deity
in his original habitat was known under that name.

No satisfactory etymology of the name Shamash has
yet been offered. The idea that it is derived from a stem
W12W, which in Aramaic means "to minister unto,
to serve," because in the Babylonian pantheon Shamash
is the son of Nannar or Sin, and occupies a subservient
position to the moon-god, does not appear plausible.
The reason why the god Sin is accorded a superior rank
must be due to other influences and to the fact that
Shamash is foreign. The all-powerful element of the
universe certainly would not represent a deity subsid-
iary to the moon in his own habitat. The only reasonable
explanation for the position which Shamash occupies in
the pantheon, especially when we recall that most of the
deities of the Semitic Babylonians are solar, is that the
moon-god cult of such cities as Ur and Haran was able to

126 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

establish its deity in the foremost position during the
rule of some powerful dynasty.1 Besides this Aramaic
stem, which has led scholars to give the meaning " servi-
tor " to Shamash, no other seems to exist from which the
name can be derived. Taking this into consideration, the
following is offered as a plausible conjecture.

The name Mash, more than has been realized,
figures prominently in the Eastern as well as in the
Western Semitic cultures. Mash in the Old Testament is
called one of the sons of Aram (Gen. 10 : 23). Mdshu
is the mountain where the gates of the setting sun were
found. This, as has been stated (p. 77), is probably to
be located in Amurru and perhaps is Hermon, near
Damascus (see below).

This element Mash is frequently met with in the
Babylonian inscriptions. It occurs in a number of
temple names, for example E-UL-MASH, E-M ASH-
MASH, E-MESH-LAM, etc. It is also found in the
name Gilga-Mesh (see p. 78). This solar hero was
associated with Erech,where a deity Mesh was worshiped.2
The name of the solar deity Lugal-Urra or Nergal
is written with the signs MASH-MASH. This deity is
of Western origin. The name NIN-IB, another of the
chief solar deities of Babylonia, is written in cuneiform
dMASH, and is phonetically written Ma-a-shu in a

1 Prof. Jastrow, Rel. Bab. und Ass., II, p. 457, maintains that
astrological considerations are responsible for the relative positions
of Sin and Shamash.

1 Cf. Collection de Clerq, IX : 82.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 127

syllabary.1 NIN-IB, while prominently worshiped in
Babylonia, is also a deity of the West. In Aramaic
the name is written nWMX=EN-M&shtu,2 i.e., "Lord
Mashtu." Mdshtu is known in cuneiform, and is perhaps
to be identified with Vashti of the Book of Esther.
The gods Mdshu and Mdshtu are called the children of
Sin.3 Shamash was also regarded as the offspring of Sin.4
The sign MASH, it may be mentioned also, has such
values as shamshu, ellu, ibbu, amdru, namdru, etc.

The deity whose habitat was found in the mountain
Mash might well be called, following the Semitic usage
with a relative particle, Sha-Mash, or El Shammash,
i.e., "He of Mash," or "The god of Mash." This has its
parallel in Babylonian where " Man of sealing " or " of the
seal," is written hshakkanaku.5 The relative is commonly
found as an element in Babylonian personal names,
e.g., Sha-Addu, etc.6 It is also found in the West Semitic
names Methti-sha-El and Mi-sha-El. Beth-sha-El (writ-
ten Bayt-sha-ra),7 one of the frequently mentioned cities
of Palestine in the Egyptian inscriptions, also seems to

1 Cf. Brunnow, List No. 1778.

2 See Appendix on the name NIN-IB
s See Appendix on the name NIN-IB.

4 See Jastrow, Rel. of Bab. and Ass., p. 68.

5 Cf. also hshangu "man of sacrifice," and hshabru "man of
seeing."

6 See Tallqvist, Neubabylonisches Namenbuch, p. 331, and Ranke,
P. N., p. 245. If this explanation of the name Shamash should prove
correct, it is not impossible that El Shaddai is a similar formation,
perhaps containing the element Addu.

7 See W. M. Muller, Euro-pa und Asien, p. 192, and Mitteilungen
der vorderasiat. Gesellschaft, XII, 1907, 29.

128 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

contain the particle. It probably represents the city
Bethel.1 The relative is also found in Arabic divine
names, e.g., Dhu'l Qalasa, Dhu'l Shard, etc.,2 and also
in Old South Arabic names, e.g., DhlX Samdwi.3 The
explanation that Shamash contains the relative would
give a reason for the doubling of m in Il-Tammesh,* for,
as is well known, one of the forms of the particle doubles
the following consonant. As stated above, this is offered
simply as a conjecture in the absence of any reasonable
explanation of Shamash.

A word may properly be added here with reference
to the name Damascus. The fact that it is a very ancient
and important city raises the question whether it is not
mentioned in the early Babylonian inscriptions.

It seems that Damascus must be Qi-Mash-qi which
figures so prominently in the inscriptions of Gudea and
Dungi. This city is usually considered to be in Arabia,5
but the scene of Dungi's operations were chiefly in
Amurru. In the absence of any proof that KI or QI is
Semitic, this would mean that the name of the city as
known in cuneiform was or became the name of the

1 In Papyrus Anastasi I, -sha-cl occurs, which prompted scholars
to think of Bethel instead of Bethshean.

2 Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen Heidentumes, p. 42 ff .

3 Baethgen, Beitrage, p. 123 f.

4 There are a few variant forms as Il-Tamesh, Il-Temesh, see
Tallqvist, Neubabylonisches Namenbuch, p. 288.

5 Delitzsch (Paradies, p. 242 f .) has, however, made it quite
reasonable that the desert of Syria is referred to in Ashurbanipal's
campaign as the desert of Mash. Jensen now also places Mdshu in
the Lebanon district.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 129

city. In the inscription of Gudea KA-GAL-AD-KI is
the mountain of QI-MASH, which is also called the
"mountain of copper" (gAR-SAG-URUDU-GE).
Perhaps the name means "gate" (KA-GAL) "of cop-
per" (AD?); at least AD-gAL means copper. This
idea of a gate reminds us of the gate of the setting sun
in the Gilga-Mesh epic at the mountain Mdshu; and
also the passage, Zech. 6:1, where it says the four
chariots passed between the two mountains of brass.
Damascus is east of Hermon and southeast of an
offshoot of the Antilebanon, perhaps such a location
where the idea of a gate of the setting sun, referred to in
the Gilga-Mesh epic, would arise. It may be that the
gate was formed by Mount Hermon and Mount Lebanon.
But more important than all else is the fact that there
were copper mines east of the Lebanon range in this
land of Nufeashshi1 of the Amarna Letters. The city
alongside of Mash would probably be called "City of
Mash." This identification finds support in the passage,
Gen. 15: 2, where Eliezer is called p&Bp, "Son of
Mesheq."2 The question then arises, how shall the first
part of the name be understood?

The name of the city is written p$&l, pfeWl
and p£'$n in the Old Testament; 'Ti-mas-qu, Sa-
ra-mas-qi (for Ti-ra-mas-qi) in Egyptian; Ti-ma-ash-gi,
Di-mash-qa in the Amarna letters; Di-ma-ash-qi, Di-

1 Enc. Bib., II, col. 893.

2 The words following are a gloss explaining in a later period
that Mesheq is Dammesheq. The passage reads " a son of Mesheq
is my family — that is Damascus — Eliezer."

130 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

mas-qa, Dim-mas-qa, etc., in the Assyrian inscriptions;
and Dimashqu, etc., in Arabic. In view of the above
explanation of Sha-Mash, and the doubling of the ml
in the name, it is possible to see here the relative particle
(see above). This view finds support in the other form
of the name, alSha-imeri-shu.2 If this should prove
correct, then the early name Mesheq, perhaps arisen
from the cuneiform writing of the name Mash91, later
became Dammesheq, " (city) of Mesheq."

Another and more reasonable explanation is that the
first element written Dar, Dum (for Dur), and even Sara
in Egyptian, is equivalent to the Aramaic Der and the
Babylonian dUr, " fortress," etc., which is doubtless
from the Aramaic stem 1)1, "to enclose, or to sur-
round," and continues in the late Aramaic dialect as

1 The r in several of the forms could have been used for the dis-
simulation of mm.

2 The other form of the name in cuneiform is Sha-imeri-shu
(Sha-i-me-ri-shu, III R, 2, XX), Sha-NITA-shu and Sha-MITA-
MESH-shu (III R. 9, 50). These writings can be reconciled if the
second sign is read amaru (Briinnow, List, 4983), i.e., Amar the "god,"
instead oHmeru the "ass,"and2V77M.as Ura, perhaps Mir (Briinnow,
List, Nos. 954 and 955). or NITA-MESH as MM. SHU (although
in the late period another sign SHU is used) has the value erebu,
especially in connection with shamshu (cf. Briinnow, List, 10828),
AMAR or MIR-SHU would then be equivalent to MAR-TU, or erib
shamshi, "the setting sun." Sha-AMAR-SHU would mean "The
city of the setting sun," a most appropriate name for Damascus.
However, the fact that this would again bring the Semitic relative
into connection with a Sumerian ideogram must be recognized as an
objection, unless we assume that the cuneiform script was exten-
sively used in that district in the third millennium B.C., and the
ideogram had early become Semitized.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 131

dtird, "circuit, enclosure.'' The name would then mean
circuit or enclosure or fortress of Mesheq (or Mash),
instead of " Aselstadt." This has its parallel in the name
Carchemish, which has been translated "Castle of Mish;"
perhaps better, "Fortress Mash." The latter element
is of course the name of the sun-god.

ADDU or AD AD.

As is well known, Addu or Ramman in Babylonia
appears as a god of rain and lightning, and in Syria,
where he is indigenous, as shown by Jensen,1 Jastrow,2
Zimmern,3 and others, he is recognized as a solar
deity. This seems to have its parallel in Marduk4
and in Nin-Girsu, the Sumerian sun-deity of Tello, who
is also the god of agriculture. Naturally, the fructifi-
cation and vivification of the earth is dependent upon
the warmth of the sun together with the rain.

Addu is associated and identified with the god of the
West, i.e., Amurru. This seems to be well established;5
cf. MAR-TU=dIM sha abube, i.e., "Addu of the floods."
Compare the name in the Amarna letters Amur-Adad
(dIM), i.e., "Amur is Adad." Addu, as is well known,
is also the god of the mountains. MAR-TU = Amurru
= Ml shadi, i.e., "lord of the mountain." KUR-GAL
(= Amurru) = shadu rabu, i.e., "the great mountain."

lZ. A., VI, 303 ff.

2 Rel. Bab. und Ass., p. 222.

3K. A. T.3, p. 433.

4 Cf. Jensen, K. B., VI, p. 563.

5 Cf. Ill R., 67, Rev. c-d, 51.

132 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

In this connection we are reminded of the epithets
Shaddai, Elyon and Sur (HSP, |Vty and 1W) of
the Old Testament, as well as the conception the
Syrians had of the nature of Israel's God when they
said, "Yahweh is a god of the hills," 1 Kings 21 : 28.1
As has been shown, there are other designations of
this deity, namely, Mur, Mer, Bur, Bir, etc.2 These
seem to be variations of the name Mar? And that
being true, Bir-Hadad would mean "Mar is Hadad, "
which later may have been misunderstood by the
Hebrews who, perhaps influenced by the Assyrian Mar
(see p. 162), considered it to be the Aramaic bar, "son."
Moreover, I simply desire to emphasize in this connection
that this deity is indigenous in the West, and was intro-
duced from that land into Babylonia.

NUSKU.

Nusku is also recognized as an original solar deity.
The names of the garran Census* show that this deity
was prominently worshiped in Haran under the
name of Naskhu, where there was a temple devoted to
him. Some hold that the deity was imported from
Nippur, but exactly the reverse is more likely to be the

1 See Ward, "The Origin of the Worship of Yahwe," Amer.
Jour. Sem. Lang., April, 1909, p. 175 ff. Also see Part I, p. 88.

3 See Jastrow, Rel. Bab. und Ass., p. 146; also Hommel, Auf-
satze, p. 220, and Zimmern, K. A. T.3, p. 445 ff.

3 Hilprecht, Assyriaca, p. 77, note 1, says Me-ir ( = Mir) is
identical with Bir or Mur.

* See Johns, Assyrian Doomsday Book, p. 12.

AMURRTJ IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 133

case, namely, that Nusku was originally a Western
deity, and that Naskhu represents the more ancient
writing of the name.

ISHUM.

Ishum, the messenger of Nergal, is also a fire- or
pest-god. This deity appears as the faithful attendant
of Urra, who is the same as Nergal, and is in all proba-
bility the same as the West Semitic Esh (£2>N) discussed
above.

SARPANITUM.

§arpanitum, the consort of Marduk, is also a solar
deity, and means " brightness" or "shining."1 There
can be no question but that the name is Semitic, and is
a formation in dn from tp¥. The figures of this
deity on the seal cylinders, Doctor Ward thinks, are
borrowed from the Syro-Hittite representations of the
chief goddess of the West (see below).

BU-NE-NE.

Another variation of this solar deity is the charioteer
or companion of Shamash, worshiped especially at
Sippar, whose name is BU (or SIR)-NE-NE. SIR =
ndru, and NE-NE can equal ishdti (plural), and the
name can mean "Light of the great fire." In the late
period MUR is used interchangeably with SIR-NE-NE.2

1 Cf. Zimmern, K. A. T.\ p. 375.

2 a. Tallqvist, Z. A., VII, p. 279.

134 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

This sign is usually read BAR, but MUR might
be preferable. An interesting variant of the name
dMUR-ibni, Dar. 395 : 20, is to be found in Dar. 396 : 18,
where the same name is written dUTU-ibni. It is
not improbable that UTU is to be read Bir, which is a
variant of Mer, Mur, etc.1 This explanation, if correct,
would throw interesting light on the name of the hero
of the Babylonian deluge story, UTU-napishtim,
which name may also be read Bir-napishtim (see
Part I). The associations of the god MUR, considered
in connection with the possible variant readings, show
that it is a solar deity.

MALIK.

And who will question that Malik is West Semitic
or Arabic instead of Babylonian, perhaps originally
only an epithet,2 but later considered to be a name ?
This well known deity is prominently associated
with Shamash and SIR-NE-NE at Sippar. This fact
is interesting when considered in connection with the
familiar name Uru-milki and Milki-Uru, found early
and late in Babylonia, as well as among the Western
Semites. In the Manishtusu Obelisk the name
Malik-ZI-IN-SU occurs. The name of Safgon's scribe
is Shum-Malik.3 These occurrences show that the

1 See above and K. A. T?, p. 443 ff.

2 See Moore's article, "Molech, " Erie. Bib., also Barton in
Jewish Encyclopaedia; and Zimmern, K. A. T?, p. 469.

3 Vor. Bib., I, 1640.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 135

name was introduced into Babylonia in the early Semitic
period.

A study of the early history of these recognized
Semitic Babylonian solar deities leads us to certain
important conclusions. In the first place, we are im-
pressed with the fact that nearly all the important
Semitic Babylonian gods are sun-deities, and that they
are not indigenous to the land. The earliest traces of
the more important are synchronous with the earliest
references to the Semites in Babylonia. And after
we realize that there must be assumed a great antiquity
for the Amorites and their culture, and finding that
they, including the Aramaeans, had the same deities
as the Semitic Babylonians, we can postulate, after a
consideration of all that is known, that the Semitic
Babylonians were originally Western Semites; and espe-
cially as the elements in question, generally speaking,
do not belong, as far as we know, to other early
peoples.

Dr. William H. Ward, the eminent authority on
Babylonian seals, informs me that the sun-god is one of
the most favorite themes of the Babylonian and Syrian
seal cylinders. For years he has made a study of Baby-
lonian and Syro-Hittite seals. His comparison of the
forms of Babylonian gods with the forms of the Syro-
Hittite deities as depicted in their art has led him
to the conviction that the forms originated in the
West. That is, from the art of that region were
derived the representations of Marduk and Amurru
(MAR-TU) at different times from the more digni-

136 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

fied god who appears in the Syro-Hittite art usually
without weapons. Marduk is represented simply hold-
ing his scimitar downward, while Amurru the same
god is represented with one hand to his breast, holding
a short rod.

Sarp&nitu, the naked goddess on seals, who is the
consort of Marduk, corresponds to the naked goddess
on the Syro-Hittite seals, very likely the wife of Tarkhu,
the chief god of the Hittites. The fourth Babylonian
god in the art of the Semitic Babylonians coming from
the West is Adad, who holds a thunderbolt and weapon
over his head, and leads a bull (for the thunder). In
the Hittite art this god, usually called Teshub, bears
other weapons such as the club, axe, etc. The earlier art
of the Tigro-Euphrates valley back of the time of Gudea,
in the opinion of Dr. Ward, does not show traces of this
influence (see also page 87).

We have only to recall how very frequently the name
of Amurru (fMAR-TV) occurs on the seal cylinders
of the Semitic Babylonians as the patron god of the
individual, and especially in contrast with the official
use of the names of the gods in the inscriptions. This
is reasonably explained according to the theory proposed
in these discussions, namely, that the great deity known
to the Amorites as Amurru, perhaps also Vru, when
brought into Babylonia received in different localities
different names. That is, in these various centers, which
were really independent principalities with their own
guilds or schools of scribes, the Semites having probably
already an alphabetic script, and speaking a foreign

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 137

tongue, were totally dependent at first, and perhaps
for centuries, upon the Sumerian scribes of the land for
everything that was written in cuneiform upon clay
or stone. This involved on the part of the Sumerian
scribes a determination of the form in which their per-
sonal names and deities should appear; and as a result
these forms in time became conventionalized, just
as hundreds of other words in their vocabulary which
are Sumerian.

In writing the name of the solar god of the Semites,
the Sumerian scribes at Sippar used the character
which represented their own sun deity. The old original
Semitic name Shamash prevailed, perhaps by reason
of the fact that Sippar was in the early period a
powerful Semitic center. This, of course, is very
evident in comparison with Nippur, where the contracts
in the First dynasty are still written in Sumerian, as is
shown by the texts recently published by Poebel (B. E.y
Vol. VI, part 2). At Babylon, the scribes did the same
thing and used in writing the name of this imported
sun-god their own UTU or UTUG, prefixing AMAR
to distinguish this Western god from their own god.
At Cutha, there seem to have been several different
forms of the name of the deity, namely, Urru, "The
light"; NE-URU-GAL, "Light of the great Vru";
LUGAL-URU, "King or Lord Qru" ; U-ri-gal, etc.
Elsewhere the deity was written IB or Urash, i.e., " The
Amar-Esh,,(?), and NIN-IB, his consort, which later
was masculinized and considered to be EN-Martu, "the
Baal Amurru" or EN-Mashtu, "The lord Mashtu."

138 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Naturally the attributes of this sun-god, although
originally the same deity, would develop differently,
due to different conditions or influences. In the later
centuries, the petty principalities were brought together
into political unions, and there was a grouping of the
deities into a pantheon, when their original solar sig-
nificance was more or less lost sight of, with the excep-
tions of Shamash at Sippar. If this conclusion is not
accepted, then it must be assumed either that the enter-
ing Semites adopted the Sumerian UTU sun-cult of
Larsa in Southern Babylonia, and modified it in accord-
ance with their own ideas by giving it different names,
or it must be assumed that they came from different
quarters, in each one of which a solar god was wor-
shiped under a different name. That is, if the theory
advanced is not correct, the Semites living in Sippar
came from one district, while the devotees of Marduk
and those that worshiped other sun-deities came from
other localities. Such conclusions naturally would in-
volve us in great difficulties, and would indicate a strange
development of sun worship as well as a state of
affairs rather difficult to comprehend. In the light
of all the facts known, it seems that the only conclu-
sion at which we can arrive is that the Babylonians,
generally speaking, were originally Western Semites,
and that they brought with them their solar worship
from the West.

OTHER GODS:— ASHUR.

The chief deity of the Assyrian pantheon also
seems to be an importation from the West. The appear-

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 139

ance of the name Ashur in Assyria is found in the earliest
inscriptions from that land. The fact that the name does
not occur in the early Babylonian inscriptions precludes
saying the deity is Babylonian. Further, the fact that
the name is written A-usar, A-shir, Ashur, Ash-shur,
etc., points to a foreign origin.

The deity figures prominently in the Cappadocian
tablets, some of which belong to the latter part of the
third millennium B.C. It also occurs in the Amarna
letters. It is found in the Old Testament rf?K *)£>N.
The name is in the Phoenician rhvn&X IDJTDy, etc.,
and in the Aramaic "J^ftlDN,1 DmjJ>N, etc., and
perhaps even in the name of the tribe and city Asher
and Asshurim, Gen. 25 : 3, etc.2

These occurrences of the name in the inscriptions
of the West point to West Semitic origin, and the
association of such elements as Malik even suggests that
it may be solar. When we take into consideration also
the fact that other prominent Assyrian deities, such as
Shamash, Amur, Adad, Urra, Dagan, etc., are Western;
and that the study of the so-called Syro-Hittite art
shows that the West has furnished the form of several
deities for Assyria, it would seem that the Assyrian
culture arose through migrations from the West instead
of from Babylonia.3

1 Cf . A-shir-ma-lik and A-shur-ma-lik in the Cappadocian inscrip-
tions.

2Hommel, Die vier Paradiesesflusse, p. 278, holds the deity
is from the West.

3 Winckler, History of Babylonia and Assyria (Craig's translation,
p. 181), holds that the representations of the Assyrian physiognomy
is Jewish.

140 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

While it is not improbable that the temple of Ashur
in the city Ashur was founded by a Hittite ruler, as has
been maintained; and that there was a brief Hittite
rule over Babylonia,1 the elements which made up the
culture of Assyria are not Hittite but Semitic. If the
center from which the Semites came is Amurru, the
influence of Hittite art upon the Semitic would be easy
to understand, because the dominant power in Amurru
at 2000 B.C. was Hittite.

Assyria may have been originally a colony from Baby-
lonia, but for the present this view must be regarded as
entirely hypothetical. The early rulers seem to have
been foreigners, for example, Irishum2 the son of Qallu,3
Igur-kapkapu, Pudi-El* Ushpia,5 Kikia* etc. Later
rulers' names are mostly compounded with the West
Semitic Ashur, Adad, and Shamshi.

Considering the date of the Cappadocian tablets and
the fact that nearly all, although coming from different
localities, contain this element, it must be admitted that
the idea that those bearing these names represent
Assyrian colonists, when Assyria is scarcely known in
the inscriptions of the East, is exceedingly precarious.
If Ashera is the consort of this deity, the fact that the

1 See Ungnad, B. A., VI, 5, p. 13, and Jastrow, "Hittites in
Babylonia," Revue Semitique.

2 Cf . I-ri-si-im, in the Cappadocian tablets.

3 Cf. Qalili, B]alia, etc., in B.E., XV; perhaps to be associated
with Qaligalbat.

4 Cf. the biblical Pedahel and Pedaiah.

5 Cf. the Cassite Ush-bi-Sah, B.E., XV.

8 Cf. Kikia, B.E., XIV, and Ungnad, B.A., VI, 5, p. 13.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 141

name was common in the West, and not in the East, is
strikingly significant. In this she has her parallel in
Antum, also apparently a Western goddess.

ISHTAR.

Not only do we have the West Semitic Asher in
Babylonia, but Ashera the chief goddess. A great
diversity of opinion seems to exist with reference to the
origin of the name and cult of Ishtar. Haupt holds
that the deity came from the name Ashur.1 Hommel
sees in the Ashera of the West the origin of the name.2
Tiele3 and Muss-Arnolt4 see in the name the root ashdru,
"to be gracious, bless." Barton5 holds the original
habitat of the deity is Arabia, where she was called
Athtara, and that she entered Babylonia from the
South;6 while Sayce7 thinks the deity belongs to the
non-Semitic Babylonians, i.e., the Sumerians. All that
the writer desires to say is that the name of the deity is
unquestionably foreign, and that she is the same as

1 Cf. Jour. Amer. Orien. Soc, XXVIII, p. 116. But the change
of K to y has not been satisfactorily explained.

2 Aufsatze und Abhandlungen, II, p. 20°v
' Bab. und Ass. Geschichte, p. 533.

4 Ass. Dictionary, p. 118.

5 Semitic Origins, p. 103 f.

8 Barton thinks that originally the goddess was brought into
the land from Arabia. His chief argument is that with the excep-
tion of the Moabite Stone, where it is masculine, and ~\ny among
the Aramaeans (see Cooke, Glossary of Aram. Inscr., p. 95 f.), it
has the feminine ending in the West, whereas Ishtar of the Baby-
lonians and 'Athtara of the Arabs do not.

7 Archaeology oj the Cuneiform Inscriptions, p. 338.

142 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Ashratu,1 the belit seri, as represented by the Assyrians,
the Astarte of the West, and consort of Amurru;2 and
that it seems highly probable that the biblical Ashera
is the same, which appears to be the feminine of Ashur.
At Erech, the same prostitution that attended the
worship of Ashtoreth in Canaan existed in the cult of
Ishtar. At Bismaya, also dedicated to Ishtar, Dr.
Banks informs me he found jars containing the bodies of
small infants, as were found in the high places of Canaan,
and indications of the same lewd practices of the Erech
cult.3 The question arises, were these rites introduced
into Canaan from Babylonia, or vice versa? Another
alternative, of course, is that there was a common source ;
but of this we have no knowledge. As has been said,
Erech was essentially a Semitic city. The very fact that
this phase of the cult did not exist generally in Babylonia
and Assyria, where Ishtar was worshiped, although
Herodotus speaks of it at Babylon, would speak against
its origin being fixed in Babylonia; and especially as it
was so thoroughly rooted in the West.

ANU and ANTUM.

ANNA, the patron deity of Erech, is generally recog-
nized as a deity of the Sumerians. Although the cults

1 Cf. mr\VV, Gen. 14 : 5, also K. B., V, 142 : 10 and 237 : 21.
The use of ]? is to be noted, for if it is the same name the change JJ
to K or % to V has taken place.

2 See Jensen, Zeit. fur Ass., XI, p. 302.

s The usual explanation is that the bodies represent the offering
of the first-born. Another suggestion may be that perhaps they are
the offspring resulting from these debased rites.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 143

of Anu and Ishtar of Erech are clothed in a Semitic garb,
and the town is "essentially a Semitic city," I do not
wish even to suggest that ANNA might be Semitic.

There are some reasons, however, for venturing the
suggestion that a Semitic deity Anu was introduced into
Babylonia from the West, some of whose characteristics
were associated with the cult of the so-called Sumerian
ANNA.

Anu figures prominently in the early Assyrian inscrip-
tions with other West Semitic deities, as Ashur, Shamash,
Adad, Ishtar, etc. Perhaps the only name of the early
period compounded with Anu (see Langdon, Index to
V. B., I) is Anu-banini, king of Lulubi. In this ruler's
inscription, Anu is the first deity mentioned. Thureau-
Dangin (V. B., I, p. 173) regards this inscription probably
earlier than the Ur dynasty. Anu figures also in the
names Gimil-Anim, Pi-sha-Ana and Idsha-Ana of the
Cappadocian tablets. It is perhaps also in the deity's
name Anammelek (2 Kings 17 : 31).

Especially significant is the fact that the consort
Antum is not recognized in Babylonia. It occurs in the
Assyrian inscription of Agumkakrime, and in the late
name A-na-at-da-la-ti (Johns, A. D. D., p. 317). It
occurs in the early inscription of Anu-banini, king of
Lulubi, found at Seripul. It occurs in the old Canaanite
names of towns 'Anathoth and BHh-Anath; and perhaps
is in the name 'Anath, father of Shamgar. Prof.
Montgomery calls my attention also to the name of the
Amori tehero 'Aner (Genesis 14 : 13), for which the
Samaritain Hebrew gives the variant An-ram, perhaps

144 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

intended for Anu-ram. It is usually understood to
have been carried to Egypt as early as the 18th dynasty
(Asien, p. 313). In short, the absence of the consort
in Babylonian literature and its occurrence in the West
must be indicative of its origin.

NABU.

Nabu, another important Babylonian deity, who
does not make his appearance very early, at least in
this Semitic form, also seems to be of West Semitic
origin. The deity is prominently mentioned in the
West Semitic inscriptions as an element in names.1
The mountain which was the place of Moses' death was
dedicated to this god. Like Addu, Amurru, Dagan and
other West Semitic names, Nabu is frequently found in
the cuneiform inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian period
in distinctively West Semitic names, as Nabti-idri' ,
Nabti-rapa', etc., etc.2 And also when the fact is con-
sidered that Marduk, Nergal, Nana, Gula, and other
deities bearing names distinctively Babylonian are not
found in the West Semitic nomenclature, we are led to
feel that Nabu must be an importation from the West.
Because of the deity's relation with fertility, Jensen3
regarded Nabu as originally a solar deity. His associa-
tion or identification with Nusku would support this
view. However, the evidence on this is too scant to
arrive at any conclusion.

1 See Lidzbarski, Nord. Sem. Epig., p. 20 ff.

2 See Tallqvist, Namenbuch, and B. E., Vols. IX and X.

3 Kosmologie, p. 239.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 145
SIN.

The moon-god Sin seems to be West Semitic. Nannar,
at Ur (Urumma), being also a moon-god, later became
identified with Sin by the Semites, but the chief habitat
of the latter, as far as is known, seems to be Haran. The
large number of personal names compounded with Sin,
or rather Si-', found in the Qarran Census1 shows how
popular the cult was in that city. Although the
Assyrian scribes did not use the determinative in con-
nection with this deity in the Qarran Census, and instead
of one of the usual ideograms for Sin wrote the name
Sir' (occasionally Si and Se, yet compare the variant Si
ioidSin in Ungnad, V. S., Ill: 18), we conclude that the
breathing represented a pronunciation peculiar to the
district.

The name was written Sin outside of Haran in Baby-
lonia, Palestine, and Arabia; cf. also the "Wilderness
of Sin" and "Mt. Sinai." Notwithstanding this fact
the deity may be Aramaean. In an Aramaic inscrip-
tion published by Pognon2 the name of the god is written
Si (*D) as well as Su (ID). It is in the name 1DDHD,
which Pognon reads Bar-iksu.3 Without any doubt
Si (*D) is here the moon-god Sin, written practically
the same as in the tablets belonging to the place of his
principal habitat. Perhaps also we may see the same ele-
ment in the name Sisera and Sihon (N^D^D and flfTD).

1 Sse Johns, Ass. Doomsday Book, p. 13.
5 Inscriptions Scmitiques, p. 114.

3 Grimme, 0. L. Z., 1909, p. 17, considers the deity to be "Si =»
Siebengottheit."
10

146 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

If the conjecture that the original form of the deity is
Si', Se, or Su,1 should prove to be correct, is it not possible
to see in EN-ZU, the ideogram for Sin, the Sumerian
element EN, Lord, and the Semitic Su or Si, a formation
like EN-Mashtu; and on the principle that Nin-su-gir
appears Nin-gir-su, EN-Su might be written Su-EN or
Si-EN = Sin. Compare the name En-na-Zu-in found
in a Cappadocian tablet.2 If the deity is of West Semitic
origin this will account for the Babylonian form. This,
let me add, is only offered as a plausible conjecture, for
the n of Sin in Babylonian and the other West Semitic
dialects may represent what the scribes in the Haran
district intended by the breathing in Si'.

DAGAN.

It is quite evident that Dagan is also a West Semitic
deity3 who was early introduced into Babylonia. The
name of the deity, with the determinative for god, is
found on the Obelisk of Manishtusu. In the 37th year
of Dungi a temple is dedicated to Dagan. In the
dynasty of Isin, probably West Semitic, Ishme-Dagan,
one of the rulers, doubtless bears a West Semitic name.
Dagan, as is well known, was the god of Gaza and Ash-
dod. The place name Beth-Dagan, and the name of
the Canaanite, Dagan-takala, who is one of the writers

1 The form of the deity Z&, which is also written Zi and Z& in the
Legion Zu, is at least to be noted here.

1 Identified as Sin by Hommel.

8 Cf. Clay, Jour. Amer. Orien. Soc, XXVIII, and Meyer,
Geschichte des Altertums, p. 468.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 147

of the Amarna letters, point to Palestine or Amurru
as the original habitat of this deity. Compare also
I-ti-Da-gan in the Cappadocian tablets, published by
Sayce in a recent number of the Babyloniaca. The
West Semitic names found in the tablet from JJana (see
Ungnad, B. A., VI, 5, p. 28) also support this view. In
these tablets the deities Shamash and Dagan are found
in the oath formula. The tablets said to have been
found at Ed-Deir support the views of those who have
held that his worship radiated from the highlands
between Palestine and Mesopotamia.

LAHMU and LAHAMU.

The god Lahmu and goddess Lafoamu, which occur
in the Marduk-Tiamat legend and in a few syllabaries
and incantation texts, also appear to be Amoritish.
The fact that they play no part in the pantheon indi-
cates foreign origin. As has been pointed out by others,
Lafamu probably is one of the elements in BUh-Lefaem,
which was the name of two cities in Palestine.

Other distinctively Semitic gods may be regarded in
the same way. Several of those discussed above under
the heading "Other Deities," may prove eventually to
have been solar in their original habitat; but more
evidence must be forthcoming before this can be deter-
mined. This much can be said, they are in all probability
West Semitic deities.

Besides the argument based on the culture and relig-
ion, the Babylonian script offers strong evidence in
support of this thesis.

148 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

It is a well established fact that the northern group
of Semitic languages, i.e., the Amoraic, Aramaic and
Assyro-Babylonian, are more closely related to each
other than they are to the languages of the southern
group, namely, Arabic and Abyssinian. Inasmuch as
there are so many elements that the northern cultures
have in common, it seems natural to assume that they
had a common origin; and the question arises which is
the earlier.

The Babylonian script, as is understood, is an adap-
tation of the Sumerian cuneiform system for the Semitic
language that was brought into the country; and in
that script the weaker consonants or radicals are elided,
or contracted, or appear as vowels. A study of the
script of the Northern group makes it most difficult to
understand, if the Babylonian is the older language,
how the weak radicals, which had disappeared, should
have been restored, and the roots correctly introduced
in the alphabetic script of the Western languages. For
example, it is difficult to understand how Bel, t)ru and
Ti'amat, or the corresponding Mlu, iiru and tdmdu,
could be correctly introduced as ^3, *T)N and DIHn.
Naturally some Babylonian loan words1 are found in
the West, but would we not expect generally to find
many peculiar formations, due to this transportation
and transformation. The differences in the verbal
formation, and other peculiarities of the Babylonian,

1 More discrimination should hereafter be exercised in declaring
words which the Babylonian and Hebrew have in common to be
of Babylonian origin.

AMURRU IN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 149

due to the fact that the written language was created
by Sumerian scribes or those familiar with the Sumerian
writing (who constructed grammatical rules in order to
use their own script for the Semitic tongue that appeared
in their midst), would also show themselves prominently
in the Western languages, if the influence of Babylonia
had been what is claimed for it.

We have seen that in the earliest known period of
Semitic Babylonian history, which belongs to the age
apparently not far removed from the time when the
Semites entered Babylonia, Amurru was already an
important factor in the affairs of nations, and that
it was a land which the great world conquerors of
Babylonia, both Sumerian and Semitic, took pains to
subjugate. This leads to the conclusion that the
culture of Amurru was at that period already old.
This, as we have seen in Part I, is fully substantiated
by the Egyptian inscriptions. We have also seen that
in the earliest Semitic period of Babylonian history,
the most important deity that we recognize as Semitic
belongs to the land Amurru, and especially that this sun-
deity played a most important part in the Babylonian
religion and nomenclature. And we have further seen
that there are reasons for asserting that nearly all the
Semitic deities of early Babylonian history can be
shown to be originally West Semitic, that is either
Amoritish or Aramaic.

Taking everything into consideration, and especially
the fact that the Semites are not indigenous to Baby-
lonia, it seems reasonable to postulate that they came
from the West.

AMURRU m WEST SEMITIC
INSCRIPTIONS

In the Old Testament, the only form of the name
of the land known as Amurrtt, generally recognized,
refers to the inhabitants, and appears with the Gentilic
ending, i.e., 'Amori (HON, LXX is 'A/ioppaios); and
in nearly every instance the word has the article. The
Amorites are considered to be the descendants of the
fourth son of Canaan (cf. Gen. 10 : 16 and 1 Chron.
1 : 14). They form part of the ancient inhabitants of
Palestine, and yet under the name are included the
Canaanites, Girgashites, Hittites, Hivites, Jebusites
and Perizites, and once (Gen. 15 : 19-21) the Kenites,
Kenizzites, Kadmonites and Rephaim. From the Old
Testament it would seem that Amorite history reached
far back into antiquity, and that the people had main-
tained their identity down to the Hebrew period. As
a nation, however, they had then begun to disintegrate
and were losing prestige. The domination of the Hit-
tites in the middle of the second millennium doubtless
brought this about. But there is every indication that
they were originally an extensive and powerful people,
whose chief location was the mountainous region north
of what we now recognize as Palestine, covering the
district, it seems, as far north as the Orontes; in other

words, to the Hittite land.

150

AMURRTJ IN WEST SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS 151

In the Old Testament they are generally represented
as a people living in the highlands. Palestine in the
early period seems to have been extensively controlled
by the Amorites. Macalister, in the excavations at
Gezer, finds traces of a people he calls Amorites at a
date which he fixes about 2500 B.C. Naturally there
may be more ancient sites in the land than Gezer where
the Amorites lived. After this period the occupation
of the city seems to have been supplanted by the
Israelites, about the middle of the second millennium.
Although the Amorites had their day and ceased to be
a factor as a people, they held various cities for centuries
succeeding the occupation of Canaan by Israel.1

As is well known, four-fifths of the letters found in
Egypt at Tel el-Amarna, which represent the official
and friendly correspondence in the Babylonian language
of Amenophis III and IV in the fifteenth century B.C.,
consist of reports and communications from vassals of
the Egyptian kings in Western Asia. In this great land
the names of districts are practically all Semitic, as
Amurru, Najirima, Amqi, Ziri-Bashani and Gar. As
geographical names frequently are retained from one
era to another, we realize that the inhabitants of the
land prior to this age in all probability were Semitic.
We reach the same conclusion when such names of the

1 For a discussion of the Amorites based upon the Old Testa-
ment see W. M. Muller, in the article "Amorites" in the Jewish
Encyclopaedia; Sayce, in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible; or
Barton, in the One Volume Dictionary, p. 271. Also Barton, ibid.,
p. 110, on the "Canaanites."

152 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

cities are taken into consideration, as Surri, $iduna,
Gubla, Qideshu, Urusalim and others, some of which
at least are considered to have had a great antiquity.

The predominance of Semitic personal names is so
evident in these letters that it is only necessary to
mention the fact. The consideration of the names
Abdi-Ashirta, his son Aziru, and others, indicates their
Semitic origin. Further, it is sufficient to recall that the
letters from this great region betray the fact that the
native tongue of the writer is Hebraic. In other words,
these letters make us acquainted with the fact that the
culture of this land, which is Semitic, is of a highly
developed character, indicating that, back of what we
have become familiar with, there must be a long period
of development covering millenniums. The names
clearly indicate also that the chief deity of this region
was solar, who, as we have seen above, appears under
different names or epithets, as tJru, Adad, Milku,
Urash, NIN-IB, Shamash, etc.

The theory advanced years ago,1 that the Amorites
depicted on the walls of the Egyptian temples and tombs
with short and pointed beards, blue eyes and reddish
hair, high forehead and rather prominent cheek bones,
thin lips and straight noses, show that they physiologi-
cally were Indo-Europseans, does not seem to have
found acceptance. The monuments show that the
Amorites represent in practically every instance a Semitic
people (seep. 29). This would imply that in that age

1 Sayce, Early History of the. Hebrews, p. 42.

AMURRU IN WEST SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS 153

already the name may have been used simply from a
geographical point of view.

Macalister found, as the result of his two years'
diggings at Gezer in Palestine, where he discovered
an Amorite high place, that the earliest aborigines were
troglodytes.1 They were small in stature, being on an
average an inch or two over five feet in height. A
study of the partially cremated skulls and bones by
Professor Alexander Macalister, of Cambridge, led to
the conclusion that they represented a people of a pre-
Semitic occupation of that city. Fortunately the mode
of burial by the Semites at a later period was by inhu-
mation. The remains show that they were taller,
stronger and a larger boned race than the earlier people.
They seem to have made their appearance, according to
Stewart Macalister, the explorer, at about 2500 B.C.
" These Semites, " he thinks, " had relations with Egypt
as early as the Twelfth dynasty. They made or began
the great megalithic high place; practised sacrifice
of the first born and foundation sacrifice; had many
varieties of grain for food; made pottery of the so-called
early pre-Israelite type; were strongly influenced by
Egypt, but much less by Babylonia. The beginning of
the late Semitic period synchronizes with the settlement
of the Hebrews in Canaan, but these do not seem to
have had undisputed possession of Gezer."2

The names of Amorites mentioned in the Old Testa-
ment do not throw much light upon their origin. While

1 See Bible Side Lights from the Mounds of Gezer, p. 43.

2 Lyon, Harvard Theological Review, 1908, p. 82.

154 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

some are called Amorites, that term may have been
used very early in the sense that it was in later biblical
times, when all the peoples were included under that
general name (see above), Mamre, Eshcol and Aner
(Anram). Og and Sihon1 are mentioned as Amorites.
In Joshua 10 : 3, Hoham2 of Hebron, Piram of Jarmuth,
Japhia of Lachish, and Debir of Eglon are mentioned as
Amorite kings. These names, which can be derived from
Semitic stems, throw light upon the situation. The name
of Adoni-Zedek, the king of Jerusalem, who associated
himself with the others, contains well recognized Semitic
elements. The same is true of Malki-Zedek, king of
Salem (perhaps Jerusalem, see Appendix), of an early
period.

It is unfortunate that we do not have more names of
persons in the Old Testament who can be identified
unmistakably as Amorites. It is certain, however, that
a large percentage of Old Testament names of the early
period in Palestine are Semitic, the same as the names in
the Amarna letters, which represent the inhabitants of
Canaan prior to the entrance of Israel. We have, there-
fore, every indication that not only the language of
the land was what is called Hebraic, but the names
and religious cult indicate at least that most of the
inhabitants were Semitic.

1 JllTD perhaps contains the element 'D, i.e., moon-god Sin;
see above.

2 Hoham is found in Minsean, cf. Dnin = Haufeam; cf. Hommel,
Ancient Hebrew Tradition, p. 221 f. Japhia is perhaps found in the
Minaean yS'Sx = Il-yapi'a; cf. Hommel, Ancient Hebrew Tradition,
p. 248 f.

AMURRU IN WEST SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS 155

The Old Testament supplies us with only scanty
ethnological data concerning the Amorites; but if
Macalister is correct in his statement that the pre-
Israelitish Amorites who occupied Gezer were ethnologic-
ally Semitic, we have one very important fact established.
Although we know that Aryans or perhaps Turanians
were also there, we may conclude that most of the people
who lived in that great region, which geographically
was called Amurru, from a very early period not only
spoke a Semitic language, but in the early period were
Semites, and that the land was at a very early time an
important center of Semitic culture.

The people from Amurru who appear in the Baby-
lonian tablets generally bear Semitic names. The re-
ligion of Amurru that found its way into the Euphrates
valley, as we have tried to show, is Semitic. In short,
everything points to the fact that the dominant people
in the Westland were Semites in the millenniums pre-
ceding the Amarna or biblical age. This being true, and
bearing in mind that the solar worship of the Babylonian
Semites goes back to Amurru, we should find many
traces of the worship in that land in which it was
indigenous.

Inasmuch as the Amorites figure so prominently
in the early period in Palestine, it is reasonable to expect
to find in the Old Testament traces of the worship of the
chief deity of this people whose name is written Amurru,1

1 In South Arabian there is a name that seems to be compounded
with this element, "IDtoSn, king of Saba, cf. Lidzbarski, Ephemeris,
II, p. 387.

156 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Oru, etc., as well as "IlK in the Aramaic of Babylonia.
In this connection a most interesting passage is to be
found in Job 31 : 26, where in parallelism with " moon, "
*)1K instead of Shemesh, "sun," is found. The name
of the deity seems to be found in H1K, ^HIK, imiK,
iT*Y)K and "IWI&?. The element 'Or is usually trans-
lated "light, flame, or fiery." The Septuagint shows
that 'Ur, not the common 'Or, "light," is meant.
These names, therefore, are to be explained: "My
Oru," or simply " Oru" (with a kose suffix); " Oru
is God, " " Oru is Jahweh, " like Ori-Marduh and Oru-
milki, see above; and "Shaddai is Oru, " cf. *1^H1V
and **T8P*0#, both *)!¥ and *D# being also equivalents
to the names of deities. Before considering other occur-
rences of the names in the Old Testament, let us inquire
whether it occurs in the Amarna letters.

Many of the letters found at Amarna having been
written in the fifteenth century B.C., in Amurru, and
referring to the land, it is natural to expect to find
in them both the name of the country and of the god,
Amurru or Oru. Amurru, as the name of the land, has
long ago been recognized, but not the deity. The god,
however, is also found in the Amarna letters, in the
name Milkuru. In these epistles we find a Milki-ili
and an lli-milki. A parallel formation compounded
with Oru would be Milkuru, with which Oru-milki
of the Sennacherib inscription may be compared.
This same name, written Mil-ki-U-ri, belongs to a slave
in an Assyrian document, dated in the reign of Sargon.1

1 Cf . K. B., IV, p. 112.

AMURRU IN WEST SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS 157

Perhaps the same name is to be seen in Vru(MAR-TU)-
Ma-lik in a contract published by Poebel,1 dated in the
First dynasty of Babylon.2 Malik may mean "coun-
sellor, " but is the way the name of the deity is written.
If so Vru in these names seems to represent the deity
Amurru.

This explanation also throws light on another name,
^D^K, found in a Phoenician inscription at Byblus,
belonging to the fourth or fifth century B.C. Lidz-
barski3 translated the first element "light." Cooke*
compared it with ^tfHltf and Urumilki, and trans-
lated "Fire of Milk." The comparison with T)K,
however, is correct, but the name is the familiar one
mentioned above and means " Vru is Milk. " This
defective writing enables us to suggest at least that
^JON, the name of a son of Gad, may be translated
" Vru is my God." ^NHtf, usually translated "hearth
of El" or "lioness of El," a name applied to Jerusalem,
may also contain the element. For a discussion of " The
name Jerusalem, " which contains Vru, see Appendix.

Before the recently published texts of Pognon,
Inscriptions Semitiques, reached my hands, Professor
Montgomery5 kindly called my attention to the opening
lines of the new Zakir inscription, which reads: "The
stele which Zakir of Hamath and La'ash dedicated to

1 Bab. Exp., Vol. VI, pt. 2.

5 For other formations with milku, cf. K.A T?, p. 471.

3 Nordsemitische Epigraphik, 210.

4 North Semitic Inscriptions, p. 20.

*See Montgomery, Biblical World, February, 1909, p. 158.

158 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

El-Ur pV?N)." He suggested for comparison with the
deity the name of the antediluvian Babylonian king
according to Berosus. namely. \i/.u>po$. Lidzbarski, in a
review of the inscription1 which has since appeared.
also admits that the comparison with this name is invit-
ing. Grimme2 properly regarded "11 to be equivalent to
Aicar = Babylonian A?7iaru = Marduk.

Unquestionably 11 represents the sun-deity Cru.
It is a most interesting and important fact that this
Aramaic inscription, which belongs to the earliest known
in that language, shows that Zakir. king of Hamath and
La'ash, dedicated the stele which he erects to El-Ur.
The comparison of El-Ur with the first name of the
antediluvian Babylonian king 'AXwoo? seems to be most'
reasonable. But not alone the first of the list, but the
second, third, fifth, and perhaps the ninth, contain the
name of the deity: A\ar.apo<; (AJapaurus. Alaporus),
AfuliapoS) Meyalapas and perhaps 'Apian^. For a fuller
discussion of these names see Part I.

The use of El pN) in connection with the name
Ur ("11) is most interesting, especially when we recall
El-Shaddai (HI!* *?K) and El-Elyon (p'ty *») of
the Old Testament. Originally, as mentioned above,
these may have been epithets, but were not considered
as such later on. Prefixing the word for ''God'' seems
to have been a characteristic of the Western Semites.
Compare also Al-Xashhu-milki, Al-Si',3 Il-Teh,iri-abi,

1 Lit. ZentralblaU, 1908. p. 5S2.
1 Orient. Lit. Zeit., 1909. p. 16.
5 Johns, Assyrian Doomsday Book, p. 15.

AMURRU IN WEST SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS 159

Il-Tehri-nUri' , and Bariki-Il-Tammesh,1 Il-Tamesh-dmi,2
Il-Tammesh-ilai,3 Il-Tarnmesh-natannu/ Il-Tammesh-
ntir,5 Abi-Il-Temesh* Il-Teri-fyinana,1 etc. The Rev.
Dr. Johns thus regarded the Al which is prefixed to the
two examples found in his texts. Professor Hilprecht,
in his Editorial Preface to my Babylonian Expedition,
vol. X, p. XIII, asked: "But where did the Assyrians
ever pronounce the word for 'god' (^Xj in connec-
tion with the god's name immediately following in their
inscriptions?" He further said: "I do not believe
that the people about IJarran pronounced it either.
Al in the name quoted can scarcely be anything else
than the article dl or el, known from Lidzbarski's list
of proper names to have been used in connection with
certain deities. " Cf . ^JD^jmtf, *?3rf7tttr\l (" The
Ba'al"), ntVthVfryOl ("The moon-god"), etc. Tall-
qvist8 accepted Hilprecht's view.

In the first place, the names quoted from Lidzbar-
ski's work to prove the point at issue are not West
Semitic nor Aramaic, but are Sinaitic or Arabic. And
as a matter of fact it is not known that the article was
used in Old Arabic; and further, even if it was, as in
the late period, it would not have been used with a

1 Cf. Clay, B. E., X.

s Strassmaier, Nbk., 363 : 4.

1 Nbn., 583 : 18.

4 Nbn., 497 : 4.

• Cyr., 58 : 6.

• Nbn., 638 : 4.

7 Cyr., 177 : 3.

8 Neu-babylonisches Namenbuch, p. 288.

160 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

proper name like Shemesh. As stated, the names are
Aramsean and the Aramaic did not have an article;
so Johns was right in considering this element Al to be
the word for "god."

These writings Tl for the deity's name enable us
to explain satisfactorily some West Semitic names.
Cooke1 calls attention to the prefix Tl in JDYY), a name
of a priest of Baal-hammon in a North Punic inscription
from Algiers, and also in pDTl in a Punic inscription
from Thugga, in Eastern Numidia. pD in the latter
doubtless means "prefect" (compare the Assyrian
shaknu), and is also a divine name or epithet, cf.
ffVpD. The name could mean " Vru is Shaknu," like
Vru-milk. "J19")!2 and YV Tl also contains the element ;
*p!3 and IT) both appearing elsewhere as personal names.3

If TI in West Semitic inscriptions represents the
deity Vru, it is reasonable to expect the name written
T in the Hebrew script, as initial 1 usually passes into \
The personal name 'jjDT (LXX, hpofaaX), according to
Judges 6 : 32, is explained "let Baal contend," as if
it were a Jussive form. Scholars, appreciating the
difficulties involved in this explanation, have pro-
posed that the root is HT, as in ^K YV and *?K **1* (see
Brown's Heb. Die, p. 937). The transliterations of the

LXX, namely, \4pftaaX, 'IapftaaX, 'IeapoftaaX, 'hpaftaaX, seem

to support the proposed change. Yet in all probability
the name is to be interpreted " Ur is Baal. "

1 North Semitic Inscriptions, p. 146.
1 Lidzbarski, Nord. Epig.
* Cf . Lidzbarski, Nord. Epig.

AMURRU IN WEST SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS 161

It would be rather surprising if the god Vru or
Amurru were not found in the tablets discovered in
Cappadocia which have been published by Delitzsch,1
Sayce2 and Pinches.3 Shamash, Ishtar, Ashur, Ami, Adad,
Malik, Dagan, etc., have been recognized, but not, as
far as I can see, the god Amurru. I venture, how-
ever, to suggest that this element is to be recognized
in names like Amur-ilu, A-mur-Ashur, A-mur-Shamash,
A-mur-Ishtar. These naturally might be translated, with
Hommel,4 Amur-ilu, "I beheld the god"; but it seems
to be reasonable, in the light of these investigations,
to propose that the name signifies "Amur is god."
Compare also Ili(NI-NI)-a-ma-ra,5 Pinches, ibid., p. 50.

Finding that in Babylonia Mar was extensively
used alongside of Amar or Or, we should expect to find
the same to be the case in the Westland itself, and
especially because of the frequent change of D and 1.
The deity or epithet occurs in the Aramaic and Phoe-
nician inscriptions, cf. W"ID, "|DD"ID, "|"D"ID, etc.
It has been conjectured that "ID, originally used
in an appellative sense, meant "lord" (frOD), and

1 Kappadokische Keilschrifttafeln, Vol. XIV, A. K. G. W., pp.
207 ff.

2 Babyloniaca.

' Annals of Archceology and Anthropology, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 49 ff.

* Anc. Heb. Trad., p. 67.

s This makes it plausible to assume that perhaps such names as
Amur-bili and Amur-Sin of the First dynasty, cf. Ranke, P. N.,
p. 66, and also Ilima-amur, quoted by Hommel, Anc. Heb. Trad.,
p. 141, n., may also contain the same element. Compare such parallel
names as Ili-ma-a-bi and Ili-ma-a-hi, Ranke, P. N.r p. 101, and the
Hebrew SHOOK.
11

162 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

was afterwards used as a title of a deity. Hoffman'
translates WIO "Adonis lebt. " This is not impos-
sible, but a better explanation would be to take "10
(Mar) as another form of 11 (War), etc. — in other words,
the element under discussion. Through the kindness of
Professor Montgomery my attention has been called to
the name of a god or demon, i.e., a depotentized deity,
written Nn^XlD in Pognon, Inscriptions Semitiques
(p. 82). The same demon occurs in a Syriac incantation
bowl published by Stube.2 In the light of the above facts,
it seems reasonable to identify this god or demon with the
once important deity or epithet of the ancient Amorites,
whose cult had practically disappeared, as far as we
know, at the time this inscription was written. This
may account for the writing A and TUR-USH for the
first element of Bir-Hadad; that is, the signs which had
the value mar were used (see p. 132).

This form of the name seems to be found also in
the name of the land and mountain HHO of Genesis
22 : 2 and 2 Chronicles 3:1. Siegfried and Stade
regarded the name as a "Wortspiel mit ilN*)."'
Concerning the reading of the Peshitta which makes
it NH1DN (i.e., "of the Amorites"), Driver thinks
"it has some claim to be considered the original one."
The Septuagint transliterates the name of the mount
upon which Solomon built the temple, 2 Chronicles 3 : 1,

lZ. A., XI, p. 240.

2 Jiidische-Babylonische Zaubertexte, p. 22.

s For other explanations of the name, see Driver in Hastings'
Dictionary of the Bible, p. 434.

AMURRU IN WEST SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS 163

Too Ap.opeta. When we consider the meaning of the
name Jerusalem (see Appendix), and the passage
in Ezekiel 16 : 3 concerning the city, namely, "thy
father was an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite,"
it seems reasonable to suppose that the name Amurru
is contained in it, and that the reading preserved by
the Septuagint has the fuller form, and also that the
place whither Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, which
bears the same name, was in all probability the Amorite
land, or rather Amoria proper, which was north of
Canaan; for after he had journeyed from Southern
Canaan three days, he saw afar off the land Moriah.

The etymology of ancient geographical names offers
many difficulties, due to the fact that they may be of
great antiquity, or belong to an era of which we have
little or no literature. The names may even belong to a
people whose existence is shrouded in obscurity, and
although they are continued in use, their traditional
pronunciation may have suffered so much that they are
of comparatively little value in determining the original
signification. A great many names of Palestine are
known to be of Pre-Israelitish origin. This we learn not
only from the Old Testament but from the Amarna
tablets, as well as from the lists of such Egyptian kings as
Thothmes III., and these (see p. 151) are generally Semitic.

Another personal name, the etymology of which
is regarded as obscure, is 7JEDHO. It occurs twice
in 1 Chronicles 8 : 34, and once in 9 : 40, in which
verse also the variant ^JD"HD is found. Some
(Brown and Buhl) regard the latter name as an error,

164 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

while others (Siegfried and Stade and Gray) consider
the fuller form an error for 'p.JD *1D. The translitera-
tion of the Septuagint, which is Mep:j3aaX, supports the
latter view. Brown translates "Baal is advocate *'(?).
Gray1 translates " Hero of Baal. " The latter is reason-
able, but it seems to me, in the light of the above, that
the name more probably means "Mar is Baal."

1 Hebrew Proper Names, p. 201, note 3.

APPENDIX

I. UR OF THE CHALDEES

For more than two thousand years efforts have been
made to identify the site of "Ur of the Chaldees, " the
home of Abraham. In recent centuries Urfa or Orfa,
which the Greeks called Edessa, had been regarded as
the ancient city.1 Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1855 found
bricks at Muqayyar in Southern Babylonia, from which
he gathered that the ancient name of the city was Hur.
Subsequently it was found that the reading of the name
was Urumma, and in late Babylonian Uril, i.e., with
a final vowel. The almost general acceptance of this
identification is due to the fact that no attractive reasons
have been given for any other site. Dillman and Kittel
have strongly opposed this identification,2 but ever
since Rawlinson has advanced his view the number of
those who have accepted it has steadily increased, so
that now it has become quite general. Without
attempting an exhaustive treatment of the subject, let
us briefly review the facts upon which it rests.

The Old Testament says Terah took Abram and
Sarai his wife, Lot his grandson, and brought them forth
from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan;

1 For a discussion, as well as references to the literature on the
subject, see Pinches, in Hastings' Bible Dictionary, IV, p. 835,
and Cheyne, in Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV.

2 Dillman, Genesis, Ed. 6, p. 213 f., and Kittel, Geschichte der
Hebraer, § 17.

167

168 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

and they came unto Haran and dwelt there. After
the death of Terah, the Lord said unto Abraham,
"Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kingdom,
and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will
show thee."

St. Stephen (see Acts 7 : 2, 4) speaks of the place
as being in Mesopotamia. While this is rather indefinite,
and doubtless an admission that the exact site was not
known, it does not point to Shumer, or Southern Baby-
lonia, as the country.

Eupolemus, who lived about 150 B.C., as quoted
by Eusebius, speaks of the place of Abraham, who was
the inventor of astrology and Chaldean magic, as a
city of Babylonia called Ka[iaptvrj} which is called
by some the city of Oupnj. As Eupolemus was dis-
cussing Hebrew history, it would seem that he reflects
the opinion of the Jews at that time.

The mention of Camarina offered a reason for the
identification with Muqayyar, the Urumma of the
early inscriptions, or the Urti of the later period, because
of the Arabic word qamar, meaning "moon," and be-
cause Muqayyar in ancient days was dedicated to a
moon deity; but especially because Terah, Abraham's
father, whom we learn from tradition was an idolater,
journeyed to Haran, another city dedicated to the moon-
god, where he remained until his death. It is further
conjectured that in this late period the ancient name
was going out of use, because of the way Eupolemus
speaks of the city.

The Talmud, however, as well as some later Arabian

UR OF THE CHALDEES 169

writers, regarded Warka, the 'Opsx of the Septuagint,
as the city; but this is impossible, as Warka is Erech
of Genesis 10 : 10. The very fact that the late Baby-
lonian Jews did not regard Urumma as the city, although
living in the land, ought to be evidence sufficient to
show that the identification of the biblical Ur with that
city must have been regarded unfavorably by them.

In the first place, Urumma, the name of the city
later called UrU, was the seat of Nannar worship, and
not of Sin; the one deity until recently considered
Sumerian and the other Semitic, or more precisely
Aramaic.1 dSHESH-KI is rendered Nannar (IV R., 9,
Za-Yla), and also Sin (IV R., 1 : 296; 5, 59a), but these
equivalents belong to the late period, when the Sumerian
gods were generally identified with the Semitic. In the
early period we have no proof of the worship of Sin at
Urumma. The mere fact that in the late period they
were identified one with the other is, therefore, no
proof that in pre-Abrahamic days the cults had very
much in common, beyond the fact that both represented
the worship of moon-gods. And that being true, we
might just as well use the argument that Abram came
from Babylon, Sippar, Cutha, etc., because the chief deity
of these places was a solar deity, and at Haran the fire-god
Nusku was also prominently worshiped. The Talmud
tells us that Terah worshiped no less than twelve
deities, which is quite reasonable, and which makes us
feel, knowing a little about those early religions, that

1 In Semitic Origins, p. 199 ff., Barton already assumed that
there is a Semitic element in Nannar.

170 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

the argument has little in it. To identify Camarina
with Urwnma because qamar in Arabic means "moon"
is certainly precarious.

Another difficulty lies in the designation "Ur of
the Chaldeans." The geographical term Chaldea or
Kaldu, written by the Greeks XaXdaiot, although the
origin of the name is not understood, does not seem,
especially in the early period, to include Lower Baby-
lonia. The word is probably preserved, apart from
Ur-Kasdim, in Arfa-Kesed (Arphaxad, perhaps tJrfa),
and in Kesed, one of the tribes descending from Nahor
(Gen. 22 : 22). However, the traditions, as preserved
by Berosus, connect the Babylonians with the Chaldeans.

The argument advanced in favor of Urwnma as
the site of Ur, because of the Chaldean district south
of the city, has little or nothing in its favor. That region
was known as Bit-Yakin, being inhabited by Chaldeans
only some time after 800 B.C. Yaktn, which name
implies that it is West Semitic, was probably borne by
a man who was known as a Chaldean. His estate,
i.e., Bit-Yakin, developed into a community of suffi-
cient importance to cause Assyria considerable difficulty
in retaining Babylonia, with which it was allied, in
endeavoring to regain independence.

The name Abram, as already mentioned in Part I,
has at last been found in the cuneiform literature belong-
ing to the patriarch's age. In the tablets from Tell
Deilam (i.e., Dilbat), about twenty miles south of
Babylon, which are now in the Berlin Museum, the name
is written Aba-rama, Abam-ram and Abam-rama.1

1 See Ungnad, Bet. zur Ass., VI, 5, p. 60.

UR OF THE CHALDEES 171

But it does not follow necessarily that the man who bore
the name was a Babylonian because he was the son of
Awil-Ishtar, a man bearing a Babylonian name. In
the same texts there are many examples of men bearing
West Semitic names who gave their children Babylo-
nian names ; and the reverse is also f ound in these as
well as in the texts of the other periods. This resulted
from mixed marriages.1 The texts show that many
Western Semites lived in Dilbat at this time. But what
is more important than all else in showing that the name
is West Semitic, is the fact that the element ram has not
been found to exist in the thousands of known Babylo-
nian names, whereas it is a common West Semitic
element.

The first element of the name Abram is found
in all the Semitic dialects, but the second element
is Western Semitic. In the Hebrew, besides Abram,
and DTDK, DTHN, 0^3*70, TO"), QVXTtt and
D"11iT occur. In the Phoenician inscriptions compare
*?P2D1} mZbD and D^JD. See also the name in the
Murashu texts, Addu-rammu (B. E., Vol. X). This
element ram may be translated " high, " or like Elyon
may have been an epithet of a deity. Moreover, all
the ancient traditions show that Abram was an Aramaean.
The genealogical list of his ancestors in Genesis XI shows
that they were Aramaeans, certainly not Babylonians.
The names of his immediate family are Aramaean.
Nahor, the name of his brother, is found in the place

1 See Clay, Light on the Old Testament from Babel, p. 403.

172 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

name Til Nafairi of the garran census. Compare also
Johns, Deeds and Documents, 420 : 3; 421 : 5; and the
personal names Nafear&u and Nafyiri. Milkah, as
above, should be connected with the epithet Malik.
Jiscah in form is also West Semitic. When Abram
was commanded to leave Haran, he is told to go
out of his country and from his kindred. When
Eliezer was sent for Isaac's wife, he was told to go to
Abraham's country and to his kindred, in the city of
Nahor. When Jacob fled from his brother he went to
the ancestral home, and there obtained his wife. The
names Bethuel and Laban are West Semitic. In later
years their descendants were called Aramaeans (compare
Genesis 25 : 20, etc.). In short, every bit of evidence
that can be brought to bear upon the subject points to
the fact that Abraham was not a Babylonian by descent,
but that his ancestral home was in Aram. If Ur is
located in Babylonia, it then can reasonably be asked
why he should have lived in that land.

But, notwithstanding all that has been said with
reference to the identification of Ur, scholars as well as
the ancients seem to think that Terah and Abram went
to Haran from a city some distance away, and that
Chaldaea in this connection very probably means Baby-
lonia.1 The Babylonian Jews, as well as others of ancient
times, sought for the city in that land.

In identifying a city, as Ur, there are a number of
conditions which should be satisfactorily met. First,

1 Kittel argues that Kasdim «= Kaldim is the land Kaldia in
Armenia.

UR OF THE CHALDEES 173

the city should be in Chaldsea, preferably not in Shumer,
but in Babylonia. Secondly, it should be explained why
its location was lost sight of in the late pre-Christian
centuries. Thirdly, it ought to be shown why an Ara-
maean or Western Semite should have come from that
city. And fourthly, its name should be 'Or OIN).

For some time it has been known that there was a
town in the vicinity of Sippar called Amurru, which
is also written with the usual ideogram MAR-TU.1
This can properly be included in Lower Mesopotamia
or Chaldaea.

This city, as far as the writer knows, while apparently
a city of some prominence in the time of the First dynasty
of Babylon, is not mentioned in the subsequent periods.

As is known, a large proportion of the tablets belong-
ing to this period that have been thus far published come
from Sippara and its vicinity. In these tablets it has
been found that many of the names of the contracting
parties, witnesses in the contracts, officials, and devotees
in the Temple documents are West Semitic. Ranke,
in his Personal Names of the gammurabi Dynasty, p.
33, shows that these people were called "Children of
the West Land." His lists of names, as well as those
of Poebel,2 which came from this district, namely,
Sippar, show that a large percentage of the residents
bore West Semitic names. Toffteen3 and others have

1 Cf. Meissner, Altbab. Priv., Nos. 42 and 72; also Ranke, Baby-
lonian Expedition, Vol. VI, Part I, 42a : 1.
7 Babylonian Expedition, Vol. VI, part 2.
s See Babyl. and Ass. Geog., p. 30.

174 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

even asserted that the Amorites of the West came from
this district (see above). Concerning the way these
Western Semites came to live in this locality, we can
only theorize. But knowing the later custom of deport-
ing people, and knowing also the account of Chedor-
laomer's campaign, how he carried away Lot and the
people of Sodom and Gomorrah, we might suggest that
they or their ancestors had been carried into exile by
some previous Elamite or Babylonian conqueror.

A parallel to this case can be found in the Business
Documents of the MurashU Sons of Nippur. In them,
towns called Ashkelon, Gaza, Heshbon, Bit-Tabalai
are located in the vicinity of Nippur in the fifth century
B.C. In other words, West Semitic names are intro-
duced for the towns occupied by the Jews in captivity.
In these tablets also a great many Jewish names have
been found, the descendants of the people whom Nebu-
chadrezzar placed there in exile. The name of the
city Barsip above Carchemish of Gudea's time doubt-
less is the origin of the Babylonian Borsippa.

And finally, having shown that the West Semitic
name M AR-TU '= Amurru = T)N or 'Vr, and that this is
the name of the town in the vicinity of Sippar, we have the
only city name Ur of the time of Abraham that is known.

Thus all the requirements that can reasonably be
laid down in the identification of the city have been
satisfied. The city is in Chaldaea or Babylonia; it
thrived at the time that the patriarch lived ; its location
was later lost sight of ; it was inhabited by West Semitic
people, and its name is the same as is written in the
Old Testament.

II. THE NAME JERUSALEM

The name Jerusalem has had in the past many
different interpretations. As a Hebrew name, formerly
it has been considered to mean " The abode of
peace," "The possession of peace," "Salem's posses-
sion," "A foundation of peace," "Foundation of Sha-
lem, " etc. The discovery of the Amarna tablets, which
contain the writing U-ru-sa-lim, resembling the form
Ursalimmu of the inscription of Sennacherib, threw
new light on the subject. Considered in connection
with the Syriac, which is Urishlem, scholars realized
that Jerusalem, which should have been written in
cuneiform something like Yardshalim, was a disguised
or perhaps an incorrect writing. This was further
corroborated by the writing D?t5H1K in the Naba-
tsean inscriptions. The translation "City of Salem,"
"City of Peace," or "Place of Safety," then became
popular, for nearly all scholars seem to have concluded
that the elements of the name are a compound of UR U,
which in Sumerian means "city," and the Semitic
shalim, "peace" or "safety." For example, in his
editorial notes to the text of Isaiah,1 Haupt accepts
and fully discusses the name from this point of view:
The dialectical form of the Sumerian URU is ERI,
which passed into the Hebrew *V#, "city." The u

1 Polychrome Bible, p. 100.

175

176 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

vowel after » in Urusalim, he says, is the Sumerian
vowel of prolongation. The i in the Syriac, Haupt
further states, is the vowel of the construct state.
Irushalim, from which the common form of Jerusalem
is derived, represents the dialectic form of Uru. The
u after r in Irushalim may be due to dissimilation.
Pinches, who also accepted the Sumerian origin of the
first element, appreciated the difficulty in the genitival
relation of the two elements in translating "City of
Peace," and suggested the meaning "The city peace,"
making it a counterpart to or an explanation of the
name Shalem, "Peace," in Genesis 14.1

The theory that the first element is from the Su-
merian and means "city" is fraught with difficulties.
In the first place, if the theory is correct that the Hebraic
or Amoraic *V# is derived from the dialectical form
ERI, going back to the pure Sumerian URU, we must
assume that in Urusalim we have preserved not the form
from which *Vtf is supposed to have been derived,
namely, ERI, but the original Sumerian URU; or the
name would be compounded with pure Sumerian and
Semitic elements. Further, inasmuch as we have
similar formations as 'Ir Shemesh, 'Ir Nafiash, etc.,
belonging to the early period, if the first element of the
name URU means "city," does it not seem strange that
it should have been unrecognized by the ancients that
the element had that meaning? Some Sumerian loan
words in Hebrew are known, but these are traced back

1 Cf . The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Inscrip-
tions, etc., p. 239 f.

THE NAME OF JERUSALEM 177

to the Sumerian through the Babylonian. If URU =
ERI = 'ir 0^)j ^ must have been borrowed from
the Sumerian at an exceedingly remote age by the
Amorites, for in the Amarna letters dlu is the word
used for " city. "* If the conjecture concerning
Mesheq (see p. 125) is correct, it would show that the
Babylonian script was used in Damascus, as it was far-
ther north in the third millennium B. C, but a distinc-
tion between Babylonian and Sumerian script is to be
made. In short, the theory that the first element is
Sumerian is exceedingly precarious.

It seems to me that exactly the reverse is the fact,
namely, that the dialectical ERI, which was by no
means in common use in Babylonia, had its origin in
the Western Semitic 'ir 0*J7). Whence is the Baby-
lonian dlu, "city"? It surely is not Sumerian, but was
introduced into Babylonia when the Western Semites
entered the land. They were doubtless tent dwellers
(josheb 'ohel); and dlu, which is from the Arabic ahl
or Hebrew 'ohel, "tent," was naturally an appropriate
term for them. Eri, which is from the Hebrew *l^,
also came into use in Babylonian.

Two other explanations of this name appear to me
to be more reasonable. In the first, the element Uru
is considered to be the name of the Amorite deity;
and in the second, the name of the Amorite land. This
seems perfectly reasonable, inasmuch as the Amarna
letters show that the name belonged to the age prior to

1 Cf. K. B., V, 45 : 23 and 8 : 30.

178 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

the occupation of Israel, when the Amorites were the
dominant people of the land.

The name or epithet of the chief deity, as we have
seen, of this people was tJru, and a reasonable explana-
tion of "Jerusalem" is that it is compounded, with that
name and shalim, meaning perhaps " tJru is appeased. "
The second element shalim is Semitic, as above stated,
being very commonly used in the formation of Baby-
lonian and Assyrian names. It is also found in West
Semitic personal names, cf. D^tWOBW, D^B^JD, and
u7WS2y% Compare also the city Shalem of Genesis
14, which may be the same name in an abbreviated
form. Compare also the altar name Yahweh-Shalom
of the Old Testament. For such a theophorous
name as Cru-shalim, compare the two altar names
Yahweh-jireh and Yahweh-nissi, also the passage in
Jeremiah 36 : 16, where it is said Jerusalem shall be
called "Jehovah is our righteousness" COp"l¥ HUT).
But especially compare names like Yabni-el, Jezreel,
Joseph-el, etc., also the large number of place names
of verbal formation; see Glossary in Hommel's South
Arabic Chrestomathy, under letter y.

This gives rise to the question whether the name
was originally a place name, or whether it was the
name of an individual, which was afterward applied
to the estate, manor or town. As an original place
name we can compare the names quoted above, and
also such Babylonian names as NIN-IB-ashabshu-iqbi,2

1 See Lidzbarski, Handbuch, and Cooke, North Semitic Inscrip-
tions.

2 B. E., Vol. IX, 51 : 5.

THE NAME OE JERUSALEM 179

Ellil-limmassu,1 in which case the name Uru-shalim,
" Uru is appeased, " might have been given to the place
on its being rebuilt after an enemy had destroyed it,
perhaps when a foundation sacrifice had been offered,
as at Jericho.2 However, if the first element is the name
of the deity, Uru-shalim appears more likely to be the
name of an individual, doubtless an Amorite, " the father
of the city," who perhaps was in possession of the hill
known as Moriah, or more correctly Amoriah (see above
in Part II). As is known, there are many place
names among the ancient Semitic as well as other peoples
that were once personal names.

The second explanation offered is that the first
element is to be regarded as the name of the country,
namely, Amurru = Vru, in view of such names as Aram-
Zobah, Aram-Maachah,3 etc., and especially if Shalem
is the original name of the city, which later became the
capital of a petty principality, as the Syrian places
quoted were. This view finds support in the Amarna
letters, for the land or country of the city Jerusalem
is several times referred to. That is, like Aram(or
Syria) -Maachah, or Aram-Damascus, we would have
Vru-Shalem, meaning the Amorite Shalem. If these
compounds are so common in connection with Aram,
why should not the same be found to be the case

1 B. E., Vol. XV, for which Meissner suggests the reading al
Belnaplissu (SHI-MAS-SU), Gottingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1908,
No. 2, p. 143.

2 Cf. 1 Kings 16 : 34.

8 Cf. So. Arabic Ma'in Misrdn, Hommel, Aufsatze u. Abhandl.,
p. 6.

180 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

with Vru or Amurru? If this theory is correct, then
Shalem of Genesis 14 is very likely to be identified with
Uru-salim, just as Maachah was known as Aram-
Maachah.1

The writing "Jerusalem" in the Hebrew, which
differs so greatly from the Assyrian Ursalimmu, is
not very difficult to explain. The loss of the initial
N, as in ll^tf, El-tlr, after which the 1 being initial passes
into * in Hebrew, offers no difficulty. The use of the
long vowel following 1 must then be regarded as a join-
ing vowel, as in formations like "OP^K = IDt^N. The
Masoretic pointing is like fqattel, which in Arabic is
juqattilu, and in Assyrian uqattil.

1 Arpad (1D"1N) in Northern Syria was in the early period an
Amorite city. The name may be from the root ~\3~), "to extend,"
hence 131K = "terrace," cf. D. H.Miiller, Inschr. Ilofmus.; but it
also may mean either Ur-Pad, i.e., the Amorite 13, or " tlru is
requited," from m3, "to redeem, requite," cf. Il^ms, Ssmfl, and
WIS. This finds support in the cuneiform inscriptions, where the
name is written dluArpadda(u), but once dluMar-pa-da-ai, Harper,
Letters, Pt. VII, No. 685, Ov. 19. In the inscription of Gudea, a city
Uru-az, belonging to this same district, is referred to, cf. Thureau-
Dangin, V. B., p. 21. Gudea in an inscription speaks of bringing from
Tidanu, the mountain of Amurru, marble for ur-pad-da, cf . V. B. 70,
6 : 17, but the meaning of the passage does not seem to be under-
stood. If the second or third explanation given above should
prove correct, there are other geographical names of the Amorite
district, the etymology of which is uncertain, that should be
considered; for example, Ur-billum, etc., of the early period.

III. THE NAME OF SARGON, KING
OF AKKAD

The reading of the name of Sargon, the great ruler
of early Babylonian history, has been the subject of
considerable discussion for more than two decades.
The name SHAR-GA-NI-LUGAL-URU, known from
inscriptions found at Tello, Nippur, Bismya and else-
where, was identified by Sayce, Hommel and Tiele with
Sargon written SHAR-GI-na, followed by the king's
first title shar dli. Pinches at first followed Menant by
reading lugal-lag, but later adopted shar dli. Oppert
read shar-imsi, but, with Menant, considered the ele-
ment as part of the name, i.e., Shar-ga-ni-shar-imsi.
Oppert later read the name Shar-ga-ni-shar-ali. Hilprecht
adopted this reading, and with Sayce and others con-
sidered the ruler to be identical with Sargon, explaining
the name as a contraction or abbreviation of the fuller
form.1

This reading Shargani-shar-dli had been until recently
widely accepted, but by reason of the fact that Thureau-
Dangin2 discovered that URU has the value ri, Dhorme3
read the characters LUGAL URU = shar-ri, which he
considered to be part of the name.4 Some scholars

1 Cf. Old Babylonian Inscriptions, B. E., I, part 1, p. 16 ff.
2 1. S. A., p. 244, X, I, 2; also p. 240, II.
3 0. L. Z., 1907, p. 230.

4Cf. also Poebel, Z. A., XXI, p. 228, and Thureau-Dangin,
0. L. Z., 1908, p. 314 f.

181

182 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

now read the name Shar-Gani-sharri, some of whom
considered Gani to be the name of a god, by reason of
the identification of such a deity by Scheil.1

A recent find at Susa of two portions of a large
monolith, published by Gautier,2 and later by Scheil,3
contains a cartouche in front of the king's image, in
which his name is written Sharru-GI sharru. The
name is read by these scholars " Sharru-ukin, the king,"
the same as the name of the late Assyrian king, known
to us as Sargon, who is referred to in the Old Testament;
and, as mentioned above, has been regarded hitherto
as the same as the supposed abbreviated form of Shar-
gani-shar-dli, but to be read Shar-Gani-sharri or Shargani-
sharri.

Scheil4 considered, however, Sharru-GI as another
than Shar-Gani-sharri. Inasmuch as Sharru-ukin in a
tablet found at Tello5 bestows upon Nardm-Sin the
patesiship of Shirpurla, Scheil argued that they were
father and son; while Shar-Gani-sharri he considered
to be another king of Akkad belonging to the same
dynasty, but who followed the other rulers. This
view is also advanced by Halevy.6

Thureau-Dangin7 took exception to this conclusion,
because of the name Sharru-ukin-ili, "Sargon is my

1 Del. en Perse, I, p. 16, u. 3.

2 Rec. de trav., Vol. XXVII, pp. 176 f.

3 Del. en Perse, X, p. 4.

4 Del. en Perse, X, pp. 4 f .

5 Cf. Recueil de Tablettes Chaldeennes, No. 83.
8 Revue Semitique, 1908, pp. 377 ff.

7 0. L. Z., 1908, pp. 313 f.

THE NAME OF SARGON 183

god," found on an undated tablet which he assigns to
the time of Naram-Sin. The Sharru-GI of the text
published by Gautier and Scheil he placed in the Kish
dynasty, preceding the Akkad dynasty, and^ proposed
that we have the following order of rulers of Kish:
Shar-ru-GI, Manishtusu, Uru-mu-ush; and of Akkad,
Shar-Gani-sharri and Naram-Sin.

King1 also considers Sharru-GI of the new stele,
published by Gautier and Scheil, to be a still earlier
king of Kish, using two texts to prove his point. In
one, however, which was published by Scheil,2 the only
trace of the name is the last character (?/(?) at the
end of the first line ; which reading the author acknowl-
edges to be doubtful. The other inscription quoted
is also of a king of Kish found at Tello, of which the only
part of the name that is preserved is the first sign,
namely, Sharru. King, therefore, proposes the reading
Sharru-GI (i.e., a deity GI), instead of Sharru-kenu,
and considers that this king of Kish is not to be identi-
fied with Shar-Gani-sharri, the father of Naram-Sin,
king of Akkad. In order to explain why in the late
Assyrian and Babylonian tradition Sargon was called
king of Agade or Akkad, and the father of Naram-
Sin, he says, "It is clear, therefore, that the name of
Sargon, king of Kish, has been borrowed for the king of
Akkad, whose real name, Shar-Gani-sharri, has dis-
appeared. "

In short Scheil's order is: Sharru-ukin, king of

1 Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, XXX, p. 240.

2 Del. en Perse, I, p. i.

184 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Akkad, is followed by Nar&m-Sin, his son, and later by
a certain Shar-gani-sharri. Thureau-Dangin and King
make Sharru-GI a king of Kish, and Shar-Gani-sharri,
followed by his son Nardm-Sin, kings of Akkad.

It is not improbable that there was another king
of this era by the name of Sargon, who belonged to the
dynasty of Kish, but it must be recognized that the
theory advanced is exceedingly precarious, because
concerning the one inscription it should be said that
other rulers' names begin with LUGAL; and concern-
ing the other inscription, the GI is so uncertain that
Scheil, although when he originally published the
translation of the text1 read Gi{1), later2 he did not
even suggest that much. Until, therefore, more evi-
dence is forthcoming that there was a Sharru-GI of the
Kish dynasty, the theory that the so-called Sharri-Gani-
sharri, the father of Naram-Sin, was credited with the
achievements of the still greater predecessor, and that
the confusion is to be accounted for because both were
great conquerors of the same age, and that both belonged
to the Semitic wave of domination and restored the
Sippar temple, and because their names are not dis-
similar (with which the writer differs, see below),
must for the present be considered as rather question-
able.

The names used by Dhorme3 to prove that URU
in these names following LUGAL is to be read ri are

1 Del. en Perse, II, p. 4, note.

2 Saison de Fouilles a Sippar, p. 96.

3 0. L. Z., 1907, p. 230.

THE NAME OF S ARGON 185

Bi-in-ga-ni-shar-ri (otherwise known as Bingani-shar-
dli), U-bi-in-shar-ri from the Manishtusu Obelisk, and
I-shir-shdr-ri.1 The latter name is not to be regarded
as a parallel writing, inasmuch as the sign used is
shdr, sdr. In the other names, as well as every occur-
rence of the name Shargani-LUGAL-URU, the charac-
ter in question is LUGAL.

Some of those who have accepted this reading see
in the second element the name of a god Gani, by reason
of the names Ga-ni-i-li and Ilu-Ga-ni which are found on
the Manishtusu Obelisk. King2 compares Sharru-GI
sharru with Shar-Gani-sharri. He says there is no
proof for the reading ukin or kenu for GI at the time
of the kingdom of Kish, and suggests that GI as well as
Gani may be a deity. This name would then mean
" The king is GI. " If sharri is part of the name, then it
cannot be the supposed " Sargon, king of Kish, " since the
comparison is not possible. But how can the new read-
ings of the names Shar-Gani-sharri and Bin-Gani-sharri
be translated? Dhorme3 changes U-bi-in-shar(LUGAL)-
ri{URU) into Ubil-sharri, and translates "Mon roi a
apporteV' Shargani-shar-URU he reads Shir-ga-ni-
shar-ri, and translates "Sois juste, 6 Gani, mon roi."
Bingani-shar-URU he changes to Bi-il-ga-ni-shar-ri,
and translates "Apporte, 6 Gani, mon roi."

Such formations and names, with similar meanings,
are, however, unknown in Babylonian nomenclature.

1 Cf . Rec. de Tab. Chal, 127, Rev. IV, 3.

2 P. S. B. A., 1908, p. 242.
» Ibid., p. 231.

186 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Not only is the formation and meaning peculiar, but
where in this period, or in any other, does the charac-
ter LUGAL regularly have a phonetic complement ri
or nt? Or, if it is considered to be a phonogram, where
in this age or in any other does LUGAL regularly have
the phonetic value shar. When the scribe in the
Manishtusu Obelisk wrote the name Sargon phonetic-
ally we find Shdr-ru-GI ; cf. also Shdr-ru-i-li, Shdr-ru-
dtiri, etc. In the brick inscription of Naram-Sin,
published by Scheil,1 Shdr-ru is twice written.2 This
must be regarded not only as a serious objection to
the reading, but proof that it is incorrect; for it
could not be inferred that on such monuments as the
Obelisk or the votive objects of Sargon, found at Nippur
and Tello, or in the date formulas, or in the so-called
name Bin-Gani-sharri, etc., we would expect such
graphical expediencies or, as the Germans say, "Spie-
lereien."3 For these and other reasons we are, there-

*Del. en Perse, II, PI. 13 : 1.

2 Cf. also Shdr-la-ak, king of KutH, Vor. Bib., I, p. 225; Shdr-ri-
ish-ta-qal, Rev. Ass., PI. VIII, 1897; as well as all the names com-
pounded with Shdr-rum in Ranke, Personal Names.

3 What has been said concerning LUGAL also applies to the
Hammurabi Code, e.g., I-lu LUGAL URU, III : 16, can scarcely
be translated "god of kings" or "god of king." The original
translation, "the divine city king, " seems to be more reasonable, but
perhaps not final. There is one passage, however, that seems to
support the reading in the Hammurabi period. Dr. Poebel has called
attention to it (cf. Z. A., XXI, p. 228). In King's Letters, Vol. II,
No. 58, Col. II : 37, LUGAL LUGAL E-NE-IR is found. In text
No. 57 of the same volume the Semitic translation of this text
reads : sharru in LUGAL-URU.

THE NAME OF SARGON 187

fore, compelled to return to the reading LUGAL URU,
instead of shar-ri or sharri(-ri) ; and the question arises
whether the combination of characters be read Shargani-
shar-dli, shargani shar dli, or Shar-gani LUGAL URU?

In the light of what follows, if LUGAL URU is
considered to be a title, it seems to me there is no diffi-
culty whatever in identifying the traditional Sharru-
Mnu with the father of Naram-Sin, hitherto known
as Shar-ga-ni-shar-dli and Shar-Gani-sharri; and at the
same time all other difficulties vanish. In other
words, the Sharru-GI of the stele published by Gautier
and Scheil is the same ruler who is mentioned as bestow-
ing the patesiship of Tello upon Naram-Sin in the texts
published by Thureau-Dangin, and was the father of
Naram-Sin.

The well-known tradition of Sargon in the chronicles
and omen texts, as well as in the cylinder of Nabonidus,
in which his name is written Sharru-Mnu, show us:
1, that he was not of royal descent, having been reared
by Akki the irrigator;1 2, that he was followed by
Naram-Sin, who was his son; 3, that he was king of
Akkad; 4, that he conquered Amurru; 5, and that he
conquered Elam.

1. The inscription of Shargani shar URU, as well
as the dating of tablets in his reign, show that he does
not claim royal ancestry, being the son of a commoner,
Dati-Ellil; 2, that Naram-Sin was king of this dynasty,

1 A-bi ul i-di of the legend does not mean that he did not know
his father's name, but like the personal name refers to a posthumous
child.

188 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

and in all probability the son and successor of Shargani,
especially by reason of the fact that Dr. Haynes found
that the pavement laid in the temple at Nippur by
Naram-Sin consisted of bricks intermingled with those
of Shargani, as well as the fact that both by their inscrip-
tions tell us that they were devotees of the Shamash
temple at Sippar, both had the same scribe, namely,
Lugal-usum-gal, patesi of Shirpurla, and because of the
bullae, referred to below, which were found at Tello;
3, that he also was king of Akkad; 4, that he conquered
Amurru;1 5, and that he conquered Elam.2

The recently published inscription of Shar-ru-GI
by Scheil3 shows that he too ruled over Shirpurla, and
that he made Naram-Sin patesi of that city. Unless
it is assumed, with King, that this is another Sargon —
but then we must add, who was succeeded by another
Naram-Sin, and that both ruled Shirpurla, as did Shar-
gani and his son — we must recognize a most peculiar
combination of coincidences.

At Bismya, Banks found brick-stamps of "Naram-
Sin, builder of the Temple of Nana," and also bulla
which contained the seal impression of Shargani shar
URU. The brick-stamps are of the same general
character as those found at Nippur belonging to Naram-
Sin. It seems to me that inasmuch as we know that
Sharru-GI appointed Naram-Sin as patesi of Shirpurla,
and that the bulla? of Shargani shar URU, addressed to

1 Cf. Thureau-Dangin, V. B., I, p. 225.

2 Cf. ibid., p. 225.

3 Cf . Del. en Perse, X, pp. 4 f .

THE NAME OF S ARGON 189

Naram-Sin, have been found there, and having no other
trace of a ruler Naram-Sin, we must conclude that the
phonetic writing Shar-ga-ni represents the name written
ideographically Sharru-kenu(GI) , and that they belong
to the same person.

Scholars are practically all agreed that Sargon was
a Semite. His inscriptions, as well as others belonging
to the dynasty, point to the fact that it was Semitic.
If a god Gani is to be recognized in his name, and that
of his grandson, "the element" SJiar and Bin would
offer no difficulty. But if the supposed god Gani
does not exist in these names, Shargdn might be a
formation on tin from a root in£#, with which, as has
been done, we can compare the name of the early Hebrew
patriarch Serug (written with \tf), but especially
with the name of the city Sarugi in the Qarran Census
(Johns, Deeds and Documents, p. 72). The scribes, who
wrote the name in cuneiform, could write it in two
ways; that is, phonetically as they heard it, namely,
Shar-ga-ni, and ideographically, by using ideograms
which represent approximately at least the pronuncia-
tion of the name, irrespective of the meaning, namely,
Shar(ru) (i.e., LUGAL) and GI = kenu; and yet perhaps
not without consideration of the meaning, namely,
"the true king," especially if the scribes had any
desire of pleasing their sovereign who was a usurper.
In the Assyrian period, the king who adopted this name
of the illustrious ruler of early Babylonian history
doubtless had in mind the meaning which the ideo-
graphic writing conveyed, namely, "the true" or "legiti-
mate king."

190 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

There remains to be considered the usual LUGAL
URU which follows Shargani, Bingani, and also the
name Ubin of the Manishtusu Obelisk. The original
explanation that it was a title, "city king," does not
seem unreasonable, and much can be said in its favor.
Even if LUGAL URU is to be explained otherwise in
the Sargonic period, it is not unlikely that the title in
some periods means "king of the city."

In the light of these investigations, however, and in
connection with the reading for this sign when it refers
to the deity of the West-land, as we have seen above,
I would like to propose another possible explanation,
namely, that Uru here means the country, and that the
name and title Shargdni shar Uru means "Sargon,
king of Vri. " By this title was recognized the " suzer-
ainty of t)ri," which in the Sumerian inscriptions
was written KI-BUR-BUR = Ki-Vri, "Land Uru,"
and later in Babylonia, Akkad or MAR-TU (see below).
This land Uri extended from what was known as Engi
(Shumer) to the shores of the Mediterranean (see above
in Part II). The fact does not seem to be ordinarily
appreciated that some of the earliest rulers known by
their records show that they extended their conquests
over this part of Western Asia. In fact in the few
inscriptions that have come down to us this stands
out prominently. These expeditions were not raids
for the purpose of plundering, but were for conquest,
and were equal in extent, in the way of holding the
lands in subjection, with those of the later periods. The
omen texts, which had been re-edited in the late period,

THE NAME OF SARGON 191

credit Sargon with the title shar kibrat arba'im, i.e.,
"king of the four quarters,"1 although there is no
verification of this fact in the inscriptions of Sargon
thus far published. How is this to be explained?

The inscriptions thus far known doubtless belong
to the early part of his reign when he had conquered
only MARTU, which gave him the title "king of Ori"
(shar Uri); but in later years, by reason of certain
additional conquests, he was able to assume the title
which embraced a quasi- worldwide dominion; or he
may have preferred the less pretentious title, even
after he had accomplished this work. This can be
inferred from what is written in the omen texts found
in Ashurbanipal's library, which mention Elam in the
East and Subartu in the North, as well as other
important lands, as having been invaded. The chron-
icles of early kings2 referring to Sargon say: "After-
wards in his old age all the lands revolted against him
. . . . afterwards he attacked the land Subartu
in his might," etc. They also state:3 "Sargon, who
marched against the country of the West, and conquered
the country of the West, his hand subdued the [four]
quarters." We have a parallel case in the reign of
Dungi, where in the later years of his rule he conquered
the "four quarters" and handed down to his successor
the title, exactly as did Sargon (see below).

This title, namely, "King of the four quarters/'

1 Cf. King, Chronicles, II, p. 27.

2 Cf. King, Chronicles, II, p. 6.

3 Ibid., p. 27.

192 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Naram-Sin inherited. In other words, the title of
Naram-Sin, as well as that of Sargon in the omen texts,
i.e., shar kibrat arba'im, was a terminus technicus, imply'
ing virtually a sovereignty which extended north, east,
south and west of the center of the empire, which in the
case of Sargon was Akkad (A-GA-DE), i.e., the city
Akkad as the capital. The omen texts show that the
four quarters referred to were Amurru, Subartu, Elam
and Accad (which doubtless included Engi).

Bingani, the son of Naram-Sin, did not, as far as we
know, enjoy the title "King of the four quarters."
One or more of the countries may in his day have
regained independence. The title which he alone could
boast of was " King of t)ri. " Lugal-zaggisi and Enshag-
kushanna used the title lugal kalamma, "king of the
world, " the " dominion which extended from the lower
sea of the Tigris and Euphrates (i.e., the Persian Gulf)
as far as the upper sea" (i.e., the Mediterranean).

Ur-Engur only used the title "King of Engi and
Vri. " In other words he was king over Shumer, i.e.,
Southern Babylonia, and also the tlri region, which
extended from Shumer to the Mediterranean sea. His
numerous references to Amurru and its products alone
would imply that he reigned in that land. Dungi
used the same title; but in several of his inscriptions
he called himself lugal an-ub-da tab-tab-ba, which is
the Sumerian for shar kibrat arba'im, " king of the four
quarters." In the dates of the latter half of his reign
we learn that he made notable conquests. These doubt-
less enabled him to use the all important and compre-

THE NAME OF SARGON 193

hensive title. This was enjoyed also by his successors,
Amar-Sin, Gimil-Sin, and Ibi-Sin, the other three kings
of the Ur dynasty. The kings of the Isin dynasty, as I
have shown,1 were in all probability foreigners who
overthrew the preceding dynasty; and in doing so
evidently lost control of Elam, or some important
territory, for Libit-Ishtar, Ishme-Dagan, Ur-NINIB,
Bur-Sin and Sin-mdgir, as well as Gungunu and Sin-
iddinam, only used the title "King of Engi and Vri."
Eri-Aku and Rim-Aku (Sin) also used this title. Kudur-
Mabug, their father, in several inscriptions is known
as Adda Emutbal, " Suzerain of Emutbal, " but in another
he called himself also Adda Martu, "Suzerain of Vri."
Qammurabi, after his overthrow of Rim-Aku, as well
as of Elam, became the possessor of this title, namely,
"Suzerain of Vri." We find him using the title "King
of Engi and Vri" and "King of the four quarters"
in the same inscription. In this connection should be
mentioned the statue of JJammurabi found at Diarbekir
(i.e., in Urartu), which contains the single title "King
of Vri" (MAR-TV), the same as used by Sargon. We
recognize, therefore, three general titles besides those
used in connection with the individual state or city
kingdom, namely, shar Vri, "King of Vri," lugal
Ki-Engi Ki-Vri, "King of Shumer and Akkad" (i.e.,
Engi and Vri), and shar kibrat arba'im (which is the
same as the Sumerian an-ub-da tab-tab-ba), and lugal
kalamma.

1 Cf. Proceedings of the American Oriental Society; cf. also Ranke,
0. L. Z., Vol. 28, p. 135.
13

194 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Some time after the foregoing was written and in
shape for the printer, I found (February 7, 1909) in
the Library Collection of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, of
New York City, a fragment of a tablet of Sargon, which
had just been shipped from England by Dr. C. H. W.
Johns. Following is the transliteration of the fragment:

A-na-ku Sha-ru-ki-in

na-ra-am dIshtar

mu-te-li-ik

ki-ib-ra-a-at

ir-bi-ti-in

. . mi(V)-tu-ru-ru

This perhaps is to be translated as follows : " I Sargon
beloved of Ishtar a ruler(?) of the four quarters" (i.e.,
the kingdom of the four quarters)

The special value of this fragment is the confir-
mation of the view above advanced in connection with
the name and titles of Sargon. Naturally, it is possible
to assume that it was issued by another Sargon, who was
"king of the four quarters," but, as mentioned above,
the existence of such must first be proved. The frag-
ment shows that the full name of the king was Sharukin;
and further, that in this tablet he no longer calls himself
"king of t!ri" (shar Cru), but speaks of his kingdom
as the kibrat irbitin,1 which substantiates the view that
after he had conquered the territory embraced in the
title " King of the four quarters, " he was in a position
to assume it, and to hand on to his son Naram-Sin.

1 Nunnation instead of mimmation.

IV. THE NAME NIN-IB

In publishing the Archives of the Murashu Sons of
Nippur, in 1904, the writer found a large number of
documents which contained short reference notes, called
in legal parlance "endorsements." These reference
notes were scratched or written with ink on the tablet
in the Aramaic language for the benefit of the archive
keeper.1 On several of these tablets were found names
which were compounded with the name of the deity
NIN-IB, e.g., NINIB-iddina. But instead of finding
anything like what had been proposed, namely, Adar,
Nindar, Ninrag, Nin-Urash and Nisroch, there was
written in each instance D^UX. Before finding an
additional tablet which contained the Aramaic equiv-
alent, there seemed to be some doubt whether the
middle character should be read 1 or 1, although
preference was given to the latter. Another example,
however, was found which confirmed the preferred
reading.

The result of the discovery of this Aramaic
equivalent, instead of solving the problem, seemed to
make the obscurity which surrounded the pronunciation

1 See Clay, Babylonian Expedition, Vol. X, pp. 5 f . ; Light on the
Old Testament from Babel, p. 394, and "Aramaic Endorsements on
the Documents of the Murashu Sons," Harper Memorial Volume,
I, pp. 289 f., and "The Origin and Real Name of NIN-IB, " J. A.
O. S., 1907.

195

196 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

still denser. The writer at the same time had several
theories in mind with reference to the vocalization and
meaning of the characters, but none were published, as
they did not seem sufficiently satisfactory. Some of
these, however, have been published by others.1

1 The interesting collection of views on the Aramaic equiva-
lent and the interpretations of it which follow shows how diver-
sified has been the understanding of scholars. Professor Hilprecht,
in his editorial preface to my Murashu texts (i.e., B. E., Vol. X),
as well as in an article in The Sunday School Times, September 25,
1904, took exception to my reading and read two characters differ-
ently, i.e., ntinjX. In explaining the name he proposed com-
parison with NIN-SHAH, "Lord of the Boar" = the Syriac
JBHW, and regarded it identical with the biblical Nisroch, in whose
temple at Nineveh Sennacherib worshiped. The Syriac form,
however, is r*W (cf. Jastrow, Rel. Bab. und Ass., Vol. I, p. 451),
which of course makes the comparison impossible. Further,
the final character of the Aramaic of NIN-IB is not n but r\,
as I had maintained, and which has since been proved correct. The
reading of 1 instead of 1 inspired a series of other readings which
follow. Professor Zimmern, as quoted by Professor Hilprecht in The
Sunday School Times (September 25, 1904), read blprsht — bel
pirishti, "Lord of decision." Professor Prince, in the Journal
of Biblical Literature (vol. 1905, p. 55), followed in reading Enu
reshtu, "The chief lord." Dr. Pinches, about the same time, in
the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (January, 1905), read En-
resheth = Enu reshtu, "The primaeval lord." Professor Johns,
Expository Times (December, 1904), p. 141, read Urashtu, and on
p. 141, ibid., Arashtu. Professor Sayce, in the same journal (Decem-
ber, 1904), regarded it as equivalent to the Assyrian In-arishti,
"Lord of the mitre," the Sumerian for Nin-Urash. In the Revue
Scmitique (1905, p. 93), Professor Halevy offered the reading
En napishti, "Lord of life," or preferably En-nawashti = En-
nammashti, "seigneur de tout ce qui est doue" de vie de mouvement,
de toute creature anim6e." Later (cf. ibid., p. 180), the same
scholar offered two other explanations: en-rishati, "seigneur de

THE NAME NIN-IB 197

Besides Jensen and Halevy, of those who have pub-
lished their views, Lidzbarski is the only scholar who
accepted my reading.1 In an article on " The Origin and
Real Name of NIN-IB," which appeared in the Trans-
actions of the American Oriental Society, Vol. XXVIII,
p. 135, the writer, holding that the middle character
is unmistakably 1, not 1, proposed the formula J"1££HjK =
En-mashtu = En-martu = Bdal-Amurru (see below).
Since this publication appeared, Hrozny2 read the char-
acters In-nummashtu = nammashshu from numushda.

In the early spring of last year a potsherd from
Nippur, which had been classified as a fragment of a
Hebrew bowl, proved in the skillful hands of my col-
league, Professor Montgomery, to be an ostracon, on
which the name is written in Aramaic no less than five
times.3 It put the reading of the Aramaic beyond cavil,
showing that my own from the very first was correct.

The explanation that I have advanced, namely, that
the Aramaic nfc^Yjtf for NIN-IB was a reproduction
of the Sumerian EN-MAR-TU, the lord par excellence
of the West-land, does not seem to me to have been

l'allegresse, " and en-arishti, "seigneur du vetement princier nomme'
arishtu." Professor Jensen (Gilgamesh Epos, p. 87) read and inter-
preted the character enwusht = namushtu — namurtu, with which
he compared the biblical Nimrod. Three other explanations were
sent me in private communications : Irrishtu, the feminine of Irri-
shu, "farmer"; en erishti, "Lord of decision," and an identification
with the Persian word for the planet Saturn, nivishti faudd, "the
prescience of god," or nuwashtan, "to go far away."

1 Cf. Ephemeris, Vol. II, p. 203.

2 Revue Semitique, July, 1908.

8 See Jour. Amer. Or. Soc, 1908, p. 204.

198 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

improved upon. For the change of r to sh, compare
martum (TUR-SAL) = mashtum, "daughter" (Jensen,
Z. A., IV, p. 436), shipishti for shipirti in the Murashu
Documents; the Neo-Babylonian personal name Mash-
tuku, written Martuku in the Cassite period; also the
deity Ashka'iti = Arka'iti, and the article by Jensen,
Z. A., VII, p. 179. For an exact parallel to the EN-
MARTU = Bel- Amurru cf. EN-KAS = Bel-garran,
in the name index of Johns, Deeds and Documents, and
Doomsday Book; but especially DINGIR-MAR-TU,
"the deity of Amurru." In arguing for an Amorite
origin of NIN-IB, or, better expressed, that it represented
a deity of Amurru, as others had done,1 reference was
made to the West Semitic name Abdi-NIN-IB, the city
dluNIN-IB according to the collation of Knudtzon,2
and the name of a place or temple in or near Jerusalem
(i.e., in the district of the city) called Bit-NIN-IB.3
In the same paper it was suggested that NIN-IB was
originally the chief goddess Ba'alat Amurru, which
perhaps was Ashtarti; and that at some center in Baby-
lonia, probably Dilbat, the deity appeared as the consort
of IB, who later was known as Urash. In other words,
the theory is that the god of the West, when introduced
at a certain center in Babylonia, was written by the
Sumerian chirographers IB, which conveyed to them

1 Cf. Zimmern, K. A. T3, p. 411.
2Cf. B. A., IV, p. 114.
3 Cf. K. B., V.

THE NAME NIN-IB 199

the idea represented by the Western solar deity;1 and
his consort's name, probably Ashtarti, was written
NIN-IB.2 Later, as was the case in so many instances
when NIN-IB became masculinized,3 in certain quarters
the deity was regarded as the "Lord" par excellence
of Amurru, i.e., Ba'al Amurru, when the Sumerian
equivalent EN-MAR-TU, "Lord Amurru" was intro-
duced. And this Sumerian form, like EN-LIL, was
handed down into later times, as the Aramaic form of
the name shows. Of course, it is not necessary to waste
space in showing how EN-MAR-TU, like EN-LIL,
could pass into Babylonian as Enwashtu and Ellil, and
be reproduced in Aramaic as fi^l^tf and ^K.

Another theory concerning the reading and under-
standing of the name by the help of the Aramaic
now becomes more plausible. In discussing the name
Gilga-Mesh it became apparent that the name is West
Semitic, written in Sumerian, and that it perhaps con-
tains the name of the mountain god Mash, which is
to be identified with Mash Q&Q) of Genesis 10 : 23.
It was further shown that in Nineveh there was a
temple E-M ASH-MASH, which is written E-MISH-

1 It is interesting to note that Zimmern (K. A. T.3, p. 411), in
discussing Bit-NIN-IB of Jerusalem, as against Haupt (Joshua,
Poly. Bib., p. 54), who says that NIN-IB represents Yahweh,
assumes among the other possibilities that it may be a designation
of a native deity, Shamash or El.

2 It is not improbable that NIN-MAR, the name of the deity in
Girsu, of whom Ur-Nina, Dungi and others were patrons, represents
the same god; cf. also the personal name Ur-dNIN-MARH
(7. B., I, pt. 1, p. 148, No. 21).

3 Cf. Barton, Semitic Origins.

200 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

MISH in the Hammurabi Code; and also that the
temple of the West Semitic Nergal at Cutha is called
E-MISH-LAM, and that the temple at Agade is called
E-UL-MASH. The element was also shown to be in
the names Di-Mash-qi, Karke-Mish, etc. (see Part II).
In Bezold's Catalogue of the Kouyunjik Collection,1
and in Briinnow's Classified List, No. 1778, the following
formula is found :

Ma-ash \ MASH | ma-a-shu \ dNIN-IB

This considered in connection with the ideogram
MASH, which was commonly used in writing the name
of the deity, becomes especially interesting. Then also
in Bezold's Catalogue2 the following is written:

dMa-a-shu u dMa-ash-tum m&re Sin.

" The god Mdshu and Mdshtum children of Sin. "

Mdshtu, therefore, was originally the feminine of
Mash. NIN-IB originally was feminine and later
became masculinized (see above). In a group of gods
given in connection with their consorts in Harper's
Letters,3 NIN-IB follows NIN-IB as if his counterpart,4
which very likely is due to the fact that at that time
the god and his consort bore one and the same name.
This change in sex naturally points to a misunderstand-
ing at some time. NIN-IB therefore could be regarded

1 K., 7790, , p. 875.

a It is of course not impossible that NIN-IB is a mistake for Gula.

*K., 6335, p. 81.

4 Vol. IV, No. 358.

THE NAME NIN-IB 201

as equivalent to Mashtu. EN-Mdshtu, i.e., EN, " lord, "
and Mashtu, the god[dess], may have arisen in such a
center as Nippur, where the deity became one of the
patron gods of the city ; that is, after the feminine Mdshtu
had become masculinized the deity was called "Lord
Mashtu," like LUGAL-Urra, "King or Lord Qra," etc.
This explanation I now regard preferable, but it is to be
noted that both identify the deity with the West.

V. THE NAME YAHWEH

With the discovery of the name Yahweh in the
cuneiform literature, exclusive of proper names, under
the form Jdwu(m) (see page 89), the question arises
whether it throws any light on the ancient pronunciation
of the divine name.

Before the discovery of the Aramaic papyri at
Assuan, certain scholars claimed that Yahweh is identi-
cal with the Canaanitic deity Jdhu, which they said is
found in Ja-u-^a-zi, Ja-u-bi-'-di, etc. Since the discov-
ery of the Assuan papyri,1 in which 1JT occurs for the
divine name, it seems that scholars generally have
adopted the reading Jdhti. This conclusion, however,
cannot be maintained.

In a former work I endeavored to show2 that the
divine name of the pre-Christian period was practically
identical with the pronunciation which Theodoret
informs us he obtained from the Samaritans, namely
7a/?£, which is also found in a Samaritan letter in
Arabic to de Sacy,3 namely, Jahwa or Jahwe, and the
pronunciation which has been accepted for years,
namely Jahweh. This, as has been claimed, is preserved

1 See Sachau, Aramdische Paptjrusurkunden, p. 25. "Die Juden
in Elephantin nannten ihren Gott nicht niTT sondern JIT, wofur ich
nach Vorgang der Assyrer die Aussprache Jdhu annehme."

2 Light on the Old Testament from Babel, p. 247f .

8 See Montgomery, Journal of Biblical Literature, XXV, 1906,
p. 50.

202

THE NAME YAHWEH 203

in Jdwa (Ja-a-ma),1 an element in Jewish names in the
Neo-Babylonian period' and in Jdwu(m) on the tablet
in the Morgan Library Collection (see p. 89), and on one in
the possession of Professor Delitzsch, which came from
the same source.

The chief objection to the pronunciation Jdhti is to
be found in the writing TV\TV, the Old Testament form
of the name, which also occurs on the Moabite stone.
Can it be said that the Hebrew writers in Israel and
Moab did not know how to write the divine name?
What does the additional final letter mean? Did they
add it to obscure the pronunciation? Or, did the Jews
pronounce the name one way in Palestine, and another
way in Egypt, and still another way in Babylonia?
The writer maintains that ffifj*, liT, as well as Jdwu
(Jdwi and Jdwa), all represent the same pronunciation;
and, as above, that this pronunciation is preserved in the
Greek Va/3s, in the Arabic Jahwe, and in the accepted
modern transcription Jahwe or Jahweh.

As the first element in personal names, Yahweh
occurs in the Assyrian historical inscriptions as Ja-u, in
Ja-u-fyazi and Ja-u-bi'di; and in the Neo-Babylonian
period as Ja-Jiu-u, Ja-a-Jiu-u and Ja-a-tyu in Ja-fyu-u-
natannu, etc.3 Perhaps also it is to be found in Ja-u-

1 See Clay, Light on the Old Testament from Babel, p. 248.

2 Pinches, Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., XV, 13ff., was the first to
call attention to these names.

1 See Clay, B. E„ Vol. X, p. 19, and Light on the Old Testament
from Babel, p. 241 f.

204 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

bdni of the Cassite period/ and in Jaum-El of the Ham-
murabi period (see below).

As the second element in personal names it occurs
in Ashirat-Ja-wi in the Hammurabi period of V. S, VII
157 :7, and in Ahi-Ja-mi (Ja-wi) of theTa'annek tablet;
and in the Assyrian historical inscriptions as Ja-a-u
and Ja-u in Hazaqi- Ja-a-u, etc., in the Gezer tablet in
Natan-Ja-u, also in the Neo-Babylonian tablets as Ja-
a-ma (Jdwa), in Natannu-Ja-a-ma, etc.2 It is not im-
probable that it occurs also in other forms, as in ga-an-
ni-ja, etc., which, owing to their uncertainty, are not
included in the discussions.3

Assuming that Jawu{m) of the early period, the only
form known where in cuneiform it is not compounded
with other elements, represents the divine name, it can
be shown that the same pronunciation also represents
the element when written in the Hebrew script.

The form 1?T as the first element, when reproduced
in cuneiform in the Assyrian period, became Ja-u, where
the h between the two vowels was elided; and in the
Neo-Babylonian period it became Ja-}iu-u, Ja-a-l^u and
Ja-a-fyu-u, where the h is represented by the Babylonian
&. The explanation of the Massoretic 1!T usually offered
is the one proposed by the late Professor Franz
Delitzsch/ namely: 1IT = 1IT = in\ It seems to me

1 See Clay, B. E., Vol. XV, p. 32.

2 See Light on the Old Testament, p. 244.

3 On these, see Jastrow, Journal of Biblical Literature, XIV?
108 ff., and Daiches, Zeit. fur Ass., XXII, p. 125 ff.

4 See Z. A. W., II, 173 f.; 280 ff.

THE NAME YAHWEH 205

that the origin of the form 1JT is to be found in .1JT,
which was the full name; and that Jahwu-natan became
Jahu-natan or Jaho-natan. The consonant w followed
by a homogeneous vowel, owing to the secondary accent
falling on the syllable, quiesced, like D.lp! = E1p\

The element appearing in the second place is not so
difficult to explain. Prof. Franz Delitzsch claimed that
)IT = W which became if\ It appears to me that the
formula should be *)iT = )<T, which became tV, the final
consonant being syncopated. The ending Jau in the
Assyrian period can be said to reproduce II"?*; that is,
the u may have been sounded like the semiconsonant w.
The element is also represented in the Neo-Babylonian
Jdwa.

The identification of Jdwa made originally by Pinches
was accepted by other scholars, who seemed to think
that Jdwa represented the full name. Prof. Jastrow1
took the view that Jama was an emphatic affirmative.
In opposing the writer's view on the subject Prof.
Hilprecht accepted2 that of Prof. Jastrow; but the latter
has since abandoned the explanation by reason of the
many examples in the Murashu texts.

In the first place it has been conclusively shown that
Jama3 is the divine name. Concerning the form of the
writing, two possible explanations seem plausible. The
first would follow those who hold that it represents the

1 Journal of Biblical Literature, XIII, p. 101 ff., Z. A., X, p. 222 f.,
andZ.A.T. W., XVI, p. Iff.

2 See Editorial Preface to my B.E., X, p. xv, also Daiches,
Z. A., XXII, p. 128 ff.

3 Clay, Light on the Old Testament, p. 242 f.

206 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

uncontracted name, in which case, however, a reason
must be given why it is not apocopated, inasmuch as the
element in Hebrew names is always shortened. This is
also shown by the Septuagint. My own suggestion1 is
that the Babylonian scribes recognized the element as
the name of the Hebrew god, and that in their schools
they were taught to write the full name of the deity
when it appeared as the second element in names. The
name, therefore, was not written as they heard it, but,
as they treated their own Babylonian names, according
to fixed rules. When we consider that Hebrew names
compounded with Jdma occur more frequently in the
Murashu documents than Babylonian names com-
pounded with their own prominent deities, such as Addu,
Bau, Ea, etc., we can readily understand that this could
be an adopted orthography. Of the twenty-five or more
different names compounded with Jdma, some of which
occur very often, there is not a single variation from the
form Ja-a-ma; and in every instance it is without the
determinative for deity. An illustration of such an
adopted writing is to be seen in AN-MESH or ilupl,
which represents the West Semitic ^tf.2

Another and perfectly reasonable theory is that
either the final vowel of Jdma was not pronounced
distinctly, but as a light overhanging vowel like Jdwa;
or it was not pronounced at all, like Jdw. In other
words, Jdwa or Jdw(a) stands for the apocopated form of
the divine name Jdhwu. This apocopation or shortening

1 Light on the Old Testament, p. 247.

2 See Clay, Old Testament and Semitic Studies, I, p. 316.

THE NAME YAHWEH 207

of the final vowel was due to the emphasis being placed
on the first syllable of the divine name, e.g., Natan-
Jdhwu became Natan-Jahw(u).

Such an explanation also accounts for the change to
»T, so commonly found in the Old Testament, and in
the Assuan papyri, the final w being apocopated. It
should be added that the Massoretic pointing, while
possible according to phonetic laws, is not supported by
the Septuagint, which usually transliterates this ending
w?. It would appear, therefore, that HliT as well as If?'
were pronounced Jahwu(e,a) ; and that this pronuncia-
tion was in use as early as the Hammurabi period.
Furthermore, Yahweh being probably of Aramsean
origin, 1H* may be the Aramsean form of the name,
inasmuch as the Assuan papyri are written in Aramaic.

These conclusions necessitate the reconsideration of
such names as Ja--wi-ilu 1 and Ja-wi-ilu, which Sayce,
Delitzsch and others have regarded as containing the
divine name. These names, as is well known, can also
be read Ja'pi-El. In addition to the fact that there is
not a single instance in the Hebrew literature where the
name Yahweh remained unchanged when appearing as
a first element in proper names, the West Semitic name
Ja-pa-El,2 also of the Hammurabi period, makes it quite
reasonable that the reading should be Ja'pi or Japi
instead of Ja'wi or Jawi; and that the stem of the
element is probably JlfiH, "to cover." The name could

1 Cf. C.T., VIII, 20, 314:3, and VIII, 34, 544 : 4; and Ranke, B.E.,
VI, 1, 17:38.

2Ungnad, V. S., 5, VIII, 16 : 39.

208 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

be translated, as has been stated, "God has covered,
protected." On the other hand, the name Ja-u-um-El,
belonging to the early period, probably represents the
divine name, because the element appears in the short-
ened form exactly as found in later periods.1

1 Light on the Old Testament, p. 237.

INDEX

A-ba-ra-ma, 86, 170
Abdi-Ashirta, 152
Abdi-NINIB, 198
Abel-Be th-Maacah, 60
Abram, 89, 90
Abraham, 14, 40, 58, 85
Adad, 38, 48, 87, 88, 131
Adad-nirari III, 98
Adad-Teshup, 79
Adam, 43
Adapa, 64
Addu-taqummu, 101
Adoni-Zedek, 154
Agade, 79, 192
A-gar-Til-la, 103
Aelian, 78
Aki-Jdwi, 206
Akkad, 97, 192
Aku, 111

A-KUR-GAL, 113
Alap, 64

Alaporus, 63, 64, 158
Alap-Uru, 64
Alashia, 38

Alexander Polyhistor, 66
A-li-ba-ni-shu, 112
Almelon, 63
Al-Nashfeu-milki, 158
Aloros, 63
Al-Si', 158
Atrial, 65
ylrnar, 95, 116
A-ma-ra, 28, 29
Amar-a-pa, 101
Amar-na-ta-nu, 101
A mar-ra-pa ., 101
Amar-sha-al-ti, 101
Amar-Sin, 118, 193
A-ma-ru, 107, 117, 119
Amar-uduk, 92, 95, 120

Amegalarus, 63
amelu, 64
Amel-Aruru, 65
Amcl-Sin, 66
Amel-Uru, 65
A-me-ir-rum, 106
Amemphsinus, 63
'amir, 107
'amiri, 107
Amrae7um, 63
Ammi-ditana, 98
Ammon, 98
Amqi, 151
Amraphel, 111
Amur, 100
A-mw-ra, 28, 97
A-TOwr-As/mr, 161
Arnur-}iafui, 102
Amur-ilu, 161
A-mur-Ishtar, 161
Amwrra, 97
A-mur-ri-qa-nu, 119
Atomttm, 101, passim
Amurru-natannu, 102
Amurra-nazabi, 102
Amurru-shama, 102
A-mur-sa-rai, 120
A-mur-Shamash, 161
A-mur-si-gu, 120
A-mur-tin-nu, 119
Anammelek, 143
A-na-at-da-la-ti, 143
'Anath, 143
'Anathoth, 143
Aner, 143
AN -MESH, 208
An-ram, 143
Antum, 142
Anw, 142
Anu-banini, 143

209

210 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Anu-ram, 144

Apsu, 47, 53

Arabia, 24, 77, 83

Arad-Sin, 110

Arallu, 77

Aram, 24

Aram-Damascus, 179

Ararat, 75

Ardata, 67

Arfa-Kesed, 170

Argaman, 104, 120

An, 13, 104

Arpad, 180

Arpadda(u), 180

Artaxerxes I, 68

Arum, 64

Ashbel, 123

Asher, 65

Ashera, 140

Ashirat-Jawi, 206

Ashirta, 38

A-shir-ma-lik, 139

Ashtarti, 198, 199

Ash-tar-Til-la, 103

Ashur, 138

Ashurbanipal, 17, 46, 53, 54, 59,

60, 98
Astrology, 15
Athtara, 141
Augustine, 51
Aures, 43
Aurus, 69
Awa-ar-i-lum, 120
Awa-ar-ka-sir, 120
Awa-ar-sa-na-bu, 120
Awa-ar-si-qir, 120
awdtu, 105
awelu, 105
Awll-J shtar , 171
A-wi-lu-tim, 106
A-wi-ir-tum, 106
Aziru, 152

Ba'aZ, 38

Babel, 91

Babylon, 142

Baethgen, F., 128

Banks, E. J., 114, 142, 188

Bar-iksu, 145

Barsip, 174

Barton, George A., 13, 17, 43,

44, 83, 114, 124, 141, 151,

169, 199
Bau, 38

Bayt-sha-ra, 127
Beirut, 76
Bel, 20, 37, 47, 102
Bel-garran, 198
Benhadad, 87
Berosus, 63, 68, 170
BUh-'Anath, 143
Beih-Dagan, 146
Bethel, 128
Beth-Lehem, 147
Bcth-sha-El, 127
Bethshean, 128
Beth-Shemesh, 125
Bethuel, 172
Bezold, Carl, 200
Bi-in-ga-ni-shar-ri, 185
Bilga-Mish, 79
BIL-LIL, 113, 114
Bilaqqu, 79
Bir-Adad, 123
Bir-Hadad, 132
Bir-napishtim, 80, 134
Bir-napishtim-usur, 80
Bismaya, 142
BU-NIN-IB, 198
BU-Yakin, 170
Bork, F., 103
Brockelmann, Carl, 84
Brown, Francis, 163, 164
Biiinnow, Rudolph, 115, 117,

120, 123, 200
Buhl, Franz, 163
BU(SIR)-NE-NE, 119, 133
BUR-BUR, 102, 113
BUR-BUR-DA, 112
Bur-Sin, 118, 193
Buzur-KUR-GAL, 82
Buzur-Uru, 82
Byblos, 157

Cain, 65

Cappadocian tablets, 37, 39, 43

INDEX

211

Carmel, 87

Champollion, 29

Chedorlaomer, 98

Constantia, 103

Cooke, G. A., 27, 123, 157, 160,

178
Cory, 52

Craig, J. Alexander, 139
Cutha, 115
Cyrus, 38, 98

Dagan, 38, 146

Daiches, Samuel, 206, 207

Damascus, 126, 128, 130

Darius II, 68

Dati-Ellil, 67, 187

David, 17

Da(v)onus, 63

Delattre, A. J., 99

Delitzsch, Franz, 206, 207

Delitzsch, Friedrich, 36, 37, 49,
57, 71, 80, 89, 105, 107, 119,
120, 125, 128, 161, 205, 209

Der, 130

de Sacy, 204

Dhorme, P., 123, 184, 185

Dhu'l galasa, 128

Dhu'l Shara, 128

Diarbekir, 97, 98, 103, 193

Dilbat, 198

Dillmann, A., 72, 167

DI-Marduk, 116

Di-mash-qi, 79, 129, 200

Dim-mas-qa, 130

Driver, S. R., 44, 162

DUMU-URU, 110

Dungi, 97, 118, 128, 192

(Mr, 130

Ea, 47, 53
Ea-bdni, 81
Ebed-Urash, 123
Ed-Deir, 147
Edom, 98
Edoranchus, 63, 69
Egyptian, 32
Ehud, 17
Elam, 97

El-Elyon, 158

Eliezer, 40, 129

Ellil, 37, 47, 48, 56, 95, 117

Ellil-bdni, 39

ellu, 107

Elohim, 124

El-Shaddai, 127, 158

Elul, 57, 59

El-Ur, 64, 158

E-M ASH-MASH, 78, 126, 199

E-MISH-MISH, 78

E-MISH-LAM, 78

Emutbal, 97

Engi, 13

EN-GI-DU, 81

EN-KI-DU, 81

EN-MAR-TU, 121

EN-Mdshtu, 121, 122

En-me-dur-an-ki, 66

En-na-Zu-in, 146

Enoch, 66, 69

Enosh, 64

Enshagkushanna, 192

Envdshtu, 199

Erebus, 52

Erech, 76, 78, 126, 142

Ereshkigal, 33

En, 177

Eria, 112

Eri-Aku, 193

Eridu, 45, 47, 53

Esh-ba'al, 123

Eshu, 38

Ethiopic language, 83

etimmu, 51

Etruscans, 23

Ezekiel, 163

E-UL-MASH, 71, 126

E-UL-LAM, 78

Eupolemus, 168

Eusebius, 52

Galilee, 60
GAL-UR-RA, 113
gamdru, 56
Gar, 151

Gautier, 182, 183
gemini, 16

212 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Gezer, 24

Gideon, 17

Gilead, 60

Gilgamesh, 50, 73, 74, 76, 77,

79, 81, 122, 126, 129
Gimil-Anim, 143
Gimil-Sin, 96, 193
GIR-URU, 110
GISH-BIL-GA, 79
GISH-BIL-GA-MISH, 78
GISH-TU-MASH, 78
Gray, G. B., 164
Greeks, 22

Grimme, H., 145, 158
Gubla, 152
Gudea, 31, 97, 103, 120, 128,

136, 180, 193
Gula, 38, 200
Gungunu, 193
Gunkel, H., 36, 44, 51, 55, 71,

72, 73

Hagar, 40

Halevy, J., 42, 107, 182, 197

galia, 140

galigalbat, 140

gali-Jaum, 90

galili, 140

Uallu, 140

Hamath, 157

Hammurabi, 40, 41, 46, 59, 78,

79, 89, 97, 98, 107, 111, 116,

117, 186, 193
gana, 147
ga-an-ni-ia, 206
Haran, 16
Haran Census, 145
Harper, R. F., 124, 180, 200
Hastings, James, 151, 162, 167
Haufeam, 154
Haupt, Paul, 80, 115, 141, 176,

199
fylwiru, 105
Haynes, J. H., 188
Hazor, 60
Hebron, 154
Hehn, J., 56
Hermon, 126

Herodotus, 35, 142

Hilprecht, H. V., 43, 78, 118,

124, 132, 159, 181, 207
Hinke, W. J., 112
feirtu, 106
Hittite, 32
Hoham, 154
Hommel, F., 30, 63, 65, 66, 77,

78, 80, 84, 118, 139, 141, 154,

161, 178, 179, 181
Horeb, 87
Hrozny, F., 197

Huber, P. E., 109, 110, 111, 112
gu-di-ib-Til-la, 103

IB, 38

ibbu, 107
Ibgatum, 106
Ibi-Sin, 193
Igur-kapkapu, 140
i^ir, 106
Ijon, 60

1 fain-pi- Uru, 113
ill, 124

Il-Tehiri-abi, 158
Il-yapVa, 154
Ilu-arapa, 101
IM-MAR-TU, 100
imtilt, 105
iniih, 105
I-ri-ir-Til-la, 103
'Ir-Marduk, 176
'Ir-Na]iash, 176
'Ir-Shemesh, 176
Irushalim, 176
Ishbi-Urru, 110
I-shir-shar-ri, 185
Ishme-Dagan, 146, 193
Ishtar, 16, 38, 141
Ishtar-ki-Til-la, 103
Ishum, 133
Isin dynasty, 96
I-ti-Da-gan, 147

Jabni-El, 178
Jacob, 18
JahA, 86
Ja-ftu-u, 205

INDEX

213

Jahweh, 104

Jama, 104, 206

Janoah, 60

J a' pi-El, 209

Jarmuth, 154

Joseph-el, 178

Jastrow, Jr., Morris, 21, 22, 23,
26, 27, 31, 44, 46, 47, 71, 74,
80, 107, 114, 132, 206, 207

Ja-ash-bi-i-la, 110

Ja-u-ba-ni, 206

Ja-u-ha-zi, 204

Jaum, 90

Ja-u-um-El, 210

Jaw, 20

Ja'wi-ilu, 89

Ja-wu-um, 89, 90, 204

Jensen, Peter, 18, 19, 48, 55, 77,
78, 80, 99, 114, 115, 116, 117,
118, 128, 131, 142, 197, 198

Jeremias, A., 18, 63, 64, 65, 79,80

Jezreel, 178

Johns, C. H. W., 58, 59, 60, 89,
100, 145, 158, 159, 160, 172,
189, 194, 198

Jonah, 53

Joppa, 53

Kadashman-Enlil, 37

KA-GAL-AD-KI, 129

Karke-Mish, 200

Kedesh, 60

Kenites, 34, 90

Kesed, 170

Khatti, 98

KI-BUR-BUR, 190

Kikia, 140

King, L. W., 112, 183, 184, 186,

191
Kiryatharba, 16
Kish, 89

Kittel, Rudolph, 167, 172
Knudtzon, J. A., 37
Kudur-Mabug, 11, 97, 193
Kugler, Franz, 21
KUR-GAL, 88, 102
KUR-GAL-erish, 102
KUR-MAR-TU, 99

La'ash, 157

Laban, 172

Lachish, 24

Lahfimu, 53, 147

Lahjmu, 147

Lamech, 66

Langdon, Stephen, 143

Larsa, 110, 138

Layard, Henry, 103

Leander, Pontus, 118

Libit-Ishtar, 96, 193

Lidzbarski, Mark, 24, 144, 155,

157, 158, 159, 160, 178, 197
lillu, 52

Linufi-libbi-Ellil, 56
Linufet-libbi-iMni, 56
Lipush-Jaum, 90
Little Zab, 75
Lot, 14

Lugal-kisalsi, 114
LUGAL-Urra, 38, 116, 201
Lugal-zaggisi, 192
Lyon, D. G., 153

Macalister, Alexander, 153
Macalister, Stewart, 24, 28, 153,

155
Malik, 134

Malik-ZI-NI-SU, 134
Malki-Zedek, 154
Manishtusu, 146
Mar, 95, 100
Mar-bi'di, 100
Marches van, 57, 59
Mardin, 103
Marduk, 20, 36, 37, 38, 44, 45,

46, 48, 49, 57, 95, 101, 116,

118
Mar-eriqqu, 120
Mar-irrish, 100
MAR-KI, 116
Mar-larimme, 100
Mar-pa-da-ai, 180
Mar-suri, 100

MAR-TU, 77, 97, 99, 100, 113
MAR-TU-erish, 102
Martuku, 198
MASH, 78, 107, 199

214 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

MASH-MASH, 38

Mashtuku, 198

Mdshtum, 198, 200, 201

Mdshu, 38, 10, 126, 128, 200

Megiddo, 24, 27

Meinhold, J., 56

Meissner, Bruno, 81, 103, 105,

107, 115, 173, 179
Menant, J., 181
Menes, 30
MESH, 78
Mesheq, 129, 131
MetM-Salah, 66
MetM-sha-El, 66, 127
Me-Tilla, 103
Meyer, Eduard, 54, 96, 97
Mil-ki-U-ri, 134, 156
MilMru, 102
Mi-sha-El, 127
MISH, 78

MishC!)-ki-Til-la, 103
Mitanni, 32, 38, 43
Moab, 98
Montgomery, James A., 50, 121,

157, 162, 197, 204
Moore, G. A., 23, 134
Morgan Library Collection , 28 ,43,

51, 73, 80, 88, 89, 114, 194, 205
Moriah, 87
Mosaic Code, 41
Moses, 17
Mt. Nisir, 75
Mt. Sinai, 145
Muqayyar, 167, 168
Muller, D. H., 180
Muller, W. Max, 29, 30, 127, 157
Murik-Tidnum, 96
Mur-ar-na-tim, 120
Mur-babillu, 120
MUR-ibni, 134
Mur-nisqi, 120
Mur-siparru, 120
Muss-Arnolt, W., 79, 80, 107,

112, 120, 141
Mutil-sha-Irkhu, 66

Nabonidus, 98
NabU, 144

Nabd-idri, 144

Nabu-napishtim-usur, 80

Nabd-rapa, 144

Nafiardu, 172

Nahiri, 172

Nafyrima, 151

namdru, 107

Namratum, 106

Namtar, 33

Nan&, 38

Nannar, 97, 169

Naphtali, 60

Naram-Sin, 115

Nashhi, 132

nawdru, 105

Nebuchadrezzar, 68, 98

Nergal, 33, 37, 38, 114, 115, 117,

121, 126, 133
NE-URU-GAL, 95, 115, 119
Nielsen, 60
Nikkal, 95
NIN-GAL, 95
Nin-gir-su, 146
Nin-Girsu, 48, 131
NIN-IB, 37, 38, 89, 121, 126,

178
NIN-IB-iddina, 195
NIN-NE-URU(UNU), 115
NIN-MAR, 199
Ninrag, 195
Nippur, 47
Nisin, 97
Nisin dynasty, 95
Nisroch, 195
NIT A, 113
Noah, 76

Noldeke, Theodore, 47
Nowack, W., 26
nu-uh, 55, 76, 80
Nufeashshi, 129
Nuli-libbi-ildni, 56
Nufe,-napishtim, 80
numushda, 197
Nushku, 37, 132

Og, 154

Olmstead, A. T., 103

Omri, 98

INDEX

215

Oppert, J., 181
Oros, 69
Otiartes, 64

pa-la-qu, 79

Paran, 87

Paton, L. B., 13

Pedaiah, 140

Pedahel, 140

Peiser, Felix, 102

Pepy, 30

Per, 80

Petrie, F., 29, 30

Philistia, 98

Phoenicia, 98

Pinches, T. G., 37, 46, 54, 78,

103, 110, 119, 125, 161, 167.

176, 181, 205, 207
Pir, 80
Piram, 154
Pir-napishtim , 80
Poebel, Amo, 78, 81, 106, 112,

137, 157, 173, 181
Pognon, H., 50, 64, 124, 145,

157, 162
Prince, J. D., 100
Pudi-El, 140

qamar, 170
Qenan, 65
Qideshu, 152
QI-MASH, 129
Qi-Mash-qi, 128

Rameses II, 99, 103

Ranke, Hermann, 54, 79, 90,
96, 106, 109, 110, 112, 113,
123, 127, 161, 173, 186, 193,
209

Reissner, J., 99, 113

Rim-Aku, 193

Rim-Anum, 89

Rim-Sin, 64, 111

Rogers, R. W., 22, 55, 71, 91

Rosellini, 29

Sabbath, 55, 60, 61
Sachau, Eduard, 204

Salem, 154

Samaria, 60

Samu-el, 102

Samson, 125

Sanchoniathan, 52

Sarah, 40

Sargon, 90, 97, 181

Sarpanitu, 57, 133, 136

Sarugi, 189

Sayce, A. H., 29, 37, 44, 46, 55,

63, 66, 76, 89, 125, 141, 146,

147, 151, 152, 161, 181
Scheil, P. V., 73, 80, 110, 182,

183, 184, 186, 188
Schrader, E., 80
Schumacher, 26
Sha-Addu, 127
shabattum, 56
shabath, 61
Sha-imeri-shu, 130
Shalmaneser II, 98
Sha-Mash, 79, 127
Shamash, 38, 78, 80, 81, 82, 100,

104, 107, 118, 123, 125
Shamash-li-me-ri, 106
Shamash-li-wi-ir, 106
Shamash-napishtim, 80
Sha-NITA-shu, 130
sha-pat-tum, 55
SHAR-GA-NI-LUGAL-URU,

181
Shargani-shar-dli, 131
Shar-Gani-sharri, 113, 182
Shar-la-ak, 186
Sharrapu, 116
Shar-ri-ish-ta-qal, 186
Sharukin, 194
Shi-mi-Til-la, 103
Shinar, 91
Shum-Malik, 134
Shumer, 13
Shuqamuna, 114
Shur-ki-Til-Ia, 103
Sidon, 98
Siduna, 152
Siegfried, C, 162
Sihon, 145, 154
Simanu, 104

216 AMURRU HOME OF NORTHERN SEMITES

Sin, 16, 145, 200

Sinai, 87

Sin-mdgir, 193

Sin-iddinam, 192

Sinuhe novel, 29

Sippar, 47, 98, 173

Sisera, 145

$it, 80

Sit-napishtim, 80

Steuernagel, C., 26

Strassmaier, J. N., 14, 80, 102,

105, 159, 162, 168
Stube, R., 162
Subsalla, 97
Sumu-abum, 89
$UR, 101

Ta'annek, 24, 27, 37

Ta-i-Til-la, 103

tabah, 76

Tallqvist, K. L., 101, 127, 128,

133, 144
Talmud, 68
Tammuz, 16, 20
Tarkhu, 136
Tehom, 49, 50
Te-bi-ip-Til-la, 103
Tela, 103
Tell-Deilam, 170
Tell el-Amarna, 32, 38
Tell el-Mutesselim, 26
Terah, 168
Thureau-Dangin, F., Ill, 115,

143, 180, 181, 182, 184, 187,

188
Ti'amat, 46, 48, 148
ti'amtu, 49, 50, 53
Tidanu, 97
Tidnu, 96, 102, 103
Tide, C. P., 141, 181
Tiglathpileser I, 60, 98
Tilla, 102, 103
Tillah, 103
Til-Nahiri, 172
Ti-ma-ash-gi, 129
Ti-mi-Til-la, 103
Ti-ra-mas-qi, 129
Toffteen, O. A., 98

Tripolis, 76
Tyre, 98

Ubar-Tutu, 66

U-bi-in-shar-ri, 185

UD, 80

UD-gUL-GAL, 58

UD-TU, 100

ummanu, 65

Um-napishtim, 80

Ungnad, Arthur, 81, 84, 86, 105,

106, 140, 145, 147, 170, 209
Ur, 16, 95
UR-A, 113
Urartu, 75
Urash, 89, 122
Ur-billum, 180
Ur dynasty, 96, 97
Ur-Engur, 192
Urfa, 103, 167, 170
Ur-ka-lu-ub, 120
Uri, 13, 102, 192
Uri(or Eri)-Aku, 112
U-ri-gal-la, 115
Ur-karinnu, 120
Ur-Kasdim, 170
U-ri-Marduk, 117
Ur-NIN-IB, 118, 193
Ur-NIN-MAR, 199
Ur-Pad, ISO
Urra, 109, 113, 114
Urra-bdni, 109
Urra-BA-TIL, 109
Urra-gal, 82, 115
urru, 105

Ursalimmu, 105, 175, 180
Urtu, 102
Uru, 38, 78, 109
E/ra-Az, 180

Uru(URU)-BA-SAG-SAG, 112
URU-DINGIR-RA, 110
URU-KA-GI-NA, 112, 113
Uru(URU)-ki-bi, 112
URU-LIG-GA, 110
URU-milki, 102, 105, 134
Urumma, 167
URU-MU, 110
Uru-MU-USH, 112

INDEX

217

Uru(URU)-NI-BA-AGA, 112
URU-RA, 110
U-ru-sa-lim, 152, 175
Urya, 107
USH, 110, 113
Ush-bi-Sah, 140
Ushpia, 140
J7T,80

U-ta-na-ish-tim, 81
Ut-napishtim, 67, 77, 80
U-tu-ki, 117
UTU-napishtim, 134

Vashti, 127
Vincent, 27
Viranshehir, 103

Ward, W. H., 28, 43, 57, 87, 8:

132, 135, 136
Warad-Sin, 110

Wellhausen, J., 128
Winckler, H., 14, 16, 17, 21,
68, 139

Xisuthrus, 64

Yahweh, 45, 51, 86, 87, 88, 89,

90
Yahweh-jireh, 178
Yahiveh-nissi, 178
Yahweh-Sebaoth, 121
Yahweh-shalom, 178

Zakir, 64, 158

Zamama, 89

Zimmern, H., 17, 48, 56, 63, 64,
65,72,79,80,81,89, 100, 114,
115, 131, 133, 134, 198, 199

Ziri-Bashani, 151

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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY

Acme Library Card Pocket

Under Pat. " Ref . Index File."
Made by LIBRAEY BUREAU

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Full text of "Amurru, the home of the Northern Semites, a study showing that the religion and culture of Israel are not of Babylonian origin"

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