THE EELIGIOUS IDEAS OF THE BABYLONIANS. 13 



"^n -*IT 4-T 4-- ^Vv Daddi'-ya, "Hadad is Ya," 

 also giv^en under the form of y ^J^f ^^f E^Tt' J^ddi-i/a, 

 and I ^y<y jriy ^-y ^y][, Daddl-ya. 



In this short list Bel, or "the Lord," the god Nuskn, and 

 the god Daddu ( = Hadad or Rimmon) are all identified with 

 Ya or ,Jali. In addition to tliis, Ave find that the moongod 

 Sin, in the name y ->f <« ->f y^f y{, Sin-Aa, "Sin (is) Ya" 

 is also identified with him, and that it has a very interesting 

 variant, y ->f 1^- ->f ]] ]]. Ser-Aa, " Ser (is) Ya." 



As many of the gods could be identified with Merodach 

 and with Ya, it is probably not going too far to say that, to 

 the im'tiated Babylonian and Assyrian, Merodach and Ya 

 were one and the same. 



To trace the history of this quasi monotheism would be 

 difficult and probably unsatisfactory with the materials at 

 our command. Later it may be done. It will be sufficient 

 at present to say that the name Ya not only occurs upon 

 documents of late date, but also upon tablets of the third 

 millenium B.C. Thus we have the name "W ^ ^^\ Tt' ^^b^- 

 ya, Heb. rm'iii, Ahiah, together with y |T><y ^z^ <y- ^]], 

 Samsi-ya, " My sun (is) Ya," and its curious and interesting- 

 variant ^ ZZy *S-^ ^I"" ^iii li^T' Sttmds-musizib, " the Sun- 

 god (is) a saviour." 



With a view to find out the comparative popularity of 

 the various gods, I have made lists of the names containing 

 them. Thus for 179 names containing the name of Nebo, 

 there are only 47 containing the name of Merodach and 73 

 containing the name of Bel ; 22 containing the name of Sin, 

 the moongod; 59 containing the name of Samas, the sungod; 

 31 containing the name of Hadad or Rimmon ; 37 containing 

 the name of Ea. The other gods occur in very small 

 number, but I have registered no less than 70 names con- 

 taining the element ya, which, however, in many cases, may 

 be simply the possessive pronoun of the first person singular. 



Less doubtful than the names ending in ya are those 

 ending in tlu, "god." We have y ^y^^^ <J{^ '->y-, Epes-Uu, 

 and y J^ yyy'-^ >->y-, Ibni-ilu, "God has made;" y ^ "^y 

 ^-^ '-*^, Sama'-ihi, "God has heard" (Samuel); y >^y »->y-, 

 Arad-m, "Servant of God;" y ^ ^>f, Amel-ili, "Man 

 of God;" y ^]l >yj[^ ->f, Rcmut-Ul, "Grace of God;" 

 T ;ET HfR^ ->f, Barlki-tlu, "Whom God has blessed" 



