THE KELIGIOUS IDEAS OP THE BAByLONIANS. 21 



" B. is my (protecting) mountain ; " Istar-sum-tesir, " Istar 

 has directed the name ; " Istar-dha-tadinna, " I. has given a 

 brother;" Nand-reminn7i, "Nana, be gracious to vliq-" Nana- 

 ana-biti-su, "A goddess Nana to her house" (compare Samas- 

 ana-biti-su, " A suugod to his house ") ; Bau-etirat, " Bau- 

 guards ; " Bau-teres, " B. has planted ; " Rcmut-Bau, " Grace 

 of Bau ; " Baii-dha-taddina, " B. has given a brother ; " Gula- 

 zera-tahni, " Gula has created seed ; " Gula-balat-su-tahln, " G. 

 has commanded his hfe ; " Guki-sarra-usri, " Gula, protect 

 the king," &c., &c. It would take too long, however, to 

 quote all the names, or even all the interesting ones, but 

 those already given will suffice to show their nature to be 

 similar to those compounded with the names of male deities. 



That the goddesses are not actually identified, in the 

 Babylonian religious texts, with the gods, says but little 

 against the theory now advanced, — namely, that with a 

 certain select circle of the initiated, a kind of monotheism 

 existed in ancient Babylonia and Assyria. If the consort of 

 a god could be in any way identified with him, and all the 

 gods were identified with each other, then all the goddesses 

 could also be identified with each other (as is, indeed, 

 indicated by the hsts). A Babylonian member of the initiated 

 circle (if such existed) would, in this case, have no difficulty 

 in giving a consistent explanation of his attitude towards 

 the national religion, grossly polytheistic as it undoubtedly 

 was to the great majority of the people of those ancient 

 realms. 



This Paper is based principally upon the trade-documents 

 of Babylonia, but there are numerous other inscriptions 

 which throw light upon, or raise, religious questions, some of 

 them of more tlum ordinary interest. I have already alluded 

 to Ninip being the name given to the "most high God" of 

 Salem, and this is a point Avhich is not without its value, 

 especially as it may throw light upon an Old Testament 

 allusion. One of the titles of Ninip is dpil E-sarra, "son of 

 (the temple) E-sarra," an ephithet that enters into the name 

 of the well-known Assyrian king Tiglathpileser III, in As- 

 syrian Tukuhi-dpilS-sarra, "My trust is the son of E-sarra," 

 and it is not impossible that Ahaz (2 Kings xvi) may have 

 been induced to become the vassal of the Assyrian king by 

 the thought, that one who bore, as part of his name, one of 

 the titles of the god of Salem of old, could not be such a 

 heathen as he was painted. 



Though Nabonidus was probably not any more of a 



