APPENDIX II. 



Ya and Yawa.* 



Ix consequence of certain prevailing opinions concerning 

 Ya (= Jah) and Yawa (Jehovah), a few additional remarks 

 upon these words may not be useless. 



In view of the list of names given on p. 26, there can be 

 hardly any doubt that in Old Testament names ending in 

 - iaii and -iahic, these terminations are shortened from -yahuah 

 (or -yahioah), probably on account of the unwillingness of 

 the Jews of old to pronounce this divine name. The name 

 Yah (or Jah), which frequently occurs in the Old Testament, 

 and especially in the Psalms, cannot, on the other hand, be 

 regarded as an abbreviation of Yahwah, for it is not only 

 extensively found in Assyrian under the forms A^ An, A^u, 

 Yd and Yau^ in proper names, but it also occurs, under the 

 form yau, in one of the four-column syllabaries, found by 

 Mr. Rassam at Abu-habbah, as one of the Semitic Babylonian 

 words for " God," and is there even furnished with a feminine 

 form, ydti. Both yan and ydti are referred to by Prof. Sayce 

 {Higher Criticism, p. 90), who, in consequence of their being 

 the same as certain Babylonian words for " I," regards them 

 as an attempted etymology, on the part of the Babylonian 

 scribe, connecting them "with words signifying 'myself in 

 his own language."! 



The existence of the word yau, meaning " God," in 

 Assyro-Babylonian, vouches for the extreme antiquity of the 

 word, and shows that it was common to a large portion of 

 the Semitic race. Yahwah (Jehovah), however, was a name 

 of God peculiar to the Hebrews, and there is apparentl;^' no 

 reason to doubt the statement in Exodus vi, 3, that He was 

 not known by this name to the ancestors of the Hebrew 

 nation. Its earlier occurrence in the Bible is due to the 

 scribes later on. {Aug. 1895.) 



* See pp. 12-13, 22 and 26. 

 t Compare Exodus iii, 14. 



