EVIDENCES OF THE MIORATION OF ABRAM. lU 



The resemblance of these names from the private documents 

 of the inhabitants of Larsa to those of the Hebrews is so 

 striking, as to at once mark them as the product of a people 

 o£ the same language and thought. This list also affords a 

 striking commentary and confirmation of the words used by 

 the E,ev. T. K. Cheyne in his description of Hebrew proper 

 names in the Teacher's Bible. " The nations related to the 

 , JewSj and especially the Assyrians and Babylonians (who early 

 came in contact with the ancestors of the Israelites), seem to 

 have possessed a leaven of something akin to spirituality 

 which distinguishes them from other Gentiles. Even to 

 readers who remember that it was from Padan-Aram, the 

 Piedmont beyond Euphrates, that Abram sought]a wife for the 

 Child of Promise, and Rebekah a wife for Jacob, the next heir 

 to the promises, it will be a pleasing surprise to notice the 

 similarity in the expression of religious faith between the 

 Israelitish proper names and the few Assyrian and Babylonian 

 preserved in the Old Testament.'' The list which I now 

 publish will still further strengthen these remarks of so able a 

 Hebraist. Another very important fact in connexion with 

 these names is that they come from the common people ; they 

 express in simple language the religious thoughts, convictions, 

 and feelings of persons in all ranks of society. How truly 

 trustful and religious is the thought in Ilu hani, " God has 

 made (me)," Ilu nazir, "God protects me," Ilu-su-abi-su, "His 

 god is his father,"' and others. The word ilu >->^ or 5^ 'J^t: 

 iluv which enters into the composition of these names is the 

 exact equivalent of the Hebrew forms bx and rhia, which 

 form an element in so many Bible names, and would seem to 

 indicate the worship of one supreme God, worshipped under the 

 abstract form of II, El, or the Allah of the Arabs, as " the God." 

 The names, such as Ilu-ha-Hea, Ilu-ka-Sin, and Ahil-Sin 

 show that other gods were worshipped, which is in conformity 

 with the statement in the words, " Your fathers dwelt of old 

 beyond the river,* even Terah the father of Abraham, and the 

 father of Nahor, and they served other gods" (Josh. xxiv. 2, 

 R.V.). "We may also notice the passage, ''The God of 

 Abraham and the God of Nahor," the gods of their fathers 

 (Gen. xxxi. 53), where there is a manifest contrast between 

 the god of Abram and the gods of Nahor, Terah, &c. Indeed, 

 the margin gives the reading, gods. The next phrase in the 

 verse seems to emphasise this, and " Jacob sware by the fear 

 of his father Isaac." The word here rendered fear is ^THD, 



* The Euphrates. 

 I 2 



