1909.] AND THE ORIGIN OF JUDAISM. 359 



in the region of Mount Ephraim. At the time of Gideon (about 

 iioo B. c.) the IsraeHtish peasants in Palestine were idolaters, while 

 the invading Midianites were worshipers of Jhvh. The legends 

 of the ancient Israelites have been subsequently conformed to 

 Judaic standards, just as the traditions of South Arabia have been 

 systematically altered by the followers of Mohammed. The names 

 of the ancient IsraeHtish gods in the old legends were afterwards 

 replaced by the " Angel of Jhvh "^^ or Jhvh.^^ Gideon's name 

 Jerubbaal^^ shows that he was not a worshiper of Jhvh. 



If the Alidianite bedouins had not been defeated by the IsraeHtish 

 peasants, they would have conquered Palestine from the east. As 

 they were repulsed at that time, they afterwards invaded Palestine 

 from the south. 



It is possible that in the time of Gideon the son of an IsraeHtish 

 herdsman was sold by Midianitish Ishmaelites (or Ishmaelitish 

 Midianites) -° as a slave into Egypt, where he afterwards attained a 

 prominent position. But the statement that this happened to the 

 ancestor of Ephraim and Manasseh is a later modification of the 

 original tradition. As the Israelites never were in Egypt, the 

 official historians tried to create the impression that Ephraim and 

 Manasseh had been born in Egypt, and that the Israelites had been 

 from the beginning worshipers of Jhvh. The story of Joseph 

 seems to have been influenced in some respects by the ancient 

 Egyptian poetic autobiography of Sinuhet (about 2000 B.C.). 



Lifts, = Nephtah; change of / and n is not exceptional: the modern name 

 of the Biblical Shunem is Siilem; on the other hand, Bethel is now known as 

 Beitin, and Jezreel as Zer'in. Talmudic tarncgol, rooster, is the Sumerian 

 dar-ltigalln, king of the variegated birds (chickens). Compare J. Hunger, 

 Babyl. Tieromina (Berlin, 1909) p. 42. 



"Wellhausen remarks in the notes on the translation of the Psalms, 

 in the Polychrome Bible, page 176, line 36: Judaism has turned the heathen 

 gods into angels, commissioned by Jhvh to govern the various nations. 



"Compare, e. g., Genesis, xxxi., 11. 13; also xvi., 11. 13; Judges, vi., 11. 



" The name Jeruhbaal means Baal requites, rewards. The Hebrew verb 

 riih or rib, to strive, to sue, means originally to retaliate, to try to obtain 

 redress. It has recently been shown that we have the same verb in the 

 name of Sennacherib, Assyr. Sin-ahe-riba, O Moongod give brothers as a 

 reward ! Gideon's god was Baal-bcrith (Judges, viii., 22>) i- c-, the Baal of 

 (Oracular Decision. Also sefr hab-bcrith (Exodus, xxiv., 7) means not the 

 Book of the Covenant, but The Book of (Oracular) Decision (s). 



'"Compare Judges, viii., 24; Genesis, xxxvii., 25-28. 



