1881.] ^OO [Lesley. 



Shem Baal, instead of Sn^IOI^, Shemu El = His name El ; and support it by 

 the following arguments : — 



1. The harshness of the construction if 8hem-u be translated His name ; 

 to say nothing of the lack of analogies for such a composition. What is 

 there in Greek for instance like Oy«/^.ai9£oc or OvuiJ-ad-sudaroi^, or 

 O'^o!j.aurouf^£oq, or any possible such construction for a personal name ? 

 We have Numa, Numitor, and Numenius, suggestive of Numen, but not 

 a latin proper name compounded with Nomen. Such a name as Nomen- 

 tanus, like Numantianus was geographical and not mythological. 



2. Of the same age as Samuel was Samson, n'ty'DE'; '^^ which etymolo- 

 gists find Shemesh the Sun, and Un or On, untranslatable, but probably 

 meaning light.* But if Samuel means "Name of him El," Samson 

 should mean "Name S'un, or S'on." (C. Cliiun, Amos 5 : 26.) 



3. Shem in hebrew means Sign, like oriiJ.a in greek. Some look on it 

 as an abbreviated jtok/j ShMO, to hear, something heard, which the LXX 

 not unfrequently translates by o'M)p.a (Gesenius). Hence Shem, name, ex. 

 She^n Jehovah, Name of the Lord, &c. But if the meaning "Name" be 

 inapplicable in Samuel, the meaning "Sign" is very applicable; and we 

 could not have a better etymology than "Image of El" for the boy 

 prophet. But this necessitates the change of El to Vel, or Bel ; and 

 "Image of El," to "Image of Bel;" in other words, the greek lu'i-jSoX- 

 ov, borrowed from the Shem-Baal of the PhcBnician traders. 



4. We have this form contracted in the curious phrase ^oon Soi)' pesel 

 Jia seMCL, "Statue (cutting) of likeness" literally, "Statue portrait," 

 "carved image," "stone symbol," of Deut. 4 : 16 and 2 Chron. 33 : 7 ; 

 also Ez. 8 : 3, 5. 



And in another equally curious form Sxot:^! the left, the left side, the 

 north; when we remember that the ancient pantheon sat in the sides of 

 the north, in the hill of the north ; while the Sabgeon mythology had for its 

 symbol of symbols, the pole star and the Great Bear. 



Before leaving the subject, I would suggest the possibility of an 

 etymology from ni2f TsVE to command, rule, a precept ; compared with 

 a very characteristic SM to command in Egyptian (see Bii'ch in Bunsen, 

 Eg. V, pp. 508, 509, and I, p. 567) Sem, chief, deputy ; Samsu, king's 

 deputy, provincial nobleman, represented by the spade, and a man hold- 

 ing the suten or royal plant in his right hand. Hence Savvt to establish. f 

 Another Hebrew form of the word is ^r^ty, S'BO, not radically differing 

 from the other ; and a third form, also radically identical with the other 

 two, and equally referrable to the more ancient Egyptian form, is t^^jy 

 S'PT, meaning to command, not as a deputy, but as a judge. And in this 

 we find ourselves returned to Samuel as the great Judge in Israel. 



*AUR is light; AUN=On, the city of the Sun in Egypt, called by Jeremiah 

 (who went to Egypt) Beth Shemesh, house of the Sun ; by the greeks, Heliopo- 

 lis, city of the Sun; by the Arabs, fountain of the Sun (mistaking AUN for 

 AIN) : in Coptic, cuein, oeiv, oudini, light. 



t Curiously enough the same word was used for a conspirator, with various 

 ideographs signifj'lng punishment for malfeasance in office. 



PROC. AlIEK. PHILOS. SOC. XIX. 109. 3C. PKIiSTED JULY 14, 1881. 



