The cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament - The Search For ...

306 TEE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS AND THE T.
the shades from which a plural Rephaim has been formed similar to
Elohim ; at all events the words Repha-el (1 Chron. XXVI. 7) and
Repha-yah (ibid. III. 21 etc.) , and the later use of Raphael as the
name of an angel, would in some respects confirm my supposition. I
would venture to explain also from this name of Rapha the word
Teraphim (Gen. XXX. 19. 34; 1 Sam. XIX, 13. 16 and elsewhere)
which perhaps represented the manes: and if so, it would prove the
existence of ancestor-worship among the Canaanitish tribes." In
the following no. of the Academy (Nov. 6) Prof. Sayce supports the
above views : — "The Assyrian inscriptions strikingly confirm Dr. Neu-
bauer's brilliant explanation of the Teraphim despite the Masoretic
vocalization of the word. The Assyrians had a verb rapu 'to be
weak' corresponding to the Heb. HDl- From this was formed the
word tarpu (i. e. tarapu) which signified 'feeble' or 'departed' (Ac-
cadian dim ma or dim me) and then a ghost or more exactly an in-
habitant of Hades. That rappu could be used in the same sense as
tarpu is shown by the fact that the ideogram which denotes a spectre
has the value of rap. We thus have an explanation of the Hebrew
Rephaim. They are "the departed" great ones, who like ancient heroes
of the Babylonian mythology sat on their shadowy thrones in Hades
or else represented the historic populations of the Semitic world."
Prof. Sayce remarks in another place:— "Military expeditions to the
distant West were not the unlikely events they were once supposed
to be. Long before the age of Abraham , Sargon of Akkad had set
up his image on the shores of the Mediterranean and had even crossed
over into Cyprus, while a cylinder containing the name of his son,
Naram-Sin, was found by General di Cesnola at Kurion."
Gen. XVII. 1 'trw^ ^^
^y^. An attempt has been made by Fried.
Delitzsch with much ingenuity to connect the name l"JtJ^ with the
Assyr. Sadu 'to be high' and Sadvi 'mountain', the compound name
^TCi^ 7^ being compared with such proper names as Ilu-sadfia or
Bil-§adQa 'God is my rock (or mountain)'. Similarly, since §adu
meant really 'rising', 'height' and sad (sadi) uru meant 'rising of the
light' or 'day-break', we have in this phrase an explanation of the
Hebrew proper name "llJ^l"]^ (Proleg. eines neuen Hebr.-Aram. Wor-
terb. p. 96). The latter admits, however, of a more satisfactory ex-
planation by combining the first portion with the root TfW which
appears in Aramaic as i-|»if, jl^, 'to throw' — the name would there-
fore signify 'light- or fire-thrower'. Moreover in Eccles. II. 8 occurs
the form \yr\^ usually rendered 'mistress', but which Delitzsch (ibid,
p. 97) refers to the Assyrian root sad4du 'to love'; the noun
sudadu being used as synon. of r&'imu 'lover', while naSaddu