The Cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament; - The Search For ...

GEKJSSIS II. 25
god on like footing with other gods, and by admitting him
into their pantheon they had no thoughts of paying honour
to the Hebrew religion.* Moreover much is to be said for 25
the derivation of the name from the Hebrew, the word being
regarded as the Hifil of "'H = 'the Creator', 'the life-
dispenser' [see the report of my public lecture at Ztirich
April 26 1862, in no. 10 of the Kirchenblatt fur die reform.
Schweiz 1862 p. 83; also my article Jahve in Schenkel's
Bibel-lexicon HI (1871) pp. 170;;foll. and P. de Lagarde
in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft
XXII 1868 p. 330 foil.]. On the other hand, when
we take into account the circumstance that the sign for ili
viz. NI (which in the reduplicated form NINI certainly
means "god") is explained in the Assyrian column by j a-u
= Jahu**, it cannot be deemed impossible that the name
* We may also connect with this name for deity that of the North
Arabian king Jahlu (see note on 2 Kings VIII. 15). At all events
the name written J a-'-l u-' may best be explained as a contraction for
Jahu-ilu i. e. ^Xl'j comp. Ja-ki-in-lu-u ^N^^i, a name like n^JD%
T : T :
Smith's Assurbanipal 62, 116. 121. The marking of the length of the
vowel u in the first case by u-' would be the same as we not infre-
quently meet with in later times in the inscriptions of the Achae-
menidae.
** This I have already shown in the Jahrbiicher fiir deutsche
Theologie I 1875, in the essay 'The original signification of the Divine
name Jahve-Zebaoth' p. 317 foil. rem. I there drew attention to the
Assyrian name for 'wind' a-i'v (ha-iv), a-u (ha-u) , root j^in to
'breathe' 'blow', so that God the "breather" would have to be placed
parallel to the storm-god Ramman, Gen. XIX. 24.
Fr. Delitzsch, who formerly rejected this view (see Baudissin, Studien
zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte I 226 foil.), has meanwhile come
to the belief that its correctness can no longer be doubted and that
further evidence may be adduced to suppoi't it; see his "Wo lag das
Paradies?" p. 158 foil. According to B. Stade, 'History of the people
Israel' Berlin 1881 p. 130 foil., Jahve was originally a God of the
Kenites.