(c) Compounds with El.—These names have been found in almost every Semitic language and dia- lect. They reach back to a remote antiquity ; they continue in use to the latest period. It is possible that they were first used as place and clan names; but some of our earliest names of Hebrew individuals are of this type (e.g. Eliab, Nu 16! (J), Elkanah, 1S 1). In the case of these and the compounds with Yah, it is important to observe certain differences in the formation of the names. Thus, in the earliest times, compounds in which the divine name is the first element exceed in numbers those in which 1t forms the second element; this gradually changes until, from the times of Jeremiah onwards, the names in which the divine name forms the second element are many times as numerous as those in which it forms the first. We might perhaps attribute this change, which has the effect of removing the emphasis from the subject to the predicate, to the growth of the monotheistic idea—it being no longer necessary to emphasize what god was re- ferred to when only one was believed in—and the desire to enya the activity or quality of God referred to by the predicate. At the same time it must be borne in mind that a similar tendency is (according to Hommel) to be traced in the names of the Sabzans and Babylonians who re- mained polytheists. In the history of the com- pounds with ’Z/, it is to be remarked that at first they outnumbered the compounds with Yah, that from the time of David to the Exile they were quite eclipsed by the compounds of Yah, but that after the Exile they regain much in popularity, especially in certain circles [cf. the priestly list in Ezr 10%“; the list of angels in Enoch, ch. 6 (Greek text, ed. Charles, p. 64); the list of princes in Nu 1510 (P), in which several of the individual names are ancient, but which, as a list, is a late artificial compilation].
(d) Compounds with Yah before the time of David are very few, and are confined to families
NAMES, PROPER
more or less closely connected with the worship
of J”. In the time of David they grow frequent, and thenceforward never lose their popularity, but gradually drive out almost all nies compounds save those compounded with '£/, so that in the post-exilic period, and indeed as early as Jere- miah, Hebrew names consisted for the most part of (1) compounds with the divine proper name J”, or (2) the divine title ΕἸ, which had now tecome a virtual equivalent for J”, since J” was regarded as the only true God, or (3) truncated names— verbs where the implicit subject was God. Special features of interest in names of this class are their rare occurrence among names of women, their almost invariable use for heirs to the throne, whether of Judah or Israel, their rare use as place names (Ananiah and Jeshua being almost the onl instances).—An important question connected with the class is whether the names were peculiar to Israel. We find one or two foreigners with names of this type mentioned in OT. But Uriah the Hittite may have adopted this name on taking up his residence among the Hebrews ; Tobiah the Ammonite lived at a time when the worship of J” may have passed from Israel to some of the neighbouring peoples (cf. the case of the Samari- tans). The decision really rests with the Assyri- ologists, who are not as yet agreed whether the -ia at the end of a great number of Assyrian proper names be a divine name or not.
It remains to add that many of the individual names can be paralleled in several other languages, especially those which refer to the gift of J” or God (£1);,the thought that the god worshipped has given (viz~ the child) is expressed in many Hebrew names, e.g. Elnathan, Nethanel, Jona- than, Nethaniah, + howabad, Zebadiah; and also in many names of other peoples, e.g. in the Phenician Eshmuniathan (‘Eshmun has given’), the Assyrian Assur-ah-iddina (‘ Asshur has given a brother’), the Sabean Wahabailu (‘God has piven’), and the Palmyrene Zabadnebo (‘Nebo
as bestowed’). Nor is this parallelism confined
to names so early in use as some of the Hebrew names just cited. Corresponding, for instance, to Bezalel (perhaps=‘in the shadow of God’) we have the Assyrian Jna-silli-Bél (‘in Bel’s shadow’). But however great this similarity between the class of ideas expressed by the later Jewish names and by other Semitic names may be,—and it is cer- tainly great,—they differ in this very important respect, that the D wiak names refer to one God only, viz. J”, and that by means of the proper name J” or the one general term Z/ only.
Much that has been said on the relative pre- valence, at different porns, of different ane of names, depends on the conclusion established by the present writer elsewhere, viz. that /ists of names in P and Chronicles cannot, unless they are inde. pendently supported, be cited as evidence of early custom. Hommel’s Ancient Hebrew Tradition has in no way affected this conclusion, except in so far as it has by certain analogies confirmed it; for it has not addressed itself to the data on which the conclusion rests. To the character of the individual names in these writings it is impossible to refer at length. But the names recorded only by P contain two classes of which no instance is found elsewhere in OT, viz. compounds with the divine name Shaddai and compounds with Zur (‘Rock’), which appears to be a divine title. Hommel has discovered analogous names (8.0. Suri-addana, cf. Jehoaddan) to the latter class in some South Arabian names of the 8th cent. B.C or somewhat earlier. The compounds with Shaddal (Ammishaddai, Zurishaddai, Shedeur) still remair absolutely unique. It is a pure hypothesis o Hommel’s that an Assyrian name which has been