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LECTURE III.
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we may trust implicitly, traces El, the strong one, back to a root al (with middle vav, aval), to be thick and dense, to be fleshy and strong? But he takes Eloah or Ilâh for an abstract noun, in the sense of fear?, derived from a totally different root, viz. alah, to be agitated, confounded, perplexed. From meaning fear, Eloah came to mean the object of fear or
reverence, and thus rose to be a name of God. In the • same way we find pachad, which means fear, used in
the sense of God; Gen. xxxi. 42-Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been with me.' And again, v. 54—And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.' In Aramaic, dachlá, fear, is the recognised name for God or for an idol, while in Sanskrit also, Brahman is called a great fear.'
The same ancient name appears also in its feminine form as Allât 4. Her famous temple at Tâïf, in Arabia, was second only in importance to the sanctuary at Mekkah, and was destroyed at the command of Mohammed. The worship of Allât, however, was not confined to this one place; and there can be no doubt that the Arabian goddess Alilat, mentioned by Herodotus 5, is the same as the Allât of the Korân.
Professor Fleischer's derivation; likewise Professor Kuenen in his work, De Godsdienst van Israel,' p. 45.
1 Professor Nöldeke, 1. c. p. 774, assigns to this root the meaning of being in front, leading.
? Kuenen, Religion of Israel,' i. p. 41, Eloah is only used by poets, and its primitite meaning is 'fear,' hence, that which is feared.'
9 Katha-upanishad, vi. 2, mohad bhayam vagram udyatam yah.
+ Osiander, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft,' vii. 479-482, Wi Allât, goddess, is contracted from 'yi Al-Ilahat.
• Herod. iii. 8: 'Ovozásovou (ol’ApáBlok) Tdv pièy Atóvvoov 'Oporán,
