447
underworld, a father of the stars of night who makes the green
herb grow in the earth below. In En-me-sarra,“the enchanter of
the (spirit)-hosts,”the realm of the moon-god was united with [487]
that of En-lil; as lord of the night he ruled in Hades, and was
supreme even in that“mountain”of the ghost-world from which
En-lil derived one of his names.^395
But I must leave to others the task of further pursuing the
path of exploration which I have thus sketched in outline. That
Yahveh was once identified with the moon-god of Babylonia in
those distant days, when as yet Abraham had not been born in
Ur of Chaldees, explains his title of“Lord of hosts”better than
the far-fetched theories which have been invented to account for
it. The explanation has at least the merit of being supported by
the ancient texts of Babylonia. Adventurous spirits may even
be inclined to see in Sinai, the mountain of Sin, a fitting place
for the promulgation of the Law of the Lord of hosts; but such
speculations lie beyond the reach of the present lecturer, and the
lectures he has undertaken to give.
The name of En-me-sarra,“the enchanter of the (spirit)-hosts,”
brings us back to that dark background of magic and sorcery
which distinguished and disfigured the religion of Babylonia
up to the last. The Sumerian element continued to survive in
the Babylonian people, and the magic which was its primitive
religion survived also. It was never eliminated; behind the priest
lurked the sorcerer; the spell and the incantation were but partially
hidden beneath the prayer and the penitential psalm. One result
of this was the exaggerated importance attached to rites and
ceremonies, and the small space occupied by the moral element
in the official Babylonian faith. There was doubtless a certain
amount of spirituality, more especially of an individualistic sort;
the sinner bewails his transgressions, and appeals for help to
his deity, but of morality as an integral part of religion there [488]
(^395) The god of the“great mountain,”see above, pp. 376, 452.