250 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia“Sabbath,”is derived from the Sumeriansa,“heart,”andbat,“to
cease”or“rest,”and interpreted as“a day of rest for the heart”;
whilepardêau,“paradise,”is explained as theparor“domain
of the god Eau.”^213 In many cases it is as yet impossible to tell
whether a native etymology really rests on a fact of history, or
is the invention of learned pedantry or popular etymologising.
Marduk or Merodach, for instance, is variously derived from
the Sumerian Amar-utuki,“the heifer of the sun-spirit”; and the
Semitic Mar-Eridugga,“the son of the city Eridu.”^214 The first
etymology is certainly false; our present materials do not allow
us to speak so positively in regard to the second. All we can say
about it is that it is unlikely in the extreme.
And yet a good deal turns upon the true origin of the name
of the patron god of Babylon. If it is Semitic, the foundation
of the city and of the temple around which it was built would
presumably belong to Semitic days, and the development of the
cult of the god would be Semitic from the first. The identification
of Merodach, moreover, with Asari the son of Ea of Eridu, would
receive substantial support; the“son of Eridu”would naturally
be the son of the god of Eridu, and we should have to see in
[273] Babylon a colony from the old seaport of the Babylonian plain.
The divergent etymologies, however, assigned to the name of
Merodach by the theologians of Babylonia show that they were
quite as much in the dark as we are in regard to its origin and
significance. Its derivation had been already lost in the night of
time; the worship of the god and the building of his sanctuary
went back to ages too remote for the memory of man. And
yet Merodach was one of the youngest gods in the Babylonian
pantheon. By the side of Ea of Eridu or El-lil of Nippur he(^213) A. H. 83-1-18, 1866,Rev.v., published by Pinches in theProceedings of
the Society of Biblical Archæology, xviii. 8 (1896), and explained by him, p.
- I should myself prefer to render Par-Eau“the land of the offspring of the
god Eau”(or Esau).
(^214) See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 107, note.