For the thoughtful, God was one, and all the various gods of the heathen were but His manifestations, misconceived and misunderstood by the ignorant and thoughtless, but, rightly regarded, full of deep significance. The Jews in later times had, in all probability, no tendency to polytheism, yet it is certain that they had but little objection to bearing heathen names, and of all the examples that might be adduced, there is probably not one that is more noteworthy than [pg 061] Mordecai, or Mardecai, the worshipper of Merodach as typical of the God beside whom there was none other, of whom, as we have seen,—and that from a Babylonian tablet,—all the other deities of the Babylonian Pantheon were but manifestations.
The God Aa, Ae, Or Ea.
As the primitive deity of the Babylonian Pantheon, and as apparently closely identified with the well-known deity Jah, who was worshipped by a large section of the Semitic nations, and whose name is one of the words for “god” in the Assyro-Babylonian language, the god Ea, Ae, or Aa, deserves notice here not only on account of his being the creator of all the gods, but also on account of his fatherhood to Merodach, who, in Babylonian mythology, was conceived as supplanting him—not by any unfair means, but by the right of being the fittest to exercise power and dominion over the world, the universe, and even over “the gods his fathers.”
Assyriologists early recognized the attributes of the god whose name they then read Hea. They saw that he was regarded by the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians as the god of streams, rivers, seas, and the watery abyss of the under-world—the waters under the earth. Of the god Ae or Ea all sorts of wonderful stories were told by the Babylonians, who attributed to him, as the god of wisdom and knowledge, the origin of the civilization which they enjoyed. His name, as god of deep wisdom, was Nin-igi-azaga, “the lord of the bright eye,” a name which would seem to show that the Akkadians (the names of most of the deities of the Assyro-Babylonian Pantheon are written in Akkadian) associated, as we also do at the present day, intelligence with brightness of the eyes, or, more correctly, with alertness of appearance.
But this god had many other names than those [pg 062] mentioned above. He was En-ki, “lord of the world”; Amma-ana-ki, “lord of heaven and earth”; Engur, “god of the Abyss”; Nudimmud, “god of creation”; Nadimmud, “god of everything”; Nun-ura, “god of the potter”; Nin-agal, “god of the smith”; Dunga, “god of the singer” (?); Nin-bubu, “god of the sailor”; Kuski-banda, “god of goldsmiths”;—in fact, he seems to have been the god of arts and crafts in general. He was also called Ellila-banda, “the powerful lord”; En-uru and Nin-uru, “the protecting lord”; Lugal-ida, “king of the river”; Lugal, En, Nuna, and Dara-abzu, “king,” “lord,” “prince,” and “ruler of the abyss”; Dara-dim, Dara-nuna, and Dara-banda, honorific titles as “creator,” “princely ruler,” and “powerful ruler”; Alima-nuna, Alima-banda, and Alima-šum-ki, “princely lord,” “powerful lord,” and “lord disposer of the earth.” He bore also besides these a large number of names, among which may be cited, as an example of his many-sidedness, the following—
Šaršara, apparently “the overwhelmer,” probably as lord of the sea and its teeming myriads.
En-tî, “lord of life.”
Gana-si, probably “the enclosure full (of life).”
Nam-zida, “righteousness.”
Idima (Akk.) or Naqbu (Bab.), “the deep.”