Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-07-05

The Ten Lost Irtbes.
To the Editor of The Journal.
In The Journal of June % an article will
the above heading appeared over the sigma.
ture Of George Wilson" There is a great
show of learning in the paper-sufficient tC
found a new sect-and will about the same
sUbstratum of truth as sects generally are
founded upon: that Is 10 say. false prem
Uses. defective reasoning, wrong conclu.
sions. As some unwary soul may be led
astray by the appearance OF learning. and
as Mr.. Wilson himself Is evidently honest
in his belief of his own theory, l think the
paper ought to be answered. As no one
has undertaken the task, l venture, with
your permission. TO make n reply. The
meaning of Israel. Mr.. George Wilson'S rem
derinE is, the ten princes of Ell" and he
proves it thus-tO his own satisfaction at
least: Israel is made up Of FL, the well
known Deity name for its last ~sylldbl-;
S@rru. a prince, but here originally plural;
and the letter Y. the Initial. is what re-
mains of the original first syllable. which
was the Hebrew word Isrh Utebrew letters
Ayin. Sin, Resi-. and He). or tie EumeTal
ten In the third paragraph. when con-
trUverting the popular meaning of Israel.
IA prince of Ell God, he tells Us that on
pathological grounds the initial letter y
must be accounted for, and later on he
informs us that Professor Flinders Petrie
discovered in 1895 a tablet at Thebes, on
which the name was Nsiraal, and then con-
cludes. as the result Of a learned philOlog-
fCal argument, llut inc initial letter SIlOutu
b. ~" and not q" If Mr.. Wilson had only
locked at the name in the original. he
would have found that the initial letter was
"Y." and not l." and so saved himself an
unnecessary expenditure of learned energy.
A mere tyro would have told him that the
Litter a. being 6 a v9 HnbIe Raq bd no b P5aS Tri IN
ten novels. The vowel points are compare
lively modern. The conversion OF the. y
into ~ is an English mistake. This; how
ever. is of small moment compared with
the grievous mistake he falls into about
the initial letter in the original Mr.; VIII
son seems to be " that y. Is not
the equivalent of "Aytn. 'Aytn - the
letter of the Hebrew alphabet of true Phoe-
nician origin. Ayin has no equivalent sound
word is omitted in the, English rendering;
for its pronunciation is lost. The letter OF
which the English y is the equivalent is the
Hebrew yod. This, then, is fatal to Mr..
Wilson's argumen about the Hebrew
ten" To make it plain to al readers, iet
with Yod, and the mineral ten with Ayln-
1t is not without some regret that l have
S IL gNower" is only a weed after all.
Had Mr.. Wilson looked at the name In the
original, he would have avoided a iatal mis-
take and lent a show of authority to his
argument. He would have found that the
initial letter in Nisracl was iod, and he
would have recollected, no doubt. that Hod
as a numeral stood for 10 And ne might
therefore. with some appearance OF accu-
racy. claim that Yisrael meant Tel princes
of FL" Looking at Mr.. WILSON'S word IN
us numerical tAASN w AoNNH -. -.
20: Sin EQUALS 300: Resi- equals 200. and He
equals 4: total. ga. But with Yod ue). the
aid to the argument Is apparent, NOT rear;
for all proper names at least. beginning
with Yod should be Interpreted in the same
way. as 4 numeral-lO. A few such words
are Jacob. Jeremiah, Jerusalem. Jew. Joab.
Joseph. Isaac. Ishmael. Jubal. Judah, etc:
each one of them having YCd for its initial
But tax the name Jerusalem as a
test word. This in Hebrew IS written 1e-
Now this word i'm the Cunietorm
inscriptions is written Crusalem. ."Uru
Is given by a lexical tablet as the equivalent
Of the Assyrian "Alu.r a city. salem was
means the city Of the god of peace. Here
the initial Yod does not mean ten. and so
Of other words: SO that no argument can be
built upon the initial Yod in Israel, in its
numerical sense of ten. In other names
the same holds good. Mr.. Wilson'S theory
But there is another way of looking at
the etymology of this word. The name is
into three syllables. thus: H-sra-
To take the last syllable first. we find
Eel" means God. But il is also applied
10 Judges. rulers. priests. as having a dele
authority from God; and also to an
gels. E comes from the B~abylonian Ilea,
and is compounded with other words as
names of men and places. Sar or Sarru
means a king. This is a Babylonian. word
Early times. The Hebrew word for king is
Melech. At one time both words were in
common usage Sarru under the Babylonian
meant the supreme king, and Melech
he subordinate. or tributary. one. But
when the B~abylonian supremacy was
brown OF these words changed places in
SSTru becoming the title of the
-'pglet. IL 5 from this word Sarru that
sc-ah, whIch is its feminine form. comes.
sarah mesrs queen. But in Hebrew Sar
llso means to have power. strength. to di-
'ect. rule. etc. Which is the meaning in
srael? Let us now examine the initial
word, or first syllable. Yod. II is either
n il is a part of Il word compounded of two
n more syllables or words. Nor is such a
word far to seek; 1ahaveh; or Yayeh, Is
in the English Bible Jehovah. Yah.
n combination. il shortened into Y NOdD.
nd therefore stands for part of the divine
i've. Some scholars think hat Yah. or Y
Nodl, signifies the substance or divine es-
of God. This is the name given to the
Divine Being in Psalms lxviii:4: Praise +;
Him in His name Yah There are two
vays therefore of looking at the meaning {
T Israel. If we take ST as a verb to have
riest. or prince having a delegated author 5
and Y. or Yah. as the Divine Being. I
ehovah. we have a ruler. prince. etc hay /
lg power with. or receiving power from. {
as the meaning of Israel. If. on :
he other'h hand. we interpret sr as prince, !
ing. or ruler. el as God. and Y OOdl. Yah. :
ElOhimD as the new name given :
D Jacob. The very position of the sylla- :
les in the word is not without Specification. :
he Hebrews read their words backwards, =
s we would say. from right to left. SO that ;
ehoVah would be in the front. Elohim =
Cod behind. and Jacob. the Sar. In the =
! His omnipotence tElohim. for that is its |
and self-eXistinE essence CYav- .
h. surrounded Him on every side. >
In no case can Israel mean the Ten -
of ELL Mr.. Wilson's Interpretation. !
do not say this in any sense of beIittling u
Ir. Wilson's efforts. Although evidently !
n opponent Of the Bible. as the inspired d
avelation of God, he yet strikes me as .
: