Note 691 — Chapter IX · PROPHETISM AND THE JAHVEH-RELIGION.

The changes of name mentioned in 2 Kings XXIII. 34, XXIV. 17, should also be considered here. It is not probable that these changes were ordered by the Kings of Egypt and of Babylon; for in that case the names received in exchange would have been quite different, Egyptian and Babylonian respectively in form (compare Dan. I. 7). The change of Elyâḳîm into Yehôyâḳîm is especially noticeable, for it is a direct alteration of an Elohistic into a Jahveistic name. Such a change is usually the simple consequence of a religious revolution, as is seen in other cases. Thus, e.g. King Amenophis IV., when he directs his fanaticism against the worship of Ammon, and places that of Aten in the foreground, changes his Ammonic name into Shu en Aten, ‘the light of the solar orb.’ See Brugsch, L’histoire d’Égypte (1st ed.), I. 119, and Lenormant, Premières civilisations, I. 211. Of Moḥammed also we are told that he altered those portions of his followers’ names which savoured of idolatry, substituting monotheistic terms; thus one ʿAbd ʿAmr had his name changed to ʿAbd al-Raḥmân (Wüstenfeld, Register zu den genealogischen Tabellen, p. 27). The pious philologian al-Aṣmaʿî always calls the heathen Arabic poet Imru-l-Ḳeys, Imru Allâh, changing the name of the heathen god Ḳeys into the monotheistic Allâh (Guidi on Ibn Hishâmi’s Commentary etc., Leipzig 1874, p. XXI.).