Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/52

 34 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

strange to later Judaism, as is shown by tlio story of the four who went alive to Paradise. 1

Jahannam, Hell. 2 This word also, like its opposite Paradise, is of Jewish origin. According to its primary meaning and Biblical usage it too is the name of a place, though of a locality far less important than that which gave its name to Paradise. The vale of Hinnom. was nothing more than a spot dedicated to idol worship ; and it is remarkable that the horror of idolatry led to the use of its name to designate hell. That this is the ordinary name for it in the Talmud needs -no proof, and from it is derived the New Testament name Gehenna. Now, it might be asserted that Muhammad got this word from the Christians ; but, even setting aside the argument that, as the name for Paradise is Jewish the probabilities are in favour of a Jewish origin for the word for hell also, the form of the word itself speaks for its derivation from Judaism. We lay no stress on the fact that the aspirate he, which is not expressed in the Greek, reappears in the Arabic, because this aspirate though not always indicated by grammarians in writing, appears to have been always sounded in speech. This holds good of other Greek words which have passed into Syriac. 3 The letter mim which stands at the end of the Arabic (Jahannam), not being found in the Syriac word, proves the derivation from the

1 DT]S Paradise, Chagiga fol. 14. Compare Sura, XVIII. 107. XXIII. 11.

Among many wrong explanations Elpnerar gives the following correct one : ,J>\

" Mujahid says it means a garden in Greek, and Zajdj says it has passed iato Arabic."

3 E.g. <TWoSo9, i.e., Sunhadus and especially <yeVVd } which is pronounced in Syriac, as Gihano.