A LIVING RECORD

God kept a living record of ancient planetary transactions through the mechanism of cultural continuity from generation to generation. Men preserve social memory through their cultural habits. One path was through folk tales and myth stories. Another path was through linguistics. By names on the lands, social honorifics and titles, family names, and through social habits, we retained remarkable memory from the past. But most of this knowledge was lost on recent generations because of their contempt for the old days.
 

Scattered across the face of this globe are innumerable place names. Sometimes the names commemorate outstanding personalities and works of men: Kennedy expressways or Roosevelt dams. Sometimes they denote regions which cannot be identified visually but which define administrative districts: Jefferson counties and Washington states. Other times migrating people carry memory of familiar places into unfamiliar regions: New Jersey and New York. In olden times names were used to denote the centers of important social transactions. Kingston-on-the-Thames was a location on the river Thames in England where the ancient Anglo-Saxon kings were crowned while sitting on a holy stone. Olden people also used names religiously to denote memorable events or important locales: Bethlehem for House of Bread or Bethel for House of God. Some names are very old, dating many centuries before Jesus: Babel is the old Semitic name for Babylon and the traditional site of the infamous tower. Still other names are even older and predate thousands of years before Abraham: Athens, Greece is the modern form of the very ancient Atana.

Study of these name patterns leads to discovery that those with the greatest antiquity are found universally across the face of this planet. These linguistic fossils do not appear to be associated with any one group of people, any particular culture, or any specific geographical region. Furthermore, they show a unique feature of containing certain common phonetic elements, or syllables, which show repeatedly in various combinations. Even more, the phonetic elements can be identified by literal meaning in a group of languages which modern scholars refer to as Northwest Semitic, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Chaldean, and Hebrew.
 

A person from China might claim that these very ancient names came from his remote ancestors. But a similar name in the New World might be assigned to the ancestors of the Maya Indians. People of Europe and the Near East would believe that similar names belonged to their ancestors also.
 

I first became aware of this phenomenon when I was studying Latin in High School. Near my boyhood home in eastern Pennsylvania was the village of Aquashicola, named after a small creek that flowed through the village. I was intrigued by the similarity of the initial syllables to aqua, the Latin word for water. I wondered who had chosen the name, and what the other syllables might mean. When I inquired my elders told me the name was of American Indian origin and did not come from Latin. No one seemed impressed with the fact that the Latin word for water was contained in this Indian name for a stream of water.
 

The following list shows how certain names correspond to a biblical name familiar to all of us: Sarah, Abraham's wife^TWIG.
 

Cohane speculated that later Hebrew tribes migrated to these regions and used the names out of respect for their ancestral mother. The names in Jordan, Libya and perhaps Iran and Afghanistan might have seen her influence, yet the names were spread over the entire globe, from the Americas to Europe, to the depths of Africa, across Asia, and into the southwest Pacific. If named after Sarah it would imply the Hebrew name was used alike in those widespread regions. (Sarai was Sarah's original name, Gen 17:15.) While the names in Washington State and in Brazil might have been carried by white man, the names were obviously scattered far beyond any recognized historical migrations. Furthermore, why would Sarah receive such attention and not Abraham? If anything, their prominence should be reversed. Few Abrahamic names are known except as carried by white man in recent historical times. The curiosity increases when we list other "sara" names.
 

This list contains syllables appended to the "Sara" name. Numerous other examples could be illustrated.
 

The latter names are more uncertain. If one is not expert in all languages, in the traditions of the natives, and in their histories, one cannot be certain of the origins. We cannot verify because the meanings may have shifted and because there are no written records.
 

In attempt to understand we should keep in mind that names are not arbitrary sounds, or mere grunts. People use names which carry meaning -- from outstanding personalities, memorable events, or other significance, if only Blue mountains and Red rivers.
 

Consider significance of the Sara name in Hebrew. It comes from the root verb sarar, "to have dominion." The female form is sara while the male form is sar, denoting human mortals who have dominion through rulership -- kings, queens, princes, and princesses. Sarah received this name because of her prominent position in the parenthood of the Hebrew people. As a place name sarar would suggest dominion or prominence, a literal significance attached to a place, not necessarily associated with a human personality.

Examples of sar names are also found:  
 

Application of the names for their literal Semitic meaning could be possible only if the original people who applied the names recognized such meaning. If the names were used for memory of some outstanding personality, or event, those people must have used a Semitic language with sounds and meaning similar to those now recognized in Northwest Semitic. Otherwise, the names were mere random sounds, a proposal hardly possible in light of practical name assignments used everywhere across our globe.
 

As further illustration of why the origins were Semitic consider the name sar as it was used for titles of nobility in the past.
 

The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar carried this title in his name. The terminal zar, pronounced tsar, meant king or ruler^AHCL. This designation was used by the supreme ruler of Russia, in his title of Czar, well remembered into the twentieth century. The form is also found in the Roman title Caesar, pronounced Kaisar, again used by Teutonic kings down into this century. Here the form is a combination of Kai with sar. Kai is found in Hebrew as a preposition or conjunction, meaning "as," "like," and so on^BDB. The Roman Kaesar was a title which, literally in Hebrew, could be understood to mean "As a King," or "Like a King." Thus we see that Semitic designations were used by non-Semitic Indo-European people, and suggests an influence in the ancient past which is lost to memory.
 

Other examples of the sar title may be found in Akkadian myths. Ansar and Kisar, (pronounced tsar) were children of Lahmu and Lahamu, the first gods to come into being^HT. Note the similarity of the Akkadian "Kisar" to the Roman "Kaesar." (The "An" is found in Sumerian and Egyptian myths as the Father god.)
 

Another outstanding word, not used as a place name, nor as a name for a common necessity of life, but as a greeting, is found from separate regions of the planet. The modern hello (earlier halloa) used widely in English speaking and other European countries comes from an old Teutonic word. Linguists believe it derives from holon, meaning "to fetch," as to hail a ferryman^OED. However, other evidence speaks contrary to this origin. It may be that the proposed old Teutonic holon derives from halloa.
 

It was pronounced alloa by the Anglo-Saxons. Curiously, the same greeting is found on the other side of the planet in the friendly aloha of the Hawaiian Islands. There it denotes love, honor, and respect^RHDEL.
 

The Hawaiian greeting is native to those islands; it was not carried there by English traders. How, then, did the English alloa and the Hawaiian aloha have such similar sounds in identical application as greetings? We could postulate that Teutonic traders traveled the world more than a thousand years before their English descendants, but that hypothesis does not seem reasonable. We have no evidence for such history.
 

We could claim that the alloa-aloha greetings were a linguistic coincidence. But when we add the Heloha-Eloha god names the problem becomes profound. Remnants of social practices show everywhere, related in some unexplained way to religious attitudes about existence and creation.
 

We can postulate a history which would explain the evidence. At one time the entire planet knew this Semitic name for God. It was used everywhere. Furthermore, it was used commonly as a means of designating loyalty. When one person greeted another with Eloah (or Eloha, Alloa, Aloha and Hello) he was indicating allegiance to a Creator God in his daily passing. He would show his loyalty to this God by giving this name to others. The others would respond in like manner. But those persons were not expressing fear; they were expressing gratefulness for a God who held concern for his created children. There was a daily, living demonstration of awareness of a God who cared for them. The human mortal expressed that care in his greeting. It was a friendly greeting of love, honor and respect. It is so used yet today in the Hawaiian Islands.
 

The other important feature of this intriguing phenomenon is the linguistic memory in Hebrew. Somehow, God preserved a language which clearly reveals those old cultural habits and social customs. To us, in these latter days, it becomes a source of revelation. Our eyes are being opened to a power and control from heaven which was not perceivable to former generations. While many persons might ask for more concrete demonstration, the evidence is sufficient to bring serious pause, and reflective thought.
 

I shall now consider another, more involved, and far more pervasive example of this ancient Semitic influence upon the world.
 

Through the heart of Frederick County, Maryland flows a river called the Monocacy, commonly pronounced mon-oc-asee. The name is native American Indian but contains three phonetic elements which can be identified in Hebrew: mana, oc, and ochi. As I shall show, this name is made up of three words, mana = "Spirit," oc = "brother," and ochi = "my brother." Mana-oc-ochi coalesced into the modern Monocacy literally, in Hebrew, means "Spirit brother, my brother." Coalescing of word elements is common in Hebrew, and is illustrated by such names as Daniel from Don + El, "Judged by God," Bethel from Beth + El, "House of God," or Melchizedek from Malach + Zedek, "King of Righteousness."
 

I shall first examine the mana component of this name, and later go on to the oc components.
 

Mana is a common word used by the Bedouin in the Sinai peninsula for a sweet, sticky, honey-like substance exuding from the tarfa tree, the tamarix gallica mannifera in late May and June^BDB. The Egyptian word mannu was used for, and local residents still regard this substance as, a dew falling from the sky. On the far side of the globe Australian natives use the word manna for a secretion of certain species of Eucalyptus, while in France the Briancon name manna is used for a secretion of the common larch. In the Calabria region of southern Italy and in Sicily a similar substance is obtained from incisions in the bark of the manna-ash, the fraxinus ornus^AE.
 

But this is not the only evidence for a strange substance called manna. When the wandering Israelites tribes were short on food they went to Moses for help, Exod 16. He appealed to God, who then supplied manna, 16:31, which came down from the sky at night and lay on the ground. In 16:14 it is described as a fine, flake-like substance which lay as hoarfrost on the ground. In 16:31 it is described as coriander seed, white, and with a taste like wafers made with honey.
 

According to Exodus 16:15 the people went to Moses with the question Man hua?, thus asking in Hebrew "What is it?" Cognates of the Hebrew man are found in Arabic man = "Who?," Ethiopic manu = "What?," and late Aramaic man = "What?" From the similarity of the words some persons assume the manna from the sky derived from the man of the Semitic "what" or "who."

The similarity of manna to man has confused the phonetic and semantic connection between these two different applications, one as the name for the strange substance, and the other as the word used for the interrogative. Are they perhaps related in some way linguistically?
 

Olden people, accustomed to living close to their sources of food, intimate with nature, and feeding off the land, would not confuse the exudation of a sticky substance from a shrub plant with flakes of a fine white substance lying around on the ground. Only academic scholars, divorced from reality, would make such suggestions. If the manna from heaven were exudation from shrubs the Exodus account would have described it that way. Therefore, use of the word manna must carry a meaning which goes beyond the common application to exudations from shrubs or plants. It carries a general significance not previously recognized.
 

Mana also had a highly spiritual significance. The Polynesian tribes of the South Pacific believed that mana was a spiritual force or power concentrated in people or objects. Far away on the American continent the native Indian brave sought this mana, the divine spirit, during initiation ceremonies into manhood.
 

The Hopi Indians of Arizona knew Kerwan and Katchina Mana as the name of the sprouting Maize Spirits, while Keckamanetowa was the Fox Indian name for the gentle manitou spirit of the Great Plains. An alternate Fox name, Ketchimanetowa, meant the Great Spirit. The Algonquin Indians along the St. Lawrence river knew manitou as a supernatural being who controlled nature, a spirit, deity, or object with supernatural powers. The Objiwa Indians of the Lake Superior region also knew manitou as a spirit of god. In the eastern woodlands Gitche Manitou was known as the All-Father, the Great Spirit^{RHDEL, TK, NAM}.
 

The mana connection to spiritual forces and gods is found elsewhere. Manu was the ancient Egyptian home of the gods, the regions of the west where the sun set^EBD.
 

Manu was the Appointed One, author of the ancient Hindu holy law, progenitor of the human race and Creator of the Universe. According to Hindu tradition a succession of Manus recreated the earth anew at the end of each of the earth ages. In some traditions the Manus were known as rulers of the planets^{AE, EMLI}.
 

Manabozho was the American Indian god of the dawn and the east, commemorative of the great dawn of creation. He was the common ancestor of the North American Indian tribes, the Creator, and the preserver of both earth and heaven. He was the intermediary of the Spirit Manitou during the initiation ceremony of the Indian brave. The Illinois Indians held Manitou in reverence and awe as the genius and master of life, the spirit that ruled all things^{RHDEL, NAM}.
 

This manna relationship to the gods is found elsewhere. Manannan mac Lir was the ancient Irish god of the sea; he was the Outer King of Ireland. Manawydan was the Welsh god of the sea who dwelt in a place far across the Great Sea. He was a brother of the mythical Bran, Ernissyen, and Branwyn, and the second husband of the goddess Rhiannan^CH.
 

The mana word, as applied to the gods, or to spiritual forces, is a stronger demonstration than Eloha. The word-forms cited here were used in ancient Egypt, India, Polynesia, North America, Ireland, and Wales. It was found in such diverse people as Hamitic, Hindu, Polynesian, American Indian and Celtic. Such widespread and pervasive applications, although coming down to us in distorted myths and traditions, indicate an influence once covering the globe. The use must be very ancient, going back to a time when a universal spiritual and religious influence pervaded the entire planet.
 

This universal influence is also found in worldwide place names.
 

Manitoba is a phonetic variation on Manitowa, a province in central Canada. The word is in Manitoulin Island of Lake Huron, and Manitowoc in Wisconsin. The word is found in Managua (Spirit-Water), Nicaragua, and Manaos, Brazil^{RHDEL, TWIG}. The name is found many other places:
 

With addition of another phonetic element, Hawa, we find it in such place names as:
 

Manawa is composed of Mana + Hawa, literally meaning "Spirit Creator.
 

There are many Manoa names, in North America, South America, in the South Seas, and in the Near East. Manoa is a slightly different spelling of Manawa.
 

We also find:
 
 

Although the words and names, with their literal significance, can be identified today from Hebrew, this does not mean that Hebrew was the origin. By no means. But it does mean that the Hebrew language retains within its vocabulary and linguistic inflections the same patterns as used in very ancient planetary times. As stated in Genesis 11:1 --

Now the whole earth had one language and few words.

Or, as it is stated in the King James Version:

The whole earth was of one language and one speech.

not forget their native tongues, but they also did not forget that ancient religious and spiritual influence, no matter how degraded the memory became.
 

But something highly disruptive broke that planetary program. It tore the world asunder. We pay the consequences yet today.
 

To recognize how this influence has pervaded the entire planet consider common English words. In the earlier list I showed many inflected mana Hebrew forms which find strong parallel in English. Many is paralleled in Hebrew menay, "counting or numbered." Numerous mini forms are found in English, such as minimum, minim, minikin, minimize, minion, minish, and so on, all implying smallness, daintiness, or some small portion. According to linguistic studies the words go back to Latin minim or minor, from an earlier min, meaning "smallest or extremely small^OED." Are the English and Latin min forms unrelated to the Hebrew mini? Or is this form rooted in some common influence now lost to social memory?
 

Consider other aspects of this Semitic influence. Hebrew moneh meant "a counted time," a recurring period of time. We get our word moon from the Anglo-Saxon mona, identical in pronunciation to the Hebrew word^RHDEL. The moon was the ancient measure for the calendar, the means by which people counted time, a recurring period. Jews still clock their yearly religious calendar by the moon.
 

The name for the moon in ancient Greek and Gothic was mena, Lithuanian menu. These phonetic variations parallel those in the Hebrew word list. In Latin the name for the moon was mensis, derived from the common Indo-European root, but also related in some heretofore unidentified manner with the Hebrew mona. This last word gave rise to many European forms: French mesure, Spanish mesura, and English measure, all indicating a measure of time, and then simply measure. This same form led to English mensuration, and a woman's menstrual period, equal to the cycles of the moon. The phonetic similarities to the Hebrew word all indicate periods of time, measurement, and cycles^OED.
 

The English word many may come from Anglo-Saxon manig or Gothic manag, but parallels are found in Irish minic = "abundant," Gaelic minig = "frequent," and Welsh minich = "often." The English many may have come from the Semitic via either the Teutonic or Celtic branches of the Indo-European languages but if so it shows a reversion to the earlier Semitic phonetics retained in Hebrew menay = "counting or numbering,"^OED.
 

English shows this form again in money. Although linguists trace this word from French moneie and Latin moneta, the word is clearly similar to the Hebrew words for money, menay and mina. Shifts in the vowel sounds could easily give the English word.
 

An even greater curiosity of these words is their worldwide use in related applications. In Mandarin Chinese min meant humanity. Is the Chinese min unrelated to English man and the man in human? If these words imply human kind as a portion of God's created children can we deny association with Hebrew men, "to appoint or set apart?"
 

The spiritual and intellectual features denoted by these words is not limited to the Polynesian and American Indian mana. Manas, with the characteristic "s" ending, is found in Hindu as the rational faculty of the mind, the source of genius. In Sanskrit manu meant mind and appeared in Gothic as manna. Linguists believe these words derive from an ancient common Indo-European root. According to this view the words led to both modern man and mind. With phonetic variations it is found in other Teutonic languages as myne and muni for "mind, desire, and love." Old Norse munu and Gothic gamunan meant "to think, remember, or intend." With stronger inflectional change it is found in Sanskrit mati = "thought." Greek memona meant "yearning" while Latin memini meant "to remember" and monere meant "to advise^RHDEL,OED."
 

All of these words, from the North American and Polynesian mana, to the Hindu manas and Sanskrit manu, to the Teutonic manna, show descriptive expressions for spiritual or mental qualities. If ancient people understood these words as meaning a portion of the Great Spirit or Great Mind, they had a respectful regard for the source of all spirit and all mind. The implications of the words, and their use by ancient people, show a potent and powerful everyday reminder of man's intimate relationship with God -- a relationship now lost on our modern secular, confused and godless world.
 

Obviously, a phenomenon is spread across the face of this globe which no serious human mortal can ignore. Social and spiritual processes were at work in the ancient past which are denied by modern godless minds. A living record exists in the languages and names of the world which has preserved evidence of a great and respectful past of mankind. When this linguistic evidence is correlated with folk tales, myths, and legends we gain clearer insight into those days of long ago.
 

I cannot pretend to scholarly expertise or refined depth of study. Neither time nor scope permit an exhaustive treatment in rigorous intellectual discipline. But common sense can help us perceive the significance of the evidence. I hope the reader will suffer my scholarly faults, and bear with me in the presentation of material which, at times, may require close and detailed attention. I shall endeavor to make it interesting and informative.
 

As we enter into examination of the planetary evidence we shall find that two major episodes conditioned our planetary history, and the status of the world today. The first was a Semitic influence prior to Adam. The second was a Semitic influence which came more directly out of the migration of Hebrew tribes into the hinterlands of Europe. This latter influence confusingly added to the earlier worldwide phenomenon, but was limited to Europe and the Indo-European languages. The first was from an original world administration, and the second from the descendants of Abraham.