Before going on to discuss the significance of the names it may be helpful to round out our catalog while showing the diverse nature of the phenomenon.
 

The Euphrates is the longest river in west Asia. It flows 1700 miles from Turkey, through Syria and Iraq, until it joins the Tigris just north of the Persian Gulf. In Hebrew the name is female Perath, Gen 2:14, from a masculine para. Eu-phrat-es is the Greek form of the name. Para^6500,6509 is a primitive root in Hebrew, meaning "to bear fruit, be fruitful." In modern Hebrew the inflected word pree means "fruit^MHGC." The word was also applied to a cow and, in modified par form, to a bullock^6510,6499. The latter two applications may refer to the fruitfulness of livestock, both as a source of milk, and as meat for the table.
 

The name para is found many places around the world. The name is especially plentiful in South America: Peru, Paraguay, Parana, Paracas, Paranagua, and so on.
 
 

It is also found in Paris, France, pronounced Paree by Frenchmen.
 

Paris was a Trojan prince of classical Greek mythology who awarded the apple of discord to Aphrodite, the love goddess. The discord, of course, in those old distorted stories, reflects the discord Eve brought to our planet. The name for the Trojan prince comes from the Semitic para. Many god names in Classical Greek mythology come directly from Northwest Semitic and can be recognized today in Hebrew. We encountered some in previous chapters, and I shall go on to discuss others, but for the sake of clarity I shall list them here.  
 
 

The characteristic "s" or "x" ending is seen on these Greek names borrowed from Northwest Semitic.
 

We can recognize how Paris, the Trojan prince, received his name from the Semitic para because of the symbolic connection to the "apple of discord." The apple is a fruit. This is paralleled in the Genesis account where Eve eats the forbidden apple.
 

We find an interesting similarity to modern English berry, a particular form of fruit. The word berry is found in all the old Teutonic languages but "the ulterior history is uncertain^OED." This is an example of one of hundreds of words in modern English which bear a remarkable resemblance in sound and meaning to ancient Hebrew.
 

The word para was widely used in ancient Greek, and came into English as a borrowed form, in such words as parable, paradigm, paradise, parallel, and so on. In Greek it had the sense of "from," "by," "near," "beside," "toward," and so on^AGL. How this word may relate to the Hebrew para is not discernible. There is no apparent direct connection to the concept of being fruitful, except in a derived sense of yielding comparison or comparative relationship, thus yielding fruit.
 

The names of the Greek mythical figures offer a time frame for the borrowing from Northwest Semitic. The Eloah name is prominent. At the time of the borrowing Eloah was still a strong Semitic influence. If the borrowing took place from Hebrew tribes it was before assignment of the Yahweh name to those tribes. Therefore, the borrowing must predate Moses, and even the Egyptian captivity, certainly early in the second millennium BC. If the borrowing was not directly from Hebrew it had to come from Semitic sources where Eloah was still recognized. Since the Eloah form is not recognized by modern studies as a universal name in Northwest Semitic the influence must predate historical records, circa 2,000 BC.
 

I shall now consider another word which also has a strange relationship to modern English. Tara is a very famous place in Ireland, the spiritual and political center for the ancient inhabitants of that land. It carries strong sentimental value for all Irishmen. But the name is not restricted to Ireland. Tara is found many places: Australia, India, Finland, Zambia, Ontario, USSR, Chile, Philippines, Yugoslavia, and the South Pacific. It has many suffixes: Taraba River, Nigeria -- Taraca, Philippines -- Taraco, Peru -- Tarai, Pakistan -- Tarana, New South Wales -- and so on.
 

This name came from a root that gave Hebrew toor⁸⁴⁴⁶: "to meander about." The plural word tareem is translated "merchants," those who go or travel about, I Kings 10:15. The singular would be tara.
 

The classical Greek mythical figure, Taurus, the heavenly bull, received his name from this word. He is remembered in many of the mythologies of the world^MAW, and was prolific in representation in the cult worship rooms at Çatal Hüyük, dating 8,000 years ago^CAHU. He still holds prominence in our modern astronomical designation for one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. In Hebrew the word tore⁸⁴⁵⁰, an inflection of toor, meant the bull or the ox. This simple phonetic designation is still remembered in the Spanish toro. He is also remembered in Greek Turannos⁵¹⁸¹, which became the English tyrant.
 

The Hebrew word is found directly in English tour, "to go about" or "to travel from place to place," without phonetic or semantic change. Linguists believe the English word comes from Latin and Greek tornus, a tool for making circle or for lathes, meaning "to turn," or "to turn about," hence our English turn, with such derived words as tournament, tourniquet, and so on. Obviously, the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English forms all have the sense of movement in continuous circuit, or circular motion.
 

The Hebrew word toor has a cognate. Door, (pronounced dure, not dore), means "to gyrate (in a circle)," hence "to dwell¹⁷⁵²." In the Bible it is translated as "circle," "ball," "turn," and "round about." The inflected dore, means "a revolution of time," "an age or generation." The place name Endor came from this root.
 

In Greek thura meant "door," "gate," or "entrance," appeared in Sanskrit as dur, and is known by our English door. The idea of doors and gates swinging or turning causes one to believe a semantic connection exists between the Indo-European words and the Hebrew word. Note our English word duration. This comes from the Latin durare, "to last," witnessed in the Hebrew "age" or "generation." Our word endure is thought to come from the Latin durus = "hard," as in durable, but we can see the close conceptual relationship among these forms.
 

Still another form found in Hebrew offers interesting insights. Kara⁷¹²¹ is a primitive root which means "to call out." This name is found many places throughout the world.
 

Inflected imperative forms of kara are kraw, kree, and kru. A parallel is found in Greek. Krazu means "to cry out," "to exclaim." Kraugi means "outcry or clamour." The English word "cry" is thought to come from a Latin quiritare, "to cry aloud or scream^OED." However, once again, we raise the question of linguistic assignments which clearly do not recognize a worldwide Semitic influence.
 

Still another Hebrew word found around the world is bara, "to create¹²⁵⁴." It is in such place names as:  
 

These were illustrated in Hawa-Hawa, and in An-An. These also show in Oc-Oc:
 
 

And so on.

Many combinations of El, Hawa, An and Oc exist. The following tabulations illustrate.  
 

While you may find that some names have origins other than in the Semitic roots we see that the patterns are strong and universal. Even a large percentage of mistaken assignments would not deny this extraordinary phenomenon. There was an influence in very ancient times which produced names that clung strongly to the lands through untold generations. One reason may be the ease with which they are pronounced. The phonetics of the syllables gives little trouble to virtually all users. For example, in those ancient days the languages used broad vowels rather than the sharp vowels we use today. "A" was pronounced with an "aw" as in law, rather than "a" as in hate. There is also a certain musical quality to the combinations of the elements which is striking to the ear.
 

Consider Lackawana, the Indian name in the American northeast. It is composed of El-Oc-Hawana. The Allegheny mountains were known to the American Indians as the Allaghawa; this is El-Oc-Hawa. We mentioned earlier that the Japanese Island of Okinawa was a combination of Oc-An-Hawa. If we see Achacala, Chile we know it is formed of Oc-Oc-El-a. The ancient name for Mexico was Anahuac = An-A'Hawa-Oc. Tihuanaco, Peru is T'Hawana-Oc-o. Numerous place names are so constructed.
 

From the Hebrew verb conjugations we see how it is possible to discern the origin of the word elements without forcing them into unrealistic rigid patterns. Lackawana is El-Oc-Hawana, not El-Oc-Hawa-Ana. Tihuanaco is T'hawana-Oc-o, not Et-Hawa-An-Oco. Many forms could have alternate explanations. Akwa, Uganda could be Oc-Hawa or it could be the more simple Aqua; we cannot distinguish among the coalesced syllables.

One of the rewards of this study is evidence on how some cultures clung to original forms. Japanese exhibits this strongly. Hiyakawa is a famous Japanese surname, straight from the Semitic root system: Hiya and Kawa. Nagasaki carries the naga prefix, which in Hebrew means "to touch." Names like Asahikawa, Takasaki, Yokohama, Kanazawa and so on, all show intriguing forms. They display similarities to the Semitic because they are disyllabic, composed of two syllables in the compounds. Many other Japanese names show these patterns, but with the meanings now different from historical Semitic.
 

Names across the Polynesian South Pacific into New Zealand and Australia also show strong tendency to cling to more original forms.
 

The name patterns illustrated here are easily identifiable from the Semitic base because they are simple one or two-syllable words. More complex words are more difficult to trace and naturally receive more erosion with time. The simple names cling more strongly because they are easy to use. Furthermore, the Hebrew parallels suggest meanings which carry lofty significance and great spiritual vision. We might expect places to be named after the gods but other names show literal meanings beyond simple god honorifics. Names which denote dominion, fruitfulness, apportionment, creation, tranquility and touch all show a state of mind which lives in respect, trust, and care. The people who used the names were not mythologically minded; they knew them in practical application as recognition of daily spiritual influences in their lives. They could not name a place without acknowledging its relationship to living celestial personalities and cultural dynamics. Those "primitive" people were religiously devout.
 

The evidence shows that mythologies are of more recent origin. Mythology is a substitute for living realities. If we do not have daily contact with celestial personalities and spiritual forces we seek explanations. They become structured in cultural traditions and in epic literature. Modern scholars then assess this mythologizing as the inherent habit of all "primitive" mind when it is merely a phenomenon attendant upon the isolation of our world from those living realities. Only now that we have become godless does modern man feel liberated from the debased myths of the past. Unfortunately, when he threw the myths away, he also threw God away. We shall pay a terrible price.
 

We can deduce other facts from the place names.
 

1) They are not personal human names; the names belong to the gods and to social relationships. Human fame is forgotten in this respect for superior qualities and beings.
 

2) The names appear to be independent of geography and local topographical features. The names, and the name-element combinations, show that the application exceeded locality. They were used worldwide in a common form of expression.
 

3) The applications exceeded local dialects and languages. These are not names that miraculously appear in universal common form through the human subconscious. They derive from a universal influence by agencies that knew the entire planet and worked with all people. Many names here and there may have been adapted to local peculiarity of speech or culture but the origins were far above any of those. The beings who applied the names used a universal language, common across the planet. This does not mean that local languages were abandoned or lost but rather that a superior language was used in all activities. It also probably means that the universal language was slowly being taught to the natives, otherwise they would not understand the significance of the place names, nor of the gods who were the source of the names.
 

4) The applications came from a Semitic source that was the mother of Hebrew, and Hebrew today carries many of the name elements of that mother tongue. Otherwise we would not be able to identify them. Hebrew carries a memory of very ancient days in considerable clarity.
 

5) The Semitic influence must predate all known historical times, otherwise we could trace the influence in Sumerian, Egyptian and other Near East records, the oldest known to us, circa 3000 BC. Historical records concern local affairs only; Dumuzi and Inanna are uniquely Sumerian. No historical culture recognized a worldwide influence. Knowledge was already long lost by the time history dawns. The phenomenon goes back into the remote past, into the mists of forgotten antiquity.