MOLLER (MOELLER, MUELLER), HEINRICH:

Supposed formerly to be the proper name of Henry of ZiAphen. Accordingly Henry was credited with the authorship of the hymn, " Hilf Gott dass mir gelinge," as the initial letters of the lines spell Heinrich Muler, and the song closes with "has Heinrich Moller sung in his prison." As Moller was not the name of Henry of Zütphen, Henry could not have composed this song, or the two others attributed to him by Wackernagel, which are written in high German. For further treatment see Zütphen, Henry of.

The authorship of the above-mentioned poem was attributed by Johann Christoph Olearius to Heinrich Moller, professor of Hebrew at Wittenberg, 1560-1574, who died in Hamburg, 1589, as a result of imprisonment during the crypto-calvinistic controversy (see Philippists); but as the poem was printed in 1527 and this Heinrich Moller was born in 1530, the conjecture is not tenable, and the au= thorship of the poem is still undetermined.

(Carl Bertheau.)

Bibliography: J. F. Iken, Heinrich von Zittphen, Halle, 1886; ADB, xxii. 554, 758 sqq.

MOLOCH, MOLECH

.

The Problem (§ 1).

Old-Testament Mention (§ 2).

Pronunciation of the Word (§ 3).

Compounds of Mlk (§ 4).

The Cult (§ 5).

Date of Introduction into Israel (§ 6).

Source of the Cult (§ 7).

Basis in National Conscience (§ 8).

According to the common conception, Moloch (Hebr. Molek) . is the name of a West-Semitic deity whose cult was introduced into Israel. between the time of Solomon and Ahaz and was practised by both king and people. The existence of this deity has been universally assumed from early Christian times, probably even from the period of the Greek

448

1. The Problem

and of the cults of peoples into connection with whom the Hebrews came has raised the question whether a deity of that name existed or whether a rite in volving human sacrifice from a source not hitherto understood was superposed upon the worship of Yahweh in much the same manner as the Baal cults were associated with it (cf. Jer. nix. 5, which asserts that the Hebrews "burnt their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal "). In the latter case, this rite was imported from abroad from the worship of some deity (or deities) whose proper name was not Moloch or Molech, but one to whom the title " king " was applied much as " Baal " was applied to different local deities.