MORI, mire, ARINORI (1848-SO). A native of Satsuma, Japan, and one of the group of young samurai who were prominent in advocating the thorough modernization of the Empire after the restoration of the Emperor. Educated in Eng land, he adopted modern manners in life and thought, and broke completely with the past. 11e held various high positions in the diplomatic and civil services, and became finally _Minister of Education. He was raised to the peerage in 1889, with the title viscount. When the Constitution of Japan was promulgated, giving the Empire its place among progressive peoples, he was assassinated in his own house by a Shinto fanatic, who charged him with violating the sanctity of the shrine in Ise by lifting the curtain before the holy place with his cane.
MORI'All. The name of the land whither Abraham was commanded to go to sacrifice his son Isaac upon a mountain, according to Gen. xxii. 2, and of the mountain upon which Solomon built the temple, acording to II. Citron. iii. 1. It is possible that the chronicler understood the passage in Genesis as affirming that Abra ham's sacrifice was made in Jerusalem. He no doubt found 'the mountain of Moriah' as a designation of Zion, and it may already in his time have been popularly interpreted to mean the mountain of vision,' as it was by the Samaritan translator, Symmachus, and by Jerome. Originally it may have been pronounced moreh l'ah, and signified 'Yahweh is an oraele giver,' or the 1\Toriah' may have meant 'the oracle.' How old this name of the temple-moun tain is cannot be determined. The Elohist in Gen. xxii. 2 refers to one of the mountains `in the land of Modal': This particular shrine is called Yahweh yirch, `Yahweh sees,' or Yahweh yereh, 'Yahweh gives oracles.' Bacon and Cheyne look for this sanctuary in the Negeb or Southern Palestine, and Gunkel thinks that it is identical with the Jenne] near Tekoa mentioned in IT. Citron. xx. 16, though he admits that the
distance front Beersheba does not preclude the identification with Jerusalem, and regards Ariel, a name of Jerusalem, as a corruption of Jeruel. It is possible that Yahweh yerch is an explanation of the meaning of Moriah, or that 'the Morialn"the oracle,' is an appellative desig nation of a sanctuary also known by the kindred name Jenne]. But it is not certain that 'the land of \lo•iah' in Gen. xxii. 2 has anything to do with this sacred place. The Syriae version suggests that the original reading was 'the land of the Amorites."Amorites' is the name of the predsraelitish inhabitants of Palestine used by the Elohist. it corresponded to the Assyrian Annum o• Martu. and the dropping of the prosthetic aleph can he easily accounted • for. This explanation has the advantage of being based on very excellent ancient testimony to the pre-Masso•etie text. Wellhausen thinks of `the Hamorites' who lived in Shechem, in the neigh borhood of which there was an don more/ or 'sacred tree of the oracle-giver.' It is indeed doubtful whether the Ephraimitish writer would have made Jerusalem the great sanctuary where animal offerings were substituted for human sacrifices, and the change to 'Hamorites' is not necessary, since Sheehem certainly was in the land of the Amorites. From the Jerahmeel ite Negeb Shechenc might be reached on the third day, though not so easily as Jerusalem. The question of the site of the sacred mountain must therefore be left open. Consult: Dillmann, Dic Genesis (6th ed., Leipzig, 1892) ; Gunkel, Genesis (GiAtingen, 1901) ; Cheyne, article "Moriah," in Bibliea, vol. iii. (London, 1902).