Hey at least Elisp wasn't ever as bad as Mock Lisp, the extension language in Gosling (aka UniPress aka Evil Software Hoarder) Emacs.
It had ultra-dynamic lazy scoping: It would defer evaluating the function parameters until they were actually needed by the callee (((or a function it called))), at which time it would evaluate the parameters in the CALLEE's scope.
James Gosling honestly copped to how terrible a language MockLisp was in the 1981 Unix Emacs release notes:
https://archive.org/stream/bitsavers_cmuGosling_4195808/Gosl...
12.2. MLisp - Mock Lisp
Unix Emacs contains an interpreter for a language
that in many respects resembles Lisp. The primary
(some would say only) resemblance between Mock Lisp
and any real Lisp is the general syntax of a program,
which many feel is Lisp's weakest point. The
differences include such things as the lack of a
cons function and a rather peculiar method of
passing parameters.
"Rather peculiar" is an understatement. More info, links and code examples:
That's why Java is the way it is. Like father, like abomination.