TUBAL CAIN

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Pearl of Great Price PN 1. TUBAL-CAIN biblical copper & iron worker ([http://lds.org/scriptures/pgp/moses/5.46?lang=eng#45 Moses 5:46; Genesis 4:22)

The early term TUBAL is glossed with Hebrew Qayîn from Cain/qayîn "metal-smith"; cf. qêynô “his weapon, his lance” in 2 Samuel 21:16; Moses 5:46 “an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron”), the first part of which comes from Hurrian tab-iri “one who has cast copper” = Old Sumerian TIBIRA / TABIRA "copper-worker; sculptor"[1] (= Akkadian qurqurru, gurgurru “metal-worker, coppersmith”[2]).

This not only brings to mind connections with Qenite metal workers, but reminds us of the following four pairs:

1. Meshech & Tubal (KJV Ezekiel 38:2,3, 39:1)
2. Moschoi & Tibarenoi (Herodotus 3.94, 7.28)
3. Meschenians & Thebel (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 1.124)
4. Muški & Tabal in Akkadian in east Asia Minor, with Tabal south of the Halys River and west of Togarmah in SE Cappadocia.[3]

Notes


  1. G. Buccellati & Kelly-Buccellati, “In Search of Hurrian Urkesh,” 26n*; Wilhelm, Hurrians, 9; ePSD.
  2. ePSD.
  3. David Baker in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, VI:670, citing Parpola, Neo-Assyrian Toponyms, 341-343; Baruch Halpern, “Kenites,” in Freedman, ed., ABD, IV:17, citing M. Elat, Economic Relations 1977, 53; Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier, 25-27, and Barnett in CAH, 3rd ed., 2/2:422; MBA 15. Cf. Ezekiel 27:13.

Bibliography