If we put these two names together, we find that Cain represents the farmer and skilled artisan, while Abel represents the herdsman or nomad. Meanwhile, ‘Abel’ is believed to be derived from Jubal or Jabal, the ancestor of nomadic shepherds. ![]() In Genesis 4:22 we learn that ‘Tubal-cain’ was ‘an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron’, which lends credence to this etymology (Tubal was a district in Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey). ‘Cain’ is from a root word meaning ‘forge’ or ‘smith’, and is cognate with the Arabic kain, which means the same thing. But a clue to the origins of the Cain and Abel story may also lie in the symbolic meanings of the brothers’ two names.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |