Tubal-Cain

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Son of Lamech and Zillah. He was an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron, or a forger of every kind of brass and iron tool.  Genesis 4:22 .

It is remarkable, and it is doubtless not without a purpose, that thesemetals should be mentioned so early. It quite confutes the theory that all mankind have risen from some degraded position, and that they must have passed long periods in using stone implements before they used metals. This may be true of some who fell far below the moral status of Adam and Eve after their fall.   Romans 1:24,26 explains much: " God gave them up " to their lusts because they turned their backs on Him.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Tubal-Cain . In   Genesis 4:22 ‘the father of every forger of copper and iron’ (so read, with slight textual correction), i.e. the founder of the guild or profession of metal-workers. The name seems to be made up of Tubal (or the Tibareni, noted for production of bronze articles (  Ezekiel 27:13 )) and Cain (‘smith’), as the ancestor of the Kenites or ‘Smiths.’

J. F. McCurdy.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

or THUBAL-CAIN, son of Lamech the bigamous, and of Zillah,  Genesis 9:29 . The Scriptures tell us, that he was the father and inventor, or master, of the art of forging and managing iron, and of making all kinds of iron-work. There is great reason to believe that this was the Vulcan of the Heathens.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Tu'bal-cain. The son of Lamech, the Cainite, by his wife, Zillah,  Genesis 4:22. (B.C. about 3000). He is called "a furbisher of every cutting instrument of copper and iron."

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Son of Lamech and Zillah, inventor of the art of forging metals,  Genesis 4:22 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 4:22

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 4:22

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Tu'bal Ka'yin, תּוּבִל קִיַן , apparently of foreign etymology; Sept. Ὁ Θοβέλ ; Vulg. Tubal Cain ) , the son of Lamech the Cainite by his wife Zillah ( Genesis 4:22). B.C. cir. 3700. He is called "a furbisher of every cutting instrument of copper and iron." The Jewish legend of later times associates him with his father's song. "Lamech was blind," says the story as told by Rashi, "and Tubal-cain was leading him; and he saw Cain, and he appeared to him like a wild beast, so he told his father to draw his bow, and he slew him. And when he knew that it was Cain his ancestor, he smote his hands together and struck his son between them. So he slew him, and his wives withdraw from him and he conciliates them." In this story Tubal-cain is the "young man" of the song. Rashi apparently considers the name of Tubal- cain as an appellative, for he makes him director of the works of Cain for making weapons of war, and connects "Tubal" with תִּבֵּל , tabbel, to season, and so To Prepare Skillfully. He appears, moreover, to have pointed it תּוֹבֵל tobel, which seems to have been the reading of the Sept. and Josephus. According to the writer last mentioned ( Ant. 1, 2, 2), Tubal- cain was distinguished for his prodigious strength and his success in war.

The derivation of the name is extremely obscure. Hasse (Entdeckungen, 2, 37, quoted by Knobel on  Genesis 4:22) identifies Tubal-cain with Vulcan ; and Buttmann ( Mythol. 1, 164) not only compares these names, but adds to the comparison the Τελχῖνες of Rhodes, the first workers in copper and iron (Strabo, 14:654), and Dwalinn, the daemon smith of the Scandinavian mythology. Gesenius proposed to consider it a hybrid word, compounded of the Pers. Tupal, iron slag, or Scoria, and the Arab. Kain, a Smith ; but this etymology is more than doubtful. The Scythian race Tubal, who were coppersmiths ( Ezekiel 27:13), naturally suggest themselves in connection with Tubal-cain.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

tū´bal - kān ( קין תּוּבל , tūbhal ḳayin ): One of the sons of Lamech (  Genesis 4:22 ). He is a brother of Jabal and Jubal, who appear to have been the founders of several industries and articles The text (וברזל נחשת כל־חרש לטש , lōṭēsh kol ḥōrēsh neḥōsheth ū - bharzel ) has been the cause of endless dispute. Holzinger and Gunkel hold that לטש , lōṭēsh was a marginal gloss to חרש , ḥōrēsh , and that, as in  Genesis 4:20 and   Genesis 4:21 , there stood before כל־ , kol originally אבי היה הוא , hū hāyāh 'ăbhı̄ . This would make Tubal-cain the founder of the metal industry, and place him in a class similar to that of his brothers. The Septuagint, however, has no equivalent of קיז , ḳayin . This omission leads Dillmann, Wellhausen, and others to the position that "Tubal" originally stood alone, and קיז , ḳayin , being a later addition, was translated "smith." Many commentators identify Tubal with the Assyrian Tubal, a people living Southwest of the Black Sea; in later times they were called "Tibareni" ( Ezekiel 27:13 ). Tubal may be the eponymous ancestor of these people, whose principal industry seems to have been the manufacture of vessels of bronze and iron.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Tu´bal-Ca´in, son of Lamech and Zillah, to whom the invention of the art of forging metals is ascribed in [SMITH].