Freethought & Rationalism Archive

chimaira · 11-14-2006, 01:12 AM

hello

here I discuss with somebody on the name Cain, it says to me that Cain has an unknown significance whereas Hyam Maccoby affirms that Cain wants to say "blacksmith" can you help me?
thank you

Toto · 11-14-2006, 11:32 AM

Online Etymology Dictionary

Quote:

Cain:

elder son of Adam and Eve, from Heb. Qayin, lit. "created one," also "smith," from Sem. stem q-y-n "to form, to fashion."

Bibleorigins:

Quote:

Hess's observations-

"Cain (qayin) seems related to the Semitic qyn. This root does not occur in Hebrew of the biblical period. It appears in Arabic of a later period with the meaning "smith." The modern scholarly interest in connecting Cain and his line with the Kenites and with metal working, particularly in the desert, often assumes the name's association with metal forging. An advantage of this would be the function of the name as a description, role, or occupation, as we have seen with Adam and Eve. However, the lack of a sufficient context in the Hebrew text to establish this meaning for the name has meant that this interpretation is not certain.

quoting The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary (or via: amazon.co.uk)

Also Cain and Abel in Wikipedia.

Quote:

The etymology for Cain's name given in the Bible itself is possibly more for the sake of humour, rather than accuracy - "And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said I have gotten a man from the LORD". The word here translated "gotten" being qanithi in the original Hebrew, a word derived from qanah ("to get"), and hence a word-play on qayin, though there is no etymological relationship between these two words. (See Allen C. Myers, et al.) Some have proposed the name Abel should be identified with the Assyrian word aplu, simply meaning "son".

Academic considerations have produced a different theory, a more direct pun. Abel is here thought to derive from a hypothetically reconstructed word meaning "herdsman", with the modern Arabic cognate ibil, which now more specifically means "camels". Cain (qayin / qyn), on the other hand, is thought to be cognate to the mid-1st millennium BC South Arabian word qyn, meaning "metal smith" (See Richard S. Hess, Studies in the Personal Names of Genesis 1-11, ISBN 3-7887-1478-6. pp. 24-25). This theory would make their names merely descriptions of the roles they take in the story - Abel as a pastoral farmer, and Cain as an agriculturist.

chimaira · 11-15-2006, 08:30 AM

Thank you very mutch toto

11-14-2006, 01:12 AM	#1
chimaira Regular Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: France Posts: 169	Ethymology of Cain hello here I discuss with somebody on the name Cain, it says to me that Cain has an unknown significance whereas Hyam Maccoby affirms that Cain wants to say "blacksmith" can you help me? thank you

11-15-2006, 08:30 AM	#3
chimaira Regular Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: France Posts: 169	Toto Thank you very mutch toto

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