Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Genesis 4:22
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, etc.] Thought by many to be the same with Vulcan, his name and business agreeing; for the names are near in sound, Tubalcain may easily pass into Vulcan; and who, with the Heathens, was the god of the smiths, and the maker of Jupiter’s thunderbolts, as this was an artificer in iron and brass, as follows: his name is compounded of two words, the latter of which was no doubt put into his name in memory of Cain his great ancestor; the former Josephus f292 reads Thobel, and says of him, that he exceeded all in strength, and had great skill in military affairs: an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron; he taught men the way of melting metals, and of making armour and weapons of war, and other instruments, for various uses, out of them; and he seems to be the same with the Chrysor of Sanchoniatho; for he says f293 of them (Agreus and Halieus) were begotten two brothers, the inventors of iron, and of working of it: one of these, called Chrysor, is said to be Hephaestus or Vulcan; and Chrysor, as Bochartus f294 seems rightly to conjecture, is rwa-çrj, “Choresh-Ur, a worker in fire”; that, by means of fire, melted metals, and cast them into different forms, and for different uses; and one of these words is used in the text of Tubalcain; and so, according to Diodorus Siculus f295, Vulcan signifies fire, and was not only the inventor of fire, but he says he was the inventor of all works in iron, brass, gold, and silver, and of all other things wrought by fire, and of all other uses of fire, both by artificers and all other men, and therefore he was called by all pur, “fire”. Clemens of Alexandria f296 ascribes the invention of brass and iron to the Idaeans or priests of Cybele in Cyprus; and so Sophocles in Strabo f297: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah; whose name signifies “pleasant”, fair and beautiful; and is thought by some to be the Venus of the Heathens; the Arabic writers f298 say she was a most beautiful woman, and found out colours and painting; and by others Minerva; and Josephus f299 says she excelled in the knowledge of divine things; and Minerva is by the Greeks called Nemanoum f300. The Jews say f301 she was the wife of Noah; and some of them say f302 she was the wife of one Shimron, and the mother of the evil spirit Asmodeus, mentioned in Tobit, and of whom other demons were begotten: the Targuru of Jonathan adds, “she was the mistress of lamentation and songs;” but our Bishop Cumberland f303 conjectures, that she was the wife of Ham, was with him in the ark, and after the flood was the means of leading him into idolatry: what led him to this conjecture was, that he observed in Plutarch, that the wife of Cronus, the same with Ham, is by some called Nemaus, which brought Naamah to his mind. Josephus f304 makes the number of children Lamech had by his two wives to be seventy seven.
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