21st Century Bible Hebew -- iron

Genesis 4:21-24

 

כא וְשֵׁ֥ם אָחִ֖יו יוּבָ֑ל ה֣וּא הָיָ֔ה אֲבִ֕י כָּל־תֹּפֵ֥שׂ כִּנּ֖וֹר וְעוּגָֽב:

כב וְצִלָּ֣ה גַם־הִ֗וא יָֽלְדָה֙ אֶת־תּ֣וּבַל קַ֔יִן לֹטֵ֕שׁ כָּל־חֹרֵ֥שׁ נְח֖שֶׁת וּבַרְזֶ֑ל וַאֲח֥וֹת תּֽוּבַל־קַ֖יִן נַֽעֲמָֽה:

כג וַיֹּ֨אמֶר לֶ֜מֶךְ לְנָשָׁ֗יו עָדָ֤ה וְצִלָּה֙ שְׁמַ֣עַן קוֹלִ֔י נְשֵׁ֣י לֶ֔מֶךְ הַֽאֲזֵ֖נָּה אִמְרָתִ֑י כִּ֣י אִ֤ישׁ הָרַ֨גְתִּי֙ לְפִצְעִ֔י וְיֶ֖לֶד לְחַבֻּֽרָתִֽי:

כד כִּ֥י שִׁבְעָתַ֖יִם יֻֽקַּם־קָ֑יִן וְלֶ֖מֶךְ שִׁבְעִ֥ים וְשִׁבְעָֽה:

 

Translation: The name of his brother was Yuval; he was the father of all playing the harp and ugav.

Tsillah, she gave birth to Tuval Qain sharpening every tool of bronze and iron; the sister of Tuval Qain was Naamah.

Lemekh said to his wives “Adah and Tsillah, obey me, wives of Lemekh hearken to my saying; if I killed a man [was it] for my wounding? or a boy, for my injury?

If Qain is avenged shivataim; then Lemekh seventy seven.”

 

Some of you no doubt think that the word “iron” has to be an anachronism because it places this part of Genesis in Hittite times. However, archaeologists have found meteoric iron that they can tell people were using, dating back to about 4000 BCE.

 

Smelted iron from the 2500s BCE is found in Anatolia.  This is right about the time that the Hittites came to Anatolia and possibly means they picked it up from the locals, who had been in place about 2500 years  at that point.

 

Carbon steel shows up in Hittite sites dating to the 1800s BCE.  This is right about the time the Hyksos took over in Egypt.

 

The urban legend is that Torah is the oral tradition of a Bronze Age people, but now you can see that for that to be true, the ancestors of the Jews would have to have existed before 2500 BCE.

 

Modern genetics shows that the homeland of the Semitic languages is not Mesopotamia. It is northeastern Anatolia, between Mt. Ararat and the Caucasus, between 5000 BCE and 3500 BCE.

 

I’m sure you wonder where all the broken iron went to that must have built up over the centuries until the so-called “Iron Age” actually began.  Without oiling and other kinds of care, iron rusts away to nothing.  The only reason families of knightly origin still have the swords of their ancestors, is that their ancestors knew how to take care of the steel.  It’s also true that it’s easier to melt down old metal and re-cast it, than to mine new ore and refine it. That’s why we recycle aluminum cans today. One of the characters in George Elliot’s book Romola is a professional collector of old iron for recycling, and that novel is set in the Renaissance.

 

This is one of many reasons that so little survives from past generations,  let alone past millennia. It’s an example of why an argument from silence in history or archaeology is a fallacy.