Within the history and rituals of Freemasonry we come across the names of various characters – mainly from the Bible but we do not always have the time to stop and consider who these characters were and what part they played. I have tried to correct this by producing Reflections of the ‘Who was…’ nature. Several of these have appeared in other books while in Freemasonry Today we have already had ‘Who was Raphael?’ ‘Who was Joshua?’ and ‘Who was Jephthah?’
    About some characters we know too little to make a complete article and so in this issue I offer reflections on two entirely different men.

Who was Tubal-Cain?

‘Tubal-Cain was the first artificer in metals’ – or, as a Suffolk candidate is reputed to have said, ‘the worst articifer in Beccles’. I say ‘reputed’ because personally I don’t believe a word of it. Suffolk candidates are much more intelligent than that – aren’t we? Tubal-Cain gets only one mention in the Bible, Genesis 4, 22, as the third son of Lamech. There is much confusion here for chapters four and five contain two different family trees; one of which records the descendants of Cain (the first murderer) and the other lists the descendants of Seth down to that Lamech who became the father of Noah. But as all this took place before the Flood perhaps it doesn’t seem very important to try and sort out relationships.
    The three sons of the chapter-four Lamech are cited as Originators – almost the equivalent of Patron Saints: Jabal, ‘the father of such as dwell in tents and of such as have cattle’; Jubal, ‘the father of all such as handle the harp and organ’, and Tubal-Cain, ‘an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron’. Jabal was thus the first nomad, Jubal the first musician and Tubal- Cain the first blacksmith.
    In Greek and Roman mythology it became customary to attribute these same qualities to ‘gods’ so that pan was the god of the nomadic existence, Apollo the god of music and Vulcan the god of fire and metalwork. It may seem far-fetched but if you ignore the ‘T’ and the ‘U’ the name Bal-Cain sounds remarkably like Vulcan. As to the import of the word itself: Cruden’s Concordance of the Holy Scriptures gives the following meaning to ‘Tubal-Cain’: ‘Worldly possession’ or ‘Possessor of the world’ or ‘One who is jealous of confusion’. I am not sure how one can be jealous of confusion, or indeed, how one can become a possessor of the world, but certainly in Hebrew Tubal can be interpreted as ‘world’ and Cain as ‘possession’. Perhaps Lamech, when choosing a name for his third son, decided to remind posterity that worldly possessions belong to this life only and whether you work in brass and iron – or in silver and gold – ‘you can’t take it with you!’

Who was Boaz?

Boaz has been described as ‘the great grand father of David, a prince and ruler in Israel’. Does this mean that David was a prince and ruler or that Boaz was? Well, David was undoubtedly a prince and ruler but all we know about Boaz is contained in the Biblical Book of Ruth where he is called ‘a wealthy man’ and in the works of Josephus where he appears as ‘a valiant man’. As he owned agricultural land and took a personal interest in the welfare of his employees we should probably call him a ‘gentleman farmer’.
    However, the important thing is that he certainly was the great-grandfather of David and therefore the great-great grand father of Solomon. The Book of Ruth sets out to tell just how this came about. The book ranges from tragedy to joy and might be described as a love story with a happy ending.
    Bethlehem in Hebrew means ‘House of bread’ but that did not prevent it being hit by famine. Asmallholder named Elimelech with his wife Naomi and their two sons escaped starvation by leaving Judaea and sojourning in Moab on the other side of the Dead Sea. The two sons married Moabite girls but then tragedy hit them: Elimelech and both the sons died leaving three widows to mourn them.
    By now things were apparently back to normal in Bethlehem so Naomi decided to go home giving her daughters-in-law the option of going with her or staying in Moab. One of the girls decided to stay but the other, Ruth, passionately declared her love for Naomi and accompanied her to Bethlehem.
    Arriving at harvest-time Naomi contrived to get Ruth a job gleaning on the estate of Boaz who was a kinsman of Elimelech. Then it seems to have been almost a case of love at first sight; but there was a closer kinsman than Boaz and under the laws of those days it would be his duty to ‘redeem’ the property of Elimelech and his sons. On discovering that this would also involve having to marry Ruth, the unnamed kinsman shirked the task whereupon Boaz gallantly stepped in and accepted full responsibility. There was a happy marriage leading to a son named Obed who eventually became the father of Jesse whose son, of course, was David.
    Oddly enough, it doesn’t seem to have worried the genealogical purists that Ruth was Moabite and not Jewish, but perhaps we could call this an early example of racial integration and mutual respect. Well done Boaz!