Who is Tubal-Cain?

Two Pickleballs and a Cane

Red Wing Lodge Education

May 6, 2024

 

Who is Tubal-Cain?

Why is his name always on our lips at every Lodge meeting?

Why does he appear in our Masonic Ritual?

Why is he one of the most important names in Ancient Craft Masonry?

Who is this man shrouded in myth and legends, with his origins veiled in the mists of antiquity?

 

I have these questions and I imagine you may have wondered about some of these questions yourself.

So much of what we do in our Lodge Ritual today is based on what our ancient Brothers did over 1570 years ago. My talk tonight is to help us all understand the history and to meaning to our ritual and what we do.

To find the answers to the questions above, I needed to examine Tubal-Cain from four different perspectives: the Biblical, historical, mythical, and Masonic.

But before we can take this journey thru the fog and mists of time, to unravel the legends and the myths, to better understand how Tubal-cain came to be central to Masonry, we need to take off our 21^st century eyeglasses and review the history.

If we review our Masonic history, from the perspective of the person who wrote it, and within the time frame when it was written we can better understand it. With an historical perspective, the knowledge of the past becomes fully illuminated, and its strengths enriches our present knowledge.

But first, my Masonic disclaimer, to help guide us to gaining that perspective.

A considerable amount of Freemasonry’s nucleus can be traced to the Judeo-Christian teaching and texts. The Bible was utilized to develop a system of morality using those universal truths to develop our timeless core values.

Also, we need to take into consideration, that during the 18^th century when Speculative Freemasonry was taking shape in Europe, Christianity in its many forms played a significate role in people’s daily lives and cultures. This proved to be fertile ground to use religious imagery to incorporate timeless universal moral and ethical teachings into Freemasonry.

But though Freemasonry has many appearances of religious elements, the craft is explicitly non-sectarian. Freemasonry does not promote any doctrine, dogma or sets of beliefs. The Legend of the Craft is a Masonic perspective of the origins of Geometry, along with their perspectives of world history and their involvement in that history.

Disclaimer completed.

The origin of Tubal-Cain is found in the Bible or Volume of Sacred law in Genesis 4:22.

Here are four different translations:

…Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron (King James Version);

…Tubal-Cain who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron (New International Version);

…Tubal-Cain he opened the first foundry forging instruments of bronze and iron (Living Bible)

…Tubal-Cain he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron (Revised Standard Version).

Tubal-Cain was the first artificer-a skilled craftsman who creates or invents things.

To put all of this into more context for everyone, Tubal-Cain appears very early in the Bible story. He is a descendent, only six generations removed, from Adam and Eve. So, he is after the Garden of Eden, but before Noah and the flood.

I’m going to take the time outline Tubal-Cain’s genealogy, for this is the basis for the myths and legends and our Masonic stories.

Now, we turn our attention to the central theme of our story. It is about the transfer of knowledge, the death and destruction of the world, and Two Pillars.

The first story I will discuss was written by the famous first Century A.D. historian Flavius Josephus. He was a Jew that was born in Jerusalem Judea, and a Roman Citizen.

Our story appears in volume one of his twenty-one volume set titled “Antiquities of the Jews”. He outlines the history of the Jews, starting with creation through 93 A.D., as passed down thru the Jewish perspective.

His writing states that Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain, and Abel. Cain murdered Able and fled. Adam and Eve had another son named Seth. He was wise, righteous, and had a virtuous character. Seth had many descendants who imitated his ways.

Seths descendants discovered the science of the heavenly bodies and their orderly array. Today we would say they discovered Astronomy.  His descendants were mindful of Adam’s prophesy or prediction of the pending destruction of the world by either a violent fire or a deluge of water. To protect their discoveries from being destroyed and lost to mankind they erected two pillars.

One pillar was made of brick and the other was made of stone. They inscribed the knowledge they discovered on both pillars. If the pillar of brick disappeared in the deluge, the pillar of stone would remain to teach and preserve their knowledge for mankind. Likewise, if the pillar of stone was lost, the pillar of brick would remain.  They engraved a notation into each pillar that a duplicate pillar of brick or stone was erected.

Josephus writes that both pillars still existed at the time that he was writing, and they were in what is now Syria.

Flavius Josephus was one of the most influential classical historians of Europe and the Mediterranean world during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. But from early on this story was believed to be fictious. It was said that his story was the remaking, similar to, or plagiarized from, the Book of Enoch.

The Book of Enoch is believed to have been written about 200 B.C., earlier than Flavius Josephus writings, however the Book of Enoch was not accepted by either the Jews or Christians.

Josephus two pillars story was extremely popular across western Europe and England, especially among academic’s and chroniclers, for the purpose to connect a lineage for the history of Astronomy to Antediluvian Times.  

Thus, the two pillars story spread across Europe and was recorded and copied by the chroniclers. You know that image of that medieval Monk humped over a desk, writing with a feathered pen, those were the chroniclers.

But there were several chroniclers who took great license and made large changes and modifications to the story. Their corruption of the story misconceives, distorts, and causes confusion around the story.

One chronicler made Tubal-Cain the inventor of music, while another gives him magical powers, and another equates Tubal-Cain and his siblings with the classical Greek gods. 

These are just a few of the stories that have added confusion and misunderstanding.

Now let’s jump forward in time to the late medieval to early renaissance period in England.  The time frame is approximately 1390 to the 1720’s.  This was a time when Freemason’s Lodges were spreading throughout England.

At this time, each Lodge was an independent, autonomous, separate identity that governed themselves. There was no formal regional or national affliction. This is hundreds of years before the Grand Lodge was formed.

Many of the Lodges created formal documents. Some of these were handwritten in the back of the Secretaries Minute Books, others were written on paper or parchment. Some were stitched together into a book form, a few were printed, and some placed into book form by a Bookmaker. Today these documents are referred to as: The Ancient Manuscripts, The Old Charges, The Ancient Constitutions, or Legend of the Craft.

Though these documents were written over hundreds of years, and, in different places, there are many similarities in their content.  They usually contained instructions concerning the behavior of the Craftsman, praise for the seven liberal arts, and usually a legendary fairy like tale of the Crafts creation.

The manuscripts that we call the” Old Charges” contain the very essence of Ancient Craft Freemasonry. Today, we know of about 130 such manuscripts.

When Dr. James Anderson was preparing to write the Constitution for the new Grand Lodge of England, he collected the “Old Charges”, and studied them carefully.  He then made liberal use of them by incorporating them into what we know today as “Andersons Constitution’s”.

The oldest of the “Old Charges” is the “Regius Poem” from 1390. But it is in the Cooke Manuscript from 1450, second oldest manuscript, that Tubal-Cain and his siblings make their first Masonic appearance.

The Cooke Manuscript is also, or the first time, that we see the story of the Two Pillars appear in Masonry.

The manuscript begins with a very long history of Freemasonry. The opening scene begins with the biblical character Lamech, a direct descendent of Adam. Lamech had two wives who produced four children.

Jabel was the discoverer of geometry, the discoverer of living in tents and houses, the first to partition land and divide flocks of sheep.  

Jubal was the inventor of music and song.

The youngest son Tubal-Cain is said to have founded the smith trade, and other crafts dealing with metals including iron, brass, gold, and silver.

The daughter Naamah was the inventor of weaving and other skills.

The children of Lamech heard a prophecy that the Lord was going to destroy the earth by either a great fire or a flood because of man’s sinfulness. They determined that they wanted to preserve the knowledge of their sciences for future generations if there were any survivors.

Since they didn’t know which one of the destructive forces that the Lord would send. They made plans for both scenarios. They built two pillars. One made of marble which would not burn. The other out of brick which would withstand the flood waters. On each of the pillars they inscribed all the information of their seven sciences for prosperity.

There was a great flood, but many years later both pillars were found. One was discovered by Hermes the Philosopher, the other by Pythagoras. Both taught the sciences they found inscribed on the pillars.   

The Cooke Manuscript is written by a very well-educated man who was believed to be a Mason. This is during the time that is a bridge between the Medieval Operative Masons becoming more Speculative Freemasons of the Renaissance era.

But this two pillars story is not a Masonic Original…

Just thirty years before the Cooke Manuscript was written, an English Benedictine monk and chronicler who lived about 125 miles from where the Cooke Manuscript was believed to be written, wrote the same story.

Benedictine Monk, Ranulf Higdon, wrote his version of the Flavius Josephus “Two Pillars” with Lamech, Tubal-Cain, founders of geometry, art, architecture etc. in the “Polychronican”, a seven-volume set of what has been described as the most exhaustive history of the world in medieval times. A very popular best seller at the time.

Interestingly, Higdon’s story is found almost verbatim within the Cooke manuscript.

In Anderson’s Constitutions, which was inspired by the “Old Charges” and which serves as our foundational document for Freemasonry today, there is no specific mention of Tubal-Cain and the Two Pillars story.  However Tubal-Cain appears to be the forerunner of Hiram Abiff, and the Two Pillars story certainly seems to be represented in the symbolic and allegorical connections between Tubal-Cain and certain details of the Masonic story, particularly in relationship to craftsmanship and metallurgy.

It appears that Tubal-Cain was the founder of the craft that Hiram Abiff excelled in, and he was a direct link between the two earliest pillars and those of King Solomons Temple, plus Kings Solomons pillars are not mentioned until much later in 1696 in the Edinburgh Register.

Tubal-Cain and Hiram Abiff both serve as symbolic representations of the virtues that we as Freemasons hold dearly, such as integrity, the pursuit of knowledge and industry.  Tubal-Cain was the first Artificer in forging and metal work and the father of teaching. His expertise in metal work symbolizes human ingenuity and the advancement of human development through mastery and craftsmanship.

In summary, Tubal-Cain is a Masonic Role model for us.

For When We Speak His Name.

We should be reminded to:

Constantly be seeking knowledge and wisdom; and

To work hard and to strive for excellence in our lives; and

To learn and develop new skills and self-improvement; and

To share our knowledge, time, and talent, so that others may benefit.

 

Recommended Reading

“World of Freemasonry” by Harry Carr

“Freemason at Work” by Harry Carr

“The Builder” Magazine September 1923

“Jubal in the Middle Ages” by Judith Cohen-Tel Aviv

“Who Was Tubal-Cain” The Square Magazine