| Cush (כּוּשׁ "Dark,") was the eldest son of Ham, brother of Canaan and the father of Nimrod, mentioned in the "Table of Nations" in Genesis 10:6 and in I Chronicles 1:8. It is usually considered to be the eponym of the people of Kush. Six Arabian tribes are also sons of Cush.
In Genesis, Cush was the father of the Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. He is also the father of Nimrod. Another person named Cush in the Bible is a Benjamite (see Tribe of Benjamin) who is mentioned only in Psalm 7 and is believed to be a follower of Saul. Cush is first mentioned in Genesis 2:12-14, 12(The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Jewish historian Josephus gives an account of the nation of Cush, who is the son of Ham and the grandson of Noah: "For of the four sons of Ham, time has not at all hurt the name of Chus; for the Ethiopians, over whom he reigned, are even at this day, both by themselves and by all men in Asia, called Chusites." (Antiquities of the Jews Numbers I:6.)
The wife of Moses was a Kushite, according to the biblical Book of Numbers.
The locality of this area has been questioned, with some believing it refers to countries south of the Israelites, and others stating it refers to part of Africa, such as Ethiopia, in ancient inscriptions written as Kesh. Samuel Bochart maintained that it was exclusively in Arabia, while Friedrich Schulthess and Heinrich Gesenius held that it should be sought in Africa.
Others like Johann Michaelis and Rosenmuller have proposed that the name Cush was applied to tracts of country on both sides of the Red Sea in Yemen and in Africa. In the 5th century A.D., the Himyarites in the south of Arabia were styled by Syrian writers as Cushaeans and Ethiopians, and it is certain that the present-day areas of Yemen and Eritrea were both ruled together by one dynasty at that time. The existence of a historical Kush between Egypt and Nubia(Sudan) cannot reasonably be questioned, though the term may be employed in the Old Testament with some latitude. The African Kush covered Northern Sudan, Upper Egypt, and extended southwards from the First Cataract. In addition, the Cushitic peoples who live around the Horn of Africa and today comprise the Somali, Afar, Oromo and several other tribes, are traditionally the offspring of the Biblical Cush.
Genesis also suggests that the biblical term was also applied to parts of Arabia. Cush is the eponymous father of certain tribal and ethnic designations that tend to point to Arabia (though Sheba may be an exception, held by some to refer to Shewa in Africa.)
Babylonian inscriptions mention the Kashshi or Kassites, and it was once held that this signified a possible explanation of Cush, the ancestor of Nimrod in Genesis 10:7-9. Although decisive evidence is lacking, it is still alleged by some that the several references to Cush in the Old Testament do not refer to Ethiopia; however, its frequent inclusion with Libya and Mizraim (Egypt) strongly suggests that it was at least considered to be African (see Africa). Views on their precise location generally depend on how willing certain scholars are to concede that Ethiopia could have enjoyed the prominence claimed for it by others.
It is logical to assume that the indigenous African Cushites of East Africa, including the Aksum in Ethiopia, branched out and settled in Arabia or elsewhere, thus forming an extra-African civilization, since one can find references to "Cushites" outside of Africa. It seems fairly certain that many Cushites intermingled with other African peoples, both at home with Semitic African peoples from Yemen and in other lands where they settled.
The rhetorical question "Can the Cushite change his skin?" in Jeremiah 13:23 implies people of a markedly different skin color from the Israelites, probably an African race; also, the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament made by Greek-speaking Jews between ca. 250 BC and 100 BC uniformly translates Cush as "Ethiopia."
The Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915) recounts a tradition that the wife of Cush was named Qarnabil, daughter of Batawil, son of Tiras, and that she bore him the "Abyssinians, Sindis and Indians".
Another person named Cush in the Hebrew Bible is a Benjamite who is mentioned only in Psalm 7, and is believed to be a follower of Saul. References
- Armstrong, David F. (1999). Original Signs: Gesture, Sign, and the Sources of Language. Gallaudet University Press. pp. 155. "..The names Shem and Ham are current in linguistic classifications today, in the names for the dominant language families of the Middle East (Semitic) and North Africa (Hamitic), respectively. We can even find a Cushitic group of languages in Africa after Cush, one of the sons of Ham.."
- Masudi's The Meadows of Gold (947 AD); Wahb ibn Munabbih (738) included among Cush's offspring "the "Qaran", the Zaghawa, the Habesha, the Qibt, and the Barbar", none of whom are Cushitic speakers.
- A History of the Beja Tribes of the Sudan, Andrew Paul, p. 20
- The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of Meroitic Script, Unesco, p. 54.
- Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, p. 305
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Timothy Past