Biblical Cush
See also: Kush, KushitesCush (
כּוּשׁ "Dark,"
Standard Hebrew Kuš,
Tiberian Hebrew Kûš) was the eldest son of
Ham, brother of
Canaan and the father of
Nimrod, mentioned in the "Table of Nations" in the
Book of Genesis (X. 6) and in
I Chronicles (I: 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 who is mentioned only in Psalm 7 and is believed to be a follower of
Saul.
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
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 the
Arabia (
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 (See
Aksumite Kingdom).
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 chapter 8.
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. 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."
