Incessant Expressions

Writing for writing’s sake

Incessant Expressions header image 2

Who were the Kenites?

May 22nd, 2007 by James Westfall

Just who are the Kenites? Getting a concise answer is actually very difficult. I was proposed this question during a discussion between a Christian and myself. Amazingly, the Bible offers little to no help at all and this is one of the few pieces of literature they’re ever mentioned by name. Being a non-theist I wanted to know a little bit about their origin in history and if they were ever a significant force in the world. Well, to answer the latter question up front, not really. I also wanted to find out why this particular person thought they were the spawn of my dear Satan.

So I started out on finding out about who the Kenites might be and where they’re from. The Kenites were a small tribe of Palestine but where they came from before that is practically unknown so I will stick with this viewpoint. They were a tribe of southern Judah and Palestine that were assimilated, by the revered King David, into the tribe of Judah. This helped seal their fate as “children of God”. This is where there is some controversy between Christian thought. According to Scripture, they’re a peaceful people whom are typically related to — or synonymous with — the Midianites. The Midianites were always held in a lofty light, having been peace-loving and Moses’ father-in-law Jethro was a Midianite (with some speculation that Moses was also a Midianite). This said, if Moses were a Midianite and if Kenites were another name for those from Midian, Moses would not be an evil and vile person would he? The latter part of that sentence brings me to the over-the-top and bizarre counterpoint to everything stated in Scripture: Kenites are the spawn of Satan. Yep, they’re descendants of Cain and thus, the world-bound demon spawn of Satan and all that is evil. This is the sole view of one right-wing, crazy, and seemingly racist “preacher” Arnold Murray of his own cult church the Shepherd’s Chapel. Before I even began wanting to believe a Christian this crazy could be believed, I consulted a reverend’s wife who just happens to be my sister. She confirmed what I’d read about his insane views of Orthodoxy and Christianity in general. Going off what he espouses to be Gospel, I tried to understand the etymology of the word Kenite in both Hebrew and English and why he would think what he says. The Hebrew translation of the word kenite would be Qayin which is the name Cain in early Hebraic text. As is the word Kajin and the Greek would be Kain. OK, so Murray might be onto something with the transliteration of the name but the word kenite itself also translates to “smith” so they could have been metalsmiths and not some blight upon the world.

Murray’s views are where he completely separates himself from Christian thought and his own bog of oddity. In fact, in apparent Christian form, he blasts any view other than his own:

Kenites

What about the use of the word Kenites? It is a Hebrew word that has only one meaning, “sons of Cain.” It does not mean Judah. The word Kenite cannot be translated Judah and is never used of Judah. Anyone saying that I use the word to describe Judah is not telling the truth; it would be a lie, because I have never said this.

Wow, someone got offended pretty easily. Now, we have to understand that he used the “original scriptures and documents” to formulate his propaganda orthodoxy. So why do many people translate the word so much differently than he? I think it’s because he’s insane and profoundly racist — based on other things told to me by members of the Shepherd’s Chapel.

With the brief history of the Kenites I’ve presented, why is there such a schism in Christianity over who they were? Since they’re almost solely mentioned only in the Bible, I’d figure it would be pretty cut and dry who they were. I simply chalk this up to another reason why Christianity is a bizarre cult that has no end. Rarely have I ever seen something so studied and laid before us with so many different opinions and ideas about the exact same source material.

Tags: 9 Comments

Leave A Comment

9 responses so far ↓

  • 1 blank Jun 13, 2007 at 1:40 pm

    the kenites were a non-Israelite tribe associated with the Midianites, that eventually merged with the Kingdom of Judah (as opposed to Israel). Moses’ father-in-law (aka Jethro/Reuel/Hobab) was supposedly one of them; scholars think this represents the fact that the Kenites were the ones that originally worshipped Yahweh (KJV translation: the LORD) , and when they merged with Judah the belief transferred to the Israelites, who previously had worshipped El (KJV translation: God).

  • 2 blank Jun 13, 2007 at 1:47 pm

    The other thing about the Kenites is that there are two different versions of Cain in the bible - one is cunningly typo’d as “Cainan”. If you pay attention carefully, you’ll realise that the list in Genesis 5 is really a disguised version of the list in Genesis 4. Or in other words, Cain is the great-great-great-great grandfather of Noah.

  • 3 blank Jun 13, 2007 at 1:49 pm

    By the way, if you want to find out about the biggest dispute in the entire history of Christianity, find out who Marcion was.

  • 4 Margie Plummer Apr 21, 2008 at 7:58 am

    Everything you wanted to know about Murray is on that website.

    Jael, who killed the enemy of Israel, Sisera, with a tent spike, was married to Huber the Kenite.

    Murray just uses this clan as a hook, which seems to snag several hundred “fish” every year. They get hooked in the mouth, you can tell because they are very sarcastic and hateful with their words.

    Murray rakes in millions of dollars every year, to his “church” but there is not actually a church program there. Just him and his son and their Bible commentary…and a live audience of true believers. But, there is no youth group; no ministry to rest homes; no minitry to cancer victims or hospital visitation. The preacher doesn’t visit jails or feed and clothe the poor. He uses the money to buy property, planes and further sales of tapes and newsletters.

    Typical money grabbing tv preacher.

  • 5 alan joseph Jul 28, 2008 at 5:28 am

    Hello. Kenite is a term derived from Kenanite and ultimately Kenan/Cainan, the son of Enosh, son of Seth, son of Adam. If you want a really difficult problem to ponder take the genealogy of Jethro the Kenite in hand. In the list of descendants from Asher, through Beriah and Heber, you will encounter characters hidden from us by titles that change in a subtle manner.
    1Chron: 30; Beriah; 31 Heber; Hotham/Helem; 35 Zophah; 37 Ithran; 38 Jether/Ithran; Jephunneh. As there is only one person in the entire bible named Jephunneh, son of Jethro and father of Caleb, we must deduce that the Kenite Jethro was born into the tribe of Asher and not Judah, despite the fact that Caleb is installed as Leader/Father of Judah in Numb’s: 34/19.
    Hope this helps in your quest rather than proving yet another hurdle to overcome. Warmest of regards. Alan Joseph.

  • 6 MICHAEL FLANAGAN Aug 26, 2008 at 11:38 am

    I REALLY FIND IT VERY DISTURBING THAT MOST OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD TREATS ARNOLD MURRAY WITH SUCH DISTAIN,HAVE U NOT READ HAVE U NOT SPENT ANY TIME IN RESEARCH COME ON I HAVE YOUNG CHILDREN THAT CAN SEE WHAT HE IS SAYING.NACHSEH DOES NOT MEAN SERPENT IN HEBREW READ YOUR STRONGS CON CORDANCE PLEASE PROPERLY TRANSLATED IT MEANS THE BRIGHT AND SHINING GLORIOUS ANGEL OF LIGHT AND IF U R ANY KIND OF BIBLE SCHOLAR U WILL SEE THAT THIS IS A REFERENCE TO LUCIFER THE WORD SNAKE WAS AND IS ABAD TRANSLATION IF U WANT TRUTH U MUST GO BACK TO THE ORIGANAL TEXT WITTEN IN HEBREW NOT TODAYS HEBREW BUT THAT THAT WAS SPOKEN AT THE TIME OF MOSES WHICH TODAY IS A DEAD LANGUAGE THAT MEANING THAT EVERY MEANING OF EVERY WOSD IS FIXED SO THAT IT CAN NOT BE CHANGE IT MEANS WHAT IT MEANS JUST SO U KNOW IF THE FALLEN ANGELS OF GEN 6 COULD LEAVE THEIR FIRST HABITATION AND TAKE THE DAUGHTERS OF ADAM FOR WIVIES AND THEN CONCEIVE CHILREN WITH THEM CALLED IN HEBREW GEBER OR MIGHTY MEN IE THE GAINTS OF GEN 6,THEN WHY COULD NOT LUCIFER NOT DO THE SAME WITH EVE HE IS THE ULTIMATE FALLEN ANGEL UMUST LOOK PAST THE DOG MA OF CONVENTIAL THINKING IT IS WHAT IT IS THERE ARE NO SECRETS WITH GOD HIS BIVLE ANSWERS ALL QUESTIONS IF PROPERLY TRANSLATED REMEMBER THAT LUCIFER ISTHE CHEIF CAPTAIN OF THESE FALLEN ANGELSTHEY WOULD HAVE KNOWN WHAT LUCIFER COULD DO AND BEING OF THE HEAVENLYS THEY WOULD HAVE SIMILAR POWER AS HIM ,MAYBE NOT AS POWERFUL AS HIM .REMEMBER SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT THAT UNTIL HIS FALL HE WAS THE COVER CHERBUM ,HE WAS AN ARCH ANGEL JUST LIKE MICHAEL LUCIFER ON THE LEFT MICHAEL ONTHE RIGHT HAVE U NOT READ EZK 28
    ARNOLD MURRAY IS NOT WRONG JUST ASK A MEDICAL DOCTOR IF A BLACK WOMAN CAN SLEEP WITH AWHITE MAN CONCEIVE WITH THIS MAN THEN SLEEP WITH ABLACK MAN AND ALSO CONCEIVE WITH HIM AND PRODUCE TWINS THAT ARE NON IDENTICAL BUT ARE OF TWO DIFFERENT FATHERS DO I NEED TO SAY MORE THIS APPLES TO ANY RACE OF PEOPLE U MUST LOOKAT THIS IN THE PROPER CONTEXT

  • 7 MICHAEL FLANAGAN Aug 26, 2008 at 2:33 pm

    just so everybody knows the true meaning of the word nachash in hebrew is to hiss ie to whisper to enchant to deceive .now we know who deceives so he is lucifer he has many names but he is the same old dragon

  • 8 James Westfall Aug 27, 2008 at 12:06 am

    Wow, just wow. Absolutely nothing you said makes sense. A black woman has a child by a white man and then conceives non-identical twins by a black man and they won’t look the same? That makes absolutely no sense at all. Of course having children from two different fathers will produce children that look different. It’s called “genetics”. I guess the fact that Arnold Murray is a fairly outspoken racist would have no effect on your inane babbling.

    Funny, I did go to Strongs for the proper translation of words from the story of the Kenites and unspectacularly, I got a different story than you did. I’m not amazed because I’m not believing dogma that’s spoon-fed to me, I did the research.

    You’re right, everyone needs to go back to the original Hebrew texts (which don’t exist) and translate into archaic Hebrew (which almost no one outside of Judaic academia can) to provide a true translation. The word ’snake’ was not a bad translation, it was the proper one based on the times but nowhere does it state in the Old Testament that it’s an allusion to Lucifer, this is only stated in the New Testament. You know, the part of the Bible Christians say completely negates what came before it…

  • 9 alan joseph Aug 27, 2008 at 5:20 am

    Hello. The eighth character of the Hebrew Alephbet is Cheth, representing the second “H,” and included in the term Nachash as an extension of Nahash, “Whisperer.” The king Achash that David became attached to as a mercenary was of the Serpent Cult, and David inscribed his credentials of that cult upon the gatepost of the city for the eyes of Achish alone. In feigning madness, he allowed spittle to run down his beard like the venom of a serpent to show he was of the Nachashon sect that carried out assassinations of cult members who strayed from the straight and narrow. In knowing that it is no surprise that his father Jessie/Ishi-iahu (”Man of Yahweh”) was also a Nahshon (”Whisperer”). Levi means “Coiler,” a kind of Garland that encircled the Levite priesthood as its spiritual and military arm. As you can imagine the Leviathan, or “Strong Coiler,” could not be a whale as it is unable to coil itself about anything and therefore was a Sea Serpent mirroring that Serpent in the sky known as Serpens. If you would like to peruse a treatise on the Serpent Cult, of which Samuel was also a member, please email and it shall be sent. There is also another and much longer work on the Kenanite/Kenite saga that may aid in your research. If possible some form of collaberation might be arranged in presenting a fuller picture of who the Kenites were and what they did for the Jews before and after the conquest of Canaan. One hero, called Caleb, was given Hebron as an everlasting homeland for his fathers descendants and proving that the Kenites were held in high esteem. But when you are made aware that the three cohorts of Abraham in Hebron/Mamre were in fact Kenites and not Amorites, as given, a whole new aspect of the surface storyline is shown in the esoteric subtext.
    The very warmest of regards. Alan Joseph.