Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Cinites  From Wikisource Jump to:
navigation, search  (A.V. Kenites).  A tribe or family often
mentioned in the Old Testament, personified as Qayin from which
the nomen gentilicium Qeni is derived. In spite of several
attempts at a solution, the origin both of the name and of the
tribe is still obscure. Hobab the relative (brother-in-law?) of
Moses was a Cinite (Judges, i, 16, iv, 11; as Hobab is also
called a Madianite (Num., x, 29), it follows that the Cinites
belonged to that nation. Judging from appearances, the Cinites
were true worshippers of Yahweh. Some scholars, on the strength
of Ex., xviii, go even so far as to assert that it was from them
that the Israelites received a great portion of their
monotheistic theology; the passage, however, deals directly and
only with social organization. At any rate, the Rechabites, a
clan of the Cinites [I Par. (A. V. I Chron.) ii, 55] were even
ascetics and insisted on retaining the nomadic habits of the
followers of Yahweh (Jer., xxxv)