Talk:The Cain Tradition
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"Among Hebrews and Christians it was believed that Cain and his descendants were instruments in Satan’s plan for the destruction of man" - can you provide a reference??? Danielcohn (talk) 22:43, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Based on an older tradition
"This tradition which developed during the middle ages argued that the the descendants of Cain were monsters and giants. There are certain differences, however between the two texts. While the Septuagint tells of the ‘angels of God’ mating with the ‘daughters of men,’ (thus creating monstrous figures), the Vulgate mentions the giants but not their origin."
I'm sorry, but this is not quite right. The view that giants (and perhaps monsters) were conceived by a mix between humans and fallen angels, is much older than the medieval times. It is the actual view of the Old Testament, in Genesis 6:1-4. It does not explicitly say that these hybrids were of Cain's breed only, but that may have been the view of the Jewish interpreters, as Cain's brother Set's breed was seen as holy.
Thus, the first "Cain tradition" was the biblical tradition, and this was the most common view among both Jews and Christians, until about the 5th century, when Augustin and other scolars started to allegorize the story. After that, this first Cain tradition was forbidden in the Catholic Church. The official view was that there only had been a mix between Set's and Cain's breed, resulting in a population of humans "gigantic" only in science, progress, and such things. Thus, the supernatural element in the original story was denied.
So, if there was a living Cain tradition in medieval times, it would either have been a "non-catholic" tradition, or, a tradition more based on allegorical interpretations, than on supernatural.
In Beowulf, then, the original view seems to be preserved, which would suggest that Beowulf is written under another Christian influence, than that of the Catholic Church's. /Leos Friend (talk) 20:46, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
