Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel (Hebrew: הֶבֶל ,קַיִן Qayin, Heḇel) were, according to the Book of Genesis, two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain is described as a crop farmer and his younger brother Abel as a shepherd. Cain was the first human born and Abel was the first human to die. Cain committed the first murder by killing his brother. Interpretations of Genesis 4 by ancient and modern commentators have typically assumed that the motives were jealousy and anger.^[1] In the Cain and Abel story found in the Quran, the text refers to them simply as the sons of Adam (Arabic: ابني آدم).

Genesis narrative

Hebrew Bible version:

¹Adam knew his wife Eve intimately, and she conceived and bore Cain. She said, "I have had a male child with the LORD's help."^a[›]

²Then she also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of a flock, but Cain cultivated the land. ³In the course of time Cain presented some of the land's produce as an offering to the LORD. ⁴And Abel also presented [an offering]^b[›] – some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.^c[›] The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he was downcast.^[2]

⁶Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you furious? And why are you downcast?^{[3] 7}If you do right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it."

⁸Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field."^[4]

And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

—Genesis 4:1-8 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

The Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, offers an alternate version of the seventh verse:

If you offer properly, but divide improperly, have you not sinned? Be still; to you shall he submit, and you shall rule over him.^[5]

Later in the narrative, God asked Cain, "Where is Abel thy brother?" Cain replied, "I know not: am I my brother's keeper?"

And he said, "What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now [art] thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." (Genesis 4:10-4:12)

Origins

Cain and Abel are traditional English renderings of the Hebrew names Qayin (קין) and Hevel (הבל). The original text did not provide vowels. It has been proposed that the etymology of their names may be a direct pun on the roles they take in the Genesis narrative. Abel is thought to derive from a reconstructed word meaning "herdsman", with the modern Arabic cognate ibil now specifically referring only to "camels". Cain is thought to be cognate to the mid-1st millennium BC South Arabian word qyn, meaning "metalsmith".^[6] This theory would make the names descriptive of their roles, where Abel works with livestock, and Cain with agriculture—and would parallel the names Adam ("man," אדם) and Eve ("life-giver," חוה Chavah).

The oldest known copy of the biblical narrative is from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and dates to the first century CE.^[7][8] Cain and Abel also appear in a number of other texts,^[9] and the story is the subject of various interpretations.^[10] Abel, the first murder victim, is sometimes seen as the first martyr;^[11] while Cain, the first murderer, is sometimes seen as an ancestor of evil.^[12] Some scholars suggest the pericope may have been based on a Sumerian story representing the conflict between nomadic shepherds and settled farmers.^[13] Modern scholars typically view the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel to be about the development of civilization during the age of agriculture; not the beginnings of man, but when people first learned agriculture, replacing the ways of the hunter-gatherer.^[14]

Motives

The Genesis narrative does not give a specific reason for the murder of Abel. Modern commentators typically assume that the motives were jealousy and anger due to God rejecting Cain's offering, while accepting Abel's.^[1] Ancient exegetes, such as the Midrash and the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, suggest something even more sinister behind the killing.^[1] They supplement that the motive involved a desire for the most beautiful woman. According to Midrashic tradition, Cain and Abel each had twin sisters whom they were to marry. The Midrash states that Abel's promised wife, Aclima, was more beautiful. Since Cain would not consent to this arrangement, Adam suggested seeking God's blessing by means of a sacrifice. Whomever God blessed would marry Aclima. When God openly rejected Cain's sacrifice, Cain slew his brother in a fit of jealousy and anger.^[15] Analysts have described Cain's relationship to his sister as being incestuous.^[16]

Cain

Cain
Cain, by Henri Vidal, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris
Known for	First person that was born; first murderer; First person live at hell with Satan[1]
Spouse(s)	Awan, who was his sister[17]
Children	Enoch
Parent(s)	Adam and Eve

According to the narrative in Genesis, Cain (Hebrew: קַיִן, Qayin; Koine Greek Κάïν, Ka-in;^[18] Ethiopian version: Qayen; Arabic: قابيل, Qābīl) is the first child of Eve,^[19] the first murderer, and the first human being to fall under a curse.^[20]

According to the biblical narrative in Genesis 4:1-16, Cain treacherously murdered his brother Abel, lied about the murder to God, and as a result was cursed and marked for life.^[20] With the earth left cursed to drink Abel's blood, Cain was no longer able to farm the land.^[21] Exegesis of the Hebrew narrative has Cain punished as a "fugitive and wanderer".^[22] Exegesis of the Septuagint's narrative, "groaning and shaking upon the earth" has Cain suffering from body tremors.^[23] Interpretations extend Cain's curse to his descendants, where they all died in the Great Deluge as retribution for the loss of Abel's potential offspring.^[24] Cain's curse involves receiving a mark from God, commonly referred to as the mark of Cain. This mark serves as God's promise to Cain for divine protection from premature death, with the stated purpose to prevent anyone from killing him. It is not known what the mark is, but it is assumed that the mark is visible.^[25]

Cain is also described as a city-builder,^[26] and, through three sons of his son five times remote, as the forefather of tent-dwelling pastoralists, all lyre and pipe players, and the bronze and iron smiths, respectively.^[27]

In the New Testament, Cain is cited as an example of unrighteousness in 1 John 3:12 and Jude 1:11. The Targumim, rabbinic sources, and later speculations supplemented background details for the daughters of Adam and Eve.^[28] Such exegesis of Genesis 4 introduced Cain's wife as being his sister, a concept that has been accepted for at least 1800 years.^[29] This can be seen with Jubilees 4 which narrates that Cain settled down and married his sister Awan, who bore his first son, the first Enoch,^{[lower-alpha 1]} approximately 196 years after the creation of Adam. Cain then establishes the first city, naming it after his son, builds a house, and lives there until it collapses on him, killing him.^[30]

In Jewish tradition, Philo, Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan asserted that Adam was not the father of Cain. Rather, Eve was subject to adultery having been seduced by either Sammael,^[31][32] the Serpent^[33] (nahash, Hebrew: נחש) in the Garden of Eden,^[34] or the Devil himself.^[28] Christian exegesis of the "evil one" in 1 John 3:10-12 have also led some commentators, like Tertullian, to agree that Cain was the son of the Devil^[35] or some fallen angel. Thus, according to some interpreters, Cain was half-human and half-angelic, a Nephilim. Gnostic exegesis in the Apocryphon of John has Eve seduced by Yaldaboth. However, in the Hypostasis of the Archons, Eve is raped by a pair of Archons.^[36]

According to the Life of Adam and Eve, Cain fetched his mother a reed (Heb. qaneh) which is how he received his name Qayin (Cain). The symbolism of him fetching a reed may be a nod to his occupation as a farmer, as well as a commentary to his destructive nature. He is also described as "lustrous", which may reflect the Gnostic association of Cain with the sun.^[37]

Abel

Saint Abel
Icon of Abel by Theophanes the Greek

According to the narrative in Genesis, Abel (Hebrew: הֶבֶל, Hevel; Arabic: هابيل, Hābīl) is Eve's second son. His name in Hebrew is composed of the same three consonants as a root meaning "breath".^[38] Julius Wellhausen, and many scholars following him, have proposed that the name is independent of the root.^[39] Eberhard Schrader had previously put forward the Akkadian (Old Assyrian dialect) ablu ("son") as a more likely etymology.^[40]

In Christianity, comparisons are sometimes made between the death of Abel and that of Jesus, the former thus seen as being the first martyr. In Matthew 23:35 Jesus speaks of Abel as "righteous", and the Epistle to the Hebrews states that "The blood of sprinkling ... [speaks] better things than that of Abel".(Hebrews 12:24) The blood of Jesus is interpreted as bringing mercy; but that of Abel as demanding vengeance (hence the curse and mark).^[41]

Abel is invoked in the litany for the dying in the Roman Catholic Church, and his sacrifice is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass along with those of Abraham and Melchizedek. The Alexandrian Rite commemorates him with a feast day on December 28.^[42]

According to the Coptic Book of Adam and Eve (at 2:1-15), and the Syriac Cave of Treasures, Abel's body, after many days of mourning, was placed in the Cave of Treasures, before which Adam and Eve, and descendants, offered their prayers. In addition, the Sethite line of the Generations of Adam swear by Abel's blood to segregate themselves from the unrighteous.

In the extra-biblical Book of Enoch (22:7), the soul of Abel is described as having been appointed as the chief of martyrs, crying for vengeance, for the destruction of the seed of Cain. This view is later repeated in the Testament of Abraham (A:13 / B:11), where Abel has been raised to the position as the judge of the souls.

Islamic narrative

The story appears in the Qur'an, in Sura 5, ayas 27 to 31:

[Prophet], tell them the truth about the story of Adam's two sons: each of them offered a sacrifice, and it was accepted from one and not the other. One said, 'I will kill you,' but the other said, 'God only accepts the sacrifice of those who are mindful of Him. If you raise your hand to kill me, I will not raise mine to kill you. I fear God, the Lord of all worlds, and I would rather you were burdened with my sins as well as yours and became an inhabitant of the Fire: such is the evildoers' reward.' But his soul prompted him to kill his brother: he killed him and became one of the losers. God sent a raven to scratch up the ground and show him how to cover his brother's corpse and he said, 'Woe is me! Could I not have been like this raven and covered up my brother's body?' He became remorseful.

—The QUR'AN (English translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem)

Grave of Abel

According to Shi'a Muslim belief, Abel (Arabic: "Habeel") is buried in the Nabi Habeel Mosque. The mosque is located on the west mountains of Damascus, near the Zabadani Valley, overlooking the villages of the Barada river (Wadi Barada), in Syria. Muslims are frequent visitors of this mosque for ziyarat. The mosque was built by Ottoman Wali Ahmad Pasha in 1599, and it is said to have 40 mihrabs.

In psychoanalytic theory

Freud’s theory of fratricide is explained by the Oedipus or Electra complex through Jung's supplementation.^[43] Indeed, in the Old Testament, in particular in the Judaic, Midrash Rabba, and Islamic versions, wherein Cain and Abel are not the only offspring of Adam and Eve, but born as twins with one sister each. In that regard, Abel and Cain were the first two sons, each of whom was born with a twin sister, and Adam decided that, to avoid incest, Abel would marry Cain's sister and Cain would marry Abel's sister. However, Cain refused because he wanted to keep his own sister, while Abel respected the paternal law. Adam suggested sacrificial offerings, and, in his absence, God accepted Abel's lamb rather than Cain's offering of grass. As a result of this preference, Cain killed Abel. However, this interpretation does not relate to the preference of the sacrifices by God, but rather to the acceptance or rejection of God's law. Abel obeyed this law while Cain did not, and, as a result, Cain killed Abel.^[44]

Legacy and symbolism

Allusions to Cain and Abel as an archetype of fratricide appear in numerous references and retellings, through medieval art and Shakespearean works up to present day fiction.^[20] A millennia-old explanation for Cain being capable of murder is that he may have been the offspring of a fallen angel or Satan himself, rather than being from Adam.^[45][28][36]

A medieval legend has Cain arriving at the Moon, where he eternally settled with a bundle of twigs. This was originated by the popular fantasy of interpreting the shadows on the Moon as a face. An example of this belief can be found in Dante Alighieri's Inferno (XX, 126^[46]) where the expression "Cain and the twigs" is used as a kenning for "moon".

In medieval Christian art, particularly in 16th century Germany, Cain is depicted as a stereotypical ringleted, bearded Jew, who killed Abel the blonde, European gentile symbolizing Christ.^[47] This traditional depiction has continued for centuries in some form, such as James Tissot's 19th century Cain leads Abel to Death.

In the treatise on Christian Hermeticism, Meditations on the Tarot: A journey into Christian Hermeticism, describes the biblical account of Cain and Abel as a myth, i.e. it expresses, in a form narrated for a particular case, an "eternal" idea. It shows us how brothers can become mortal enemies through the very fact that they worship the same God in the same way. According to the author, the source of religious wars is revealed. It is not the difference in dogma or ritual which is the cause, but the "pretention to equality" or "the negation of hierarchy".^[48]

In Latter-day Saint theology, Cain is considered to be the quintessential Son of Perdition, the father of secret combinations (i.e. secret societies and organized crime), as well as the first to hold the title Master Mahan meaning master of [the] great secret, that [he] may murder and get gain.^[49]

In Mormon folklore — a second-hand account relates that an early Mormon leader, David W. Patten, encountered a very tall, hairy, dark-skinned man in Tennessee who said that he was Cain. The account states that Cain had earnestly sought death but was denied it, and that his mission was to destroy the souls of men.^[50][51] The recollection of Patten's story is quoted in Spencer W. Kimball's The Miracle of Forgiveness, a popular book within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^[52] This widespread Mormon belief is further emphasized by an account from Salt Lake City in 1963 which stated that "One superstition is based on the old Mormon belief that Cain is a black man who wanders the earth begging people to kill him and take his curse upon themselves (M, 24, SLC, 1963)."^[53]

There were other, minor traditions concerning Cain and Abel, of both older and newer date. The apocryphal Book of Adam and Eve tells of Eve having a dream in which Cain drank his brother’s blood. In an attempt to prevent the prophecy from happening the two young men are separated and given different jobs.^[54]

Cultural portrayals and references

Literature

As the first murderer and first murder victim in the Bible, Cain and Abel have often formed the basis of tragic drama.

• In the classic poem Beowulf, the monstrous Grendel and his mother are believed to be descended from Cain.^[47]
• Lord Byron rewrote and dramatized the story in the play Cain, viewing Cain as symbolic of a sanguinary temperament, provoked by Abel's hypocrisy and sanctimony^[47]
• In Dante's Purgatorio (early 14th century), Cain is remembered by the souls in Purgatory in Canto XIV (14)
• The expression "Cain-coloured beard" (Cain was traditionally considered to have red hair) is used in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor (1602).^[47] Shakespeare also references Cain and Abel in Act III Scene iii of Hamlet when Claudius says "It hath the primal eldest curse upon't / A brother's murder!" (Lines 40–41), and in Act V, Scene i when Hamlet and Horatio are standing with the Gravedigger, who digs up a skull and Hamlet says "And yet this knave jowls it to the ground / as if it were Cain's jawbone, that did the first murther!"
• Baudelaire is more sympathetic to Cain in his poem "Abel et Caïn" in the collection Les Fleurs du mal (1857), where he depicts Cain as representing all the downtrodden people of the world. The poem's last lines exhort "Race de Caïn, au ciel monte / Et sur la terre jette Dieu!" ("Race of Cain, storm up the sky / And cast God down to Earth!").^[55]
• Victor Hugo's poem "La conscience" (1853, tr. "Cain") collected in La Légende des siècles (1859, 1st series) has Cain for protagonist. It depicts the murderer fleeing with his children the gazing Eye of God until he has to seal himself down a vault, but in the famous last line, "The Eye was in the tomb and fixed on Cain."^[56] (tr. Dublin University Magazine)
• In Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), the protagonist Henchard compares himself in his suffering to Cain.
• Hermann Hesse's novel Demian (1919) briefly discusses the story from an unorthodox point of view, where he also referred to the gnostic group called the Cainites.
• Thornton Wilder's play The Skin of Our Teeth (1942) states that Henry Antrobus' real name is Cain and he accidentally killed his brother Abel with a stone.
• Jose Saramago's last novel Cain (2009) is the story of Cain as a wanderer.
• In Jeffrey Archer's novel Kane and Abel (1979) the title and story is a play on the Biblical brothers.

Movies

• East of Eden (1955)^[57]
• The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966)
• Year One (2009)
• Noah (2014)

Television

• Supernatural (2014) According to Cain, Abel had sold his soul to Lucifer. Cain bargained with Lucifer to release Abel's soul in exchange for his own soul. Lucifer agreed to the terms under the condition that Cain kill his brother. He gave Cain the Mark of Cain, turning him into the worst demon to ever live. After suppressing the Mark's influence for centuries, Cain gave in and gave the mark to Dean Winchester.

• In the Japanese anime series "Shiki", the story of Cain and Abel is referenced many times by the junior monk Seishin Muroi, and the story is described as a metaphor where Cain and Abel are merely two sides of one person, and that the murder of Abel reflected Cain's rejection of god.

Music

• "Il Primo Omicido" (1707) by Alessandro Scarlatti
• The opera La mort d'Abel (1810) by Rodolphe Kreutzer
• Singer-songwriter Léo Ferré set Charles Baudelaire's poem "Abel et Caïn" to music on Léo Ferré chante Baudelaire (1967)
• The Grateful Dead's "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo" on Wake of the Flood (1973) suggests that "Cain caught Abel, rolling loaded dice"^[58]
• Elvis Costello's "Blame it on Cain" on My Aim is True (1976)
• Bruce Springsteen's "Adam Raised a Cain" on Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
• Danzig "Twist of Cain" on Danzig (1988)
• Bon Jovi's "I'm what Cain was to Abel" on Blaze of Glory (1990)
• 4 Runner's "Cain's Blood" (1995) uses Cain and Abel as a metaphor for the struggle between good and evil in the song's narrator^[59]
• The Hold Steady's song "The Cattle And The Creeping Things" mentions Cain and Abel in the line "She likes the part where one brother kills the other, she has to wonder if the world ever will recover, 'Cause Cain and Abel seem to still be causing trouble"
• Sinéad O'Connor's "Lullaby for Cain" on The Talented Mr. Ripley (soundtrack) (1999).
• Avenged Sevenfold's song "Chapter Four" on Waking The Fallen (2003)^[60]

Games

• Batman: Arkham City begins with a close-up of a painting labeled "Cain & Abel /The Duality of Man", which shows Cain carrying Abel's corpse. This foreshadows the death of the Joker, and the final scene of the game features Batman carrying him out in the same position as the painting.
• In the role-playing game (RPG) Vampire: The Masquerade and the videogames based on it, the "mark of Cain" was that he was cursed to become the first vampire, immortal and forever cursed to wander the Earth until the end of days. He created the first three vampires, from which came all the other vampires of the world.
• In the Command & Conquer series, Kane is leader of the Brotherhood of Nod, and it is implied he is the biblical Cain. He is also seen decades earlier within an alternate timeline as an aide to Joseph Stalin, in Command & Conquer: Red Alert.
• In the RPG Xenogears, when a human spaceship crashes on a remote planet, Cain is the first human to be born there. He kills Abel, the only human who had survived the crash, to silence him from spreading rebellion.
• In the RPG Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, the protagonist's cousin Naoya is the direct reincarnation of Cain, forced to retain all memories of past lives as punishment for his crime, whilst the protagonist himself contains the essence of Abel. It is also hinted in Overclocked that the murder was possibly set up by the in-universe god, Yehowah, to create the first martyr, Abel, and the first murderer, Cain.
• In the Fire Emblem series, two characters are named Cain and Abel, who are recruited at the same time.
• In The Binding of Isaac, Cain is a playable character, and is a direct relation to the biblical Cain. He is unlocked by collecting 55+ coins in one single playthrough. Also, there is an item in the game that can be unlocked called Abel, which takes the form of a familiar that moves and shoots oppositely to the player character.

Stage

• Stephen Schwartz's musical Children of Eden

See also

• Balbira & Kalmana
• Bereishit (parsha)#Cain and Abel
• Biblical figures in Islamic tradition#Cain and Abel
• Biblical narratives and the Quran#Cain and Abel (Qābīl and Hābīl)
• Cain and Abel in Islam
• The First Mourning

Notes

^ a: Literally, the Lord (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
^ b: The bracketed text has been added for clarity (HCSB)
^ c: or fat calves, or milk Josephus — all plausible renderings the Hebrew consonants

References

Bibliography

• BDB, Francis Brown; Samuel Rolles Driver; Charles Augustus Briggs. The Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon : with an appendix containing the Biblical Aramaic; coded with the numbering system from "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible" (7. print. 1997 ed.). Peabody: Hendrickson. ISBN 978-1565632066. 

• Byron, John (2011). Cain and Abel in text and tradition : Jewish and Christian interpretations of the first sibling rivalry. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9004192522. 

• Kugel, James L. (1998). Traditions of the Bible : a guide to the Bible as it was at the start of the common era. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674791510. 

• Luttikhuizen, Gerard P. (Editor) (2003). Eve's children : the biblical stories retold and interpreted in Jewish and Christian traditions (Vol. 5 ed.). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9004126152. 

Further reading

• Aptowitzer, Victor (1922). Kain und Abel in der agada: den Apokryphen, der hellenistischen, christlichen und muhammedanischen literatur (Vol. 1 ed.). R. Löwit. 

• Glenthøj, Johannes Bartholdy (1997). Cain and Abel in Syriac and Greek writers : (4th - 6th centuries). Lovanii: Peeters. ISBN 978-9068319095. 

External links

• Media related to Cain and Abel at Wikimedia Commons
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • Bible (King James) / Genesis 4
  • Book of Moses, Chapter 5 in Pearl of Great Price
  • Cain
  • Abel
• Genesis 4 (KJV) at BibleGateway.com
• Story of Cain and Abel in Sura The Table (Al Ma'ida)
• Qaheen / Cain and Hevel / Abel
• Parallel voweled Hebrew and English (JPS 1917)
• Rashi on Genesis, Chapter 4, by Rashi