the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Cain
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
or 1. The Scripture Narrative
(1) In Gen 4:1-24 Cain is the first son of Adam and Eve. His birth is hailed as a manifestation of Yahweh's help. He becomes "a tiller of the ground," and brings to Yahweh an offering of the produce of the soil, his brother Abel, the shepherd, bringing at the same time the fat of the first-born of his own flock. From Cain and from his offering Yahweh withholds the sign of acceptance which he grants to Abel. That the ground of this difference of treatment is to be found (so Hebrews 11:4 ) in Cain's lack of right disposition toward Yahweh is shown by his behavior (see
2. Difficulties
With few and bold strokes the story of Cain as it stands paints for us the character of the first of murderers and the scene of his detection and condemnation. To the religious purpose of the narrative all other things are made tributary. But if we can not refrain from putting the familiar question, Who was Cain's wife? it is aIso impossible upon close study of Gen 4, as it stands, to avoid asking what was the nature of the sign of Yahweh's acceptance (Genesis 4:4 ), or of the "sign" appointed for Cain (Genesis 4:15 ); or what we are to think of the introduction in the midst of the narrative, without explanation, of such important institutions as sacrifice (Genesis 4:3 , Genesis 4:4 ) and blood-revenge (Genesis 4:14 ); who were the persons of whom Cain stood in fear (Genesis 4:14 ); who inhabited the city he built (Genesis 4:17 ); how the wanderer and fugitive could become the city-builder; and why the shepherd life should be represented as beginning with Abel (Genesis 4:2 ) and again with Jabal (Genesis 4:20 ); also whether the narrator means that not only the collection of men in cities (Genesis 4:17 ), but also animal husbandry, music and metal-working (Genesis 4:20-22 ) are to be looked upon with disfavor as having sprung from Cain or from his descendants? Most of these questions find their answers in one consideration: the narrative is not exhaustively complete and is not intended to be so. That a large body of racial traditions existed, from which, with the severest condensation, the author of Gen selected his material, is the conclusion forced by close examination of the Gen narrative and comparison of it with the most ancient extant traditions. "In Gen 4 these old stories are not told for their own sakes. The incompleteness and the difficulties left unsolved do not allow this assumption to be made. They form simply the material foundation, to which higher ideas and doctrines are attached" (Dillmann).
3. Critical Theories
Without going outside the Scripture text we may find strong evidence that the narrative under consideration is founded in part upon ancient sources. Let the line of Cain (Genesis 4:17-24 ) be compared with that of Seth (Gen 5:1-29):
cainite | sethite | |
Adam ("man") | Adam ("man") | |
Seth | ||
Enosh ("man") | ||
Cain | Kenan | |
Enoch | Mahalel | |
Irad | Jared | |
Mehujael | Enoch | |
Methushael | Methuselah | |
Lamech | Lamech | |
Jabel, Jubal, Tubal-cain | Noah | |
Shem, Ham, Japhet |
The Hebrew forms of the names show even more clearly that Cain = Kenan, Irad = Jared, Methushael = Methuselah; a single transposition, that of the first and third names after Cain, brings the two Enochs together, and likewise the similar names Mehujael and Mahalalel. Thus we have six names nearly or quite identical; seven ancestors in one list and ten in the other, ending in both cases with a branching into three important characters. Resemblances equally certain, though not by any means so obvious, exist between the names in this double list and the names of the ten kings of Babylonia who reigned before the Flood, as the latter are given by Berosus, the Babylonian historian of the 3rd century bc (see Skinner, Driver, Sayce as below). Thus one source of which the author in Gen 4 made use appears to have been an ancient list in genealogical form, by which the first of mankind was linked with the beginnings of civilized institutions and articles Another part of his material was the story of a brother's murder of a brother (4:1-16). Many maintain at this point that the narrative must be based upon the doings of tribes, rather than of individuals. It is true that not seldom in the Old Testament tribal history is related under individual na;mes (compare Gen 49, Jgs 1, and the tables of tribes in Genesis 25:1-4; 36); yet the tribe referred to can hardly be the Kenites of the Old Testament, who appear as the close allies of Israel, not especially bloodthirsty or revengeful, and haunted by no shadow of early crime against a brother tribe (see KENITES ). The indications in Gen 4:1-16 of a developed state of society and a considerable population may go to show that the narrative of the murder was not originally associated with the sons of the first man. Thus there is room to suppose that in the process of condensation and arrangement Cain, son of Adam; Cain, the murderer; and Cain, city-builder and head of a line of patriarchs, have been made one. The critical conclusions here epitomized are indeed reached by a delicate and difficult process; but it is asserted in their favor that they make possible the removal of difficulties which could be explained in no other manner. The question which will arise with many, What theory of inspiration can be held consistently with the application of such critical processes? is dealt with at length by most modern commentators (see
Literature
A. Dillmann, Genesis (English translation); S. R. Driver, Genesis ("Westminster Commentaries"); H. E. Ryle, Early Narratives of Genesis; J. Skinner, Genesis ( ICC ); A. H. Sayce, "Archaeology of the Book of Genesis," The Expositor T , August, 1910, June, 1911.
(2) In Joshua 15:57 , the Revised Version (British and American)
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Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Cain'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/isb/c/cain.html. 1915.
