Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CAIN

(Heb. qayin)

AND ABEL

(heḇel)

Cain was the eldest son of Adam and Eve (Gen. 4:1), a “tiller of the ground”; Abel, their second son, was a “keeper of sheep” (v. 2).

Most readings of the stories of Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:3–5:32) convict Cain of sacrilege and murder (4 Macc. 18:11; 1 John 3:12) and consider them an explanation for an irreconcilable conflict between farmers and herders. Hebrews sees Cain as the one whose sacrifice was not as good as his brother’s (Heb. 11:4). Jude pronounces judgment upon those who act like Cain and lead others into sin (Jude 11). For Josephus and many rabbis, Abel represents the virtuous, Cain the greedy and grasping. Abel is an innocent victim, Cain a murderer. For Augustine, the stories demonstrate the spread of sin. Disobedience spreads to sacrilege (Gen. 4:3-7), murder (v. 8), perjury (vv. 9-10), and vengeance (vv. 23-24).

Before Alexander the Great brought Hellenism into the world of the Bible in 333 b.c.e., neither theologies of original sin nor etiologies about class conflict appear in ancient Near Eastern traditions. Like the Enuma Elish stories from Mesopotamia and the stories of Anubis and Bata from Egypt, the stories of Cain and Abel and those of Adam and Eve (Gen. 2:4b–4:2) were creation stories about how humans learned to bear children, farm, build cities, make tents, herd livestock, play music, work metal, administer justice, and trade.

When the stories open, Cain and Abel are ratifying covenants for seed to plant and animals to breed. “An offering of the fruit of the ground” and “. . . the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions” are standard biblical expressions for the sacrifices of farmers and herders. “Their fat portions” (v. 4) does not privilege the sacrifice of Abel over that of Cain. All sacrifices must be the best or “fat” portions.

Translations reading “. . . and the Lord had regard for Abel . . . but for Cain . . . he had no regard” (Gen. 4:4)” invite a painful theology portraying Yahweh as capricious. A better reading would be “. . . and the land had regard for Abel . . . but for Cain . . . the land had no regard.” “Land” and “Yahweh” here are synonymous, just as in Cain’s appeal later: “. . . today you have driven me away from the land, and I shall be hidden from your face” (v. 14). Even though both offer acceptable sacrifices, the land produces enough for Abel’s flocks, but not enough for Cain’s crops.

The sin lurking at the door (Gen. 4:7) is not the temptation to murder Abel. When harvests come in, humans easily accept fertility as a blessing; but when harvests fail, they are tempted to see their fertility as a curse. The stories remind humans that despite the temptation to forgo creativity and remain sterile, they should not let the labor which creativity requires discourage them from farming.

When Cain’s grain sacrifice does not bring a good year, he sacrifices Abel. In the Enuma Elish stories, Nintu-mami uses the blood of Wei-la to moisten the clay she will use to create the first humans. Here Cain moistens soil with the blood of Abel to bring it to life. The sacrifice of Abel also alters the status of the household of Cain. By sacrificing the herder whose livestock are its insurance against starvation when crops fail, Cain places his household in complete dependence upon Yahweh for its survival.

Yahweh intervenes, not to punish Cain like a judge but rather, like a midwife, to prepare him to face the labor which human creativity demands. Yahweh teaches Cain that he will survive in the land of Nod (Heb. nôḏ) by foraging (nwʿ) and scavenging (nwd) to supplement farming. Cain will farm, but not without difficulty. Labor, Yahweh teaches, is life, not a life sentence.

Cain protests. Hunters kill human scavengers like animal predators. Yahweh concedes. Cain must continue to scavenge, but the apotropaic mark or tattoo on Cain warns hunters that he is under divine protection.

Cain’s wife delivers a child named Enoch, whose child Irad founds Eridu, the first city built before the Flood according to the Sumerian King List. The fertility in childbearing and city-building are paralleled by giving both the same name. The delivery of a child and the building of a city describe the spread of life. Like the seven great teachers (Akk. apkallu) in Mesopotamian traditions, the household of Cain endows humanity with all the skills of civilization. Cain is the first teacher, followed by Enoch, Irad, Mahujael, Methushael, Lamech, and Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain.

Read as an ancient Near Eastern creation story, the stories of Cain and Abel teach that the laying down of human life is part of the discovery of how to create life. Mortality enters the world either through the self-sacrifice of Adam and Eve or through the sacrifice of Abel by Cain. As painful as mortality can be, it is also the key to human creativity. Without death, there is no life. These biblical traditions encourage human beings to embrace the fertility of farming and childbearing which makes them the image of Yahweh. To give life to the land or to another human, Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel each must lay down their lives in different ways.

Bibliography. J. D. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son (New Haven, 1993); S. Niditch, Underdogs and Tricksters (San Francisco, 1987); J. G. Williams, The Bible, Violence and the Sacred (Valley Forge, 1995).

Don C. Benjamin

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CAIN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)