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In the biblicalBook of Genesis,Cain[a] andAbel[b] are the first two sons ofAdam and Eve.[1] Cain, the firstborn, was afarmer, and his brother Abel was ashepherd. The brothers madesacrifices, each from his own fields, toGod. God had regard for Abel's offering, but had no regard for Cain's. Cain killed Abel and God considered itmurder,cursing Cain and sentencing him to alife of transience. Cain then dwelt in theland of Nod (נוֹד, 'wandering'), where he built a city and fathered the line of descendants beginning withEnoch. Thus, Cain was the first person born, and Abel the first to die.
The New TestamentEpistle to the Hebrews interprets Abel’s sacrifice as more acceptable than Cain’s because it was offered in faith, earning Abel the approval of God. In theQur'an, Cain and Abel are known asQābīl (Arabic:قابيل) andHābīl (هابيل), respectively. In Islamic tradition, the story of Cain and Abel portrays Cain as the first murderer driven byjealousy and lust, guided bythe devil, and punished with guilt and disgrace, with some scholars debating the identity and motives of the brothers. In theSethianApocryphon of John, Cain and Abel areArchons, children of theDemiurgeYaldabaoth, namedYahweh andElohim but called Cain and Abel to deceive.
The story of Cain and Abel is widely interpreted in academic biblical scholarship as a symbolic tale reflecting earlyagricultural society’s tensions—such as those betweennomadicherders and settledfarmers—and may draw from the olderMesopotamian mythEnlil Chooses the Farmer-God. Cain and Abel have become enduring cultural symbols offratricide andsibling conflict, referenced and reinterpreted across art, literature, theater, music, and film frommedieval times to modernpopular culture.
The story ofCain's murder of Abel and its consequences is told in Genesis 4:1–18:[2]
Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have produced a man with the help of the Lord."[i] Next she bore his brother Abel.[ii] Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain,
"Why are you angry,
and why has your countenance fallen?
If you do well,
will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well,
sin is lurking at the door;
its desire is for you,
but you must master it."Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let us go out to the field."[iii] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.
Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"[iv] And the Lord said, "What have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.[v] When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth." Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me." Then the Lord said to him, "Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance." And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him.
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch; and he built a city, and named it Enoch after his son Enoch.
— Book of Genesis, 4:1–18[3]
Cain and Abel are traditionalEnglishrenderings of theHebrew names. Cain (Hebrew,Kayin), derives fromkinyan, or acquisition. Abel (Hebrew,Hevel) means empty, vain, or transitory.[4]
Abel, the first murder victim, is sometimes seen as the firstmartyr, while Cain, the first murderer, is sometimes seen as an ancestor ofevil. Some scholars suggest thepericope may have been based on theSumerian myth of Enlil and Enki, with Enlil in Cain's role and Enki in Abel's.[5] Modern scholars typically view the stories ofAdam 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 learnedagriculture, replacing the ways of thehunter-gatherer.[6] It has also been seen as a depiction ofnomadic conflict, the struggle for land and resources (and divine favour) betweennomadic herders andsedentary farmers.[7][8]
The academic theologianJoseph Blenkinsopp holds that Cain and Abel are symbolic rather than real.[9] Like almost all of the persons, places and stories in theprimeval history (the first eleven chapters of Genesis), they are mentioned nowhere else in theHebrew Bible, a fact that for some scholars suggests that the history is a late composition attached to Genesis to serve as an introduction.[10] The date is also disputed: the history may be as late as theHellenistic period (first decades of the 4th century BCE)[11] or as early as the 9th-8th centuries BCE,[12] but the high level of Babylonian myth behind its stories has led others to date it to theBabylonian exile (6th century BCE).[13][14] A prominent Mesopotamian parallel to Cain and Abel isEnlil Chooses the Farmer-God,[15] in which the shepherd-godEmesh and the farmer-godEnten bring their dispute over which of them is better to the chief godEnlil,[16] who rules in favor of Enten (the farmer).[17]
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The author of theEpistle to the Hebrews, inHebrews 11:4, makes a brief reference to the Cain and Abel story:
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain's. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks.
— Hebrews 11:4,New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition[18]
The story of Cain and Abel appears in theQuran 5:27–31:[19]
[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 Quran, translated byMuhammad Abdel-Haleem
The story of Cain and Abel has been used as a deterrent from murder in Islamic tradition.Abdullah ibn Mas'ud reported thatMuhammad said in ahadith:[20]
No soul is wrongfully killed except that some of the burden falls upon the son of Adam, for he was the first to establish the practice of murder.
Muslim scholars were divided on the motive for Cain's murder of Abel, and why the brothers were obliged to offer sacrifices to God. Some scholars believed that Cain's motives were jealousy and lust. Both Cain and Abel desired to marry their sister, Adam's beautiful daughter,Aclima (Arabic:Aqlimia'). Seeking to end the dispute, Adam suggested that each present an offering to God. The one whose offering God accepted would marry Aclima. Abel, a generous shepherd, offered the fattest of his sheep as anoblation to God. But Cain, a miserly farmer, offered only a bunch of grass and some worthless seeds. God accepted Abel's offering and rejected Cain's—an indication that Abel was more righteous than Cain, and thus worthier of Aclima. As a result, it was decided that Abel would marry Aclima. Cain would marry her less beautiful sister. Blinded by anger and lust for Aclima, Cain sought to get revenge on Abel and escape with Aclima.[21][22]
According to another tradition, thedevil appeared to Cain and instructed him how to exact revenge on Abel. "Hit Abel's head with a stone and kill him," whispered the devil to Cain. After the murder, the devil hurried toEve shouting: "Eve! Cain has murdered Abel!" Eve did not know what murder was or how death felt. She asked, bewildered and horrified, "Woe to you! What is murder?" "He [Abel] does not eat. He does not drink. He does not move [That is what murder and death are]," answered the Devil. Eve burst into tears and started to wail madly. She ran to Adam and tried to tell him what happened. However, she could not speak because she could not stop wailing. Since then, women wail broken-heartedly when a loved one dies.[23] A different tradition narrates that while Cain was quarreling with Abel, the devil killed an animal with a stone in Cain's sight to show him how to murder Abel.[24]
After burying Abel and escaping from his family, Cain married and had children. They died in Noah's flood among tyrants and unbelievers.[25]
Some Muslim scholars puzzled over the mention of offerings in the narrative of Cain and Abel. Offerings and sacrifices were ordained only after the revelation ofTawrat toMoses in Islam. This suggested to some scholars, such asSa'id ibn al-Musayyib, that the sons of Adam, as mentioned in the Quran, are actually two Israelites, not Cain and Abel.[24]
In theApocryphon of John, a work used inSethianism, Cain and Abel areArchons, being the offspring of the lesser god orDemiurge calledYaldabaoth, placed over the elements of fire, wind, water and earth. In this narrative their true names areYahweh andElohim, but they are given their earthly names as a form of deception.[26][27]
_by_Jacopo_Della_Quercia_(1374-1483_CE)%2c_Bologna%2c_Italy._National_Museum_of_Scotland%2c_Edinburgh.jpg)
Allusions to Cain and Abel as anarchetype offratricide appear in numerous references and retellings, throughmedieval art andShakespearean works up to present day fiction.[28]
Theserpent seed explanation for Cain being capable of murder is that he may have been the offspring of afallen angel orSatan himself, rather than being from Adam.[29][30][31]
A treatise onChristian Hermeticism,Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism, describes the biblical account of Cain and Abel as a myth, in that it expresses, in a form narrated for a particular case, an "eternal" idea. It argues that 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."[32]
There were other, minor traditions concerning Cain and Abel, of both older and newer date. The apocryphalLife of Adam and Eve tells ofEve 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.[33]
Like other prominent biblical figures, Cain and Abel appear in many works of art, including works byTitian,Peter Paul Rubens andWilliam Blake.
Multiple plays allude to the story. InWilliam Shakespeare'sHamlet, the charactersKing Claudius andKing Hamlet are parallels of Cain and Abel.[34]Lord Byron also rewrote and dramatized the story in his own playCain (1821), viewing Cain as symbolic of asanguine temperament, provoked by Abel's hypocrisy and sanctimony.[35] The 2008 Danish stage playBiblen discusses and reenacts variousBiblical stories, including Abel's murder by Cain.[36]
Many novels feature the characters or are closely based on them.Miguel de Unamuno's 1917 novelAbel Sánchez: A Story of a Passion is a re-telling of the Cain and Abel story.[37]John Steinbeck's 1952 novelEast of Eden (also a1955 film) refers in its title to Cain's exile and contains discussions of the Cain and Abel story which then play out in the plot.[38]James Baldwin's 1957 short story, "Sonny's Blues", has been seen as alluding to the Cain and Abel story.[39][40] AuthorDaniel Quinn, first in his novelIshmael (1992) and later inThe Story of B (1996), proposes that the story of Cain and Abel is an account of early Semitic herdsmen observing the beginnings of what he calls totalitarian agriculture, with Cain representing the first 'modern' agriculturists and Abel thepastoralists.[41]José Saramago's 2009 novelCain (novel) is a ironical re-telling of Cain's history.
They have also featured in television series and, allegorically, in film. InDallas (1978),Bobby andJ.R. Ewing have been described as variations of Cain and Abel.[42] More direct references include the appearance ofCain andAbel as characters inDC Comics since the 1950s. In 1989,Neil Gaiman made the tworecurring characters in his graphic novel seriesThe Sandman.[43] InDarren Aronofsky'sallegorical filmMother! (2017), the characters "oldest son" and "younger brother" represent Cain and Abel.[44]
TheBruce Springsteen song "Adam Raised a Cain" (1978) invokes the symbolism of Cain.[45] It is also the title of a season 2 episode ofTerminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.[46]
American heavy metal bandAvenged Sevenfold has a song called "Chapter Four" (2003) which is based on the story of Cain and Abel.[47] American heavy metal bandDanzig has a song named "Twist of Cain" which lyrically is inspired by the story of Cain and Abel.[48] British rock bandOasis has a song written by frontmanLiam Gallagher called "Guess God Thinks I'm Abel", a reference to his infamously tempestuous relationship to brother and bandmateNoel Gallagher.[49]
Baldwin establishes such a verbal clue when the narrator remembers his mothers warning.
We have a song called "Chapter Four" that's about the first murder ever, which is a story in the Bible. Matt [Shadows] writes all the lyrics, and he just thinks the first murder is a cool story.
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