Detail of the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) at Saint Bavo Cathedral.

The oldest known copy of the biblical narration is from the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QGen^b = 4Q242, mid 1st century), inspected using infra-red photography and published by Jim R Davila as part of his doctoral dissertation in 1988.^[7][8] Cain and Abel 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 a progenitor of evil.^[12] A few scholars suggest the pericope may have been based on a Sumerian story representing the conflict between nomadic shepherds and settled farmers.^[13][14]

Allusions to Cain and Abel as an archetype of fratricide persist in numerous references and retellings, through medieval art and Shakespearean works up to the present day.

Etymology

Cain and Abel are traditional English renderings of the Hebrew names Qayin () and Havel (). The original text did not provide vowels.^[15] Abel's name has the same three consonants as a root thought to have originally meant "breath", but is known from the Bible primarily as a metaphor for what is "elusive", especially the "vanity" of human enterprise.^[16] Julius Wellhausen, and many scholars following him, have proposed the name to be independent of the root.^[17] Eberhard Schrader had previously put forward the Akkadian (Old Assyrian dialect) ablu ("son") as a more likely etymology.^[18] In the Islamic Tradition, Abel is named as H?b?l (?????). while Cain is named as Q?b?l (?????). Although their story is cited in the Quran, neither of them is mentioned by name. Cain is called Qayen in the Ethiopian version of Genesis.^[19] The Greek of the New Testament refers to Cain three times,^[20] using two syllables ka-in () for the name.^[21]

More recent scholarship has produced another theory, a more direct pun. Abel is here thought to derive from a reconstructed word meaning "herdsman", with the modern Arabic cognate ibil, now specifically referring only to "camels". Cain, on the other hand, is thought to be cognate to the mid-1st millennium BC South Arabian word qyn, meaning "metal smith".^[22] This theory would make the names merely descriptions of the roles they take in the story?Abel working with livestock, and Cain with agriculture?and would parallel the names Adam ("man") and Eve ("life", Chavah in Hebrew).^[23]

The name Abel has been used in many European languages as both surname and first name. In English, however, even Cain features in 17th century, Puritan-influenced families, who had a taste for biblical names, sometimes despite the reputation of the original character.^[24][25][26] Contrary to popular belief, the surname McCain does not mean "Son of Cain" in Gaelic, rather it is a contraction (also McCann) of Mac Cathan. Gaelic cathan means "warrior", from cath "battle".^[27]

Murder and motive

For convenience, the story can be considered in two sections ? 1. murder and motive and 2. confrontation and consequences.

Religious sources of the Cain and Abel story can be found in Genesis (950 to 450 BC) in the Hebrew Bible, Sura 5 (Al-Ma'ida) of the Qur'an (early 7th century) and Pearl of Great Price (1851)^[28]

Biblical Account

Cain leads Abel to death, by James Tissot.

Qur'an (Muslim)

Motives

The inherent selfishness of Cain, his jealousy, rivalry, and aggression are central to the story. The disconnection between Cain and his higher nature is so great that he fails to understand and master his lower self even in the face of God's wisdom and hospitality. The account in The Qur'an [5.27-32], similar to one given in The Torah, also strongly implies that Cain's motivation was the rejection of his offering to God, but this is an implication and not explicitly clear.

Though Genesis depicts Cain's motive in killing Abel as simply being one of jealousy concerning God's favoritism of Abel, this is not the view of many extra-biblical works. The Midrash, and the obscure First Adam and Eve all record that the real motive involved the desire of women. According to Midrashic tradition, Cain and Abel each had twin sisters, whom they were to marry. The Midrash records that Abel's promised wife was the more beautiful, and hence Cain desired to rid himself of Abel, whose presence was inconvenient. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ, there is a different view, found in part of their scripture, the Book of Moses (part of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible), which describes that Cain's motive is still jealousy, but it is Abel's livestock of which he is jealous. This translation also holds that it was Satan that "commanded" Cain to make the offering, thus making Cain's sacrifice vain and faithless.

Abel's death

William Blake's The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve.

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 , 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 (). The blood of Jesus is interpreted as bringing mercy; but that of Abel as demanding vengeance (hence the curse and mark).^[29]

Abel is invoked in the litany for the dying in Roman Catholic Church, and his sacrifice is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass with those of Abraham and Melchisedek. The Coptic Church commemorates him with a feast day on December 28.^[30]

Burial

According to the Qur'an, Cain buried Abel, prompted to do so by a single raven scratching the ground, on God's command. The Qur'an states that upon seeing the raven, Cain regretted his action [al-Ma'idah:27-31], and that rather than being cursed by God, since he hadn't done so before, God chose to create a law against murder:

According to Shi'a Muslim belief, Abel is buried in Nabi Habeel Mosque, located west of Damascus, in Syria.

Underworld

In classical times, as well as more recently, Abel was regarded as the first innocent victim of the power of evil, and hence the first martyr. In the esoteric Book of Enoch (at 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 (at A:13 / B:11), where Abel has been raised to the position as the judge of the souls:

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.

Confrontation and consequences

Bible

Qur'an

Pearl of Great Price

Comments

The story continues with God approaching Cain asking about Abel's whereabouts. In a response that has become a well-known saying, Cain answers, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Finally, seeing through Cain's deception, as "the voice of [Abel's] blood is screaming to [God] from the ground", God curses Cain to wander the earth. Cain is overwhelmed by this and appeals in fear of being killed by other men, and so God places a mark on Cain so that he would not be killed, stating that "whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be upon him sevenfold". Cain then departs, "to the land wandering". Early translations instead stated that he departed "to the Land of Nod", which is generally considered a mistranslation of the Hebrew word Nod, meaning wandering. Despite being cursed to wander, Cain is later mentioned as fathering a lineage of children with an unnamed wife of unknown origin (Gen. 4:17), and founding a city, which he named Enoch after the name of his son.

Mark of Cain

Much has been written about the curse of Cain, and associated mark. The word translated as mark ('Oth, ) could mean a sign, omen, warning, or remembrance.^[31] In the Bible, the same word is used to describe the stars as signs or omens,^[32] circumcision as a token of God's covenant with Abraham,^[33] and the signs performed by Moses before Pharaoh.^[34]

The word Oth in Hebrew also means "a letter" (of the alphabet). Jewish mysticism, among other ancient lores, assigns spiritual ideas or powers to written letters and verses. The Mark of Cain may be a letter, a verse, a message, or a talisman.

Although most scholars believe the writer of this part of the story had a clear reference in mind that readers would understand, there is very little consensus today as to exactly what the mark could have been.

The Bible makes reference on several occasions to Kenites, who, in the Hebrew, are referred to as Qayin, i.e. in a highly cognate manner to Cain (Qayin). The Mark of Cain is thus believed to originally refer to some very identifying mark of the Kenite tribe, such as red hair, or a ritual tattoo of some kind, which was transferred to Cain as the tribe's eponym. The protection the mark is said to afford Cain some form of protection, in that harming Cain involved the harm being returned sevenfold. This is hence seen as some sort of protection that membership of the tribe offered, in a form such as the entire tribe attacking an individual who harms just one of their number.

Baptist and Catholic groups both consider the idea of God cursing an individual to be out of character, and hence take a different stance. Catholics officially view the curse being brought by the ground itself refusing to yield to Cain, whereas some Baptists view the curse as Cain's own aggression, something already present that God merely pointed out rather than added.

In Judaism, the mark is not a punishment but a sign of God's mercy. When Cain was sentenced to be a wanderer he did not dispute the punishment but only begged that the terms of his sentence be altered slightly, protesting "Whoever meets me will kill me!" For unspecified reasons, God agrees to this request. He puts the mark on Cain as a sign to others that Cain should not be killed until he has had seven generations of children. Lamech, his descendant, thought that the mark was passed down to him and also that it multiplied. In , he confesses to his wives that he killed two men (possibly one), and that if his grandfather Cain was protected seven times, then he should have it 77 times.

Wanderer

As Cain was ordered to wander the earth in punishment, a tradition arose that this punishment was to be forever, in a similar manner to the (much later) legends of the Flying Dutchman or the Wandering Jew. According to some Islamic sources, such as al-Tabari, Ibn Kathir and al-Tha'labi, he migrated to Yemen.

Fernand-Anne Piestre Cormon's painting titled "Cain flying before Jehovah's Curse", c. 1880, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Though variations on these traditions were strong in medieval times, with several claims of sightings being reported, they have generally gone out of favour. Nevertheless, the Wandering Cain theme has appeared in Mormon folklore (but not scripture)?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.^[35][36] 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.^[37]

Despite these later traditional beliefs of perpetual wandering, according to the earlier Book of Jubilees (chapter 4) Cain settled down, marrying his sister, Awan, resulting in his first son, Enoch (considered to be different than the more famous Enoch), approximately 196 years after the creation of Adam. Cain then established the first city, naming it after his son, built a house, and lived there until it collapsed on him, killing him in the same year that Adam died.

A medieval legend used to say that at the end, Cain arrived at the Moon, where he eternally settled with a bundle of twigs. This was originated by popular fantasy interpreting the shadows on the Moon face. An example of this belief can be found in Dante Alighieri's Inferno (XX, 126^[38]) where the expression "Cain and the twigs" is used as a synonym of "moon".

Origin

Cain killing Abel, from a 15th century manuscript.

The biblical correspondence in this theory being God to Inanna, Abel, the shepherd, to Dumuzi, and Cain, the farmer, to Enkimdu, and equating only to the competitive part of the story, Cain wandering away, and the extra-biblical traditions concerning the involvement of a beautiful woman. The presence of sacrifices, rather than mere words, in the biblical story, is sometimes seen as simply the priesthood's addition to the story, to emphasise that one form of sacrifice is better than the other.

In later mythology, though still before 1500s BC, Dumuzi had become conflated with Enkimdu, and so acted as a general agricultural deity, though still retaining some of the earlier myths. In his more general role, since he was responsible for the yearly crop-cycle, Dumuzi became seen as a life-death-rebirth deity. Exactly how the myth fits in with the marriage of Dumuzi to Inanna is not clear, since the surviving copies of the myth abruptly begin with Inanna descending to the underworld for an unknown reason. Innana can only escape by exchanging herself for a god not in the underworld, and so considers each of them in turn. Dumuzi is only too glad she has gone, and so, in anger, she sends demons upon him, and he dies, thus releasing her. She then changes her mind, showing favour, and bringing Dumuzi back by persuading his sister to take his place for 6 months each year (hence starting the annual cycle).

This murder of Dumuzi is thought, critically, to be the source of the murder of Abel. Since God, unlike Inanna, was seen as being powerful enough not to get stuck in the underworld, he would have had no need to escape, and so no motive to kill Abel, hence the blame shifting to the jealous Cain/Enkimdu. The part of the story involving perpetual annual resurrection and death is not given to Abel, who is supposedly merely mortal.

Legacy and symbolism

15th century depiction of Cain and Abel, Speculum Humane Salvationis, Germany.

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.^[40] This traditional depiction has continued for centuries in some form, such as James Tissot's 19th century Cain leads Abel to Death, shown above.

Another view is taken in Latter-day Saint theology, where 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.

Literature

As the first murderer and first murder victim, Cain and Abel have often formed the basis of tragic drama. Lord Byron rewrote and dramatized the story in the poem "Cain", viewing Cain as symbolic of a sanguinary temperament, provoked by Abel's hypocrisy and sanctimony.^[40] In Dante's Purgatory Cain is remembered by the souls in Purgatory in Canto XIV (14) on page 153, verse 133 saying "I shall be slain by all who find me!", Cain is facing the punishment that God has visited upon him for the sin of Envy, which is a similar play on the words in where he says, "I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden retells the Cain and Abel story in the setting of the late 19th and early 20th century western migration towards California. Also, his novelette Of Mice and Men draws elements from the story. Baudelaire is more sympathetic to Cain in his poem "Abel et Caïn" in the collection Les Fleurs du mal, 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!" (In English: "Race of Cain, storm up the sky / And from the heavens cast down God!") Miguel de Unamuno's Abel Sánchez (1917) is a study on envy. Abel receives everything undeservingly, while his friend Joaquín is despised by God and society and envies him. Kane and Abel is a modern adaptation, a 1979 novel by British author Jeffrey Archer. In 1985, it was made into a CBS television miniseries titled Kane & Abel, starring Peter Strauss as Rosnovski and Sam Neill as Kane.

Some form of legacy or curse of the name is often seen in literature: the monster Grendel in Beowulf is a descendant of Cain. In the epilogue to Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None, the author refers to the Mark of Cain in laying out the clues. There is a Stephen King short story titled Cain Rose Up, in which a college student goes on a killing spree while ruminating on the story of Cain and Abel. In the DC Comics (Vertigo division) universe, Cain and Abel are a pair of fictional characters based on the Biblical Cain and Abel, in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. In the series, Cain is constantly killing off his brother, despite the fact they are both immortals.

Cain was traditionally considered to have red hair; the expression "Cain-coloured beard" is used in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.^[40]

Their names are often used in works of fiction simply as a reference, also. In Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, the character of Estragon tries to guess the names of two other characters. He guesses Abel and Cain. One of Jason Bourne's many names in the The Bourne Identity and its sequels was Cain, an operative name in the Treadstone 71 program.

In Daniel Quinn's book Ishmael, the biblical story is interpreted as a tale with roots in the emergence of agriculture, where Abel is seen as symbolic of the hunter-gatherer societies that was in majority, and Cain as the then-new and emerging farming cultures. Cain represented the pale, Aryan race coming to destroy more peaceful, dark-skinned Semitic peoples. The mark of Cain is therefore speculated as lighter skin.

In Hermann Hesse's novel Demian, the author uses the story of Cain and Abel to state that Cain actually was rewarded with the mark given by God.

Alexander Trocchi titled his account of life as a heroin addict Cain's Book.

In Kaori Yuki's story Godchild, the name Cain was seen as a curse on the story's protagonist as he had tried to kill a relative.

The protagonist of Iain Banks' novel A Song of Stone is named Abel.

In the Marvel Comics Multiverse, The Juggernaut, Cain Marko (based on the Mark of Cain), is a former enemy of his step brother, Charles Xavier. Their former adversarial relationship is also symbolic of "mind over matter", Charles representing the mind and Cain representing matter.

In Trinity Blood, Cain, Abel and Seth (the only female sibling) are three humans artificially created in order to cultivate Mars in the wake of the Armageddon. Though Abel is originally the evil brother, Cain soon loses his mind and succeeds in briefly killing his brother Abel.

Games

• Caine is a character fictionalized as the father of all vampires in White Wolf Game Studio's role-playing games set in the World of Darkness. His story is based on the biblical story of Cain, and is recounted in the Book of Nod and The Erciyes Fragments. In this version of the story, Caine's curse is vampirism.
• The Command and Conquer universe features the villain Kane; in the ending of the first game, and during a spinoff, Command & Conquer: Renegade, pieces from the Temples of Nod (in Sarajevo and Cairo, respectively), show Cain killing Abel.
• In Final Fantasy IV, one of the characters, Kain, uses a lance as his primary weapon. He betrayed his best friend Cecil and almost killed him. Also interesting to note is that in the Gameboy Advance version, Kain's ultimate weapon is called Abel's Lance.
• In the PC game Sanity: Aiken's Artifact, the player takes on the role of police officer Cain, whose brother Abel is ultimately his greatest foe.
• In Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ry? to Hikari no Tsurugi and its canon sequel Fire Emblem: Monshou no Nazo, the player received two horseman units at the beginning of the games named Cain and Abel. Cain is a knight in red armor and is typically the more offenseive of the two units, having higher strength and better chances of hitting his targets. Whereas Abel is clad in green armor and tends to be faster and more durable than his partner. In the game, they are assumed to be friends and rivals in service to Altea, the home kingdom of the main character Marth, but because these were earlier Nintendo games, there were no dialogue that informs on such relationship. Future titles also have a pair of horseman units who bear the same friendly rivalry Cain and Abel had and will actually express it within their back story conservations during the main plot.
• In FreeSpace 2, one of the common Shivan cruiser's is designated as a Cain-class.
• In Galerians, Rion encounters and eventually kills a fellow Galerian named Cain who shares the same physical features as Rion, but is more murderous than the latter.

Television, film, and music

• The hip-hop group Kane & Abel is named after them.
• The Matrix Reloaded features two minor villains by the names of Cain and Abel. Both are supposedly werewolves from an older version of the titular Matrix who were saved because of their difficulty to terminate. Abel is shot in the head with a silver bullet by Persephone, while Cain is sent to find Merovingian, and later killed in a fight with Neo.

• British band Bloc Party released the song "Cain Said To Abel" as a B-side to the I Still Remember single.

• In Spawn, Cogliostro is revealed to be that fictional universe's Cain.

• In Veronica Mars, two character names were the Kane family and Abel Koontz, in the first season Abel was expected to have killed the daughter of the Kane family, Lilly Kane. Episode 17 of the first season was called "Kanes and Abel's".

• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 7 antagonist Caleb referred to Faith as the Cain to Buffy's Abel, referring to the darker character of Faith in comparison to the more heroic Buffy. Ironically in the Season 3 episode "Graduation Day", Buffy almost killed Faith, in order to cure Angel of the poison that Faith inflicted on him, and Faith has never come close to killing Buffy.

• The band Avenged Sevenfold derives their name from the story of Cain. Also, their song "Chapter Four" from Waking the Fallen is a retelling of the story.

• The song "Blood On Your Hands" from the band [Arch Enemy] is about Cain killing Abel.

• In The Simpsons episode, Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass, Ned Flanders makes a home movie with his sons starring as Cain and Abel. They ask him how Cain and Abel were able to make more babies if they were Adam and Eve's only children, and if they made babies with their mother or each other. Ned responds: "Your mouth is hoping for a soaping boy. Now stop asking silly questions and go kill your brother!"

• The band Saving Abel gets their name from the story of Cain and Abel. The lead singer, Jason Null, came up with the name saying "I googled the story of Cain and Abel and found a line about 'there was no Saving Abel,' which just jumped out at me."

• The gothic metal band Tiamat released the single "Cain" from their 2003 album Prey, taking the name from the Biblical character and using the lyrics, "And I would be your Cain".

• Bruce Springsteen wrote a song called "Adam Raised a Cain" which appears on his 1978 "Darkness on the Edge of Town" album. Several lines from the song: In the Bible Cain slew Abel and East of Eden he was cast. You're born into this life paying for the sins of somebody else's past.

• The WWE wrestler Glen Jacobs uses the ringname Kane, derived from the Cain & Able story.

• The metal band Megadeth references the story of Cain and Abel in the song 'Truth be Told', which is track 9 on the album The System Has Failed.

Software

• Cain & Abel is a security tool for Microsoft operating systems.^[41]

References

External links

• Torah, Genesis, Chapters 1-6
• Catholic Encyclopedia articles on Cain and on Abel
• King James Version
• New Revised Standard Version
• New International Version
• Book of on Wikisource.
• Lessons from Cain and Abel
• Story of Cain and Abel in ''Sura The Table (Al Ma'ida)''
• Qaheen / Cain and Hevel / Abel
• Parallel voweled Hebrew and King James Version
• Rashi on Genesis, Chapter 4, by Rashi
• Baudelaire's poem in French with English translations underneath

ar:????? ? ????? da:Kain og Abel id:Kain dan Habel he:??? ???? nl:Kaïn en Abel pl:Kain i Abel sr:???? ? ???? tr:Habil ve Kabil