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According to the by killing his brother after God rejects Cain's sacrifice, but accepts Abel's. ( 1432 ) at Saint Bavo Cathedral .]] NAMES Cain and Abel are n word ''aplu'', simply meaning "son".2 Academic considerations have produced a different theory, a more direct pun. ''Abel'' is here thought to derive from a hypothetically reconstructed word meaning "herdsman", with the modern Arabic Cognate ''ibil'', which now more specifically means "camels". ''Cain'' (''qayin'' / ''qyn''), on the other hand, is thought to be cognate to the mid- 1st Millennium BC South Arabian word ''qyn'', meaning "metal Smith "Richard S. Hess, ''Studies in the Personal Names of Genesis 1-11'', ISBN. pp. 24-25. This theory would make their names merely descriptions of the roles they take in the story - Abel as a Pastoral farmer, and Cain as an Agriculturist . In Scotland the surname "McCain", means "Son of Cain" in Gaelic. STORY Summary Genesis (4:1-17) presents a brief account of the brothers. This passage, in the Bible, at the crux of the story of Cain and Abel reads: "In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought the fat, fatlings, or milk [as Josephus has it (the possible renderings of the consonantal Hebrew)] from the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him." - Genesis 4:3-8 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 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, and founding a city, which he named Enoch after the name of his son. Motives The inherent selfishness of Cain, his jealousy, rivalry, and aggression are central to the story. The disconnect 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 {Link without Title} , similar to one given in The Torah, also strongly implies that the motivation of the Fratricide of Cain was due to the rejection of his offering to God, but this is an implication and not explicitly clear. Although 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. Abel's death In Christianity, comparisons are sometimes made between the death of Abel and that of but that of Abel as demanding Vengeance (hence the curse and mark). 's ''The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve''.]] Burial According to the Qur'an, it was Cain who buried Abel, and he was 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 {Link without Title} , and that rather than being cursed by God, since he hadn't done so before, God chose to create a law against murder: if anyone slew a person - be it for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people; and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people 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 (at A:13 / B:11), where Abel has been raised to the position as the judge of the souls: an awful man sitting upon the throne to judge all creatures, and examining the righteous and the sinners. He being the first to die as martyr, God brought him hither the place of judgment in the nether world to give judgment, while Enoch, the heavenly scribe, stands at his side writing down the sin and the righteousness of each. For God said: I shall not judge you, but each man shall be judged by man. Being descendants of the first man, they shall be judged by his son until the great and glorious appearance of the Lord, when they will be judged by the twelve tribes of Israel, and then the last judgment by the Lord Himself shall be perfect and unchangeable According to the 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''. Mark of Cain See Also: Curse and mark of Cain Much has been written about the curse of Cain, and associated ''mark''. The word translated as ''mark'' could mean a sign, omen, warning, or remembrance. In the Bible, the same word is used to describe the stars as signs or omens, Circumcision as a token of God's covenant with Abraham , and the signs performed by Moses before Pharaoh . 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 (harming Cain involving the harm being returned sevenfold) 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 didn't dispute the punishment but only begged that the terms of his sentence be altered slightly, protesting ''Whoever meets me will kill me!'' For reasons that aren't specified, 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 Genesis 4:23-24, he confesses to his wife that he killed two men (possibly one) and that if his grandparent Cain was protected seven times then he should have it seventy seven times. In medieval Christian art, particularly in 16th century Germany, Cain is depicted as a stereotypical ringleted, bearded Jew, while Abel is a blonde, European gentile. This traditional depiction has continued for centuries in some form, such as James Tissot's 19th century ''Cain leads Abel to Death'', shown above. This was the result of an apparent necessity to resolve the problem of fratricide not involving an outsider, by explaining it as the result of a group historically vilified by Christianity.34 In popular culture, since Victorian times, Cain's bloodlust has often seen him being portrayed as the progenitor of Vampires . 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 great secret, that [he may murder and get gain''. 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) legend of the Flying Dutchman . According to some Islamic sources, such as al-Tabari, Ibn Kathir and al-Tha'labi, he migrated to Yemen. '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, both the Wandering Cain theme appeared in Mormon folklore (but not scripture). The last known claim of a ''sighting'' appears to have been in the United States in the year 1868, when he was reported to have visited a Mormon named O'Grady (see Desert News, September 23, 1868). Prior to this in 1836, another early Mormon - David W. Patten - claimed to have encountered a very tall, hairy, dark-skinned man in Tennessee who said that he was Cain. Patten claimed that Cain had earnestly sought death but was denied it, and that his mission was to destroy the souls of men. Patten's story is quoted in Spencer W. Kimball 's '' The Miracle Of Forgiveness '', which is popular among Mormons. 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 to 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 interpretating the shadows on the Moon face. An example of this belief can be found in Dante Alighieri 's Inferno (XX, 126) where the expression "Cain and the twigs" is used as a synonym of "moon". ORIGIN In scholarship, the prevailing theory is that the story is composed of a number of layers, with the original layer deriving from the Sumerian Tale of ''the wooing of Inanna''. In the tale, seen as representing the ancient conflict between nomadic herders and settled agrarian farmers, Dumuzi , the god of shepherds, and Enkimdu , the god of farmers, are competing for the attention of Inanna , chief goddess. Dumuzi is brash and aggressive, but Enkimdu is placid and easy going, so Inanna favours Enkimdu. However, on hearing this, Dumuzi starts boasting about how great he is, and exhibits such strong Charisma that Enkimdu tells Inanna to marry Dumuzi and then wanders away. 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 spin on the story, to emphasise that one form of sacrifice is better than the other. In later mythology, though still prior to 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. COMMEMORATIONS Abel is seen as being the first Martyr and, thus, as a precursor to Christ . He 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 .Holweck, F. G. ''A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints''. St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1924. CHRISTIANITY Luke 11:50-51 calls Abel a prophet it says concerning him "Luke 11:50 Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all." LITERATURE As the first murderer and first murder victim, Cain and Abel have often formed the basis of tragic drama. Their names are often used in works of fiction simply as a reference, also. Some notable explorations or references to Cain and Abel include:
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