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Genesis

About this book

Cain and Abel

Chapter 4

1 Now the man was intimate with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, “I have created a man just as the Lord did!”⁠ 2 Then she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel took care of the flocks,⁠ while Cain cultivated the ground. 3 At the designated time Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground for an offering to the Lord. 4 But Abel brought some of the firstborn of his flock—even the fattest of them. And the Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering,⁠ 5 but with Cain and his offering he was not pleased. So Cain became very angry, and his expression was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why is your expression downcast? 7 Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door.⁠ It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it.”⁠ 8 Cain spoke to his brother Abel.21⁠ While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.⁠ 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he replied, “I don’t know! Am I my brother’s guardian?”⁠ 10 But the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!⁠ 11 So now you are banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you try to cultivate the ground it will no longer yield its best for you. You will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.” 13 Then Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to endure!⁠ 14 Look, you are driving me off the land today, and I must hide from your presence. I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth; whoever finds me will kill me!” 15 But the Lord said to him, “All right then, if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.”⁠ Then the Lord put a special mark on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. 16 So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Cain's Descendants

17 Cain was intimate with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was building a city, and he named the city after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael. Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech. 19 Lamech took two wives for himself; the name of the first was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the first of those who live in tents and keep livestock. 21 The name of his brother was Jubal; he was the first of all who play the harp and the flute. 22 Now Zillah also gave birth to Tubal-Cain, who heated metal and shaped all kinds of tools made of bronze and iron.⁠ The sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah. 23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me! You wives of Lamech, hear my words! I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for hurting me. 24 If Cain is to be avenged seven times as much, then Lamech seventy-seven times!”

Seth and His Family

25 And Adam was intimate with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth, saying, “God has given me another child in place of Abel because Cain killed him.” 26 And a son was also born to Seth, whom he named Enosh. At that time people began to worship the Lord.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 4:8 and Wisdom of Solomon 2:1 and Neofiti Genesis 4:8

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon · Targum

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Summary

In Genesis, Cain speaks to Abel but what he says is not recorded. The Aramaic Targum Neofiti fills the gap with a denial that judgment or another world exists, the same reasoning the early chapters of Wisdom give to their sinners.

Passages

Genesis 4:8

Hebrew Bible
7 Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it.” 8 Cain spoke to his brother Abel.21 While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he replied, “I don’t know! Am I my brother’s guardian?”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Wisdom of Solomon 2:1

Deuterocanon
1 For they said within themselves, with unsound reasoning, “Our life is short and sorrowful. There is no healing when a man comes to his end, and no one was ever known who was released from Hades. 2 Because we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we will be as though we had never been, because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our heart, 3 which being extinguished, the body will be turned into ashes, and the spirit will be dispersed as thin air. 4 Our name will be forgotten in time. No one will remember our works. Our life will pass away as the traces of a cloud, and will be scattered as is a mist, when it is chased by the rays of the sun, and overcome by its heat. 5 For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and our end doesn’t retreat, because it is securely sealed, and no one turns it back.
50 BCE – 50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Wisdom of Solomon

Neofiti Genesis 4:8

Targum
8 And Cain said to Abel his brother, “Come, let the two of us go out to the face of the field.” And when the two of them had gone out to the face of the field, Cain spoke up and said to Abel, “I see that the world was not created with mercy, and it is not governed by the fruit of good deeds, and there is favoritism in judgment. Otherwise why was your offering accepted with favor, and my offering was not accepted from me with favor?” Abel spoke up and said to Cain, “I see that the world was created with mercy, and it is governed by the fruit of good deeds. And because my good deeds were better than yours, my offering was accepted from me with favor, and your offering was not accepted from you with favor.” Cain spoke up and said to Abel, “There is no judgment, and there is no judge, and there is no other world. There is no good reward given to the righteous, and no punishment taken from the wicked.” Abel spoke up and said to Cain, “There is judgment, and there is a judge, and there is another world. There is good reward given to the righteous, and punishment taken from the wicked in the world to come.” And over this matter the two of them were quarreling on the face of the field. And Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
300–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Neofiti Genesis

References

“... Of course, not all scepticism about the afterlife need be Epicurean in origin. But the widely known Epicurean position, or at least a caricature of it, provided an available category both for those inclined to be sceptical to identify with and for those wishing to counter such scepticism to oppose. Jewish scepticism about judgment after death never speaks to us with its own voice in the extant literature: its expression is always attributed to it by its opponents, who sometimes at least cast it in Epicurean terms. The sinners whose attitudes are described in detail in the early chapters of Wisdom are certainly cast in the popular image of Epicureanism: they regard death as the end of existence and see this belief as leaving them free to live as wickedly as they choose. More immediately relevant to the Apocalypse of Peter, if we are right to locate it in Palestine, is a tradition that occurs in the Palestinian Targums. Such traditions are, of course, very difficult to date, but this one has been quite plausibly argued to go back to our period. It occurs at Genesis 4:8 and describes a dispute between Cain and Abel following the acceptance of Abel's sacrifice and the rejection of Cain's. Cain takes this as evidence that the world is not governed justly, i.e. good deeds are not rewarded as they should be. But the denial of providential justice is then extended to a denial of eschatological justice in another world. Cain says: There is no judgment, there is no Judge, there is no other world, ...”
Richard Bauckham, The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, NovTSup 93 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 229.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 4:8 and Wisdom of Solomon 2:1 and Neofiti Genesis 4:8

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