Cain
Cain is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He was a farmer who gave an offering of his crops to God. However, God was not pleased and favored Abel's offering over Cain's. Out of jealousy, Cain killed his brother, for which he was punished by God with the curse and mark of Cain. He had several descendants, starting with his son Enoch and including Lamech.
Quotes
[edit]- Then the Lord asked Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” He answered, “I do not know. Am I to be my brother’s keeper?”
- Genesis 4:9 NCB.
- Now may you be cursed far from the soil that drank the blood of your brother that you have shed. When you till the soil, it shall not be fruitful for you. You shall be a fugitive and wanderer upon the earth.”
- Cain told the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear! Behold, you are banishing me from the soil this day. I will have to hide far from you. I will be a fugitive and wanderer upon the earth, and whoever meets me will be able to kill me.” But the Lord told him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” The Lord placed a mark upon Cain, so that no one who might meet him would strike him.
- Genesis 4:11-15 NCB.
Quotes about
[edit]Bible
[edit]- Adam was intimate with Eve his wife and she conceived and bore a son named Cain. She said, “I have obtained a son from the Lord.”
- Genesis 4:1 NCB.
- The Lord therefore said to Cain, “Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do what is right, will you not be able to hold up your head? But if you do what is wrong, sin is crouching at your door. It seeks to dominate you, but you can overcome it.”
- Genesis 4:6-7 NCB.
- But the Lord told him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” The Lord placed a mark upon Cain, so that no one who might meet him would strike him.
- Genesis 4:15 NCB.
- Lamech said to his wives, / “Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice; / wives of Lamech, lend an ear to what I say. / I have killed a man for wounding me / and a boy, for bruising me. / If Cain received a vengeance of sevenfold, / Lamech will receive one of seventy-sevenfold.”
- Genesis 4:23-24 NCB.
- Wisdom preserved the first-formed father of the world / when he alone had been created. / She delivered him from his transgression / and gave him the power to rule over all things. / But when the wicked man forsook her in his wrath, / he perished because of his fratricidal fury.
- Wisdom 10:1-3 NCB.
- [In Gen 4:17] Cain is the builder of the first city, the ancestor of farmers, musicians, blacksmiths, and perhaps courtesans (cf. v. 22), who provide for the comforts and pleasures of urban life. These advances are attributed by the Yahwist author to the lineage of Cain the cursed: the same condemnation of urban life is found in the Yahwist account of the Tower of Babel (11:1-9).
- [In Gen 4,17] Caino è il costruttore della prima città, l'antenato degli allevatori, dei musicisti, dei fabbriferrai e forse delle figlie del piacere (cf. v 22), che sovvengono alle comodità e ai piaceri della vita urbana. Questi progressi sono attribuiti dall'autore jahvista alla stirpe di Caino il maledetto: la stessa condanna della vita urbana si ritroverà nel racconto jahvista della torre di Babele (11,1-9).
- Jerusalem Bible, in La Bibbia di Gerusalemme (in Italian), Edizioni Dehoniane, Bologna, 1999, p. 43. ISBN 88-10-80526-7
- [In Gen 4,17] Caino è il costruttore della prima città, l'antenato degli allevatori, dei musicisti, dei fabbriferrai e forse delle figlie del piacere (cf. v 22), che sovvengono alle comodità e ai piaceri della vita urbana. Questi progressi sono attribuiti dall'autore jahvista alla stirpe di Caino il maledetto: la stessa condanna della vita urbana si ritroverà nel racconto jahvista della torre di Babele (11,1-9).
Others
[edit]- Cain taught his descendants to do everything that God hated: pride, boastful speech, self-adulation, slander, false accusations, and even swearing false oaths.
- Saint Gregory the Illuminator, Kebra Nagast, in Kebra Nagast. La Bibbia segreta dei Rastafari, Lorenzo Mazzoni (editor), ShaKe Edizioni, 2013 (in Italian), Ch. 7; 2013, p. 46. ISBN 978-88-97109-32-7
- Cain, a cursed man, slayer of his brother, multiplied evil; and his seed did likewise, provoking God's wrath with their wickedness. His lineage had no fear of God in their eyes, none of his children ever kept in mind that He had created them, none ever prayed to Him, nor worshipped Him, nor ever invoked His name, nor served Him out of fear. No, his successors thought only of eating, drinking, dancing, playing stringed instruments, singing unworthy songs, and performing impure works without any law, measure, or rule. Thus the perversion of the children of Cain multiplied, so much so that in their boundless indecency they introduced the seed of the donkey into the mare, and thus the mule was begotten, which God had certainly not commanded.
- Saint Gregory the Illuminator, Kebra Nagast, in Kebra Nagast. La Bibbia segreta dei Rastafari, Lorenzo Mazzoni (editor), ShaKe Edizioni, 2013 (in Italian), Ch. 6; 2013, p. 46. ISBN 978-88-97109-32-7
