WHAT DO YOU THINK OF CAIN EPISODE?

1. What Do You Think Of Cain Episode?

a) 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. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. ... Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear." (Genesis 4:13)

b) Why did Cain say that?

@1. Cain knew that what he did to Abel was wrong. His senseless murder seems to threaten the foundations of civil society, and soon people would find out and kill him. The main reason for this was Cain was outside God's presence, outside God's protection.

@2. To protect him from revenge by those who fear an explosion of violence, Cain was marked with a significant sign, a sign warning others not to repay evil with evil.

@3. According to the Book of Jubilees, Cain murdered his brother with a stone. Afterwards, Cain was killed by the same instrument he used against his brother; his house fell on him and he was killed by its stones.

c) Someone asked this, "What caused Cain to say in Genesis 4:14, ...whoever finds me will kill me?" As we know there were no other people besides Adam, Eve and two brothers, Cain and Abel. Where did these people coming from whom Cain was referring?

d) A good question. Here are the possibilities:

@1. Adam and Eve bore daughters in addition to their sons, one of whom became Cain’s wife. Nowhere does Genesis say that they bore only Cain and Abel before later creating Seth.

@2. It was customary in Jewish genealogical records to list only the men.

@3. God made more people after he made Adam and Eve. Either he made Cain’s wife as he made Adam’s, or he made her parents or ancestors. Nowhere does Genesis or the rest of Scripture state that God made only Adam and Eve.

@4. If Cain and his parents were the only humans alive on the planet at this time, why was he so afraid of others?

@5. Cain's fear indicates the existence of large numbers of other people (or, alternately, he is afraid of future consequences when mankind grows more populous). If many people were living at the time, perhaps they were the offspring of another parental couple or couples (or, alternately, perhaps they were more of Adam and Eve’s unnamed children).

e) What do you think of Cain episode?