Genesis 4:1-25.
Heb 11:4 Abel .. more excellent sacrifice than C
1Jo 3:12 not like C, which was of the evil one and
Jude 1:11 because they have followed the way of C, and
Cain (Heb. Qayin, commonly “worker” or “spear”; Gk. KáVn; ha-Qayin, “the blacksmith”; Qâyin and ha-qênî, also appearing in sudar inscriptions). 1. Eldest son of Adam and Eve, brother and murderer of Abel * Farmer by trade, he offered a sacrifice of the product of his fields. When God rejected his offering and accepted his brother’s, he became jealous and killed him (Gen 4: 1-16). The NT indicates an ethical cause for rejection: Abel was righteous (Mat 23:35), while Cain’s ways were evil (Jud_11); John says that he was of the evil one and that “he killed his brother…because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s deeds were righteous” (1 John 3:12). The author of Heb 11:4 implies that lack of faith was the reason for the rejection of Cain’s offering. As punishment for his crime, he was forced to live as an exile; for his protection or as a sign of protection against the vengeance of his brother’s blood, he was given a sign whose nature we do not know (Gen 4:15, 16). 2. A town in the mountains of Judah (Jos 15:57), now called Khirbet Yaqîn, about 5 km southeast of Hebron. 3. Name of a tribe (Num 24:21, 22, BJ and DHH); they are also called Kenites, Qenites, Quineos, Quineceos, Cainites, Ceneceos or Ceneos* (Jdg 4:11; “Cain”, BJ).
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
Hebrew qanah, to acquire. First son of the first parents, Adam and Eve. C. was a nomadic shepherd, unlike his brother Abel, a farmer, Gn 4, 1 ss. Both brothers offer their first fruits to Yahweh, but only Abel’s sacrifice is accepted, and C.’s is rejected, Heb 11, 4. The latter, full of envy, “being of the Evil One”, according to 1 Jn 3, 12, kills his brother and receives the curse of Yahweh that condemns him to wander and wander on earth.
Yahweh puts a sign on him so that no one kills him because only God would judge him, Gn 4, 11. After this curse, C. “settled in the country of Nod, east of Eden”, Gn 4, 16, a site unknown, where he founded a city which he called Enoch, as his son was called, and he is considered the first builder of a city, Gn 4, 17. Shepherds, musicians and metal forgers come from C. About the false doctors, it is said in Jude 2, that they have gone by the way of C.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
1. The first son of Adam and Eve, and a farmer by trade. As an offering to God, he brought some of the fruits of the land, while his brother brought a sacrificial animal (Genesis 4). Angry that his offering was not received (Heb 11:4 shows that he lacked a right disposition toward God), he murdered his brother. He added to his guilt before God by denying the fact and giving no evidence of repentance. He fled to the land of Nod and built a city there, becoming the progenitor of a line that included Jabal.
2. The progenitor of the Kenites (Num 24:22). In the RVA a tribal name; the RVR-1960 prefers the ceneo (see also Jdg 4:11).
See QUENEOS.
Cain (Place).
) (Heb., kayin, blacksmith).
A city in Judah (Jos 15:57).
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
(Blacksmith). Eldest son of Adam and Eve. Originally his name was chosen because it resembled the word qanah, which means “to win” (Gen 4:1), but it seems that eventually the term stuck to “blacksmith”, which is related to one of his descendants, “Tubal- cain, maker of all works of bronze and iron† (Gen 4:22). C. and Abel brought offerings to God, who was pleased with Abel’s and not with C. The Genesis account does not explain the cause for the divine reaction, but in Hebrews we are told that “by faith Abel offered to God more excellent sacrifice than C.† (Heb 11:4).
John says that C. “was of the wicked one.” And as for Abel, he writes: “And for what cause did he kill him? For his deeds were evil, and his brother’s deeds were his righteous † (1Jn 3:12). After killing Abel, C. was condemned to till the land with little success and to go “wandering and foreign” (Gen 4:12), and a “mark was put on C., lest anyone find him kill him.” (Gen 4:15), and went to dwell “in the land of Nod † (Gen 4:16). He eventually married, and then built a city which he named after his son † ¢ Enoch. The epistle of Jude, speaking of “ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness”, puts them as “having followed the way of C.” (Jude 1:4, Jude 1:111).
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
tip, BIOG HOMB HOAT
vet, = “worker”, “craftsman”, “acquisition”. Cain was the firstborn of Adam and Eve, a farmer and the first murderer (Gen. 4:1). He committed his crime despite God’s admonitions and despised divine mercy and correction (Gen. 4:6-9). Since the murder of his brother Abel he wandered and was separated from the people (Gen. 4:16). Cain withdrew to the land of Nod, east of paradise (Heb. 11:4; 1 Jn. 3:12). He had sons, including Enoch (Gen. 4:16). God put a sign on Cain so that no one would kill him, but what that sign consisted of is unknown.
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Biblical figure that reflects envy and wickedness, by killing his brother Abel (Gen. 4. 1-16). He was the name of the bad son of Adam, who because of his wickedness displeased God and became the father of part of the human race.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
(-> Abel, sin, sacrifice, blood). Cain and Abel are children of Adam-Eve, who have already been expelled from paradise (virgin and fertile nature, which bears fruit by itself) and are beginning to distinguish themselves by their productive work: Cain (begotten of Yahweh) is a farmer: he cultivates the products from the earth. Significantly, according to the old ideal of nomadism, the farmer is bad, compared to the shepherd who is good. Abel (Weak Breath) is a shepherd of small livestock (sheep / goats): he is not a hunter who fights against wild beasts and farm animals, but a tamer, dedicated to taming animals. The antagonism of trades or jobs may reflect the first social struggle of farmers and herders, with the final (unjust and violent) victory of the farmers.
(1) The first sacrifices. This war is expressed by animal sacrifices, understood as a bloody evocation of the mystery of life. Indeed, many Israelites at the time this account is written (between the 8th and 6th centuries BC) had become sedentary, adept at agriculture. However, his most perfect religious offering was the life and blood of animals. This is how the Bible presents the first sacrifices. God had not yet allowed men to kill animals (cf. Gn 1,28-31), something that he will only do in Gn 8, with Noah; but Abel kills them, anticipating what the priests of Jerusalem will repeat century after century. God had not asked men for any bloody sacrifice, but fidelity to his call; but they sacrifice expressing their rivalry with religious gestures, as if they wanted to buy (get) the favor of God. Cain raises a mincha, a vegetable gift (of wheat and wine?), to the God of the field; in this way he recognizes his religious dependence and expresses his sense of life in the world. On his part, Abel presents the sacrifice of the firstborn of the flock, burning the fat of the sheep/goats on the altar, thus acknowledging the power of God over life. In this way, the two brothers express and inaugurate the two types of worship: one vegetable and one animal, one for farmers and the other for shepherds. Well, without knowing why, the text affirms that God accepted Abel’s offering, not Cain’s, although the reason seems clear from the perspective of the history of religions: the Eastern God liked lambs/goats, fat that is burned in his honor on the altar, as Gn 8,15-22 will indicate; also the official Israelite theology prefers animal sacrifices, as indicated by the ritual of Leviticus. In any case, the text has neither wanted nor been able to develop the causes of God’s preference for animal sacrifices, nor the reason for the human division (Cain and Abel). Abel seems peaceful, perhaps because he unloads his aggressiveness on the animals: the sheep/goats that he sacrifices and burns on the altar serve as therapy (scapegoat); they pacify him, and he does not need to vent his fury against his brother. Cain is violent even though (or perhaps because) his religion centers on plant offerings.
(2) Destiny and signal of the murderer. According to the story of Gn 4,15-16, Cain accepts responsibility for the murder of his brother and confesses his guilt, discovering that he has broken the balance of life. In this way he condemns himself, before being condemned by others. These are the three traits that define his destiny, according to Gen 4:13-14. (a) he Is a murderer before himself: “Great is my guilt to be borne.” In this way he expresses the horror of the murder, which manifests itself in the form of inner fear and remorse, as a type of schizophrenia or division that the murderer can no longer bear, (b) He is a murderer before God: “Today you throw me out of the earth and I will have to hide myself from your presence. The inner rupture is expressed as estrangement before God: the murderer is a man who hides and separates himself from the sources of life, from which he feels expelled for what he has done, (c) Murderer before men: “I will wander and foreigner on earth; and it will come to pass that anyone who finds me will kill me.” The inner rupture and distance from God translates into social rejection: the murderer has neither country nor rights, so he lacks protection, leaving himself at the mercy of the revenge of anyone who finds him. In this way, this world that could have been a shared house for man, in which he lives in close proximity to God and in communion with others, has become for Cain (for all Cains) a place of interior rupture, of rejection of God and social fear. Once he has ignited, the power of violence spreads: blood cries out for more blood, in a gesture of infinite retaliation that can lead to the death of all men.
(3) Live as murderers, stop the violence. To stop the spiral of violence, God places a sign of protection on Cain’s forehead: “Yahweh answered: Verily, whoever kills Cain will be punished seven times. Then Yahweh put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him” (Gen 4:15). The story assumes that all subsequent men are sons of Cain, survivors of a history of sin, sons of forgiven murderers. The concrete history of men begins, according to this, with a murder that, contrary to the religious myths of many cultures, is defined and resolved with two surprising and complementary affirmations. (a) The winner is guilty. In general, the…