CAINITES. - I. Race of Cain (v.), of which Gen. 4:17-24 speaks. To them is attributed the first material progress of humanity, with the founding of a city (Cain), the herding of flocks (Jabal), music (Jubal) and metalworking (Tubal-cain).
For further details, see the individual names mentioned above. S. Mowinckel, considering such praise irreconcilable with the censure of the other biblical sections, arbitrarily reconstructs a "Cainite document" that would then have been incorporated into Gen. Nor are there lacking, even in this pericope, episodes proving their low moral level, such as polygamy and murder (Lamech). St. Augustine (De civ. Dei, XV, 1) sees in the Cainites the first representatives of the earthly city opposed to the divine city which, according to St. John Chrysostom (Hom. 22 in Genesim: PG 53, 187), would have been the cause of the corruption of the Sethites (v.) and of the subsequent flood (v.).
Bibliography
Faustino Salvoni
II. Gnostic sect of the 2nd century. Its origin is linked to those laxists of apostolic times who, distorting Pauline thought on the abrogation of Jewish observances, sought to legalize immorality, turning evangelical freedom into license and lust. This antinomian current later penetrated the Gnostic movement, giving rise within it to numerous sects of theorists of immorality, among them that of the Cainites (cf. Irenaeus, Adv. haereses, I, 31, 1-2: PG 7, 704).
The basis of this system is an antithetical conception of the two Testaments, whereby the god of the Old Testament is considered an inferior being, tyrant of the world of which he was the demiurge, enemy of the true God whose name is Sophia. One must therefore oppose him and glorify all those who were persecuted by him. The first among these is Cain, begotten by Eve through the work of Sophia, while Abel is of the lineage of the demiurge. He possessed the secret of true gnosis, which was transmitted down the centuries to all the wicked of the Old Testament up to Judas. When God sent the Redeemer, the demiurge wished to prevent his salvific death, but Judas, true son of God, managed nonetheless to bring about his killing, thereby obtaining the Redemption. Christ then, having descended into hell, freed all the condemned of the Old Testament, leaving there the followers of the creator. The purpose of this doctrine was eminently practical: under the pretext of destroying the works of the creator, it sought to legitimize lust by giving it the character of a religious duty. The Cainites rejected the Bible: in its place they used apocryphal books such as the Gospel of Judas and the Ascension of Paul.