The history of Cain and Abel.
VVicked Cain killeth holie Abel. 9. vvhose bloud cryeth for reuenge. 11. Cain a cursed vacabond, 17. hath much issue. 25 Adam also hath Seth, and Seth Enos.
1And Adam knew Eve his wife; who conceived and brought forth Cain, saying: I have gotten a man through God.E Adamo conobbe la sua moglie Eva, la quale concepì, e partorì Caino, dicendo: Ho fatto acquisto di un uomo per dono di Dio.AND Adam knewe Eue his wife: who conceiued and brought forth Cain, saying: I haue gotten a man through God.Adam vero cognovit uxorem suam Hevam, quæ concepit et peperit Cain, dicens: Possedi hominem per Deum. 2And again she brought forth his brother Abel. And Abel was a shepherd, and Cain a husbandman.E di poi partorì il fratello di lui, Abele. E Abele fu pastore di pecore, e Caino agricoltore.And againe she brought forth his brother Abel. And Abel was a shepehard, & Cain a husbandman.Rursumque peperit fratrem ejus Abel. Fuit autem Abel pastor ovium, et Cain agricola. 3And it came to pass after many days, that Cain offered, of the fruits of the earth, gifts to the Lord.Ed avvenne, che da lì a lungo tempo offerse Caino doni al Signore de' frutti della terra.And it befel after manie dayes that Cain offred of the fruites of the earth giftes to our Lord.Factum est autem post multos dies ut offerret Cain de fructibus terræ munera Domino. 4Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat: and the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offerings.Abele ancora offerse de' primogeniti del suo gregge, e de' più grassi tra essi: e il Signore volse lo sguardo ad Abele, e a' suoi doni;Abel also offred of the first begotten of his flocke, and of their fat: and our Lord had respect to Abel, & to his giftes.Abel quoque obtulit de primogenitis gregis sui, et de adipibus eorum: et respexit Dominus ad Abel, et ad munera ejus. 5But to Cain and his offerings he had no respect: and Cain was exceeding angry, and his countenance fell.Ma non diede uno sguardo a Caino, né ai doni di lui: e Caino si accese di grande sdegno, e portava il volto dimesso.But to Cain, and to his giftes he had not respect: & Cain was exceeding angrie, and his countenance abated.Ad Cain vero, et ad munera illius non respexit: iratusque est Cain vehementer, et concidit vultus ejus. 6And the Lord said to him: Why art thou angry? and why is thy countenance fallen?E il Signore disse a lui: Per qual motivo sei adirato? e perché porti la faccia in seno?And our Lord said to him: Why art thou angrie? and why is thy countinance fallen?Dixitque Dominus ad eum: Quare iratus es ? et cur concidit facies tua ? 7If thou do well, shalt thou not receive? but if ill, shall not sin forthwith be present at the door? but the lust thereof shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it.Non è egli vero, che se farai bene, bene averai: e se farai male, sarà tosto alla tua porta il peccato? Ma l'appetito di esso sarà sotto di te; e tu gli comanderai.If thou doe wel, shalt thou not receiue againe: but if thou doest il, shal not thy sinne forth with be present at the dore? but the lust therof shal be vnder thee, and thou shalt haue dominion ouer it.nonne si bene egeris, recipies: sin autem male, statim in foribus peccatum aderit ? sed sub te erit appetitus ejus, et tu dominaberis illius.
8And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go forth abroad. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him.E Caino disse ad Abele suo fratello: Andiamo fuora. E quando furono alla campagna, Caino investì il suo fratello Abele: e lo uccise.And Caine said to Abel his brother: Let vs goe forth abroad. And when they were in the filde, Caine rose vp against his brother Abel, and slewe him.Dixitque Cain ad Abel fratrem suum: Egrediamur foras. Cumque essent in agro, consurrexit Cain adversus fratrem suum Abel, et interfecit eum. 9And the Lord said to Cain: Where is thy brother Abel? And he answered: I know not: am I my brother’s keeper?E il Signore disse a Caino: Dov'è Abele tuo fratello? Ed ei rispose: Nol so: son io forse il guardiano di mio fratello?And our Lord said to Cain: Where is Abel thy brother? Who answered: I know not: am I my brothers keper?Et ait Dominus ad Cain: Ubi est Abel frater tuus ? Qui respondit: Nescio: num custos fratris mei sum ego ? 10And he said to him: What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the earth.E il Signore gli disse: Che hai tu fatto? la voce del sangue di tuo fratello grida a me dalla terra.And he said to him: What hast thou done? the voice of thy brothers bloud crieth to me out of, the earth.Dixitque ad eum: Quid fecisti ? vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra. 11Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand.Or tu adunque sarai maledetto sopra la terra, la quale ha aperta la sua bocca, ed ha ricevuto il sangue del tuo fratello dalla tua mano.Now therfore cursed shalt thou be vpon the earth, which hath opened her mouth, & receiued the bloud of thy brother at thy hand.Nunc igitur maledictus eris super terram, quæ aperuit os suum, et suscepit sanguinem fratris tui de manu tua. 12When thou shalt till it, it shall not yield to thee its fruit: a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the earth.Dopo che tu l'avrai lavorata, non darà a te i suoi frutti: tu sarai vagabondo e fuggiasco sopra la terra.When thou shalt til it, it shal not yeld to thee her fruite: a roag and vagabound shalt thou be vpon the earth.Cum operatus fueris eam, non dabit tibi fructus suos: vagus et profugus eris super terram. 13And Cain said to the Lord: My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon.E Caino disse al Signore: È sì grande il mio peccato, ch'io non posso meritar perdono.And Cain said to our Lord: Myne iniquitie is greater, then that I may deserue pardon.Dixitque Cain ad Dominum: Major est iniquitas mea, quam ut veniam merear.
14Behold thou dost cast me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face I shall be hid, and I shall be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth: every one, therefore, that findeth me, shall kill me.Ecco che tu oggi mi discacci da questa terra, ed io mi nasconderò dalla tua faccia, e sarò vagabondo e fuggiasco per la terra: chiunque pertanto mi troverà, darammi la morte.Loe thou doest cast me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shal I be hid, and I shal be a vagabound & fugitiue on the earth: euerie one therfore that findeth me, shal kil me.Ecce ejicis me hodie a facie terræ, et a facie tua abscondar, et ero vagus et profugus in terra: omnis igitur qui invenerit me, occidet me. 15And the Lord said to him: No, it shall not so be: but whosoever shall kill Cain, shall be punished sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, that whosoever found him should not kill him.E il Signore gli disse: Non sarà così: ma chiunque ucciderà Caino, avrà gastigo sette volte maggiore. E il Signore mise sopra Caino un segno, affinché nessuno di quegli, che lo incontrassero, lo uccidessero.And our Lord said to him: No, it shal not so be: but whosoeuer shal kil Cain, shalbe punished seauen fould. And our Lord put a marke on Cain, that whosoeuer found him should not kil him.Dixitque ei Dominus: Nequaquam ita fiet: sed omnis qui occiderit Cain, septuplum punietur. Posuitque Dominus Cain signum, ut non interficeret eum omnis qui invenisset eum. 16And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a fugitive on the earth at the east side of Eden.E andatosene Caino dalla faccia del Signore fuggitivo per la terra, abitò nel paese che è all'oriente di Eden.And Cain went forth from the face of our Lord, and dwelt as a fugitiue on the earth at the east side of Eden.Egressusque Cain a facie Domini, habitavit profugus in terra ad orientalem plagam Eden. 17And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and brought forth Henoch: and he built a city, and called the name thereof by the name of his son Henoch.E Caino conobbe la sua moglie, la quale concepì, e partorì Henoch: ed egli fabbricò una città; a cui diede il nome di Henoc dal nome del suo figliuolo.And Cain knewe his wife, who conceiued, and brought forth Enoch: And he built a citie, & called the name therof by the name of his sonne, Enoch.Cognovit autem Cain uxorem suam, quæ concepit, et peperit Henoch: et ædificavit civitatem, vocavitque nomen ejus ex nomine filii sui, Henoch.
18And Henoch begot Irad, and Irad begot Maviael, and Maviael begot Mathusael, and Mathusael begot Lamech,Or Henoch generò Irad, e Irad generò Maviael, e Maviael generò Mathusael, e Mathusael generò Lamech.Moreouer Enoch be gat Irad, and Irad begat Mauiael, and Mauiael begat Mathusael, and Mathusael begat Lamech.Porro Henoch genuit Irad, et Irad genuit Maviaël, et Maviaël genuit Mathusaël, et Mathusaël genuit Lamech. 19Who took two wives: the name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Sella.Il quale prese due mogli, una che ebbe nome Ada, un'altra che ebbe nome Sella.Who tooke two wiues, the name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Sella.Qui accepit duas uxores, nomen uni Ada, et nomen alteri Sella. 20And Ada brought forth Jabel: who was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of herdsmen.E Ada partorì Jabel, che fu il padre di que' che abitano sotto le tende, e de' pastori.And Ada brought forth Iabel, who was the father of them that dwel in tents, and of heardsmen.Genuitque Ada Jabel, qui fuit pater habitantium in tentoriis, atque pastorum. 21And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of them that play upon the harp and the organs.Ed ebbe un fratello per nome Jubal: ed egli fu il padre dei sonatori di cetra e di organo.And his brothers name was Iubal: he was the father of them that sing on harpe & organes.Et nomen fratris ejus Jubal: ipse fuit pater canentium cithara et organo. 22Sella also brought forth Tubalcain, who was a hammerer and artificer in every work of brass and iron. And the sister of Tubalcain was Noema.Sella partorì anche Tubalcain, che lavorò di martello, e fu artefice di ogni sorta di lavori di rame e di ferro. Sorella poi di Tubalcain fu Noema.Sella also brought forth Tubalcain, who was a hammerer & worker in al worke of brasse & iron. And the sister of Tubalcain was Noema.Sella quoque genuit Tubalcain, qui fuit malleator et faber in cuncta opera æris et ferri. Soror vero Tubalcain, Noëma. 23And Lamech said to his wives Ada and Sella: Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech: for I have slain a man to the wounding of myself, and a stripling to my own bruising.E disse Lamech alle sue mogli, Ada, e Sella: Ascoltate la mia voce, o donne di Lamech, ponete mente alle mie parole: io uccisi un uomo con ferita fattagli da me, e un giovinetto co' miei colpi.And Lamech said to his wiues Ada and Sella: Heare my voice ye wiues of Lamech, harken to my talke: for I haue slaine a mā to the wounding of my selfe, and a stripeling to mine owne drie blowe brewsing.Dixitque Lamech uxoribus suis Adæ et Sellæ: Audite vocem meam, uxores Lamech; / auscultate sermonem meum: / quoniam occidi virum in vulnus meum, / et adolescentulum in livorem meum.
24Sevenfold vengeance shall be taken for Cain: but for Lamech seventy times sevenfold.Sarà fatta vendetta dell'omicidio di Caino sette volte; di quel di Lamech settanta volte sette volte.Seuenfould vengeance shal be taken of Cain: but of Lamech seuentie times seuen fould.Septuplum ultio dabitur de Cain: / de Lamech vero septuagies septies. 25Adam also knew his wife again: and she brought forth a son, and called his name Seth, saying: God hath given me another seed for Abel, whom Cain slew.E Adamo ancora conobbe nuovamente la sua moglie: ed ella partorì un figliuolo, a cui pose il nome di Seth, dicendo: Il Signore mi ha data nuova discendenza in luogo di Abele ucciso da Caino.Adam also knewe his wife again: and she brought forth a sonne, and called his name Seth, saying: God hath giuen me other seede for Abel, whom Cain slewe.Cognovit quoque adhuc Adam uxorem suam: et peperit filium, vocavitque nomen ejus Seth, dicens: Posuit mihi Deus semen aliud pro Abel, quem occidit Cain. 26But to Seth also was born a son, whom he called Enos: this man began to call upon the name of the Lord.E nacque anche a Seth un figliuolo, ch'egli chiamò Enos: questi principiò ad invocare il nome del Signore.But to Seth also was borne a sonne, whom he called Enos, this man began to inuocate the name of our Lord.Sed et Seth natus est filius, quem vocavit Enos: iste cœpit invocare nomen Domini.
4:1
Year of the World 2, Year before Christ 4002.
Calmet
Through God. Hebrew may signify also "even God," as if she thought this was the promised seed, who, as Onkelos paraphrases it, would serve the Lord. (Calmet)
Haydock
So little could she foresee the future conduct of Cain, whose name may be derived either from kone, possession and acquisition, or from kun, lamentation. The latter interpretation would have been better verified by the event, and the name of Abel, vanity, or sorrow, for which his parents allege no reason, might also have been reversed, on account of his justice, for which he is canonized by Christ himself, and declared the Just. Pious and significant names were imposed by either parent. Cain was the second man. He was not conceived till after the fall, and was therefore the first born in original sin. (Haydock)
4:4
Challoner
Had respect. That is, shewed his acceptance of his sacrifice (as coming from a heart full of devotion): and that we may suppose, by some visible token, such as sending fire from heaven upon his offerings. (Challoner)
Worthington
The offerings of Cain are mentioned without any approbation: those of Abel are the firstlings and fat, or the very best; by which he testified, that he acknowledged God for his first beginning. Sacrifice is due to God alone, and to Him it has always been offered in the Church. We have the happiness to offer that truly eucharistic sacrifice to God, of which those of ancient times were only figures. What sacrifice can our erring brethren shew? (Worthington; Calmet)
4:7
Haydock
Over it. This is a clear proof of free-will. To destroy its force, Protestants translate over him, as if Cain should still retain his privilege of the first-born, notwithstanding all his wickedness, and should rule over Abel, who would willingly submit, "unto thee his desire," etc. But God had made no mention of Abel. The whole discourse is about doing well or ill; and Cain is encouraged to avoid the stings of conscience, by altering his conduct, as it was in his power, how strongly soever his passions might solicit him to evil. (Haydock)
Worthington
The Hebrew is understood by Onkelos, and the Targum of Jerusalem, in the sense of the Vulgate. The latter reads, "If thou correct thy proceedings in this life, thou wilt receive pardon in the next world. But if thou do not penance for thy sin, it shall remain till the day of the great judgment, and it shall stay, lying at the door of thy heart. But I have given thee power to govern thy concupiscence: thou shalt sway it, either to embrace good or evil." Calmet shews that the Hebrew perfectly admits of this sense. St. Augustine will not allow of the turn which the Manichees gave it. "Thou shalt have dominion over (illius.) What? thy brother! (absit) by no means: over what then, but sin? (City of God 15:7.) Protestants formerly abandoned the translation of 1579, (which they have again resumed) and translated better, "unto thee shall be the desire thereof, and thou shalt rule over it," which R. Abenezra explains also of sin. To which of these editions, all given by royal authority, will Protestants adhere? Luther wrote a book against free-will, and Calvin would not admit the very name. But we, with all antiquity, must cry out with St. Jerome, contra Jov. 2: "God made us with free-will, neither are we drawn by necessity to virtue or vice; else where there is necessity, there is neither damnation nor reward." (Worthington; Haydock)
4:8
Year of the World 128, Year before Christ 3876.
Haydock
Let us go forth abroad. These words are now wanting in the Hebrew; being omitted, according to Kennicott, since the days of Aquila 130; they are found in the Samaritan copy and version, in the Septuagint, etc. (Haydock)
Haydock
The Masorets place a mark, as if something were defective here, and in 27 other verses, or in 25 at least. (Haydock)
Calmet
Abel's violent death was a figure of that of Jesus Christ, inflicted for the like cause. See Hebrews 12:2. (Calmet)
Haydock
In consequence of these crimes, Cain separated from the Church, and the Jews became no longer God's people: both Cain and the Jews became vagabonds. (Haydock)
Worthington
The Targum of Jerusalem observes, that Cain talked against God's providence and the future world, which Abel hearing with marked indignation, Cain took occasion to kill him. (Worthington)
4:13
Liranus
My iniquity, etc. Like Judas, Cain despairs. The Rabbins make him complain of the rigour of God's judgment, "My sin (or punishment) is too great to be borne." I must then be driven from the land of my nativity, from the society of my brethren and parents, from thy presence, for ever. Why do I then live? Let the first man I meet, kill me. (Liranus)
4:14
Challoner
Every one that findeth me, shall kill me. His guilty conscience made him fear his own brothers, and nephews; of whom, by this time, there might be a good number upon the earth: which had now endured near 130 years; as may be gathered from Genesis 5:3, compared with Genesis 4:25, though in the compendious account given in the Scripture, only Cain and Abel are mentioned. (Challoner)
Menochius
Cain is little concerned about any thing but the loss of life. (Menochius)
4:15
Challoner
Set a mark, etc. The more common opinion of the interpreters of holy writ, supposes this mark to have been a trembling of the body; or a horror and consternation in his countenance. (Challoner)
Haydock
God gave this first murderer a reprieve, allowing him time for repentance; but he neglected it, and died a reprobate; having been, during life, the head of an apostate church, and of the city of the devil, which has ever since opposed the city of God, and the society of the faithful. Though all his posterity were drowned in the deluge, some were soon found, even in the family of Noe, who stood up for the wretched pre-eminence in wickedness and rebellion, against the truth. See St. Augustine; Worthington; etc. (Haydock)
4:16
4:17
His wife. She was a daughter of Adam, and Cain's own sister; God dispensing with such marriages in the beginning of the world, as mankind could not otherwise be propagated.
Challoner
He built a city, viz. In process of time, when his race was multiplied, so as to be numerous enough to people it. For in the many hundred years he lived, his race might be multiplied even to millions. (Challoner)
Haydock
The Hanuchta, which Ptolemy places in Susiana, (Calmet) may perhaps have been built after the flood, in the same place. Josephus says, Cain was the first who fortified a city; designing it for a retreat, where he might keep the fruits of his robberies, Antiquities 1. 3. Peirere founds his ill-concerted system of Preadamites, or of men existing before Adam, on the history of Cain exercising husbandry, building a city, etc.; as if there were any difficulty in supposing, that the arts would have made some progress in the lapse of above a century. (Haydock)
4:19
Haydock
Two wives. Lamech first transgressed the law of having only one wife at a time. (Chap. 2:24.) None before the deluge is mentioned as having followed his example, even among the abandoned sons of men. Abraham, the father of the faithful, and some others, after that event, when the age of man was shortened, and the number of the true servants of God very small, were dispensed with by God, who tolerated the custom of having many wives at the same time among the Jews, till our Saviour brought things back to the ancient standard. (Matthew 19:4.) And why do we excuse the patriarchs, while we condemn Lamech? Because the one being associated with the wicked, gives us reason to judge unfavourably of him, while Abraham is constantly mentioned in Scripture with terms of approbation and praise, and therefore we have no right to pass sentence of condemnation upon him, as some Protestants have done, after the Manichees. Hence the fathers defend the one, and reject the other with abhorrence. (Haydock)
Tertullian (Monog. 100. 5.) and St. Jerome, contra Jovin. 1, says, "Lamech, first of all, a bloody murderer, divided one flesh between two wives." It was never lawful, says Pope Innocent 3:contra Gaudemus, for any one to have many wives at once, unless leave was given by divine revelation;" and St. Augustine joins with him in defending the patriarchs, by this reason, "When it was the custom, it was not a sin."
4:22
Calmet
Noema, who is supposed to have invented the art of spinning. (Calmet)
Haydock
All these worthy people were distinguished for their proficiency in the arts, while they neglected the study of religion and virtue. (Haydock)
Calmet
The inventors of arts among the Greeks lived mostly after the siege of Troy. (Calmet)
4:23
Fleury
Said. This is the most ancient piece of poetry with which we are acquainted. (Fleury)
Haydock
Lamech may be considered as the father of poets. (Haydock)
Challoner
I have slain a man, etc. It is the tradition of the Hebrews, that Lamech in hunting slew Cain, mistaking him for a wild beast: and that having discovered what he had done, he beat so unmercifully the youth, by whom he was led into that mistake, that he died of the blows. (Challoner)
Worthington
St. Jerome, 9. 1. ad Dam. acknowledges the difficulty of this passage, on which Origen wrote two whole books. (Worthington)
4:24
Tirinus
Seventy times. A similar expression occurs, Matthew 18:22, to denote a great but indefinite number. God had promised to revenge the murder of Cain seven fold, though he had sinned voluntarily; so Lamech hopes that, as he had acted by mistake, and blinded by passion, in striking the stripling, the son of Tubalcain, he would deserve to be protected still more from falling a prey to the fury of any other. But many reject this tradition as fabulous, unknown to Philo, Josephus, etc. Moses no where mentions the death of Cain. Some, therefore, understand this passage with an interrogation; as if, to convince his wives that his sin was not so enormous as was supposed, he should say, Do not think of leaving me. What! have I killed a young man, as Cain did Abel, and still he is suffered to live unmolested; or have I beaten any one so that I should be punished? Onkelos, in effect, puts a negation to the same purport, "I have not killed, etc.:" (Calmet) others understand this passage, as if Lamech considered his crimes as much more grievous than even those of Cain. (Tirinus)
4:25
Year of the World 130, Year before Christ 3874.
4:26
Challoner
Began to call upon, etc. Not that Adam and Seth had not called upon God before the birth of Enos, but that Enos used more solemnity in the worship and invocation of God. (Challoner)
Haydock
He directed all his thoughts towards heaven, being reminded by his own name, which signifies one afflicted, that he could look for no solid happiness on earth. Seth had brought him up, from his infancy, in these pious sentiments, and his children were so docile to his instructions, that they began to be known in the world for their extraordinary piety, and were even styled the Sons of God, Genesis 6:2. (Haydock)
Calmet
Religion was not a human invention, but many ceremonies have been adopted, at different times, to make an impression on the minds of the people. Before Enos, the heads of families had officiated in their own houses; now, perhaps, they met together in places consecrated to the divine service, and sounded forth the praises of the Most High. Enos was probably most conspicuous for his zeal on these occasions: at least, a new degree of fervour manifested itself in his days. On the other hand, "the name of the Lord began to be profaned" about this time, as the Rabbin understand this passage, by the introduction of idolatry; which is a common effect of a dissolute life, which many began now to lead, Wisdom 14:12. (Calmet)
Haydock
The beginning of fornication is the devising of idols. We have, nevertheless, no certain proof of idols being introduced till many years after the deluge. (Haydock)
4:4
Had respect.... That is, shewed his acceptance of his sacrifice (as coming from a heart full of devotion): and that, as we may suppose, by some visible token, such as sending fire from heaven upon his offerings.
4:14
Every one that findeth me shall kill me.... His guilty conscience made him fear his own brothers and nephews; of whom, by this time, there might be a good number upon the earth; which had now endured near 130 years; as may be gathered from Gen. 5.3, compared with chap. 4.25, though in the compendious account given in the scriptures, only Cain and Abel are mentioned.
4:15
Set a mark, etc.... The more common opinion of the interpreters of holy writ supposes this mark to have been a trembling of the body; or a horror and consternation in his countenance.
4:17
His wife.... She was a daughter of Adam, and Cain’s own sister; God dispensing with such marriages in the beginning of the world, as mankind could not otherwise be propagated. He built a city, viz.... In process of time, when his race was multiplied, so as to be numerous enough to people it. For in the many hundred years he lived, his race might be multiplied even to millions.
4:23
I have slain a man, etc.... It is the tradition of the Hebrews, that Lamech in hunting slew Cain, mistaking him for a wild beast; and that having discovered what he had done, he beat so unmercifully the youth, by whom he was led into that mistake, that he died of the blows.
4:26
4:3
3. Offered giftes] Either God him selfe taught Adam, and he his children, or els they knew by instinct of nature, that Sacrifice must be offered to God, to acknowledge therby his supreme dominion ouer man, and mans due subiection to his diuine Maiestie. And that not only in internal affection, which External Sacrifice due to God in euerie Law. (as S. Augustin, and al Catholique Doctors teach) is principally required, but Lib 10. de ciuit. also in external things, because we consist of bodie, and not only of soule, and haue, by Gods goodnes, the vse of corporal things. As here we see example •. 5. Leuit. 1 Dan 12. Mal. 1. Luc. 22. in the law of nature: and the same was ordained by written precept in the law of Moyses: the Prophetes. also foretold, that external Sacrifice should be offered in the law of grace, and new Testament, to wit, the same which Christ instituted, and left in his Church, to continew to the end of the world. Moreouer this homage of offering Sacrifice is so peculiar to God only, that albeit Sacrifice due to God onlie, and to no creature. manie other exterior rites and seruices are vsed both to God & men, as to be bare head, to be we, to kneele, & the li•e before them, either of great humilitie Lib. 10. ciuit. cap. 4. Aristot. li. 2 Meta his. •tl i•. 9. Polit. 7. c. 8. (saith S. Augustin) or of pestiferous flatterie, to such as are homines colendi, venerandi, si autem eis multum additur, & adorandi: men to be vvorshipped, reuerenced and of much be geuen them, adored (for this terme of adoring is also applied to men in holie Scriptures Gen. 23. v 7. 27. v. 29.) yet Sacrifice is due to God only, and to no creature how excellent so euer. In so much (saith the same Doctor) that as al nations founde it necessarie to offer Sacrifice, so none durst sacrifice to anie nisi et, quem Deum autsciuit, aut putauit, aut finxit: but to him whom they either knew, or thought, or fained to be God.
4:4
4. Hadre•tect to Abel [Both Cain and Abel did wel in offering external Sacrifice, but they differed much in sinceritie and maner of choosing or diuiding To. 3. q. 4. Quaest. Hebraie. Lib 15. ciuit c. 7. Mala. 1. Hebr. 11. Leuit. 9. Iudic. 6. 2. Par. 7. 3. Reg 18. 2. Mac 1 their oblations, touching Gods part and their owne, as S. Iustinus Martyr, Abels Sacrifice declared acceptable, & not Cains, by some external signe. S. Hierom, S. Augustin and others teach. For Abel offered of the best things, of the first begotten of his flock, and of their satte. And therfore God respected and approued it. But to Cain and to his giftes he had not respect, because he wanted sincere deuotiō. VVhich difference of Gods acceptance appeared doubtles, as S. Hieromand S. Augustin supposed, by some external signe, otherwise Cain had not vnderstood it. Most like it was by fire sent from God, which inflamed and consumed Abels Sacrifice, & not Cains. As we read of diuers other Sacrifices in holie Scriptures.
A figure of the Lambe that was slaine from the beginning of the world. Apoc. 13, v. 8.
Concordance Heb. 11.
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7. Shalt thou not receiue:] Reward of good workes, and punishment of euil are Reward and punishment according to our workes. clerly proued by this place. God saying to Gain: If thou doest vvel, shalt thou not receiue againe? what els but wel for wel doing? as Abel receiued consolation of his Sacrifice wel offered. but if thou doest il, shal not thy sinne be present forth vvith at the dore? afflicting thy conscience; and not suffering thy mind to be in quiet, for remorse of thy wicked fact, and feare of iust iudgement. For hence it came that Cains countenance fel, and his stomack boyled with angre: punishment so beginning euen in this life; & much more in the next world our Sauiour wil render (as him selfe saith) to euery man according to his workes: which Mat. 16. Rom. 2. the Apostle expresseth more distinctly, eternal life, or vvrath & indignation.
7. Vnder thee [This Text so plainly sheweth freewil in man, also after his Freewil in mā also after his falle. Heretical trāslation. falle, that the English Protestans to auoid so clere a truth, for these wordes, the lust ther of (to wit of sinne) shal be vnder thee, and thou halt haue dominion ouer it, corruptly translate in some of their Bibles thus: Vnto thee his desire shal be Bible 1579. subiect, and thou shalt rule ouer him. As if God had said, that Abel should be vnder Cain. As the phantastical Manichees peruerted the sense, whose absurditie S. Augustin controlleth maintayning the true construction of the wordes, •b. 15. c. 7. ciuit. Tu dominabe• is illius; nunquid fratris? absit. Cuius igitur nisi pecuati? Thou shalt rule ouer: VVhat, ouer thy brother? Not so. Ouer vvhat then but sinne? In other English Editions, namely in the last, which we suppose they wil stand to, it is better, but yet obscure thus, Vnto thee shal be the desire therof, and thou shalt haue rule of 〈◊〉. Let vs therfore examine the sense, and if S. Hierome, the great scripture Doctor Quaest. Hebraic. in Gen. did rightly vnderstand it, God did speake to this effect to Cain: Because thou hast freevvil, I vvarne thee, that sinne haue not dominion ouer thee, but thou ouer sinne. The Hebrew also & Greeke text proue freewil in Cain. The Hebrew hath thus: ad te appetitus eius, et tu dominaberis in eum, or, ei. Vnto thee the appetite therof, and thou shalt rule ouer it. Thargum Hierosolomitanum concludeth Gods speach to Cain thus: Into thy hand I haue geuen povvre of thy concupiscence, and haue thou dominion therof: vvhether thou vvilt to good or to euil. The Greke hath thus: To thee is the conuersion therof, and thou shalt beare rule ouer it: to wit, appetite, lust, concupiscence is vnder thy wil. Finally, al antiquitie vniuersalitie Freewil testified by antiquitie, vniuersalitie, and consent of lerned & reasonable persons. Luther abhor red the name of freewil. S. Augustin. li. de v• ra Rel. ca. 14. and vniforme consent of Christian Doctors, and other lerned Philosophers, and reasonable men hold it for certaine and an euident truth, that man yea a sinner hath sreewil. Yet Luther, the father of Protestants, so abhorred this truth, that he could not abide the very word, nor voutsafe (when he writ against it) to title his beastlie booke, Contra liberum arbitrium, Against freevvil: but, De seruo arbitrio. Of seruil arbitriment. And denieth that man is in aniwise free to choose, to resolue, or determine, but in al things seruil, tyed, constrained, and compelled to whatsoeuer he doth, saith, or thincketh. Further, that man in al his actiōs is like to a hackney, that is, forced to goe whither the rider wil haue him. And knowing the whole world against him, shameth not to confesse, that he setteth them al at naught in respect of him selfe, concluding thus: lib. de seruo arbitrio. I haue not (saith he) conferred vvith anie in this booke, but I haue affirmed, and I do affirme. Neither vvil I that anie man iudge hereof, but I counsail al to obey, or yeelde to myn Caluin also misliketh the word freewil. opinion. Caluin also for his part, conspireth in this heresie with Luther, but more faintly rather wisheth, then imagineth that men be so madde as to flee lib. 2. c. 2. par. 8. lib. 2. aduers. Iouinian. from the name of freewil. I (saith Caluin) neither myselfe vvould vse this vvord, and vvould vvish others, if they as•e me counsaile, to abstaine from it. But we wil be VVhere is necessitie there is nether reward not punishment due. bold to oppose S. Hieromes reason against Luther, Caluin, al Manichees, and others that denie freewil. God made vs (saith he) vvith freevvil, neither are vve dravven by necessitie to vertues nor to viees; othervvise vvhere is necessitie, there is neither damnation nor crovvne.
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Concordance Sap. 10.
Concordance •. 10. 3.
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VVilful murther is one of the sinnes that crie to God for reuenge.
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16. Cain vvent forth] It is a marke of Heretikes to make breach, and goe 1. Ioan. 2. Tract. de Zelo & liuore. forth of the Church. And commonly it cometh of enuie. Some runne into heresies Going forth of the Church a marke of Heretikes. and schismes (saith S. Cyprian) vvhen they enuie Bishops, vvhilest one either complaineth that him selfe vvas not rather ordained, or disdaineth to suffer an other aboue him. Hereupon he kicketh, hereupon he rebelleth. Enuie moued Cain to kil his brother, because his 1. Ioan. 3. ovvne vvorkes vvere vvicked and reiected: and his brothers iust, and estemed. So going forth became obstinate, obdurate, and desperate in his sinne, and being reprobate of God, began a wicked Citie, opposite to the Citie of God. VVherfore Moyses, as S. Augustin noteth, intending to describe, and shew the lib. de Pastore. c. 8. &c. 20. perpetual continuance of Gods Citie, the true Church, from Adam, which he doth by the line of Seth to Noe, and so forward to his owne time, would not omit to tel also the progenie of Cain, euen to the floode, wherin al his ofspring was finally drowned and destroyed, that the true Citie of God might appeare more distinct, more cōspicuous, & more renowmed. And that in deede the same only (and not anie broken and interrupted companies or conuenticles) might be knowen to be the true Church of God.
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By the increase of Abrahās seede (by the line onlie of Isaac and Iacob, besides the issues of Ismael and Esau) in litle more then 400. yeares to aboue six hundreth thousand men able to beare armes (Num. 1.) it appeareth that Caines progenie in as manie yeates might suffice to people a citie, yea a whole countrie. S. Aug. l. 15 ciuit. c. 8.
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This Lamech of Cains issue, is the first that is noted in Scripture, to haue taken two wiues.
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23. I haue slaine] So hard and obscure is this place, that S. Hierom required Scripture hard Tom. 3. ad 1. quaest. Damas•. by S. Damasus Pope to expoundit, dareth not affirme anie one sense for certaine, but proposing diuers, which the text may seme to beare; wisheth the Pope (who was also very lerned) to examine al more at large: putting him in mind that Origen writ his twelfth and thirtenth bookes vpon this onlie place. The most probable exposition semeth to be gathered out of the Hebrewes A probable sense according to the Hebrewes Tradition. Tradition, that this Lamech of the issue of Cain (for there was an other Lamech of Seths progenie) much addicted to hunting, and his eyes decaying, vsed in that excercise the direction of a young man his nephew, the sonne of Tubalcain. VVho seing something moue in bushes, supposing it to be a wild beast, willed his grandfather to shoote at the same: which he did, and stroke the marke with a deadlie wound, and approching to take the pray, found it to be old Cain. VVhereupon sore amazed, afflicted, and moued with great passion, did so beate the young man, for his il direction, that he also died of the drie blowes. After both which mishappes, and his passion at last caulmed, Lamech lamenteth as the text saith, that he had killed a man and stripling, towit, the one with a wound, the other with drie blowes, for which he feared seuenfold punishment more then Cain suffered for killing Abel. Neuertheles S. Chris. ho. 20. in Gen. S. Hierom & other Fathers thinke it probable, that Lamech killing the one of ignorance, the other in passion, was not so seuerly punished as he feared. And so they vnderstand the rest of this passage, that seuenfold vengance was taken of Cain, by prolongation of his miserable life til his seuenth generation, when Lib. 1. Antiq. ca. 2. Origen in Gen. Luc. 3. one of his owne issue slew him, and an other of the same linage with him. And Lamech was punished seuentie seuenfold when his seuentie seuen children (for so manie he had, as Iosephus writeth) and al their ofspring perished in the floud. Mystically by seuentie seuen may be signified that the sinne of mankind Mystical sense should be punished and expiated in Christ our Redemer. who was borne in the seuentie seuenth generation from Adam.
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26. Begane to inuocate.] Seth was a most holie man, and so brought vp his Suidas vocabulo Seth. Ioseph. l. 1. Ant•. S. Aug. epist. 99. ad Euod. children, that they were called the sonnes of God. Gen. 6. Adam also and Eue were penitent, and became great confessors, and are now Sainctes. And so it can not be doubted but amongst other spiritual exercises they prayed and inuocated God. And therfore that which is here said: He (towit Enos) bagane or (as the Hebrew hath) then was begune, to inuocate the name of our Lord, can not Publike prayer besides Sacrifice in the Church of God. be vnderstood of priuate, but of some publique prayer of many meeting togeather, & obseruing some rites & set forme in peculiar place dedicated to diuine Seruice, the Church being now growne to a competent multitude. And that besides Sacrifice, which was also before, as appeareth both by Cain & Abel.
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Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 2
… while He accepted what he was offering in simplicity of heart, and reprobated the sacrifice of his brother Cain, who was not rightly dividing what he was offering.
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.14.4
… Again, Eve on bearing Cain said, ‘I have gotten a man from the Lord
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 5
12. And it is not only in the case of the theology that the use of the terms varies, but whenever one of the terms takes the meaning of the other we find them frequently transferred from the one subject to the other. As, for instance, Adam says, “I have gotten a man through God,”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 235.3
… Thou shalt put them, it is said, before the testimony and I shall be known of thee thence. Is the term, “I shall be known of thee,” instead of, “I will reveal my essence”? “The Lord knoweth them that are his.” Does He know the essence of them that are His, but is ignorant of the essence of those who disobey Him? “Adam knew his wife.”
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 12.5
… The enemy was rejoicing over the fall of him whom he had envied: wouldest thou have had the enemy continue to rejoice? Not daring to accost the man because of his strength, he accosted as being weaker the woman, still a virgin: for it was after the expulsion from Paradise that Adam knew his wife
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On Virginity 12
… And what was that? Destitute he was then of his covering of dead skins, but he could gaze without shrinking upon God’s countenance. He did not yet judge of what was lovely by taste or sight; he found in the Lord alone all that was sweet; and he used the helpmeet given him only for this delight, as Scripture signifies when it said that “he knew her not
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons 1
… But when the expulsion from Paradise came, consider how much better and wiser she grew. For when she bare a son, she says “I have gotten a man through the Lord.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 56
And if He saith “by whom,” marvel not. For not as though another were bringing in it by him, doth He say this, but viewing him as himself causing the whole. For the Scripture is wont to say, “by whom,” for “of whom;” as when it saith, “I have gotten a man by God,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.15
… That which is undeniable is that Cain was the first who was born of man and woman. For had he not been the first who was added by birth to the two unborn persons, Adam could not have said what he is recorded to have said, “I have gotten a man by the Lord.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.17
… “But when the man knew his wife by natural appetite, the divine Scripture says, Eve conceived, and bare a son, and called his name Cain. But what,” he adds, “does Adam say? Let us hear: I have obtained a man from God. So that it is evident that he was God’s work, and the divine Scripture testifies to his having been received from God.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 62.4
… I will call to your minds that which ye know, I will not teach that which ye know not. “Not first,” saith the Apostle, “that which is spiritual, but that which is natural, afterwards that which is spiritual.” Therefore the former city is greater by age, because first was born Cain, and afterwards Abel:
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.24
… But after their transgression they knew that they were naked, and in their shame they sewed aprons for themselves . And when, after the transgression, Adam heard, dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return , when death entered into the world by reason of the transgression, then Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare seed
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Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 5
… And he said, I know not: am I my brother’s keeper? To whom God said, The voice of the blood of thy brother crieth forth unto me from the earth. Wherefore cursed is the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive the blood of thy brother. Groaning and trembling shalt thou be upon the earth, and every one who shall have found thee shall slay thee.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Prayer 22
… Who then, would contend that “ women ” alone —that is, such as were already wedded and had lost their virginity—were the objects of angelic concupiscence, unless “virgins” are incapable of excelling in beauty and finding lovers? Nay, let us see whether it were not virgins alone whom they lusted after; since Scriptures saith “ the daughters of men;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 23
… But even then God doth not leave him, but again speaks the language of an iujured and despised lover, and says, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me.” ( Gen. iv. 10 .) And again He rebukes the earth with the murderer, turning His wrath off to it, and saying, “Cursed be the earth, which opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood” (
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Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 4
… If thou offerest rightly, but dost not divide rightly, hast thou not sinned? Be at peace: thine offering returns to thyself, and thou shalt again possess it. And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go into the field. And it came to pass, while they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.”
Tertullian † AD 220 Genesis 1
These, when in course of time they brought their gifts
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 102.17
17. This question is obviously founded upon the passage in our Scriptures in which it is written that Cain brought to God a gift from the fruits of the earth, but Abel brought a gift from the firstlings of the flock.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 22
And he that is worthy of so great honor, what does he suffer? He is put to death. And how too was he otherwise “testified of that he was righteous”? It is said, that fire came down and consumed the sacrifices. For instead of [“And the Lord] had respect to Abel and to his sacrifices” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 22.17
… The typical rite of blood-shedding in sacrifice dates from the earliest ages, pointing forward from the outset of human history to the passion of the Mediator. For Abel is mentioned in the sacred Scripture as the first who offered such sacrifices.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 78.8
… so to Ismael Isaac; so to Esau, though born before him, his twin brother Jacob; so also Phares himself preceded even in birth his twin brother, who had first thrust a hand out of the womb, and had begun to be born:
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 8.23
… viz., that we know that before the law, aye, and even before the flood, all holy men observed the commands of the law without having the letter to read. For how could Abel, without the command of the law, have known that he ought to offer to God a sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof,
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.10
… For, unless Cain had envied the accepted sacrifice of his brother, he would never have come to taking away his life. Whence it is written, And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell (
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 9.122
For hence it is that it is written, The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his gifts, but unto Cain and to his gifts he had not respect (
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 5.11
… This universal serpent is, he says, the wise discourse of Eve. This, he says, is the mystery of Edem, this the river of Edem; this the mark that was set upon Cain, that any one who findeth him might not kill him. This, he says, is Cain, whose sacrifice
St Methodius † AD 311 Concerning Free-Will 1
… Already I seem to taste better enjoyments, as I discourse on such subjects as these; and especially when there is before me such a flowering meadow, that is to say, our assembly of those who unite in singing and hearing the divine mysteries. Wherefore I dare to ask you to listen to me with ears free from all envy, without imitating the jealousy of Cain,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 35.1
1. What is the meaning of the words “Whosoever slayeth Cain vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold”? (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 23
… And what of Cain’s case? Doth he not meet with the same gentleness? For being by him also insulted, He doth not reproach (same word as insult) in return, but entreats, (or comforts) him, and says, “Why is thy countenance fallen?” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.7
… For thus it is written: “And the Lord said unto Cain, Why are thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou offerest rightly, but dost not rightly distinguish, hast thou not sinned? Fret not thyself, for unto thee shall be his turning, and thou shalt rule over him.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 62.11
… Is He not the God that in the beginning of mankind spake to Adam? Did not the Selfsame speak to Cain, to Noe, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to all the Prophets, and to Moses?
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.23.4
… For if it is wicked to slay a brother, much worse is it thus insolently and irreverently to reply to the omniscient God as if he could battle Him. And for this he did himself bear a curse about with him, because he gratuitously brought an offering of sin, having had no reverence for God, nor being put to confusion by the act of fratricide.
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.18.3
… but He had no respect unto the offering of Cain, because his heart was divided with envy and malice, which he cherished against his brother, as God says when reproving his hidden [thoughts], “Though thou offerest rightly, yet, if thou dost not divide rightly, hast thou not sinned? Be at rest;”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 2.11
104. And so no one in a state of sin ought to claim a right to or the use of the sacraments, for it is written: “Thou hast sinned, be still.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 3.3
… Let no sentence of the divine lessons escape you; if you give ear, restrain your voice, utter no word with your lips which you would wish to recall, but let your boldness to speak be sparing. For in truth in much speaking there is abundance of sin. To the murderer it was said: “Thou hast sinned, be silent,”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 41.10
… if you exhort him to believe he refuses, and so follows not himself that which he praises in us. His praise, then, is not full, because Christ said to him: “Thou hast rightly judged,” for Cain also offered rightly, but did not divide rightly, and therefore God said to him: “If thou offerest rightly, but dividest not rightly, thou hast sinned, be still.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons 3.2
Remember these things. With these stop the mouths of the indolent, the dissolute, the slothful, the indisposed towards the labours of virtue, those who accuse their common Master. “Thou hast sinned” he saith “be still.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 7
… of nature, and set open the gates for death, and brought that curse into action, and suffered not that wretch to call to mind either the birth-pangs, or his parents, or anything else, but made him so furious, and led him to such a pitch of phrenzy, that even when God exhorted him and said, “Unto thee shall be his recourse, and thou shalt rule over him” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 23
… iv. 6 .) And yet what he had done allowed of no excuse whatever. And this the younger brother shows. But still even then He doth not rebuke him: but what saith He? “Hast thou sinned: keep peace;” “do so no more.” “To thee shall his turning be, and thou shalt rule over him” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 22
And we cannot say (he says) that it was not accepted. He did accept it, and said unto Cain, [“Hast thou] not [sinned], if thou rightly offer, but dost not rightly divide?” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 66.12
… If we offer to Christ our souls as well as our riches, he will gladly receive our offering. But if we give to God only those things which are without while we give to the devil those things which are within, the division is not fair, and the divine voice says: “Hast thou not sinned in offering aright, and yet not dividing aright?”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 147.9
… Why is it that you are bowed together and bent down to the ground, why is it that you are still prostrate in the mire? She whom Satan had bound for eighteen years came to the Saviour; and being cured by Him was made straight so that she could once more look up towards heaven. God says to you what He said to Cain: “Thou hast sinned: hold thy peace.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 21.22
… “If thou offerest rightly, but dost not divide rightly, hast thou not sinned?”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 2
“Refuse thou to allow that the body is by nature on a par with the Godhead. Even though thou believe the body of the Christ to be real and bring it to the altar for transformation, and fail to distinguish the nature of the body and of the Godhead we shall say to thee, ‘If thou offer rightly and fail to distinguish rightly, thou sinnest; hold thy peace.’
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.24
… For man was formed of virgin soil. From Adam alone was Eve created. In Paradise virginity held sway. Indeed, Divine Scripture tells that both Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed . But after their transgression they knew that they were naked, and in their shame they sewed aprons for themselves
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Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 4.43
“Altogether absurd, and out of season,” he continues, “is the (account of the) begetting of children,” where, although he has mentioned no names, it is evident that he is referring to the history of Abraham and Sarah. Cavilling also at the “conspiracies of the brothers,” he allies either to the story of Cain plotting against Abel,
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 260.3
… Or if you understand them to mean the sentence passed on him by the Judge, you will not go far wrong. To take the crimes of Cain: the first sin is envy at the preference of Abel; the second is guile , whereby he said to his brother, “Let us go into the field:”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 5
… The brethren of Joseph, had they had the fear of God before their eyes, as men ought to have, would not have taken their brother in a lonely place and killed him. ( Gen. xxxvii .) Cain again, had he feared that sentence as he should have feared, would not have said, “Come, and let us go into the field:” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 8.13
… For the field is also “the broad way, that leadeth to destruction:” and in a field is Abel slain.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 49.2.9
… but these men have their father from the beginning, even to the generation of their fathers. Two men Adam begat, and in one was unrighteousness, in one was righteousness: unrighteousness in Cain, righteousness in Abel. Unrighteousness seemed to prevail over righteousness, because Cain unrighteous slew Abel righteous
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 78.8
… so David was preferred before his elder brother: and as the reason why all these parables and others like them preceded, not only of words but also of deeds, in like manner to the people of the Jews was preferred the Christian people, for redeeming the which as Abel by Cain,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.19
… Whence then did the Psalmist know this in the beginning, save because the Church speaketh, which was not wanting to the earth from the commencement of the human race, the first-fruits whereof was the holy Abel, himself sacrificed in testimony of the future blood of the Mediator that should be shed by a wicked brother?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 129.2
2. “Many a time have they fought against me from my youth up” ( ver. 1 ). The Church speaketh of those whom She endureth: and as if it were asked, “Is it now?” The Church is of ancient birth: since saints have been so called, the Church hath been on earth. At one time the Church was in Abel only, and he was fought against by his wicked and lost brother Cain.
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 10.14
… And there is nothing to be wondered at in the Saviour doing this, since indeed the God of the universe, bearing with the manners of men as a man beareth with the manners of his son, makes inquiry, as—“Adam, where art thou?” and, “Where is Abel thy brother?”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 260.3
… the fourth, fratricide , a still greater iniquity: the fifth that he committed the first murder , and set a bad example to mankind: the sixth wrong in that he grieved his parents: the seventh, his lie to God; for when he was asked, “Where is Abel thy brother?” he replied, “I know not.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 12.11
… “Why then?” replies some one, “did not Cain bring his offering?” This man also did offer sacrifice, but not in like manner. And from thence again the knowledge of conscience is apparent. For when, envying him who had been honoured, he deliberated upon murder, he conceals his crafty determination. And what says he; “Come, let us go forth into the field.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 8
… the other, though alive, was speechless, and was ashamed, and was convicted, and effected the opposite of what he intended. For he made away with him because he saw him beloved, expecting to cast him out of the love also. Yet he did but make the love more intense, and God sought him more when dead, saying, “Where is thy brother Abel?” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 20
… xxviii. 2 ); and another again, Can God save you, or deliver you out of my hand?” ( Dan. iii. 15 .) And the Egyptian too, “I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” ( Ex. v. 2 .) And the foolish body in the Psalmist is of this character, who hath “said in his heart, There is no God.” ( Ps. xiv. 1 .) And Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 44
And say not, “But what care I about these things?” Fear thou him who first spoke this word; for the saying, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on 2 Timothy 7
… And indeed to despise one another is in effect to despise God, Who commanded us to show all regard to one another. And this may be otherwise manifested by an example. Cain despised his brother, and so, immediately after, he despised God. How despised Him? Mark his insolent answer to God; “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 31
Let us then not deny [our sins], I beseech you, nor be shameless, that we may not unwillingly pay the penalty. Cain heard God say, “Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not; am I my brother’s keeper?” (
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 10.39
… iii. 9 )? or when He chides Cain saying, Where is Abel thy brother (
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.14.1
… And if the blood of the righteous were not to be inquired after, the Lord would certainly not have had blood [in His composition]. But inasmuch as blood cries out ( vocalis est ) from the beginning [of the world], God said to Cain, when he had slain his brother, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to Me.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 3.4.4
… so also is the wisdom of the flesh to be understood, or the expression, that “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit.” They generally connect with these the expression, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 11.2
Thekla . 11. Abel, clearly prefiguring Thy death,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 22.19
… That voice is better than that of devils, which the soundness of those utters who came infirm; better is the voice which blood sends forth, for blood has a loud voice reaching from earth to heaven. You have read how God said: “Thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 19
… for this cause also God said unto him, “Wherefore criest thou unto me.” And Hannah too again, her voice not being heard, accomplished all she wished, forasmuch as her heart cried out. But Abel prayed not only when silent, but even when dying, and his blood sent forth a cry more clear than a trumpet.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 54
Cain slew his brother, but in this he rather benefited him: for hear what Scripture says, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 8
… “But thou didst first suffer ill.” Yes, but it is not suffering ill, but doing it, that is really suffering ill. Now consider; Cain was the slayer, Abel was the slain. Who then was the dead? He that after death crieth, (for He saith, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to Me,”) (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 23
… But he struggled in defence of his former misdeeds, with a greater and sadder shamelessness. But even then God doth not leave him, but again speaks the language of an iujured and despised lover, and says, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 32
“And to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better [things] than that of Abel.” Did then the [blood] “of Abel” speak? “Yea,” he saith, “and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” ( c. xi. 4 .) And again God says, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me.” (
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Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 26
… “Cursed,” no doubt, it was, for it drank the blood of man ;
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 260.3
… and “groaning and trembling shall there be on the earth,” Cain said, “If thou castest me out to-day from the earth, then from thy face shall I be hid, and groaning and trembling shall I lie upon the earth, and every one that findeth me shall slay me.” It is in answer to this that the Lord says, “Whosoever slayeth Cain will discharge seven vengeances.”
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Apology to the Emperor. (Apologia Ad Constantium.) 7
… but like an accursed and devilish spirit, he raged against him, till your blessed brother suffered martyrdom at his hands; while he, henceforth a criminal like Cain, was driven from place to place, ‘groaning and trembling
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Arian Persecution Under Constantine 1
… Divine Justice, however, did not overlook this; for not a year passed, when Philip was deprived of his office in great disgrace, so that being reduced to a private station, he became the mockery of those whom he least desired to be the witnesses of his fall. For in extreme distress of mind, groaning and trembling like Cain
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 2.7
… Cain the first-born man became his brother’s murderer, the inventor of evils, the first author of murders, and the first envious man. Yet after slaying his brother to what is he condemned? Groaning and trembling shalt thou be upon the earth
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homily on the Paralytic Let Down Through the Roof 5
… thou art made whole, sin no more lest some worse thing happen unto thee,” intimating to both that these maladies were the offspring of sin. And in the beginning and outset of the word disease as the consequence of sin attacked the body of Cain. For after the murder of his brother, after that act of wickedness, his body was subject to palsy.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 12
… we, who have received Heaven, and are become joint heirs with the Only Begotten, what excuse shall we have, for running to the serpent after the dove? For it will be no longer, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” and thou “tillest the ground,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 7
… who to the injury and thwarting of God demandest from it things which indeed it never had. Since then thou boastest therein and fightest with God, He hath exposed its weakness. For strength of body also is an excellent thing, but when Cain used it not as he ought, God disabled him and made him tremble (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 30
… And they are like a vessel driven by contrary winds from every quarter, and enduring many heavy seas. And how much better for such a man to depart than to be enduring a continual storm? Since for Cain also it were more tolerable to have died than to be for ever trembling
Pseudo-Clement The Recognitions of Clement 8.47
… whence causes of sadness, lamentations, and griefs have befallen the human race; whence also trembling sickness has ensued, and that this has been from the beginning the punishment of parricide.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 12.11
… Am I my brother’s keeper?” Wherefore does he deny the crime? Is it not evidently because he exceedingly condemns himself. For as his father had hid himself, so also this man denies his guilt, and after his conviction, again says, “My crime is too great to obtain pardon.”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 47
… Wherefore I beseech you let us have a care for good living, that we may not receive evil doctrines. Cain received for punishment that he should be (ever) groaning and trembling. (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Thessalonians 8
… A horrible sin indeed, who can deny it? But he suffered punishment; and a heavy one, equivalent to ten thousand deaths, for he would rather have died ten thousand times. For hear him saying, “If Thou castest me out from the land, and I shall be hidden from Thy face, then it will happen that every one who findeth me will slay me.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.10
… Neither, because it is written, “Adam hid himself from the face of God,” does it follow forthwith that he usually saw His face. For what if he himself indeed could not see, but feared to be himself seen by Him whose voice he had heard, and had felt His presence as he walked? For Cain, too, said to God, “From Thy face I will hide myself;”
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Prayer 7
… because in Genesis vengeance was assigned “seven times” in the case of Cain, but in that of Lamech “seventy-seven times.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 5.11
… This universal serpent is, he says, the wise discourse of Eve. This, he says, is the mystery of Edem, this the river of Edem; this the mark that was set upon Cain, that any one who findeth him might not kill him. This, he says, is Cain,
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 6.24.2
2. In the ninth of those on Genesis, of which there are twelve in all, he states that not only the preceding eight had been composed at Alexandria, but also those on the first twenty-five Psalms and on Lamentations. Of these last five volumes have reached us.
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 260.2
2. You have asked for a solution of that famous passage which is everywhere interpreted in different senses, “Whosoever slayeth Cain will exact vengeance for seven sins.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 36
Gen. iv. 15 , he understands to mean “the slayer of Cain shall complete the sevenfold vengeance which is to be wreaked upon him.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 59.1.18
… The Jews nevertheless remain with a mark; nor in such sort conquered have they been, as that by the conquerors they have been swallowed up. Not without reason is there that Cain, on whom, when he had slain his brother, God set a mark in order that no one should slay him.
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.11.8
… and such as was the form of the living creatures, so was also the character of the Gospel. For the living creatures are quadriform, and the Gospel is quadriform, as is also the course followed by the Lord. For this reason were four principal ( καθολικαί ) covenants given to the human race:
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 10
… But through vice a man goes out from the presence of the Lord; as Cain
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Commodian † AD 313 The Instructions of Commodianus 36
… but the cross has become foolishness to an adulterous people. The awful King of eternity shadows forth these things by the cross, that they may now believe on Him. O fools, that live in death! Cain slew his younger brother by the invention of wickedness. Thence the sons of Enoch
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 46.7
7. Evidently this description cannot be taken literally (in fact, it is absurd to suppose a city the length, breadth and height of which are all twelve thousand furlongs), and therefore the details of it must be mystically understood. The great city which Cain first built and called after his son
Sulpicius Severus † AD 420 The Sacred History Of Sulpitius Severus 1.2
… Having been placed in Paradise, they ate of the tree from which they were interdicted, and therefore were cast forth as exiles into our earth. To them were born Cain and Abel; but Cain, being an impious man, slew his brother. He had a son called Enoch, by whom a city was first built,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.1
… Not, indeed, that every wicked man shall be good, but that no one will be good who was not first of all wicked; but the sooner any one becomes a good man, the more speedily does he receive this title, and abolish the old name in the new. Accordingly, it is recorded of Cain that he built a city,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.8
Therefore, although it is written, “And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch, and he builded a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 72.18
… But if we must take, “and they shall flourish like the grass of the earth,” in the same manner as is said, “all flesh is grass, and the glory of a man like the flower of grass:” certainly then that city must be understood which doth intimate this world’s society: for it was not to no purpose that Cain was the first to build a city.
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 8.21
… “Cain begat Enoch, Enoch begat Cainan, Cainan begat Mahalaleel, Mahalaleel begat Methuselah, Methuselah begat Lamech, Lamech begat Jabal and Jubal.”
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Exhortation to Chastity 5
… carnally in Adam, spiritually in Christ. The two births combine in laying down one prescriptive rule of monogamy. In regard of each of the two, is he degenerate who transgresses the limit of monogamy. Plurality of marriage began with an accursed man. Lamech was the first who, by marrying himself to two women, caused three to be (joined) “into one flesh.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.17
… And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of the shepherds that dwell in tents. And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.”
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Monogamy 4
… Second Lamech there arose none, in the way of being husband to two wives. What Scripture does not note, it denies. Other iniquities provoke the deluge: (iniquities) once for all avenged, whatever was their nature; not, however, “seventy-seven times,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 123.12
… making the first Adam a monogamist in the flesh and the second a monogamist in the spirit. As there is one Eve who is “the mother of all living,” so is there one church which is the parent of all Christians. And as the accursed Lamech made of the first Eve two separate wives,
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.24
… In Paradise virginity held sway. Indeed, Divine Scripture tells that both Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed . But after their transgression they knew that they were naked, and in their shame they sewed aprons for themselves . And when, after the transgression, Adam heard, dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 14.5
… Perhaps, then, these things also border on an obscurity akin to the words, “Hear My voice, ye wives of Lamech,”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 260.5
5. Your next question is of a kindred character, concerning the words of Lamech to his wives; “I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt: if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.”
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 28
XVIII. Thus Enos “hoped to call upon the Name of the Lord.” Hope was that for which he is commended; and that, not that he should know God, but that he should call upon him. And Enoch was translated,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 41
… But the sinner is pardoned not seven times, but seventy times seven. And we may see it by the contrary also (for the punishment of wickedness is to be praised), Cain being avenged seven times, that is, punishment being exacted from him for his fratricide, and Lamech seventy times seven,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 71
Heardest thou not Lamech saying, “Of Lamech vengeance shall be taken seventy times sevenfold;”
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 6.7
… As for the text in Genesis about the resurrection, the churchman will rejoin with a text to an opposite effect, “God hath raised up for me another seed in place of Abel whom Cain slew;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons 1
… And she who before this deceived her husband, afterwards even trained the little child, and gave him a name which of itself was able to bring the gift of God to her remembrance: and again when she bare another, she says “God hath raised up seed to me in place of Abel whom Cain slew.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 51.6
… “And Adam lived two hundred and thirty years, and knew Eve his wife, and she bare him a son in his image and after his likeness, and called his name Seth.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.8
… For in the case of Adam, the father of all, this expression is used not only when Cain, who seems to have been his first-born, was conceived, but also afterwards the same Scripture says, “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived, and bare a son, and called his name Seth.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.15
… But how old Adam was when he begat these sons does not appear. After this the generations diverge, the one branch deriving from Cain, the other from him whom Adam begot in the room of Abel slain by his brother, and whom he called Seth, saying, as it is written, “For God hath raised me up another seed for Abel whom Cain slew.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 2
Orth. —The holy Moses when writing the ancient genealogy tells us how Adam being so many years old begat Seth,
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 10.8
8. Now here I wish you to make safe what I am going to say, because of the Jews. For our object is to prove that the Lord Jesus Christ was with the Father. The Lord then says to Moses, I will pass by before thee with My glory, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 28
XVIII. Thus Enos “hoped to call upon the Name of the Lord.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 43.70
… but, unless I slander the reputation of our first parent, he kept not the command. Now Basil both received and observed it, and received no injury from the tree of knowledge, and escaped the flaming sword, and, as I am well assured, has attained to Paradise. Enos first ventured to call upon the Lord.
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.17
17. But if Enoch was translated, and Noah was preserved at the deluge, I do not think that Enoch was translated because he had a wife, but because he was
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.18
“And to Seth,” it is said, “there was born a son, and he called his name Enos: he hoped to call on the name of the Lord God.”
Pseudo-Clement The Recognitions of Clement 4.12
“But that He might show that these things were done on account of the ungrateful, He translated to immortality a certain one of the first race of men, because He saw that he was not unmindful of His grace, and because he hoped to call on the name of God;
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KNEW. By this word Scripture decently signifies carnal union; for since the Hebrews call a virgin alma, that is, hidden and unknown to a man, hence to corrupt her they call it to know her, or to reveal her shame, as is evident from Leviticus XVIII. Some Rabbis, together with our heretics, think that Adam knew Eve in paradise. But from this place the Fathers commonly teach the contrary, namely that Adam and Eve remained virgins in paradise. For here after their expulsion from paradise the first mention of their union is made: "Marriages," says St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian, "fill the earth, virginity paradise." It appears therefore that this first generation of Adam and Eve was outside paradise, and consequently Cain was their firstborn. This is indeed suggested by the voice of Eve, bearing him: "I have possessed a man through God," that is to say, Now for the first time have I borne a son, and I have become the mother of a man. And she bore Cain, saying: I have possessed a man Cain in Hebrew is the same as possession, from the root kana, that is, I possessed. The Arabic translator renders it, I have gained a man through God. Therefore Goropius Becanus plays with words, who derives the name Cain from the Flemish language, as if Cain were the same as quaet eynde, that is, bad end or outcome. And so Cain in Hebrew is the same as possession; for a son is as it were the possession and property of his parents: whence by natural law the father has power over the son; hence fathers are called lords in Matthew XI, verse 25; Ecclesiasticus XXIII, 1. Hence it came about that the Persians (as Aristotle testifies in the Politics) used their children as slaves. Hence also the Slavs (as Accursius testifies) sold and killed their sons at their pleasure. Eve therefore says: "I have possessed a man," but "through God," that is to say, A son is born to me, as it were my possession; but the same is rather the possession of the Lord, and an inheritance given to me by God. Thus St. Chrysostom: "Not," says Eve, "did nature give me a boy, but divine grace." Thus Jacob to Esau: "The children," he says, "are those whom God has given me," Genesis XXXIII, 5. Let parents learn here that offspring are gifts of God. Torniellus in the Annals probably judges that Cain was begotten soon after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise, namely in the first year of the world and of Adam, both because Adam and Eve were created in perfect stature and fit for generation; and because after sin they soon felt the sharp stimuli of lust and union; and because they were alone in the world, and through them God wished immediately to propagate and multiply the human race throughout the whole earth. Whence it follows that Cain killed Abel in the year 129 of his age, namely shortly before the birth of Seth. For Seth was born in that year, as is evident from chapter V, verse 3. For which reason it is improbable what some think, that Adam and Eve, mourning their sin and fall, abstained from conjugal use for a hundred years, and in the hundredth year, having come together, begot Cain, and soon Abel: whence Cain in the thirtieth year of his age killed Abel, and therefore soon in place of Abel Adam begot Seth, in the year of the world 130, as appears from chapter V, verse 3. This, I say, is improbable: for Adam knew that he was constituted by God to be the sower and propagator of the human race; he knew moreover that he was condemned by God to death, and would die shortly, he knew that the day of his death was uncertain. Who therefore would believe that he abstained for a hundred years from generation and propagation of his race, when he did not know whether he would live a hundred years? Equally improbable and fabulous is the vision which Peter Comestor falsely attributes to St. Methodius the Martyr in the Scholastic History of Genesis, chapter XXV. Namely that Adam and Eve, in the fifteenth year of their age, as also of the world, begot Cain, and his sister Calmana; but in the thirtieth year begot Abel, and his sister Delbora; but in the year 130 Cain killed Abel, whom his parents mourned for a hundred years, and after mourning begot Seth, in the year of their age and of the world 230, as the Septuagint has it. For besides what has been said, there is here in the numbers among the Septuagint a manifest error, and for 200 should be read 130, as the Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Latin texts have it. Tropologically: "Cain is said to be acquisition, because he would acquire all things for himself; Abel, who would refer all things to God (for Abel is said by St. Ambrose to be as it were hab el, that is, giving all things to God, inasmuch as he received them from Him), arrogating nothing to himself," says St. Ambrose, book I On Cain and Abel, chapter I. Cain therefore signifies the arrogant, who attribute all things to their own ingenuity: Abel the humble, who refer all things to God the giver as received from Him. And chapter II: "By Abel," he says, "is understood the Christian people" (just as by Cain the Jews, murderers of Christ and the Prophets) "adhering to God, as David also says: But for me it is good to adhere to God." And chapter IV, he teaches that Cain is a type of malice, Abel of virtue. It is signified therefore that Cain, that is, "malice precedes in time, but is weakened by infirmity. It has the stipend of its age, but virtue has the prerogative of glory, which the unjust often yields to the just," as Cain yielded to Abel in favor and honor before God. Through God The preposition through is not that of one swearing, but of one rejoicing and acknowledging the author of generation. In Hebrew it is and Adonai. Isidore Clarius thinks that here too there is the article of the accusative, and therefore translates: I have acquired a man God, as if Eve had said this in the spirit foreseeing that Christ, who is God and man, would be born from her. But what does this have to do with Cain? for Christ was not born from Cain, but from Seth. The word and, therefore, here is not an article, but a preposition signifying with, before. Whence the Chaldean translates before the Lord, others with the Lord; which Our [translator] expressed with clearer sense by translating, through the Lord, namely "through God."
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AND AGAIN SHE BORE. The Rabbis, and from them Calvin, think that from the same conception Eve bore twins, Cain and Abel, because here in Abel the word conceived is not repeated, but only bore; whence they extend the same to other generations of that age, and think that Eve and other women at the beginning of the world always bore twins, so that men would multiply more quickly. But these things are asserted rashly and without foundation; for Moses here uses brevity, and in the word bore presupposes and leaves understood the word conceived. For no one bears except she who has first conceived. For the Holy Spirit here intends to recount not the conception, but the birth and offspring of the first men. Abel Josephus and Eusebius interpret Abel as mourning, as if Hebel, that is Abel, is the same as Ebel, so that he is put for aleph; because Abel, the first of mortals, brought great mourning to his parents by his death, says Eusebius, book XI On Preparation, chapter IV. But properly Abel, or, as it is said in Hebrew Hebel, signifies vanity. Whence Ecclesiastes says: hebel habalim col hebel: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." It seems that mother Eve foresaw Abel's speedy death, or certainly mindful that she with her posterity had been condemned to death a little before, called him Abel, that is, vanity, as if to say, "All vanity is every living man," and the possession of man is like vanity, because "in the image (like a shadow) man passes away." Thus Rabanus, Lipomanus and others. That Abel remained and died a virgin the Fathers commonly teach against Calvin; and they gather this from the fact that Scripture makes no mention of his wife and offspring, as it does make mention of the wife and offspring of Cain. Thus St. Jerome, Basil, Ambrose and others. Hence from Abel, certain heretics were named Abelians, or Abeloites, who, like Abel, did not mingle with wives, but adopted the sons of neighbors, and took heirs for themselves, namely a boy and a girl together. Thus St. Augustine, book On Heresies, heresy 87, volume VI.
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AFTER MANY DAYS, after many years; St. Ambrose, book I On Cain, chapter VII, attributes this to fault: "Twofold, he says, is the fault of Cain: one that he offered after days, the other that he did not offer from the first fruits. But a sacrifice is commended both by promptness and by grace," etc. That Cain Offered of the Fruits of the Earth Namely, second-rate and inferior fruits; for these are called in Scripture the fruits of the earth. Therefore Cain was reserving for himself the first and better fruits; for he is set in opposition to Abel, who offered to God the firstborn, and "of the fat," that is, the best and richest portions of his flock, because he pursued God with great faith, reverence and love. Thus St. Ambrose, book I On Cain and Abel, chapters VII and X: "He offered, he says, from the fruits of the earth, not from the first fruits as firstfruits to God. This is to claim the firstfruits for oneself first, but to bring to God what comes after. And so, since truly the soul is to be preferred to the body, as a mistress to a servant, certainly we ought to offer the firstfruits of it, that is, of the soul, before those of the body." He adds that Abel was liberal, offering animals; Cain was avaricious, offering only the fruits of the earth. The same author, book II, chapter V, says that Abel was preferred by God to Cain, because he offered the fatter portions of his flock, as David teaches, saying: "Let my soul be filled with fat and fatness, and Let thy holocaust be fat;" teaching this, that a sacrifice is acceptable which is fat, which is bright, and which is fattened with a certain abundant nourishment of faith and devotion and the heavenly word. And chapter VI: "Therefore the new faith of the renewed, strong, flourishing, acquiring increase of virtue; not slack, not weary, not withered by some old age, and sluggish in vigor, is fit for sacrifice, which may sprout with a certain green shoot of wisdom, and blush with youthful fervor of divine knowledge." This is the voice of Abel: "I will give a sacred fat offering, I will not sacrifice a lean one." But of Cain on the contrary this: "I will sacrifice a lean one, I will not give a sacred fat offering." St. Athanasius teaches in that passage, "All things are delivered unto me," that Cain and Abel learned religion and the rite of sacrificing from their father Adam; whence it follows that Adam was the first of all to sacrifice. Morally, Philo, in the book On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain: "Just as, he says, Cain offered to God a sacrifice from fruits and not from firstfruits, so there are many who give primacy to the creature, secondary honor to the divine," for example, those who give inferior grain for tithes, those who give stupid, ugly, maimed, idle offspring to Religion, beautiful and clever ones to marriage.
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THE LORD HAD RESPECT TO ABEL AND TO HIS GIFTS. The first was the cause of the second, for this reason Abel's gifts pleased God, because Abel himself pleased; for the old sacrifices did not please God from the work performed, as the sacrifice of the new law pleases, but only from the work of the one performing it. Whence Rupertus, book IV On Genesis, chapter II, thus says: "The Apostle says (Hebrews XI): By faith Abel offered to God a much greater victim than Cain offered: by which testimony he obtained to be just," etc. "By faith, he says, a much greater; for in worship, or religion, each offered equally, and therefore each offered rightly, but did not divide rightly. For Cain, when he offered his things to God, had retained himself, having his heart fixed in earthly desire. God does not accept such a portion, but through himself, as it says in Proverbs chapter XXIII: My son, give me thy heart. Moreover Abel, offering first his heart, then his thing, offered a much greater victim by faith." He explains this faith in chapter IV, where he teaches that Abel by this sacrifice of his prefigured and ran ahead to the sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist. "Because truly, he says, the sacrifice which our High Priest Jesus Christ instituted that night, although in the outward appearance it is bread and wine, in truth it is the Lamb of God, the firstborn of all lambs or sheep, which belong to the folds of heaven, to the pastures of paradise." Truly St. Augustine (or whoever is the author, for this work does not appear to be that of St. Augustine), book I On the Marvels of Holy Scripture, chapter III: Justice, he says, was threefold in Abel: first, virginity, not generating; second, priesthood, offering gifts pleasing to God; third, martyrdom, pouring out his own blood: to whom it is granted to bear the first figure of the Savior, who appears to be virgin, martyr and priest. And a little before: "Abel, he says, the prince of all human justice, in the very beginning of the world is seized and crowned with martyrdom by the shedding of his blood." And soon after: "To this Abel the Lord Jesus Christ committed the primacy of human justice, thus saying: From the blood of Abel the just even unto the blood of Zacharias," Matthew XXIII, 35. Note: For respexit in Hebrew it is iissa, which Symmachus translated, he was delighted; Aquila, he received consolation; the Chaldean, he received with good pleasure. Properly iissa means he looked upon, from the root scaa; but if you read with other points iasca, it means he was delighted, from the root scaa, through double ain, and thus Symmachus and Aquila read it. You ask, by what sign did God declare that the oblations of Abel pleased him, but not those of Cain? I answer: The Fathers commonly hand down that God declared this by sending fire from heaven upon the sacrifice of Abel, but not upon that of Cain: for this fire consumed and destroyed the sacrifice of Abel, but left the sacrifice of Cain untouched. Luther and Calvin laugh at this, as if at Jewish fables. But St. Jerome, Procopius, Cyril here, Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Oecumenius in chapter XI on Hebrews verse 4, and Cyprian, oration On the Nativity of the Lord, assert and hand down this very thing. Whence also Theodotion translated, and the Lord kindled fire upon Abel and his sacrifice, upon Cain not. For God is accustomed to approve and accept sacrifices by this same sign of fire and conflagration of the victim, as in the case of Gideon, Judges chapter VI, verse 11; Manoah, Judges XIII, 20; Aaron, Leviticus IX, 24; Elijah, III Kings XVIII, 38; David, I Paralipomenon XXI, 26; Solomon, II Paralipomenon VII, 1; Nehemiah, II Maccabees I, 32.
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BUT TO CAIN AND TO HIS GIFTS HE HAD NOT RESPECT, he did not kindle them. Thus Nazianzen narrates, oration I against Julian, that two nephews of the Emperor Constantius, Gallus and Julian, wishing to build a temple over the tomb of the Martyr Mamantus, divided the work between themselves, but that part which was being built by Gallus, who was truly pious and faithful, proceeded most happily: but that part which was being built by Julian, who was about to become an apostate and was already corrupted in mind, could never be made to cohere, because the earth trembling removed everything as if by itself, because the Martyr did not wish to be honored by him, from whom he foresaw his colleagues would be treated with contempt; and because God, who looks upon hearts, admitted the work of Gallus, as the sacrifice of Abel, but rejected the work of Julian, as the sacrifice of Cain, says Nazianzen. Excellently St. Cyprian, tract. On the Lord's Prayer: "God, he says, did not look upon the gifts of Cain and Abel, but upon their hearts, so that he pleased in the gift who pleased in the heart. Abel, peaceful and just, while he sacrifices innocently to God, taught also others that when they bring a gift to the altar, they should come thus with the fear of God, with a simple heart, with the law of justice, with the peace of concord. Deservedly he, while he is such in the sacrifice of God, was himself afterwards made a sacrifice to God, so that showing martyrdom first, he might initiate by the glory of his blood the Lord's passion, he who had also possessed the justice of the Lord and peace."
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WHY IS THY COUNTENANCE FALLEN? Why dost thou waste away with anger, hatred, envy toward thy brother, and reveal these things by the sadness and dejection of thy countenance? why dost thou begin to meditate parricide with livid eyes and eyes cast down to the earth? thus Rupertus. Whence the Arabic version translates, his countenance became sad.
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SHALL YOU NOT RECEIVE IF YOU DO WELL? then peace and joy of conscience, then my favor, and that by a like sign, namely fire sent from heaven, I may testify that you and your sacrifices are pleasing to me, as I have testified to Abel, which now so torments you; then finally you shall receive present and eternal goods: for all these are the reward of virtue. For "you shall receive" in Hebrew is scet, which signifies to bear, to lift up, to carry, to receive, to send back again. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it, "it shall be forgiven you," namely your envy and impiety; the Septuagint translates, "shall you not, if you offer rightly, not divide rightly, sin? be at peace." Which St. Ambrose, Chrysostom, Augustine thus expound: Because in right division, they say, the first things should be preferred to the second, heavenly things to earthly; but Cain gave the first things to himself, the second to God, and therefore did not divide rightly with God. Thirdly, others thus translate it, shall you not, if you do well, lift up? understand, your countenance, that is, shall you not walk with upright countenance, and live in joy and gladness? whence also Vatable translates, shall you not, if you do well, have exaltation? that is, You seem to grieve that your brother is renowned and exalted above you; but if you shall strive to do well, you shall be exalted as he is; but if you do evil, immediately at the doors sin shall be present. Sin SIN, that is the punishment of sin, which like a dog or Cerberus lying (for this is the Hebrew robets) besieges the doors of sin, as the avenger of sin; this, as soon as you do evil, shall be present to you, shall bark at you, shall bite and tear you. This dog is the worm of conscience, the disturbance and indignation of mind, the wrath of God hanging over the head of the sinner, tribulation, anguish and all present and eternal miseries, by which God punishes sins. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it: "On the day of judgment your sin is kept, in which he shall take vengeance upon you." Note the prosopopoeia. Sin is here introduced as a tyrant, who with his attendants both lictors and mastiffs continually pursues the sinner. For, as the Poet says: "Guilt follows the head." And Horace, book III of the Odes, ode 3: "Rarely does punishment with halting foot / Abandon the wicked man who goes before." For, to pass over other things, it is a great punishment to "bear by night and day in one's breast a witness to oneself, / Shaking in the soul a hidden torturer's scourge." Conscience therefore of crime, itself the avenger of itself, torturer and executioner, as St. Chrysostom beautifully teaches, discourse I On Lazarus. And St. Augustine in Sentences, Sentence 191: "There are," he says, "no punishments heavier than those of an evil conscience, in which, when God is not possessed, consolation is not found. And therefore the liberator must be invoked, that he whom tribulation has exercised unto confession, confession may lead unto pardon." Thus Alexander the Great, when he had slain Clitus, most dear and faithful to him, in drunkenness, immediately maddened by the conscience of his crime, wished to bring death upon himself, but was prevented by his men, as Seneca testifies in epistle 83. Thus Nero Caesar, according to Dio, when he had slain his mother, said that he was harassed by the appearance of his mother with the scourges of the Furies and burning torches, and could not stand safely in any place. On the contrary, "there is no theater greater for virtue than conscience," says Cicero, Tusculan Disputations II, and Horace in the Odes: "The man of upright life and free from crime / Needs not the javelins of the Moor, nor bow, / Nor arrows heavy with poison, / Fuscus, nor quiver." Indeed, "a secure mind is like a continual feast." Thus St. Augustine, Against Secundinus chapter I: "Think," he says, "whatever you will of Augustine; only let my conscience not accuse me in the eyes of God." BUT HIS DESIRE SHALL BE SUBJECT TO YOU, AND YOU SHALL RULE OVER HIM Calvin, lest he be forced by this passage to admit free will ruling over sin and concupiscence, thinks the pronoun his refers to Abel, not to sin, and the sense to be, that is, Do not, O Cain, envy your younger brother Abel; for he himself shall remain in your power, and you as the firstborn shall rule over him. One St. Chrysostom, homily 18, favors this exposition. But no mention of Abel has been made here, and therefore the pronoun his cannot refer to Abel, as St. Ambrose teaches, book II On Cain and Abel, chapter VII; and St. Augustine, book XV Of the City of God VII. Whence the Arabic translator clearly renders, "in your choice his desire, and you shall rule over him." For choice is the proper act of free will, by which it rules over its actions. You will say: The pronoun his in Hebrew is masculine; but chattat, that is sin, is feminine: therefore the word his cannot refer to sin, but respects Abel. I answer, the Hebrew chattat is not only feminine, but also masculine; this is evident here when it says chattat robets, sin crouching at thy door, it shall be subject to thee; for if it were feminine, it should have said robetsa. The same is evident from Leviticus XVI, 24, chattat hu, sin is it itself, not hi, that is, itself. You will say secondly, in Hebrew it is elecha tescukato, that is, as the Septuagint translates it, to thee his turning. I answer, the sense of this phrase is: sin, and its appetite and concupiscence, will solicit thee to consent to it, but in such a way that it must turn to thee, and seek and obtain consent from thee; which Our Lord translated clearly as to the sense, under thee shall be his appetite. For in like manner He said to Eve cap. III, vers. 16, el ischech tsecukatesch, to the man shall be thy turning, which our Lord translated clearly as to the sense, thou shalt be under the power of the man. Whence there, equally as here, follows, and he shall have dominion over thee. I say therefore that his voice refers to sin, not to Abel, and the sense is, as if to say, Thou canst, O Cain, by the liberty of thy will and by my grace prepared for thee, have dominion over thy concupiscence and appetite of envy, as over a slave. What could be said more clearly for the liberty of the will? Whence the Jerusalem Targum thus translates, "into thy hand I have delivered the power of thy concupiscence, and thou shalt have dominion over it, whether for good or for evil." Thus expound St. Ambrose and St. Augustine above, St. Jerome, Rabanus, Rupertus, Hugo, Bede, Alcuin and Eucherius here; indeed St. Chrysostom hom. 18 cited openly teaches that Cain was able to have dominion over his concupiscence. See Cardinal Bellarmine, treating this passage learnedly and solidly, as also all others. And Thou Shalt Have Dominion Over It Thou canst have dominion over it, and therefore thou oughtest: for if thou couldst not, neither oughtest thou. For God doth not command man things impossible. Note here how great is the dominion of the will, not only over external motions and actions, but also over internal appetites and passions. Though thou mayest feel the greatest heats of anger or lust, by thy strong and constant will thou canst resist them, and say: I will not consent to them, they displease me, I detest them; and thou shalt have dominion over anger and lust, and thou shalt be before God and men, not choleric, but meek, a conqueror of anger; not unchaste, but chaste, a victor over lust. So great is the force and dominion of the will. "Great," says St. Chrysostom serm. On Zacchaeus, "is the force of the will, which makes us able to do what we will, and unable to do what we will not." Seneca saw this, who, to tame anger, gives this among other remedies lib. II On Anger, cap. XII: "Nothing," he says, "is so difficult and arduous that the human mind does not overcome it, and bring it into familiarity by constant meditation; nor are there any affections so wild and uncontrolled that they are not tamed by discipline. Whatever the mind has commanded itself, it has obtained; some have succeeded in never laughing; some have abstained from wine, others from intercourse, some have forbidden themselves all moisture to their bodies." Therefore wisely and truly a certain holy doctor said: "Whatever thou wishest with thy whole heart, thy whole intention, thy whole desire, that thou certainly art." Dost thou wish with thy whole heart and efficaciously to be humble? by this very fact thou art truly humble; dost thou wish efficaciously to be patient, obedient, steadfast? by this very fact thou art truly patient, obedient, steadfast. Wherefore he prudently advises: "If," he says, "thou canst not give or do great things, at least have a great will, and extend it to immense things," for example, thou art poor, have an efficacious will of giving the most abundant alms, if thy means allowed, and thou shalt truly be most generous and most liberal; thou hast small talents, small strength for promoting God's glory and the salvation of souls: conceive an efficacious desire, and with thy whole heart offer to God a thousand souls, a thousand lives, a thousand bodies, if thou hadst them; offer a great desire of laboring and suffering all difficult things for His love and the salvation of many; and God will reckon thy will for the deed: for serious and resolute will is the source and cause of all virtue and vice, all merit and demerit." Thus St. Christina, virgin and martyr, daughter of her father Urban, prefect of Tyre, a city of Italy, breaking the silver idols, despised his blandishments with firm will, mocked his threats; neither scourged, nor torn with claws did she change her constancy; nay rather, casting a piece of her lacerated flesh at her father, she said: "Satiate yourself with flesh, wretch; which you begot: you can eat your daughter, but certainly you cannot make her consent to your impiety." Hence she is bound to wheels and burned with fire applied beneath, and cast into a lake; soon after her father's death, by Dione his successor she is cooked in oil, resin and pitch: thence led to adore the statue of Apollo, she overturned it by her prayer. Dione suddenly dying, Julian is appointed in his place, who ordered Christina to be cast into a burning furnace, but she who was cast in felt no harm; he exposed her to serpents to bite her, but the serpents, she being released, attacked the poisoner: she herself raised him up when killed. Julian orders her breasts to be cut off, her tongue to be cut out and herself to be pierced with arrows. Consumed at last by such martyrdom, she flew up to heaven. Behold how resolved will dominates affections, torments, tyrants and death: by this Christina surpassed her father, Abel her brother, not by fighting, but by suffering. Thus her Life has it, which Surius published, vol. IV, 24 July.
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LET US GO FORTH. These words fell out of the Hebrew text: whence Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion did not read them, nor translate them. Yet that they were once in the Hebrew is evident, because the Septuagint and the Targum of Jerusalem read them. Whence St. Jerome himself confesses that he found the same in the Pentateuch of the Samaritans. Finally, unless you read those words, this passage will be mutilated: for it does not express what Cain said. Again, that Cain said these words rather than others is evident from what followed: for soon after going out, Abel with Cain into the field, he was slain by him. Cain Rose Up Against His Brother The Targum of Jerusalem teaches that Cain began in the field to complain of God's providence and equity, disputed against the final judgment, against the reward of the good and the vengeance of the wicked. On the contrary Abel asserted these things, defended God, reproved his brother, and therefore was struck down by him. How then was the parricide of Cain so monstrous, so illustrious was the martyrdom of Abel. Wherefore St. Cyprian, book IV, epistle 6, exhorting the Tibaritans to martyrdom: Let us imitate, he says, most beloved brethren, Abel the just, who initiated martyrdoms, in that on account of justice he is first slain. Horatius Cocles was reproached by rivals with lameness: to whom he said: By each step I am reminded of my triumph; for he himself resisted King Porsena attempting to cross the wooden bridge, and alone sustained the assault of the enemy, until the bridge was broken behind him by his companions, and there he was wounded in the hip and began to limp, as Livy testifies, book II, decade 1. The same could be said to Cain the parricide, and can still be said by Abel. Probably some think Abel was slain in the year of the world 130, from the fact that in this year Seth was born, whom his mother Eve, accustomed frequently (every year, says Augustus Torniellus) to bear, soon after Abel's death substituted; thus Pererius, Cajetan and Torniellus in their Annals, which after the manner of Baronius, from Adam to Christ through individual years in order and sequence he arranged and described. Allegorically, Abel was a type of Christ slain by his own Jews. Thus from St. Irenaeus and Augustine Rupertus.
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I KNOW NOT: AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER? (Arabic, watcher) Ambrose, book II On Cain, chapter IX, notes here three of his crimes. He denies, he says, first, as if before one ignorant; he refuses the duty of fraternal guardianship, as if exempt from nature; he declines the judge, as if free of free will. What do you marvel at, if he did not acknowledge piety, who did not acknowledge the author?
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THE VOICE OF BLOOD. In Hebrew it is the voice of bloods, which the Chaldean paraphrast and the Rabbis incorrectly refer to the sons whom Abel would have had if he had not been slain, because namely Cain shed so much blood as would have sufficed through the propagation of the sons whom Abel would have generated for many: therefore they cried out with innumerable voices, who would have been sharers in that future blood. For it is evident that this pertains not to posterity, but to the blood of Abel shed by Cain. In Hebrew, however, it is the voice of bloods, for blood, because the Hebrews call homicide, for emphasis (to strike terror), the shedding of bloods, that is, blood: because truly in homicide much blood of a man is shed. Beautifully St. Ambrose, book II On Cain, chapter IX: It is not, he says, the voice itself (of Abel) that accuses, not his soul, but the voice of the blood accuses, which you yourself shed: therefore your own deed, not your brother, accuses you. Yet the earth also is a witness, which received the blood. If your brother spares, the earth does not spare: if your brother is silent, the earth condemns. It itself is in you, both witness and judge. There is therefore no doubt that both the higher things (the heavens, sun, moon, stars, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim) have condemned him, whom the lower things have condemned. For how is that pure and heavenly sentence absolved, whom not even the earth could absolve? Cries Out to Me That is to say, The guilt of your homicide, nay of your parricide, so voluntary, appears in my sight, and demands from me swift and atrocious vengeance. It is a prosopopoeia. Thus St. Jerome in Ezekiel, chapter XXVII. These therefore are four atrocious sins, in the phrase of Scripture crying out to heaven: first, parricide, such as was Cain's; second, the sin of the Sodomites, Genesis XIX, 13; third, the wages of laborers defrauded, James V, 4; fourth, the oppression of widows, orphans and the poor, Exodus II, 23. See here how God brings to light and punishes the hidden homicide of Cain. Plutarch has other wonderful examples of hidden homicide detected and punished, in his book On the Slow Vengeance of the Deity. This deed and word Pope Innocent I aptly applies to the Emperor Arcadius and the Empress Eudoxia, in that they had sent St. John Chrysostom into exile, and there wore him out with hardships, as it were Cain's Abel, and therefore he hurls the thunderbolt of excommunication against them. Hear the letter worthy of so great a Pontiff, which Baronius recites from Gennadius and Glycas, in the year of the Lord 407. The voice of the blood of my brother John cries out to God against you, O Emperor, just as once the blood of righteous Abel against the parricide Cain, and it will be avenged in all ways. You cast out from his throne, without judgment of the case, the great teacher of the whole world, and together with him you persecuted Christ. Nor do I complain thus of him: for he has obtained his lot, or inheritance with the holy Apostles in the kingdom of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, etc.; but because the whole world under the sun has been brought to bereavement, by the loss of so divine a man through the persuasion of one woman, exhibiting this tale and spectacle. And soon after: But the new Delilah, Eudoxia, who gradually shears you with the razor of seduction, has brought down upon herself execration from the mouth of many, gathering together a grave and unbearable weight of sins, and adding it to her former sins. Therefore I, the least and a sinner, to whom the throne of the great Apostle Peter is entrusted, separate and reject you and her from the reception of the immaculate mysteries of Christ. From the Earth Many relate that Abel was slain in Damascus, and hence Damascus is called as it were dam sac, that is, blood sack, because namely it drank and absorbed the blood of Abel. Understand Damascus, not of Syria, as St. Jerome seems to wish: for this derived its name and origin from elsewhere, as I shall say at chapter XV, verse 2; but the Damascene field near Hebron, filled with red earth (which in Hebrew is here called Adama), where Adam is thought to have been created and to have lived. Thus Burchard, Adrichomius and others in the Description of the Holy Land and Abulensis in chapter XIII, Question CXXXVIII. St. Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia and martyr, was similar to Abel, slain by his brother Boleslaus as another Cain, at the instigation of his mother Drahomira. For Wenceslaus, pious and innocent like Abel, ruled his kingdom more by fasting, prayers, haircloth, and other pious works than by imperial power, truly singing: Seven times a day have I given praise to thee for the judgments of thy justice. Therefore, divinely foreknowing that death was being prepared for him by his brother through deceit at a banquet, he did not flee, but fortifying himself with the Holy Sacraments, he went to his brother's house; and after the fraternal and hospitable meal, in the following night while praying before the temple he was struck down: and becoming a most pleasing victim to God, his blood sprinkled the wall of the temple, which the murderers strove in vain to wash away and wipe clean: for the more frequently it was wiped away, the more vivid and bloodier it appeared; thus it remained there indelible, bearing witness to so great a parricide like Abel's cry to heaven. Wherefore all the ministers of so great a crime perished miserably: the earth swallowed up Drahomira the mother alive in the castle of Prague. Boleslaus, like another Cain, was harassed by prodigies and terrors, and was attacked by the Emperor Otto in vengeance for the parricide by war, and was finally consumed by disease, deprived of his principate and life. Others, tormented by demons, fearing their own shadow, threw themselves into a river. Others, bereft of mind, took to flight, and were never seen again. Others, struck by various and grave diseases, hated by men, ended their lives miserably. Thus his Life and the Annals of Bohemia have it, and from these Aeneas Sylvius in his History of Bohemia.
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CURSED SHALT THOU BE UPON THE EARTH. Then because the earth shall be cursed to thee, and shall give thee its fruits grudgingly and sparingly as thou tillest it: so that it is a hypallage. The Hebrew texts have, cursed art thou from the earth, that is to say, Thou hast polluted the earth with the blood of thy brother, therefore thou shalt be punished also through the earth by sterility.
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IT SHALL NOT GIVE THEE ITS STRENGTH, in Hebrew cocha, that is its virtue. For the virtue of the earth is the abundant and vigorous fruits of the earth. Vagabond and fugitive, fearful from an evil conscience, and, as the Septuagint translates, groaning and trembling, namely both in soul and in body, thou shalt wander hither and thither. For the Greeks refer to tremon, that is trembling, to the trembling of the body in Cain, which was an index of the fear and consternation of his mind. When thou shalt have worked it, it shall not give thee its strength. Then because thou shalt be ill-fated, unhappy, vagabond and fugitive upon the earth, as follows. Therefore the Cainite heretics were mad, equally as blasphemous, who worshipped Cain, saying that Abel was of a weaker virtue, and therefore was slain: but Cain was of a stronger and celestial virtue, equally as Esau, Core, Judas and the Sodomites; and they claimed all these as their kinsmen: for Cain was the father of Judas. But they venerated Judas; because he himself betrayed Christ, foreknowing that by his death men would be redeemed. Thus Epiphanius, in heresy 38; St. Augustine, Philastrius and others in the heresy of the Cainites.
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MY INIQUITY IS GREATER THAN THAT I MAY DESERVE TO OBTAIN PARDON. Pagninus, Vatablus, Oleaster together with Aben Ezra take עוון avon, that is iniquity, sin, for the punishment of sin, and thus render it, my punishment is greater than that I bear, or can bear. Thus also Athanasius to Antiochus, Question 96. Where by the way note that these shorter questions are not of that great St. Athanasius of Alexandria: for in them are cited St. Epiphanius and Gregory of Nyssa, who were later than St. Athanasius; indeed the author of them cites, in Question 93, St. Athanasius himself, and departs from him, and follows another opinion. Nor yet is the author of them the same as Athanasius of Nicaea, who wrote certain lengthy questions on Holy Scripture; although perhaps to the same Antiochus each wrote his questions. But commonly the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Our version, and the Greek and Latin Fathers properly take sin here, and think that Cain despaired in these words. Whence the Hebrew thus has גדול עווני מנשא gadol avoni minneso, that is, my iniquity is greater than that I can bear or carry it; secondly, more plainly and better with the Septuagint, Chaldean and Our version thus you would translate: My iniquity is greater than that I can bear and spare it, that is, than that God can bear and spare it. For the Hebrew נשא neso signifies both to bear and to spare, because when one spares another, he relieves him of a great burden; for by forgiving his offense he bears and carries it; for offense and sin against God is a burden heavier than Aetna, weighing upon the sinner. Whence Our version renders it, than that I may deserve pardon, that is, than that by any penitence I can obtain pardon, as if to say, I am altogether unworthy and incapable of pardon. Hence with Cain greatly err the Novatians and others, who think that some sins are so grave that even if one repents, God nevertheless cannot or will not forgive them. Thus St. Ambrose, book I On Penitence, chapter IX. Four things, says Cardinal Hugo, aggravate sin, namely the quality of the sin, its frequency, its duration, impenitence; but in comparison with all these, God's clemency is immeasurably greater, and the merit and grace of Christ. Hear him in Jeremiah III, 1: Thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers; yet return to me, saith the Lord. Hear Ezekiel, chapter XVIII, verse 21: If the wicked man do penance, etc., he shall live, and shall not die: I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done any more.
4:14
BEHOLD, THOU CASTEST ME OUT THIS DAY FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH, from my most pleasant and fertile country, says Oleaster and Pererius, and indeed from the whole earth, since thou permittest me to settle nowhere, but continually drivest me from one region to another, and makest me an exile and a fugitive, both from the earth and consequently from men, that is to say, Thou makest me the hatred of all men, so that neither do I dare to look upon them, nor do they deign to look upon me. I SHALL BE HID FROM THY FACE As if I, being guilty, should flee the presence of God the judge, and seek hiding places. Thus St. Ambrose and Oleaster; secondly, I shall be destitute of thy care, favour and protection. Thus St. Chrysostom and Cajetan. Whence there is no need, as with Delrio, to have recourse here to hypallage, that is to say, Thou shalt hide thy face from me, that thou mayest not regard me with equal eyes. Therefore Cain says, as Lipomanus beautifully puts it: Behold, Lord, thou hast taken from me the fruits of the earth, thou hast taken away thy grace and protection, thou permittest me to myself, I dare not come to thee for pardon; I shall hide myself from thee, I shall escape thy judgment as I can, I shall be vagrant and unstable everywhere, and if thou dost not pursue me, whosoever of others shall find me will kill me, and I shall not be able to protect myself. THEREFORE EVERY ONE THAT FINDETH ME SHALL SLAY ME Note here in Cain the effects and punishments of sin. There are six. The first is, trembling of the body; the second is, exile and flight; the third is, fear and consternation of mind. Every one, he says, that findeth me shall slay me. What fearest thou, O Cain? besides thee and thy parents there is as yet no other man in the world. He had fallen from the grace of God through sin; hence punishment and trepidation: nor without cause. For first Abel himself, being dead, began to pursue the murderer: The voice of thy brother's blood, says Scripture, crieth to me. For God, says St. Ambrose, heareth his just ones, even the dead, because they live to God. Because from the trembling of the body and the agitation of a frenzied mind, everyone will understand by me that I am he who deserveth to be slain, says St. Jerome, epistle 125 to Damascenus, Question I, that is to say, I am filth, I am accursed, I am the hatred of God and men, I shall not be able to escape being slain by someone. Behold an omen, behold the terror of an evil conscience. Thus St. Ambrose. On the contrary the just man, like a lion, is confident, and saith: Yea, though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for thou art with me, Psalm XXII, verse 4. Note: Cain, impenitent, feareth death, not of the soul but of the body. Thus St. Ambrose. Fourthly, the earth itself pursued Cain: The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me from the earth, that is to say, If the brother spareth, the earth spareth not, says St. Ambrose: this earth cursed denieth fruits to Cain, this expelleth him as a fugitive. Fifthly, the heavenly powers, and likewise the virtues placed below heaven, struck horror into Cain; for as Procopius saith, besides lightnings and horrible flashes, Cain saw angels threatening him with death by fiery swords: if he cast down his eyes to the earth, he seemed to see serpents with venom, lions with claws, and other beasts rushing upon him with their weapons. Sixthly, Cain was a fugitive in the earth, and at last, hiding in the forests (if we believe the Hebrews), was slain by Lamech; concerning which I shall speak at verse 23. Was not sin, therefore, as St. Chrysostom saith, a voluntary madness and a willing demon?
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NOT SO: BUT EVERY ONE THAT KILLETH CAIN, SHALL BE PUNISHED SEVENFOLD. In Hebrew for sevenfold it is שבעתים scibataim, which Aquila translated sevenfold; the Septuagint and Theodotion, seven vengeances, that is to say, He shall be punished manifoldly and most gravely, whoever shall kill Cain; because he will be a second murderer, who has followed the first evil example of Cain, and is not deterred from slaughter by his punishment so severe, and whoever kills the first murderer Cain, to whom God has given the pledge of life, and whom He wishes to survive for punishment and as an example to all, since he himself has life as a torment, death as a solace: so that for him to live long is nothing other than to be tortured long. Hence aptly Burgensis judges that more punishment is here intended for the slayer of Cain than for Cain himself, on account of the reasons already stated. Lyran, Abulensis, Carthusianus and Pererius deny this; and so they deny that they are here compared with one another; whence they themselves thus divide and distinguish these words: Every one that killeth Cain, understand, shall be punished most gravely, period. Then they add, shall be punished sevenfold, namely Cain; or, as Symmachus translated, shall be punished seventh, namely Cain, because in the seventh generation, namely from Lamech, Cain is believed to have been slain, until then abandoned to life for punishment and example. But this division is incongruous, novel and gaping: the prior sense therefore which I have given is the genuine one. Add that the Hebrew שבעתים scibataim signifies not seventh, as Symmachus translated, but sevenfold. And the Lord Set a Mark upon Cain You will ask what kind? Some Rabbis fable that it was a dog, which always went before Cain, and led him by safe ways. Others, that it was a letter impressed on Cain's forehead; others, a fierce and savage countenance. But the more common opinion is that this sign was a trembling of the body, and a consternation of mind and countenance, so that body and countenance spoke Cain's sin. For that this trembling was in Cain is evident from the Septuagint; and it was fitting for Cain: for nowhere worse than in a sound body does a sick mind dwell. Josephus adds, with whatever credibility he may have, that Cain became worse, and finally became a leader of robbers and wickedness, in the city of Henoch which he founded.
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HE DWELT A FUGITIVE IN THE LAND. In Hebrew it is, he dwelt in the land of Nod. Thus the Septuagint and Josephus, who take Nod as a proper name; Our translator however took it as an appellative; both are well: for Nod signifies vagrant, mobile, fluctuating, fugitive. This land therefore, into which Cain first fled, was called Nod, not as if any land whatsoever trodden by Cain's feet would fluctuate and tremble, as some Rabbis have feigned; but it was called the land of Nod, as if you were to say, the land of flight, into which namely Cain the fugitive fled.
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HIS WIFE, a daughter of Adam, and consequently his sister. At the beginning of the world it was necessary, say St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Procopius, that sisters marry brothers, which otherwise is forbidden by natural law, so that in this matter the Pontiff cannot dispense. He Built, not immediately, but many (say 400 or 500) years later, says Josephus, when Cain had already begotten many sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, who could fill Henoch. Thus St. Augustine, lib. XV On the City of God, cap. VIII. Symbolically, the same in the same book, cap. I: Cain was born, he says, the first of those two parents of the human race, belonging to the city of men; Abel the second, to the city of God. Thus in the whole human race, when first these two cities began to proceed by being born and dying, the citizen of this age was born first; but the latter was a stranger in the age, and belonging to the city of God, predestined by grace, elected by grace, a stranger by grace below, a citizen by grace above. And soon after: It is written therefore of Cain, that he built a city: but Abel, as a stranger, built none. For the city of the saints is above, although here it brings forth citizens, in whom it sojourns until the time of his kingdom comes, when with their prince, the king of ages, they shall reign without any end of time. He Called the Name of the City after the Name of His Son Henoch, Henoch. This was the first city in the world, in which there is no doubt Cain dwelt, and therefore ceased now to be a fugitive and vagrant at the end of his life: yet the trembling of his body always clung to him. Tropologically St. Gregory, lib. XVI Moral. cap. VI: The wicked choose a city on earth, the good in heaven: but see how brief is the age and joy of the impious: Cain had only the seventh generation, which ends in Lamech, in whom his whole line and progeny perished in the flood.
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TWO WIVES. Lamech was the first polygamist to violate the law of monogamy laid down, Genesis II, 24. Whence Pope Nicholas, writing to Lotharius the king, likewise a polygamist, calls Lamech an adulterer, as is found, cap. An non, XXIV, Quaest. 3. After the flood, when the life of men was shorter, and only Noe remained with his own, lest mankind should propagate too slowly, God dispensed that it be permitted to have more wives. This is evident, because Abraham and Jacob, most holy men, had more than one. But when the human race was sufficiently propagated, the more refined Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans began gradually to turn away from polygamy, and finally Christ altogether abolished it, Matthew XIX, 4.
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FATHER, inventor, author; Jubal therefore, son of Lamech, was the inventor of the organ and the harp; whence from this Jubal, who was jubilant, joyful and jovial, some think the Latins took their word jubilare and jubilum.
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WHO WAS A HAMMERER AND SMITH IN ALL WORKS OF BRASS AND IRON, who was the inventor of the art of smithing. The Hebrew texts have it word for word thus: Who was sharpening, that is, polishing, all works of brass and iron.
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BECAUSE I HAVE SLAIN A MAN AND A YOUNG MAN. You will ask, who was this man and who was the young man? The Hebrews, and among them St. Jerome, Rabanus, Lyra, Tostatus, Cajetan, Lipomanus, Pererius, Delrio, hand down that Lamech slew Cain his great-great-grandfather, for this reason. Lamech went hunting in a forest, into which Cain had withdrawn, either for walking or to escape the cold. His companion therefore, or Lamech's armor-bearer, noticing the noise and movement of leaves which Cain was making, indicated to Lamech that a wild beast was lurking there. Lamech, hurling a javelin, killed not a beast, but Cain. When the deed was discovered, Lamech, burning with anger at his armor-bearer, the wicked informant, beat him with a bow or club; whence he himself shortly after died. Lamech indeed slew a man, namely Cain, and a young man, namely his armor-bearer. Nor does verse 15 stand in the way; for there God only forbids that Cain be slain openly and recognized: but Lamech slew Cain by chance and unknowingly. Yet this tradition seems fabulous to Theodoret, Burgensis, Catharinus and Oleaster: and with good reason it will appear such, if those circumstances be added to it which some add, such as that Cain was accustomed to wander and hide not in his own Henoch, but in forests; that Lamech was blind or dim-sighted, and thus went hunting, and deceived by his companion or armor-bearer on account of his blindness, pierced Cain; that this companion or armor-bearer was Tubalcain, the son of Lamech, whom surely Moses and Lamech the father would have named here. It is certain therefore that Lamech slew some man, whoever he was. Again, although Theodoret and Rupertus think Lamech slew only one, who in the Hebrew poem and rhythm is called a man, by reason of sex: but a young man, by reason of age; for the Hebrews in rhythm repeat and explain the first hemistich in the second hemistich: yet commonly others teach that Lamech slew two: for one is here called a man, the other a young man, and, as it is in Hebrew, ילד ieled, that is, a boy; but a boy cannot be called a man. Furthermore, a learned man wrongly, in Emmanuel Sa's work, translated these words by way of interrogation, and thus explains them: When Lamech heard badly, he says, that he had taken two wives, and they feared lest some evil should befall him on that account, he said: Did I slay some man, that you should fear for my life? If the slayer of Cain is to be gravely punished, how much more he who shall slay me? For both the Hebrew and our Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Chaldean and others read these words assertively, not interrogatively. And Vatable wrongly translated it conditionally in this manner: if I should receive a wound from any man, even the strongest, or from a young man who has strength, I would kill him; for I have strength; there is therefore no reason, wives, that you should fear for me or for your children on account of polygamy. In My Wound, and the Young Man in My Bruise Think by my wound, by my bruise, or by the wound and bruise inflicted and struck by me, it is clear from the Hebrew; secondly, others explain it thus, as if to say: By the wound with which I pierced the man, I have stained myself with blood; and by the blow with which I discolored the young man, that very thing has brought a dark bruise upon my soul, namely the mark of homicide and guilt, to which I am liable to be destroyed by a like wound and bruise. Whence the Septuagint translates: I have slain a man in my wound, and a young man in my bruise. For this is what the Lord threatens to David the murderer: Thou hast slain Urias with the sword, therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house till the end of time, II Kings cap. XII. And hence it is that murderers, terrified by conscience, are always fearful, are struck by shadows, are frightened by spectres of the dead pursuing their slayers and driving them to death. A notable example is found in Sophronius in the Spiritual Meadow, cap. CLXVI, concerning a robber, who was converted and became a monk, and continually saw a boy accusing him and saying: Why did you kill me? Whence, having sought pardon, he left the monastery and entered the city, was captured and beheaded. This sense is deeper, but the former is simpler.
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A SEVENFOLD VENGEANCE SHALL BE TAKEN FOR CAIN, BUT FOR LAMECH SEVENTY-SEVEN FOLD. First, Rupertus understands by sevenfold a temporal punishment, and by seventy-seven fold an eternal punishment; secondly, because Lamech, according to the testimony of Josephus, had seventy-seven offspring, who all perished in the flood; thirdly, St. Jerome, and from him Pope Nicholas to Lotharius, and Procopius: Cain, they say, had his sin avenged sevenfold, Lamech seventy-seven fold: because the sin of Cain was blotted out in the seventh generation in the flood: but the sin of Lamech, and of the whole human race, of which Lamech was a type (who in Hebrew signifies the same as humiliated, as Alcuin says), was blotted out in the seventy-seventh, namely through Christ: for there are so many generations from Adam to Christ, Luke III, verse 23. Akin to this is the version of the Chaldean, which reads thus: if vengeance shall be taken for Cain in seven generations, shall it not be taken for Lamech in seventy-seven? But truly Lamech did not have so many generations: for he himself with all his posterity perished in the flood. Fourthly, Lipomanus, Delrio and others explain it thus: it appears that the wives of Lamech reproached him for his slayings, threatening that he himself would likewise be slain by others; to these Lamech responds: Since I have slain, that is I have indeed slain, I confess, a man and a youth, and I have deserved death: but yet if the slayer of Cain (who was a voluntary murderer) is to be punished sevenfold, surely my slayer (who am only a casual and involuntary homicide, and who have become penitent) will be punished seventy-seven fold, that is far more severely: for I slew Cain unknowingly; but my armor-bearer I wished only to chastise, not to slay. But I say, for vengeance shall be taken for Cain and Lamech, in Hebrew it is יקם קין ולמך iuckam Cain vel Lamech, that is, Cain and Lamech themselves shall be avenged and punished: for thus Our Lord, the Septuagint and others translate this phrase, verse 15; therefore here vengeance is not threatened against the slayer of Cain and Lamech, but against Cain and Lamech themselves. Lamech therefore, from the vehemence of grief and penitence on account of the double homicide committed, says: If Cain, who slew one, is punished sevenfold, that is multiplied, gravely and fully; therefore I, who have slain two, and who have seen the punishment of Cain, and yet have not abstained from his sin, am to be punished seventy-seven fold, that is far more gravely and multiply. Thus St. Chrysostom and Theodoret. For this phrase and proverb is familiar to the Hebrews, so that they say to be punished sevenfold, for to be punished gravely, fully and in many ways: but to be punished seventy-seven fold, for to be punished far more gravely and abundantly, and as it were immeasurably. For the number seven is the number of multitude and universality: the number seventy, the seventh, is as it were the number of immensity. To this Christ looked, Matthew XVIII, 22: I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Secondly, properly St. Cyril: Cain, he says, is punished sevenfold, because he committed seven sins: first, of irreligion, in that he offered inferior things; second, of impenitence; third, of envy; fourth, in that he deceitfully led his brother into the field; fifth, in that he slew him; sixth, in that he lied to God, saying he knew not where his brother was; seventh, in that he thought he could flee and hide from God, and that he thought he could be slain and die without God's knowledge and will, and thus escape the punishment of this life. But this sense is more subtle and minute than more solid. Alcazar in the Apocalypse XI, 2, note 1, thinks that seventy-seven fold is the same as 490: for this number is celebrated in Scripture and reckoned full and perfect: for if you multiply 70 by 7, you will make 490. Thus when we say, thrice four, we signify twelve: otherwise we would say, thrice and four. But this sense is more subtle, and this number seems rather too large. Just as therefore we say twenty-three times, for 23 occasions; so also seventy-seven fold, for 77 occasions. A similar phrase is in Amos cap. I, verse 6, 9, 11: For three wickednesses of Gaza, and for four I will not convert him. For three and four signify innumerable wickednesses of Gaza. Scripture notes this in Lamech, in hatred of polygamy and homicide; and that we may know that Lamech was the first polygamist, the second homicide: for from lust it is easy to fall into quarrels and slaughter. According to the opinion of Hessius, Lamech boasts on account of his sons, who were inventors of arts so useful: that Cain his progenitor was not punished on account of the slaying, much less could he himself be punished if he had committed a similar crime. For the words do not signify that a slaying was truly perpetrated by him, but are the words of a man exceedingly insolent and profane. Moreover, it appears that these words were inserted by Moses from a certain ancient song: for the whole discourse breathes a certain poetic sublimity. The sense therefore of these two verses will be this: If on account of the slaying of a man or youth wounds and blows are inflicted upon me, since a sevenfold punishment was appointed for Cain, in Lamech it shall be done seventy-seven times. Herder, in the book On the Nature of Hebrew Poetry, vom Geist der ebraischen Poesie, Part. I, p. 344, thinks that this song of Lamech sings the praises of the sword invented by his son, whose use and excellence against the hostile insults of others he proclaims in these words: Ye women of Lamech, hear my speech, receive my words: I have slain a man who wounded me, a youth who struck me. If Cain is to be avenged sevenfold, in Lamech it shall be done seventy-seven times.
4:25
He called, not Adam, but Eve, as is evident from the Hebrew מקרא micra, which is feminine. His name Seth. Seth is the same as thesis, or position or foundation; for the root שות suth signifies to place, to set. Eve therefore, after Abel was slain, soon appears to have borne Seth, and called him thus, as it were the foundation of her offspring and posterity, and consequently of the commonwealth equally as of the Church and city of God; for Seth was to be this in place of Abel, just as Cain was the head and foundation of the city of the devil, concerning which matter St. Augustine wrote in the book On the City of God. Suidas adds that Seth was named by God on account of piety, wisdom and astrology, because he himself was the inventor of letters and astrology. Moreover, the Sethians were foolish heretics, who boasted that they were descended from Seth, the son of Adam: these, says Epiphanius, Heresy 39, glorified Seth, and referred to him all things that are of virtue and justice, and even asserted that he himself was Jesus Christ. For Seth was produced from a supernal mother, who repented because she had produced Cain: but afterwards when Abel was slain and Cain cast out, she came together with the supernal father and bore pure seed, namely Seth himself, from whom was derived the whole race of men. These were the customary ravings of the heretics.
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Enos in Hebrew is the same as infirm, afflicted, wretched, of desperate health, devoted to certain death; it appears therefore that Seth called his son thus in order that he and his descendants might be reminded of their wretched lot and mortality, to which all on account of sin are devoted. Just as therefore Adam is called from adama, as it were man from earth, so Enos is called from wretchedness and mortality. On the contrary, man in Greek is called ἄνθρωπος as it were ἀνάθρων, that is, looking upward; or, as St. Athanasius says, in his tract On Definitions, from the fact that he looks upward with his face toward heavenly things. Secondly, man can be said to be Enos, from the root נשה nasa, that is, he has forgotten, so that Enos is the same as forgetful, and in turn quickly to be consigned to oblivion. To this etymology the Psalmist alludes in Psalm VIII: What is man that thou art mindful of him? To this pertains what Josephus writes, that Adam foretold the destruction of the world and of men, and that it would be twofold, one by flood, the other by fire and conflagration; and therefore he roused the pious and wise descendants of Seth to erect two columns, one of brick, the other of stone, and either inscribed upon them or enclosed within them his discoveries, arts and disciplines for the instruction of posterity, and to preserve his memory to descendants: and he did this with this counsel, that if the brick column should perish by the flood, the stone one would remain surviving, which, says Josephus, still exists in Syria. Then He Began to Call Upon the Name of the Lord That is to say, Enos was the author so that men everywhere would worship God rightly. Whence the Hebrew texts have, then it was taken up, namely publicly and in assemblies, by the authority of Enos, to call upon the name of the Lord. In the time of Enos therefore assemblies of men appear to have been instituted, and to have begun to gather into the Church, for public prayers, for public sermons and catecheses, for public worship of God through sacrifices, and other rites and ceremonies. Thomas Waldensis adds, and from him Bellarmine, book II On Monks, chapter V, that Enos instituted a certain peculiar worship; and a more sublime one than was the religion of the common people: for before Enos Abel, Seth and Adam invoked God. Whence they judge that Enos instituted as it were a prelude and beginning of the Religious and Monastic life. Moreover the Septuagint translates, he hoped to call upon the name of the Lord. For the Hebrew huchal signifies not only to begin, but also to hope, from the root יחל iachel; and hope is the cause of invocation. The Rabbis wrongly translate, then the invocation of the name of the Lord was profaned, as if idolatry began in the time of Enos; for although huchal from the root חל chol signifies to profane, here nevertheless it does not descend from chol, but from חלל chalal, which in the hiphil has החיל hechel, and signifies began, commenced: in the hophal it has הוחל huchal, that is, it was begun, as Our translation, the Chaldean, Vatablus, Forster, Pagninus and others translate throughout. Nor do Cyril, Theodoret and Suidas translate correctly, that he began to be called by the name of the Lord, as if Enos himself, on account of his remarkable piety toward God, and his children, was given the name of sons of God. Of the Lord In Hebrew it is the name of the tetragram Jehova. Whence Rupert, Cajetan and others think that this name was revealed to Adam and Enos, and that they invoked God through it. But it is more true that this name of the tetragram was first revealed to Moses, as I shall say at Exodus VI, 3. Moses therefore, who wrote these things, after he received this name from God, at Exodus VI, uses it throughout, even earlier, also in Genesis, to address God, although Adam, Enos and other Patriarchs then addressed God, not as Jehova, but as Elohim, or Adonai. St. Thomas in II II part., Question XCIV, article 4, to 2, thinks that in the first age of the world there was no idolatry, on account of the recent memory of the created world. But this reasoning does not altogether conclude: for the recent memory of the flood, and of such great vengeance of God, did not prevent idolatry from soon creeping in. Whence Torniellus and others think that there was also then idolatry in other families of Adam: and therefore Enos opposed to it the public worship of one God, and thus instituted the visible form of the holy Church.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
4:1
v. 1 « Adam vero cognovtt uxorem suam Hevam , quae concepit et peperit Cain, dicens : Possedi hominem per Deum ». Fuisse Cain primogenitum fere sequitur ex imposito nomine, quod primo partui maxime convenit (Ca?.); potestque aliqua confirmatio inde peti, quod Cain patri in colendis agris sociatus sit, cum soleat prae ceteris primogenitus in societatem paterni laboris adseisci. Indidem licebit coniectura inferre, Cain et Abel non fuisse geminos. Certe nihil est in textu, quo gemini fuisse suadeantur. Otiosa penitus est quaestio, cognoveritne Adam uxorem in paradiso an extra illum : evidens quippe est, nihil de hac quaestione textum affirmare. Plures quam tresliberos Adamum vita tot annis producta genuisse patet cum ex natura rei tum ex 5,4 : sed narratiosacra, quae est historia revelationis, eos tantum recenset, qui aliquid ad historiam revelationis contulere, sive in bonum sive in malum. Hinc erraret is etiam, qui duas tantum Cainitarum et Sethitarum tribus ante diluvium exstitisse saeculis ex uno Noe prodierint. — n3p, condere vel acquirere, xczew vel xvàcÜat, à versionibus hoc altero sensu accipitur. Nota, Hebr. legere non DN sed vx, contra Vulg. LXX Symm. : ergo exsultat Heva etiam ideo, quod non filiam sed filium primo partu ediderit; sane semen 3,15 promissum imprimis complectitur filios. n* nomini divino praefixum Ps. Ion. et Targ. Hier. intellexere explicativum ; item interpres aliquis apud Field, ixznoáymv» dv0pwzc» vp». Quod interpretamentum gratuito Hevae gravem tribuit errorem, fuisse Cain deum hominem. Praeferenda Symm. versio cum (cf. 39,3; 3,16 etc.), in quàm recidunt Vulg. per, LXX &&, Chald. ap v2, Versio Sam. v2. « Puerum natum non naturae sed Deo acceptum refert » (Chrys.). Fructus agrorum et gregum sunt hominis possessio (n3p:2) : sed haec omnia tandem non sunt sufficiens eius adiutorium : exsultat igitur de meliore iam acquisita possessione mulier, idque eo ferventius, quod ea possessio sit vzr, semen continens in se divinae promissionis implendae germina, nec nisi largiente ipso numine concessum.
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v. 9 « Rursumque peperit fratrem eius Abel ». Nomen non explicatur. Ios. interpretabatur luctus, seu potius flatus, vanitas : sed hodie communiter recurritur ad assyr. Aablu, filius, quae vox antiquitus linguarum semiticarum communis fuisse creditur : uti igitur protoparentes homo et mater, ita. hic natus ffjus audiebat. « Fuit autem Abel pastor ovium, et Cain agricola ». Ex eo, quod iam 9,93 Noe legatur habuisse pallium n»2v, crediderim artem ex ovium lana contexendarum vestium ipsis generis humani primordiis natam esse, fortasse tempore Abelis.
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v. 8 « Factum est autem post multos dies, ut offerret Cain de fructibus terrae munera Domno ». nna munus, sacrificium (LXX Chald. Syr.). — Qn Vp. post dies; ubi iam advertebat Vat., pluralem Qv" hic significare annum (cf. Iud. 17,10; 1 heg. 1,3; 27,7; 29,3 et, quae ad eos locos scripsimus). Igitur Vat., Bonfr. vertunt « post aliquos », Lap. « post multos annos »; sed haec arbitraria. Unice recte Calm. » ad exitum anni » seu, quod in idem recidit, initio anni sc. sequenlis. Auctor omnino vult tempus eius sacrificii determinare, igitur expressio accipienda est sensu determinato. Non tamen necessario intelligenda est de primo a suscepta agricultura vel cura gregum anno, cum minime constet, uno eodemque anno utrumque íratrem tali operi suscipiendo fuisse maturum : sed sufficit exponere de aliquo anno vertente. Vides, haud longe a vero abesse Ps. Ion. et Targ. Hier. scribentes die decima quarta Nisan. Sine dubio sc., licet id textus non exprimat, etiam Cain primitias obtulit, quae eo fere tempore praesto sunt. Tamen neque cogeris cum illis supponere, uno eodemque die et Cain et Abel sacrificia obtulisse. Hinc tandem iní'ras, sacrilicia annua, menstrua, messis, quae pluribus gentibus antiquitus cum Iudacis crant communia, ab ipsis mundi primordiis initium sumpsisse. Hinc intelligas melius expressionem 1,14, luminaria coeli esse « in tempora », sc. sacra : a primordiis quippe defi-
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v. « Abel quoque obtulit de primogenitis gregis sui et de adipibus eorum ». Primogentta et adipes parallele scribuntur : quare sicut illud non partes aliquas sed individua significat, ita etiam hoc. Abel obtulit primogenita, et quidem horum pinguissima individua (cf. C«:.). los. 35n intellexit lac : nota tamen Abelis greges fuisse minorum animalium, ovium, caprarum, quarum lac et minus est copiosum et minus nobile..« E£ respexit Dominus ad Abel et ad munera eius »,
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v. 5 « ad Cain vero et ad munera illius non respexit ». eliam Ilos.; et Ps. Ion. et Targ. Hier. hanc versionem cum praecedente coniungunt, vertentes prius verbum complacuit sibi, et alterum adspezit. Theod. tandem exprimit modum, quo coniicit illum divini beneplaciti affectum hominibus innotuisse : iverootatv. Cf. Proc. Quae hypothesis, Abelis sacrificium igne coelitus immisso esse inflammatum, placuit interpretibus potestque pro ea invocari analogia Lev. 9,24 etc. Aliam suggerit Tir. : « respexit favendo, probando et pecora terrasque illius foecundando »; et cf. Lev. 26,9. Hypothesin Theod. suam fecit etiam Hier., quam Iudaeae esse originis ostendit Rahmer. Aliquo autem modo Deum suum manifestasse beneplacitum, certum est cum ex natura rei, tum ex Hebr. 11,4 « testimonium perhibente muneribus eius Deo ». At, quare Abelis prae Caini hostia visa est Deo Hebr. 11, praeferenda? Inde ab Ephr. censuere plures id factum ideo, quod Cain viliora, Abel omnino lectissima Deo obtulerit. Quae expositio iniquius premit voces primogenitis, adzpibus : ex eo, quod simile quid de Caini munere non dicatur, haud sequitur eum obtulisse viliora. Quodsi, ut supra suggerebamus, mense fere Nisan obtulit, nonne necessario primitias, quae lectissimae censebantur, obtulisse dicendus erit? « Nihil invenio », dicamus cum Amór. (De Incarn. Sacramento cap. 1; M. 16. 819), « quod in specie munerum reprehendam... Culpa est, non in oblatione muneris, sed in oblationis affectu ». « Non offerensa muneribus, sed munera ab offerente placuerunt » (Greg. M., Ep. 192; M. '11. 1053). Reapse illud ex Hebr. 11,3 habemus, per fidem consecutum esse Abel testimonium se esse iustum. (Quo neque asseritur Cain nullam habuisse fidem, utique tamen minus excellentem; tamquam eius potissimum peccatum exhibetur nobis non infidelitas, sed invidia. Fidem vero ibi intelligit S. Paulus eam, quae sit « sperandarum substantia rerum, argumentum non apparentium » : quidnam vero Abeli sperandum, nisi prae ceteris omnibus implendam promissionem seminis 3,15? : Et haec quidem certa. Quaeri praeterea potest, num peculiari aliqua ratione fides Abelis in hoé se manifestaverit sacrificio. Ubi Abelem Amór. prophetasse ait, « nos per passionem Domini a culpa esse redimendos, de quo scriptum est.: Ecce agnus Dei etc. Unde et de primiüvis obtulit, ut primogenitum designaret ». Concedi potest sacrificium fuisse typum immolationis Christi, licet typum potius auctores in ipsa Abelis caede invenerint. Demonstrari certe non potest, Abelem gnarum fuisse futurae passionis Domini; et licet ea ratio explicat, cur Abelis munera Deus adspexerit, at non explicat, cur Caini despexerit. Putaverim, praetulisse Deum Abelis dona, uti apostolus habet, ob maiorem fidem idque signo manifestasse, id vero Cainum aegre tulisse ob imperfectam fidem ; existimasse sc. sibi tamquam primogenito omnia deberi, imprimis e sua posteritate gignendum semen, quod serpentis caput contereret; ubi fratrem intellexit esse Deo acceptiorem se, ubi oborta est suspicio ex illo fortasse generandum semen, invidia occupavit cor. Cf. Proc. et quae seripsimus in : Stimmen aus Maria- Laach X. 180 sqq., Freiburg i. B. 1876. Item A. ScAoepfer : Geschichte des A. T., Brixen 1893, p. 4^ sqq. « [ratusque est Catn vehementer et concidit vultus eius ». « In demissione vultus, tamquam non audentis respicere in coelum, tristitia, interna, ex qua excandescit animus, significatur. Pudore enim suffusus est videns se despectum a Deo; et videns minorem fratrem sibi praeponi invidit atque excanduit » (Ca?.).
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v. 6 « Dizitque Dominus ad. eum : » » — erediderim audibili.vyoee , cum quod reliqua divina horum capitum alloquia omnia eiusmodi fuerint, tum quod id melius conveniat ultimo v. "inciso statim explicando — « Quare ?ratus es et cur concidit facies tua? » v. I « Nonne, st bene egeris, recipies? » Verte : nonne, si bene egeris, levabis faciem tuam? DW est infinitivus substantive adhibitus verbi NV3; « quo verbo nullum aut in sacra lingua foecundius aut amplioris et augustioris significatus », ait Malv. Id sane dixeris, si huius loci versiones inspicias. Significationem primam retinuit Versio Sam., elevare ; e contra Targumim Aq. remittere; LXX offerre; Vulg. Syr. recipere; Theod. acceptabilem esse; quae tamen significationes fere exigunt obiectum. Unica h. l. satisfacit primaria significatio elevare (Cai.), pro qua obiectum sponte suppletur ex praecedentibus. Conciderat iacies Cain, iam interrogat Deus : Nonne, quando bene agis, erectam geris frontem ? Nonne, si bene egisses, erectam gereres? Nonne ipsa tua confusione doceris, te bene non egisse ? Ex signo sensibili latentem culpam demonstrat : Deus Cainum e pudore admissi sceleris convincit, quod fecerat etiam in Adamo 3,11.
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« Sin autem male, statim tn. foribus peccatum aderit? » Reddidit vocibus statim aderit verbum vàà Hier., cuius cubandi significationem céteroqui optime norat (Quaest. Hebr.). Si cum plerisque construas participium, oportebit cum Eph. dicere, peccatum concipi per modum « ferae » prope portam (cf. Prov. 9,14) accubantis et insidiantis. At ferae non consuevere prope portas cubare, et participium v2^, quod in constructione ceteroqui plana abundat et artificium sapit, est masc., dum nomen nNUn fem. est. Ergo melius LXX punctavere imperativum quiesce, ad quam verbi significationem cf. Iob. 11,19; Prov. 2*,15. Sensus igitur hiec est : Sin autem bene agere recuses, si faciem non erexeris, ne putes te innocentem perseverare posse : proxime imminet peccatum ; igitur quiesce ab ardore et invidia. Ubi notare iuvat, Hebr. non habere s? male egeris , sed s? non bene egerts, quae magna profecto est differentia. Quoties sc. male egeris, peccatum non in foribus sed intra muros versatur; at potest quis non bene agere, potest id detrectari, quod bonum aut certe melius esse agnoverit; potest sibi persuadere habere se aliquod ius fovendi sensus indignationis etc., et tamen nondum aut certe minus graviter peccare. —— « Sed sub te erit appetitus eius et tu dominaberis illius ». Quaeritur, ad quem pronomina masc. eius, ?/lius referantur. Aqg., Targumim ei Hier. retulere ad peccatum nwun, quod est fem. Obstat primum genus, secundo contextus. Etenim sententia verbotenus eadem cum altera 3,16 et ab eodem Deo prolata necessario eundem aut certe affinem sensum habeat oportet. Ibi exprimebat' mulieris in maritum affectum et sub eundem subiectionem. Ergo hic adumbret, necesse est, coniugium aliquod inter hominem et peccatum, fere secundum Iac. 1,14 sq. : « Unusquisque vero tentatur a concupiscentia sua abstractus et illectus; deinde concupiscentia, cum conceperit, parit peccatum , peccatum vero, cum consummatum fuerit, generat mortem ». At quisque facile videt, in tali contextu suffixa masc. in locum fem. suffici minime potuisse; suggereretur idea duorum marium infandum omnino scelus committentium, et quidem praeter omnem contextum ; vix non impie in sensum obscoenum detorqueretur ipsa ea formula, qua 3,16 mutuam coniugum relationem definierat. Aliqui auctores, quam supra excludebamus sententiam defendentes, comparari hisce peccatum ferae cuidam prope portam excubanti, vertunt : Et ad te dirigetur appetitus, voracitas istius monstri, sed tu dominaberis illius. At prorsus arbitrarie npYzn, quod secus de coniugum mutuo affectu usurpatur, ad monstri appetitum designandum detorquetur. Syr. difficultatem sentiens vertit : Tw converteris ad illud et ?psum dominabitur tu. At haec textus est non emendatio, sed corruptio. Vide etiam Targumim longissime petitas paraphrases. Praeferenda omnino versio 7Aeod., qui, postquam nomen fem. &papzía scripsit, pergit pronominibus masc. : xo «pig oi dj &àxcopogi, aoccU xai c) dpistg a)vc0 , dicta referens non ad peccatum sed. ad. Abel. Consentiunt Ephr., Chrys. : « Ne putes, inquit, licet tuum aversatus sim sacrificium ob pravam mentem, fratrisque oblationem acceptam habuerim ob sanam intentionem, me ideo primatu te destituere et primogeniturae dignitatem a te auferre. Quiesce : nam licet honore ego illum prosecutus fuerim acceptaque fuerint illius dona, verumtamen ad te conversio illius et tu ipsius dominaberis. Itaque post peccatum hoc permitto, ut primogeniturae privilegiis gaudeas, illumque sub tua potestate et dominio esse iubeo ». Cf. Caím. a0to). Cuius textus « multos sensus peperit obscuritas » (4ug.). Hic textus non potest appellari pro ea, quam modo ex Theod. derivabamus interpretatione. Cum enim LXX non nomen &gaptlz sed verbum fjuxocse scripsissent, non poterant postea pronomina fem. adhibere, sed adhibendum erat «3ro9, quod vel masc. esset vel neutrum. Budde p. 488 secutus Wellh. et illam explanationem professus, quae peccatum ferae comparat : « Verba 3, 16 », exclamat, « certe non ipse primus narrator tam contorte captioseque huc transtulit »; hinc verba redactori cuidam tribuunt actaque Cain et Abel conficta affirmant. Quam modo retulimus planissima eaque minime nova explanatio horum auctorum argumentum convellit. Nihil jn textu contortum, captiosum; sed cadem formula, quae 3, 16 de coniugum, iam etiam de fratrum mutuo affectu usuvenit. Quae res nihil omnino habet admirationis.
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v. 8 « Dixitque Cain ad Abel fratrem suum : Egrediamur foras ». Has duas voces non habent Chaíd. Aq. (cf. Field), neque ullus codex hebr., quorum tamen plures habent pzska seu lacunam. Habent verba Vulg. LXX Sam. Syr. Ps. Ion. et Targ. Hier.; vow", suppresso sequenti effato, inusitatius est. Ceterum quaestio pro interprete parvi est momenti, cum verba, si sint suppleta, utique aptissime suppleta fuere. « Cumque essent in agro, consurrexit Cain. adversus fratrem suum Abel et interfecit eum ». De Abele Christum praefigurante cf. Rup.
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v. 9. « Et ait Dominus ad Cain : ubi est Abel frater tuus? » Cf. 3,9. Fingit Ephr. Cainum conantem parentibus persuadere, Abelem ob pietatem in paradisum fuisse translatum; dein Deum apparentem et benignius primum interrogantem : crediderim reapse sententiam in Cain latam esse.non sine testibus. Recte monet Proc., interrogantem Deum suppetere occasionem poenitentiae. « Qui responaup Nescio. Num custos fratris mei sum ego? »
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v. 10 « Dixitque ad ewn :Quid fecisti? Vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra ». Cf. Yob. 16,19 (18). Ergo usque in coelum pertingit clamor (CÀrys.). Belle depingitur Dei omniscientia, ibi exaudientis altissimum clamorem, ubi homo silentio omnia tegi reputat, hominisque stultitia eius facti ignorantiam praetendentis, quod tanto clamore propaletur. Clamat sanguis, quatenus nex Deo nota ultionem iure exigit.
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v. 11 « Nunc igitur » — nny h. 1. uti 3,22 sententiae iudicis praefigitur (Del.) — « maledictus eris super terram, quae aperuit os suum el. suscepit sanguinem fratris tuà de manu tua ». Agitur de ea terra, quae aperuit os suum cultaque denegabit fructus : ergo Nn 12 non est idem atque « ab hominibus » (Per.). Sed neque vertere licet « a terra » (Malv.), cum maledicens non sit terra sed Deus; neque tandem terra, licet sanguinem innocentem haurire coacía sit, maiorem iniuriam passa est quam protoparentes, Abel, Deus. Mar.: « prae terra, magis quam terra... Vides terram maledictam? Tu magis ». Sed terrae ipsi nulla h. 1. nova imponitur maledictio, comparatio autem cum maledictione terrae 3,17 longius petitur et in sententia vigoris plena languescit. Vat. « ex parte ipsius terrae sive respectu ipsius terrae », quo terra constituitur non quidem auctor, at instrumentum maledictionis. Reapse y2 a significatione locali (cf. Iob. 4,9; Ps. 74,7) quandoque descendit ad significationem. instrumenti (Iob. 7,14; Ps. 27,7; Gen. 9,11). Hic sensus h. l. aptus est; v. 12 explicat, quomodo mediante terra puniendus sit Cain; habetur parallelismus cum 3,17. Alium sensum convenientem suggerunt aliqui a Malv. citati : Maledictus eris, exsul ab ista terra. Et adverte, nw (cf. 2,15 sq.) non tam designare totam terram (v"N), sed potissimum terram arabilem, à qua Cain reapse eiicitur in desertum. Hic sensus praebet bonum nexum cum v. 15^; ubi Cain se eiici profitetur ab n27N, dum v. 19 habebat y". utique illud effecit Cain, quod v. 1^ ipse pronuntiat, ut iam e regione Eden, quatenus ea tum incolebatur, eiiceretur; hine ei obtigit regio aliqua inferax, deserta. « Vagus et profugus erts super terram » more nomadum, quos soli sterilitas cogit huc illuc migrare. 121 y2, duo monosyllaba eadem incipientia litera, imitatus est Symm. &v&czazcg xoi &xaxz&cazos; item LXX , sed sensu non plane eodem, cxévov xat xe£yov. Hoc igitur incisum est consequentia prioris : quia agris colendis non poterunt vitam sustentare , 1deo nomadum more vivent Cainitae. Praedicitur quod futurum est, non imponitur praeceptum. Illudque praedicitur generatim spectatum, non secundum particularia quaeque; non sequitur necessario, totam Caini posteritatem perpetuo vagam futuram et profugam; neque ea praedictio falsa evasit, si supponatur ipse Cain postea urbem condidisse (sed cf. quae infra dicemus), quod alii etiam nomades fecere, Mongoli, Tartari, etc. ; neque fas est alium pro 4,17 atque pro 4,12 adstruere scriptorem.
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v. 13 « Dixitque Cain ad Dominum : Maior est iniquitas mea, quam ut veniam merear ».. Verba non sunt humiliantis se, sed desperantis (Proc., Per.). NTU32, quam ad. ferendum. wo3, quando ad peccatum refertur, duplicem induit sensum, sc. peccatum auferre seu condonare, vel peccatum, i. e. eius sive reatum sive poenam ferre. In priori sensu erit Deus subiectum, in altero Cain (Vat.). Uter sensus h. l. praeferendus? Volebat Cain illud v. 44 obtinere, ut vita saltem securus frueretur. Iam si cum A'mchi vertamus : Intolerabilis plane est poena, quam modo inflixisti, — haec verba iniuria sunt et blasphemia parumque apta , quibus gratiae aliquid obtineatur. Ergo cum versionibus praeferendus sensus : Atrocius quidem meum est peccatum, quam ut ullam merear veniam; tamen a tua misericordia spero et peto poenae aliquam condonationem. Quae verba reapse aliquid sapiunt captationis benevolentiae, quae viam sternat favori obtinendo. Erat ea utique valde imperfecta, de ipso peccato Deique amisso favore haud videtur sollicitus fuisse Cain. Quem punivit Deus concedendo id tantum, quod petebatur, temporalia, non aeterna. Adverte, h. ]. **v3 iden) tandem esse verbum atque v. 7 nNv. Quod ibi eam designabat faciei elevationem, quae innocentiam aut servatam aut peccati remissione recuperatam consequitur. Licet vox h. 1l. immediate ad iniquitatem referatur, tamen haud excluditur respectus ad v. 7 : Maior est iniquitas meu, quam ut plene ab illa merear sublevari, concessa peccati venia et propter hanc restituta faciei serenitate.
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v. 15 « Ecce eiicis me hodie a facie terrae », « h. 1. a natali solo » (Bonfr.) — solam regionem Eden hic designat voce na27Nn, mox usurus voce y?N pro universa terra — « et a facte tua abscondar, » — non « tu abscondes faciem tuam » (Bon/r.), quod est plane aliud; non, quod pie corrigunt Targumm , « a facie tua impossibile est abscondi », vel « a facie tua an fieri potestut abscondar? » Melius Menoch. : « quasi reus praesentiam Dei iudicis fugiam », et Mar. : « non veniam ad aflerendum aliquid », interrogatque Caím., « an forte Deus familiarem suam praesentiam dabat hominibus? » Reapse Deus tum cum hominibus paterne conversabatur, quod patet ex Cain v. 6 sq. ante peccatum monito; idque faciebat imprimis etiam in sacrificiis, — « e£ ero vagus et prof"qus tn terra ». Hic nostrae Vulgatae scribunt colon, item £XX, qui sententiae partem priorem subordinant : ei ix64XAet;. Sic in apodosin. relegatur illud, quod unum Cain in votis habet, ne interimatur ipse. Infelicius Heór. Chald. , sententiam dividunt, signo athnach ornantes vocem abscondar. « Omnis igitur, qui invenerit me, occidet me ». Non agitur de feris (Ios.), neque enim in eas ferri poterat sententia
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v. 15 « septuplum punietur » (Per.); sed de hominibus, quorum plures sine dubio iam tum ex Adamo prognati erant (Ca?.). Vereque scribit Ep/Ar., ex eo patrati fratricidii horrore factum esse ut Sethitis postea Cainilis iungi fas non esset. v 15 « Dixitque e? Dominus : Nequaquam 1ta ftet ». Hebr. Sam. Chald. Aq. 325; Vulg. LXX Syr. Symm. Theod. 12 N^; sensus idem. « Sed omnis, qui occiderit Cain, septuplum punietur. », gravissime punietur. Solemnem asseverationem futurae incolumitatis Deus edito miraculo confirmat : « Posuitque Dominus Catn signum , ut non interficeret eum omnis, qui invenisset eum ». Syr. in Cain signum, item codices Vulg. non pauci. Hinc auctores mira statuerunt de hoc signo , quod putabant Caino fuisse permanenter et visibiliter impressum, quo conspecto, qui obviam fierent, intelligerent praesentem adesse eum virum, quem interfici Deus specialius prohibuisset. Ceterum illorum auctorum placita vix non omnia ex Hebraeorum traditionibus fluxere, cf. Rahmer et Ios., Ps. Ion., Targ. Hier. Sapientius Abenesra sigrum intelligebat, uti alias saepe in scripturis, de signo coram patrato ad fidem divinae promissionis in Caino roborandam. Quodsi haec omnia acta esse supponas non coram solo Cain, sed adstantibus etiam protoparentibus ceterisque natis, habuit hoc signum etiam efficaciam ad hos a caede Caini deterrendos. Neque excluditur signum, quale modo suggessimus, in ipsa Caini persona esse effectum ; ita teste Calm. opinabantur quidam , quorum placita resuscitavere recentiores aliqui, « populos nigros genus duxisse a Cain ». fecto aliqua esset sanguinis necessitas; ergo quod sibi Cain mortem timeat ab homine quovis, eui forte occurrerit, hoc ipso clare demonstratur, Cainum non alios sibi quam consanguineos: occursuros exspectasse (Del.). Advertas tandem, licet nonnisi elapsis centum triginta annis Cain primam patraverit caedem, at diu ante potuisse et debuisse homines perspicere, quam foedum essct homicidium quamque sola capitis poena digne luendum; hinc caede patrata merilo sibi-.Cainum eandem poenam timuisse. Verum constatne illud praeter omne dubium, primam omnium caedem fuisse Abelis? Sola narratur, quod cum historia revelationis intime connectatur, Sethi electionem explicet, diluvii causas pandat : potuerunt vero aliae caedes praecedere, ob quas lex ultionis iam anto esset definita.
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v. 16 « Egressusque Can a facie Domini habitavit profugus in terra ad orientalem plagam Eden ». « Egressus est ab ea terra et loco, ubi Deus faciem suam ostendere solebat, i. e. praesentiam suam declarare edendo oracula , reddendo responsa et sub aspectabili forma humanae naturae cum primis illis hominibus familiariter loquendo » (Per.). v?x3 T2 omnino cum, LXX vertendum ut nomen proprium : 2n terra Nod; non vero cum CAaíd. Symm. Theod. Vulg. ut adiectivum, licet nomen proprium utique cum eo adiectivo connectatur. Illud patet cum ex verbo 1v" quod, cum de se quietem dicat, non apte cum adiectivo quietem excludente copulatur; tum exinde, quod i inter y^N23 et n7p inseratur, ergo et ipsum ad loci descriptionem, non ad vitae conditionem spectet; adde, si de adiectivo ageretur, scripturum fuisse auctorem utrumque, uti v. 12.15, adiectivum 121 Ya. Ex Sam. "1.et LXX Nx inferre fas est, 111 primitus fuisse scriptum non plene (D//Im.). Arg. — Adamo e paradiso eiecto à lapsu respirat genus humanum, certamen illud exorsum, quod contrito serpeutis capite aliquando absolvetur : eiecta item e regione Eden Caini stirps novum auspicatur progressum, habent quippe vel poenae divinitus hac in terra inflictae aliquid admixtum benedictionis. At hic alter progressus terrestris totus et mundanus est. Gente dura in sterile solum relegata, vincit omnia labor improbus: figuntur tentoria, nascuntur musae, cuditur in ensem ferrum. Non haec mala quidem : habitavit in tentoriis arca, sunt sacrae symphoniae et sancta proelia. At Cainitarum genus insolens, lascivum,.impium : novit quippe vel perversis ad suos fines uti Deus. plures Seth ante Enos potuit procreare liberos et probabilius proereuvits Quibus efficitur sequens synchronismus : Iared Noema-Iabel-Iubal-Tubalcain Henoch
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v. 15 « Cognovit autem Cain uxorem suam » , uique sororem Adami filiam (Chrys.), « quae concepit et peperit Henoch; et aedificavit. civitatem vocavitque nomen eius ez nomine filii sui Henoch ». Uti v. 1 verbis « Adam vero cognovit uxorem suam », ita eadem h. 1. formula nova orditur POHCODO. Prior pericope narratura Caini et Abelis inimicitias et inde secutam Caini in aliam. regionem profectionem , nihil aliud, quod egerit Cain, commemorat. Nova a v. 17 pericope explicatura est genealogiam Cainitarum additis, quae illi ad vitae usus utilia instituerunt. Quorum si quid a Cain ante fratris necem fuerit inventum, omnino e genio est narrationis hebr. , ut illud h. l., i. e. post narratam necem suppleatur, et quidem verbo, quod a nobis aut perfecto aut plusquamperfecto exprimi possit. Id esse e genio linguae hebr. norunt hebraistae quique, atque ita evanescit exitialis illa cum v. 12 sqq. pugna, quae viris doctissimis We/lh. , Budde, Dillm. occasio fuit diversos pericoparum statuendi auctores. En, inquiunt, v. 12 condemnatur Cain ad vitam agendam vagam et instabilem, v. 17 nihil in regione Nod antiquius habet, quam ut fixam sibi exstructa civitate sedem comparet. Ubi suggesserat Aug. , nonnisi plurimis elapsis annis Cainum grandaevum civitatem aedificasse. Manet tamen difficultas, videri v. 12 non pro solo Cain, sed pro Cainitis universim statui vita nomadica, quae fixas haud patitur sedes. Veram solutionem suggessit Cai. in nota marginali : « an vero Cain eam ante fratris caedem seu postea exstruxerit, incertum est ». Agricolarum vita exstruendis oppidis apta, non nomadum. Quid Cain centum illis fere et triginta vitae annis, quae ad necem usque fratris effluxere, egit? Adolevit, agris colendis sedulam operam navavit, substantiam auxit, uxorem duxit, liberos procreavit, illis certas circa se ipsum sedes attribuit exstructis domibus, quae numeris familiarium crescentibusin civitatem excrevere. Ergone Cain civitatem suam Henoch reliquit, ubi in regionem Nod secessit? Omnino, erat haec pars non minima poenae eius : quomodo vitam ageret vagus et profugus, si domi permitteretur sedere? Urbem derelictam crediderim Sethitas occupasse aliasque ad eius instar ex- Struxisse. Ergone Cainitae in regione Nod urbibus caruere? Id fere crediderim. Erat enim eorum vitae genus vagum et instabile, eorumque postea nobilissima tribus v. 20 non fuit urbicolarum, sed « habitantium in tentoriis atque pastorum ». Optime igitur omnia cohaerent neque ulli locus est textus emendationi. ; nitarum illici potuerint. Haec autem omnia non pronuntiamus ita fuisse, sed tantum a Babyloniis ita credita esse. Non sequitur, paradisum Babylone fuisse. Facile intelligitur, eos sacrorum omnium originem Babyloni attribuisse. Illud potius admiratione dignum, quod cum primas Sethitarum sedes suae sacrae civitati Babyloni attribuissent, non tamen potuerint, quin tres ultimos ante diluvium patriarchas inde reducerent Larsam et Laranchaeos scriberent. Videtur hac in re traditio genuina fortior exstitisse traditione fucata.
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v. 18 « Porro Henoch genuit Irad, et Irad genuit Maviael » seu Malaleel (LXX), « et Maviael genuit Mathusael » seu Mathusala (LXX), « et Mathusael genuit Lamech ». Nomina discussimus supra.
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v. 19 « Qui accepit duas uxores, nomen uni Áda et nomen alteri Sella » . Ratio utique primaria, cur uxores recenseanítur, ea est, quod auctor mox enarraturus sit carmen Lamechi, quod earum meminit uxorum. Ratio non est, ut discamus, qua matre natus sit label etc., nam aliorum patriarcharum matres neque recensentur. Primus Tert. Montanista factus (De Exhort. ad Cast. c. 5 et De Monogamia c. 4; M. 2.920. 934) invehebatur in Lamech, quod polygamiam invexerit : textus affirmat duas habuisse uxores, primum polygamiam exercuisse non affirmat.
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v. 20 « Genuitque Ada label, qui fuit pater habitantium in tentoriis atque pastorum ». Pro patre Chald. scribit magister, Bonfr. explicat « auctor et inventor artis »; at vox sensu proprio intelligenda est. Non dicitur Iabel pater omnium, etc. : fuerat Abel pastor, et sine dubio alii post eum in regione Eden greges pascebant; sine dubio Cain greges, maxime armentorum, quae v. 2 Abelo non tribuuntur, secum duxit in terram Nod, quam v. 20 ostendit alendis gregibus fuisse aptam ; nomades imprimis gregibus aluntur. Auctor loquitur de Cainitis, saltem de illis eorum tribubus, quae regioni Eden propinquiores oppido innotuerant Sethitis. Earum novit tres, quas « castas » apte dixeris; exercebant singulae quas a parentibus didicerant artes, pastorum , artificum, bellatorum. nion nw 2w* : verbum 34 cum accus. significat habitare in et etiam apud, ct. Ps. 21 (22), 4 : ergo habilantium in tentoriis et apud greges, constructio durior, quam explicant LXX Chald. Syr., quin supponendi sint alium legisse textum (nap nap. nap?2 latius patet quam v. 2 NS, complectitur (Kn.) boves (26,14; 47,17; Ex. 34,19), camelos et asinos (Ex. 9,3 sq.; Iob 1,3). Cf. E. Nestle : Marginalien u. Materialien, Tübingen 1893.
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v. 21 « Et nomen fratris eius Iubal, ipse fuit pater canenttum cithara et organo », seu tibia, Chald. xaxàN. Etiam h. l. sume pater sensu stricto, eiusmodi artes a patre transibant in filios.
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V. 22 « Se//a quoque genuit Tubalcain », — LXX 0269, post quam vocem abundat xai fj»; hoc ortum videtur corruptione ex xat», et primo xa ita ex versu dilapso omitti oportuit etiam alterum xat» in fine versus — « qui fuit malleator et faber in cuncta opera aeris et ferri ». Haud dubium etiam Tubalcain factum esse patrem fabrorum : id vero non commemoratur, quod attentio non iam ad viri posteros, sed ad eius parentem Lamech convertatur. | o323 nun) wn 93 vos sécundum punctationem Masor. sensum habet absurdum : malleator omnis fabri aeris et ferri. Gratuito quippe pro vn Ges. adstruit significationem « instrumentum », neque eandem confirmat 3 Reg. 7,14. Neque vertere licet cum Schumann (ap. Budde p. 137 sq.) « faber omnium fabrorum », ita enim abundat p» (quod quidem ignorant LYX) et scribendum erat *w3n; neque cum JT'iele (ib.) « ipse omnis generis res malleabat et cudebat aes et ferrum », i. e. postquam multa malleare tentaverat, tandem invenit artem cudendi ferri. "r1 omittit Syr., dum Chald. ante 53 supplet *àN, utrumque arbitrarie. Pro vn cum Vulg. Chald. punc- tandum vn (cf. Is. 3,3); malleator omnis operis aeris et ferri. Etiam sic manet constructio nonnihil asyndetica; tamen nulla est ratio cum Budde pro vv UF scribendi 15 'n": Lamech non esse subiectum vel inde patet, quia membrum tam praecedens quam sequens de Tubalcain agit. Si aliquam credideris requiri textus emendationem, scribas vun vel vun. « Soror vero Tubalcain Noema ». Nomen etiam habetur 3 Reg. 1^,91. 31 et 2 Par. 12,13. Cur omnium filiarum istorum virorum Cainitarum haec una recensetur? Ps. lon. et Targ. Hier. eam fecere « magistram lamentationum (nop) et cantionum »; cum sc. frater Tubal affixum habeat vp, illi sorori attribuere nzp, ex quo lusu illa orta est fabula. Budde p. 1&2 sq. nomen hac ratione in textum irrepsisse censet : tres tribuebantur Lamecho filii duaeque uxores; duobus filiis uni genitrici assignatis, pro altera unicus praesto aderat filius; hinc, ut aequalitas quaedam servaretur, excogitata est filia quaedam atque eidem matri concessa. Lusus sunt viro serio indigni. Sapientius D//m. pronuntiat haud esse dubitandum, quin Noema haec principem aliquem locum in historia Cainitarum obtinuerit, putatque eam se ad Tubalcain simili fere ratione habuisse, atque ad Vulcanum Venus. At prudente: Len. Origines I. 205 s. monet temperandum esse ab eiusmodi deorum comparationibus. Duo praesto sunt, quibus coniectura definiamus, quaenam in Cainitarum actis Noemae partes fuerint, mulieris nomen et locum, quo illud in narratione prostat. Est sc. sacer auctor in narrandis fatis gentis communi diluvii exitio perimendae. Cuius causam narraturus est 6,9 Sethitarum cum venustis Cainitarum filiabus connubia. Sethitarum seriem per decem generationes ad diluvium usque producit, Cainitarum ad septimam tantum generationem. Cur ita? Non ob aliam sane rationem, quam quod tum ea connubia aut omnino celebrari aut certe communius celebrari coeperint. Iam hoc praecise loco in s. textu prostat Noemae nomen, quod Venustam sonat. Consonant quandoque nomina propria ris, quorum propria sunt, hominibus, maxime mulieribus, quae et frequenter formosae sint (cf. 6,2) et frequenter etiam nomina a corporis forma nanciscantur. Fuerit igitur ista Noema venusta, filia Lamechi armipotentis, fuerit e pulcherrimis earum, quae 6,2 recensentur, filiarum hominum. Quid, quaeso, hoc nomen hoc loco insertum vult? Fuit sc. Noema prima de stirpe principum domus Cain, quae alicui Sethitarum nupsit, non homini plebeio sane sed eidem principi, fortasse Iaredo, qui sextus est in serie Sethitarum. Dices : curnam igitur auctor non explicite statuit, Noemam nupsisse Iaredo? Respondeo, quod narrator fuerit e posteris ipsius Iaredi (Noe) neque censuerit atavi sibi infamiam esse propalandam, maxime cum is diluvio graves iam sceleris poenas tulisset. Ad nostram expositionem proxime accedit Ephr., tacito tamen Noemae nomine. — Ceterum incisum , quod agit de Noema, parenthesis instar est et v. 23intime nectitur iis, quae de Tubalcain malleatore dicebantur, continet quippe Lamech? tripudium ob arma ferrea a filio praebita.
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v. 93 « Dixitque Lamech uxoribus suis Adae et Sellae : Audite vocem meam uxores Lamech , auscultate sermonem meum : Quonam occid? vtrum £n vulnus meum et adolescentulum n livorem meum ».
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v. 94 « Septuplum ultio dabitur de Cain : de Lamech vero septuagies septies ». Hoc carmen esse perantiquum concedunt recentiores omnes : cf. Ew. I. 382, Len. qui illud tribuit « aevo praemosaico » ; Reuss p. 255, qui illud et reliquum cap. IV vocat « disiecta membra poetae AE et haud definiendae antiquitatis »; Len. l. c. I. 187, qui ait : « dernier vestige de l'existence de poésies populaires remontant à une extréme antiquité, qui devaient exister chez les Téra'hites antérieurement méme à leur migration vers la Palestine. Ewald a eu pleinement raison de le qualifier comme le plus ancien morceau que renferme la Bible, et je le dirais méme volontiers le plus ancien débris littéraire que nous ait légué aucun peuple sémitique ». | Carmen tribus constat distychis metricis. Quorum primum ad audiendum invitat. Alterum, si verbum pro perfecto historico accipias, (Vulg. LXX), factum aliquod statuil interfecti cuiusdam a Lamecho viri seu adolescentis. Rabbinorum de hoc facto commenta recensent Her. (Ep. 36, alias 125 ad Damas. ; M. 22.452 sqq. ; et vide Rahmer) et Proc., neque vacat eadem repetere. Necesse etiam non est, cum Bas. (Ep. 260,5; M. 32.961 sqq.) et Proc. defendere adolescentem illum et virum duos esse homines a Lamech interemptos : sufficit cum Theodoret. statuere unum virum adolescentem. Solos memini CArys., Theodoret. ct Bas. Lamechum laudantes ob sinceram peccati confessionem ; cuius sententiae fortasse etiam erat Jos., qui eum virum scribit «à 0::4 cz- 90s ixwzápevog. Reliqui merito illum impietatis arguunt. *yx25, *n»2n? non est vertendum « vulnere a me inflicto » (Bonfr.), id enim non patitur constructio hebr.; oratio esset pleonastica, cum vulneribus occidi homines per se pateat, et absurda, cum vibicibus homines exanimari haud consueverint; sed cum Vulg. LXX vertendum zn vulnus, in vibicem meum 1i. e. mihi inflictum. «.Quo vulnere virum confodi, eodem.me cruentavi ; et qua plaga decoloravi adolescentulum, illa ipsa atrum meo animo livorem induxi, notam sc. homicidii ac reatum » (Lap.). Ergo alium occidendo me ipsum laesi, illum percutiendo me ipsum vulneravi et qnidem ita, ut poenam longe maiorem merear ea, quam Deus v. 15 ei comminatus fuerat, qui Cain occidisset, Tamen haec expositio difficultatem habet. Non cernitur, cur illius adolescentis vel, si id praeferas, viri et adolescentis nex poenam mereatur tanto maiorem ea, quam meruisset Caini nex a Deo speciatim prohibita. Praetera ingens illud damnum ab occisore sibi ipsi illatum inepte exprimeretur vocibus vv/nus et magis etiam v?bex, quod est leve omnino "vulneris genus; scribendum potius erat vulneravi virum in necem meam : Accedit tandem, abrupte prorsus commemorari factum illud de cetero ignotum interfecti à Lamecho cuiusdam ignoti adolescentis. Unde merito exclamat Per. : « Obscurus et perplexus est hic locus »; similiterque alii loquuntur. Hinc Ma/v. aliique vertunt pro vulnere, pro vibice meo. Et poteris sic exponere : Vir ille mihi inflixit vulnus, ego vicissim non merum vulnus, sed mortem illi inflixi. Est hoc sane crudelitatis poenamque meretur gravem : at cur tanto graviorem poena infligenda occisori Cain? Quam expositionem ita emendat Caím. : Occidi utique virum, sed iuste occidi, quod ille mihi prior vulnus inflexerit; ergo non mihi est timendum, ne quis mihi ob iustam illam necem mortem inferat; quodsi enim interfectorem Cain, qui iniuste fratrem trucidasset, manebat poena septupla, quam ingens poena manebit interfectorem mei, qui iusta defensione usus sim? At quorsum haec commemorantur? Rationem assignare poteris haud aliam, nisi voluisse auctorem reciiato Lamechi carmine nos docere, non musicam solum, sed etiam poesin ante diluvium natam esse. Quod est scitu sane dignissimum : at cur istud carmen non illico post v. 19 inserebatur, sed post natcrum Lamech elenchum? Veram expositionem post Aben Ezra tradidere Vat., Mar. Malv., sc. occid? non esse perfectum historicum, sed scribi pro facto futuro certissime eventuro. Accipit Lamech de manu Tubalcain filii primum gladium, sentit se iam omni adversario fortiorem regulamque proclamat, qua in posterum iniurias sibi illatas sit repensurus : Pro quovis vulnere mihi illato interficiam virum, pro vibice i. e. leviori vulnere interficiam puerum; statuerat Deus, ut pro iniuria Caino illata septupla rependeretur ultio, at ego melius mihi providebo, ultionem repetam septuagies septies pro quavis iniuria mihi inflicta. « Ce chant respire un tel accent de férocité primitive, qu'on le placerait volontiers dans la bouche d'un sauvage de l'áge de pierre dansant auprés du cadavre de sa victime en brandissant son casse-téte de silex ou la máchoire d'ours des cavernes, dont il a su se faire une arme terrible » (Len. |. c.). Blasphemiam habet ille cantus, cum Lamech praetendat efficacius a se ipso defendi se, quam a Deo sit defensus Cain. Patet cur cantus nonnisi post v. 22 inseratur, quo Tubalcain narratur primus arma ferrea cudisse; verba v. 2*4 eodem adamussim sensu scribuntur, quem eadem verba v. 15 induebant; patet ratio, cur cum vero copuletur puer, cum vulnere vtbez, sc. statuitur quod dicimus « un tarif » caedium perpetrandarum. Apte hoc canticum Cainitarum acta claudit, qui e patre fratricida orti iam sola violentiae et insolentiae lege vivunt; neque censendi sunt, qui tam parvi fecerint aliorum vitam, ab eorum bonis aut uxoribus cohibuisse manus, quin potius omnia replevisse rapinis omnemque excussisse pudorem. Cur Cainitarum genealogia ultra septimam generationem non producatur, non immediate patescit; uti neque, cur ad eius genealogiae calcem versus 25 sq. de Seth et Enos adscribantur, de quibus viris rursum agit Gen. 5,83 sqq. Res fit clara, ubi primum supposueris, antiquitus 4,17-26 et 6,1-8 unam continuam fuisse narrationem. Ita sc. totus narrationis apex cernitur in Sethitarum cum Cainitis 6,1 sq. coniugiis, quae universalis morum corruptionis et tandem diluvii exstitere causa. Ad quem apicem duplici veluti tramite assurgit praecedens narratio : primum Cainitarum genealogia producitur ad Noemam usque, quae tanta fuerit eorum coniugiorum pars; dein 5,25 sq. ratio redditur appellationis filiorum Dei, qua 6,2.4 Sethitae designantur. Post quae immediate narrabantur filiorum Dei cum filiabus hominum coniugia. Huic narrationi post diluvium Noe inseruit cap. 5, Sethitarum genealogiam , quae eo usque paulatim in hominum ore creverat quamque ipse absolvit eiusque clausulam 9,28 sq. post absolutam universam diluvii narrationem adiecit.
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v. 25 « Cognovit quoque adhuc Adam uxorem suam et peperit filium vocavitque nomen eius Seth dicens : Posuit mihi Deus semen aliud pro Abel , quem occidit Cain ». Ultimum incisum censet Budde p. 155 esse verba non Hevae sed auctoris : merito retorquet Dz/Im. abundare verba, si supponantur esse auctoris, occisum quippe esse Abel a Cain supra didicimus; non abundare, si supponantur esse matris tristem Abeli sortem usque habentis in mente. In Generationibus coeli et terrae voci Q'IN constanter praefigitur articulus, ea accipitur proxime ut nomen genericum, quod utique a Deo datum fuerat protaparenti pro nomine proprio. Inde a 4,25 articulus omittitur, vox omnino ut nomen proprium adhibetur. Plura in hunc versum Sausstur Budde l. c., v. g. non posse esse genuinum y" T*1Y, quod y'1* aut de primo solum Gol cübltu ; aut de resumpto post longam sterilitatem (1 Reg. 1,19) adhibeatur, non de repetito coniugum concubitu. Usus loquendi Hebraeorum non est arbitrarie effingendus, sed ex scriptura colligendus; iam hic textus invicte probat eum loquendi usum, quem negat Budde. Ci. Gen. 38,26 TD" Nox Any" Ty. Adverte tandem illud *'*y desiderari apud LXX Syr. : LXX post *YUÜN inserente Y (cf. v. 1), et Syro ante eandem vocem i1; tandem *4*y vol 3Yy facillime potuit in textum irrepere ob praecedens y'1*1. Ergo dimittenda futilis obiectio, quae dubia nititur lectione. — Rursum impugnat Budde expressionem "T yw; praetendit y** TY'W esse ponere semen intra eandem naturam, ergo addito 3T exprimi semen alterius naturae seu speciei. Attamen ex 1 Reg. 1,11 illico cogitur concedere, posse addita voce eiusmodi expressionem ita modificari, ut differentiam sexus exprimat (Q'UJN Y, « sexum virilem »); cur non igitur addito 4 TtN possit exprimere differentiam personarum in codem sexu eademque natura? — Tandem causatur Budde, DW) vi etymi non significare positus loco alterius, sed positio, germen. Utique unica voce TV non poterat explicite id omne exprimi, quod tota Hevae sententia v. 25 habet ; etiam " v. 1 bene exprimit possedi, non vero hominem neque per Deum. Ideo praecise illis sententiis nomina explicantur, quia ex solis nudis nominibus haud possemus ea omnia certo intelligere, quae nomina imponentes in mente habobant.
4:26
v. 926 « Sed et Seth natus est filius, quem vocavit Enos » i. c. homo; ; « ?sle coepit invocare nomen Domni ». 5mn primitus fuisse scriptum non plene bna, videtur e Sam. colligi. Porro legebant Hebr. Sam. Chald. Syr. Aq. 5nn *w quod pual ouis verterunt tum coeptum est, Chald. vero erronee tum profanatum esi; contra Vulg. LXX b5nn m, ipse coepit; nisi mavis discrimen revocare "ad textum eundem non corruptum, sed liberius explicatum, ut ipsi illud Enos tamquam personae principaliori attribuerint, quod textus enuntiat impersonaliter. Construitur bn» cum 5 ctiam 6, 4. At difficultatem maximam habot expressio nmm ava wp. Tres praeci- Haec Tholedoth duo complectitur documenta : genealogtam Sethitarum cap. 5, morumque corruptionem diluvium praecedentem 6,1-8. In genealogia Sethitarum distinguere oportet ipsam nudam genealogiam , e additamenta quaedam historica eidem adiecta. Genealogia certis quibusdam formulis absolvitur, constat fere nomznibus et annis. E nominibus secundum lectiones probabiliores definitis (p. 185 sq.) apparet, patriarcharum Sethitarum posteriorum quatuor omnino nominibus appellatos esse, quae iam ante principum quorumdam Cainitarum fuissent propria : unde suspicari pronum est posteriorum horum Sethitarum cum Cainitis commercium, imo etiam connubia. Anni secundum textum Sam. emendati (p. 201) produnt trium patriarcharum Sethitarum ipso diluvii anno mortes : unde merito conliciat quis, in poenam scelerum eosdem diluvio esse oppressos. Additamenta historica in priore genealogiae parte deprehenduntur nulla, in posteriore duo. Quae cum eos viros respiciant, Henoch et Noe, qui soli (5,22. 24; 6,9) traduntur « ambulasse cum Deo », legitima est coniectura, reliquos patriarchas Sethitas posteriores, aut omnes aut aliquos, cum Deo non ambulasse. Quare tota haec genealogia, licet primitus documentum fuerit tam 8 praecedente cap. ^, quam a sequente cap. 6 narratione distinctum ac separatum, tamen aptissime eo, quo nunc in Genesi legitur, loco inserta est, cum ef a praecedente narratione ad Lamech usque et Noeman producta lumen accipiat, et sequenti 6,1-8 narrationi lumen ipsa affundat. siones : Hebr., cui accedunt Vulg. Chald. Syr.; Sam.; LXX. Dum Hebr. et Sam.in numeris septem patriarcharum e decem penitus consentiunt, LXX in solo Noe cum illis concordat, in Iared insuper cum Hebr., in reliquis omnibus dissonat. Sunt et alia, quae hanc recensionem suadent minus esse fidam quam alias duas. Verum antequam cum his illam comparemus, eius genuinum textum restituamus oportet; aliter quippe /os., qui numeros LXX recitat, ea in versione quaedam legebat. LXX recepta. LXX Iosephi. Vixit, Vixit, Genuit anno |Post«usm Mortuus ||Genuit anno | P?39"^* | Mortuus gonutts St anno shit st annos es i &nnos cst anno mundi vitae vitae mundi |[mundi vitae vitae mundi Concordant numeri pro Henoch et Noe, sed interiecti discordant Mathusala et Lamech, in quibus Ios. cum Hebr. concordat. Est autem in textu LXX recepto ille evidens error, Mathusalam producere vitam usque ad 2256, ergo quatuordecim annos post diluvium 2242, dum apud Ios., uti in Hebr. Sam., vitam ad annum diluvii usque nec ultra producit. Dices, non inde sequi genuinos LXX numeros iam legi apud los.; deprehendisse eum scriptorem evidens mendum, quod inesset textui suo LXX respectu Mathusalae, atque ad illud mendum eliminandum transsumpsisse pro Mathusala et Lamech numeros ex Hebr. Attamen non sat probabiliter istud aflirmabis. Quid enim? Habemus textum LXX certe mendosum; quem certissime praecessit textus aliquis genuinus mendique expers, et is quidem aut graecus aut certe hebraeus. Praeterea habes Josephi, qui solet numeros a LXX repetere, numeros eosque mendi expertes. Num ergo iure suppones, ex textu genuino primum fluxisse mendum LXX , inde hoc mendum a Ios. esse correctum? an non potius astrues, in Josephi numeris nos cernere eum ipsum genuinum textum, quem nostra LXX recepta depravatum exhibet? Igitur in eum, quem modo subiiciemus, numerorum apud Sam. Hebr. LXX conspectum pro Mathusala et Lamech referimus numeros non LXX receptae sed Josephi. — De Ios. tractantes unum addere placet. Cap. 3 n. 3 ait ad diluvium usque effluxisse annos 2656, i. e. praecise millennium plus quam scribit Hebr.; sed Cap. 3 n. 4 ex singulorum numerorum comparatione videbis, computasse Ios. solos 2256 annos ad diluvium. Prior numerus crror est, quales apud Ios. non ita sunt rari. Post emendatos ex los. numeros LXX subiicimus iam conspectum snnilox 3mm uo3 urenb3sod *IXIA ü "desoI XX'I SOuuv *3ruuog urenb3sod "JPRTA. ü 'snu'ujrreures omnium numerorum, quales a Sam. Hebr. et emendata LXX exhibentur. Quorum singuli trinis columnis A, B, C tradunt nurheros primum annorum aetatis, quos habebat patriarcha dum filium generaret, secundo annorum, quos posí natum filium vixit, tertio annorum totius vitae seu summam C ex additis A et B conflatam. Quae si attente lustraveris, illico perspicies miram plane columnarum C concordiam, cum LXX eosdem cum Hebr. habeat numeros omnes, cum Sam. fere omnes. Ubi error irrepsisset in A vel B, quid erat obvium magis, quam ut is specie tenus corrigeretur mutata summa C ita, ut additis A et B aequaretur? Verum id factum cernimus nusquam. Religiose servabantur numeri C mutatis A vel B, quo celaretur hiatus. Videntur illae summae altius etiam quam reliqui numeri Hebraeorum mentibus inhaesissee et ab 3is quodammodo habitae esse sacrae. Errant profecto, qui propterea, quod Gen. 5 in numeris dissentiunt versiones, pronuntiant de duratione aevi diluvio prioris nihil constare omnino, nulla eius aevi in scriptura describi tempora : manet illud certe inconcussum, longissimam plurium saeculorum vitam illos patriarchas traxisse. Aliter res habet, si ad columnas A et B adverteris animum. Ibi constans et uniforme deprehendes hic inter LXX, illic inter Sam. Hebr. discrimen. Sc. summis C perseverantibus utrimque iisdem, numeri A apud LXX semper centenis maiores sunt iis, quos e regione profert Sam., fere semper iis, quos habet Hebr.; numeri autem B centenis sunt minores, quo summae C aequalitas praeservetur. Patriarchae secundum LXX provectiore aetate generant, pauciores autem annos post filios genitos superstites sunt. Quo illud efficitur, ut epocha diluvio anterior apud LXX 600 annis Hebraei, 949 annis Samaritani computum excedat : diluvium obtigit anno à mundo condito secundum LXX 2256, secundum Hebr. 1656, secundum Sam. 1307. Numerorum mutationes tam uniformes meris scribarum erroribus adscribi nequaquam possunt; deprehenditur in illis, quod iam observabat Aug. (De Civ. Dei XV. 13; M. ^1. 452 sqq.), consilium et ars volentium textum sive depravare, sive depravatum restituere. Verum uter textus corruptus sit, uter genuinus, quaeritur. Àn dicemus, LXX eam epocham produxisse, an Sam. Hebr. illam contraxisse? Ex meris numeris definiri res neutiquam potest. Aut quomodo demonstrabis, debuisse Adam non 230 sed 130 annos esse natus, quando genuit Sethum? At res definiri potest ex eo, quem modo ostendebamus, effectu. Age, utrum tibi probabilius videtur, aut LXX epocham studiose produxisse , aut Sam. Hebr. eandem contraxisse? Nulla erat ratio, cur Sam. Hebr. epocham contraherent; non abhorrebant Hebraei numeros illos maiores, secus non fam religiose illos in columna C retinuissent. At ratio esse poterat epochae & LXX producendae : omnes circum nationes fabulosa tum antiquitate gloriabantur, Aegyptii, Babylonii, Graeci; immensas periodos regnis humanis praefigebant. Quibus comparat ieiuniores videbantur Hebraeorum annales, qui saecula non plura quam tredecim vel sexdecim ante diluvium computarent. Dolendum sane, sed haud ita mirandum, eum qui Genesin graecae fidei reddiderit, aut scribarum aliquem post illum textui imprudentes adhibuisse manus easque effecisse mutationes, quae specie tenus vix attingerent narrationem, simul tamen sexcentos vel plures annos adderent epochae. At, eur non plures addiderit inquires. Volebat emendator ille annorum vitae summas servare, fortasse quod notiores essent, quam ut impune perverti possent; satisque sibi videbatur fecisse, si generationis annos centenis additis augeret, veritus haud immerito, si plures addidisset, rem visum iri nimis incredibilem. | Reiectis iam LXX placitis quoad numeros À et B, inquirendum superest, sintne numeri Hebr. Vulg. Chald. Syr, et LXX correctae praeferendi iis, quos Sam. habet, annon. Quae disputatio arctioribus circumscribitur limitibus. lidem quippe sunt numeri apud Hebr. et Sam. quoad quinque primos patriarchas, quoad Henoch et Noe; discordant quoad Iared, Mathusala, Lamech. Ex meris numeris nequit res - definiri : aut quomodo ex solis numeris demonstrabis, fuisse Iared non 162 sed 62 annos natum , quando genuit Henoch, et nato filio non 800 sed 785 annos superstitem fuisse? At suum habet diversitas numerorum effectum eumque sedulo pensandum. Dum enim secundum Hebr. unus Mathusala ipso diluvii anno 1626 vel 2256, ergo sane per diluvium vita cedit, secundum Sam. patriarchis omnino tribus, Iared, Mathusala, Lamech, idem annus 1307 fatalis est. Idne fortuito factum esse dices? Ergo illuc tandem redit tota quaestio : supponendusne est Sam. eo fine mutasse numeros, ut praeter Mathusalam etiam Iaredum et Lamechum diluvii aquis obrueret, an potius Hebraeus ideo eosdem alterasse, ut lIaredum et Lamechum ignominiosae nimis morti subduceret? Si genuinos supponas Hebraei numeros, nullam poteris assignare rationem , cur ita Sam. in duos patriarchas saevierit, quorum uterque sanctum filium genuit, quinimo alter 5,29 prophetiam ediderit. Verum si Sam. numeros genuinos supponat, evidens profecto est ratio mutati ab Hebraeo textus (cf. Budde p. 93 sqq.). Licet enim scriptura nequaquam affirmet omnes decem patriarchas fuisse pios, at mature apud Hebraeos invaluit eius rei opinio : credebantur, uti omnes Cainitae mali, ita Sethitae omnes fuisse boni. Qui ita opinabantur, admirabantur sane illos s. textus numeros, qui tres insignis pietatis viros ipso diluvii anno exstinctos exhibebant; animis minus aequis illos numeros contemplabantur, proni erant ad illos vel levi oblato praetextu tamquam spurios repudiandos. Iam finge, in uno paucisve apographis unum alterumve numerum casu fuisse depravatum : quid obvium magis, quam ut hi numeri depravati ut genuini a pluribus reciperentur atque ex illis posteriorum quinque patriarcharum anni recuderentur ita, ut duo saltem ex illis tribus aliquamdiu ante diluvium supremum diem placide obire permitterentur? Censemus igitur genuinos numeros apud Sam. reperiri descriptos. '"Vestigium mihi videor apud /os. deprehendere, quam admirationem eius aequalibus Iudaeis illud fecerit, s. textum vel solum Mathusalam exhibereanno diluvii interiisse. Monet illc, patriarcharum magna cum diligentia nou natales solum, sed etiam obitus in libro sacro describi. Postea tamen de singulis disserens obitus annos non recenset, sed inepto euphemismo usus et ethnicorum íabulas imitatus, quae primorum hominum non vitas celebrant sed regna, singulos patriarchas post certum annorum numerum non mortuos esse, sed filiis ait principatum detulisse. Tandem concludit : 25eratézo 58 unbel; vàg v6Àeutàg tv dvbpi)v: totg yàp adti)v mzatol xat tof P«slvev &moyóvotg cupmapsbívstvov rov (ov. GÀXA& ck evéaetg abtÓov uóvov 6pXto. Iam vcro cur nos Ios. dehortatur, ne in patriarcharum mortes inquiramus, cum ipse modo concesserit easdem in scriptura accurate reperiri adnotatas? Ratio est, quia ex temporibus mortium, qualia tum in s. textu legerentur, nascebantur disquisitiones salebrosae piisque Iudaeis invisae de uno alterove patriarcha ipsis diluvii aquis absorpto. Ex quo simul Iosephi effato illud colligo, legisse tum Iudaeos numeros, non quos nunc pro Iared, Mathusala, Lamech habet LXX, sed quos habet Hebr., vel etiam Sam. | Porro cum iis, quae modo de numeris disputavimus, lubet conferre, quae supra de nominibus docebamus. Lamech Cainita fere aequalis fuit Malaleel Sethitae, illius filia Noema lIaredi, post Iaredum patriarchae Sethitae tres nomina habent eadem, quae ante patriarchis quibusdam Cainitis indita fuerant. Sethitae tres, lared, Mathusala, Lamech, si obitus annum 1307 attendas, diluvio interiere. Inter quos medius vitam agebat Henoch ille sanctus, quo vivente omnia teste Iud. 1^ sq. occupaverat impietas. Compone jam disjecta narrationis membra. Quarta probabilius generatione videntur Cainitae a Sethits in gratiam esse recepti. Cainan filio nomen Cainitae Malaleel imposuit. Malaleel in hoc patris quidem exemplum imitatus non est, cum gratuito praetendant aliqui idem quod lIrad nomen esse lared. Tamen arctioribus sub Iared vinculis duae familiae sunt inter se copulatae, quando is patriarcha Noemam , Lamechi Cainitae filiam, uxorem duxit. Talia non popularium solum sed ipsorum principum infanda connubia exstitisse suadent expressiones 6,3. 5.11. 12 : universalis quippe corruptio supponit vel ipsos principes communi labe fuisse infectos. Post lared tribus patriarchis indita totidem Cainitarum nomina ; et illorum quidem duo una cum Iaredo diluvio periere. Cerne jam impia connubia totam Sethitarum gentem 6,2 foedantia, Cainitas in antiquam urbém Henoch reduces divinamque irritantes maledictionem ; Iubalitarum audi concentus, puellarum choros; Iabelitarum pastorum in . foris cum Sethitis agricolis contuere commercia, Cainitarum et Sethitarum in communes hostes, et ipsos ex Adamo prognatos, foederata arma. Erant tum inter vivos Adam communis adversarum factionum parens, Seth sanguinis Abel haeres, et Enos, filiorum Dei degenerorum antecessor. Natus est ea tempestate Henoch, a patre nomen nactus profanum, quod tamen ipse postea vita pie acta consecravit. 43 annis Adami, 155 Sethi, 180 Enos is fuit aequalis, 180 annis Noe iuventuti adstitit magister et monitor, ceteris invisus praeco divina praenuntiavit iudicia : « Ecce venit Dominus in sanctis millibus suis, facere iudicium contra omnes et arguere omnes impios de omnibus operibus impietatis eorum , quibus impie egerunt, et de omnibus duris, quae locuti sunt contra Deum peccatores impii » (Iud. 1^4 sq.). Contuere antiquum hunc Eliam, prophetam urbi sibi cognomini exosum ; leremiam principum odia mulierumque invidias in se unum concitantem , ambulantem cum Deo solum in medio generationis perversae. « Fide Henoch translatus est, ne videret mortem, et non inveniebatur, quia transtulit illum Deus; ante translationem enim testimonium habuit placuisse Deo » (Hebr. 11,5). Nullus tum (a. 887) patriarcharum e vivis cesserat, omnes conspexere translatum. Dein Adam, Seth et Enos e vivis cessere; etiam Cainan et Malaleel, Henochi forte aut Noe monitis ad meliorem frugem revocati; septemdecim ante diluvium annis unus supererat Noe, tenue germen iustitiae, dum omnia circum impietas obtineret. — Vides, quomodo inter se collata reviviscant ossa ista et in iuncturas redeant, numeri inquam et nuda nomina. Placuit recentioribus quibusdam, ab eo scriptore profectum esse 4,16-24, qui suo tempore exstantes noverit Iabelitas et Iubalitas, atque hinc intulere eas tribus vel post diluvium superstites fuisse : absurdam veri dogmatis illationem! Sine dubio ea narratio, uti Cap. 5, &b eo primum , qui res praesens contuitus esset, profecta est. Sethiia hane narrationem primus concinnavit, parentum probra simul pie reticens et facunde propalans, numeris loquens et nominibus; Sethita, inquam, qui praesens conspexisset Iabelitas et Iubalitas, et Noemae venustatem. et Lamechi insolentiam, et suae gentis probrosum interitum. Non alius tam eloquenter siluit propheta. Patriarcharum longaevitatem in dubium vocare nefas, cum omnes textus in tradendis vitarum summis conspirent. Affirmat profecto scriptura insignem plane patriarcharum diluvio priorum longaevitatem. Neque ea longaevitas concipienda est ut praemium pietatis, cum etiam impii illi tres, qui diluvio interiere, aut certe Mathusala fuerint longaevi. Adverte porro, non nudum longaevitatis factum affirmare scripab Adam ad Moysen. S. patriarcharum ab Adam ad Moysen vita conünetur annis 1000 ad. 700, à Noe ad Sarug annis 600 ad 200, a Sarug ad Moysen annis 180 ad 110. Ubi illud scripturae assertis fidem facit, secundam epocham non ad Abraham, sed tantummodo ad Sarug produci, quod sane non fecisset, quicunque e praeconcepíto aliquo systemate numeros artificiose recudisset. Porro illa de vita humana ab Adam ad Moysen decrescente thesis nequaquam infirmatur quibusvis computis statisticis, nostri aevi homines ad annos 200 aut 700 nunquam pertingere. Quibus computis illud utique efficitur genus humanum ea nunc fere esse longaevitate, quam inde a Moyse eidem tribuit scriptura : « Dies annorum nostrorum in ipsis septuaginta anni ; sj autem in potentatibus, octoginta anni; et amplius eorum labor et dolor » Ps. 89 (90), 10; cf. Eccli. 18,8 : « Numerus dierum hominum ut multum centum anni ». Cum igitur scriptura illam patriarcharum longaevitatem affirmet, contra quam statistica et etiam physiologia haud possunt efficere quidquam, interpreti prudenti hoc unum superest praestandum, facti tam solido stabiliti testimonio explanationem tentare. | Recordare jam, primos homines in eam longaevitatem delapsos imprimis fructus arboris vitae comparandae. Longaevitatis igitur illius se duae offerunt explicationes, quarum una petitur ex hominum qualis tunc erat natura, altera ex remedio aliquo a Deo praeter naturam liberaliter illis concesso. Quod remedium aliud fingi non potest nisi ligni vitae fructus eritque supponendus Adam, antequam paradiso expelleretur, eum frdctum gustasse eumque ex eo vitae vigorem hausisse, qui vel in posteris per plura saecula perseveraverit. At non cogimur ad eiusmodi remedium recurrere; sufficiet adstruere, ad immortalitatem in paradiso efficiendam praeter arboris fructum concessum fuisse protoparentibus insignem prorsus corporis vigorem, huncque paradiso expulsis perseverasse atque nonnisi paulatim in sequentibus generationibus defecisse, donec tandem aliquamdiu post diluvium ad eam vigoris mensuram redacti fuerint homines, qui illis competit natura. Estque haec illa « bonitas constitutionis et temperationis humani corporis », quam Per. aliique in hac quaestione appellant. Primaevus ille vigor non sola longaevitate se prodebat, sed corporum etiam proceritate, uti in gigantibus. — Cf. W. I. Thomas : Human. longevity , its facts and its fictions, London 1879 (2. Edition). Indicabimus breviter potissima systemata, quae ad eliminandam patriarcharum longaevitatem excogitata fuere. Meminit Aug. quorumdam , qui annos effinxere a veris annis diversos, v. g. 36 dierum. Simile quid statuere saeculo quinto Aniíanus et Panodorus, monachi aegyptii et chronographi; item recentiores aliqui : systema eximiae absurditatis. — Recentiores alii nomína patriarcharum non singulos exprimere viros putavere, sed integras gentes vel periodos : at vis infertur textui. Fuitne Adam periodus aliqua? aut Abel gens, in cuius locum alia gens Seth successerit? num, quae aliis scripturae locis de Henoch et Noe leguntur, periodum sapiunt aut gentem? Ostendimus porro, intime affines invicem esse genealogias Sethitarum e Cainitarum : quid igitur de Cainitis? Num Lamech est gens aliqua, qui duas duxit uxores? num Noema, soror Iabel, Iubal et Tubalcain? — Alii tandcm numeros censuere esse cyclicos, personas ipsas mythicas. Princeps argumentum sunt anni 365 Henoch numero aequantes, ut isti auctores volunt, dies unius anni : argumentum, etsi admittatur, perquam infirmum. Sed animadvertit Len. Origines I. 248, Hebraeorum annum numerasse dies 354, Chaldaeorum 360, solum Aegyptiorum annum 365 : ast, traditioni sacrae Chaldaeorum traditionibus tam affini adhibitum esse annum Aegyptiacum, quis credat? Varios auctores cyclos imaginantur, prout numeris aut Hebr. aut Sam. aut LXX adhaerent : hi ad Sothicas Aegyptiorum periodos coníugiunt, illi ad Babyloniorum Sossos. Plura de his variorumque auctorum nomina vide apud O. Zoeckler : Die Lehre vom Urstand des Menschen, Gütersloh 1879, p. 244 sqq. et Len. I. 214 sqq. Cap. V.
4:1
Abel (Hebrew Hēbel; Septuagint Greek Ἀβέλ)
… Cain, having become angry, killed his brother, who was later replaced by Seth (Gen. 4:1-16). Sacred Scripture affirms that A. "being dead yet speaketh" (Heb., loc. cit.), his death being a type of the sacrifice of Christ, who calls him "just," and places him at the head …
CAIN (Heb. Qajin = Arab. qajn "smith", a name connected in Gen. 4:1, by popular etymology, with qānāh "to possess"). - First son of Adam and Eve, brother of Abel (v.); the rabbinic opinion that considers them twins is unfounded. …
4:2
Abel (Hebrew Hēbel; Septuagint Greek Ἀβέλ)
… A.'s gift is always a lamb or a kid; Cain's, which is a bunch of grapes in the oldest example, soon becomes a sheaf of ears of grain (cf. Gen. 4:2). Exceptionally the deity is represented by Jesus, or by two or three persons. …
4:3
Enos (Hebrew Enōš = « humanity », « man »)
The biblical expression is not to be interpreted in the sense that the first manifestation of religious feeling is to be attributed to E., for that appears connatural already in the first human family, even after the fall (cf. Gen. 4:3 ff.). …
"peace offering" (Lev. 3, 7-11) and "for sin" (Lev. 4, 32 [hēbhes: Vulg. de pecoribus]. 35). On all feasts and for almost every kind of sacrifice (v.) the Mosaic Law prescribed the immolation of lambs (cf. Gen. 4, 3-4; Num. 6, 12; I Sam. 7, 9; I Reg. 8, 63, where the generic term sōn is used: 120,000; etc.). …
III. THE SACRIFICE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. - The first examples of sacrifice in the Old Testament (Gen. 4:3 ff.; 8:20) clearly show that it is as ancient as the human race. …
4:4
Abel (Hebrew Hēbel; Septuagint Greek Ἀβέλ)
… At the close of a certain time, perhaps at the end of the year, both offered the firstfruits to God; but the Lord rejected Cain's offering and expressed satisfaction with the sacrifice (holocaust or, rather, offering of the fat parts of chosen heads: Gen. 4:4; cf. Num. 18:27; Lev. 3:3) of A., perhaps causing fire to fall from heaven, according to the interpretation of Theodotion (ἐνετύριεν). …
4:6
… God, speaking to his conscience, invited him (a somewhat enigmatic passage of Gen. 4:6 ff.) to resist, by doing good, the evil demon eager to take possession of him: "If you do well, are you not perhaps superior to the Evil One? But if you do evil, does not the Demon sit at the door? …
4:7
BIBL.: A. Schultz, Zu Gen. 4, 7-8, in Theologie und Glaube, 1930, pp. 502-505; W. Stodert, Der Brüderwörder Kain, in Zeitenwächter, 1930, pp. 132-39; G. Closen, Der « Dämon Sünde » (Gen. 4, 7), in Biblica, 16 (1935), …
S., as the "tempter" who brings ruin to man, appears first in the serpent that tempts Eve and ruins man (Gen. 3:1-15), which symbolizes "evil" (Gen. 4:7); he is connected with the dragon (v.), whom God dominates and defeats. …
4:8
… Both the Hebrew ἀδ. and the Greek ἀδελφός, as appears from the many sacred and profane texts, can indicate: a) a brother in the true and proper sense (Gen. 4, 8; Mt. 4, 21; 17, 1, etc.); b) a blood relative of any degree (Gen. 13, 18; 28, 2; I Par. 23, 21); c) a neighbor (Deut. 15, 3; Ios. 22, 2; Iudc. 1, 3; Ier. 7, 15; Rom. 9, 3; Iac. 1, …
… It is the summary norm given as the 5th in the Decalogue ([v.] Ex. 20:13; Deut. 5:17). This norm agrees with the conscience innate in man, and God limited himself to recalling a rule already common, as is attested in the murder of Abel (Gen. 4:8-16). If there was on the part of the Church a considerable effort to purify morals, it was, in our subject matter, rather in the field of applications, not of the principle, which is …
4:10
Abel (Hebrew Hēbel; Septuagint Greek Ἀβέλ)
… suffered for the triumph of good (Mt. 23:31-35; cf. Heb. 12:24). A. is also remembered in the canon of the Mass, in which God is asked to "accept the new sacrifice as that of his just servant Abel." The blood of A. cries out from the ground to Yahweh (Gen. 4:10), from whom it demands vengeance (2 Macc. 8:3; Rev. 6:10).
4:17
CAINITES. - I. Race of Cain (v.), of which Gen. 4:17-24 speaks. …
2. Son of Cain (Gen. 4:17). The latter built a city which he named H., after the name of his son. - See plate XC.
… Lemekh, in pause Lāmekh). -1. Sixth in the brief genealogy of Cain and son of Methushael (Gen. 4:17-24). The estrangement from God is complete in L., who to voluptuousness joins cruelty and indomitable pride. …
genealogies: Gen. 4:17 ff. (line of Cain); ibid. 5:3-31 (line of Seth).
… instead of Abel, killed by Cain" (Gen. 4:25). To him is traced the beginning of religious-spiritual civilization ("Then men began to call upon the name of Yahweh": ibid. 4:26), in contrast to the line of Cain, which inaugurated material civilization (ibid. 4:17-24). At the age of 105 he begot Enosh (ibid. 5:6), in whose line Noah would be found.
4:18
Mathusala (Hebrew Mēthāšēlāh or Mēthūšēlāh)
He is not to be confused, as some modern critics claim, without any foundation, with Methusael, the fourth descendant of the Cainite line, who also had a son by the name of Lamech (ibid. 4:18), clearly distinct from the father of Noah. …
4:19
Its monogamous character also emerges from the note of wonder with which the appearance of polygamy is described (ibid. 4:19). Nevertheless, in the patriarchal period (Jacob) and the monarchic period (David, Solomon) the practice of a man marrying several women (polygyny) is held to be legitimate and approved …
4:20
… Num. 14, 18; etc.), whence 'abbôthêm' "our fathers" (Eccli. 44, 1), frequent in the prayers of the Jews (cf. Berachoth, IX, 1), is equivalent to "Israel." 2) Progenitor of a people (Gen. 10, 21; 17, 5; 19, 37; 36, 9, 43), originator of a craft or art (Gen. 4, 20 ff.). 3) Creator (Iob 38, 28; cf. Jer. 2, 27), hence God (Deut. 32, 6; Is. 63, 16; Eccli. 51, 10). 4) Benefactor (Iob 29, 16), one who takes care of others (Is. 9, 5; 22, 21). 5) Teacher …
Jabel (Heb. Jābhāl; Greek Iōbēl)
… He was the first to begin the life of the nomadic cattle-breeder (Gen. 4:20). It is the primary patriarchal culture of the Altaic, Indo-European and Hamito-Semitic peoples.
4:21
Jubal (Hebrew: Jābhāl; Greek 'Iousah)
JUBAL (Hebrew: Jābhāl; Greek 'Iousah). - Cainite, son of Lamech and of Adah, and "father of all those who handle the lyre and the flute" (Gen. 4:21). That is, the inventor of the kinnōr and the 'āghābh, rudimentary instruments, the first a stringed instrument, the second a kind of flute, such as shepherds make from a reed or other material.
4:22
… The connection is probable between these sentiments and the beginning of metal culture, due to Tubal-cain, son of L. (Gen. 4:22), which assured the Cainites supremacy over the others.
Tubal-Cain (Heb. Túbhal Qájin, Septuagint Θοβέλ καὶ Ἦν)
… He "sharpened (that is, began the art of sharpening) every tool of copper and iron" (Gen. 4:22): a detail within the complex of the formation of material civilization, attributed to the Cainites. …
4:23
… Some rare fragments (Gen. 4:23-24; Num. 21:27-28; I Sam. 1:18-27) testify that poetry on profane subjects was not unknown to the Hebrews.
M. was the first to discover and to evaluate the law of Hebrew parallelism, which he called "epesegesi" (I, pp. 44 f., 67, 168, 224 ff.; notes to Gen. 4, 23 f.; 11, 4; 49, 10 f.; II, pp. 102 f., 268; notes to Num. 23, 7; Is. 63, 1) already in the unpublished opuscule De poesi Hebraeorum of 1740; whereas the book of R. Lowth, to whom this …
4:25
SETH (Heb. Šēth). - Son of Adam, after Cain and Abel, whose name is interpreted by assonance: "God gave me (Jāth "set") another son instead of Abel, killed by Cain" (Gen. 4:25). To him is traced the beginning of religious-spiritual civilization ("Then men began to call upon the name of Yahweh": ibid. 4:26), in contrast to the line of Cain, which inaugurated …
4:26
The "sons of God," that is, the sons of Seth, so called because created by God and bound to him by a special bond of love (Gen. 4:26-5:32; cf. Ex. 4:24; Deut. 14:1 etc.), seduced by the beauty of the "daughters of men," who belonged to the line of Cain, were led astray by sensuality: "they are flesh." In his wrath …
Enos (Hebrew Enōš = « humanity », « man »)
… In Gen. 4:26 - the Yahwistic document according to the critics - the genealogy of E., son of Seth, is outlined with the usual formula (cf. 1 Chron. 1:1). Of great interest for the history of …
… The interpretation given by Wellhausenism as regards Genesis is that J, supposing the name Jahweh known from the beginning of humanity (Gen. 4, 26), uses it throughout the narrative, while E and P before the revelation of Ex. 3, 14 suppose that name unknown and therefore use 'Elōhim.
… Abel, whose name is interpreted by assonance: "God gave me (Jāth "set") another son instead of Abel, killed by Cain" (Gen. 4:25). To him is traced the beginning of religious-spiritual civilization ("Then men began to call upon the name of Yahweh": ibid. 4:26), in contrast to the line of Cain, which inaugurated material civilization (ibid. 4:17-24). At the age of 105 he begot Enosh (ibid. 5:6), in whose line Noah would be found.
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.