3.3 Pearl of Great Price (Mormon Scripture)Ĭain and Abel are traditional English renderings of the Hebrew names Qayin ( קין) and Havel ( הבל).Īllusions to Cain and Abel as an archetype of fratricide persist in numerous references and retellings, through medieval art and Shakespearean works up to present day fiction. Others think that it may refer to the days in which agriculture began to replace the ways of the hunter-gatherer. A few scholars suggest the pericope may have been based on a Sumerian story representing the conflict between nomadic shepherds and settled farmers. Abel, the first murder victim, is sometimes seen as the first martyr while Cain, the first murderer, is sometimes seen as an ancestor of evil. Cain and Abel also appear in a number of other texts, and the story is the subject of various interpretations.
The oldest known copy of the Biblical narration is from the 1st century Dead Sea Scrolls. Cain is portrayed as sinful, committing the first murder by killing his brother, after God has rejected his offerings of produce but accepted the animal sacrifices brought by Abel. In all versions, Cain is a crop farmer and his younger brother Abel is a shepherd. A parallel idea can be found in Jewish tradition, that the serpent (Hebrew nahash נחש) from the Garden of Eden was father to firstborn Cain. In at least one translation this is rendered "from the evil one", while others have "of the evil one." Some interpreters take this to mean that Cain was literally the son of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. In the Greek New Testament, Cain is referred to as εκ του πονηρου. The Qur'an also contains this story, although Cain and Abel are not mentioned by name. In the Hebrew Bible, Cain and Abel (Hebrew: קין ,הבל, Qayin, Hevel) are two sons of Adam and Eve. For other uses, see Abel (disambiguation).ĭetail of the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) at Saint Bavo Cathedral For the mathematician, see Niels Henrik Abel.