Cain, Abel and Seth

Adam and Eve had two sons. The elder was named Cain, a name that means “possession”; the younger was Abel, which means “nothing.” They also had daughters. The two brothers took to different ways of life. Abel, the younger, loved righteousness; believing that God was present in everything he did, he excelled in virtue, and he was a shepherd. Cain, on the other hand, was not only very wicked in other ways but wholly bent on gain, and he was the first to think of plowing the ground. [a]

He killed his brother on the following occasion. They had decided to sacrifice to God. Cain brought the fruits of the earth and of his farming, but Abel brought milk and the firstborn of his flocks. God was more pleased with the second offering, since he was honored with what grew naturally of its own accord, than with what a greedy man had invented and wrung by force from the ground. That is why Cain was furious that God preferred Abel to him; and he killed his brother and hid his body, thinking he would escape detection.

But God knew what had been done. He came to Cain and asked what had become of his brother, since he had not seen him for many days, though at other times he used to see the two of them together. Cain was uncertain and did not know what answer to give God. At first he said that he himself was puzzled by his brother’s disappearance. But when God, determined to find out what had happened, pressed him hard and provoked him, he replied that he was not his brother’s guardian or keeper, nor did he watch what he did. In return, God convicted Cain of being his brother’s murderer, and said, “I am amazed at you, that you do not know what has become of a man you yourself destroyed.” God let him off the punishment for the murder, because Cain had offered sacrifice and by it pleaded with him not to be too harsh in his anger; but he made him accursed and threatened to punish his descendants in the seventh generation. He also drove him out of that land, together with his wife. And when Cain was afraid that as he wandered he would fall among wild animals and perish, God told him not to harbor such a gloomy fear, but to go over the whole earth without dreading any harm from wild animals; and setting a mark on him so that he would be known, he ordered him to leave.

After traveling through many countries, Cain and his wife settled at Nod, a place so called, and made their home there, and there he had children. But he did not take his punishment as a call to reform; instead it increased his wickedness. He aimed only at getting whatever served his own bodily pleasure, even when it meant wronging his neighbors. He enlarged his household’s wealth by plunder and violence, urged his companions to seek pleasures and spoils by robbery, and became a great leader of men into wicked ways. He also put an end to the simplicity in which people had lived before, and was the inventor of measures and weights. Where they had lived innocently and generously while they knew nothing of such skills, he turned the world to cunning and craftiness. He was the first to set boundaries around lands. He built a city, fortified it with walls, and compelled his family to gather in it; and he called the city Enoch, after his eldest son Enoch. [d]

Jared was the son of Enoch; his son was Maruel; his son was Methuselah; and his son was Lamech, who had seventy-seven children by two wives, Zillah and Adah. Of Adah’s children, one was Jabal; he put up tents and loved the life of a shepherd. Jubal, born of the same mother, devoted himself to music and invented the psaltery and the lyre. Tubal, one of his children by the other wife, surpassed all men in strength and was highly skilled and famous in warfare. By that means he obtained what served the pleasures of the body, and he was the first to discover how to make bronze. Lamech was also the father of a daughter named Naamah. And because he was so skilled in matters of divine revelation that he knew he would be punished even more heavily for Cain’s murder of his brother, he made this known to his wives.

Even while Adam was still alive, Cain’s descendants became exceedingly wicked, following and imitating one another, each one dying more wicked than the one before. They were unbearable in war and violent in their robberies; and if anyone was slow to murder, he showed another kind of madness, outrageous in his presumption and grasping for gain.

Now Adam, the first man, who was made out of the earth — for our account must now turn to him — after Abel was killed and Cain had fled because of the murder, longed for descendants and had a strong desire for children. He was then 230 years old; after that he lived another 700 years, and then died. He had many other children, but Seth in particular. It would be tedious to name the rest, so I will try to give an account only of those descended from Seth. [i]

When Seth had been brought up and reached the age at which he could tell what was good, he became a virtuous man; and being of excellent character himself, he left behind children who imitated his virtues. They all proved to be of good disposition. They lived in the same country without quarrels and in a happy state, with no misfortune falling on them, until they died. They also discovered the particular kind of wisdom that deals with the heavenly bodies and their order. Adam had foretold that the world would be destroyed once by the force of fire and once by the violence and quantity of water; so, that their discoveries might not be lost before they were well enough known, they made two pillars, one of brick and the other of stone. They inscribed their discoveries on both, so that if the pillar of brick were destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone would remain to show those discoveries to mankind, and also tell them that there had been another pillar, of brick, set up by them. It remains in the land of Seiris to this day.