Cain

Cain
Cain, by Henri Vidal, 1896, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris
Born	64-70 AM
Died	930 AM (aged 860-866)
Spouse	Aclima
Children	Enoch
Parents	Adam (father) Eve (mother)
Relatives	In Genesis: Abel (sibling) Seth (sibling) Irad (grandson) Mehujael (great-grandson) Methushael (great-great-grandson) Lamech (great-great-great-grandson) Jabal (great-great-great-great-grandson) Tubal-Cain (great-great-great-great-grandson) Naamah (great-great-great-great-granddaughter) According to later traditions: Aclima (sibling) Azura (sibling)

Cain^[a] is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible.^[1] He was a farmer who gave an offering of his crops to God. However, God was not pleased and favored Abel's offering over Cain's. Out of jealousy, Cain killed his brother, for which he was punished by God with the curse and mark of Cain. He had several children, starting with Enoch and including Lamech.

The narrative is notably unclear on God's reason for rejecting Cain's sacrifice. Some traditional interpretations consider Cain to be the originator of evil, violence, or greed. According to Genesis, Cain was the first human born and the first murderer.

Some modern scholars view the Cain and Abel narrative as a symbolic, etiological tale^[2] to explain how agriculture replaced foraging^[3] using name puns (Abel’s name is related to a word for “herder” and Cain’s to a word for “metalsmith”).^[4] Scholars date the story to between the 9th century BCE^[5] and first decades of the 4th century BCE,^[6] and note similar Mesopotamian stories—especially the Sumerian myth of the Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzid.^[7]

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