RAISING CAIN A number of years ago, my sister had an unusual experience. At the time, she was also still a Jehovah’s Witness. While she was going from door to door, selling Watchtowers and Awakes, she encountered a man at one of the doors. Out the blue, the man asked her, “Do you know where Cain got his wife?” Before she could muster a reply, he answered his own question, “He married an ape. That’s where we get the ape man.”
This is a perfect example of how a very small amount of information can be worse than none at all. However, it does bring up a more serious issue. The Bible story of Cain and Abel is fraught with difficulties. Let’s run through a quick refresher of the story, and then examine some of the problems.
THE STORY
At the time of this story, the Bible tells us that Adam and Eve had two children, Cain and Abel. Abel was a shepherd, and Cain was a farmer.
One day, they went to offer sacrifices. Cain brought his best produce, while Abel killed a sheep, and offered the fat pieces. God was pleased with Abel, but not with Cain. So, Cain became jealous, and killed his brother.
God then went looking for Abel, and couldn’t find him. So he asked Cain. After accusing him of murdering Abel, he sentenced him to banishment. He would be cursed and must move to the “
Cain feared for his life. He was afraid that if anyone found him, they would kill him. So, God put a “mark”, or as some translations put it, a “sign”, on Cain, which indicated that if anyone killed him, he would be avenged seven times.
Cain then accepted his banishment. He went to live in Nod, where he married and had a son. He then built a city, which he named Enoch, after his son.
This story is very short. In only twenty three sentences, it raises several thought provoking classical literary themes. In this chapter, I will deal with none of them. Instead, I will focus on the problems encountered by those who are foolish enough to believe that this story literally happened, just as the Bible records it.
ABEL THE SHEPHERD
The first problem that we encounter may be unique to some of the more silly brands of fundamentalism. Having come from one of these, I must deal with it.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, and some others, believe that humans did not eat meat until after the flood. So, for approximately 1,600 years from creation to the flood, humans were vegetarians. They did not begin eating meat until this privilege was granted to humans in Genesis 9:3. In fact, Jehovah’s Witnesses go one step further. They believe that even animals were vegetarians until after the flood. They believe that grass is the natural, god-intended food for lions. Fossils of carnivorous dinosaurs are rather troublesome to them, so they ignore them.
This creates an interesting problem in the Cain and Abel story. As you recall, Abel was a shepherd. Now, don’t forget that there are only four people on the planet. Acquisition of food must have been their top priority.
So, the question arises, if they didn’t eat meat, what was Abel doing with all those sheep? Either he was a huge slacker (imagine 25% of the planetary labour force piddling around with their pets when they should be working), or he had some other purpose for them. Don’t forget that there were no women, other than their mother. I will say no more.
Cain the Farmer
Again, remember that there were only four people on the earth (OK, it’s possible that maybe there were some other, unmentioned children at this time, but certainly not more than a handful, which doesn’t materially change our story).
Now, we know that civilization goes through various phases of development. It begins with hunter/gatherer, then progresses to nomadic, agricultural, and finally, urban. Cain seems to have progressed straight to agricultural, which is more than a little strange. The Hebrew nation at the time of Abraham, 2,500 years later, was still in the nomadic phase. They must have moved backwards.
To top it off, at the end of the story, Cain built a city. So, Civilization appears to have developed at lightening speed.
THE SACRIFICES
For some reason, these two boys got it into their heads that God liked gifts. There is no record of sacrifices prior to this point. The concept of sacrifice appears to be a later development that is transposed back on this ancient setting by a later writer. Where did Cain and Abel get this idea, and how did they know what to offer?
Particularly, how could they possibly have known that God preferred dead animals over vegetables? Actually, this whole preference seems to be backwards. You would think that God would not want his precious, freshly created animals to be slaughtered and hacked up. If anything, the produce of their farm would be humanity’s most valuable possession, and would therefore be the most valued sacrifice.
I think God should rethink this part of the story, and make Abel the bad guy.
THE
This makes no sense to me. With only four people on the planet, why would there be another country?
The New World Translation of the Bible makes things even worse. It translates this name, not as the of , but as the . Not only is this grammatically suspect, but it raises the problem: If there are only four people on the planet, and there has never before been a crime, there would be no fugitives, let alone enough of them to require their own “Land”.
CAIN’S SENTENCE
The Bible is pretty generous with the death penalty. It is prescribed for just about everything from blasphemy to gathering grain on the Sabath. It is especially adamant about murder. Yet, for some reason, with God himself acting as judge, Cain was not sentenced to death, even though he killed 25% of the population of the earth. You would think that God would want to make an example of him. This is an interesting precedent, that advocates of capital punishment might want to consider.
As part of his sentence, Cain must become a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. So, he moves away, gets married, has children, and founds a city. That doesn’t sound like either a fugitive or a wanderer. So, apparently, Cain’s only punishment was the requirement to move to another region.
That’s not much of a punishment. In my life, I have moved several times. By my count, I have at least four free murders coming.
THE SIGN
Cain was concerned that someone would find him and kill him. It is also implied that there would be people around who knew he was a killer, but did not know that God had let him off.
This issue raises numerous concerns. First of all, why would anyone kill him? There was no man-made or god-made law that prescribed the death penalty for murderers. Cain had been judged by God and received his sentence. Everyone on the planet must have known it. Why would Cain think that there would be people who would kill him? Besides, who would be Abel’s avenger? His father and mother would have known the story, and Cain was his only brother. It is almost as if the story writer has forgotten how many people occupy the earth, and feels that Abel would have close relatives or friends who would come seeking revenge.
Likewise, why would Cain need identification? I am getting tired of mentioning that there were only four people around at the time.
Finally, where would he get the idea of revenge? There had never been any crime before, so obviously, there would never have been revenge up to this point. His concern seems to be based on a fairly well developed tradition of law, punishment and vengeance. These traditions were still centuries in the future.
THE CITY OF
This is my favorite part of the story. Consider the list of problems that arise from this simple phrase:
· Cain was a fugitive and a wanderer. How could he found a city?
· The progress of civilization to the point of urbanization was still well into the future.
· What would be his purpose in building a city? There are numerous reasons to build a city, including things like protection, specialization of trades, or being a center for distribution. Considering the population at the time (one family of about three generations), none of these reasons would exist.
· Where would he get the people to inhabit the city? Enoch was the third generation from Adam. If Adam and Eve had ten surviving children, and each of their children paired up and had ten children, the world population would be 62. Even if you made some ridiculous assumptions about reproduction, the number would still not be enough to populate a village, let alone a city.
· Where would they get the surrounding population? In the early days of civilization, before the automation of agriculture, it was impossible for urban centers to achieve populations of greater than 1% or 2% of the region’s total population. It required 50-100 farmers to grow enough food to support themselves and one city dweller. Huge cities, like and , did not develop until many centuries later, and even then, they sat upon world empires. If the city of was very small, say 1,000 in population, the surrounding region must have had a population of between 50,000 and 100,000. This is approximately 1,000 times the population implied by the Bible. So, once again, I must ask, where did they get the people?
At this point, I must address one other housekeeping issue. The Bible says that Adam lived for 930 years. Other early Bible characters lived for similar lengths of time. It could be argued that this would allow for plenty of time for the population to grow.
Well, this argument is a long one, so for this chapter, I will consider it adequate to say that those long life spans are hogwash, and refer you to the chapter entitled “Of Numbers, Poop, and Other Things”
CAIN’S WIFE
Up to this point, we have not even addressed the issue that started this discussion: Where did Cain get his wife?
The story implies, in many respects including this one, that there were other people around and about. Yet, the Bible story does not allow for this. All persons are descended from Adam and Eve. There were no other people. So, the only source for Cain’s wife would be his own sister.
This raises some interesting questions. For example, how does one go about courting one’s sister? I don’t suppose their courtship took the normal course, i.e. Cain meeting her at a party and chatting her up. I expect his pick up line looked something like this: “So, baby, if I were the only man on earth, would you go out out with me?” I bet it worked every time.
Then you have to wonder, did he ask her father for her hand? And, would Adam have declined, perhaps objecting to Cain’s religion (he was a bad sacrificer), or maybe to the fact that he was not just a convict, he was the world’s first and only convict? Apparently, Adam’s daughters must have liked “the bad boys”.
IN CONCLUSION
God’s not a very competent handiman. Notice that there were four people on the earth. Two of them had committed the original sin, supposedly the worst crime in history. One was a murderer. The other was dead. That’s not a very good track record. God must not have manufactured humans very well, since the first four models broke down.
Most of the problems in this story arise from the fact that it takes place in the very early days of the human race. The writer seems to have forgotten that point, and tells the story as if there were large quantities of people, even entire cities and countries in existence.
But, as we have seen, there are many other flaws as well. In summary, if you take this story literally, you find that there is a problem in virtually every phrase of the story. In fact, the list of problems is even longer than the story, itself.
A number of years ago, my sister had an unusual experience. At the time, she was also still a Jehovah’s Witness. While she was going from door to door, selling Watchtowers and Awakes, she encountered a man at one of the doors. Out the blue, the man asked her, “Do you know where Cain got his wife?” Before she could muster a reply, he answered his own question, “He married an ape. That’s where we get the ape man.”
This is a perfect example of how a very small amount of information can be worse than none at all. However, it does bring up a more serious issue. The Bible story of Cain and Abel is fraught with difficulties. Let’s run through a quick refresher of the story, and then examine some of the problems.
THE STORY
At the time of this story, the Bible tells us that Adam and Eve had two children, Cain and Abel. Abel was a shepherd, and Cain was a farmer.
One day, they went to offer sacrifices. Cain brought his best produce, while Abel killed a sheep, and offered the fat pieces. God was pleased with Abel, but not with Cain. So, Cain became jealous, and killed his brother.
God then went looking for Abel, and couldn’t find him. So he asked Cain. After accusing him of murdering Abel, he sentenced him to banishment. He would be cursed and must move to the “
Cain feared for his life. He was afraid that if anyone found him, they would kill him. So, God put a “mark”, or as some translations put it, a “sign”, on Cain, which indicated that if anyone killed him, he would be avenged seven times.
Cain then accepted his banishment. He went to live in Nod, where he married and had a son. He then built a city, which he named Enoch, after his son.
This story is very short. In only twenty three sentences, it raises several thought provoking classical literary themes. In this chapter, I will deal with none of them. Instead, I will focus on the problems encountered by those who are foolish enough to believe that this story literally happened, just as the Bible records it.
ABEL THE SHEPHERD
The first problem that we encounter may be unique to some of the more silly brands of fundamentalism. Having come from one of these, I must deal with it.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, and some others, believe that humans did not eat meat until after the flood. So, for approximately 1,600 years from creation to the flood, humans were vegetarians. They did not begin eating meat until this privilege was granted to humans in Genesis 9:3. In fact, Jehovah’s Witnesses go one step further. They believe that even animals were vegetarians until after the flood. They believe that grass is the natural, god-intended food for lions. Fossils of carnivorous dinosaurs are rather troublesome to them, so they ignore them.
This creates an interesting problem in the Cain and Abel story. As you recall, Abel was a shepherd. Now, don’t forget that there are only four people on the planet. Acquisition of food must have been their top priority.
So, the question arises, if they didn’t eat meat, what was Abel doing with all those sheep? Either he was a huge slacker (imagine 25% of the planetary labour force piddling around with their pets when they should be working), or he had some other purpose for them. Don’t forget that there were no women, other than their mother. I will say no more.
Cain the Farmer
Again, remember that there were only four people on the earth (OK, it’s possible that maybe there were some other, unmentioned children at this time, but certainly not more than a handful, which doesn’t materially change our story).
Now, we know that civilization goes through various phases of development. It begins with hunter/gatherer, then progresses to nomadic, agricultural, and finally, urban. Cain seems to have progressed straight to agricultural, which is more than a little strange. The Hebrew nation at the time of Abraham, 2,500 years later, was still in the nomadic phase. They must have moved backwards.
To top it off, at the end of the story, Cain built a city. So, Civilization appears to have developed at lightening speed.
THE SACRIFICES
For some reason, these two boys got it into their heads that God liked gifts. There is no record of sacrifices prior to this point. The concept of sacrifice appears to be a later development that is transposed back on this ancient setting by a later writer. Where did Cain and Abel get this idea, and how did they know what to offer?
Particularly, how could they possibly have known that God preferred dead animals over vegetables? Actually, this whole preference seems to be backwards. You would think that God would not want his precious, freshly created animals to be slaughtered and hacked up. If anything, the produce of their farm would be humanity’s most valuable possession, and would therefore be the most valued sacrifice.
I think God should rethink this part of the story, and make Abel the bad guy.
THE
This makes no sense to me. With only four people on the planet, why would there be another country?
The New World Translation of the Bible makes things even worse. It translates this name, not as the of , but as the . Not only is this grammatically suspect, but it raises the problem: If there are only four people on the planet, and there has never before been a crime, there would be no fugitives, let alone enough of them to require their own “Land”.
CAIN’S SENTENCE
The Bible is pretty generous with the death penalty. It is prescribed for just about everything from blasphemy to gathering grain on the Sabath. It is especially adamant about murder. Yet, for some reason, with God himself acting as judge, Cain was not sentenced to death, even though he killed 25% of the population of the earth. You would think that God would want to make an example of him. This is an interesting precedent, that advocates of capital punishment might want to consider.
As part of his sentence, Cain must become a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. So, he moves away, gets married, has children, and founds a city. That doesn’t sound like either a fugitive or a wanderer. So, apparently, Cain’s only punishment was the requirement to move to another region.
That’s not much of a punishment. In my life, I have moved several times. By my count, I have at least four free murders coming.
THE SIGN
Cain was concerned that someone would find him and kill him. It is also implied that there would be people around who knew he was a killer, but did not know that God had let him off.
This issue raises numerous concerns. First of all, why would anyone kill him? There was no man-made or god-made law that prescribed the death penalty for murderers. Cain had been judged by God and received his sentence. Everyone on the planet must have known it. Why would Cain think that there would be people who would kill him? Besides, who would be Abel’s avenger? His father and mother would have known the story, and Cain was his only brother. It is almost as if the story writer has forgotten how many people occupy the earth, and feels that Abel would have close relatives or friends who would come seeking revenge.
Likewise, why would Cain need identification? I am getting tired of mentioning that there were only four people around at the time.
Finally, where would he get the idea of revenge? There had never been any crime before, so obviously, there would never have been revenge up to this point. His concern seems to be based on a fairly well developed tradition of law, punishment and vengeance. These traditions were still centuries in the future.
THE CITY OF
This is my favorite part of the story. Consider the list of problems that arise from this simple phrase:
· Cain was a fugitive and a wanderer. How could he found a city?
· The progress of civilization to the point of urbanization was still well into the future.
· What would be his purpose in building a city? There are numerous reasons to build a city, including things like protection, specialization of trades, or being a center for distribution. Considering the population at the time (one family of about three generations), none of these reasons would exist.
· Where would he get the people to inhabit the city? Enoch was the third generation from Adam. If Adam and Eve had ten surviving children, and each of their children paired up and had ten children, the world population would be 62. Even if you made some ridiculous assumptions about reproduction, the number would still not be enough to populate a village, let alone a city.
· Where would they get the surrounding population? In the early days of civilization, before the automation of agriculture, it was impossible for urban centers to achieve populations of greater than 1% or 2% of the region’s total population. It required 50-100 farmers to grow enough food to support themselves and one city dweller. Huge cities, like and , did not develop until many centuries later, and even then, they sat upon world empires. If the city of was very small, say 1,000 in population, the surrounding region must have had a population of between 50,000 and 100,000. This is approximately 1,000 times the population implied by the Bible. So, once again, I must ask, where did they get the people?
At this point, I must address one other housekeeping issue. The Bible says that Adam lived for 930 years. Other early Bible characters lived for similar lengths of time. It could be argued that this would allow for plenty of time for the population to grow.
Well, this argument is a long one, so for this chapter, I will consider it adequate to say that those long life spans are hogwash, and refer you to the chapter entitled “Of Numbers, Poop, and Other Things”
CAIN’S WIFE
Up to this point, we have not even addressed the issue that started this discussion: Where did Cain get his wife?
The story implies, in many respects including this one, that there were other people around and about. Yet, the Bible story does not allow for this. All persons are descended from Adam and Eve. There were no other people. So, the only source for Cain’s wife would be his own sister.
This raises some interesting questions. For example, how does one go about courting one’s sister? I don’t suppose their courtship took the normal course, i.e. Cain meeting her at a party and chatting her up. I expect his pick up line looked something like this: “So, baby, if I were the only man on earth, would you go out out with me?” I bet it worked every time.
Then you have to wonder, did he ask her father for her hand? And, would Adam have declined, perhaps objecting to Cain’s religion (he was a bad sacrificer), or maybe to the fact that he was not just a convict, he was the world’s first and only convict? Apparently, Adam’s daughters must have liked “the bad boys”.
IN CONCLUSION
God’s not a very competent handiman. Notice that there were four people on the earth. Two of them had committed the original sin, supposedly the worst crime in history. One was a murderer. The other was dead. That’s not a very good track record. God must not have manufactured humans very well, since the first four models broke down.
Most of the problems in this story arise from the fact that it takes place in the very early days of the human race. The writer seems to have forgotten that point, and tells the story as if there were large quantities of people, even entire cities and countries in existence.
But, as we have seen, there are many other flaws as well. In summary, if you take this story literally, you find that there is a problem in virtually every phrase of the story. In fact, the list of problems is even longer than the story, itself.