Thank you to the wonderful Mariana Gil Hammer for the transcript of this episode. 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Understanding Sin and Evil, Episode 2: Cain and Abel, an Oracle of Sin. Now, if you haven’t listened to the first episode, which was a story of Adam and Eve called The Origin of Sin That Wasn’t, I highly recommend that you go back and listen to that episode before listening to this one. You can understand this episode on its own, but you’re going to miss a lot if you don’t listen to the first one beforehand. 

So let me talk a little bit about how this podcast series will continue. In the last episode, you heard an explanation of the Adam and Eve story in the Bible before the layers of interpretation that we get to later, and what the plain text meaning of that story is in its biblical context.

This episode, we’re going to be talking about the story of Cain and Abel again, in its biblical context, even though I will sometimes bring in some later interpretation when it is relevant or when it’s just too interesting to ignore. Then in the next episode, we will be talking about later interpretations of both these stories. 

The Cain and Abel story includes the first explicit mention of sin that we get in the Hebrew Bible. 

But for some reason, and we’re going to talk about that later as well, this story did not resonate particularly in the Second Temple Period. It resonated later, but not in the Second Temple Period, not much. After the next episode — when we talk about how the Adam and Eve story was interpreted in the Second Temple Period and immediately after the Destruction — after that episode we’re going to be going back to the biblical text and we’re going to be talking about Genesis 6 (Bereshit vav), verses one to four, what becomes the Watchers myth in the Second Temple Period. And then we’re going to be spending quite some time talking about how the Watchers myth plays out in different Second Temple interpretations. 

But now let’s turn to our text. I will mainly be using the NJPS translation, but I’m going to be changing it liberally when it’s not that close to the plain meaning of the text. And I will also be talking about certain cases where you might see a very different translation in your Bible. So, let’s turn to our texts. And luckily enough, this picks up right where we left off last time: right after the expulsion from Eden, we have the conception of Cain and Abel, or as I will call them Kayin and Hevel. So I’m starting with chapter four. 

Now Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived and bore Cain saying, I have acquired a man with the Lord. (Gen 4:1)

So, the word that she’s using for acquired is kaniti, hence Kayin. I have acquired a man with the Lord. Now this wording sounds peculiar to us, but it expresses two different things. First of all, we have to have the name Kayin in there somehow. So we need the word kaniti, acquired. But besides that, what is this expressing?

This is expressing the first human birth. How does a woman feel? She’s given birth. There has been no birth before, she has made a man with God, right? She’s made a person. Wow. At the same time, it’s kind of hubristic, it’s kind of prideful for her to say that. And that’s a little bit of a foreshadowing of what’s going to happen to Kayin later, it is a kind of pride. And then she has another child and she continued to give birth. She bore his brother Hevel and here we have no explanation of the name Hevel. Frankly, we, who know the end of the story, don’t need an explanation of the name Hevel because Hevel means a breath or vanity — something that is gone in an instant. So if you are familiar with Koheleth (Ecclesiastes) that “vanity of vanities all is vanity.” The phrase there is hevel havalim, vanity of vanities.

So that’s the name that she gives her second child. So we know he’s not going to be around for long. Returning to our text: and Hevel was a sheep herder, and Kayin was a worker of the land. 

If you remember, or any of you have seen the musical, Oklahoma, “the farmer and the cowman should be friends.” So, we have that kind of basic conflict here where Hevel herds sheep and Kayin works the land, and it’s not going to end well. 

In the course of time, Kayin brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil. And Hevel also brought from among the firstborn of his sheep and from their fat and God “listened” to Hevel and his offering, but to Kayin and his offering he did not heed. And Kayin was very upset and his face fell. (Gen 4:3-5)

Now in the plain meaning of the text it’s not quite clear why God listens to Hevel and not to Kayin. And it’s not even clear really what that means. One would assume that both of them asked for something and only Hevel got what he wanted and Kayin did not get what he wanted. And that’s how they knew their offering was accepted.

In rabbinic tradition, you know that your offering is accepted if the smoke goes straight up to heaven. So according to rabbinic interpretation, Hevel saw that his smoke went straight up. He knew that his sacrifice was accepted. Kayin saw that his smoke did not go straight up. His offering was not accepted. Why would this be? Well, there is a hint to the answer, even in the plain meaning of the text. And of course this “hint” becomes very prominent in later interpretation: In terms of Kayin, even though he brings an offering first, the text simply says that he brought of the fruit of the earth, regarding Hevel it says that he brings the first born of his sheep and their fat. It sounds like Hevel made an effort to bring the best and Kayin just brought. So that of course becomes prominent in later interpretation, which tries to explain why Hevel was listened to and Kayin was not, that is, why Hevel’s offering was accepted and Kayin’s offering was not.

But what’s important for us in this series really is what happens next:

And the Lord said to Cain, why are you distressed? And why is your face fallen? Surely if you do right there is uplift. (I’m going to explain that in a minute.) But if you do not do right, sin crouches at the door, it’s urges toward you, yet, you can be its master. (Gen. 4:6-7)

Now, because this is the first time we have a statement about sin in the Bible, an explicit statement about sin that needs a lot of unpacking, I’m going to go into depth looking at this statement. 

Why are you distressed? Why is your face fallen? This is clear enough. Surely if you do right, or if you do good, se’et: there is uplift. I actually really like that translation for se’et: uplift. It’s simply, something’s going to be lifted up. What is going to be lifted up? In later interpretation what is lifted up is sin. If you do right, your sin will be lifted away from you. Now, I actually tend to side with the medieval commentator Ibn Ezra right here. Ibn Ezra says, what’s the context of the “uplift”? It comes right after the question: Why has your face fallen? Now, your face can fall. And it can also be lifted. If God lifts your face it means that God accepts you. God shows you goodwill. So, God is saying, why is your face fallen? If you do good, it will be uplifted. I’m going to accept you. I’m going to show you favor.

And if you don’t do good, sin couches at the door: “lapetach chatat rovets.” What does the word rovets mean? Here it’s translated as “couch.” I like to use the word crouch, but “couch” is actually closer — <span style="f