Who
The first son of Adam and Eve, a tiller of the ground. When God accepted Abel’s offering and not his, he killed his brother, and answered God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). Marked by God so that no one would kill him, he went out to the land of Nod and built a city. John calls him one “who was of the evil one” (1 John 3:12). Augustine begins his history of the two cities with Cain and Abel: Cain the founder of the earthly city, Abel a pilgrim of the city of God (City of God XV.1).
Key verses
- Genesis 4:1
The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man with the LORD’s help.”
- Genesis 4:2
Again she gave birth, to Cain’s brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
- Genesis 4:9
The LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
- Genesis 4:17
Cain knew his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Enoch. He built a city, and named the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
- Hebrews 11:4
By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.
- 1 John 3:12
unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
Where the Bible names him
Family
- Children
Discussed by
Comments on the verses that name him (8 of 33).
- Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies Book 3
Ac Valentiniani quidem, qui desuper ex divinis emissionibus deduxere conjugationes, acceptum habent matrimonium: Basilidis autem sectatores, “Cum interrogassent, inquiunt, apostoli, nun sit melius uxorem non ducere,…
- Athanasius of Alexandria, Against the Arians II.1
Chapter XIV.—Texts explained; Fourthly, Hebrews iii. 2 Introduction; the Regula Fidei counter to an Arian sense of the text; which is not supported by the word ‘servant,’ nor by ‘made’ which occurs in it; (how can…
- Augustine of Hippo, The City of God XV.1
Of the Two Lines of the Human Race Which from First to Last Divide It. Of the bliss of Paradise, of Paradise itself, and of the life of our first parents there, and of their sin and punishment, many have thought…
- Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews Chapter 2
The Law Anterior to Moses. Stand we, therefore, foot to foot, and determine we the sum and substance of the actual question within definite lists. For why should God, the founder of the universe, the Governor of the…
- Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit Chapter 4
That v: not found “of whom” in the case of the Son and of the Spirit. That “through whom” is said also in the case of the Father, and “of whom” in the case of the Son and of the Spirit. 7. After thus describing the…
- Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.4
Faith the Foundation of All Knowledge. But we, who have heard by the Scriptures that self-determining choice and refusal have been given by the Lord to men, rest in the infallible criterion of faith, manifesting a…
- Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews Chapter 5
Of Sacrifices. So, again, we show that sacrifices of earthly oblations and of spiritual sacrifices were predicted; and, moreover, that from the beginning the earthly were foreshown, in the person of Cain, to be those…
- Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius VIII.5
§5. Then, after showing that the Person of the Only-begotten and Maker of things has no beginning, as have the things that were made by Him, as Eunomius says, but that the Only-begotten is without beginning and…