Biblical Views: Did Cain Get Away with Murder?

024

Was Cain punished for killing Abel, or did God let him get away with murder? Most readers of the Bible would identify Cain’s punishment as being cursed and exiled from the ground (Genesis 4:11–16). But while this sentence seems to have satisfied God, not everyone was content. Readers often noticed that a significant detail was missing in the Genesis 4 narrative. At no point do we read how or when Cain died. We are told about Abel, and the deaths of Adam and Seth are both recorded (Genesis 5:3–8)—but not Cain’s. While there are many people in the Bible whose deaths are not mentioned, the silence over Cain’s death might suggest that he lived a long life and died naturally. Not only does Cain escape capital punishment, but he is even able to marry, raise children and build a city. Unlike Abel, Cain’s story has a happier ending, which seems wholly unjust.

Modern readers of the Bible might note the absence of Cain’s death and even wonder about the justice of God, but they are not likely to change the story to fit their sense of justice. Ancient interpreters did, however. Unsatisfied with the story’s ending, they looked for ways to ensure it finished with Cain’s death. One early suggestion was that Cain died in the flood. This was a logical conclusion since the list of those on Noah’s ark does not mention Cain (Genesis 8:18; 9:18). Interpreters assumed that Cain must have lived until the time of the flood and died with the other wicked people.¹

The flood narrative certainly provides a cleaner ending to the story, but there is another, more creative solution. This version ends with Cain being killed by his great, great grandson, Lamech. How did this new ending come about? The clue was found in something Lamech said to his wives:

Adah and Zillah, listen to me;

wives of Lamech, hear my words.

I have killed a man for wounding me,

a young man for injuring me.

If Cain is avenged seven times,

then Lamech seventy-seven times.

(Genesis 4:23–24, NIV)

Although modern readers might gloss over Lamech’s statement, ancient interpreters discovered a key to the riddle surrounding Cain’s death. They noted that the Hebrew term ’ish (“man”—Hebrew: איש) appears only twice in Genesis 4, once on the lips of Eve when Cain is born and she says “for I have gained a man” (4:1), and again in 4:23 when Lamech says that he “killed a man.” Noting this connection, interpreters identified the ’ish that Lamech killed as being the very same ’ish born to Eve—and that man was Cain.

But this ending was based on more than just the repetition of a simple word. Lamech’s appeal to the vengeance associated with Cain in Genesis 4:24 provided more support. In Genesis 4:15 God promises Cain that anyone who kills him will suffer seven vengeances. But the meaning of this sentence is ambiguous in Hebrew. It’s not clear if Cain or his killer is the recipient of the vengeance. The Septuagint (LXX) translator(s), however, aware of the ambiguity and perhaps unsatisfied with the way the story ended, translated Genesis 4:15 into Greek so that the sentence no longer reads “everyone who kills Cain will suffer sevenfold vengeance,” but instead “everyone who kills Cain will loose seven penalties.” The translation of Lamech’s words in Genesis 4:24 was also altered to read “because vengeance has been extracted seven times from Cain.” The result of these translations is that it was now clear that Cain was the recipient of the seven vengeances, not his killer. Lamech’s killing of Cain was the comeuppance for Cain’s act of fratricide.

068

The Lamech legend was very popular in late antiquity through the Middle Ages and came to include details far beyond anything found in Genesis 4. In these later versions Lamech is a blind—but skilled—hunter who hunts with the help of his son Tubal-Cain, who directs his father’s bow toward the game. One day, however, the young boy mistakes a sound in the bushes for a wild animal. Lamech, with his son’s assistance, shoots the animal and then sends him to see what they have caught. When Tubal-Cain reaches the spot, he realizes that they have killed Cain. Lamech becomes distressed to the point that he blindly claps his hands together and accidently kills his son as well.² While this ending certainly adds more tragedy to the tale of Cain and Abel, it also achieves some key results. First, it ensures that Cain finally pays the ultimate price for his murder of Abel (cf. Genesis 9:6; Exodus 21:12–14, 24). Second, the description of Lamech as a blind man frees him from being accused of the same crime as Cain. Cain’s death is an accident, which makes Lamech innocent of premeditated murder, which wasn’t the case when Cain murdered Abel. At the same time, any apparent besmirching of God’s justice toward Abel is removed.³

While most modern readers of the Bible are unfamiliar with the Lamech legend, it was well known in the past. Its popularity is evidenced, for instance, in the way it was displayed on a column capital in the Cathedral of Saint-Lazare in France (c. 1146, shown on p. 24). Variations of the legend also appear in the façade of the Modena Cathedral in Italy (c. 1180) and in several illuminated manuscripts including the Egerton Genesis Picture Book (c. 1360), the Holkham Bible Picture Book (c. 1325) and Le Livre de bonnes moeurs by Jacques Legrand (c. 1490). Knowing the ending to the Cain and Abel story was not just an academic question for scholars; it was important to the common people as well. Since much of the population couldn’t read, the stories of the Bible were told through the visual arts. The various depictions of Cain’s death demonstrate that generations of people familiar with the story were interested in knowing that Cain’s life did not have the happy ending that Genesis seems to allow. Rather than accept an ending to the story that seemed unjust, they preferred a version with a more satisfactory conclusion. It was important that God not let Cain get away with murder, even if it meant changing the details to protect the innocent while punishing the guilty.

Was Cain punished for killing Abel, or did God let him get away with murder? Most readers of the Bible would identify Cain’s punishment as being cursed and exiled from the ground (Genesis 4:11–16). But while this sentence seems to have satisfied God, not everyone was content. Readers often noticed that a significant detail was missing in the Genesis 4 narrative. At no point do we read how or when Cain died. We are told about Abel, and the deaths of Adam and Seth are both recorded (Genesis 5:3–8)—but not Cain’s. While there are many people in the Bible […]