Biblical Views: Who Sinned First—Adam or Cain?

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Who is responsible for sin and death? According to the Apostle Paul, it was Adam. In his letter to the Romans, Paul names Adam as the first sinner and the reason death entered the world (Romans 5:12, Romans 5:14). While most modern readers of the Bible are familiar with the conclusion, not everyone in antiquity agreed. Although they were all reading the same Bible, some blamed Cain rather than Adam.

In Genesis, Adam and Eve disobey God, but their actions are never described as sin. Although God warned them that “in the day that you eat of it, you shall die” (Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:3), Adam lives to be 930 years old. The incongruity between God’s words and Adam’s longevity could suggest that Adam was not responsible for sin and death.

The first time sin and death are mentioned in the Bible is after the Garden of Eden—in God’s warning to Cain to resist sin (Genesis 4:7). God’s words serve as both warning and commentary about Cain’s murder of Abel in the very next verse. Thus, despite God’s warning to Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:17), their son Abel is the first person to experience death at the hand of the first sinner, Cain.

This interpretation of Genesis is found in the Wisdom of Solomon, where we read: “Wisdom protected the first-formed father of the world, when he alone had been created; she delivered him from his transgression and gave him strength to rule all things” (Wisdom of Solomon 10:1–2).

In this interpretation of Genesis, neither mortality nor bad consequences resulted from Adam’s sin. Rather, Wisdom saved Adam, and his sin is glossed over. But in the very next verses our attention shifts to Cain. Cain, we are told, was unrighteous, rejected Wisdom, killed his brother and caused the world to be flooded, which in turn led to his own death:¹ “But when an unrighteous man [Cain] departed from her [Wisdom] in his anger, he perished because in rage he killed his brother [Abel]. When the earth was flooded because of him, Wisdom again saved it, steering the righteous man [Noah] by a paltry piece of wood” (Wisdom of Solomon 10:3–4).

Reinforcing this interpretation is an earlier statement in Wisdom of Solomon 2:24: “But through the envy of the diabolos [δɩᾱβολος], death entered the world.” Some might want to read diabolos here as “the devil,” a reference to the serpent in Eden.

In the Septuagint, diabolos is the normal rendering for the Hebrew “Satan” (שטן), but it usually means “enemy” or “slanderer” and only rarely refers to a being.² Furthermore, “Satan” is used only six times as a proper noun and is translated each time by diabolos.³ So, while it is possible that Wisdom of Solomon 2:24 is referring to the deception of Eve, it is not certain. Moreover, if diabolos is intended to be understood as an allusion to Genesis 3:4, then it is one of the earliest extant Jewish documents to equate the serpent with the devil.⁴ If, on the other hand, we were to translate diabolos as “of the enemy,” then it is possible that Wisdom of Solomon 2:24 constitutes an allusion to Cain’s murder of Abel.

In the Wisdom of Solomon, Cain is a type for the enemies of the righteous (Wisdom of Solomon 1:16–3:13), both of whom reject Wisdom and murder the innocent.⁵ Wisdom of Solomon 2:24 seems to refer to Cain, who was envious of Abel. According to this text, death entered the world not because of Adam, but because of Cain’s murder of Abel.

Similarly, according to the interpretation of the Jewish historian Josephus, when God warns Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit, the punishment is not death but “destruction” or “ruin” (Antiquities 1.40). Later, when the couple does eat, God explains that it had been his intention that “old age would not come upon you swiftly and your life would be long,” suggesting that death was natural, albeit in the distant future (Antiquities 1.46). A few lines later, however, death appears in the world through Cain’s murder of Abel. In contrast to Adam and Eve—who would experience a later, natural, death—Abel’s death is sudden and unnatural. As in the Wisdom of Solomon, death enters the world not because of Adam’s sin but because of Cain’s murder of Abel.

At this point we might easily conclude that some Jewish interpreters held an opinion different from Paul’s regarding the origin of sin and death. But, somewhat surprisingly, this interpretation is also found among some Christian authors who lived after Paul and were certainly aware of his writings.

In 1 Clement 4:1–7, for instance, we find a verbatim citation of Genesis 4:1–8 (from the Septuagint). Immediately preceding this citation is the statement “by envy death entered into the world.” Following the citation of Genesis 4:1–8, Clement says, “You see, brothers, how envy and jealousy led to the 062murder of a brother” (1 Clement 4:7). Clearly, Clement is quoting Wisdom of Solomon 2:24, and his placement of the verse around the Genesis 4 citation demonstrates his conclusion that death originated with Cain’s envy and murder of Abel.

Likewise, Irenaeus of Lyons refers to Cain as the primordial example of sinful behavior and describes his life as a cascading series of sins. While comparing Adam and Cain, Irenaeus concludes: “Cain, not Adam, committed the more serious sin. Adam immediately felt a sense of shame, repented and was not cursed. Cain, on the other hand, persisted in evil and received the curse of God” (Adversus Haereses 3.23.3–4).

Finally, Theophilus of Antioch lays responsibility for death on Cain. Like Clement, Theophilus associates the envy of the diabolos in Wisdom of Solomon 2:24 with the Cain and Abel story. However, unlike Clement, he does not identify envy with Cain “the enemy,” but rather conflates Cain with the serpent’s deception of Adam and Eve:

When Satan saw that Adam and his wife not only were alive but had produced offspring, he was overcome by envy because he was not strong enough to put them to death, and because he saw Abel pleasing God, he worked upon his brother called Cain and made him kill his brother Abel. And so the beginning of death came into the world, to reach the whole race of men to this very day.

(Apologia ad Autolycum 2.29)

As I noted at the outset, Paul’s conclusion that Adam is the source of sin and death was not embraced by everyone. Although Paul’s argument certainly works well with his Christ/Adam parallel, not all of his readers would have been convinced. Other interpreters laid the blame on Cain. Consequently, what may sound like a logical argument to us today may not have been to some of Paul’s readers who were aware of alternative suggestions for the presence of sin and death in the world.

Who is responsible for sin and death? According to the Apostle Paul, it was Adam. In his letter to the Romans, Paul names Adam as the first sinner and the reason death entered the world (Romans 5:12, Romans 5:14). While most modern readers of the Bible are familiar with the conclusion, not everyone in antiquity agreed. Although they were all reading the same Bible, some blamed Cain rather than Adam. In Genesis, Adam and Eve disobey God, but their actions are never described as sin. Although God warned them that “in the day that you eat of it, you […]