Some scholars suggest the pericope may have been based on a Sumerian story representing the conflict between nomadic shepherds and settled farmers. Abel, the first murder victim, is sometimes seen as the first martyr while Cain, the first murderer, is sometimes seen as an ancestor of evil. Cain and Abel also appear in a number of other texts, and the story is the subject of various interpretations.
The oldest known copy of the Biblical narrative is from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and dates to the first century CE. This theory would make the names descriptive of their roles, where Abel works with livestock, and Cain with agriculture-and would parallel the names Adam ("man," אדם) and Eve ("life-giver," חוה Chavah). Cain is thought to be cognate to the mid- 1st millennium BC South Arabian word qyn, meaning " metalsmith". Abel is thought to derive from a reconstructed word meaning "herdsman", with the modern Arabic cognate ibil now specifically referring only to "camels". It has been proposed that the etymology of their names may be a direct pun on the roles they take in the Genesis narrative. The original text did not provide vowels.
When thou farm the ground, it shall not yield good crops to you! Thou shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth! (Genesis 4:10-4:12) Origins Ĭain and Abel are traditional English renderings of the Hebrew names Qayin ( קין) and Hevel ( הבל). After this, God said to Cain, "What hast you done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth out to Me from the ground! So now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.