In , this author argues that Adam and Eve were created outside of the Garden, consummated their marriage there, and then were put into the Garden where they remained celibate until they were exiled after the Fall. This differs from the account in Genesis , which places Adam in Eden and then is given a mate in vv. Jubilees has a real issue with sexual relations in the Garden, and the author handles Genesis accordingly. But perhaps we can have a bit of sympathy for this ancient author.
His reading of the Genesis story was informed by what he read elsewhere in the Bible. In Exodus , in preparing to receive the commandments from Moses on Mt.
Sinai as a temple of sorts. According to Exodus 19, only Moses could go to the very top of Sinai, which corresponds to the high priest alone entering the Holy of Holies. Others could go part way up the mountain, which corresponds to the portion of the temple on the other side of the curtain.
The rest could only stay at the foot of the mountain, which corresponds to the outer court of the temple. So, as at Sinai, so too in Eden: refraining from sexual contact is required.
The fact that the Garden story does not say this is unfortunate but hardly important for these early interpreters, since Scripture as a whole dictates what any one passage may or may not say. The theology of priesthood and temple observance determines what Genesis can mean. Adam and Eve were celibate in the Garden. For those who have been reading this series of posts on Genesis and ancient interpreters, you can probably anticipate my next point. However tempting it might be to look down upon and even dismiss this particular piece of interpretation and for the record, I do think sexual intimacy in Eden is clearly assumed in the text , what do we make of their interpretive principle?
It has always been common for Christians to read parts of Scripture in light of the whole, which is what the author of Jubilees is doing from his particular perspective. But how does one know if one is violating the text or just augmenting it properly? Are there rules to follow for reading all of Scripture in harmony? Or, conversely, is this even a good principle to begin with?
This is an important issue for Christian readers of the Bible and of the Garden story specifically. To what extent should Christian theology determine how the Garden story should be read? Or maybe I can put that a bit differently: how do we know if we are doing a good job of reading the Bible in light of the whole canon? Since Eden was understood to be a temple and Adam a priest, some interpreters could not accept that Cain was conceived in the Garden, despite the clear indication in Genesis to the contrary Genesis Now we look at an entirely different issue: Why did Cain kill Abel?
On one level, the story seems clear enough. Nevertheless, answers to these questions—however important they are—are not obvious because the text does not address them specifically. If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master. Like every verse in the Garden story, these have been subject to a lot of careful thought.
Instead of checking his anger, in the very next verse we read that Cain cons Abel into walking out into the field with him and murders him. So, Cain kills Abel because he is angry, and that anger is sparked by jealousy. But the more griping question is why: Why would Cain be angry in the first place? And why did he see murder as the best solution?
On this matter, the story of Cain is notoriously ambiguous. Early interpreters looked for clues in the text to explain why Cain did what he did. Those clues were not hard to find, if you knew how to look.
Several things jumped out at early interpreters as they tried to explain who Cain was and what he did to Abel. Early interpreters thought surely there was a hidden meaning in referring to a newborn this way. And she [Eve] bore a son and he was lustrous. And at once the infant rose, ran, and brought in his hands a reed [ qaneh ] and gave it to his mother. And his name was called Cain [ qayin ] Life of Adam and Eve As fanciful as these explanations may sound, each of these ambiguities continue to puzzle biblical commentators today.
Viewing Cain as a special child given great abilities by God himself is one way of interpreting his birth, but it is not without a hitch—which did not escape the eyes of early interpreters. How could this blessed boy in time become the first murderer? A good number of interpreters said that Cain had been evil from birth because he was the offspring of the Devil himself.
This may appear to come wholly out of left field, but it is not without some basis. You may recall from the previous post that some interpreters surmised that Eve and the serpent had been in some sort of relationship—which is why they were able to have such a casual conversation in the Garden and why the serpent conned them into eating the fruit, out of jealousy against Adam.
That detail is relevant here as well. As odd as this may understandably sound to our ears, this interpretation is found quite commonly among Jews and Christians. A medieval rabbinic text, Pirqe deR. Famously, Cain was responsible for the murder of his younger brother Abel , thus committing the first murder in history.
After this murder Cain was sentenced to a nomadic life as a wanderer in a region respectively called Nod , making Cain the first nomad.
Cain was born of Adam and Eve, presumably being the first of their children. The only clue of their location is that there were Cherubim guarding the eastern entrance into Eden inferring they were in the east. At Cain's birth, his mother Eve rejoiced and said with God's help she had brought forth a man. He may have bore the name Cain and eventually had his name come to be associated with a spear. Sometime after his birth, his brother Abel was born, with it possible that there were other brothers born before or after he was born.
It is probable that there was a period of about a hundred years between when Cain was born and the biblical account. Presumed to be the first born, Cain would have been taught by his father Adam to work the soil and agriculture from an early age. Due to the curse that required Adam to manually work for food, Cain would've needed to become proficient at it quickly. Sometime before he murdered Abel he would have married a wife, but probably had not yet had any children with with her.
When Cain had grown to adulthood, he had become a farmer. When it was time to offer to God, Cain brought possibly some leftover fruit from the soil, while Abel brought the best of his flock.
When God showed favor to Abel's offering, but rejected Cain's, Cain became upset. At an opportune time he called Abel out into the fields. All Sections. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Hot Property. Now, notice the time period between when Cain and Abel were born, and when Seth was born.
It is approximately years maybe a little less. People assume that Adam and Eve had only 3 children since there are only 3 mentioned by name in the Bible. This is a false assumption.
It is likely that they had dozens of children over their lifetime Adam lived to be years old: Gen So, when did Cain actually kill Abel. This means it is likely that Cain killed Abel about years after they were born. This is important to understand, because it means that there was about years for Adam and Eve to have many other sons and daughters before Cain killed Abel.
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