191 1.] AGAINST THE CURSE ON EVE. 507 



Kenites may have been a semi-agricultural tribe settled near Elath-^ 

 before they emigrated with the Edomite ancestors of the Jews to 

 Canaan. Afterwards there may have been some religious differ- 

 ences : the Kenites clung to their vegetable oft'erings,-*' whereas the 

 men of Judah-" sacrificed lambs. This led to an expulsion of the 

 Kenites from the region of Judah. 



The introductory verse, connecting Cain and Abel with Adam 

 and Eve, is a subsequent addition. The name Cain is explained 

 there (Genesis, iv., i) as being connected with the verb qaiidh, to 

 produce.^'^ When Eve bare Cain, she said, I have produced a man 

 as well as Jhvh :-'' just as Jh\h fashioned me from the rib He 

 took from Adam, so I have produced now a new human being. — 

 Some people think that, when the Lord created Eve, He did not take 

 a rib from Adam, but his backbone. ]\Iost of us have all our ribs. 

 At any rate, woman is not a side-issue. 



The story of Cain and Abel was originally simply : Abel was a 

 keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. Cain offered 

 vegetable oft'erings to Jhvh, whereas Abel sacrificed the firstlings of 

 his flock. Abel's sacrifices were more acceptable to Jhvh. This 

 displeased Cain, and Cain said to Abel, Let us go into the field;'-* 

 and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother 

 Abel, and slew him. 



The field was a tribal battle-ground where the Cainites smote the 

 Abelites, but afterwards they were overpowered and expelled from 

 the territory of the sheepmen of Judah."'' 



A later theologian has inserted two verses (Genesis, iv., 6, 7) 

 which are translated in the Authorized Version as follows : And the 

 Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth ? and why is thy counten- 

 ance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and 

 if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thcc shall be 

 his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. There is no connection 

 between this last clause and the preceding one, and the translation 

 sin lieth at the door is impossible. 



The Ancient Aversions show that the text of this theological in- 

 terpolation was corrupt at an early period, and the rendering given 

 in the Greek Bible echoes the tradition that the feud between Cain; 



