Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sources — John Shaqi
Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends
The Targum of Jerusalem says, the subject of contention was that Cain
denied a Judgment to come and Eternal Life; and Abel argued for
both.[109] The Rabbi Menachem, however, asserts that the point on which
they strove was whether a word was written _zizit_ or _zizis_ in the
Parascha.[110]
“And when they were in the field together, the brothers quarrelled,
saying, ‘Let us divide the world.’ One said, ‘The earth you stand on is
my soil.’ The other said, ‘You are standing on my earth.’ One said, ‘The
Holy Temple shall stand on my lot;’ the other said, ‘It shall stand on
my lot.’ So they quarrelled. Now there were born with Abel two
daughters, his sisters. Then said Cain, ‘I will take the one I choose, I
am the eldest;’ Abel said, ‘They were born with me, and I will have them
both to wife.’ And when they fought, Abel flung Cain down and was above
him; and he lay on Cain. Then Cain said to Abel, ‘Are we not both sons
of one father; why wilt thou kill me?’ And Abel had compassion, and let
Cain get up. And so Cain fell on him and killed him. From this we learn
not to render good to the evil, for, because Abel showed mercy to Cain,
Cain took advantage of it to slay Abel.”[111]
S. Methodius the Younger refers to this tradition. He says: “Be it known
that Adam and Eve when they left Paradise were virgins. But the third
year after the expulsion from Eden, they had Cain, their first-born, and
his sister Calmana; and after this, next year, they had Abel and his
sister Deborah. But in the three hundredth year of Adam’s life, Cain
slew his brother, and Adam and Eve wailed over him a hundred
years.”[112]
Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria, says, “When Adam and Eve rebelled
against God, He expelled them from Paradise at the ninth hour on Friday
to a certain mountain in India, and He bade them produce children to
increase and multiply upon the earth. Adam and Eve therefore became
parents, first of a boy named Cain, and of a girl named Azrun, who were
twins; then of another boy named Abel, and of a twin sister named Owain,
or in Greek Laphura.
“Now, when the children were grown up, Adam said to Eve, ‘Let Cain marry
Owain, who was born with Abel, and let Abel have Azrun, who was born
with Cain.’ But Cain said to his mother, ‘I will marry my own twin
sister, and Abel shall marry his.’ For Azrun was prettier than Owain.
But when Adam heard this, he said, ‘It is contrary to the precept that
thou shouldst marry thy twin sister.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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