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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Seven — Cain and Abel

Chapter 4, verse 25. Adam also knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and he called his name Seth, saying: God has appointed me another seed for Abel, whom Cain killed

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Chapter 4, verse 25. Adam also knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and he called his name Seth, saying: God has appointed me another seed for Abel, whom Cain killed.1

CAP. 4. VER. 25. Cognovit quoque adhuc Adam uxorem suam, & peperit filium, Vocavitque nomen eius Seth: dicens, Posuit mihi Deus semen aliud pro Abel quem occidit Cain.

PAULO infra scriptum est, Adamum cum esset centum & triginta annorum, filium genuisse ad imaginem & similitudinem suam, quem nominavit Seth. Recte autem ex utroque loco inter se collato argumentatur Caietanus, Abel fuisse occisum circa centesimum & trigesimum annum Adami, id est, vel eodem anno, quo generatus est Seth, vel uno aut altero anno ante. Nam si aliquot annos ante ortum Seth occisus fuisset Abel, per illos annos aliquem alium filium procreasset Adam, & ille verius dici potuisset datus Adamo pro Abel, quam Seth, qui post eum natus fuisset.
A little below it is written that Adam, when he was a hundred and thirty years old, begot a son to his image and likeness, whom he named Seth. And rightly, from both places compared with each other, Cajetan argues that Abel was killed around the hundred-and-thirtieth year of Adam — that is, either in the same year in which Seth was generated, or one or two years before. For if Abel had been killed some years before Seth's birth, during those years Adam would have procreated some other son, and that one could more truly be said to have been given to Adam for Abel than Seth, who would have been born after him.2
ILLUD quoque videtur admodum credibile, ante necem Abel complures filios progenuisse Adamum. Nam si Abel interfectus est prope centesimum & trigesimum annum aetatis Adami, quis credat, per totos illos centum & prope triginta annos, duos tantum filios, Cainum dico & Abel fuisse generatos ab Adamo? cum Adam & Eva
That too seems quite credible, that before Abel's death Adam had begotten several sons. For if Abel was killed near the hundred-and-thirtieth year of Adam's age, who would believe that, through all those nearly a hundred and thirty years, only two sons — Cain, I say, and Abel — were generated by Adam? since Adam and Eve...3
Eva creati fuerint a Deo corpore aetateque perfecta, & ad generandum valida, ipsique maximam a Deo vim foecunditatis accepissent, scilicet ut opus erat in exordio mundi ad propagandum & multiplicandum genus humanum. Illud igitur quod dixit Adam, Seth fuisse datum sibi pro Abel: non significat ante generationem Seth non fuisse Adamo alium filium nisi Cainum: sed illud potius, noluisse Deum ut fraudaretur Adamus aliqua ex parte numero filiorum suorum. Licet enim orbatus fuisset filio Abel, continuo tamen in eius locum alterum filium acceperat Seth, & quidem pietate ac religione adversus Deum, reverentia & observantia erga parentes, denique integritate vitae, morumque sanctitate perquam similem ipsi Abel.
...Eve were created by God perfect in body and age, and strong for generating, and had received from God the greatest force of fecundity — namely, as was needful at the beginning of the world for propagating and multiplying the human race. That, therefore, which Adam said, that Seth was given to him for Abel, does not signify that before Seth's generation Adam had no other son but Cain; but rather this, that God did not wish Adam to be defrauded in any part of the number of his sons. For although he had been bereaved of his son Abel, yet immediately in his place he had received another son, Seth — and one very similar to Abel himself in piety and religion toward God, in reverence and observance toward [his] parents, and finally in integrity of life and sanctity of morals.4
VERUM quo modo intelligendum est quod ait Moses, Adamum genuisse filium Seth ad imaginem & similitudinem suam? Cur enim hoc proprie dictum est de Seth, & non etiam de Cain & Abel? Nam vel Moses loquitur de similitudine secundum naturam, & hac ratione Cain quoque generatus fuerat ad imaginem & similitudinem Adami: vel de similitudine secundum pietatem & probitatem morum, & hac item ratione Abel genitus fuerat ad similitudinem Adami. Dicendum est, ideo fuisse hoc proprie dictum de ipso Seth, quia in eo solo conservata est posteritas Adami, & species naturae humanae, ac per ipsum in omne aevum conservanda & propaganda erat. Siquidem posteritas Cain tota per diluvium est deleta: ipsius vero Abel, nulla relicta prole, nulla fuit posteritas. Solius autem Seth posteritas permansit, atque ex ea proseminatus est populus Dei, & universum genus humanum propagatum.
But how is it to be understood, what Moses says, that Adam begot a son Seth to his image and likeness? For why is this said properly of Seth, and not also of Cain and Abel? For either Moses speaks of a likeness according to nature, and by this reason Cain too had been generated to the image and likeness of Adam; or of a likeness according to piety and probity of morals, and by this reason likewise Abel had been begotten to the likeness of Adam. It must be said that this was said properly of Seth for this reason: that in him alone was preserved the posterity of Adam, and the species of human nature, and through him it was to be preserved and propagated unto every age. For the posterity of Cain was all destroyed by the flood; but of Abel, no offspring being left, there was no posterity. But the posterity of Seth alone remained, and from it the people of God was propagated, and the whole human race propagated.5

But what sort and how great a man this Seth was, let the reader briefly know from those things which Suidas and Josephus handed down about that man. Suidas, in the entry 'Seth,' writes: Seth was called 'God' by the men of that age, because he had invented both the Hebrew letters and the appellations of the stars; and, on account of the admiration of his notable piety, he was first of all surnamed and called 'God' — just as later Moses too was called the 'God' of Pharaoh, and Judges and Princes of peoples are named 'gods' in the Sacred writings. For this Moses wished to signify when he said that the sons of God went in to the daughters of men — that is, the sons or descendants of Seth [went in] to women of the stock of Cain. Thus Suidas.6

QUALIS autem quantusque vir hic Seth fuerit, breviter cognoscat lector de his quae Suidas & Iosephus de eo viro prodiderunt. Suidas in vocabulo Seth scribit, Seth ab hominibus illius aetatis Deum fuisse appellatum, eo quod & Hebraicas litteras, & stellarum appellationes invenisset; & ob insignis eius pietatis admirationem primus omnium cognominatus & appellatus est Deus: quemadmodum postea & Moses dictus est Deus Pharaonis, & Iudices & Principes populorum in Sacris litteris nominantur Dii. Hoc enim significare voluit Moses cum dixit, filios Dei ingressos esse ad filias hominum, id est, filios seu posteros Seth, ad foeminas ex stirpe Cain. Haec Suidas.

But Josephus, in book 1 of the Antiquities, writes in this manner: One of Adam's several children was Seth; who, brought up by his father, when he came to that age that he was now able to discern what is right, gave himself wholly to the study of virtue. And when he himself had turned out a most excellent man, he left after him descendants like himself; who, since they were all endowed with a good disposition, and inhabited their fatherland without sedition, passed their life in perpetual felicity, and devised the science of the stars and the knowledge of heavenly things. But lest their inventions should slip away from the knowledge of men, and perish before they were fully known — knowing that Adam had foretold a general destruction of men, one by fire, the other by flood — having erected two pillars, they inscribed their inventions on each: so that, if the brick one happened to be destroyed by the flood, the stone one...7

Iosephus autem libro 1. Antiquitatum ad hunc modum scribit: Unus e compluribus Adami liberis fuit Seth: qui a patre educatus, ubi eo aetatis venit, ut iam quod rectum est discernere valeret, virtutis studio se totum dedit. Et cum ipse vir optimus evasisset, etiam nepotes sui similes post se reliquit: qui quoniam erant omnes bona indole praediti, & patriam absque seditione incolebant, in perpetua felicitate vitam exegerunt, & syderalem scientiam, ac coelestium rerum cognitionem excogitaverunt. Ne autem inventa sua ex hominum notitia dilaberentur, & prius perirent quam pernoscerentur, scientes Adamum generalem hominum interitum praedixisse, unum incendio, diluvio alterum: excitatis duabus columnis utrique sua inventa inscripserunt: ut si lateritiam diluvio deleri contingeret, lapidea

...surviving, might afford men the means of learning, and display for viewing the things which it contained inscribed. For they say that that stone one was dedicated by them, which even in our times exists in the land of Syria. Thus Josephus.8

superstes, hominibus discendi copiam faceret, & quae inscripta continebat spectanda exhiberet. Aiunt enim lapideam illam ab ipsis dedicatam, quae & nostris temporibus extat in terra Syriae. Haec Iosephus.

Translator’s notes

  1. New lemma: Genesis 4:25 (marginal 'CAP. 4. VER. 25.'), the birth of Seth. ↩
  2. From Gen 4:25 and Gen 5:3 (Adam begot Seth in his 130th year) compared, Cajetan dates Abel's death to ~Adam's 130th year — the same year as Seth's birth, or one or two years before (else another son, born in between, would rather be the 'seed given for Abel'). Marginal gloss: 'Abel fuisse occisum paulo ante generationem Seth.' ↩
  3. It is credible that Adam had many sons before Abel's death — for it is incredible that in nearly 130 years he begot only Cain and Abel, since Adam and Eve [were created perfect and fertile]. Marginal gloss: 'Ante caedem Abel fuisse alios filios Adamo praeter Abel & Cain.' Catchword 'Eva' (continues on the next page). ↩
  4. Adam and Eve, created perfect and fertile for peopling the world, surely had many children; so 'Seth given for Abel' does not mean Adam had only Cain before, but that God did not let Adam be defrauded of his tally of sons — replacing the lost pious Abel at once with Seth, who resembled Abel in piety, filial reverence, and holiness. Odd-side running head 'IN GENESIM, LIB. VII.' number '761'; true printed page 771. ↩
  5. Why 'begotten to his image and likeness' (Gen 5:3) is said properly of Seth, not Cain or Abel: not merely natural likeness (Cain had that too) nor moral likeness (Abel had that too), but because Adam's posterity and human nature survived only through Seth — Cain's whole line was destroyed in the flood, Abel left no offspring, but from Seth's line alone came the people of God and the whole human race. Marginal gloss: 'Cur Seth dictus sit ad imaginem & similitudinem Adami generatus.' ↩
  6. Praise of Seth from Suidas (the Suda): Seth was called 'God' by his contemporaries, both because he invented the Hebrew letters and the names of the stars, and for his notable piety (as Moses was 'God' to Pharaoh, Exod 7:1, and judges/princes are 'gods' in Scripture); and the 'sons of God' who went in to the 'daughters of men' (Gen 6:2) means the Sethites [going in] to Cainite women. Marginal glosses: 'Praeconium Seth ex Suida & Iosepho'; 'Exod. 7.'; 'Genes. 6.' ↩
  7. Josephus (Antiquities 1) on Seth: one of Adam's many children, raised to virtue, a most excellent man who left descendants like himself — of good disposition, dwelling without sedition in perpetual felicity, who devised astronomy and knowledge of heavenly things. To preserve their discoveries against Adam's foretold twofold destruction (by fire and by flood), they inscribed them on two pillars (one brick, one stone), so that if the brick one perished in the flood, the stone one [would survive]. Marginal gloss: 'De duabus columnis posterorum Seth.' Page footer signature 'EEEE 2'; catchword 'superstes' (continues on the next page). ↩
  8. End of the Josephus quote on the two pillars: the stone pillar would survive the flood to preserve the Sethites' learning; and Josephus says it still stood in his day in the land of Syria. 'Thus Josephus.' Verso running head 'COMMENTARIORVM' number '762'; true printed page 772. ↩