Friar, Ignatius von Rheinfelden, “I saw a wonderful fruit which is
called by the Arabs, Mauza, and by the Christians Adam’s fig. This
fruit grows upon a trunk in clusters of fifty or more, and hangs down
towards the ground on account of its weight. The fruit is in shape
something like a cucumber, and is a span long, yellow, and tasting
something like figs. The Christians of those parts say it is the fruit
of which Adam and Eve ate in Paradise, and they argue thus: first,
there are no apples in those parts; secondly, S. Jerome translated
the word in the Bible, Mauza; thirdly, if the fruit be cut, within it
is seen the figure of a crucifix, and they conclude thereby that the
first parents were showed by this figure how their sin would be atoned;
fourthly, the leaves being three ells long and half an ell wide, were
admirably adapted to make skirts of, when Adam and Eve were conscious
of their nakedness. And Holy Scripture says nothing of apples, but says
merely--fruit. But whether this was the fruit or not, I leave others to
decide.”[103]
Adam is said by the Easterns to have received from Raphael a magic
ring, which became his symbol, and which he handed down to his
descendants selected to know and read mysteries. This was no other than
the “crux ansata,” or handled cross, so common on Egyptian monuments as
the hieroglyph of Life out of death. The circle symbolized the apple,
and thus the Carthusian emblem, which bears the motto “Stat crux dum
volvitur orbis,” is in reality the mystic symbol of Adam. “Which,”
says the Arabic philosopher, Ibn-ephi, “Mizraim received from Ham,
and Ham from Noah, and Noah from Enoch, and Enoch from Seth, and Seth
from Adam, and Adam from the angel Raphael. Ham wrought with it great
marvels, and Hermes received it from him and placed it amongst the
hieroglyphics. But this character signifies the progress and motion of
the Spirit of the world, and it was a magic seal, kept secret among
their mysteries, and a ring constraining demons.”[104]
VI.
CAIN AND ABEL.
After that the child given to Satan died, says Tabari, Adam had another
son, and he called him Seth, and Seth was prophet in the room of his
father, after the death of Adam.
Adam had many more children; every time that Eve bore, she bare twins,
whereof one was male, the other female, and the twins were given to one
another as husband and wife.
Now Adam sought to give to Abel the twin sister of Cain, when she
was old enough to be married, but Cain (Kabil, in Arabic) was
dissatisfied.[105] Adam said to the brothers, Cain and Abel, “Go, my
sons, and sacrifice to the Lord; and he whose sacrifice is accepted,
shall have the young girl. Take each of you offerings in your hand and
go, sacrifice to the Lord, and he shall decide.”
Abel was a shepherd, and he took the fattest of the sheep, and bore it
to the place of sacrifice; but Cain, who was a tiller of the soil, took
a sheaf of corn, the poorest he could find, and placed it on the altar.
Then fire descended from heaven and consumed the offering of Abel, so
that not even the cinders remained; but the sheaf of Cain was left
untouched.
Adam gave the maiden to Abel, and Cain was sore vexed.
One day, Abel was asleep on a mountain. Cain took a stone and crushed
his head. Then he threw the corpse on his back, and carried it about,
not knowing what to do with it; but he saw two crows fighting, and one
killed the other; then the crow that survived dug a hole in the earth
with his beak, and buried the dead bird. Cain said, “I have not the
sense of this bird. I too will lay my brother in the ground.” And he
did so.
When Adam learned the death of his son, he set out in search of Cain,
but could not find him; then he recited the following lines:--
“Every city is alike, each mortal man is vile,
The face of earth has desert grown, the sky has ceased to smile,
Every flower has lost its hue, and every gem is dim.
Alas! my son, my son is dead; the brown earth swallows him!
We one have had in midst of us whom death has not yet found,
No peace for him, no rest for him, treading the blood-drenched
ground.”[106]
This is how the story is told in the Midrash:[107] Cain and Abel could
not agree, for, what one had, the other wanted; then Abel devised a
scheme that they should make a division of property, and thus remove
the possibility of contention. The proposition pleased Cain. So Cain
took the earth, and all that is stationary, and Abel took all that is
movable.
But the envy which lay in the heart of Cain gave him no rest. One day
he said to his brother, “Remove thy foot, thou standest on my property:
the plain is mine.”
Then Abel ran upon the hills, but Cain cried, “Away, the hills are
mine!” Then he climbed the mountains, but still Cain followed him,
calling, “Away, the stony mountains are mine!”
In the Book of Jasher the cause of quarrel is differently stated. One
day the flock of Abel ran over the ground Cain had been ploughing; Cain
rushed furiously upon him and bade him leave the spot. “Not,” said
Abel, “till you have paid me for the skins of my sheep and wool of
their fleeces used for your clothing.” Then Cain took the coulter from
his plough, and with it slew his brother.[108]
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.’
“Now Cain was a tiller of the ground, but Abel was a pastor of sheep.
Adam said to them, ‘Take of the fruits of the earth, and of the young
of the sheep, and ascend the top of this holy mountain, and offer there
the best and choicest to God.’ Abel offered of the best and fattest of
the first-born of the flock. Now as they were ascending the summit of
the mountain, Satan put it into the head of Cain to kill his brother,
so as to get Azrun. For that reason his oblation was not accepted by
God. Therefore he was the more inflamed with rage against Abel, and as
they were going down the mount, he rushed upon him and beat him about
the head with a stone and killed him. Adam and Eve bewailed Abel a
hundred years with the greatest grief.... And God cast out Cain whilst
he was still unmarried into the land of Nod. But Cain carried off with
him his sister Azrun.”[113]
The Rabbi Zadok said, “This was the reason why Cain slew Abel. His twin
sister and wife was not at all good-looking. Then he said, ‘I will kill
my brother Abel, and carry off his wife.’”[114]
Gregory Abulfaraj gives this account of the strife: “According to the
opinion of Mar Theodosius, thirty years after he was expelled from
Paradise, Adam knew his wife Eve, and she bore twins, Cain and his
sister Climia; and after thirty more years she bore Abel and his twin
sister Lebuda. Then, seventy years after when Adam wanted to marry one
of the brothers with the twin sister of the other, Cain refused, asking
to have his own twin sister.”[115]
The Pseudo-Athanasius says, “Up to this time no man had died so that
Cain should know how to kill. The devil instructed him in this in a
dream.”[116]
Leonhard Marius on Genesis iv. says, “As to what instrument Cain used,
Scripture is silent. Chrysostom calls it a sword; Prudentius, a spade;
Irenæus, an axe; Isidore says simply, steel; but artists generally
paint a club, and Abulensis thinks he was killed with stones.” Reuchlin
thinks, as iron was not discovered till the times of Tubal-cain, the
weapon must have been made of wood, and he points out how much more
this completes the type of Christ.[117]
Cain and Abel had been born and had lived with Adam in the land of
Adamah; but after Cain slew his brother, he was cast out into the
land Erez, and wherever he went, swords sounded and flashed as though
thirsting to smite him. And he fled that land and came to Acra, where
he had children, and his descendants who live there to this day have
two heads.[118]
Before Cain slew his brother, says the Targum of Jerusalem, the earth
brought forth fruits as the fruits of Eden; but from the day that blood
was spilt upon it, thistles and thorns sprang up; for the face of earth
grew sad, its joy was gone, the stain was on its brow.
Abel’s offering had been of the fattest of his sheep, the Targum adds,
but Cain offered flax.[119]
Abel’s offering, say certain Rabbis, was not perfect; for he offered
the chief part to God, but the remainder he dedicated to the Devil;
and Cain offered the chief part to Satan, and only the remainder to
God.[120]
The Rabbi Johanan said, Cain exclaimed when accused by God of the
murder, “My iniquity is greater than I can bear,” and this is supposed
to mean, “My iniquity is too great to be atoned for, except by my
brother rising from the earth and slaying me.” What did the Holy One
then? He took one letter of the twenty-two which are in the Law, and
He wrote it on the arm of Cain, as it is written, “He put a mark upon
him.”[121]
After Abel was slain, the dog which had kept his sheep guarded his
body, says the Midrash. Adam and Eve sat beside it and wept, and knew
not what to do. Then said a raven whose friend was dead, “I will teach
Adam a lesson,” and he dug a hole in the soil and laid his friend there
and covered him up. And when Adam saw this, he said to Eve, “We will
do the same with Abel.” God rewarded the raven for this by promising
that none should ever injure his young, that he should always have
meat in abundance, and that his prayer for rain should be immediately
answered.[122]
But the Rabbi Johanan taught that Cain buried his brother to hide what
he had done from the eye of God, not knowing that God can see even the
most secret things.[123]
According to some Rabbis, all good souls are derived from Abel and all
bad souls from Cain. Cain’s soul was derived from Satan, his body alone
was from Eve; for the Evil Spirit Sammael, according to some, Satan,
according to others, deceived Eve, and thus Cain was the son of the
Evil One.[124] All the children of Cain also became demons of darkness
and nightmares, and therefore it is, say the Cabbalists, that there is
no mention in Genesis of the death of any of Cain’s offspring.[125]
When Cain had slain his brother, we are told in Scripture that he fled.
Certain Rabbis give the reason:--He feared lest Satan should kill him:
now Satan has no power over any one whose face he does not see, thus he
had none over Lot’s wife till she turned her face towards Sodom, and he
could see it; and Cain fled, to keep his face from being seen by the
Evil One, and thus give him an opportunity of taking his life.[126]
With regard to the mark put upon Cain, there is great diverging of
opinion. Some say that his tongue turned white; others, that he was
given a peculiar dress; others, that his face became black; but the
most prevalent opinion is that he became covered with hair, and a horn
grew in the midst of his forehead.
The Little Genesis says, Cain was born when Adam was aged seventy, and
Abel when he was seventy-seven.
The book of the penitence of Adam gives us some curious details. When
Cain had killed his brother, he was filled with terror, for he saw the
earth quivering. He cast the body into a hole and covered it with dust,
but the earth threw the body out. Then he dug another hole and heaped
earth on his brother’s corpse, but again the earth rejected it.
When God appeared before him, Cain trembled in all his limbs, and God
said to him, “Thou tremblest and art in fear; this shall be thy sign.”
And from that moment he quaked with a perpetual ague.
The Rabbis give another mark as having been placed on Cain. They say
that a horn grew out of the midst of his forehead. He was killed by a
son of Lamech, who, being shortsighted, mistook him for a wild beast;
but in the Little Genesis it is said that he was killed by the fall of
his house, in the year 930, the same day that Adam died. According to
the same authority, Adam and Eve bewailed Abel twenty-eight years.
The Talmud relates the following beautiful incident.
God had cursed Cain, and he was doomed to a bitter punishment; but
moved, at last, by Cain’s contrition, he placed on his brow the symbol
of pardon.
Adam met Cain, and looked with wonder on the seal or token, and asked,--
“How hast thou turned away the wrath of the Almighty?”
“By confession of sin and repentance,” answered the fratricide.
“Woe is me!” cried Adam, smiting his brow; “is the virtue of repentance
so great, and I knew it not! And by repentance I might have altered my
lot!”[127]
Tabari says that Cain was the first worshipper of fire. Eblis (Satan)
appeared to him and told him that the reason of the acceptance of
Abel’s sacrifice was, that he had invoked the fire that fell on it and
consumed it; Cain had not done this, and therefore fire had not come
down on his oblation. Cain believed this, and adored fire, and taught
his children to do the same.[128]
Cain, says Josephus, having wandered over the earth with his wife,
settled in the land of Nod. But his punishment, so far from proving of
advantage to him, proved only a stimulus to his violence and passion;
and he increased his wealth by rapine, and he encouraged his children
and friends to live by robbery and in luxury. He also corrupted the
primitive simplicity in which men lived, by the introduction amongst
them of weights and measures, by placing boundaries, and walling
cities.[129]
John Malala says the same: “Cain was a tiller of the ground till he
committed the crime of slaying his brother; after that, he lived by
violence, his hand being against every man, and he invented and taught
men the use of weights, measures, and boundaries.”[130]
The passage in Genesis “_Whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be
taken on him sevenfold_,”[131] has been variously interpreted. Cosmas
Indopleustes renders it thus, “Whosoever slayeth Cain will discharge
seven vengeances;” that is, he will deliver him from those calamities
to which he is subject when living.[132]
But Malala renders it otherwise; he says it is to be thus understood:
“Every murderer shall die for his sin, but thou who didst commit the
first homicide, and art therefore the originator of this crime, shalt
be punished sevenfold; that is, thou shalt undergo seven punishments.”
For Cain had committed seven crimes. First, he was guilty of envy;
then, of treachery; thirdly, of murder; fourthly, of killing his
brother; fifthly, this was the first murder ever committed; sixthly, he
grieved his parents; and seventhly, Cain lied to God. Thus the sin of
Cain was sevenfold; therefore sevenfold was his punishment. First, the
earth was accursed on his account; secondly, he was sentenced to labor;
thirdly, the earth was forbidden from yielding to him her strength;
fourthly, he was to become timid and conscience-stricken; fifthly, he
was to be a vagabond on the earth; sixthly, he was to be cast out from
God’s presence; seventhly, a mark was to be placed upon him.
The Mussulmans say that the penitence of Cain, whom they call Kabil,
was not sincere. He was filled with remorse, but it was mingled with
envy and hatred, because he was regarded with disfavor by the rest of
the sons of Adam.
Near Damascus is shown a place at the foot of a mountain where Cain
slew Abel.[133]
The legends of the death of Cain will be found under the title of
Lamech.
“Half a mile from the gates of Hebron,” says the Capuchin Friar,
Ignatius von Rheinfelden, in his Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, “begins the
valley of Mamre, in which Abraham saw the three angels; the _Campus
Damascenus_ lies toward the west; there, Adam was created; and the spot
is pointed out where Cain killed his brother Abel. The earth there is
red, and may be moulded like wax.”[134] Salmeron says the same, “Adam
was made of the earth or dust of the _Campus Damascenus_.” And St.
Jerome on Ezekiel, chap. xvii., says: “Damascus is the place where
Abel was slain by his brother Cain; for which cause the spot is called
Damascus, that is, Blood-drinking.” This Damascus near Hebron is not to
be confused with the city Damascus.
VII.
THE DEATH OF ADAM.
According to a Mussulman tradition, Adam was consoled for the loss
of Abel by the discovery of how to make wheat-bread. The story is as
follows:--
The angel Gabriel was sent out of Paradise to give him the rest of the
wheat-grains Eve had plucked from the forbidden tree, together with
two oxen, and various instruments of husbandry. Hitherto he had fed on
roots and berries, and had known nothing of sowing grain; acting under
Gabriel’s directions, he ploughed the land, but the plough stuck, and
Adam impatiently smote one of the oxen, and it spoke to him and said,
“Wherefore hast thou smitten me?”
Adam replied, “Because thou dost not draw the plough.”
“Adam!” said the ox, “when thou wast rebellious, did God smite thee
thus?”
“O God!” cried Adam to the Almighty, “is every beast to reproach me,
and recall to me my sin?”
Then God heard his cry, and withdrew from beasts the power of speech,
lest they should cast their sin in the teeth of men.
But as the blow was still arrested, Adam dug into the soil, and found
that the iron had been caught by the body of his son Abel.
When the wheat was sprung up, Gabriel gave Adam fire from hell, which
however he had previously washed seventy times in the sea, or it would
have consumed the earth and all things thereon. In the beginning,
wheat-grains were the size of ostrich eggs, but under Edris (Enoch)
they were no bigger than goose eggs; under Elias they were the size of
hen’s eggs; under Christ, when the Jews sought to slay him, they were
no larger than grapes; it was in the time of Uzeir (Esdras) that they
diminished to their present proportions.
After Adam and Eve had been instructed in all that appertained to
agriculture, Gabriel brought them a lamb and showed Adam how to slay it
in the name of God, how to shear off the wool, and skin the sheep. Eve
was instructed in the art of spinning and weaving by the angel, and she
made of the wool, first a veil for herself, and then a shirt for her
husband.
The first pair brought up their grandsons and great grandsons, to the
number of 40,000 according to some, and 70,000 according to others, and
taught them all that they had learned of the angel.
After the death of Abel, and after Cain had been slain by the avenging
angel, Eve bore a third son, named Seth, who became the father of the
race of the prophets.
Finally, when Adam had reached his nine hundred and thirtieth year, the
Angel of Death appeared under the form of a goat, and ran between his
legs.
Adam recoiled with horror, and exclaimed, “God has given me one
thousand years; wherefore comest thou now?”
“What!” exclaimed the Angel of Death, “hast thou not given seventy
years of thy life to the prophet David?”
Adam stoutly denied that he had done so. Then the Angel of Death drew
the document of transfer from out of his beard, and presented it to
Adam, who could no longer refuse to go.
His son Seth washed and buried him, after that the angel Gabriel, or,
according to some accounts, Allah himself, had blessed him: Eve died a
year later.
Learned men are not agreed as to the place of their burial; some
traditions name India, others the Mount Kubais, and others again,
Jerusalem--God alone knows![135]
Tabari says that Adam made Seth his testamentary executor.
“When Adam was dead, Gabriel instructed Seth how to bury him, and
brought him the winding sheet out of heaven. And Gabriel said to Seth,
‘Thou art sole executor of thy father, therefore it is thy office to
perform the religious functions.’ Then Seth recited over Adam thirty
_Tebírs_. Four of these _Tebírs_ were the legal prayers, the others
were supererogatory, and were designed to exalt the virtues of Adam.
Some say that Adam was buried near Mecca, on Mount Abui-Kubais.”[136]
According to the apocryphal “Life of Adam and Eve,” Adam before his
death called to his bedside all his sons and daughters, and they
numbered fifteen thousand males, and females unnumbered. Adam is said
to have been the author of several psalms; amongst others Psalm civ.,
_Benedic anima mea_, and Psalm cxxxix., _Domine probasti_; as may be
gathered from the 14th, 15th, and 16th verses: “_My bones are not hid
from thee: though I was made secretly, and fashioned beneath in the
earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in Thy
book were all my members written; which day by day were fashioned, when
as yet there was none of them._”
The Arabs say that when Adam dictated his last will and testament,
the angel Gabriel descended from heaven to receive it, accompanied by
sixty-two millions of angels, each provided with clean white sheets of
parchment and pens, and that the will was sealed by Gabriel.[137]
Tradition is not agreed as to the place of Adam’s burial. Khaithemah
says that Adam was buried near Mecca on Mount Abu-Kubais. But
the ancient Persians assert that he was buried in Ceylon, where
his sepulchre was guarded by lions at the time of the war of the
giants.[138]
But the most generally received tradition is this:--
The body of Adam was taken by Noah into the ark, and when the ark
rested on Ararat, Noah and his sons removed the body from it, and they
followed an angel who led them to the place where the first father
was to lie. Shem or Melchizedek--for they are one, as we shall see
presently--being consecrated by God to the priesthood, performed the
religious rites; and buried Adam at the centre of the earth, which is
Jerusalem; but, say some, he was buried by Shem along with Eve, in the
cave of Machpelah, in Hebron. But others relate that Noah on leaving
the ark distributed the bones of Adam among his sons, and that he
gave the head to Shem, who buried it in Jerusalem. Some, taking this
mystically, suppose that by this is meant the sin and punishment of
Adam, which was transmitted to all the sons of Noah, but that to Shem
was given the head, the Messiah who was to regenerate the world.[139]
S. Basil of Seleucia says: “According to Jewish traditions, the skull
of Adam was found there (_i. e._, on Golgotha), and this, they say,
Solomon knew by his great wisdom. And because it was the place of
Adam’s skull, therefore the hill was called Golgotha, or Calvary.”[140]
With this a great concourse of Fathers agree; whose testimony has been
laboriously collected by Gretser in his famous and curious book “De
Cruce.” And this tradition has become a favorite subject for artists,
who, in their paintings or sculptures, represent the skull of Adam at
the foot of the Cross of Christ.
The apocryphal “Testament of Adam” still exists.