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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
CAIN AND ABEL:
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The name Cain means "tiller of the ground"; Abel means "keeper of sheep."
So these two represent almost a pair of archetypes: the farmer and the
nomad. (Think of the song in the musical Oklahoma, "The Farmer and
the Cowman Should Be Friends.")
Cain also sounds suspiciously like Canaan. Is his punishment a remnant of
a sort of anti-Canaanite propaganda?
Later culture finds a more universal archetyping in the story: sibling
rivalry for the favor of "Dad." God does play favorites in the Old
Testament.
Works Cited
Genesis 4. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Volume I.
7th ed. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999. 47-48, 61-72.
Harris, Stephen L. Understanding the Bible. 3rd ed. Toronto:
Mayfield Publishing Co., 1992.