Adam and Eve Depart, Enter Cain and Abel

1990 ◽  
pp. 45-60
Author(s):  
Arie S. Issar
Keyword(s):  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Cain And Abel

1 John 3.12, Early Judaism and the Greek Life of Adam and Eve

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-471
Author(s):  
John R. Levison
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Text ◽  
Greek Life ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
1 John ◽  
Cain And Abel ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Sudden Introduction

The seemingly sudden introduction of an allusion to Cain and Abel in 1 Jn 3.12 is puzzling. To explain this apparent intrusion, select scholars have turned to early Jewish interpretations of Gen. 4. The purpose of this study is to provide further grist for this mill. Beginning with an appraisal of the role Jewish texts play in the analyses of Ernst Lohmeyer, Raymond Brown and Judith Lieu, it continues with a detailed study of an ancient text that has been neglected in the interpretation of 1 Jn 3.12, the Greek Life of Adam and Eve (GLAE). A consideration of key features in the story of Cain and Abel in GLAE strengthens the possibility that 1 Jn 3.12 was part and parcel of an interpretive milieu that sharpened the divide between righteous and evil, between murderer and martyr.

Genetic and Related Biomedical Aspects of Twinning

1983 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 179-183
Author(s):  
Frederick Hecht ◽  
Barbara K. Hecht
Keyword(s):  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Trisomy 13 ◽  
The Winter's Tale ◽  
Winter's Tale ◽  
Song Of Solomon ◽  
Twin Sister ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Cain And Abel ◽  
The One

Twins are nothing new. They have been of interest for thousands of years. The Song of Solomon sang in amorous tones: "Thy breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies." Genesis relates the story of Adam and Eve and their sons: Cain and Abel. According to Mohammedan tradition, Cain and Abel were born with twin sisters. Adam wished for Cain to marry Abel's twin and for Abel to marry Cain's twin. However, Cain was enamored of his own twin sister and so in jealousy slew his brother Abel. Twins appear in many ancient writings beyond the Bible. Romulus and Remus, the mythic founders of Rome, were twins. Shakespeare wrote of "twinn'd lambs that did frisk; ' the sun, and bleat the one of the other" in The Winter's Tale. GALTON: THE STUDY OF TWINS Modern scientific interest in twins dates to Sir Francis Galton. In 1875, Galton emphasized the importance of studies of twins to distinguish heredity from environment or, as he put it, "nature from nurture." Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, made numerous other contributions, among them the study of fingerprints which are remarkably alike in identical twins. Fingerprints are today commonplace in law. In pediatrics, dermatoglyphic features assist in the rapid clinical diagnosis of trisomy 13, 18, and 21 (Down syndrome).

Tragical Mimesis and Biblical Interpretation I

2020 ◽  
pp. 34-66
Author(s):  
Paul M. Blowers
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Moral Evil ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
Cain And Abel ◽  
Providence Of God ◽  
Figural Reading ◽  
Reversal Of Fortune

This chapter moves straightaway into the first, and foundational, form of early Christian tragical mimesis, the interpretation of tragic (and tragic-comic) biblical narratives. “Dramatic” interpretation was not a method all its own but drew upon both literal and figural reading of the scriptural texts, and focused on mimetic re-presentation of the narratives in ways that highlighted and amplified their tragic elements. It served a primarily “contemplative” mode, or theôria, of reading tragic narratives, conducive to a tragical vision of sacred history. The chapter turns to some case studies of tragical or dramatic interpretation of the primitive tragedies in Genesis: the precipitous fall of Adam and Eve and their recognition thereof; and the tragic sibling rivalries of Cain and Abel and Jacob and Esau. Attention is given to the specific Aristotelian elements of tragedy (plausible or realistic plots; characters’ fateful miscalculation, or hamartia; reversal of fortune, or peripeteia; discovery, or anagnorisis; pathos, et al.) which patristic exegetes discerned in these stories. Mimetic or dramatic interpretation enhanced these elements all the more as means to draw audiences into the cosmic significance of the narratives related to moral evil, the legacies of sin and death, the fear of determinism, and the justice and providence of God.

The Genesis and Staging of the Jeu D'Adam

PMLA ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Frank
Keyword(s):  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Cain And Abel ◽  
Verse Forms ◽  
The Church

Many of the remarkable qualities of the Jeu d' Adam have long been recognized and warmly admired: the subtlety of its characterization and motivation, the vivacity and freshness of its dialogue, the skill with which its verse forms have been handled. Yet its author has never been given sufficient credit, it would seem, for the originality of his composition. Here is a play still attached to the church, through its use of the church itself and of church properties, through its incorporaton of liturgical lectiones and responsoria, and through its adaptation and translation of a liturgical Ordo Prophetarum; nevertheless its author has dramatized and visualized for himself, with more spirit and imagination than any of his successors (he had no known predecessors), the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. Surely a man capable of such creative and untrammelled writing needed few “sources” and may be presumed, when proof to the contrary is lacking, to have drawn largely upon his own inspiration.

scholarly journals "Why Archaeology is important for Theology"

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-48
Author(s):  
Cayetana Heidi Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Near East ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Agricultural Revolution ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Cain And Abel

The Old Testament is clearly a mixture of myths and real historical figures with their events. There is no question about the contribution of mythology, since much of Genesis has been formed from common mythological accounts from all over the ancient Near East. The stories of Creation, the primordial couple, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, the Great Flood, and much more, are a commonplace of narratives throughout the region. Although these accounts are mythological, it does not mean that they have not been shaped by real events. Specialists speculate about a great flood that took place in the Near East as a result of rising water levels at the end of the last Ice Age (around 5000 BC). This coincided at a time when the Agricultural Revolution had taken over the Fertile Crescent and Egypt. Various peoples of the Levant adopted mythological narratives and reformulated them to create their own unique and original tales. Some of the main figures of the Bible, such as Adam and Eve, Noah, Lot, finally the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) were their own compositions but, as can be seen with the patriarch Abraham, who was not an exclusive figure of the Hebrew people, his conversion to monotheism is, however, something peculiar to the spiritual creativity of the Jews. Here as in the composition of the New Testament, archeology is the necessary aid to locate the reality and the truth of sacred history and its development in human time.

Gnostic

2019 ◽  
pp. 449-468
Author(s):  
Dylan M. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Cain And Abel

The corpus of extant Gnostic literature, preserved almost exclusively in Coptic codices of the ca. fourth–sixth centuries CE, constitutes an invaluable witness for the transmission of Second Temple Jewish traditions in late antiquity. The most famous of these concern the hypostasis Sophia (“Wisdom”) and the dual creation of Adam (Gen 2–3). Other important traditions found throughout Coptic Gnostic literature deal with Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, divine “youths” (Metatron?), the Fall of the Watchers, Noah and the Flood, Seth’s sister and wife Norea and the Sibyl, Melchizedek, and Solomon. Sodom and Gomorrah pop up in famous cases of Gnostic “reverse exegesis,” where the Sodomites are valorized. Traditions of the apocalypses, such as heavenly journeys and the glorification and transformation of human seers, are also of paramount importance to Gnostic literature. More “philosophically-inclined” currents related to Gnosticism, such as Valentinianism and Hermetism, transmit many Jewish traditions as well. Gnostic literature thus constitutes a source of deep value not only for the importance of Jewish traditions for the formation of Christian and Gnostic thought, but also for the transmission of apocalyptic and mystical ideas during a period for which our “Jewish sources” are relatively scarce.

Bible and Bibles

The Bible ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Coogan
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Cain And Abel ◽  
Sacred Scripture

What is the Bible? The Bible is the sacred scripture of Judaism and Christianity. In its pages we encounter some of the most memorable characters in world literature: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Samson and Delilah, David and Bathsheba,...

The Children of Adam and Eve in Medieval Irish Literature

ÉRIU ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 56 (-1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Glaeske
Keyword(s):  
Irish Literature ◽  
Adam And Eve
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