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."[1]
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.'"[2]
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 Lebucla. 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."[3]
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."[4]
Leonhard Marius on Genesis iv. says, "As to what instrument Cain used, Scripture is silent. Chrysostom calls it a sword; Prudentius, a spade; Irenaeus, 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.[5]
Cain and Abel had been born and had lived with Adam in the land of Adarnah; 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.[6]
Before Cain slew his brother, says the Targum of Jerusalem, the earth brought forth fruits as the fruits of Eden; but from
