What made Cain capable of murdering his brother? Why was the flood generation so wicked? According to Pirqei de-Rabbi Eliezer, the fallen angel Samael embodies the serpent and seduces Eve, whereupon she conceives Cain. Engendered by this “bad seed,” all the descendants of Cain become corrupt, destined to be wiped out by mighty waters.
In the wake of the banishment from Eden, Adam and Eve start their family:
בראשית ד:א וְהָאָדָם יָדַע אֶת־חַוָּה אִשְׁתּוֹ וַתַּהַר וַתֵּלֶד אֶת־קַיִן וַתֹּאמֶר קָנִיתִי אִישׁ אֶת־יְ־הוָה.
Gen 4:1 And the man [ha-ʾadam] knew Eve, his woman, and she conceived and bore Cain, and she said: “I have gotten (or “created”)[1] a man with YHWH.”[2]
Why does Eve refer to her infant as a “man” [ʾish]? Would it not have been more natural to refer to him as בן “son”? Even stranger is her claim that she produced this man “with YHWH.”
In keeping with the verse’s opening, that Adam “knew his wife” in the proverbial biblical sense, classic rabbinic sources interpret the phrase to be an expression of her thanksgiving to YHWH for allowing her to conceive.[3]
And yet, Eve might literally have meant that YHWH was the father. In her naiveté, the causal relationship between sexual intercourse, conception and birth may have eluded the first mother, and so she ascribed the birth of her first child to God. The other possible meaning points to an actual divine impregnation.[4] But if this is the case, why note that Adam knew his wife? Who is the father: Adam or YHWH?
The Conception of Abel
No similar note marks the birth of Abel; he is simply born:
בראשית ד:ב וַתֹּסֶף לָלֶדֶת אֶת אָחִיו אֶת הָבֶל…
Gen 4:2 She further bore his brother Abel…
Noting the abruptness of the note here, Genesis Rabbah suggests that Cain and Abel were twins (Bereishit 22, Theodor-Albeck ed.):
ותוסף ללדת תוספת ללידה ולא תוספת לעיבור.
“She then bore”—another birthing but not another pregnancy.
We are also not informed who named Abel or why this name was chosen. It means “breath,” and can have the connotation of vanity or nothingness (as it does throughout Ecclesiastes), and so foreshadows his early demise without offspring at the hands of his jealous brother Cain, who, in turn, is condemned to wander the earth…
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