Abstract
This essay enquires into the reception of the story of Cain and Abel (Gen 4) in late ancient Judaism (Genesis Rabbah, Targum Onkelos, Targum Neofiti, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan) with regard to the way Cain is portrayed differently from how he is depicted in the Hebrew text. The perspective from which his portrayal in the Jewish literature of late antiquity will be viewed is that of vulnerability or fragility, asking the question whether the reception of Cain in Jewish antiquity allow for such vulnerability in the interpretation of the story, or does he remain a villainous character who refused to be redeemed. The question of the redemption of Cain is formulated within a hermeneutic of vulnerability as a framework to deal with the perpetration of apartheid. The following aspects of the story are discussed: the birth of Cain, his occupation, the sacrifice, Cain’s reaction to the sacrifice, the deity’s questioning of Cain, the conversation in the field, the murder, the blood of Abel, Cain’s curse, his response, and his punishment. The study concludes that although the reception portrays Cain as a villain par excellence, there are aspects in the representations that provide glimpses of redemption for Cain, implying a particular vulnerability.
Highlights
This essay enquires into the reception of the story of Cain and Abel (Gen 4) in late ancient Judaism (Genesis Rabbah, Targum Onkelos, Targum Neofiti, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan) with regard to the way Cain is portrayed differently from how he is depicted in the Hebrew text
The perspective from which his portrayal in the Jewish literature of late antiquity will be viewed is that of vulnerability or fragility, asking the question whether the reception of Cain in Jewish antiquity allow for such vulnerability in the interpretation of the story, or does he remain a villainous character who refused to be redeemed
Because of the stigma attached to racism, any exposure of racialised discourse needs to present the perpetrator a moment in which he or she can move from fragility to vulnerability—a moment of redemption in which the perpetrator’s fragility becomes an acknowledged vulnerability from which change can take place. It is this vulnerability that is the object of study in the reception of the figure of Cain:6 does the reception of Cain in Jewish antiquity allow for such vulnerability in the interpretation of the story in, for example, Genesis Rabbah or the Targum Onqelos, Targum Neofiti or Targum Pseudo-Jonathan? Or, does Cain remain the enemy, the intolerable Other, which we need, in the words of the late Umberto Eco, to define our identity and to provide us with an obstacle against which to measure our system of values and, in seeking to overcome it, to demonstrate our own worth[.] So when there is no enemy, we have to invent one
Summary
This essay is part of an ongoing research into the notion of vulnerability and Cain as perpetrator. At issue in the research is the discourse on racism, the notion of perpetratorhood and the conduct of the perpetrator (racist) when confronted with wrongdoing. Because of the stigma attached to racism, any exposure of racialised discourse needs to present the perpetrator a moment in which he or she can move from fragility to vulnerability—a moment of redemption in which the perpetrator’s fragility becomes an acknowledged vulnerability from which change can take place. It is this vulnerability that is the object of study in the reception of the figure of Cain: does the reception of Cain in Jewish antiquity allow for such vulnerability in the interpretation of the story in, for example, Genesis Rabbah or the Targum Onqelos, Targum Neofiti or Targum Pseudo-Jonathan? Does the reception of the story in the three mentioned Targums as well as Genesis Rabbah allow for a similar vulnerability or is he depicted as the murderer par excellence for whom no redemption is possible?
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