Cain’s sin. New interpretive contexts

Abstract

The author aims to reinterpret the biblical story of Cain and Abel. The account contained in The Book of Genesis is considered here to be ambiguous and in need of new anthropological interpretive approach. The sense of the story extends beyond known interpretations: Jacek Filek’s Cain’s Sad Face (philosophical interpretation), Alan Aycock’s The Mark of Cain (anthropological interpretation) and Jose Saramago’s Cain (atheist viewpoint). The new interpretation proposed here is termed mysterious. The following questions are asked: Why did Cain kill? Could he have avoided killing? Why did God accept Abel’s sacrifice and reject Cain’s? Why does God place a protective mark on him? And who is the figure of Cain in the first place? The basis for the new approach to Cain’s sin is Michał Klinger’s Cain’s Mystery. Klinger concludes that the biblical account contains the message of the vagueness of God’s decrees and the universality of evil – evil is an inalienable element of humanity, besides good. Cain is interpreted as being similar to the sinners in Gospels, who encounter Jesus and receive forgiveness and salvation.