Post-Garden: Cain, Abel, Seth, and Enoch

150 Bible Basics

Cain and Abel

Adam and Eve’s first- and second-born sons. Cain was a farmer, while Abel was a shepherd (Genesis 4:2). Cain murdered Abel because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s. When confronted as to Abel’s whereabouts, Cain cynically asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (4:9).

As punishment, Cain was driven out to be a wanderer all his days. We can infer that he married one of his sisters and with this wife began a line of descendants which would end in the flood of Noah’s day.

Adam and Eve later had more children, the first of whom they named Seth (4:25). It was through him the lineage of Abraham, David, and Christ was produced.

Enoch

Enoch was a man in the lineage of Seth who did not experience death (Hebrews 11:5). Genesis 5:24 tells us he “walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” Enoch’s son, Methusaleh, lived 969 years, the Bible’s longest recorded life span (5:27).