And we
hope and believe the Lord will do the same in the judgment at the last
day.

250. Many questions arise here. Some inquire respecting the
circumstances connected with the wife of Cain: at what time the murder
was committed; whether Cain murdered his brother before he was a
husband, or after he was married. And the Jews, moreover, say that Eve
brought forth twins at every birth, a male and a female; and they
assert that Cain married his sister Calmana, and Abel his sister
Debora. Whether these things be true or not I cannot affirm. I know
not. But they are not vital to the interests of the Church, and there
is nothing certain known concerning them. This one thing is certain,
that Cain had a sister for his wife. But whether or no he had her as
his wife when he committed the murder, cannot with certainty be
proven. However, the text before us greatly tends to the conclusion
that Cain was married when he committed the murder of his brother; for
it intimates that the inheritance was divided between the two brothers
when it affirms that the care of the cattle was committed by the
father to Abel and the tilling of the ground to Cain. I, therefore, am
inclined to believe that both of the brothers were married.

251. This conclusion is favored also by the statement made above, that
Cain and Abel "in the process of time" brought their offerings. This
has been explained in the following manner: At the end of the year,
the two newly married husbands brought as offerings the new fruits
which God had given them in this first year of their marriage; Cain
brought the first fruits of the earth, and Abel the first fruits of
his flock. And the time was probably the autumn of the year, the time
when the fruits of the earth are gathered, the same season in which
the Jews afterwards held the feast of expiation. Moses, in his
Levitical law, seems carefully to have noted and collected the
ancestral patterns, and to have reduced them to a code. When,
therefore, the new husbands came to render their thanks to God for his
blessings and to offer their gifts, and Abel's offering was accepted
of God and not the offering of Cain, Cain's heart was immediately
filled by Satan with hatred of his brother; and upon this hatred
afterwards followed the horrible murder. This is the opinion of the
Jews, which I thus relate because it does not appear to be at all far
from the truth. But, as I have often said, the interpretations of the
Jews are to be