Footnotes

1. Genesis 4:1 The story of Cain and Abel, in which agriculture and shepherding are already developed practices, may be an episode from the Neolithic Age, when the human race was already widespread. It is not impossible that Cain was the founder of the Kenites, a tribe allied with the Hebrews (Jdg 1:16; etc.). The Yahwist author would have chosen this known and important incident and moved it back to the time of the early ancestors in order to stress the point that there is a direct passage from breaking with God to breaking with the neighbor.
   Thus sin multiplies and gradually becomes a power that tends to overwhelm the human race. But history will always be governed by two distinct forces: God and human beings, and God does not allow the wicked to gain exclusive control of the world.
2. Genesis 4:1 Chapter 4 is also from the Yahwist source. Sin kills not only the sinner but the innocent.