על צאצאי קין י״אOn the Posterity of Cain and his Exile 11
א׳
1[33] Having said this, he says next: “And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch; and Cain was building a city, and he called the city after his son’s name Enoch” (Gen. 4:17). Is it not reasonable to inquire, what woman Cain knew? For since Eve, who was formed out of Adam’s side, there has been hitherto no record of the creation of any other woman.
ב׳
2[34] If anyone should suggest that Cain married his sister, his suggestion will be not only unholy but untrue; for Adam’s daughters are mentioned as having been born at a later time.
ג׳
3[35] What then must we say? “Wife” is, I think, the name he gives to the opinion held by an impious man’s reasoning faculty, the opinion which the impious man (habitually) assumes touching (all) matters. So do a host of those who have professed philosophy, some sects agreeing in the rules which they deduce from it for the conduct of life, and some making a variety of deductions. Of what sort then is an impious man’s opinion?
ד׳
4[36] That the human mind is the measure of all things, an opinion held they tell us by an ancient sophist named Protagoras, an offspring of Cain’s madness. I gather that by “wife” this opinion is meant from the fact that when Cain knew her she bore Enoch, and Enoch means “thy gift.” For if man is the measure of all things, all things are a present and gift of the mind. It has bestowed on the eye seeing as a favour, on the ears hearing, on each of the other senses their power of perception, yes and speech on the faculty of thought-utterance.
ה׳
5[37] But if all these are gifts, so too is thinking, including in itself countless products of thought, resolves, counsels, forethought, comprehension, acquisition of knowledge, skill in arts and in organizing, other faculties too many to recount. Why, pray, are you any longer ready to deliver grave and solemn discourses about holiness and honouring God, and to listen to such discourses from others, seeing that you have with you the mind to take the place of God, and forcibly to appropriate all things human both good and bad, sending to some a blend of both, to others one of the two unmixed?
ו׳
6[38] And if someone bring against you an indictment for impiety, you boldly defend yourselves, asserting that you have been trained under an admirable master and instructor, even Cain, who advised you to honour what was near you rather than the far off Cause, and that you are bound to attend to his advice both for other reasons and most of all because he proved the strength of his creed by unmistakable deeds in his victory over Abel, the champion of the opposite opinion, and in getting rid both of him and his opinion.
ז׳
7[39] But, in my judgement and in that of my friends, preferable to life with impious men would be death with pious men; for awaiting those who die in this way there will be undying life, but awaiting those who live in that way there will be eternal death.