Cain and Abel in Text and Tradition ─ Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the First Sibling Rivalry

Byron (New Testament, Ashland Theological Seminary) traces the interpretative history of the Cain and Abel story over the first millennium CE. He is not concerned with the background or manuscript details, but with how the story was understood by Jewish and Christian interpreters, and speaks to general readers rather than to specialists. Among the themes he finds are like father like son, rejected offering and dejected person, crime and punishment, far as the curse is found, raising Cain, the blood of righteous Abel, and the way of Cain. Once again Brill matches a durable volume with enduring scholarship. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

John Byron, Ph.D. (2002), University of Durham, is Associate Professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary. He is the author of Slavery Metaphors in Early Judaism and Pauline Christianity (2003), Recent Research on Paul and Slavery (2008), and a number of scholarly articles.