those existing in the writer's own day; hence the passage does not contemplate a rupture of the continuity of development by a cataclysm like the Flood. That the representation involves a series of anachronisms, and is not historical, requires no proof (see Dri. Gen. 68).—On the relation of the section to other parts of the ch., see p. 98 above: on some further critical questions, see the concluding Note (p. 122 ff.).
17. Enoch and the building of the first city.—The question where Cain got his wife is duly answered in Jub. iv. 1, 9: she was his sister, and her name was 'Âwân. For other traditions, see Marmorstein, 'Die Namen der Schwestern Kains u. Abels,' etc., ZATW, xxv. 141 ff.—and he became a city-builder] So the clause is rightly rendered by De. Bu. Ho. Gu. al. (cf. 2120b, Ju. 1621, 2 Ki. 155). The idea that he happened to be engaged in the building of a city when his son was born would probably have been expressed otherwise, and is itself a little unnatural.
That (
Hebrew characters) is the subj. of (Hebrew characters) only appears from the phrase (Hebrew characters) towards
the end. Bu. (120 ff.) conjectures that the original text was (Hebrew characters), making
Enoch himself the builder of the city called after him (so Ho.). The
emendation is plausible: it avoids the ascription to Cain of two steps in
civilisation—agriculture and city-building; and it satisfies a natural
expectation that after the mention of Enoch we should hear what he
became, not what his father became after his birth,—especially when
the subj. of the immediately preceding vbs. is Cain's wife. But the
difficulty of accounting for the present text is a serious objection, the
motive suggested by Bu. (123) being far-fetched and improbable.—The
incongruity between this notice and vv.11-16 has already been mentioned
(p. 100). Lenormant's examples of the mythical connexion of city-building
with fratricide (Origines2, i. 141 ff.) are not to the point; the difficulty is
not that the first city was founded by a murderer, but by a nomad. More
relevant would be the instances of cities originating in hordes of outlaws,
collected by Frazer, as parallels to the peopling of Rome (Fort.
Rev. 1899, Apr., 650-4). But the anomaly is wholly due to composition
of sources: the Cain of the genealogy was neither a nomad nor a
fratricide. It has been proposed (Ho. Gu.) to remove 17b as an addition
to the genealogy, on the ground that no intelligent writer would put
17. On (Hebrew characters), see on v.1.—The vb. (Hebrew characters) appears from Ar. ḥanaka to be a
denom. from ḥanak (Heb. (Hebrew characters)), and means to rub the palate of a new-born
child with chewed dates: hence trop. 'to initiate' (Lane, s.v.; We.
Heid. 173). In Heb. it means to 'dedicate' or 'inaugurate' a house,
etc. (Dt. 205, 1 Ki. 863: cf. (Hebrew characters), Nu. 711, Neh. 1227 etc.); and also to
'teach' (Pr. 226). See, further, on 518.
