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 read with critical discrimination, so that in their teachings, we may retain the things consistent with the truth, but condemn and refute all fictions of their own making.

252. If Cain was not married when he slew his brother, it is still more wonderful that after such a wicked deed he obtained a wife at all; and certainly that damsel was worthy the highest praise who married such a man. For how could the maiden rejoice in a marriage with her brother who was a murderer, accursed and excommunicated? She, on her part, no doubt supplicated her father, and expostulated with him and asked how he could give her, an innocent one, in marriage to a man thus accursed, and force her into banishment with him. Nay, the very example of her brother's murder must have naturally filled her with terror, lest the crime which her husband committed on his brother he might also dare to commit on her, his sister and his wife.

253. In bringing about this marriage, Adam obviously had to exercise marvelous eloquence. It was for him to convince his daughter that the father's command was not to be disobeyed, and that while Cain, curse-ridden, would have to bear the penalty of his sin, God would still preserve and bless her, the innocent one.

Nor do I entertain the least doubt that God conferred many personal blessings upon Cain, down the whole line of his posterity, for the sake of his wife, who, from motives of faith toward God and of obedience toward her parents, had married her murderous brother.

As Christ was the minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to establish the certainty of the promise made unto the Jewish fathers; and as, in the absence of a promise, he was the minister of the Gentiles, because of the mercy of God, (Rom 15, 8-9), so the like uncovenanted mercy was shown also to the posterity of Cain. These two opinions have been expressed concerning the marriage of Cain, but which is the truth I know not. If Cain was married after he committed the murder, his wife is most certainly worthy of all praise and of all fame, who could thus yield to the authority of her parents, and suffer herself to be joined in marriage with an accursed murderer.

254. To myself, the first opinion appears to be much nearer the truth, that he murdered his brother after his marriage with his sister; because we have so clear a testimony in the text concerning the division of the inheritance. And in that case, the necessity lay on the wife to follow her husband. As wife and husband are one body and one flesh, Adam had no desire to separate them; moreover, the wife is bound to bear her part of the calamities of her husband. Just in the same manner as the posterity of Cain enjoyed a part of those blessings which were bestowed of God upon the innocent wife, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was saved in the time of Joseph, and the King of Nineveh was saved in the time of his calamity, although neither of them belonged to the people of God. And so I also believe that some were saved out of the posterity of Cain, although Cain himself had utterly lost the promise concerning the blessed seed.

B. THE POSTERITY OF CAIN IN DETAIL; THE GENERATIONS OF CAIN.
* The names were given to the descendants of Cain, not by accident, but by special thought and with a definite meaning [255].
1. Of Enoch.
a. The meaning of his name [255-256].
b. Is the first in Cain's posterity and the beginning of the temporal blessing [256].
* Why Cain built a city [257-258].
2. Irad and the meaning of his name. It was not given without a purpose [259].
3. Mehujael and the meaning of his name [260].
* The means the false church uses to suppress the true Church [260].
4. Methushael and the meaning of his name [261].
5. Lamech.
a. What his name signifies [262].
* Cain's descendants persecute the true Church. Yet some of Cain's posterity were saved [263].
b. The reason he took two wives [264].
c. Who were his wives [265].
d. His sons, Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-cain, and his daughter Naamah [266-268].
* Why Moses mentions the various arts of Cain's descendants [269].
* Whether poverty drove Cain's descendants to the arts [269-270].
* As the false church was before the flood so is she still, and will remain so to the end of the world [271].
* How the Cainites increased and oppressed the true Church [272].
* Why the Scriptures do not mention that some of the Cainites were saved [272].
e. Of his haughty speech, "I have slain a man etc."
(1) This is difficult to understand, and has been poorly treated by interpreters [273].
(2) The fable explanation of these words by the Jews refuted [274-275].
(3) How others explained them [275].
(4) Luther's understanding of them [276-277].
f. Whether Lamech slew Cain, and thereby made himself famous [278].
g. How he attempted to be ruler upon Adam's death [279].
* How the Church is oppressed from both sides [279].
* Why Moses mentions the blood descendants of Cain with such care [280].
h. Cain is not sorry for his deed, but even boasts of it [281].
* The nature of the Cain church [281].
i. How he seeks to avoid being slain by others [282].
* The pope has the conscience of Cain and Lamech [282].
j. He is a type of all the children of this world [283].
* How the devil drives the Cainites to rage against the Church under the guise of being holy [284].
* The true Church from the very beginning had to shed her blood [285].
* The tyranny of Popes Julius II and Clement VII [285].
* God at all times severely punished the persecutors of his Church [286].
k. How Lamech still wished to defend his deed [287].
l. He had no Word of God, but was filled with pride [288].