The short answer to the question of the brother’s occupations is that Cain and Abel are representations ancient feud between farmers and shepherds. Two careers that might seem similar today were two very different professions in biblical times and they often quarreled among each other both physically and mentally. Additionally, the brothers embodied the long feud between the northern state of Israel and the southern state of Judah.\u00a0In fact, much of the Genesis family lineage is nothing more than commentary on existing people groups (at the time of writing).<\/p>\n
In the story of Cain and Abel, Cain is personified as the wayward people of Israel who wished to have king and build cities and worship foreign gods like their neighbors in the east. The comparing of Israel with Babylon was a common theme in the biblical texts. The Babylonians were city building people who valued farming and civilized living over the dirty and rustic ways of the nomadic herders. Abel is a representation of Judah, a smaller younger nation who was faithful to YHWH and idealized the simplistic idea of a simple life of tent dwelling herders. Judah retained the nomadic herdsmen life style much longer than that of their neighbors in the north and the pro-Judea\/pro-Davidic biblical texts tends to idolize the shepherd life style and the great shepherd king from Judah, David. Some have even made the case that Saul and David are another representation of the “younger son” or “Judah over Israel” motif but the link is harder to establish.<\/p>\n
\n
Terminology to Know<\/h3>\n
\n
Before reading this article it might be helpful to understand a few terminologies that might not be recognized by those who are not familiar with the Near East. When referencing the ancient Near East there are some generic locations that should be known as generalized regions. The Levant is typically everything on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea up to the Syrian and Arabian deserts. Nations such as Israel, Lebanon, Edom, and Syria are all located in the Levant. Going east from Syria one will enter into what is generally labeled Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was where nations like Assyria, Babylon, and Sumer were locations. These nations can cause some confusion as they were named after the cities that were the center of the empire. While Babylon was an ancient city, it was also a part of the Babylonian Empire. On the map below. Israel is in blue, the Levant in red, and Mesopotamia in Green. These regions make up what is usually called the Fertile Crescent.<\/p>\n Smaller regions within these larger ones will be shown on subsequent maps.<\/p>\n A few words should be defined for accuracy.<\/p>\n Before mass farming in the Levant was common most people were assembled in family tribes and lived semi-nomadic lives in tents. They migrated often, chasing grasslands for their livestock to feed on and trying to avoid territorial conflicts. They were considered a rugged, outdoorsy, and barbarous people. They often lived in the hill country or pastures along rivers where fresh running water could be found coming down the mountains. Some dwelt in the wilderness of the desert places where wells were available and some foliage could still grow. For the most part they were left alone to live in peace with the exception of inter-tribal feuds and conflicts such as the one between Lot and Abram in Genesis 13. The southern portion of the Levant was not necessarily better lands for herding but they were much harder to farm. As such farming in Judah and the Negev developed much later than it did in the northern portion of the Levant. The rocky hill country and deserts of Mesopotamia also developed farming later than the more fertile regions, but even their less fertile regions were developed long before their neighbors in the Levant. [1]<\/sup><\/a>John W Flight, “The Nomadic Idea and Ideal in the Old Testament”, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 42, No. 3\/4 (1923), pg 165-168.<\/span><\/span>![\"Levant,](\"http:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Levant-Israel-Mesopotamia-in-the-Fertile-Crescent.png\")
<\/a>\n
\nLife as a Nomadic Herdsman<\/h2>\n
\n