Cain and Abel, and Faith, and Buffy...

[Jill_Valentine]

Though season 7 frequently sends me into seizures (Die Spuffy Die!!) Caleb's passing reference to Cain and Abel caught my attention. It's come up a few times lately, so I figure it's worth going into the story in a bit more detail.

Cain and Abel were the first two sons of Adam and Eve, in other words the first people born rather than created. Abel was a sheperd, Cain a farmer. Cain, the elder brother, worked hard to produce wheat, something necessary, whereas Abel herded sheep for meat, leather and wool, essentially luxury items. They both offered sacrifices of their respective produce to God, but God didn't acknowledge Cain's offering. Cain was devastated. God told him basically, hey, no big deal. I didn't reject it, I just didn't accept it. Keep on trucking, you'll be fine. You'll always be tempted by sin, just remember you're the boss of it, right? (Actually what he said was "Surely, if you do right, you can pull yourself together. But if you do not do right, sin knocks at the door; you'll want to sin, yet you rule over that desire." Cain went away feeling slighted and jealous. So jealous, in fact, that he murdered his brother Abel, and then tried to weasel out of questions about it. He woke to visions of his brother's screaming blood. The Big Dude, understandably pissed, cast him out from His Presence to the wilderness and cursed him so that the earth would never produce for him as it had before. He was rejected by his family. He and his wandered, prevented from resting both by other people and by his own conscience. God marked him, so that everybody could see what he had done, but also to forbid anybody tempted to try and take revenge on Abel's behalf from doing so. He founded a city in the wilderness eventually, but in the end his one of his descendants tricked another into murdering him.

The comparison is interesting, because biblical scholars have always been divided by exactly the same rift that splits Buffy and Faith fans. Some side with the virtuous brother Abel and question God's apparently merciful treatment of a killer, the others consider Cain unfairly judged to begin with when he had worked harder for his offering and had a harsher lifestyle. Those who side with Abel wonder why Cain received Gods' protection even when his crime had been revealed. Those who side with Cain wonder why God didn't try to calm the clearly enraged man, or make a real effort to protect Abel. Abel's supporters think it unfair that Cain wasn't properly punished. Cain's feel it unfair that he was never really forgiven after a lifetime suffering for his crime. Abel's folk reckon Cain's sacrifice of fruit and veg wasn't enough, Cain's folk wonder about killing something in the name of God...

So yeah, thought you might find it interesting...

 

[eponinethen]

As always I can't agree with you, the karma/reputation way I mean. And as almost always I do agree with you and find this interesting.
I can even remember how I, as a child when I first heard about Cain and Abel, felt sorry for Cain cause he didn't know what he did wrong, he tried to do right, just like Abel. I never understood what Cain did wrong (before killing Abel) either and I still don't, what made Abel better than Cain? Isn't the most important thing in god's eyes that you try your best?
And that's almost exactly how I feel about Faith.

 

[Frenchy Faith]

I'm not sure to be able to answer this in the right way but there is an important difference between Cain & Faith that you did not mentioned. Unlike Cain, who was raise in the same way Abel was, I mean, they were equal to God & to their parents. Unlike Faith who had bad luck in her childhood. Just thought I would point this out.

& then I can't understand why the hell did "God" rejected Cain's sacrifice. Is it a way of saying don't work to hard & be lazy & I shall reward the laziest? I donno understand how one can side with Abel, since he was the favorite, just because of his nature it seems, & he didn't choose his nature, nor did Cain right since they were born that way? So why did God create different nature, & personality (if he is the essence of everything) if it's then to say ok, I prefer this man to this one. Don't make sense in my opinion. But it might be too theological for a Btvs topic.

To come back to the topic, I would say that I don't see Faith as a sort of Cain coz the difference lies in the background of her childhood. Maybe she can be compared to him for her damnation & then the "salvation" but if she was to know the same kind of fate as Cain, (i.e. murdered by one of his descendant) you know the kind of fate you can't do nothing against it, I think that would be a total nonsense.
Blah blah blah, whatever I don't understand what I meant to say myself, hope you can at least get one of two points in what I said, lol

 

[Jill_Valentine]

😀 Yeah, I get your point. I added the thing about Cains' descendant just so as not to leave you in suspense about how the guy finished up.

I should have mentioned that Cain, according to the Bible, aside from all the internal conflict he suffered, and the whole trauma about being cast out from the presence of God, and all the suffering listed above, was relatively successful, by Biblical standards. The city he founded is, according to the Bible, the first City, and Cain was old when he died. He and his founded all the crafts (Metalworking, etc) and since the big deal in the Bible is how many kids you have, Cain did reeeeally well...

About Cain's upbringing vs. Faiths'... Yeah, Cain agus Abel's upbringing were identical, but Cain's lifestyle was a lot harder, because he was trying to grow food from the ground, and he had to work very hard to do it. Abel, on the other hand, is presented as a sort of free spirited hippy type, running around with his sheep, careless and fancy free. Cain was, until the little tiff with God, faithful and lived a fairly (I'm looking for a word that isn't "Spartan") puritanical lifestyle...

 

[eset]

One thing that is always sort of breezed over in that story is seth, the third son, who in my oppinion is just thrown in at the end by the authors so they didn't have to claim descendence from the first murderer, but oh well.

Cain was the eldest and therefore should have been held in the higher regard, just as Faith was the one that was truely in the slayer line. God, however, ignored this fact, and preferred Abel to Cain despite Cain's status as first born, as Giles/the Watcher's Council seemed to prefer Buffy, who was at that point more of a usurper of Faith's rightful position. While Faith's first murder wasn't premeditated, her going over the the Mayor was, and that i believe is the comparable sin, deliberately undertaking a harmful action to gain favor/cut the other one down to size.

Faith then left Sunnydale for jail, as Cain was cast out by God. Then, against all tradition another userped both positions again. Seth was born to Adam and Eve and traced his descendants down the line to Adraham, and Willow activated all slayers at once. Both of these actions led to Cain and Faith loosing their positions again, relegating tham to a footnot in history. Okay, maybe a paragraph.

 

[Xin Rong]

God im stupid i dont really get this, is there a dummys guide to it or can anyone like put it into buletpoints so dopey **** here can understand it lol

 

[eset]

Here's the current list of things as I see it (would have worked better in two columns, but i don't think I can do that here)

Cain

• Firstborn, rightly should have been favored according to the society
• Abel (his baby brother) was God's favorite, his sacrifice was ignores
• Killed Abel out of jelousy
• Was cast out
• Denied the murder ("Am I my brother's keeper?")
• Was cast out, finally repentant
• Murdered while in exile

Faith

• True Slayer (since technically Buffy was out of the running, what with dying and all)
• Buffy (the other slayer) was the one with friends and seems to have everything going for her
• Joined the Mayor out of a need to be loved, tried to kill Buffy (though Buffy did technically start it)
• Denied any responsibility for her actions
• Moved to LA, went to jail finally repentant
• Attacked with a dagger in prison

Though the stories have two major differences, namely Buffy and Faith both live, and Cain and Abel both die, there are far to many similarities to be completely ignored.