Genesis 4: Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "I have gotten a man with the help of YHWH". She again bare his brother Abel. The Hebrew word used for again (yasaph) is an adverb meaning to continue to do a thing. Yasaph implies that Eve gave birth to Cain and continued to do the same thing by giving birth to Abel. In other words, Cain and Abel were twins. The profession of Abel was shepherd and Cain was a farmer and city builder.
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The tradition of twins as the progenitors of tribal units or city builders is very well documented in Semitic and Indo-European cultures. When birth order is specified, the younger twin always receives the blessing over the first born brother. In the account of the sons of Adam, the first born twin is envious of the second and commits fratricide. There are many variations on this theme in other twin genesis accounts. Jacob is fearful that Esau will kill him, Romulus killed Remus and Gwyn and Gwythurin in Celtic tradition duel every May.
The Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux, shared a mortal and an immortal existence. Castor was killed on a cattle raid but Pollux persuaded Zeus to allow the brothers to switch places periodically. The word Gemini comes from the PIE root *ym which means 'to pair'. This word is very similar to the Hebrew im mimation suffix but, of course, linguists say they are unrelated (sigh).
Read all of it at Susan's fascinating blog Yam Suph.
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The Indo-European root *ym appears as the Sanskrit Yama (a male) and Yami (a female), who were twins who were offspring of Surya, and who were the first humans, according to the Rig Veda, Book X.
That's intersting! Ym in the Hebrew means sea.
In a sense, the Adam and Eve story conveys the idea of twins, with the man coming forth from the earth as first-born and the woman coming forth from the man's rib, as the second born. Here the earth is masculine and the rib, which is like a rainbow of heaven, is feminine. In other words, there is a gender reversal since the earth is usually spoken of a mother and the heavens as father. Gender reversals in the Bible point to sacred mysteries and imply the inseparable nature of the opposites.
I heard a preacher or should I call him a teacher of the Word, teach that Cain and Abel were twins, but one was from Satan, and the other from Adam. Eve was totally beguiled by the Serpent. We have heard of things like that happening with test tube babies.
Sanda, the notion that Cain was of Satan is not biblical. Cain received great mercy from God and his line intermarried with the line of his brother Seth. Lamech's daughter Naamah (Gen. 4) married his patrilineal cousin Methuselah (Gen. 5) and named their firstborn son Lamech after her father. This was the pattern for cousin brides. Likewise, the lines of Ham and Shem intermarried. That being the case, you would have to say that all the descendants of Cain and Seth are of the Devil, a ridiculous claim!
The promise of the Seed (Jesus Christ) concerns "the Woman" (Gen. 3:15). Eve isn't named until Genesis 3:20. Those who teach the Word of God rightly recognize that the Woman is Mary who brought forth the Son of God.
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