| 词汇 | mark of cain |
| 词源 | mark of Cain. The mark of Cain is not described in the Bi- ble, which simply says in Gen. 4:15: “And the Lord put a mark on Cain . . .” The mark was not made to identify Cain as a murderer, but to warn the world that Cain was con- demned to be forever “a fugitive and a vagabond . . . in the earth,” i.e., that it was forbidden to kill him. Cain, the first born of Adam and Eve, and the first biblical murderer, through jealousy slew his brother Abel, and lied to the Lord that he did not know his whereabouts (“I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?”). The curse of Cain refers to the legend that he was never to die or reach home again. Why Cain’s hair (or Judas Iscariot’s) is traditionally represented as red- dish yellow, or Cain-colored, remains a mystery. Cain and Judas were usually depicted with such hair and beards in an- cient tapestries, but not necessarily because their acts suggested murder or the shedding of blood. The term proba- bly has as much to do with yellow being the traditional color used to depict jealousy and betrayal. |
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