Ad Optimum episcopum

And I take great pleasure in seeing the good children, both because of the stability of their character beyond their years and because of their closeness to your reverence, from which one may expect something great from them. Since I saw them approaching me with your letter, I doubled my affection for them. But when I read the letter and saw in it both the providential care for the Churches in your disposition and the diligence concerning the reading of the divine Scriptures, I gave thanks to the Lord and prayed for good things for those who brought us such letters, and above all for the one who wrote to us. You asked about that much-discussed saying, carried about everywhere by everyone, what solution there is for: "Whoever kills Cain entirely will release seven avengers." Through this, you have commended yourself, preserving exactly what Timothy received from Paul, for you are clearly attentive to reading. Then you have roused us elders, already sluggish both in time and in bodily weakness and in the multitude of afflictions (for the many troubles stirred up around us have weighed down our life), yet you have stirred us up, and with a boiling spirit you bring us, who are chilled, back to a moderate wakefulness and vital activity, as you do with animals that hibernate. So the saying is such that it can be understood simply in this way and can admit of a straightforward explanation. The simpler meaning, which can be readily presented to anyone, is this: that Cain must pay a sevenfold penalty for his sins. For it is not just for a righteous judge to assign equal retributions.

but it is necessary that the one who began the evil pay back what is owed with an addition, or else he himself will become better through punishments, and make the rest more prudent by the example. Therefore, since it has been ordained that Cain is to fulfill the penalty for his sins seven times, the one who kills him, it is said, will annul this decree established by divine judgment upon him. This is the meaning that presents itself from the first reading. But since the mind of the more diligent is naturally inclined to investigate the depths, it inquires into the justice: how is it that in the sevenfold fulfillment both the avenged matters are completed? Are the sins seven in number, one being the sin, and seven the punishments for the one? Indeed, Scripture always confines the number of remission of sins within the seven. "How many times," it says, "will my brother sin against me, and I will forgive him" (it is Peter speaking to the Lord); "up to seven times?" Then the Lord's response: "I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven"; for the Lord did not shift to another number, but multiplying the seven, he set the limit within it. And after seven years the Hebrew was released from slavery. And seven weeks of years constituted the renowned Jubilee for the ancients, in which the land rested, and there were cancellations of debts, and release from slavery, and a new life was established, so to speak, from above in the septenary number, the old life in a way receiving its end.

These things are patterns of this age, which, revolving through the seven days, runs past us; in it occur the expiations of the more moderate sins, according to the benevolent care of the good Master, so that we may not be handed over to the endless age for punishment. Now the sevenfold number is due to the affinity with this world, since worldly men ought especially to be penalized by the very things for the sake of which they chose to do evil. And if you were to speak of the avengings in the case of Cain, you will find seven, if you consider the penalties determined by the judge upon him, and thus you will not miss the meaning. Now among the deeds dared by Cain, the first sin is envy, at the preference of Abel. The second is the deceit with which he spoke to his brother, saying, "Let us go into the plain." The third is murder. The fourth is an addition of evil, because the murder of a brother is a greater intensification. The fifth is that Cain, as the first murderer, left an evil example for life. The sixth wrong is that he caused grief to his parents. The seventh is that he lied to God. For when asked, "Where is your brother Abel?" he said, "I do not know." Therefore, seven avengings were loosed when Cain was slain. For since the Lord said, "Cursed is the earth that gaped to receive your brother's blood, and you shall be groaning and trembling on the earth," Cain says, "If you cast me out today from the earth, I will hide from your face, and I will be groaning and trembling on the earth, and everyone who finds me will kill me." To this the Lord says, "Not so; everyone who kills Cain will loose seven avengings.

For since he thought that he would be easily captured by every Cain, because he had no security from the earth—for the earth was cursed by him, and he was deprived of help from God, who was angered at the murder, so that no assistance remained for him either from earth or from heaven—"It will be," he says, "that everyone who finds me will kill me." The Word refutes his error, saying, "Not so," that is, you will not be killed. But he not only conceals the wound, but also adds another crime to the murder, namely falsehood, adding, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" From this point, then, the punishments are enumerated. "The earth is cursed by you." This is one punishment. "Work the earth." This is a second; for some unspeakable necessity is yoked to him, pressing him to the work of the earth, so that even if he wishes, he cannot rest, but is always driven to be tormented by the earth that is hostile to him, which he made cursed by defiling it with a brother's blood. For it is a terrible punishment to live among those who hate, to have an enemy as a housemate, to have unceasing hatred. "Work the earth," that is, being strained by agricultural labors, you will never cease, neither by night nor by day being released from toils, having the compulsion of a master more severe than any other rousing you to the works, and it will not add to give its strength. Yet even if the unceasing labor had some fruit, the toil itself is no moderate torment for one always strained and laboring; but since the labor is unceasing and the toil on the earth fruitless, the fruitlessness of the labors. Groaning and trembling you will be on the earth.

He added two others to the three: a perpetual groan and a trembling of the body, since the limbs no longer had the support of strength. For because he had used the power of the body badly, its tension was taken away from him, so that he was shaken and convulsed, unable to bring bread fearlessly to his mouth, nor to convey drink with his wicked hand after the unholy deed, nor even to attend to his own necessary bodily needs, as he was no longer permitted. Another punishment, which Cain revealed by saying: "If you now cast me out from the earth, I will hide myself from your face." The most grievous punishment for the prudent is separation from God. "And it will be," he says, "that everyone who finds me will kill me." He infers this from the logical sequence of what precedes. If you have cast me out from the earth, if I will hide myself from your face, it remains that I be destroyed by everyone. What then does the Lord do? Not so. But he placed a sign upon him; this is the seventh punishment. And that the punishment is not hidden but is proclaimed by a manifest sign—that this is the author of unholy deeds (for those who reason rightly)—is the most grievous shame of punishments, which also concerning the judgment

We have learned that these will rise to eternal life, and these to eternal shame and reproach. Following this is a related inquiry concerning what Lamech said to his wives: "I have killed a man, and a young man to a bruise." So a wound is one thing, a bruise another, a man one thing, and a young man another. That if vengeance has been exacted sevenfold from Cain, then from Lamech seventy-seven times four hundred and ninety punishments are to be undergone. Unless it is just, if indeed the judgment of God upon Cain is just, so that he should undergo seven punishments; for the one did not learn to kill from another, but this one saw a murderer undergoing punishment. And I, having before my eyes the one who groans and trembles, and the magnitude of the wrath of God, was not chastened by the example; therefore I am worthy to give four hundred and ninety punishments. But some have set out upon a discourse not discordant with the ecclesiastical doctrine, that from Cain until the flood seven generations have passed. And immediately punishment was brought upon the earth, because there was a great outpouring of sin. But the sin of Lamech does not require a flood for its remedy, but rather the one who takes away the sin of the world.