Rereading the Tanḥuma’s Rewriting of the Cain and Abel Narrative

In Midrash Tanḥuma ha-Nidpas, the death of Abel at the hands of his jealous brother Cain is retold in an extended discourse that introduces new twists and turns into the plot, supplies new dialogues, and paints in new characters. Though expressed in a single authorial voice, the text is not of whole cloth. While some interpretations appear to have been taken from the work designated in Jacob ben Ḥananel Sikili’s Yalkut Talmud Torah as “Yelammedenu”, others known from Genesis Rabba seem to have been incorporated with substantial reformulation. This paper will examine the relationship between the parables (meshalim) in Genesis Rabba 22:9 and Tanḥuma ha-Nidpas Bereshit 9. In the former, God is likened to the host of a gladiatorial combat who commanded the loser’s death, while the latter presents God as a passive bystander who failed to intervene in a fight and was blamed by witnesses. In both cases God is held responsible for the murder committed by Cain. After examining each parable in its own right, this paper will draw attention to the differences between them to ask what principles shaped the Tanḥuma’s reformulation. Focusing on the absence of gladiatorial imagery, the paper will ask why the Tanḥuma conveyed its interpretation without assuming knowledge of the rules of gladiatorial combat and whether this changes the meaning of the parable. Drawing attention to the studies of Dov Weiss, Tova Sacher, Arnon Atzmon, and Matthew Goldstone on the criticism of God for ethical dilemmas in Scripture found throughout the Tanḥuma corpus, it will be suggested that the Tanḥuma’s reformulation makes the element of critique explicit by relating its interpretation to the biblical text in a different way. By thus showing how the parable was crafted and recrafted, this paper will shed light on the relationship between Genesis Rabba and Tanḥuma ha-Nidpas and on how the latter sought to explain Genesis 4 to a different intended audience.