Cain

Son of Adam

❮ Back

Cain

Cain, a son of Adam and Eve, is depicted in the Book of Mormon as an instrument in the service of Satan, establishing a dark legacy that resonated throughout the scriptural narrative. Noted for being a “murderer from the beginning,” Cain’s infamous act of fratricide—killing his brother Abel—is pinpointed as the genesis of secret combinations designed to conceal acts of evil (Ether 8:15). His converse with the adversary led to vile oaths and covenants that sought to protect the perpetrators of such wickedness and promised Cain that his murderous act would go undetected by the world (Helaman 6:27). The deceptive assurances from Satan catalyzed a tradition of conspiracy that not only affected the early inhabitants of the Earth but also resurfaced in the later secret practices of the Gadianton robbers, a malignant society prominent in the Nephite record around 50 BC. These secret combinations, purportedly received by Gadianton not from records but directly from the same tempter of humankind, mimic the patterns of malice and deception rooted in the original account of Cain (Helaman 6:26-27). This passage of secret oaths and covenants, ascribed to Cain, provided a blueprint for future iniquity and underscored the enduring struggle between the forces of righteousness and the perpetuation of evil throughout human history, as noted also among the Jaredites in the time of Akish (Ether 8:15).

❮ Back