Onslaught Against Innocence

An analytical study of the biblical myth of Cain and Abel, revealing the narrative intricacies and the profound insights of the story.


This is a literary-critical analysis of the myth of Cain and Abel, masterfully related in Genesis 4 by the Yahwist, probably the greatest storyteller in the Hebrew Bible. The Yahwist (commonly refered to as J, responsible for much of the Chapters 2-11 of Genesis) narrates the initial slaughter of one human being by another, and strikingly, it is described as fratricidal.

Onslaught Against Innocence explores the anthropological, theological, and psychological dimensions of this universal myth. LaCocque provides a close reading of J’s story by using literary and psychological criticism, revealing that the biblical author has more than an “archaeological” design. Rather, his characters – including God, Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel, plus minor figures – are paradigmatic, and as such they allow J to proceed with a fine analytical feel for the nature of evil. LaCocque shows that this well known story is much more than it seems at first sight; it is a portrait of a humanity that is always torn between the innocence of Eden and its denial; between what J calls “doing well” and “not doing well”.

André LaCocque is Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible at Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, and the founding Director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Studies at CTS. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Ruth: A Continental Commentary (Augsburg Fortress), Esther Regina: A Bakhtinian Reading (Northwestern University Press), and the trilogy on innocence in the Hebrew Bible, The Trial of Innocence: Adam, Eve and the Yahwist (Wipf and Stock), Onslaught Against Innocence: Cain, Abel and the Yahwist, and The Captivity of Innocence: Babel and the Yahwist (both from Cascade). He also coauthored Thinking Biblically:Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies with Paul Ricoeur.