Cainan (from ''Qēnān, Kēnān'') is mentioned in the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

, the Greek translation of the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...

, the

Book of Jubilees The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis (Leptogenesis), is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), where it is ...

and the

genealogy of Jesus The New Testament provides two accounts of the genealogy of Jesus, one in the Gospel of Matthew and another in the Gospel of Luke. Matthew starts with Abraham, while Luke begins with Adam. The lists are identical between Abraham and David, but ...

given in

Luke 3 Luke 3 is the third chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, traditionally attributed to Luke the Evangelist, a companion of Paul the Apostle on his missionary journeys. It contains an account of the preaching of ...

:36 in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

. He is described as a son of

Arpachshad Arpachshad ( he, אַרְפַּכְשַׁד – ''ʾArpaḵšaḏ'', in pausa – ''ʾArpaḵšāḏ''; gr, Ἀρφαξάδ – ''Arphaxád''), alternatively spelled Arphaxad or Arphacsad, is one of the postdiluvian men in the ShemTera ...

and father of Salah, who lived in the time between Noah and

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Je ...

. The postdiluvian Cainan does not appear in the (Proto-)Masoretic Text, the most common Hebrew version of Genesis, where

is noted as the father of Salah. He is also omitted from the writings of the Jewish historian

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

. However Helen Jacobus has argued that the omission from the Masoretic text is deliberate. Despite his name being omitted from the Masoretic text, a substantial number of traditions about this other Cainan exist in the history of literature: According to the ''Book of Jubilees'', Cainan was taught to read by his father, and he found, carved on the rocks by former generations, an inscription preserving the science of

astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

as taught by the Watchers, who had rebelled from God before the deluge. He is also stated to have married a daughter of

Madai Madai (, ; el, Μηδος, ) is a son of Japheth and one of the 16 grandsons of Noah in the ''Book of Genesis'' of the Hebrew Bible. Associated nations Medes and related Iranian nations Biblical scholars have generally identified Madai wit ...

named Melka. The '' Sefer ha-Yashar'' describes Cainan, the possessor of great astrological wisdom, which had been inscribed on tables of stone, as the son of Seth and not of Arpachshad; i.e., the antediluvian

Kenan Kenan (also spelled Qenan, Kaynan or Cainan) (; ar, كِنَاْنْ, Keynān; grc-x-biblical, Καϊνάμ, Kaïnám) is an Antediluvian patriarch first mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. In scriptures According to Gen ...

grandson of Seth according to the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

. In ''The Patriarchal Age: or, the History and Religion of Mankind'' (1854), George Smith writes: Bartolomeo Gai Caynam filius Arphaxad

References

{{Authority control Book of Genesis people Gospel of Luke Book of Jubilees