mark of Cain

• Mark of Cain

• From: 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Genesis, 4:15

• And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

mark of Cain (plural marks of Cain)

1. A mark of divine protection imposed on Cain, a biblical figure, for murdering his brother Abel.

   The Bible vaguely describes the mark of Cain; it does not specify its exact nature.

   • 2011, anonymous author, United Church of God‎^[1]:

     If that is true, whatever the mark of Cain was, God removed His protection.

   • 2021, Troy Lacey, Answers in Genesis‎^[2]:

     The mark of Cain was a one-time act of mercy for a rebellious sinner, but the marks Christ bears were from a once-for-all sacrifice given for the sins of rebellious mankind.

   • 2024, Bethany Verrett, Bible Study Tools‎^[3]:

     The Mark of Cain was most likely a physical mark left by God on Cain’s head, which demonstrated to the world He had God’s protection; ultimately, the Bible does not need to go into more detail, because what the specific mark was is not important, rather the love of God’s forgiveness and mercy is the important message.

2. (rare) A stigma of shame.

   When the engineer's design failed, he received a mark of Cain causing others to choose not to work with him.

   • 2009, quarkstomper, “Mark Of Cain”, in The Arcana Wiki‎^[4]:

     A genetic defect might metaphorically be referred to as a "Mark of Cain"

   • 2021, Andrew Dalton, “Harvey Weinstein: 1 sexual assault count dismissed, for now”, in The Seattle Times‎^[5]:

     Werksman called the jail clothes a “mark of Cain” that branded his client a criminal in photos and video from the courtroom.

   • 2024, anonymous author, “Gallant, after being fired, warns Israel is abandoning captives, risks ‘mark of Cain’”, in The Times of Israel‎^[6]:

     Yoav Gallant, speaking after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly fired him from the role of defense minister, warned that Israel would forever bear “the mark of Cain” if it abandons the hostages held in Gaza, and saluted the IDF, hostages and fallen soldiers in a forceful denunciation of the government from which he was dismissed.

3. (obsolete, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) The darker skin found on people of non-European descent, believed to result from being a supposed descendant of Cain.
   • 1849, John Fletcher, Studies on slavery, page 443:

     That the descendants of Cain were black, inheriting the mark of Cain.

   • 1851, Josiah Priest, Bible Defence of Slavery, W.S. Brown, page 476:

     He who would harbor the inhuman, sacriligious thought, let him be anathematized by heaven; let him receive the mark of Cain, and be driven from the pale of civilized society, to wander a fugitive and a vagabond on the Earth.

   • 1852, Committee on Slavery of the Convention of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts, Report of the Committee on Slavery, to the Convention of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts, Press of T. R. Marvin, page 443:

     And we have no more reliable evidence of any personal apportionment of the three great division of the eastern hemisphere, between the three sons of Noah, or their descendants respectively, at any period whatever, than for the very learned and discriminating hypothesis, which has attributed the sable complexion of the negro to the mark of Cain and hence deduced an argument for African enslavement!

• mark of Cain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia