On the Posterity of Cain and his Exile

“And Cain went out from the face of God, and dwelt in the land of Naid, over against Eden” (Gen. 4:16). Let us here raise the question whether in the books in which Moses acts as God’s interpreter we ought to take his statements figuratively, since the impression made by the words in their literal sense is greatly at variance with truth.

For if the Existent Being has a face, and he that wishes to quit its sight can with perfect ease remove elsewhere, what ground have we for rejecting the impious doctrines of Epicurus, or the atheism of the Egyptians, or the mythical plots of play and poem of which the world is full?

For a face is a piece of a living creature, and God is a whole not a part, so that we shall have to assign to Him the other parts of the body as well, neck, breasts, hands, feet, to say nothing of the belly and genital organs, together with the innumerable inner and outer organs.