Steinbeck's Genesis
At the heart of Steinbeck's East of Eden are the first sixteen verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis, which tell the story of Cain and Abel. These verses reveal to us what we may consider humanity's second sin: the sin of fratricide. Steinbeck derives his argument against fatalism by accepting an alternate translation of the original Hebrew word timshel (Genesis 4:7), choosing instead to give humanity the choice, rather than the divine promise or imperative, to conquer sin.
I'll leave it to theologians to debate whether or not Steinbeck's philological argument is sound. Regardless, Steinbeck's posture on the power of the Bible and its stories is one that values close reading of the text.
In my first year at Stanford, I took The Conscience, an Introsem taught by Professor Esther Yu. In the first week of the course, we performed a close reading of the KJV Genesis 4 — the exact exercise that Steinbeck certainly performed while writing East of Eden. It made for rich panning.
Below are the sixteen verses, pulled from the King James Bible, side-by-side with my annotations, crafted and updated over years of close reading. This is an organic body of annotations that continues to grow as my understanding of the text evolves over time.
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;
When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
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.
And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
“knew”
The word "knew" here is a translation of the Hebrew verb yada (ידע). In Genesis 4:1, "And Adam knew Eve his wife" uses yada as an euphamism for sexual intercourse.
Yada is an extremely common and broad Hebrew verb meaning "to know" in essentially all the ordinary senses: to know facts, to know a person, to perceive, to understand, to experience. It's core sense is knowledge gained through direct experience and relationship, an embodied knowledge, in contrast to knowledge gained through abstract or theoretical knowledge.
This is why it can stretch to cover sexual intimacy: the idea is intimate, experiential knowing of another person.