Volume 43: Who Is “everyone”?

WHO IS “EVERYONE”?

Genesis 4 contains one of those statements that becomes more interesting when you slow down and read it alongside the rest of the Bible.

After Cain murders Abel and hears God’s judgment, he becomes afraid of what might happen when others encounter him: “Every one that findeth me shall slay me” (Genesis 4:14).

That immediately raises a question: Who is “everyone”?

The traditional explanation is that Cain feared other descendants of Adam and Eve. Genesis 5:4 tells us Adam “begat sons and daughters,” so there certainly could have been other family members alive by this time.

But Genesis never actually says those were the people Cain feared. Cain does not say, “My brothers will kill me,” “my family will kill me,” or identify anyone specifically. He says, “Every one that findeth me.”

Who walks around the earth seeking someone to devour? (See: Job 2:2, 1 Peter 5:8)

Rather than automatically filling in what Genesis leaves unidentified, perhaps we should examine what the rest of Scripture tells us about the world surrounding Adam and Cain.

THE ANCIENT WORLD MAY HAVE BEEN MORE COMPLEX THAN WE THINK

Genesis begins its account of humanity with Adam, but the Bible reveals that other created beings already existed.

When God asks Job where he was when He “laid the foundations of the earth,” He describes “the morning stars” singing together and “all the sons of God” shouting for joy (Job 38:4–7). Whatever else we conclude, spiritual beings existed before Adam.

Revelation 12:7–9 describes war in heaven and Satan and his angels being cast “into the earth.” That becomes especially interesting when Genesis opens with the earth “without form, and void” and “darkness… upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2), because Scripture repeatedly associates rebellious spiritual powers with darkness. Paul speaks of “the rulers of the darkness of this world” and “spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12), while Peter and Jude describe rebellious angels being confined in darkness (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6).

This does not mean darkness itself is inherently evil, nor does Genesis explicitly say its darkness resulted from Satan being cast down. But when these passages are considered together, they give us reason to consider a supernatural presence surrounding the earth before Adam appears in the Genesis narrative.

ANGELS COULD LOOK LIKE PEOPLE

The Bible also reveals something easily overlooked when thinking about the ancient world: angels did not always appear supernatural.

Genesis 18 describes heavenly visitors appearing to Abraham as “three men.” When two arrive in Sodom, Genesis identifies them as angels (Genesis 19:1), yet the people encountering them perceived them as men.

Hebrews makes the point even clearer: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2).

If people could encounter angels without realizing it, Scripture establishes that heavenly beings could appear indistinguishable from ordinary human beings.

Genesis 6 adds another mysterious dimension when “the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives” (Genesis 6:2). Genesis 6:4 then mentions the Nephilim, translated “giants” in the KJV, and says the sons of God “came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them.”

None of this exactly identifies Cain’s “every one.” It simply means we should allow the whole Bible to inform what we understand to have been possible in the ancient world.

WHAT ABOUT ANCIENT HUMAN REMAINS?

Science has discovered ancient hominin remains dated much earlier than many traditional biblical chronologies place Adam. Christians do not need to fear those discoveries as a contradiction to our faith, nor should we automatically assume we know exactly what every skeletal discovery represents.

Could biologically humanlike populations have existed outside the particular lineage Genesis follows through Adam? Could the ancient world have involved realities more complicated than our traditional explanations allow?

Those are legitimate questions.

Scripture tells us spiritual beings existed before Adam. It tells us angels could appear as men. It describes “sons of God” interacting with “daughters of men.”

Therefore, we should not assume that the few individuals Genesis names represent everything that existed.

As you continue to read, understand that what is possible is not the same as proven, but what is unexplained is not the same as impossible.

CAIN WAS ALREADY CONNECTED TO THE ENEMY

This is where the New Testament adds an important detail to Cain’s story.

John writes, “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother” (1 John 3:12). Cain was “of that wicked one.”

Jesus gives us even more context when He describes the devil: “He was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).

Consider the progression. God creates humanity in His image. The serpent attacks those image-bearers through deception in Genesis 3. By Genesis 4, one image-bearer murders another. The New Testament then connects Cain with “that wicked one,” whom Jesus identifies as “a murderer from the beginning.”

We therefore do not have to speculate about whether satanic influence belongs somewhere in Cain’s story. Scripture itself makes that connection.

The murderer from the beginning had influenced murder among God’s image-bearers.

WHO WAS CAIN EXPECTING TO FIND HIM?

This brings us back to Cain’s actual words. “Every one that findeth me shall slay me.” Who did Cain expect might find him?

Cain later leaves “the presence of the LORD” and dwells “in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden” (Genesis 4:16). He has a wife, a son, and eventually builds a city (Genesis 4:17). Genesis gives us glimpses of an expanding world as Cain moves away from the presence of the LORD, without stopping to explain every person or population within it.

Why? Because Satan is never the focus of Scripture—Christ is. Jesus said the Scriptures “testify of me” (John 5:39), and Luke says He revealed “in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27).

When we combine that with what the rest of Scripture reveals about the supernatural world, Cain’s statement deserves more examination than simply assuming we already know who “every one” meant.

The point is not to manufacture an answer. The point is to examine everything Scripture gives us before confidently declaring that we already have one.

SOMETIMES WE FEAR WHAT WE HAVE ALREADY RELEASED

Whatever Cain feared, there is something painfully human about his response.

Cain showed no mercy when he murdered Abel, yet afterward he became terrified that someone might murder him. The man who had taken somebody else’s life suddenly became deeply concerned about preserving his own. We still do this.

The dishonest person worries about being lied to. The person secretly cheating becomes suspicious of everyone else’s loyalty. The manipulator questions everybody’s motives. The person who talks about others becomes nervous when people begin talking without them.

Paul later gives us the principle: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Cain had released violence and suddenly became terrified that violence might return to him.

God did not dismiss Cain’s concern. Genesis 4:15 says God pronounced vengeance against anyone who killed Cain and then “set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.” God responds to the reality that someone could find and kill Cain, even though Scripture still does not identify who that “any” might include.

THE REAL WAR WAS BIGGER THAN CAIN AND ABEL

When Genesis is read alongside the rest of Scripture, Cain and Abel become part of something much larger than sibling rivalry.

The attack against God’s image-bearers continues throughout Scripture until God Himself enters human history in Jesus Christ. And then the murderer’s kingdom turns its violence toward Him.

Christ is betrayed, beaten, crucified, and placed in a grave. But this time death does not win. Jesus rises.

What begins in Genesis with deception, sin, violence, and death ultimately demonstrates why humanity desperately needed a Savior.

THE MURDERER DOESN’T GET THE LAST WORD

So who is “everyone”? Who did Cain expect to encounter? Why was he convinced that anyone finding him would kill him? Genesis does not focus on answering that question.

Scripture offers a greater revelation: “Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24).

Abel’s blood cried from the ground because a murderer had taken his life. Christ’s blood speaks because the Savior gave His life.

So when we ask, “Who is ‘everyone’?” we do not have to expound on dark mysteries. But the complete Bible reveals something much bigger: humanity’s story has never involved humanity alone. A spiritual conflict has surrounded God’s image-bearers from the beginning.

And the story that begins with deception, an unacceptable offering, bloodshed, and death ultimately points us to the One who came to defeat them all—Jesus Christ.