Urban legends have always existed. The Internet has multiplied and accelerated them, but human beings have always been susceptible to falling for the oft-told tale that’s too fantastic not to believe.
Among the Saints we have our regulars: The Three Nephites picked up as hitch-hikers. Comedian and actor Steven Martin seen wearing a CTR ring. A prophecy of the Restoration by an 18th-century Catholic priest.
Perhaps the best-known of these has the imprimatur of a modern apostle: The idea that Cain, son of Adam and Eve and the first murderer, still walks the earth today.
Now, nowhere in scripture, ancient or modern, is it declared that Cain would or did live beyond his mortal years. No mention is made of his death, but we do read of Lamech, Cain’s great-great-great-grandson, who made the same covenant with Satan that Cain did. This covenant is described as being had “from [or since] the days of Cain,” which seems to indicate that Cain was dead by this time. (See Moses 5:51.)
In any case, the scripture is ambiguous, and so the door is left open for all kinds of speculation about what happened to the man from the land of Nod. And hence began a Mormon urban legend.
The notion that Cain somehow lived on, survived the Flood, and roams the earth today, is based on a single claim of David W. Patten supposedly meeting “a very strange personage,” dark and hairy, who “was a wanderer in the earth and and traveled to and fro.” (Thus managing to tie Cain to another popular urban legend: Bigfoot.)
This account was published in a biography of Patten written by Lycurgus Wilson in 1900. Wilson had a letter from Abraham Smoot giving his recollection of what Patten said. In historical parlance this is what is called a late, third-hand account—the sort of thing most historians would dismiss. This kind of testimony is simply unreliable, tainted by the passage of time and the fog of memory.
The story probably would have been forgotten if then-Elder Spencer W. Kimball hadn’t included it on pages 127–28 of The Miracle of Forgiveness. Kimball’s book has become a staple of Mormon reading, the book that many bishops give to members struggling with sin and many mission presidents assign their missionaries to read.
The passage where Kimball quotes Wilson is really unnecessary to the chapter itself, which is about unforgivable sins, including murder. He cites several examples of murderers in the scriptures, beginning with Cain. He then throws in, almost as a passing idea, “an interesting story” about Cain.
And so, quite innocently, Spencer W. Kimball perpetuated a Mormon myth that could (and should) have died out long ago.
I’ve done some research on this folktale and found evidence that it was reasonably well known in the nineteenth century; Eliza Snow mentions the Patten event in passing in a poem, and the context of Smoot’s letter indicates it was a response to Joseph F. Smith, who was requesting more information on Patten’s story (which he knew about before the letter was written). Abraham Cannon’s diary indicates the Quorum of the Twelve discussed the possibility that Cain was still alive. Similarly, the Fife Folklore Archives at Utah State and the Wilson folklore collection at BYU contains dozens of Cain stories from as early as the 1920s.
Now of course, all of this is not evidence that Patten actually had such an encounter; rather, it’s evidence that the story has been widely circulated throughout Mormon history. So, given all that, it’s probably safe to say that Kimball’s citation was more a symptom than a cause. And ironically, it’s only after Kimball’s revocation of the priesthood ban that Cain is increasingly association with Bigfoot rather than with the supposedly cursed African race. (My article, by the way, was in the fall 2007 JMH, and will be reprinted in a couple of anthologies coming out later this year – Between Pulpit and Pew published by USU and Signature’s A Mormon Studies Reader.)
Thanks for your comment, Matt. I linked to the Fall 2007 JMH table of contents in my post (the TOC is available online; the article itself isn’t). I hope more people get a chance to read it.
FAIR receives “ask the apologist” questions through our web site that are answered by volunteers. This question has come up twice recently. People today seem to be aware of this story only because they read it in MoF.
Why all the hate for Cain/Bigfoot? Is it just because of his large shoe size? I always love this story and when I refer to it I love to watch people’s reactions. He.He.
Weird. I have never heard of this story. I have attended church in many different places so I wonder why you call this a well-known story. Is it only well-known to a certain region or generation of people (or a certain generation of repentant people who were encouraged to read Miracle of Forgiveness and actually read the whole thing)?
“Urban legends have always existed.”
Pfff. That’s an old Mormon myth.
I first “learned” that Cain was Bigfoot in Sunday school. Of course, the story I heard was that Joseph Smith was riding a wagon along and a large, dark, hairy figure was standing in his way. When asked who he was, the figure replied that he was Cain.
This was a rebuttal to the notion that Cain turned black (as in African). Of course he wasn’t black, he was Bigfoot!
Haha…
Cain is Bigfoot! There was the time he and Orrin Porter Rockwell had a big gun battle that became a draw because they both had the ‘long-hair energy shield’ to protect them. They shook hands and parted amicably.
Then there was the story of the couple who Cain helped change their flat tire and he told them to get the food storage together. There are loads of ‘true’ stories of Cain as Bigfoot. 🙂
Then there was this account from Transylvania:
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: For the experiment to be a success, all of the body parts must be enlarged.
Inga: His veins, his feet, his hands, his organs vould all have to be increased in size.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Exactly.
Inga: He vould have an enormous schwanzstucker.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: That goes without saying.
Inga: Voof.
Igor: He’s going to be very popular.
I think FAIR should publish a Twilight-esque love story about Bigfoot/Cain and his teenage girlfriend. That would be super.
Ella: You’re big, you’re hairy, you look like an ape…
Cain: Say it.
Ella: You’re… Bigfoot!
Or perhaps a Cain/Austin Powers crossover?
Ivana: Oh, you are hairy like animal!
Cain: Grr, baby! Very grr!
Ivana: Make love to me, monkey man!
(I apologize for where this has gone. It’s started, and now I’m powerless to stop it.)
I was trying to think of the last time I heard about a Nephite hanging out in a dark parking lot. I couldn’t. Is their disappearance a sign of the Last Days?
The reason the Cain/Bigfoot story won’t die is because he doesn’t have anything to do but walk around in public since the old-growth forests have been cut (he’s kind of sensitive to environmental damage), so he ends up being seen a lot. YouTube is probably next for him. The 3 Nephites, on the other hand, rescued Mormons for a while only because they were tired of tracting in rural China. But now that they are tracting again, you won’t hear of them for quite some time. They would have been more effective if one would rest while the other two worked, since it is kind of an intimidating door approach, but the white bible says they need to stick together.
I have made this statement before to some. The gullibility of some people amazes me in the church sometimes. Nobody seems to have used much critical thinking about this item of folklore. So for the sake of argument, let us take the account at face value. Let’s suppose that the words of Patten have been transmitted essentially correctly about what Cain actually said to him.
So, here, in Patten’s account, we have the words of Cain, a son of perdition, or in other words, a devil. He claimed that he was a translated-like being. And people actually believe that claim. The Lord called Cain a “liar from the beginning” the father of Satan’s lies, for a reason. Why then, would anyone with good sense give heed to them? From the account, Patten never asked to shake Cain’s hand. Doesn’t the scriptures tell us to do precisely that when some being that comes to us claims to have a body?
What proof is there, then, that Cain is a translated being, beyond the words that proceeded from the mouth of a Son of Perdition, words that are lies? So on that level, it is silly to believe it.
Furthermore, since the account was a recollection from many years after the fact, transmitted to us by Wilson, why should we assume that the recollection of what Cain said was transmitted correctly?
I hate to say it, but this article does nothing to prove or disprove the possibility of myth. Some myths die hard for good reason. This is because in many myths there ends up being something that is true behind it, whether or not the myth itself is true.
I find your reading of Moses 5:51 inconclusive. Language structure, perhaps especially from translated sources, can be unreliable when looking for cold hard anthropological or evidentiary truth. That you can read any scripture one way or the other is made apparently easy — just look at the law and how subjective it can seem, according to context. This isn’t to say your reading is wrong. It may well be correct. But I can’t dismiss the myth on just scriptural interpretation, especially in an apologetic setting. One might as well read verses 39 and 40 as supportive of the myth.
Both readings are inconclusive. I find David Patten’s “myth” a rather fascinating story, and even if it ISN’T true, it still resonates true to me within the larger context of other stories that we know to be confirmed and true: three Nephites DO wander the earth, John the Baptist IS transfigured, tribes ARE waiting to be gathered home, the brother of Jared WAS guided by glowing stones, Lehi too WAS guided by a magical device, Joseph Smith DID have gold plates, and so forth.
Yes, not all the myths are true. But this article is a little too dismissive without providing enough substance.