The Name of \"Son\"

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain. . .. And again, she bore his brother Abel.
The Name of "Son"
Here the question arises why Moses says: "She bore Cain" and not rather, as below, "She bore her son Seth" [cf. Genesis 4:25]. Yet Cain and Abel were also sons. Why, then, are they not called sons? The answer is that this happens on account of their descendants. Abel, who was slain by his brother, perished physically; but Cain perished spiritually through his sin, and he did not propagate that nursery of the Church and of the kingdom of Christ. All his posterity perished in the flood. Therefore neither blessed Abel nor cursed Cain has the name of son; but it was Seth from whose descendants Christ, the promised Seed, would be born. And so Seth was the first who received the name of son.
Posted in