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It is only at the beginning of Gen. 4 that we hear that \u2018the human knew Eve, his woman, and she conceived and bore Cain, and she said \u201cI have got me a man with the Lord\u201d, and she bore as well his brother Abel.\u2019\u00a0 Most readers of the Bible will recognize the translation of the Hebrew term for having sexual intercourse as \u2018to know\u2019 implying sexual intimacy.\u00a0 Usually this term has a positive connotation but sometimes it refers to illegitimate intercourse, that is a sin, a violation of Biblical ethics.<\/p>\n
One of the things that most often gets lost in translation is Hebrew word play, so for instance when Eve says \u2018I have got me a man\u2019. the verb\u00a0qanah <\/em>is punned on in the naming of her first child. Cain which is qayin<\/em> .\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Why is this important?\u00a0 Because in this ancient society names often connote something about the nature of the one named or about the significance of this person.\u00a0 So for instance the name Jacob means \u2018heel snatcher\u2019 and refers not only to the apparent struggle to get out of the womb first by dragging Esau out of the way, but later the attempt to snatch his birth rite, the rite of the first born.\u00a0 One thing that should already be apparent in the Genesis story is that the Biblical writer portrays characters with real flaws, real sins, sometimes very serious sins, as we are about to see. These are not characters in a fairy tale where \u2018never was heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day\u2019.\u00a0 These are genuinely self-centered and sinful persons.<\/p>\nThe mention of Abel being a sheep herder, and Cain being a tiller of the soil is important because it makes clear that this is not a story about cave men, or Neanderthal man, but a story from much later in the development of human progress\u2013 agriculture in particular comes from about 7,000 B.C. or so at the earliest and was coupled with the rise of village life, so far as archaeology can tell us.\u00a0 Before that was a period of being hunter gatherers but neither Cain nor Abel are those sorts of folks, and further more, they both marry women which the evidence does not suggest came from Adam and Eve.\u00a0 \u00a0In other words, the Biblical writer is telling the story of the origins of God\u2019s people, not all of humankind.\u00a0 Other peoples like the Hittites or the Moabites or the Philistines only come into the picture as they cross paths with God\u2019s people.\u00a0 There is nothing in Gen. 1-4 that suggests that homo sapiens could not have begun in various places on the earth, and that at some point interacted with, and even intermarried with God\u2019s people.\u00a0 \u00a0This is what Joshua Swamidass, a biologist who teaches at Washington University in St. Louis argues in his fascinating book\u00a0The Genealogical Adam and Eve. The Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry <\/em>(IVP).<\/p>\nScholars have long debated why Abel\u2019s offering to God was acceptable but Cain\u2019s was not, but perhaps the most basic clue is that Abel offered \u2018the choice firstlings of the flock\u2019 where as it simply says Cain brought from the fruit of the soil.\u00a0 Was there a difference in the quality of the gift, and only Abel offered \u2018first fruits\u2019?\u00a0 Perhaps so.\u00a0 In any case, the text says Cain became incensed when God regarded Abel\u2019s but not Cain\u2019s offering.\u00a0 And then there is this famous speech by God to Cain rendered as follows by Alter:\u00a0 \u201cWhy are you incensed, and why is your face fallen?\u00a0 For whether you offer well, or whether you do not, at the tent slap sin crouches, and for you it is longing, but will you rule over it? (or you will rule over it).<\/p>\n
And immediately after this Cain entices Abel to go out to the field, and there Cain slays Abel. Notice that twice the phrase \u2018his brother\u2019 comes up making clear the horror of the first murder among God\u2019s people involving fratricide.\u00a0 \u00a0God asks Cain where is Abel, and Cain demurs, saying, as Tyndale (and Alter following him) put it\u2014 \u2018I know not, am I my brother\u2019s keeper\u2019?\u00a0 And yes, he should have been that kind of brother.<\/p>\n
The Hebrew is very graphic at this point with the text reading \u201cyour brothers blood cries out to me from the soil\u201d and as a consequence the soil thereafter was not going to co-operate with Cain\u2019s tilling of it. \u201cAnd so cursed\u00a0 shall you be by the soil that drank with its mouth to take the blood of Abel from your hand\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0Cain complains his punishment is more than he can bear.\u00a0 \u00a0Cain says he\u2019s being driven from the soil and from God\u2019s very presence, and is destined to be a restless wanderer upon the earth.\u00a0 There is a further word play with the word Nod, the land where he is going to go, as Nod is cognate with the noun wanderer.\u00a0 \u00a0Cain fears he will be defenseless and will be killed but God promises sevenfold vengeance on whoever kills him \u201cAnd the Lord set a mark upon Cain so that whoever found him would not slay him\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0Clearly the narrative implies there are other human beings on the earth that might find him and kill him, who are not members of his immediate family.\u00a0 \u00a0 So the story goes on to say Cain knew his wife, and she conceived Enoch, and Cain became a builder of a city, and called the name of the city like his son\u2019s name.\u00a0 There then follows Cain\u2019s genealogy which involves\u00a0 Lamech who had 2 wives,\u00a0 \u00a0who had a son named Jabal, said to be the first tent dweller with livestock, and he had a brother named Jubal the first to play the lyre and the pipe.\u00a0 The reference to building a village, again points to a time well after homo erectus or the beginnings of homo sapiens, well after cave dwellers as well.<\/p>\n
Lest we think the story of Adam and Eve is over, at 4.25 the human final gets his name\u2013 Adam, which comes from his origin in the soil.\u00a0 And we hear that Eve bears a son which she sees as a replacement for Abel, with his name being Seth.\u00a0 And what is interesting at this point we are told Seth had a son named Enosh, \u201cand it was then that the name of the Lord was first invoked\u201d by which is meant Yahweh.\u00a0 This has puzzled scholars forever because according to Exodus, that name was first revealed to Moses, perhaps at the burning bush.\u00a0 \u00a0But we have to remember that there are various indicators in the text, that the text we have has undergone considerable editing over many years, and there are various retrospective comments like this one.\u00a0 \u00a0The point perhaps would be that God only revealed his personal name to his chosen people, perhaps even before Moses, but it was forgotten when slavery happened and the Hebrews were in Egypt, and so Moses had to be told, in order to make a new start with God\u2019s people.<\/p>\n
The way I would explain what is going on in Gen. 2-4 is: 1) this is the tale of the origins of God\u2019s chosen people, not the tale of the origins of all people: 2) however since God\u2019s people were supposed to be a light to all the other peoples, affecting them,\u00a0 the actions of God\u2019s people were of paramount importance.\u00a0 So, Adam, would be seen by the Biblical writers as the \u2018federal\u2019 head of all humanity, such that his actions affected all of humanity, as Rom. 5.12-21 says.\u00a0 as the Genesis story itself intimates, it did not mean he was literally the progenitor of the whole human race.\u00a0 \u00a0So, from a theological point of view\u2014 the actions of the first Adam affected the fallen character of the rest of the race, just as the actions of the last Adam, namely Christ, can potentially affect and save the whole human race if they will believe in him.\u00a0 None of us are literal descendants of Christ as he had no children, but by grace and through faith, we are \u2018in Christ\u2019 as Paul puts it, or as he also says, we are Christ\u2019s brothers and sisters, and co-heirs with him of the Kingdom.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 It is only at the beginning of Gen. 4 that we hear that \u2018the human knew Eve, his woman, and she conceived and bore Cain, and she said \u201cI have got me a man with the Lord\u201d, and she bore as well his brother Abel.\u2019\u00a0 Most readers of the Bible will recognize the translation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":68479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15079],"class_list":["post-68728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-what-a-tangled-web-we-sinners-weave"],"yoast_head":"\n
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