CAIN and HIS FAMILY a Survey of the Scriptural and Legendary Traditions
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CAIN AND HIS FAMILY A Survey of the Scriptural and Legendary Traditions JARED L. OLAR CAIN AND HIS FAMILY JARED L. OLAR (This article appeared in the December 2006 issue of Grace and Knowledge and is used by permission. Jared Olar is a biblical researcher living in Pekin, Illinois. He can be contacted by email at: [email protected]. A free subscription to Grace and Knowledge can be obtained by writing to Dr. Doug Ward, 307 N. Elm St., Oxford, Ohio 45056-1122.) COVER PHOTO: “THE DEATH OF ABEL” BY GUSTAVE DORE 2 I t is one of the best known episodes in the Bible and one of the foundational stories of our culture: the brothers Cain and Abel, the sinner and the saint, and the murder of the saint by the sinner resulting in divine retribution in the form of a curse and an identifying mark on the sinner. But the biblical account of what happened next is not as well known. Expelled from the land of Eden for his sin, Cain later builds a city and becomes the ancestor of a line of Pre-Flood patriarchs. The Cainites subsequently perish in the Flood, and Cain's lineage is blotted out completely. While it is true that all the hopes and striving and accomplishments of Cain and his family ended in vanity and futility, nevertheless the biblical story of Cain and his family was not told in vain. As we shall see in this survey of the ancient scriptural and legendary traditions about Cain and the Cainites, there is much that the Holy Spirit intends us to learn from their story. 3 Introduction: “I have gotten a man . ." After Adam and Eve committed the primal sin and were expelled from the "Paradise" or garden of Eden, they settled near the garden and began their lives of toil and suffering in a world that had been marred by sin. Immediately after the account of their expulsion from Paradise, the story is told in Gen. 4:1-5 of the births of their eldest children: "Adam was intimate with Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, 'I have gotten [Heb. kanah ] a man from God.' She again bore his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. It happened after some time that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstlings of his sheep and of his fatlings. God looked favorably upon Abel and his offering, but He did not regard Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry [Septuagint: 'very sorrowful'], and his 4 face was downcast." Eve's joyful, even triumphant, exclamation at the birth of her firstborn son - - "I have gotten a man from God" -- reminds us of the promise of salvation in Gen. 3:15, in which God prophesies ongoing strife between the Serpent and the Woman, and between the "seed" or offspring of the Serpent and the offspring of the Woman. During the course of this strife, the Woman's seed would crush the head of the Serpent, but the Serpent would strike the Woman's seed in His heel. The birth of Cain may have raised Eve's hopes and expectations, encouraging her that perhaps the promised redemption would be accomplished through Cain. But if she hoped that Cain would be the Redeemer, her hopes would prove to have been misplaced. Setting a pattern that would be repeated many times in the history of the human race and of the Chosen People, the firstborn or the elder son fell into sin while a younger son followed the paths of holiness. This was true not only in the case of Cain and Abel (and the third son Seth, who took Abel's place as progenitor of the righteous seed), but also with the sons of Noah (Shem, apparently the third and youngest son, is almost always listed first) as well as the sons of Terah (again, Abraham, apparently the third and youngest son, is always listed first). This pattern continues with the successive generations of the patriarchs. The promises devolved upon Isaac instead of his older brother Ishmael; upon Jacob instead of his older brother Esau; upon Judah, Levi, and Joseph instead of their older brother Reuben; and upon David instead of any of his seven older brothers. Each time, the offspring of the elder son or sons would express hostility towards the offspring of the younger son, or would even be noted for unfaithfulness to God. 5 Chapter I Cain and his offering However, at first glance Cain seems to be a faithful worshipper of God -- or so it might appear that he was at first. He and his brother Abel both brought their offerings to God, as their parents must have taught them to do. Cain offered God a portion of the fruit of his agricultural labors, and Abel offered God a portion of his flock. But, in some way that the Scriptures do not explain, God made it known that He was pleased with Abel's offering but displeased with Cain's offering. Perhaps, as some have thought, and as some of the ancient legends state, God signaled His approval by sending fire to consume Abel's offering, as He did to the offerings of Gideon and Elijah. The Scriptures do not clearly state what it was about Cain's offering that displeased God. Certainly it is not that offerings of grains or vegetables are inferior to animal sacrifices -- God commanded Israel to sacrifice both vegetables and beasts, and in Psalm 50 and Psalm 51, God explains that, in a real or ultimate sense, the blood of bulls and goats means nothing to Him. Probably the explanation is found in the words of the text, "Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstlings of his sheep and of his fatlings." That is, Cain offered God a portion of his agricultural yield, whereas Abel brought the firstlings and fatlings, the very best of his flock. By implication, Cain was not careful to give God the best he had or the firstfruits of his harvest, indicating that Cain's devotion to God was not as strong as Abel's. 6 As it happens, the Septuagint rendering of Gen. 4:7 is very different from the textual reading found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the later Hebrew Masoretic text. As we saw above, after the sacrifice and God's expression of displeasure, Cain grew angry and his face was downcast. God then confronted Cain. In the Septuagint, the text says: "And the LORD God said to Cain, 'Why have you become angry and why is your face downcast? Have you not sinned if you have brought it rightly, but not rightly divided it? Be still -- to you shall be his submission, and you shall rule over him.'" (Gen. 4:6-7) "Not rightly divided it" suggests that Cain had offered God an imperfect sacrifice, keeping the better part of the harvest for himself. But in his City of God , St. Augustine of Hippo presented a different interpretation of the Septuagint's "not rightly divided." According to St. Augustine, Cain gave God some of his possessions but did not give God what He really wanted -- his heart. Cain did not have faith, as indicated by Heb. 11:4, which says that it was by faith that Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. In other words, Cain's heart was disposed to evil, and that evil disposition would shortly display itself with Cain's murder of his brother, as St. John said: "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." (I John 3:11-12) 7 In contrast to the Septuagint's "not rightly divided" reading, the Hebrew Masoretic and the Dead Sea Scrolls show the following version of Gen. 4:6-7 "And the LORD said to Cain, 'Why are you angry, and why is your face downcast? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is to have you, but you must rule over it.'" Although the Septuagint's reading is probably based on a Hebrew text of Genesis that is older than both the Masoretic and the Dead Sea Scrolls, in this case the Masoretic and Dead Sea Scrolls seem to have the better reading. The meaning of the Septuagint's admonition, "Be still -- to you shall be his submission, and you shall rule over him," is not at all obvious. Who shall submit to Cain? Over whom shall Cain rule? Perhaps we should understand "him" as a reference to Abel. Was God saying that if Cain controlled his anger and repented, God would favor him above Abel? That interpretation is possible, even if the meaning of the text is unclear. In comparison, the Masoretic/Dead Sea Scrolls reading presents no such interpretive difficulties, and in fact shows a sublime moral theology, exhibiting the drama of the inner struggle against temptation and the inclination toward sin that we all experience, and portraying sin as a deadly beast lying in wait to pounce on us and devour us. In any case, whatever reading of Gen. 4:6-7 is the correct one, we may conclude that this scripture passage indicates that Cain's offering was displeasing to God because his heart was not right with God.