Thoughts on Genesis chapter 4

 

I.                    Gn. 4.1-26: Cain’s murder of his brother & Cain’s genealogy

A. OBSERVATION

1.      General observations

     The primal pair becomes a family of four (4.1-2).  The vocation “to till (abad) and to keep (samar)” (cf. Gn. 2.15) continues.[1]  Cain, like his father, is a “tiller (abad) of the ground”, while Abel is a “keeper (raa) of sheep”.  The Lord remonstrates much with Cain, first when he is angered by God’s rejection of his offering (4.6-7) and again after Cain kills his brother due to his simmering resentment[2] (4.9-15).  Abel, whose textual “lifespan” consists of 7 verses, says not a word.  There are many similarities with the preceding chapter.[3]  Following upon a troublesome human situation, God intervenes with a series of (rhetorical)[4] questions (4.6, 9-10; cf. 3.9, 11, 13).  God’s curse on Cain is very similar to his curse on Adam (4.11-12; cf. 3.17-18).  Cain is “cursed from the ground”, which has swallowed Abel’s blood; the ground will henceforth resist Cain’s efforts to cultivate it.  So far in Genesis, God seems to reserve his words for “sinners” and takes action to mitigate human-caused disasters (4.15; cf. 3.21)!  Two things are personified in this pericope – sin is portrayed as a hungry lion ready to leap[5] (4.7; cf. 3.16); Abel’s blood is said to “cry out from the ground” (4.10).  The murder of Abel portends further violence; Lamech, the seventh (overall)[6] member of Cain’s line, is also a killer (4.17-24).  Chapter 4 ends with humanity’s only strategy against the threat of (early) death – procreation (4.25-26).

2.      The 6 questions

a.       Who?  Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Yahweh, Lamech, Seth.

b.      What?  Abel’s murder by Cain.  Cain’s banishment “east of Eden”, construction of a city, descendants.  The birth of Seth as a replacement for Abel.

c.       When?  After Adam and Eve’s banishment from the garden.

d.      Where?  Somewhere near Eden.

e.       Why and wherefore?  The murder of Abel is motivated by jealousy and resentment, a product of the sibling rivalry common in ANE culture.

f.        How?  The text is ambiguous as to how precisely Cain murdered his brother.

3.      Structure

     This pericope consists of three sections (4.1-16; 4.17-24; 4.25-26).  Each section begins with an act of procreation, repeating the birth formula “X knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Y”.[7]

B.     INTERPRETATION

1. Questions

     Why doesn’t Yahweh accept Cain’s sacrifice?  Why is Abel named (hebel) for something as insubstantial as a “breath, wind, nothingness, ‘vanity’[8]”?  Where did Cain’s wife come from?  Who helped Cain build the city of Enoch?  What was the “mark of Cain”?  Why does Yahweh seem more interested in Cain than in (the deceased) Abel?

2. Answers

     As with the previous pericope, we soon run into trouble if we approach this text as if it were a chronological, “historical” account.  It appears that the text has other intentions, as it assumes a much “wider” world within which Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel live.  The text assumes that this family of four inhabits an agrarian/nomadic society which possesses the latent potential to become urban (4.17-22).[9]

1.      Outline

·         Cain’s rejected sacrifice and ensuing resentment (4.1-7)

·         Cain’s crime and Yahweh’s subsequent judgment (4.8-16)

·         Cain’s family line (4.17-24)

·         Cain’s new brother (4.25-26)

C.     APPLICATION    

1. Interpretation

     This text is a brilliant testimony to the reality of family and social difficulties, what W. Brueggemann calls the “problem of the brother”.  Yahweh plays a very ambiguous role in this pericope and doesn’t present Cain with any easy options.  The dangers of unresolved fraternal conflict are here on full display.  As is the grace and mercy of God.  Though Cain makes his own life even more painful by giving in to the “beastly sin lurking at his door”, God never abandons him and provides for his protection and eventual flourishing as a father and the founder of a city. 

2. Situation

     If this text was composed (redacted) by 6^th-century Judahites returning from exile, it once again offers hope to those who are “driven away from the soil (=the land of Canaan?)” and “hidden from the face of Yahweh”.  Babylon was both literally and metaphorically “east of Eden”!  As the first murderer eventually founds a family and builds a city, so the exiles had been encouraged by Jeremiah to “have children, plant vineyards, and build homes” in Babylon (cf. Jer. 29).  Also, Cain’s eventual success was possibly reflected in the Jewish hopes to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.  As Yahweh refused to give up on Cain, so he refused to give up on his wayward, indeed murderous people (cf. Jer. 7, 26). 

3. Putting the text into practice

     While Gn. 2—3 demonstrated our need to be reconciled to God, this text invites us to pursue reconciliation with each other.  Brueggemann draws a parallel between Cain and Abel and the parable of the prodigal son.  Both stories are about brothers; Jesus’ parable ends with the fraternal friction unresolved…did the older brother experience the joy of “resurrection” by becoming reconciled to his brother who had already-been-reconciled-to-the-father?  That is precisely the question we all face whenever we find ourselves at odds with others, especially with members of our family (of faith).

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[1] Cf. Ibid, p. 56.

[2] Cf. Hendel, Ronald, The Anchor Yale Bible: Genesis 1—11, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2024, p. 237: God accepts Abel’s offering (“from the firstborns of his flock”) and not that of Cain (who is the firstborn son); indeed, the order of priority between the two brothers is constantly switched in the text, creating a sense that Cain’s “genealogical authority” is not being respected, which ultimately leads to his killing his brother.  This “usurpation” of the firstborn will become a recurrent theme in Genesis (e.g. 25.27-34); cf. Ibid, p. 241; Brueggemann, Walter, Genesis, Atlanta: John Knox, 1982, pp. 54-55.

[3] Cf. Hendel, Ronald, The Anchor Yale Bible: Genesis 1—11, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2024, p. 237.

[4] Cf. Brueggemann, Walter, Genesis, Atlanta: John Knox, 1982, p. 57.

[5] Brueggemann, Walter, Genesis, Atlanta: John Knox, 1982, pp. 57-60.  Jordan B. Peterson, We Who Wrestle With God, U.S.A.: Portfolio/Penguin, 2024, pp. 139-40, drawing presumably on the appearance of the terms for “desire” and “rule over” both in both Gn. 3.16 and 4.7, interprets “sin” here as being portrayed as “a sexually aroused predator”.  Brueggemann is not opposed to such a reading, acknowledging that connotations of lustful desire and “animal hunger” are very present in the narrative.

[6] Cf. Hendel, Ronald, The Anchor Yale Bible: Genesis 1—11, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2024, p. 240.

[7] Hendel, Ronald, The Anchor Yale Bible: Genesis 1—11, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2024, p. 236.  In 4.25, “Adam” is first used as a proper name (reflected in the NRSV), contra Kass, Leon R. The beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2003, p. 152n.1., where he argues that adam is never intended as a proper name.

[8] Cf. Ecclesiastes 1.2 (KJV).  Indeed, hebel is the word which appears 5 times in this verse, rendered by the Authorized Version as “vanity, vanities”.  Cf. Blenkinsopp, Joseph, Creation, Un-Creation, Re-Creation: A discursive commentary on Genesis 1—11, London & New York: T&T Clark, 2011, p. 133 which claims that aspects of Gn. 1—11 resemble “late wisdom”.

[9] Indeed, the world reflected in the text seems, for all intents and purposes, to be the world of c. 20^th century B.C. Mesopotamia.  The story of Isaac, Rebekah, Esau and Jacob evokes the same cultural surroundings – i.e. a nomadic family of hunter-gatherers/shepherds in contact with urban folk (cf. the wives of Esau: Gn. 26:34-35).  Also, interestingly enough, this period is when writing was first invented – hieroglyphics in Egypt and cuneiform in Mesopotamia.