Genesis 4
Yeah, it's been a month because I was busy getting back into school. Accountancy here I come!
I was going to start this off with a UFC joke but that's probably been done to death.
Genesis 4 is all about Cain and Able. If you got this story from playing Vampire: The Masquerade you will be a touch surprised reading this chapter.
Cain's a farmer and Able's a shepherd. They both make sacrifices to God. God likes Able's more then Cain's. This pisses Cain off. We are given no reason as to why God like's Able's sacrifice more than Cain's. God talks to Cain about it but really isn't helpful. "If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking the door; his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master." Thanks, God! That totally explains why Cain's sacrifice didn't count!
Cain kills Able. Again, we don't know why but it's implied that it's because of the sacrifices. God shows up again and we get the "Am I my brother's keeper?" quote. God curses Cain (Think, for a sec. There are four people on earth. Cain killed one. He's the worst mass murderer ever.) and Cain's response is that this curse is horrible 'cause anyone who sees him can kill him. God says no, I'll put a mark on you so that "Cain shall be avenged sevenfold."
Cain takes a wife (presumably from his unnamed sisters) and goes off to found the first city in the land of Nod, Enoch, named after his son.
...The first murderer goes off to found the first city. So, way way back, cites were places of sin and vice and yuck. And we wonder where we get the ideals that rural life is better than city life and rural morals are somehow different from city morals. It goes back to this.
Anyhow, there's a brief genealogy of Cain's kids including some of my favorites. Jabal, the ancestor of all who dwell in tents and keep cattle; Jubal, the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the pipe; Tubalcain, the ancestor of all who forge instruments of bronze and iron (My greatgrandfather was a blacksmith. Does that mean I'm a descendant of Cain?).
Interestingly, back in the middle ages vampires and monsters and spooky things were thought to bear the Mark of Cain. I'm getting this specifically from my Heaney translation of Beowulf. "Grendel was the name of this grim demon
haunting the marches, marauding round the heath
and the desolate fens; he had dwelt for a time
in misery among the banished monsters,
Cain's clan, whom the Creator had outlawed
and condemned as outcasts. For the killing of Abel
the Eternal Lord had exacted a price;
Cain got no good from committing that murder
because the Almighty made him anathema,
and out of the curse of his exile there sprang
ogres and elves and evil phantoms
and the giants too who strove with God
time and again until He gave them their reward."
I could hunt down my copy of Beowulf that has the original Anglo-Saxon but I get the feeling that would only interest someone like me.
...Don't ask my how those that bear the Marks of Cain survived the flood. I've never gotten that answered.
Adam and Eve get it on again and Seth, our parent is born and has a kid, Enosh.
Anyhow. This chapter ends with "At that time, men began to invoke the Lord by name." This will become important next chapter.
I was going to start this off with a UFC joke but that's probably been done to death.
Genesis 4 is all about Cain and Able. If you got this story from playing Vampire: The Masquerade you will be a touch surprised reading this chapter.
Cain's a farmer and Able's a shepherd. They both make sacrifices to God. God likes Able's more then Cain's. This pisses Cain off. We are given no reason as to why God like's Able's sacrifice more than Cain's. God talks to Cain about it but really isn't helpful. "If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking the door; his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master." Thanks, God! That totally explains why Cain's sacrifice didn't count!
Cain kills Able. Again, we don't know why but it's implied that it's because of the sacrifices. God shows up again and we get the "Am I my brother's keeper?" quote. God curses Cain (Think, for a sec. There are four people on earth. Cain killed one. He's the worst mass murderer ever.) and Cain's response is that this curse is horrible 'cause anyone who sees him can kill him. God says no, I'll put a mark on you so that "Cain shall be avenged sevenfold."
Cain takes a wife (presumably from his unnamed sisters) and goes off to found the first city in the land of Nod, Enoch, named after his son.
...The first murderer goes off to found the first city. So, way way back, cites were places of sin and vice and yuck. And we wonder where we get the ideals that rural life is better than city life and rural morals are somehow different from city morals. It goes back to this.
Anyhow, there's a brief genealogy of Cain's kids including some of my favorites. Jabal, the ancestor of all who dwell in tents and keep cattle; Jubal, the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the pipe; Tubalcain, the ancestor of all who forge instruments of bronze and iron (My greatgrandfather was a blacksmith. Does that mean I'm a descendant of Cain?).
Interestingly, back in the middle ages vampires and monsters and spooky things were thought to bear the Mark of Cain. I'm getting this specifically from my Heaney translation of Beowulf. "Grendel was the name of this grim demon
haunting the marches, marauding round the heath
and the desolate fens; he had dwelt for a time
in misery among the banished monsters,
Cain's clan, whom the Creator had outlawed
and condemned as outcasts. For the killing of Abel
the Eternal Lord had exacted a price;
Cain got no good from committing that murder
because the Almighty made him anathema,
and out of the curse of his exile there sprang
ogres and elves and evil phantoms
and the giants too who strove with God
time and again until He gave them their reward."
I could hunt down my copy of Beowulf that has the original Anglo-Saxon but I get the feeling that would only interest someone like me.
...Don't ask my how those that bear the Marks of Cain survived the flood. I've never gotten that answered.
Adam and Eve get it on again and Seth, our parent is born and has a kid, Enosh.
Anyhow. This chapter ends with "At that time, men began to invoke the Lord by name." This will become important next chapter.
posted by Netzach at
11:06 PM
1 Comments:
Ohhhhh, The old 'why was Cain's sacrifice not accepted' question! That one's FUN.
I frequently hear that it was actually the state of Cain's heart and not the physical sacrifice itself that God rejected. This could be true but we'd never know because we can't look into Cain's heart.
I also recently heard that Cain's sacrifice couldn't be accepted because it was plants and not animals and therefore contained no blood. This idea comes from Hebrews 9, specifically v 22 "[...]without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (NIV). There are several other places that speak of blood as a requirement for forgiveness (Eph 1 & Romans 3 come to mind) so this is also a possibility.
Now I'm not one to really put too much emphasis on the 'mark of Cain' (we have very little evidence that this mark - actually translated as omen or warning from the Hebrew - was anything that would have been passed down through the generations) but assuming it was something he passed down it could have been that one of Noah's daughter-in-laws was from the line of Cain and therefore survived the flood.
I put together a Bible study on the first 12 books of Genesis a few years ago and still have the Word docs if you're ever interested. All together it's probably 40 pages worth of random tidbits.
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