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| Cain and Abel
After being exiled from Eden, Eve bears two sons, Cain and Abel. Although Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God’s promise to bless them and make them fruitful and multiply remains. But God’s blessing is soon threatened by violence, as Cain murders his younger brother, Abel. Cain is a tiller of soil and Abel a keeper of sheep. When they offer a sacrifice to God, Scripture says that “the L ORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard” (Gn 4:4–5). p 21 Many assume that Abel’s offering is accepted because his animal sacrifice must be better than Cain’s fruits of the field. But there is no evidence in the narrative that this is the case. Hebrew readers would see no problem in Cain’s offering since the sacrificial handbook, Leviticus, allows cereal offerings as perfectly legitimate. A closer look at the text reveals that the narrative does not simply say that Cain’s offering is not accepted, but that Cain and his offering are not accepted. The text implies that there is something wrong with the one making the offering, not simply with the offering itself. Indeed, this is the point made by God who tries to encourage a despondent Cain: “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” (Gn 4:7). The focus of God’s admonition is not Cain’s offering, but rather Cain himself. The lesson is unmistakable: it is the moral disposition of the one making the offering—of which the offering is but a gift and sign— that decides the worth of the sacrifice. The God of the Hebrews is not appeased by offerings, no matter how valuable, but rather he seeks an upright heart in those who offer sacrifice. This lesson, at the beginning of humanity’s story, will be vital for correctly understanding the nature of worship and the God who is worshiped. Rather than turning and acting according to what is good, Cain murders his innocent brother. Sin has struck again, this time leading to bloodshed between brothers. God shows Cain mercy and sends him in exile to the east, the recurring direction of exile in the Bible. Genesis gives his genealogy, which among other things shows that God’s blessing to be fruitful and multiply extends even to sinners like Cain. One of Cain’s descendants, Lamech, gets special mention. Lamech has two wives, and boasts that he has killed a man for wounding him and that he is avenged seventy-seven fold. The mercy God showed to Cain is not an attribute Cain passes on to his line; as a result, violence spirals out of control. By Genesis 6, humanity is so wicked that, “every imagination of the thoughts of [their hearts] was only evil continually” (Gn 6:5), grieving the Lord “to his heart” (Gn 6:6). One of the events that causes God this anguish of heart is the account that “the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose” (Gn 6:2). Reminiscent of a Greek myth, this verse raises multiple questions. Who are the sons of God? Is this a story of angels or other “gods” marrying women? To begin to make sense of the text, we must read this account within the p 22 larger narrative. Given the monotheism of God’s people, it would not make sense to interpret “sons of God” as other gods. So to whom does this phrase refer? In Adam’s genealogy in Genesis 5, we find some important clues. While modern readers often find genealogies boring reading, they include important details and are often strategically placed to prepare for the narrative that follows. Adam’s genealogy, as we noted earlier, begins with an account of how Seth is born in Adam’s image and likeness, and it is prefaced by a reminder that God made man, male and female, after his own image and likeness. These important details are recalled only in Genesis 5 with Seth’s line, and not in Genesis 4 with Cain’s line, in order to draw a sharp distinction between the two lines. Cain’s line produces murderers and polygamists like Lamech. The Nephilim may refer to this fallen line, as the word “Nephilim” comes from the Hebrew naphal, “to fall.” Seth’s line, on the other hand, produces righteous men like Enoch and Noah who worship God and “call upon the name of the L ORD ” (Gn 4:26). Seth’s line, the line that worships God, is the one that is singled out as being in the image and likeness of Adam and Eve, who are in turn in the image and likeness of God. As we noted earlier, given that image and likeness included the meaning of being adopted as a son of a god, it is not at all a leap to say that the narrator is referring to the Sethite line as “sons of God.” Thus, the narrative distinction between the “daughters of men” and the “sons of God” that opens Genesis 6 is referring to the distinct genealogical lines of Cain, described in Genesis 4, and Seth, described in Genesis 5. The two lines, which had been distinct, are now, by the time of Genesis 6, intermarrying, with the Sethite line beginning to take on practices previously associated only with the Cainite line, namely, polygamy. In a narrative that earlier associated polygamy with violence (Gn 4:19, 4:23–24), the description of the Sethite line intermarrying and taking multiple wives (Gn 6:2) strikes an ominous note of increasing violence and sinfulness, which reaches its climax in universal wickedness. In the midst of this wicked generation, only one man is found righteous. tải về 6.33 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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