Genesis
Reading Notes
Adam H. Kissel

Continue with Noah and so on

Continuation of the good & bad stuff. Continuation of the anthropological story (how man is). Sacrifice, anger, jealousy, fear, death.

CAIN: born of his mother's exultation (pride) in "creating" a person (not as God did, though similarly). To counter women's pride in creating--barrenness. Then children are truly seen as given from God and not made by us.

CAIN ("to possess" or "form" or "create") vs. ABEL ("vanishing breath"--portending...). A natural rivalry and inequality between an older and younger brother, esp. in relation to their parents. Indeed there is rivalry in any transition from the one to the many (even with unlimited resources, etc.; look at what happens as the nations get too big; cf. the oneness of Babel). Abel is the shepherd (dominion-like [RH]) and Cain the farmer (tillage-like [RH]).

FARMING: more trouble, risk, intellect--more results! More patience; attention to weather and seasons--more easily leads toward a sense of self-sufficiency or of land-ownership claims. Cain's offering comes out of his own work; Abel's, out of what 'God has given him.' Farmer is dependent on rain--hence God may use drought as he does barrenness for the mother.

SACRIFICE: here, man-initiated. Gratitude, fear, trust, submission--or bribery? Giving of one's own. As communication, sacrifice shows that you know that God knows you. Sacrifice can be a prideless, positive response to cosmic shame. Sacrifice as gift, however, is pride masquerading as submission: even if it is fully in thanks, it is 'Doing unto God as you would have done unto you'--until God has told us what kind of sacrifice is correct, we anthropomorphize his supposed wants. Cain's sacrifice, being a farmer, is 'harder' to judge (not that it takes longer for God to judge it); the motives are less clear.

God's arbitrariness in paying heed to the sacrifices, I believe, shows God's independency, that it is up to him to pay heed, not us to force him to do so. From not thinking in this way, Cain all the more easily becomes sad with wounded pride (esp. because of the various ways that Cain might be more deserving than Abel), and Cain now seeks some kind of vindication. NEXT TIME: justice, injustice, mercy.

10/21: See Jacques Ellul, Meaning of the City; Fradkin, God's Politics; Robert Sacks.

To consider: doublnesses--mental, sexual.

ANGER AND JUSTICE
(restorative rather than distributive justice)

Cain's anger: because God seems to have, on purpose, adulterated Cain's sense of "the way things ought to be." When this sense is challenged or held in contempt, esp. in regard to aspects of self, one gets angry. One source of anger, then, is self-consciousness, because it includes some sense of self-worth, which can then be challenged. Self-consciousness can include mis-knowing or overestimating one's worth [cf. NT on high and low]. This anger comes most importantly when the challenge comes from those whose judgment matters to us: cutting us down to size can create the feeling of being wronged/injustice. There arises anger and desire for restorative justice.

In Cain's case, his anger comes out of the lack of response from God in return for his gift, esp. since God did respond to Abel. This shows that Cain is a moral being. He has complicated these things, and so God enters into these particulars.

God's Speech to Cain (cf. 3:16 and 4:7, Cain is to master his urges, in the same terms in which Adam is to master Eve [ML])

God emphasizes that Cain is not so good as he thinks. Indeed Cain got what he deserved so far. Cain is given the chance to "do right" and experience "uplift." Cain's sin (distress over what has happened) is a kind of failure, a 'not doing right,' but with self-control he can overcome his sin [cf. Benjamin Franklin?] This is a speech of encouragement, then, not in Cain's own desires [tho Kass permits this reading] but in doing what is right and that this is possible.

The Murder of Abel and the results: Cain's City

This murder is premeditated in anger and jealousy, and perhaps even gain. God asks the question like He did to Adam and Eve (cf. 3:9, "where are you?" with 4:9 "where is Abel?"). Cain's response has some edge--he implies that God is Abel's keeper (though this hasn't protected Abel!). Brotherliness is made less by Cain; in fact, he has already written Abel off. God's reply: yes, God and Abel have a special relation, even in Abel's death; as for Cain, the ground will be even harder to till--in fact, this will cause him to be a wanderer. Cain's response: he thinks he will be out of God's way and must avoid God (where others may kill him)--but God consoles him with a permanent mark of protection. Cain leaves God's presence in the physical area of the murder, but retains God's mark--the punishment of expulsion is merely physical. Cain is expelled but not forgotten.

Think of how Cain sees God's different rxns to, first, his sacrifice [no heed], and second, his fratricide [much heed!].

Cain is to wander, but he settles at Nod ['wandering place'], and then founds Enoch. (`ir = city = to wake, to watch; Enoch = 'training up'). Does Cain ignore God and found the city for self-protection rather than God's protection? Cain's "ceaseless wandering" of 4:13 seems to be no longer physical, once he founds the city. Cain has made sure that he has no competition--being first in the household is akin to being a founder of a city. "The ruler has no brothers" [Kass]. The stage is set for Seth.

One might read Cain's city as part of the desire to make the world more hospitable to the human condition, as well as establishing a protection against human enemies. This latter assumes that such enemies exist (to which God seems to have tacitly assented, though he may just evade the question in order to focus on and allay Cain's fear).

On cities, look ahead to BABEL and SODOM.

As civilization comes into being in this seventh generation, Lamech again kills two people. His lament in 4:23 f. is especially poetic. There's a sense in which this line is hopelessly over, and Adam and Eve have a third son, Seth.

10/23: for next time: Ch. 9, what is new?
(1) law and covenant--what are they? Why THIS law and covenant? Synthesize.
(2) Sons of Noah in Ch. 9--why the sequel? What about this story?
See: "Sons of God ..." and "Death, Beautiful Women, ..." by Kass.

Seth is the replacement for Abel [Seth = 'establishing for' or 'providing for']. Now, Eve is not prideful but instead shows gratitude. Enosh's name [= 'mortal'] emphasizes the greater modesty of Eve.

Name of the Lord: 4:26, people are now calling out specifically to God. This shows some progress in group understanding of God; i.e., it is not sacrifices or material considerations, but simple recognition--knowing, seeing, hearing God--that ought to be primary.

Ch. 5: a third creation story of sorts, by genealogy. Adam to Noah = ten generations. Noah = 'comfort,' 'lament.' Note Enoch's special circumstance in the seventh generation: he walks with God. Note that everyone mentioned is still alive from the years 874 to 930. (see Chronology.) We note that Noah is the first being not to directly know Adam, then: natural death is a part of Noah's world. (Abraham is about 50 when Noah dies.)

Ch. 6: The Nephilim (giants--'the fellers') response to death: meet it. They seek the glory of being heroes of renown. Glory-seeking may be for a kind of immortality. Here we see something about the wickedness of man in trying to beautify the ugliness of mortality--glory-seeking in battle is an affront to the relative beauty of natural death. God is disgusted and turns away from the living beings in his creation (except Noah etc.). [See Kass's essay.]

6:1-2, sons of God and daughters of men -- needs further thinking.

Continue with Noah and so on