Chapter Overview
Adam and Eve, needing to spice things up in their relationship, do each other and have a few children. If the bible were at all factually true, this would mark the first time anyone thought things would get better by having a child. It would also mark the first time that it went horribly wrong.
The kids decide to give stuff to God, God shows blatant favoritism to the one presenting dead animals, and Cain gets mad and kills him. Rather than any actual retribution, God just banishes Cain who goes off to start a city and a family of his own somewhere.
Additional thoughts
This chapter seems to pick and choose elements from the previous chapters and decides to try make a coherent story out of them. For example, if chapter 1 is to be believed, then there would be people on the earth other than Adam, Eve, and Cain when Cain is banished. If chapter 2 is to be believed, then why is Cain worried about others seeking revenge. Wouldn’t that only be his parents? And just WHO does he end up taking for a wife? If chapter 2 is to be believed, there’s no one else on the planet.
Once again, we’re left with a tale that can, in no way, be factual. This must be an allegorical tale.
The Scientific/logic/sequence mistakes in this chapter
Genesis 1 does not have Adam and Eve. Genesis 2 does not have other humans besides Adam and Eve. This chapter has other humans, so this chapter cannot follow chapter 2. This chapter ALSO has Adam and Eve, so it cannot follow chapter 1. You could almost say that this is a 3rd creation myth.
- Cain and Abel aren’t in genealogies later. (Genesis 4, Genesis 5)
- No reason for disrespecting Cain’s offering is given (Genesis 4:5)
- God hasn’t really explained what sin is yet (Genesis 4:7)
- This is a sign that this section was written by a later author
- Author conflates both creation myths (Genesis 1, Genesis 2, Genesis 4)
Chapter 4: Cain and Abel
AKA: Honey, I’m bored. Let’s have kids!
- And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
- And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
- And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
- And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
- But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
- And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
- If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
- And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
- And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?
- And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
- And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand;
- When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
- And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
- Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
- And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
- And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
- And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
- And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.
- And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
- And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.
- And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
- And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.
- And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
- If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
- And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
- And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
- Sounds like they learned how to fool around with each other pretty quickly.
- Keep an eye out for chapter 5 when Cain and Abel are completely ignored in the genealogies.
- Alternate verse text: “I worked hard on this. Notice me senpai!”
- Odd that sheep get such a special treatment here. Almost like the story was told by shepherds to show just how awesome being a shepherd is….
- Got it: killing animals good, fruits and veggies bad. Maybe god is a picky eater?
- An omniscient god really shouldn’t have to ask this. The reason is pretty apparent
- Cain did do well though. Well enough that he was able to bring stuff from his farm as an offering to god. This sin thing also hasn’t been explained yet.
- Seems a bit excessive. If only there was some being who is supposed to be omniscient that could have seen this coming…
- Again… not omniscient. I’m getting the feeling that omniscience was added by later Christians. Also… no smiting for lying?
- Note that there is no mention of heaven here. Abel is simply dead. No such thing as heaven or hell.
- Shouldn’t an omniscient god have known that rejecting Cain’s offering would cause him to get angry and murder? Sounds like a setup to me.
- God really seems to like handing out curses. So far we’re 4 chapters in with 4 curses made. The first 3 curses could be considered multiple curses too.
- AKA: I can’t farm anymore?
- This part seems to imply that the chapter follows the creation myth outlined in chapter 1. Chapter 2 only has 2 humans created. That would cause quite a bit of genetic damage to the human species, and we don’t see that.
- Curse number 5. What the heck does it mean to set a mark on Cain anyways? Dot on the forehead? give him a purple pecker? Beat his buttocks until it’s black on one side, blue on the other?
- Eden is now mentioned here. So… does the author follow myth 1, or myth 2? Seems to be picking and choosing from both.
- Given that there should only be 3 humans on the planet right now… who is this wife? Did Cain have a sister that we weren’t told about?
- Sounds like they’re exercising their Genesis 1:28 rights by beginning the begatting. With what women though?
- Polygamy! Also… where do these women keep coming from? I thought adam and eve were the only people other then Cain?
- This is sounds like Cain was responsible for some global diversity
- Not really sure why any of this is relevant though.
- Naamah the first woman who has a birth specified in the bible. See the additional notes for information on the iron mentioned here.
- Suddenly someone was killed. We have no reference to who, when, why, or anything. Given that Cain killed someone in god’s favor, and this guy probably didn’t, should there even be any worry here?
- Why? Abel gave an offering god apparently respected. What did this dead guy have?
- Rejoice! God knew my son would kill my other son, so he gave a son so I could praise him while crying about my son.
- Why would they only start to call the name now? Again, who did Seth find for a wife? These woman are crawling out everywhere.
Additional Notes on Chapter 4
It’s weird that the author explicitly goes out of his way to mention the “founders” of all these different trades. Almost like the author wants to provide some sort of prominence and importance to them.
Iron working is hard. Not until around 1500-1200BC was the technology in place to really work iron. Given that this book was likely compiled around 600-500BC, the author possibly would have assumed that iron working was always a thing an just tossed it in there. Even taking the oldest iron artifacts, cold-worked meteorite fragments, that gives us an upper bound of about 4000BC. Given that this tale would have been within a few generations of Adam and Eve, the iron working is off by several millennia.