I have a bad habit. Only one, I hear you say! I read books from back to front. It’s good practice where it comes to reference books but an especially bad habit with novels. In telling Cain’s tale, Adam’s eldest is at a disadvantage. We’ve spent thousands of years reading the last page. Cain the murderer: cursed, monster, demon. Genesis 4:1-26 doesn’t start that way or end that way. Cain comes across in flesh and blood and not CGI. Eve’s son: brother, father, builder.
Commentators try to make a distinction between the brothers, but the text is silent on the reason for God’s partiality. Whatever the explanation, rejection left Cain lethally angry. In the midst of a passage full of colourful phrases and Hebrew puns (Cain = grasp; Nod = wandering; Enoch = inauguration) the murder itself is strangely colourless. It lands on the page with a dull thud.
There is an ambiguity of punishment and mercy in the way that God deals with Cain. For Cain the agriculturalist, the ground is cursed. Cain is declared ‘outcast’, even by the earth beneath his feet. On the other hand, despite his resentful exaggeration, murder is not punishable by death. The ‘last page’ has ‘the mark’ as a kind of ontological disfigurement, but on the first page it is merciful. If Cain has a fatal (lethal!) flaw it is not that he is some Tabloid ‘beast’, but that he is habitually incapable of trust. The blessing was always his. Scarcity was an illusion. Forgiveness did not need to be grasped. Security needed no city walls. A forfeited immortality might be regained, but never recaptured. We imagine Cain ‘east of Eden’, looking over the fence.
It was Jacques Ellul in ‘The Meaning of the City’ that pointed out the strangeness of this story. From Enoch through Sodom to Babylon and Jerusalem (which kills its prophets), the city is the greatest, bloodiest of human creations. If we were writing the novel, the last page should be a garden – Eden restored. Instead there is yet another city. However debased, creativity belongs inseparably to our humanity. God redeems, transforms, liberates and forgives - but creativity is never obliterated, even if it does bear ‘the mark of Cain’.
Throughout this chapter Cain comes across as a flawed but talented man. Banned from the soil, he shaped his own walled and dynastic world. If the story had ended there it would have been tragic enough but the chapter’s conclusion paints a picture of exponential hubristic violence. The house of Cain was creative (music and metalwork), but the ‘family firm’ do feel a little like an ancient ‘cosa nostra.’ Where Cain had regrets, Lamech gloried in murder (vv 23,24), outdoing the old man seventy-seven times over. That’s how violence works. After the story is told a thousand times who remembers the original offence? Israel/Palestine, Serb/Croat, Falklands/Malvinas, Christian/Muslim, Greek/Turk, North and South Sudan. Two incompatible versions of the past lie side by side. Cain is ‘avenged’ (v.24). Somewhere far away a mother still grieves her sons (v.25). But will Lamech have the last word?
“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?” Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Where have we heard that before?
2 comments:
I also read from back to front and do the answer in Maths then have to work out the working out. Maybe I have a brain that works in hindsight?
Which is what reading the scriptures is I suppose - looking for links that were made before they happened - proves that scripture belongs to God - in God's time it's probably as mixed up as that too.
The boys also remind me of the prodigal son - perhaps God favoured Abel because he wasn't so able - his gift came from animals that fed on the earth. Cain's came from the earth itself - perhaps Cain was meant to realise the value of that relationship for himself. Being the first child is often tough - you are meant to be responsible, to grow up quicker,to get on with things, to look after the younger ones (yes I am the oldest too).
Cain calls the severity of his punishment down on himself (how often do we do that?) but cannot stop being a creator even when he resents his own gifts - no wonder the family tree goes askew. And maybe all he had to do was ask for forgiveness.
Thought provoking stuff
m+
I'm not sure whether this is my 'favourite' chapter but it comes very near to being the one that has had most impact on me. Ever time I come back it's always fresh. I think you are right about 'ability' (nearly another pun). Cain was too clever to see the obvious. Forgiveness would have ended the cycle. The lack of trust is tied up with the over-complexity.
I'm the oldest as well. My sister is two years younger.
As always, a delight to hear from you. Phil
Post a Comment