The story of Cain who bore the mark on his forehead, has always bothered me.
Someone may certainly kill his own brother in a quarrel, and he may panic afterwards and eat humble pie. But that he should be marked with a special “sign” for his cowardice that acts as a kind of protection and inspires fear in everybody else is strange indeed.
What happened and lay behind the whole origin of the story was the “sign.” Here was a man who had something in his face that frightened other people. They did not dare lay hands on him; he impressed them, he and his children. It is virtually certain that he bore no actual mark on his brow like a birth mark; the mark was a little more intelligence and self-possession in his eyes than people were accustomed to. This man had power and they all went in awe of him; he had a “sign.” You can explain that how you will. People always want whatever is comfortable and puts them in the right. They were afraid of Cain’s children; they bore a sign. So the sign was not interpreted for what it really was but the contrary. They said that people with this sign were odd, as indeed they were. Men of courage and character always seem very sinister to the rest. It was a sinister thing that a breed of strange, fearless people should be going about, and so they attached a nickname and a myth to this family as a way of taking revenge and ridding themselves of guilt for all the fear they had experienced.
These ancient stories are always true in a sense, but they are not always properly recorded or given a correct interpretation. In short, I consider Cain to be a fine person and they pinned this story on to him merely because they were afraid of him. The story had its basis in hearsay, the kind of thing people bandy about, and it was true in so far as Cain and his children really bore some kind of mark and were different from other people.”
Did Cain kill his brother? Yes, that is certainly true. The strong man slew the weak. But we may well doubt whether it was his brother. It isn’t important. Ultimately all men are brothers. Thus a strong man slew a work man. Perhaps it was the deed of a hero, perhaps not At all events the other weaklings were now filled with fear, complained bitterly and when they were asked, “Why do yo not slay him too?” they did not reply, “Because we are cowards,” but, “We cannot. He has a sign. god hath branded him.” The fraud must have originated somehow like that…But, I’m keeping you from your life. Goodbye then!
And the Gods spoke and Brett Kavanaugh is elected to the Supreme Court, hero of the Fetus!
~Demian Sinclair
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Others say (lifted from The Ancient Hebrew Research Center):
We have all heard the story of Cain and Abel. Two brothers bring their
sacrifices to God; Abel's sacrifice is accepted, but Cain's sacrifice is
not. Out of jealousy, Cain take's his brother out into the field and
kills him. Because of Cain's sin, he is branded with a mark and sent
away. However, if we carefully study the text, we find that there is
much, much more, to this story.
Their Names
Let's begin with their names. The names Cain and Abel come from the
Greek Septuagint, a 2,000 year old Greek translation of the Hebrew
Bible, where their names are written as "Kain" and "Abel." These names
are the Greek transliterations of the Hebrew. In Hebrew, Cain is קין (qayin) and Abel is הבל (havel).
The word קין (qayin, from the root QN) means to acquire or possess something which is why Eve (chavah in Hebrew) said "I have gotten/acquired (qanah, also from the root QN) a man" (Gen 4:1). The word הבל (havel) means to be empty, often translated as vain or vanity in the sense of being empty of substance.
The Hebrew word for "name" is shem and literally means breath or
character. In Hebrew thought, ones name is reflective of one's character
and the Hebraic meanings of the names of "Cain and Abel" are windows
into their characters. Cain is a possessor, one who has substance while
Abel is empty of substance.
 |
| This is not gay, right? |
This may seem odd to us, because we have always assumed that Abel was
the good guy and Cain the bad, but this is an oversimplification of the
facts, as according to their names, a reflection of their character,
Cain is what we would call "a man of character," but Abel is "vain."
Their Births
It is a well-known fact that Jacob and Esau were twins, but what is not
commonly known is that Cain and Abel were also twins. In the normal
Hebraic accounting of multiple births the conception then birth of each
child is mentioned such as we can see in Genesis 29:32-33 where it
states that Leah conceived and bore a son, and then she conceived again
and bore a son. Note that there are two conceptions and two births. But
notice how it is worded in Genesis 4:1-2.
| Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain; And again, she bore his brother Abel. (RSV)
|
Notice that there is only one conception, but two births. The Hebrew word for "again" is asaph, meaning to add something, in this case the birthing of Abel was added to the birthing of Cain. Cain and Abel were twins.
Their professions
According to the Biblical text, Abel was a shepherd. The KJV uses the word "keeper," but the Hebrew word ro'eh means shepherd. Cain is a "tiller of the ground." The Hebrew word translated as "tiller" is o'ved, which literally means a "servant." The word o'ved, is the participle form of the verb avad and the verb avad is found in Genesis 3:23 where it states that when Adam was expelled from the garden he was sent to "till" (avad)
the ground. Therefore, Cain, who is the older of the twins, takes on
the profession of his father, a very common occurrence in the Hebrew
culture. I should note that while Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel are not
Hebrews by definition, they are the forefathers of the Hebrew people.
Their sacrifices
When the two boys brought their sacrifices to God, Cain, the farmer,
brought fruit from the ground he worked and Abel, the shepherd, brought
sheep from his flock. We are then told that God had respect for Abel's
sacrifice, but not for Cain's, but we are not told why Cain's sacrifice
was not respected.
Something of interest that can be gleaned from this story is that we
often assume the first commands by God were given to Moses at Mt. Sinai,
but this is evidently not the case, God gave his commands, or at least
some of them, to Adam and Eve and their children and it is apparent from
the narrative that Abel obeyed those commands, but Cain did not.
Because God did not respect Cain's sacrifice Cain was angry and sad.
Then God gives him some instructions. The first of these is; " If thou
doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" God is telling him that he can
overcome this; all he has to do in the future is bring the correct
sacrifice, and all will be well. Then God says, " and if thou doest not
well, sin lieth at the door." In other words, if you continue to bring
me the wrong sacrifices, you will sin. Lastly God says, " And unto thee
shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." It is assumed by
most that the "his" and "him" in this verse is "sin," however, this is
impossible.
It is important to understand that in Hebrew all nouns are either
masculine or feminine. For instance, the earth is feminine, but the sky
(heaven) is masculine and the word for fish is feminine, but the word
for bird is masculine. The Hebrew word for sin is hhatah, which
is a feminine noun. If the "his" and "him," which by the way are the
correct gender for the pronouns in the Hebrew text, were referring to
"sin," then the correct pronouns would have been "hers" and "her." We
can then conclude that the "his" and "him" are referring to something or
someone other than sin.
 |
| You make me hate myself, man! |
Their Relationship
Let's take a closer look at that the last part of what God told Cain.
Here is a literal rendering of this passage from the Hebrew; "and toward
you is his desire but you will rule over him." Now, let's go back to
the previous chapter (Genesis 3:16) where God is speaking to Eve about
her relationship with Adam; "and toward your husband is your desire, but
he will rule over you." Did you notice that these two passages, aside
from the gender of the pronouns and to whom the passages are referring
too, are identical?
In the passage about Adam and Eve, Eve is to follow her husband and her
husband is to rule over her. In the passage about Cain and Abel, "he" is
to follow Cain and Cain is to rule over "him." So who is the "he" and
"him?" It has to be Abel. Remember that Cain was born first and is
therefore, according to Hebrew tradition, the leader. But apparently,
Abel is attempting to take over the leadership, possibly because he felt
superior to Cain as his sacrifice was accepted by God. Also, don't
forget that Cain's character was one of substance and Abel's was one of
vanity.
The Murder
The King James Version translates Genesis 4:8 as follows.
| 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.
|
This is a pretty straight-forward passage, but it has been altered in
order for it to make sense. It is not uncommon for the translators to
"fix" the text so that it can be understood by the reader easily. In my
opinion they do a disservice to the reader by hiding these problems. I
am of the opinion that the translator should remain true to the Hebrew
text and then footnote their opinions. The very first part of that verse
actually reads, from the Hebrew, "And Cain said to his brother."
What did Cain say to his brother? We don't know, that is missing from
the text. The King James translators fixed this by changing the word
from "said" to "talked." This may sound trivial, but you must understand
that every time the Hebrew uses vai'yomer (and said) the
conversation follows, but not here. At some point when the scroll was
being copied, a copier accidently skipped over what was said by Cain.
Why is this? Truth is, what Cain said was taken out on purpose and we will never know what he said, or will we?
The punishment
The first punishment for Cain is that he is will no longer be able to work the ground.
| And now you are
cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your
brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no
longer yield to you its strength; (RSV, Genesis 4:11-12a)
|
The second punishment is banishment.
| you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. (RSV, Genesis 4:12b)
|
Cain is distressed by this punishment and says to God, according to the translations;
| My punishment is greater than I can bear (RSV, Genesis 4:13).
|
This implies that there is no remorse in Cain and he is more worried
about his punishment than the evil act he did to his brother. However,
the Hebrew word translated as punishment is avon, which means
"iniquity" or "guilt." With this understanding, he is actually saying,
"My guilt is greater than I can bear." With this translation we see
great remorse. Cain then continues to say,
| Behold, thou
hast driven me this day away from the ground; and from thy face I shall
be hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and
whoever finds me will slay me. (RSV, Genesis 4:14)
|
Grace and Mercy
It is often taught that the Old Testament taught Law and the NT taught
Grace. However we find throughout the Old Testament instances where God
shows Grace. The story of Noah, the exodus of the Israelites and many
others are stories of grace and this story is no different as God grants
mercy, grace and hope to Cain.
| Then the LORD
said to him, "Not so! If any one slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on
him sevenfold." And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon
him should kill him. (RSV, Genesis 4:15)
|
God evidently believed that Cain's murder did not deserve death, either
by his or anyone else's hand and this may be a sign that there is more
to this murder story than we are told. Don't forget that the
conversation between Cain and Abel is not known for sure and it is also
possible that there are elements of this story that have not been passed
down to us.
What is the mark that God placed on Cain? We of course cannot know with
any certainty, but there are some clues. The Hebrew word translated as
"mark" is the word 'ot, which is used in the Biblical text for a
"sign." This word is also used in non-Biblical texts for a "letter," as
in a letter of the alphabet.
| And the LORD
said to him, "Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark
upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the
abominations that are committed in it." (RSV, Ezekiel 9:4)
|
In the above passage, the Hebrew word for the "mark" is tav,
which is last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The above passage would be
better translated as, "and put a 'tav' upon the foreheads." In the
Ancient Hebrew alphabet, the letter tav was written as a picture of two crossed sticks, a cross if you will, and is a sign of a covenant.
It is possible that the "mark" God placed on Cain was the letter tav and may also be a sign that God was in covenant relationship with Cain.
Conclusion
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, if we carefully examine
the text more closely we will find that there is much more to the story
of Cain and Abel then most of us have been taught. I don't have all of
the answers; in fact, as I study the Biblical text carefully, I will
usually wind up with more questions than I do answers. But this is what
Bible study is all about. It is not about getting all the answers, it is
about the search. It is not about the destination, it is about the
journey.
You Decide!
