Chapter 3 Chapter 2 Cain Kills—But Doesn’t Have to

One day, Cain offered the products of the earth as an offering to God, and Abel also offered the firstborn lamb and the oil and wax of the sheep in the flock. God looked upon Abel's offering with approval, but looked down upon Cain's.Cain was burning with anger, and his face changed drastically. God said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why did you change your countenance? Things are not what you think they are. If you do good, show it clearly, but if you do not intend to do good, evil is waiting for you at the door , like a monster waiting to devour you—but you can subdue it."

But one day, while the brothers were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. God said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He said, "I don't know. Can't he be my guard?" At this point he said: "What have you done! There are voices of injustice - your brother's blood cries out to me from the soil! Now you are cursed by the soil, and the soil has opened its mouth to accept the blood that drips from your hands. Wait for you If you want to farm the land, the soil will not bring you results for your hard work. You must wander in the world!"

Cain said to God: "This punishment is too heavy!" You drove me out of this place today, so I must hide from you, and I must wander in the world. will kill me! " The LORD said to him, "Otherwise, there will be sevenfold retribution for whoever kills Cain!" So the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who met him would kill him.Cain left the presence of the Lord, and Cain settled in the land of Nod (wandering), east of the Garden of Eden. Cain had sex with his wife; she conceived and gave birth to Enoch.He built a city and named it Enoch after his son. "Genesis" chapter four verses three to seventeen

The first sin of the Bible is really a small mistake in the minds of mortals, especially when compared with the punishment that God threatens.Stealing the forbidden fruit is at most a violation of the rules, just like Jews eating meat that is considered unclean by religion, or Catholics eating meat on Friday-I mean in the era when this kind of thing was still explicitly prohibited, it violated the rules. these precepts.I remember, after the Catholic Church changed its position on the matter, there was a cartoon in the New Yorker: a pawn asks Satan: "Well, what are we going to do with these Fridays? The one who was beaten to hell?" The essence of the crime of eating the forbidden fruit is disobedience to God's order, and the act itself is not a major evil. There is an article in Midash that describes this sin as "disobedience to a slight order" but Christianity regards it as original sin.

The second crime is different. It is a serious crime by any standard.Cain killed his younger brother and attempted to bury his body.His motive was a trifle: jealousy of God's unstated favor for Abel's offering.However, despite the magnitude of Cain's sin, God was much more lenient to him.Instead of punishing him to the same degree, God let him go and wander about.In primitive society, being expelled from the family may of course face serious consequences, because the expelled person returns to the natural world and has to face the test of nature and the invasion of wild animals. (It is no wonder that Rashi interprets the "mark of Cain" as a restoration of Cain's fear of animals. Even in early England, expulsion from the "kingdom's land" would have been dangerous. However, expulsion from the circle of humans, As long as you can adapt to the situation, at least you still have a chance of survival. This is not capital punishment.

Cain, like all criminal defendants, routinely cried out: "This punishment is too heavy!" (Avoni in the original Hebrew text has been translated in many ways, including "my sin", "my punishment" ", "My grievance" Cain expressed that he was afraid that he would also be killed. God's punishment softened, and he marked him to tell the world that Cain is the object of God's witness protection project, who dares to harm him Sevenfold retribution is itself another unnatural threat, and the punishment is out of proportion to the crime. Didn't God learn his lesson from his first threat?Interestingly, commentators have generally objected to interpreting the situation simply as God threatening anyone who tried to kill Cain: "The meaning of this statement is not that God will inflict seven times the punishment that man deserves, Because God is just and does not punish unfairly."

There are several points worth noting about this view.First, who is to say that God has never punished more than the wrongdoer deserves?The Bible is full of excessive and unfair punishment, at least from a human point of view.In this case, the erring person had at least been warned beforehand that he would be punished sevenfold—whatever that sevenfold might have anything to do with killing a human being!And in other cases, God kills without teaching. Why did God treat Cain more sympathetically than Adam and Eve?Cain, on the other hand, knew right from wrong, and committed murder only for small things, and then tried to hide the crime.On the other hand, Adam and Eve had no ability to distinguish between right and wrong, and they were tempted to commit crimes that no one was victimized, and they admitted that they had disobeyed orders (although they blamed others). Some commentators put forward an argument that God himself may also be partly responsible for Cain's crimes.The young man's anger was kindled because God looked down on Cain's offering.Simeon ben Yochai translates God's words to Cain as "Your brother's blood speaks to me from the soil, it is my fault." Thus, "as if Cain and Abel Two gladiators, fighting before the king, who has the power to separate them," or let one kill the other, no matter how much the latter begs.According to this interpretation, God hears Abel's cry but does not come to his rescue, so he is also partly responsible for the tragedy.In a story commonly used by rabbis to explain the Bible, it is described that Cain told God that "there is no law in the world, and there is no one to judge justice." In other words, Cain accused God of inciting him to kill his brothers.A contemporary scholar made a similar argument. In this story, God reacted like most failed parents. "

If it was because God did certain actions and did not do certain actions that inspired Cain to kill, then it is understandable that God mitigated Cain's punishment.Provoking has traditionally been considered a mitigating factor, even though the provocateur should usually be the victim. Some commentators believe that although Cain's murder predated any commandment against killing, Adam and Eve were more guilty than Cain because they directly disobeyed God's command, as stated in a Midrash : "Cain killed someone, but he didn't have a chance to know (how serious his crime was)"

Another article in "Midash" adds this excuse to 42 Genesis of Law: Finding the Origin of Law from Biblical Stories, implying that Cain made the following defense: I have never killed anyone, how do I know that I used Throwing a stone at him will take his life?This plea would later become an early version of the McNaughton rule of legal insanity.This law stipulates that if a person cannot understand the "nature and essence" of his behavior, that is, if he does not know that he has "done wrong", then he can be exempted from criminal responsibility.If a mentally handicapped person wants to hug a child to show his love, but suffocates the child to death, the murderer does not have to bear the responsibility of killing the child.

There are several problems with this argument.The first point is that Cain already had the ability to distinguish right from wrong from his parents. Anyone with this ability knows that killing is wrong.We call crimes like homicide niahrai in se, which is wrong in itself, essentially wrong behavior.Without any criminal law, it is necessary to tell any civilized person that killing is wrong.Eating the forbidden fruit, on the other hand, is a crime called malum prohubitum and is purely a violation of the law.The second point, anyone who has ever been in contact with animals understands what death is, and Cain knew that his brother sacrificed animals.Thirdly, let us recall Cain's famous reply to God: "Am I my brother's shepherd?" , is the origin of the tradition of answering questions with questions. In addition, its content also implies that Cain did something terrible, which he wanted to deny even in the face of God. Fourth, Abel's blood "was drawn from the soil "Crying, it shows that Cain killed him and buried him. This behavior indicates that he understood that death is the end of everything, and that he wants to destroy the evidence. Fifth, in the sentence describing shouting in the Bible, the word "blood" is used dmai is the plural form. This has led some commentators to draw the conclusion that Cain struck multiple times to ensure that Abel was killed. Finally, God warned Abel, although he did not explicitly say that there would be a murderous intent. He in After refusing Cain's offering, before the murder, asked Cain who was displeased why you were angry? Why did you change your countenance?" Then he also admonished Cain and if you do well, show it clearly , but if you do not intend to do good, evil is at the door waiting for you like a monster waiting to devour you—but you can subdue it."

This passage has always been interpreted as God's warning to human beings: Although he has omniscience, human beings have free will.We can control our evil tendencies. There is a passage in the Midrash where free will is described in the following story: A man encounters a hunter with a bird in his hand.The hunter asked the man to guess whether the bird was dead or alive, and if he guessed wrong he would be killed.If the bird is alive, and the man guesses it is, the hunter need only suffocate it immediately to turn the tables.If the man guesses that it is dead, the hunter can succeed as long as he lets go of the bird and lets it fly away.The man replied to the hunter, "It's up to you to decide whether it lives or dies." Cain, like this hunter, has free will to decide whether to let his brother live or die.God reminded him to subdue the monster in him, but Cain succumbed to sin and killed his brother.Rashi interpreted the "gateway" mentioned by God as "the entrance to his own tomb", but he did not ask why God spared Cain's death?Nor did Rashi ask the intriguing question: Why was Cain afraid of being killed?Anyway, apart from Adam and Eve, there is no one else in the world, so he shouldn't have to be afraid that his parents will kill him, right? This leads to another question: How can humans reproduce if there is no one else in the world?The Bible says that Cain had sex with his wife; she became pregnant.This is a difficult question that most traditional commentators avoid answering, and I saw it through painful experience in my early days in missionary school.This has led to skeptics mocking the mistakes of the Bible, and the American lawyer Clarence Darrow sneered at the mistakes of the Bible in his famous book.I think of a stage play I have seen "Inherit the Wind", in which Dano and Bryan (William Jennings Bryan) confront "Where did Cain get this wife?" My doubts seem a little untie.Some commentators have pointed out that the purport of the biblical text is not to provide complete historical facts; oral tradition can supplement the text to provide answers to such questions. We still don't understand why God was so lenient to Cain's crime of killing his brother.Does he value human life less than forbidden fruit?Or less worth than obeying his unexplained injunction?It should not be that the traditions of the Bible and Midash both value human life, and believe that if a person, especially a person with reproductive capacity, is killed, then all the offspring that this person should have had will be taken together. killed. There is a passage in the "Methrash" that God said to Cain: "Your brother's blood...cries... likewise, the blood of all the godly descendants who may have flowed from Abel's loins." A Talmud principle: "Whoever kills a man, destroys the world" comes directly from the allusion of Cain and Abel.The act of genocide is meant to wipe out all future generations.It is impossible for us to understand what human beings lost in the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War, for example, how many people were killed, the medicine that could have saved countless lives, etc.The cost of killing even one person is incalculable. There may be an explanation for the obvious contradiction between God’s generosity in punishing Cain and the Bible’s emphasis on human life, that is, Cain’s killing of Abel was actually punishing the sins committed by Adam and Eve.For parents, there is no greater tragedy than children killing each other. There is an intriguing chapter in "Midash", which shows the impact of the son's evil deeds on his parents.The original text of the text says that Cain "get up" shows that Cain was overwhelmed and forced to defend himself against his stronger brother. There is an inference in Midash, the brothers are having a legal dispute, and Cain wants Abel to spare him for the sake of his parents, to appease Abel's anger We are the only offspring in the world, what do you want Tell your father (if you kill me)" Abel was full of pity and let him get up. At this time, the ungrateful Cain got up and killed Abel. Rabbi Yochanan from this " Midrash gets a proverb: "Do not do good to the wicked, or evil will come your way. " Some commentators are concerned that the light punishment received by Cain did little to deter would-be murderers from their own wicked impulses, let alone Cain's eventual "lordship" of crimes in the early biblical world There also seems to be benefits.With this in mind, some commentators have invented a Midrash passage describing the terrible, if belated, punishment that Cain and his descendants suffered.The most absurd is the following story of heaven's revenge: Cain's retribution occurred in the seventh generation of mankind, and it came from his descendant Lamech.Lamech was blind. Whenever he went hunting, he was led by his young son. When prey appeared, he would guide him in the direction, and Lamech would shoot arrows according to his guidance.Once when he and his son were chasing prey, the boy saw something with long horns in the distance. Naturally, he thought it was some kind of wild beast, so he directed Lamech to shoot an arrow there.The air was clear, and the target fell to the ground with an arrow.When they came closer, the boy shouted, "Father, what you killed looks exactly like a human being, but with horns on its head!" Lamech immediately understood what was going on. He killed his ancestors. Cain, God put a horn on Cain's head.When he was in grief, he shook his fist in grief and accidentally shot his son to death. Misfortunes followed.The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the four generations of Cain's descendants—Enoch, Einah, Mehujael, and Methushalel.Lamech couldn't see the way and couldn't go home, so he stayed beside the dead bodies of Cain and his son.In the evening, his wives and concubines looked for him everywhere and found him there.When they heard what he had done, they didn't want to be with him, and they knew that all descendants of Cain were doomed to extinction.However, Lamech retorted: "If Cain's deliberate killing did not take place until the seventh generation, then I just killed someone by accident. I believe it will be delayed until at least seventy-seven generations before there will be retribution." Lamech followed his wives and concubines to Adam was there, and Adam heard both sides (separation was proposed by Cain's wives) and decided that Lamech was right. This chapter of "Midash" reminds me of the Hays Office established by the American film industry in the 1920s.Any crime in the plot of an American movie that is not punished as it deserves will be banned by Hayes Studio.However, life is often much like modern movies, such as "Primal Feal" or "sleeper", where the criminal is not caught at the end of the show.Woody Allen's 1989 film Crime and Misdemeanors brilliantly portrayed the usual imbalance between crime and punishment; Genesis sees this clearly truth, but interpreters of the Bible often want to deny it. Soon after Cain killed his brother, God regretted creating human beings, because human beings are terrible.No wonder!God is not very good at deterring crime.He expresses conflicting meanings about the consequences of committing sin.Humans killed people, and he acquitted the murderer!Therefore, it is not surprising to us that "the Lord saw the evil of mankind in the world".Heaven's system of rewarding good and punishing evil did not work.Crime rates skyrocketed.It's time for God to show his iron fist.

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