An In-Depth Study On Messianic ProphecySample

 COMPARING THE FALL NARRATIVE WITH THE STORY OF CAIN

Let us begin by looking closely at the tragic story of Adam and Eve’s children in Gn 4. Although Cain’s birth at first evokes words of praise (Gn 4:1), his animosity toward his younger brother results in the first murder. This story has several thematic and lexical (words) parallels with Gn 2–3. In both stories:

God gives clear instructions that must be obeyed:

    “But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” (Gn 2:17)

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    “If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door.” (Gn 4:7a)

God warns the main characters not to give in to their desires:

    “He said to the woman: ‘I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children in   anguish. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.’” (Gn 3:16)

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    “Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Gn 4:7b) 

The main characters brazenly disobey God’s instructions:

    “Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Gn 3:6)

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    “Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let’s go out to the field.’ And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.” (Gn 4:8)

God interrogates the main characters seeking to know “where” and “why.”:

   “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” . . . So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” (Gn 3:8-9,13a)

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   “Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s guardian?’ Then He said, ‘What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground!’” (Gn 4:9-10)

Characters are cursed by God:

   “Then the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.’” (Gn 3:14)

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   “Then He said, ‘What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground! So now you are cursed, alienated, from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood you have shed.’” (Gn 4:10-11)

Characters are banished from Eden:

   “So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove man out [banished] and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Gn 3:23-24)

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   “Since You are banishing me today from the soil, and I must hide myself from Your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me.” . . . Then Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (Gn 4:14,16)

A “seed” of the woman is highlighted in contradistinction from an evil “seed.”

   “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gn 3:15)

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   “Cain was intimate with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. . . . Adam was intimate with his wife [woman] again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, for she said, ‘God has given [has put] me another child [seed] in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.’” (Gn 4:17,25) 

When we allow Gn 4 to shed light on the meaning of Gn 3, several interpretive insights follow. First, though Cain’s actions of disobedience and subsequent expulsion from Eden mirror Adam and Eve’s story, God’s curse on Cain (“cursed are you”) marks him and his children as the seed of the serpent (“cursed are you”). Second, a number of key words in Gn 4:25 (woman, to put, seed) appear in only one other place in the entire Hebrew Bible, Gn 3:15. This means we must look to Gn 4:25 to gain further insight into the meaning of Gn 3:15. Eve interprets the “seed of the woman” in Gn 3:15 as an individual son, i.e., “God has given me another seed.” The precise wording of her comments also suggests that she understands the hostilities between Cain and Abel in light of Gn 3:15, in which this conflict was already anticipated. 

In light of Gn 4, it becomes clear that the “seed of the serpent” is not referring to literal snakes (contra the etiological interpretation of Gn 3:15). Rather, the close parallels between the fates of the serpent and Cain, followed by Cain’s genealogy in chap. 4, suggests that the author of Genesis wants us to understand the serpent’s “seed” metaphorically. The serpent’s seed are not to be identified by physical progeny since Cain is also a child of Eve. Rather, the serpent’s seed must be identified by its actions, in this case, murder. The identification of Seth as a seed appointed by God in Gn 4:25 further suggests that divine election is crucial for identifying the “seed of the woman.” In this we also find a clue as to the identity of the serpent. The serpent stands as the parent-creature in a metaphorical line of evildoers who oppose God’s purposes for humanity, and who war against a divinely appointed seed.

Already in chap. 4, the author provides vital clues for understanding Gn 3:15 as far more significant than a description of a natural phenomenon. Rather, it is the plot of the entire story in a nutshell. As Gn 1–11 continues to unfold, it becomes clear that its story line does not allow for interpreting the equal blows in Gn 3:15 as a vicious, never-ending cycle of good versus evil. The story’s plot brings us to a very different conclusion, namely, the triumph of God’s elected seed (collective and individual) to restore divine blessing to all humanity.