Genesis
relates: “God said to Cain, 'Why are you so furious? Why are you depressed? If
you do good, will there not be special privilege? And if you do not do good, sin
is crouching at the door. It lusts after you, but you can dominate it.’ ”
As has often
been pointed out, the stories of the book of Genesis comprise a chain of
fraternal strife, usually instigated by God’s preference for the younger brother
over the elder. The first such instance is Cain and Abel. Cain, the elder
brother, brings a sacrifice; then his younger brother copies him. God
deliberately answers the younger, who brought the sacrifice only after the older
brother did, but does not answer the older. This can only be designed to
challenge Cain to the utmost.
The story is
short and bitter: “Cain became very furious and depressed. God said to
Cain, 'Why are you so furious? Why are you depressed? If you do good, will there
not be special privilege? And if you do not do good, sin is crouching at the
door. It lusts after you, but you can dominate it.' Cain said [something] to his
brother Abel. Then, when they happened to be in the field, Cain rose up against
his brother Abel, and killed him.“
Questions: Of
course God knew well why Cain was furious and depressed; it was as a result of
God’s snub. What would Cain make of this strange question of God? And why would
he kill Abel after such a warning? And why be so unconcerned and blasé after
killing his brother, saying to God “Am I
my brother's keeper?”
The Torah
describes the murder scene as follows: “Cain said [something] to his brother
Abel. Then, when they happened to be in the field, Cain rose up against his
brother Abel, and killed him.”
The classic
question that is posed is: What did he say? And we may add, why does the Torah
not tell us what he said? And what did it have to do with the reason for the
slaying? And would it not be the reverse: It would seem to make more sense that
Abel said something to Cain, who as a result slew him.
Furthermore in
the Hebrew there is a seemingly missing word in the phrase “Cain said to his
brother Abel” and so the translation sticks it in in brackets: “Cain said [something] to his brother Abel”.
If we are to be told simply that he said something without the Torah specifying
what was said, why would the Torah skip the word
“something”?
Speculative
Answer: Perhaps Cain understood something very different from God’s statement to
him than what the usual translation tells us.
The usual
translation of God’s statement is: “If you do good, will there not be special
privilege? And if you do not do good, sin is crouching at the door. It lusts
after you, but you can dominate it.'”
However, if
this is what Cain understood God to be saying, then after a warning like this
Cain would be less likely to hurt his brother, yet he went ahead and killed him.
And so we are led to a speculative alternative
understanding.
The crucial
first and last word of the phrase “It lusts after you but you can dominate it'”
means in Hebrew ‘him’, not only ‘it’, making the phrase “he lusts after (what) you (have) but
you can dominate him'”!
There is such
a clear parallel to what was told to Cain’s mother Eve that it is clearly
deliberate:
Ø
God to
Eve: “your lust[11] will be to
your husband, and he will dominate you’ .'”
Ø
God to Cain:
“he lusts after (what) you (have) but
you can dominate him'”
God to Eve:
“Your lust will be to your husband, and he will dominate you’
.'”
God to her son
Cain: “It/he lusts after you, but you can dominate
it/him.'”
Since the
statement is directly parallel to that told by God to his mother describing her
submissive relationship to his father, that his father would dominate her, Cain
may well have understood God’s present statement to him as referring to his
right to dominate his younger brother! Cain heard not some sophisticated
allegorical reference to an abstraction, a personified “sin” being able to
“crouch” at a “door” and “spring” on him, but a reference to his sinful brother
who crouches at his door waiting to pounce on him (copying his sacrifice and
trying to one-up him) instead of being submissive!
What Cain hears is: “If
you do a good job (on your brother), will there not be special privilege? And if
you do not do a good job, he is sinfully crouching at the door; his desire is
for you (ie for what you have), but you can dominate him.'” And thus empowered,
Cain goes to Abel:
In the Hebrew
there is a seemingly missing word in the phrase “Cain said to his brother Abel”
and so the translation sticks it in in brackets: “Cain said [something] to his brother Abel”.
But we do not need this interpolation. We know what he said, and the Torah is
leaving it out because it is already known to us; it is referring to the message
God gave to Cain as understood by Cain’s enraged mind: “Cain said to his brother
Abel (ie he told him what God had said). Then, when they happened to be in the
field (Cain’s territory as a farmer?), Cain rose up against his brother Abel,
and killed him. (fulfilling his imagined right to dominate
Abel)”.
Then God asked
Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?'
'I do not
know,' replied [Cain]. 'Am I my brother's keeper? : ie: ‘You know that I had the
right to do what I did!' .[12] Then only
when God yells at him and banishes him does Cain realize that he did not
understand correctly.[13]
We can hear
what we wish to hear, and believe ourselves fully justified, however when the
message we seem to be getting via inspiration, or giving ourselves as a society,
is too convenient, we should suspect the correctness of our
interpretation.
Many years
after Cain killed Abel, Cain was himself killed. And so: “Adam knew his wife
again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth
- 'Because God
has granted (shath) me other offspring in place of Abel, whom Cain had killed.”
Question: Why
wait so long to replace Abel?
Answer: Since
the vowels are missing, the phrase in Hebrew “ki h[a]r[o]g[oi] Kayin” whom Cain
had killed” can be read “ki h[o]rg[u]
Kayin” “because they killed Cain”. That is, now that both Abel and Cain
were dead, both of them killed, Adam and Eve decide to have another child, in
place of Abel[14].
Alternately,
it is only after Cain the murderer dies that they feel safe in bearing another
male[15]
child.