Part 7 (1/2)
V. 14. _Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth; and it will come to pa.s.s, that whosoever findeth me will slay me._
205. From these words it appears that the sentence on Cain was p.r.o.nounced through the mouth of Adam. Cain acknowledges that he is driven first from Home and State, and then also from the Church. Of the difference between the words _adamah_ and _erez_ we spoke above.
We showed that _erez_ signifies the earth generally, while the word _adamah_ means the cultivated part of the earth. The meaning therefore is: I am now compelled to flee from thy presence and from that part of the earth which I have cultivated. The whole world indeed lies before me, but I must be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth; that is, I shall have no certain dwelling place. In the same way fugitive murderers among us are punished with exile. These words, accordingly, cast additional light upon the utterance of Adam, ”Cursed art thou from the ground.” They refer to Cain's banishment. This part of Cain's punishment therefore is a civil punishment, and by it he is shut out from civic a.s.sociation.
206. But that which Cain next adds, ”From thy face shall I be hid,” is an ecclesiastical punishment and true excommunication. For, as the priesthood and the kingdom rested with Adam, and Cain on account of his sin was excommunicated from Adam, he was thereby also deprived of the glory both of priesthood and kingdom. But why Adam adopted this punishment is explained by the words, ”When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength;” as if he had said, Thou art cursed and thy labors are cursed also. Therefore if thou shalt remain with us upon earth it cannot be but that both thyself and we likewise must perish with hunger. For thou hast stained the earth with thy brother's blood, and wherever thou art, thou must bear about the blood of thy brother, and even the earth itself shall exact her penalties.
207. A similar sentence we find p.r.o.nounced in 1 Kings 2, 29-33, where Solomon gives commandment to Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, saying, ”Fall upon Joab, that thou mayest take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father's house. And Jehovah will return his blood upon his own head. But unto David, and unto his seed, and unto his house, and unto his throne, shall there be peace for ever from Jehovah.” As much as to say, If Joab suffer not this punishment of his unjust murder, the whole kingdom must suffer that punishment and be shaken by wars. The meaning of Adam then, in this pa.s.sage is, If thou shalt remain on the earth with us, G.o.d will bring punishment upon us for thy sake, in that the earth shall not yield us her fruit.
208. But now let us reply to the question raised above. It was said to Cain, ”A fugitive and wanderer shalt thou be in the earth.” And yet, Cain was the first man who builds a city, and his posterity so increased from that time that they debauched and oppressed the Church of G.o.d, and so utterly overthrew it as not to leave more than eight persons of the posterity of Seth. All of the remainder of mankind, which perished in the flood, had followed Cain, as the text plainly declares when it affirms that the sons of G.o.d, when they came unto the daughters of men, begat giants and mighty men, which were of old, men of renown, Gen 6, 4. Therefore, since Cain had so great a posterity, and he built the first city, how can it be true, men ask, that he was a fugitive and wanderer upon earth?
209. We will reply in accordance with what is written. The ill.u.s.trations from the New Testament above mentioned, Paul, the apostles, Christ, and the prophets, a.s.suredly belong to quite a different category. When Adam here says to Cain, ”A fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth,” he speaks these words to him to send him away, without further precept. He does not say to him, ”Go to the east;” he does not say, ”Go to the south;” he does not mention any place to which he should go. He gives him no command what to do; but simply casts him out. Whither he goes and what he does, is no concern of his. He adds no promise of protection, he does not say: G.o.d shall take care of thee; G.o.d shall protect thee. On the contrary; as the whole sky is free to the bird, which is at liberty to fly whither it pleases, but is without a place where it may be secure from the attacks of other birds, so Adam turns Cain away. The latter feels this. Hence his rejoinder: ”It shall come to pa.s.s that every one that findeth me, shall slay me.”
210. The condition of Adam was different and better. Adam had sinned, and by his sin he had sunk into death. But when he was driven out of paradise, G.o.d a.s.signed him a particular task--that he should till the earth in a particular place. G.o.d also clothed him with a covering of skins. This, as we said, was a sign that G.o.d would take care of him and protect him. And, last but not least, a glorious promise was made to the woman concerning the seed which should bruise the serpent's head. Nothing like this was left to Cain. He was sent away absolutely without a.s.signment of any particular place or task. No command was given him nor was any promise made him. He was like a bird aimlessly roving beneath the wide heavens. This is what it means to be a vagabond and wanderer.
211. Unsettled and aimless, likewise, are all who lack G.o.d's Word and command, wherein person and place receive adequate direction. Such were we under the papacy. Wors.h.i.+p, works, exercises--all these were present; but all these existed and found acceptance without a divine command. A trying condition was that and Cainlike--to be deprived of the Word; not to know what to believe, what to hope, what to suffer, but to undertake and to perform everything at haphazard. What monk is there who could affirm that he did anything right? Everything was man's tradition and man's teaching, without the Word. Amid these we wandered, being driven to and fro, and like Cain, uncertain what verdict G.o.d would pa.s.s, whether we should merit love or hate. Such was, in those days, our instruction.
Unsettled and aimless like this was Cain's whole posterity. They had neither promise nor command from G.o.d, and lacked all definite guidance for life and for death. Hence, if any of them came to the knowledge of Christ, and allied themselves with the true Church, it was not by reason of a promise but through sheer compa.s.sion.
212. Seth, however, who was born subsequently, had, together with his posterity, a definite promise, a definite abode and a definite mode of wors.h.i.+p; on the other hand, Cain was aimless. He founded a city, it is true, but he did not know how long he should dwell in it, not having a divine promise. Whatever we possess without a promise is of uncertain duration; at any amount Satan may disturb it or take it. However, when we go into the fray equipped with G.o.d's command and promise, the devil fights in vain; G.o.d's command insures strength and safety. Therefore, although Cain was lord of the whole world and possessed all the treasures of the world, still, lacking the promise of G.o.d's help and the protection of his angels, and having nothing to lean upon but man's counsels, he was in every respect aimless and unsettled. This he himself admits when he further says:
V. 14b. _And it shall come to pa.s.s that every one that findeth me shall slay me._
213. This result was quite to be expected. Having neither G.o.d nor his father to look to for succor, having forfeited his rights both as priest and as ruler, he saw the possibility before him that any one found him, might slay him, for he was outlawed, body and soul.
Notwithstanding, G.o.d conferred upon the nefarious murderer a twofold blessing. He had forfeited Church and dominion, but life and progeny were left. G.o.d promised him to protect his existence, and also gave him a wife. Two blessings these by no means to be despised; and when he heard the first part of his sentence p.r.o.nounced by his father, they were more than he had a right even to hope for. They were valuable for the additional reason that opportunity and time for repentance were granted, though, in the absence of a clear promise, there was neither covenant nor commission. In the same manner, we found our way under the papacy to uncovenanted mercy (_fortuita gratia_), if I may use this expression, for no promise was previously given that the truth was to be revealed in our lifetime, and the Antichrist to become manifest. The reason to which these blessings are attributable, is consideration for the elect. It is quite credible that many of Cain's offspring were saved, namely, those who joined the true Church.
Likewise, at a later day, provision was made among the Jews for proselytes and Gentiles.
214. While a stern law existed according to which the Moabites and Ammonites were not admitted to the religious services, Ammonites and Moabites were saved, such as came to the kings of Judah to serve under them. Also Ruth, the mother and ancestress of our Saviour, was a Moabite. This is what I call uncovenanted mercy, no previous promise having rendered it certain.
215. Also Naaman, and the king of Nineveh, and Nebuchadnezzar, and Evilmerodach, and others from among the Gentiles, were saved by such uncovenanted mercy; for, unlike the Jews, they had no promise of Christ. In the same way, bodily safety is vouchsafed to Cain, and a wife with offspring, for the sake of the elect to be saved by uncovenanted mercy. For, although what we said of the Moabites is true of all his posterity, that it was to live under a curse, it is true, notwithstanding, that some of the patriarchs took their wives from the same.
V. 15a. _And Jehovah said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold._
216. Jerome, in his Epistle to Damascus, contends that Cain had begged of the Lord that he might be slain, an opinion into which he rushes full sail, as it were, entertaining no doubt whatever concerning its truth. Lyra follows Jerome, and resolutely affirms that the context requires this interpretation. But this error of theirs should be laid at the door of the rabbins from whom they received it. The true sense of the pa.s.sage is rather that everyone was prohibited from killing Cain. Judgment is p.r.o.nounced here by G.o.d, and when he spares Cain's life and in addition permits him afterward to marry, it is done to stay its execution.
217. Moreover, how is it likely that an unG.o.dly person asks death at the very time when G.o.d exercises judgment? Death is the very punishment of sin; therefore he flees and dreads death as the greatest part of his penalty. Away, therefore, with such vagaries of the rabbins! With these also Lyra's suggestion may safely be cla.s.sed that the text ought to be divided and made to mean, Whoever shall kill Cain, shall surely meet with severe punishment. And when it is further stated, He shall be punished sevenfold, they would explain it as meaning that in the seventh degree--in the seventh generation--the punishment is to be inflicted.
218. Such vagaries are worthy of the rabbins after having cast away the light of the New Testament. However, they impose a double labor upon us, inasmuch as we are compelled to defend the text and to clear it of such corruptions, and to correct their absurd comments. If I quote them occasionally, it is to avoid the suspicion of proudly despising them, or of failing to read, and to give sufficient consideration to, their writings. While we read them intelligently, we do so with critical discrimination, and we do not permit them to obscure Christ, and to corrupt the Word of G.o.d.
219. The Lord, accordingly, does not in this pa.s.sage at all alter the sentence upon Cain whereby he had been doomed to a curse on earth, but merely vouchsafes to him this uncovenanted mercy for the sake of the elect that are to be saved from that curse as from a ma.s.s of dregs.
That is the reason he said Cain should not be killed, as he feared.
There is, then, no necessity for doing violence to this text as Rabbi Solomon does, who, after the words ”whosoever slayeth Cain,” puts a stop; making it to be a hiatus or (ellipsis), as we find in that noted line in Virgil (Aeneas, 135)--
_Quos ego--sed motos praestat componere fluctus._ Whom I--but now, be calm, ye boist'rous waves.
And then the expression, ”shall be punished sevenfold,” the rabbi refers to Cain himself, who was punished in his seventh generation.
For Cain begat Enoch, and Enoch begat Irad, and Irad begat Mehujael, and Mehujael begat Methusael, and Methusael begat Lamech.
220. And the Jews' absurd comment upon that pa.s.sage (verse 23, below), is that Lamech, when he was old, and his eyes dim, was taken by his son Tubal-Cain into a wood to hunt wild beasts, and that, when there shooting at a wild beast, Lamech accidently shot Cain, who in his wanderings had concealed himself in the wood. Such interpretations are only fables, unworthy a place or notice in our schools. Moreover, they militate against the very truth of the text. For if Cain was really designed of G.o.d to be killed in the seventh generation, and if that time was thus fixed for his death, he was not ”a fugitive and a vagabond upon earth.”