2. Chapter II
Chapter II T he institution of the new church according to the norm of postlapsarian theology — The zeal and duty of Adam in building it up —
How long it endured in purity — The defection in the apostate Cain — The nature, degrees, and manner of that defection — And Jehovah had regard for Abel and his offering — The παροράματα [oversights] of certain ancient writers — The obscurity of the Septuagint translation — Why the Cainite sacrifice was rejected by God — On the words of Moses: "And Cain said to Abel his brother," Gen. 4:8 — The fables of the Targums — Cain removed from the church, and flees it, distrusting the promise of mercy — The reformation of the church in the ejection and cursing of Cain.
I. According to the norm of the theology we have set out, the first church of sinners was instituted in the family of Adam. This was its immediate end
— that an assembly of those worshipping God in the Mediator should be constituted. The care of that work lay upon Adam. For since he was the head of the household of the whole human race, and had received the promise of the victorious Seed to be proclaimed to all his posterity, he was
held by the obligation of that duty by virtue of both natural and positive precept. That he was not wanting to that duty, very many things argue. For to discharge the committed office diligently, there can be no doubt that the following things moved him powerfully: the most great benefit recently received from God, love and compassion for his own kind, and a most tender sense of the wretched condition into which by sin he had brought his miserable posterity. The whole of his family therefore — under his care and governance — that is, the whole human race without exception, was the church of God, in which faith, observance, and religious worship flourished. In that state the church was absolutely catholic. But how great a space of time it endured irreproachably in the profession of the new theology is not altogether beyond doubt: it admitted the first stain of defection in the apostasy of Cain. Since that apostasy was the first specimen of defection in the first church of sinners professing the worship of God in the Mediator, it is to be briefly narrated.
II. We showed above that this theology had three parts. The apostate sinned against all of them. The foundation of the whole was the promise of the Mediator. But that Cain's defection began with unbelief — while celebrating the faith of Abel — the apostle shows at Heb. 11:4. Nor, when admonished by God, did he acknowledge his sin — which ἀμετανοησία
[impenitence] sprouted from the same root. Then he performed the instituted worship otherwise than he ought — and here the ἀπιστία
[unbelief] long lurking inwardly first asserted itself outwardly. Finally, anger and envy drove him, as he was defecting from faith, to fratricide — by which he transgressed the dictate of right reason, or the ἔμφυτον [innate] law. Thus, he proved a sinner and rebel against the whole divine covenant
and each of its parts. From this, he became the first of hypocrites, and the leader and τύπος [type] of all the rest to the end of the age, 1 John 3:12.
III. Some of old were of the opinion that God testified his acceptance of Abel's sacrifice by sending fire from heaven to devour it. Thus, Theodotion translated those words Gen. 4:4, ַוִּיַׁשע ְיהָוה ֶאל־ֶהֶבל ְוֶאל־ִמְנָחתֹו [And Jehovah had regard for Abel and his offering] as: Καὶ ἐνεπύρισεν [And he set on fire] — "And the Lord set on fire over Abel." Jerome praises that exposition, Hebrew Traditions on Genesis. Remarkable is the παράφρασις
[paraphrase] of the Septuagint at Gen. 4:6, 7 — which in the exposition of Cain's sin led many of the ancients astray. The words are: Καὶ εἶπε Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς τῷ Κάϊν, Ἵνα τί περίλυπος ἐγένου; καὶ ἵνα τί συνέπεσε τὸ πρόσωπόν σου; οὐκ ἐὰν ὀρθῶς προσενέγκῃς, ὀρθῶς δὲ μὴ διέλῃς ἥμαρτες; ἡσύχασον· πρὸς σὲ ἡ ἀποστροφὴ αὐτοῦ, καὶ σὺ ἄρξεις αὐτοῦ
[And the Lord God said to Cain, Why have you become very sorrowful?
And why has your countenance fallen? If you offered rightly but did not rightly divide, have you not sinned? Be still; his turning is toward you, and you shall rule over him]. What the words "If you offered rightly but did not rightly divide" mean to say is entirely uncertain. They do not belong to the sacred text. They are notable as the occasion of remarkable blunders and περιεργίαι [over-curious speculations] in Augustine, City of God, Bk. XV, ch. 7; Chrysostom, Homily XVIII on Gen. 4; Cyril Against Julian; and others. Jerome, Hebrew Traditions on Genesis, ch. 4, sharply attacks this παρόραμα [oversight] of the Septuagint — though not without a μνημονικῷ
[lapse of memory] himself. ַחָּטאת [sin-offering/sin], he says, "is of the masculine gender among the Hebrews, but in the Greek tongue of the feminine." For it is certain that ַחָּטאת is of the feminine gender. What misled
Jerome is that here it is joined with ֹרֵבץ [crouching], a participle of the
masculine gender. But this is not unusual among the Hebrews; and ֵחְטא and ָאֶון — both meaning the same as ַחָּטאת — in the masculine gender remove the ἀνωμαλία [irregularity] of this passage. The most learned Mercer uncovers the source of the slip in his commentary on the passage. I will say briefly what the matter is. The sacrifice of Cain was rejected — not on account of its material, nor on account of the wrong portion of his possessions consecrated, nor on account of any defect in external rite, but on account of the sin and unbelief of the one sacrificing.
IV. Cain, rebuked by God, concealed his envy and anger against his brother for a time. This appears to be signified by the words: ַוֹּיאֶמר ַקִין
ֶאל־ֶהֶבל ָאִחיו [And Cain said to Abel his brother]. Our translators render these words: "And Cain talked with his brother Abel." The Samaritan Codex and the Septuagint add "Let us go out into the field." The Vulgate has "Let us go out," doubtless from the Jerusalem Targum. In the Masoretic Bible, after ָאִחיו [his brother] there is a gap of one short line. Lindanus, Morinus, and others cry out that the Hebrew text is corrupt. Jerome rejects the addition:
"Cain spoke to his brother," he says, "and what was spoken by the Lord is to be understood; therefore, what is found in the Samaritan and our volume is superfluous," Hebrew Traditions on Genesis. See also how highly he esteemed that Samaritan codex which some prefer to the Hebrew. Aben
Ezra follows Jerome in supplying the sense in his comment on the place: "It seems to me," he says, "that he narrated to him with what rebukes he had been received from God." Onkelos adheres to the words of the text.
Jonathan — as also the Targum called the Jerusalem Targum — narrates a long dispute between the brothers: "And Cain said to Abel his brother,
'Come, let us both go out into the field.' And when both had gone out into the field, Cain answered and said to Abel: 'I understand that the world was
created by mercies' "(differently in the Jerusalem Targum: "That the world was not created by mercy"), "'but it is not governed according to the fruit of good works, and there is acceptance of persons in judgment; for which reason your oblation was accepted, but my oblation was not accepted with goodwill.' Abel answered and said to Cain: 'The world was created with mercies, and it is governed according to the fruits of good works, and there is no acceptance of persons in judgment, and because the fruits of my works are better than yours, my oblation was received with goodwill.' Cain answered and said to his brother: 'There is no judgment, and there is no judge, and there is no other age, and no good reward will be given to the righteous, and no vengeance taken on the wicked.' Abel answered and said to Cain: 'There is judgment, and there is a judge, and there is another age, and a good reward will be given to the righteous, and vengeance will be taken on the wicked.' And on account of these matters they were contending upon the face of the field." This is Ben Uzziel's work — after his own manner, that is, absurdly.
"For now was not the place for these things."
V. Philo the Jew says that Cain was a σοφιστήν [sophist] "and challenged his brother to a disputation" — perhaps from the fact that he dealt captiously even with God himself, Gen. 4:8. But the matter is plain; and our translators admirably hint at the sense of the words in their translation:
"And Cain talked with his brother." That is: after he had resolved in his mind to put his brother out of the way, he suppressed deep in his heart the deadly hatred which he nourished from envy in his very marrow, and while feigning love on his countenance, conversed with him in a friendly and brotherly manner. That is the meaning of the words. That is the custom of those who thirst for the blood of others. So afterwards Joab treacherously
dispatched Abner, and Absalom dispatched Amnon, by the simulated renewal of love. Lured by that pretext, the first martyr fell into the snare.
VI. Now the devil in a special manner was the instigator of this murder for Cain. Therefore not only on account of this very murder is Cain said to have been ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ [of the evil one], 1 John 3:12, but also the devil is called ἀνθρωποκτόνος ἀπ' ἀρχῆς [a murderer from the beginning], John
8:44. For he is not called a murderer there only because he enticed the first humans into sin, from which death was to follow, but also because he actually procured this murder to be committed — just as at the instigation of the devil the Pharisees of that day wished to kill the Lord Jesus. An ancient poet, whose verses are extant in Epiphanius, expressed this elegantly:
Ὦ πᾶσιν ἀρχὴ καὶ πέρας κακῶν ὄφις, Ἥ τ' ὦ βαρύν τίκτουσα θησαυρὸν κακῶν, Πλάνη τυφλοῦ ποδηγὸς ἀγνοίας, βίου Χαίρουσα θρήνοις, καὶ στενάγμασι βροτῶν.
Ὑμεῖς ἀθέσμους εἰς ὕβρεις ὁμοσπόρων, Τὰς μισαδέλφους ὁπλίσαντες ὠλένας, Κάϊν μολῦναι φοινίῳ πρῶτον λύθρῳ Ἐπείσατ' ὀργήν· κᾆξ ἀκηράτων πεσεῖν Αἰωνίων τε πρωτόπλαστον ἐς χθόνα Ὑμεῖς ἐτεκτήνασθε.
"O serpent, first origin of disasters and their final limit, And you, father of the heavy treasure of evils,
Forerunner of blind and wandering ignorance, Whose food is the tears and sighs of men —
While rousing to lawless outrage against kinsmen,
You armed the brother-hating hands, And drove the wrath of Cain to be defiled first with blood.
And you it was who contrived That the first-formed man should fall from the pure and eternal state
Down to the earth."
VII. But after the unbelief and hypocrisy of Cain had in this manner openly revealed themselves — so that he could no longer be tolerated within the church — God, who still exercised immediate care of the tender flock, expelled him from the bounds of the church laden with the curse, lest the fellowship of the impious apostate and those who clung to him in wickedness — whose number appears to have been not small, since with their help he set about building a city — should contaminate it. That is the meaning of those words, Gen. 4:12: ָנע ָוָנד ִּת ְהֶיה ָבָאֶרץ [A wanderer and a fugitive you shall be on the earth] — that is: "Go out over the face of the world on account of your newly multiplied curse — compounded as it is with fresh defection from my authority; wander there wherever you will; set your mind on earthly things; you shall have nothing henceforth in common with my worship and my church."
VIII. He himself repeats this part of his punishment at v. 14: ְוָהִייִתי ָנע ָוָנד
ָּבָאֶרץ [And I shall be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth] — not Στένων καὶ τρέμων [Groaning and trembling], as the Septuagint has it; and ִָמָּפֶני
ֶאָּס ֵתר [I shall be hidden from your face]. He had already formerly despised the gracious face of God in the promised Seed. In other words, he casts away the hope of entering again into grace with God: ָּגדֹול ֲעֹוִני ִמְנׂשֹוא — "My iniquity," he says, "is greater than can be pardoned," or "than I am able to bear." That these words "are to be faulted as if they contained something evil in themselves," Jonas Schlichting, On the Trinity, Against Meisner, p.
119, denies — as if they proceeded from right reason. But it is certain that they did not proceed from that faith, and therefore were full of despair.
Furthermore, he had neither hope nor fear that the providence of God could be hidden from him. He therefore acknowledges himself excluded from the communion of the saints and from the presence of God in solemn worship.
And having been driven out from the church, he also flees it, Gen. 4:16.
IX. Now this defection of Cain took place in the one hundred and twentyninth year after the founding of the church in the promise of the Liberator.
For it is probable that in the year immediately following the death of Abel, Eve bore Seth — which was the one hundred and thirtieth year of Adam's life, Gen. 5:3. In that space of time the human race had without doubt grown in number and multitude; and so had the church itself, which was still absolutely catholic and embraced the whole of that race. The first church of sinners professing faith in the mediator therefore endured for one hundred and thirty years or thereabouts, walking holily and blamelessly before God according to the norm of the restored theology.
X. Cain therefore fell into apostasy at the age of one hundred and twenty years. For it is an absurdity — what Gregory Abulfaraj, the Arab chronologist whose history the distinguished Pococke not long ago published, reports from the opinion of a certain Theodosius — namely "that Adam did not beget Cain until thirty years had elapsed from his expulsion from paradise, and that Abel had lived one hundred years before Adam, returning to his wife, begat Seth." But the sacred text ρητῶς [expressly] rejects these ravings, Gen. 5:3; and yet this most absurd rumour — arising I know not from where — travelled through the whole East and stained the writings of very many.
XI. The progress of hypocrisy therefore, from unbelief toward God to the persecution of the saints, brought both the occasion and the necessity of the reformation of the church; the first specimen and pattern of which, divinely appointed, we have in the ejection and cursing of Cain.