Monday
Monday
The Beginnings of Culture
Jabal … was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute…. Tubal-Cain … forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.
Genesis 4:20–22
The second half of Genesis 4 (vv. 17–26) introduces us to a paradoxical man called Lamech, one of Cain’s descendants. On the one hand, he committed bigamy (v. 19) and bragged to his two wives that he had killed a young man for injuring him and that in the future he would even outdo Cain in his brutality. For if Cain avenged himself seven times, Lamech boasted that he would do so seventy-seven times. Much better is the requirement of Jesus that we should forgive an offending brother seventy-seven times.
On the other hand, Lamech’s two wives gave birth to some very talented children, whose descendants inherited the same skills. Through their leadership, civilization began to develop. Cain, in spite of being himself a fugitive from God, had started building a city (perhaps only a village) for his extended family, which he named after his son Enoch (v. 17). As for Lamech’s sons, Jabal was a nomad, living in tents and raising livestock, while his brother Jubal’s family were musicians, specializing in wind and stringed instruments. As for their half brother, Tubal-Cain, he and his people had left the Stone Age behind them, for they “forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.” Thus construction, farming, music, science, and technology were being developed. At the same time, some people engaged in the rudiments of ordered worship: “Men began to call on the name of the LORD” (v. 26).
Human ambiguity was now very evident. Created in the image of God, human beings never lost their dignity or their cultural ingenuity. But being fallen, they also manifested an ugly depravity that sometimes broke out in terrible arrogance and violence. Lamech was an outstanding example of this human paradox.
For further reading: Genesis 4:19–24, 26