Draft of Genesis 4:1-4a

The birth of Cain and Hevel, with notes from 11th C. exegete Rupert of Deutz. Plus, Michael Carasik comes to Substack!

And now we begin the narrative of life outside the Garden with the birth of the first children: Cain and Hevel.¹ We all know what is going to happen with them, but let’s pause here as if we didn’t know. Chava says she was given Cain by the Lord. Is there any premonition in this that he will be a murderer? At first glance, no. It brings to mind what Rashi says: that Cain was conceived before Man and Chava left the Garden: “already before the events related above took place — before he sinned and was driven out of the Garden of Eden. So, also, the conception and birth of Cain took place before this.” (St. John Chrysostom, whose feast we celebrate today, disagrees: “After his disobedience, after their loss of the garden, then it was that the practice of intercourse had its beginning.”)

So how do we read Chava’s saying, “I was given a boy by the Lord”? Is it a humble giving of thanks to God for a child? Why does she say it only for the birth of Cain and not for Hevel? One could read her as saying “that she has created a man in the same way as the Lord,”² i.e., as the opposite of humility. St. Didymus the Blind reads it as a simple giving of thanks:“Although as parents they had served to assist in the birth, everything was carried out by God’s action. The phrase thanks to God should be taken simply to mean “from God”; Joseph likewise said, “Is not their clarification due to God?”—that is, from God.”³

Both readings seem possible to me!

Here is my draft of Genesis 4:1-4a:

Man knew Chava
  his wife
She birthed
  Cain
  said
    "I was given
      a boy
        by the Lord"
  birthed Hevel
    his brother
 
Hevel
  shepherd
Cain
  servant
    of the soil
 
Time gone by
Cain offered
  fruit of his toil
    to the Lord
Abel also gave
  first and fat
    of his flock

---

One of the joys of reading and translating the Bible is that you join a community of readers stretching back millennia. Ivan Illich would talk about his friendship with the medieval theologian Hugh of St. Victor, with whose writings he spent so much time and from whom I’m such Illich asked for intercession. Let’s read the passage with another medieval, Rupert of Deutz, exegete from the 11th Century:

And Adam knew his wife Eve, who conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have possessed a human through God.” And again she bore his brother Abel. One of them [Cain] is considered to be the first person in the wicked generation. The other [Abel] is considered to be the first person in the righteous generation. The former was received with so much awe by his mother that she vowed to herself in joyous wonder, “I have possessed a human through God,” and because of this she named him Cain, which is translated “possession.” I must say that this first miracle of human generation, mistaken happiness, and vain, unfortunate joy killed his brother Abel, whose name means “mourned.” This name is appropriate for him not only because he was the first person for whom his parents mourned, but also because he was the first person about whom it was said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matt. 5:4). In the meantime, while Cain prevailed and a generation of sinners was sprouting up, not even one branch sprang forth that could be considered the fruit of a good generation, until—among numerous sons and daughters—Seth was born. His name means “placement,” because he was given in place of Abel, and the generation of the elect came into being. Thus it is written below: Adam knew his wife again and she bore a son and named him Seth, saying “God has given me offspring in place of Abel whom Cain killed” (Gen. 4:25).⁴

In closing, I’m happy to report that Michael Carasik is now on Substack! I recommend that you subscribe to his close reading of Genesis and to his podcast on the weekly Torah portion:

1. Philo claims they were twins!

2. Cotter, David W., Genesis (ed. J. T. Walsh – C. Franke – D. W. Cotter) (Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry; Collegeville, MN 2003) 41.

3. Didymus the Blind, Commentary on Genesis (The Fathers of the Church; Washington, D.C. 2016) CXXXII, 115.

4. Rupert of Deutz, “On the Trinity and Its Works: Comments on Genesis (Genesis 4–8)”, The Book of Genesis (ed. J. A. Schroeder et al.) (The Bible in Medieval Tradition; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K. 2015) 86-87.