Sixth Saturday in Lent

The Rejection of Cain's Gift

     At the end of the last blog's review of East of Eden I indicated that I would answer that question that the Bible doesn't answer. Why was Abel's gift acceptable to God, while Cain's gift was not. I think that the answer lies not in the story itself but in a political subtext of the story.

     The story was likely composed by someone scholars call the J source. The most widely accepted theory of the composition of the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible) is that there were four principal sources, which scholars have labelled J, E D, and P.  J and P alternate in the first five chapters of Genesis. Chapter 4 was composed by J, who wrote around 950 BC. The story reflects struggles that were going on between Hebrews and Canaanites from at least 1250 BC down to the Babylonian Exile (586-538 BC). Here's the short of it:

     The Canaanites were an agricultural people. They had been farming the land of Canaan since at least 2800 BC. Theirs was a polytheistic agricultural religion. Among many other gods that they worshipped, the Canaanites revered Baal, the god of the sky, and Ashtar, the goddess of the earth. Rain was sexual intercourse between Baal and Ashtar. The crops were Ashtar's babies. Canaanite religion was practiced primarily in the spring in local temples that were operated by women, who were effectively temple prostitutes. The orgies that were Canaanite worship were intended to encourage Baal and Ashtar to get together, cause rain,  and thus the crops would grow. 

      The Hebrews were a sheep herding and goat herding people. They were invaders in the land of Canaan. They were monotheistic (the only monotheistic people in Bronze Age antiquity). Their God could not be represented in images, unlike the Canaanite gods. The Hebrew God, Yahweh, had three important functions. Yahweh was a leader God, leading the shepherding people to greener pastures and to water sources. Yahweh was also a warrior God, leading the people in war against those who stood in their way of finding those greener pastures, namely the Canaanites. Third, Yahweh was a lawgiver God, who regulated the moral behavior of the Hebrew people.

     The Hebrews, who practiced daily animal sacrifice to God/Yahweh, considered the Canaanites to be immoral people, whose ways were not acceptable to God. When J composed the story of Cain and  Abel, or received the story as it was handed down orally to him, J did so with an underlying story. For J, the story is not just about Cain and Abel, more importantly it is about Canaanites and Hebrews. Indeed the etymology of the name Cain clearly appears to be related to the word Canaanite. 

     One can imagine an ancient Hebrew evening campfire. A child asks the chieftain, "Why do we not like Canaanites?" The chieftain answers with a story. The story went like this. The Canaanite ancestor Cain made an unacceptable offering to God and then became a murderer. The Canaanites have been murderers and have been unacceptable to God ever since. 

     Two other points about the Biblical Cain. When God expels Cain from the garden, God places a mark on Cain (Genesis 4:15). God's mark on Cain prevents anyone from killing Cain, even though Cain was a murderer. I, among many other United Methodist pastors, have preached a sermon against capital punishment, using the story of the mark of Cain as my text. Methodist opposition to capital punishment goes all the way back to John Wesley himself in the eighteenth century.

     Second, the last thing we read about Cain in the Genesis 4 story is that he built a city--the first city. Even the worst of criminals can be redeemed and can end up doing great things. 

Never on Sunday, but Monday I will write more about the contemplative life.

Faithfully,

Christian