Thursday, July 27, 2017

Was Cain Jealous?

It is impossible to know what Cain was thinking about himself and his brother Abel as they were about to bring their offerings. Many note the jealousy and envy that appear from his actions later in the episode. Part of me wonders whether or not he saw himself as the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. He was, after all, the first son, and Eve's elation at his birth suggests a kind of hope that this might have been the case.

He took to himself his father Adam's vocation, which is suggestive in this direction. Perhaps in his approach to God through the offerings of the fruit of the ground He saw himself as poised to re-enter the garden cloaked in his father's vestments to do battle with the serpent?

God's response to Cain and his offering was an indication that he was not the one (whether or not my conjecture accurately reflects the meaning of the text). Abel's, however, was accepted, because he showed through his offering that he waited for another through whom man would be called back to the Garden of Eden.

Perhaps this was another reason why Cain was so angry. Delusions of grandeur?


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