Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Chapter Four
Synopsis of the Chapter
Adam begets Cain and Abel. Second, in verse 8, Cain kills Abel, and therefore is cursed by God and becomes a fugitive. Third, in verse 17, the descendants of Cain are listed. Fourth, in verse 25, Adam begets Seth, and Seth begets Enosh.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 4:1-26
1. And Adam knew his wife Eve: who conceived and bore Cain, saying: I have gotten a man through God. 2. And again she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3. And it came to pass after many days that Cain offered of the fruits of the earth gifts to the Lord. 4. Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat: and the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offerings. 5. But to Cain and his offerings He had no respect: and Cain was exceedingly angry, and his countenance fell. 6. And the Lord said to him: Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7. If you do well, shall you not receive? but if ill, will not sin forthwith be present at the door? but the desire thereof shall be under you, and you shall have dominion over it. 8. And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go forth abroad. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him. 9. And the Lord said to Cain: Where is Abel your brother? Who answered: I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? 10. And He said to him: What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth. 11. Now therefore cursed shall you be upon the earth, which has opened her mouth and received your brother's blood at your hand. 12. When you till it, it shall not yield to you its fruits: a fugitive and a vagabond shall you be upon the earth. 13. And Cain said to the Lord: My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon. 14. Behold You cast me out this day from the face of the earth, and from Your face I shall be hid, and I shall be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth: everyone therefore that finds me shall kill me. 15. And the Lord said to him: No, it shall not be so: but whosoever shall kill Cain shall be punished sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, that whosoever found him should not kill him. 16. And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a fugitive on the earth, to the east of Eden. 17. And Cain knew his wife, who conceived and bore Enoch: and he built a city, and called the name thereof by the name of his son, Enoch. 18. And Enoch begot Irad, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methusael, and Methusael begot Lamech. 19. Who took two wives: the name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Sella. 20. And Ada bore Jabel, who was the father of such as dwell in tents and of herdsmen. 21. And the name of his brother was Jubal: he was the father of those who play the harp and the organ. 22. Sella also bore Tubalcain, who was a hammerer and artificer in every work of brass and iron. And the sister of Tubalcain was Noema. 23. And Lamech said to his wives Ada and Sella: Hear my voice, you wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech: for I have slain a man to my own wounding, and a stripling to my own bruising. 24. Sevenfold vengeance shall be taken for Cain: but for Lamech seventy times sevenfold. 25. Adam also knew his wife again: and she bore a son, and called his name Seth, saying: God has given me another seed for Abel, whom Cain slew. 26. But to Seth also was born a son, whom he called Enosh: this man began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Verse 1: He Knew
KNEW. By this word Scripture modestly signifies carnal union; for since the Hebrews call a virgin alma, that is, hidden and unknown to man, hence to corrupt her they call "knowing" her, or revealing her shame, as is clear from Leviticus 18.
Certain Rabbis, together with our heretics, think that Adam knew Eve in paradise. But from this passage the Fathers commonly teach the contrary, namely that Adam and Eve remained virgins in paradise. For here, after the expulsion from paradise, the first mention of their union is made: "Marriage," says St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian, "fills the earth, virginity fills paradise." It seems therefore that this was the first generation of Adam and Eve outside paradise, and consequently Cain was their firstborn. For the words of Eve when bearing him suggest this: "I have gotten a man through God," as if to say: Now for the first time I have borne a son, and have become a mother of a man.
She Bore Cain, Saying: I Have Gotten a Man
Cain in Hebrew means the same as "possession," from the root qanah, that is, "I have gotten." The Arabic translates: "I have gained a man through God." Therefore Goropius Becanus jests, who derives the name Cain from the Flemish language, as if Cain were the same as quaet eynde, that is, "bad end" or "evil outcome." And so Cain in Hebrew means the same as "possession"; for a son is, as it were, the possession and property of his parents. Hence by natural law the father has power over his son; hence fathers are called lords, Matt. 11:25; Ecclus. 23:1. Hence it came about that the Persians (as Aristotle testifies in the Politics) used their children as slaves. Hence also the Slavs (as Accursius testifies) sold and killed their sons at their own discretion. Eve therefore says: "I have gotten a man," but "through God," as if to say: A son has been born to me, as it were my possession; but he is rather the Lord's possession, and an inheritance given to me by God. So St. Chrysostom: "Not nature (says Eve) gave me a child, but divine grace." So Jacob said to Esau: "They are the little ones whom God has given me," Gen. 33:5. Let parents learn here that children are gifts of God.
Torniellus in his Annals plausibly judges that Cain was begotten immediately after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise, namely in the first year of the world and of Adam, both because Adam and Eve were created in a mature stature fit for generation; and because after their sin they immediately felt the sharp stings of lust and conjugal desire; and because they alone were in the world, and through them God wished the human race to be immediately propagated and multiplied throughout the whole earth. Whence it follows that Cain killed Abel in the 129th year of his age, namely shortly before the birth of Seth. For Seth was born in that year, as is clear from chapter 5, verse 3. Therefore it is improbable what some think, that Adam and Eve, mourning their sin and fall, abstained from the use of marriage for a hundred years, and having come together in the hundredth year begot Cain, and immediately after Abel; and so Cain at the thirtieth year of his age killed Abel, and therefore Adam immediately begot Seth in place of Abel, in the year of the world 130, as appears from chapter 5, verse 3.
This, I say, is improbable: for Adam knew that he had been appointed by God to be the sower and propagator of the human race; he knew moreover that he had been condemned by God to death, and would die shortly; he knew the day of his death was uncertain. Who therefore would believe that he abstained from generation and propagation of his race for a hundred years, when he did not know whether he would live a hundred years?
Equally improbable and fabulous is the vision falsely attributed to St. Methodius the Martyr by Peter Comestor in his Scholastic History, Genesis chapter 25: namely that Adam and Eve, in the fifteenth year of their age and of the world, begot Cain and his sister Calmana; and in the thirtieth year begot Abel and his sister Delbora; and in the year 130 Cain killed Abel, whom his parents mourned for a hundred years, and after mourning begot Seth in the year of their age and of the world 230, as the Septuagint has it. For besides what has already been said, there is here a manifest error in the numbers in the Septuagint, and instead of 200 one should read 130, as the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Latin texts have it.
Tropologically: "Cain is called 'acquisition,' because he claimed everything for himself; Abel, who referred everything to God (for Abel, according to St. Ambrose, is said to be as it were hab el, that is, 'giving all things to God,' namely those things he received from Him), claiming nothing for himself," says St. Ambrose, book I On Cain and Abel, chapter 1. Cain therefore signifies the arrogant, who attribute everything to their own ability; Abel the humble, who refer all things as received from God the giver. And in chapter 2: "By Abel," he says, "is understood the Christian people" (just as by Cain the Jews, murderers of Christ and the Prophets) "cleaving to God, just as David says: 'But for me it is good to cleave to God.'" And in chapter 4, he teaches that Cain is the type of malice, Abel of virtue. It is signified therefore that Cain, that is, "malice precedes in time, but grows feeble in weakness. Malice has the reward of age, but virtue has the prerogative of glory, which the unjust man generally yields to the just," just as Cain yielded to Abel in favor and honor before God.
Through God
The preposition "through" is not that of one swearing, but of one rejoicing and acknowledging the author of generation. In Hebrew it is et Adonai. Isidorus Clarius thinks that here et is the accusative article, and therefore translates: "I have gotten a man, God," as if Eve said this in prophetic spirit foreseeing that Christ, who is God and man, would be born from her. But what has this to do with Cain? For Christ was born not from Cain, but from Seth. The word et, therefore, is here not an article, but a preposition meaning "with" or "before." Hence the Chaldean translates "before the Lord," others "with the Lord"; which our translator expressed in a clearer sense by translating "through the Lord," that is, "through God."
Verse 2: And She Bore Again
AND SHE BORE AGAIN. The Rabbis, and from among them Calvin, think that from the same conception Eve bore twins, Cain and Abel, because here with Abel the word "conceived" is not repeated, but only "bore"; whence they extend the same to other generations of that age, and think that Eve and other women at the beginning of the world always bore twins, so that men might multiply more quickly. But these things are asserted rashly and without foundation; for Moses here uses brevity, and in the word "bore" he presupposes and implies the word "conceived." For no one bears who has not first conceived. For the Holy Spirit here intends to record not the conceptions, but the births and offspring of the first humans.
Abel
Josephus and Eusebius interpret Abel as "mourning," as if Hebel, that is Abel, were the same as Ebel, with he substituted for aleph; because Abel, the first of mortals, by his death brought great mourning to his parents, says Eusebius, book 11 of the Preparation, chapter 4. But properly Abel, or as it is said in Hebrew Hebel, signifies vanity. Hence Ecclesiastes says: hebel habalim col hebel: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." It seems that mother Eve foresaw Abel's swift death, or at least, mindful that she and her posterity had shortly before been condemned to death, she called him Abel, that is "vanity," as if to say: "Every living man is altogether vanity," and man's possession is like vanity, because "man passes like an image (like a shadow)." So Rabanus, Lipomanus, and others.
That Abel remained and died a virgin the Fathers commonly teach against Calvin; and they gather this from the fact that Scripture makes no mention of his wife and children, as it mentions the wife and children of Cain. So St. Jerome, Basil, Ambrose, and others. Hence from Abel, certain heretics were named Abelians, or Abeloites, who, after the manner of Abel, did not have relations with their wives, but adopted the children of neighbors and chose them as their heirs, namely a boy and a girl together. So St. Augustine, book On Heresies, heresy 87, volume 6.
Verse 3: After Many Days
AFTER MANY DAYS, that is, after many years. St. Ambrose, book 1 On Cain, chapter 7, attributes this to a fault: "The fault of Cain is twofold," he says: "one, that he offered after some days; the other, that he did not offer from the first fruits. For sacrifice is commended both by promptness and by grace," etc.
That Cain Might Offer from the Fruits of the Earth
Namely the secondary and inferior fruits; for these are called in Scripture "fruits of the earth." Cain therefore reserved the first and better fruits for himself; for he is contrasted with Abel, who offered God the firstborn, and "of the fat portions," that is, the best and fattest of his flock, because he pursued God with immense faith, reverence, and love. So St. Ambrose, book 1 On Cain and Abel, chapters 7 and 10: "He offered," he says, "from the fruits of the earth, not the first fruits as first fruits to God. This means claiming the first fruits for himself, and offering God only what comes after. And so since the soul truly ought to be preferred to the body, as a mistress to a slave, we ought to offer the first fruits of the soul before those of the body." He adds that Abel, being generous, offered animals; Cain, being avaricious, offered merely the fruits of the earth. Likewise, book 2, chapter 5, he says Abel was preferred by God to Cain because he offered the fatter portions of his flock, as David teaches, saying: "Let my soul be filled as with fat and richness, and, Let your burnt offering be fat; teaching that the sacrifice is acceptable which is fat, which is clean, and which is nourished by a certain food of faith and devotion, and the more abundant nourishment of the heavenly word."
And chapter 6: "The new faith therefore of the renewed, strong, flourishing, gaining increase of virtue; not lax, not weary, not withered by some old age, and sluggish in vigor, is fit for sacrifice, which sprouts with a certain green shoot of wisdom, and blushes with the youthful fervor of divine knowledge."
This is the motto of Abel: "A fat offering I will give; a lean one I will not sacrifice." On the contrary, that of Cain: "I will sacrifice the lean; the fat offering I will not give."
St. Athanasius teaches, on the text "All things have been delivered to Me," that Cain and Abel learned from their father Adam the religion and rite of sacrificing; whence it follows that Adam was the first of all to sacrifice.
Morally, Philo, in his book On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain, says: "Just as Cain offered God a sacrifice from fruits and not from the first fruits, so there are many who give the first place to the creature, and secondary honor to God," for example, those who give the worst of their crops as tithes, who give their stupid, ugly, defective, and lazy children to the religious life, and the beautiful and clever ones to marriage.
Verse 4: The Lord Had Regard for Abel
THE LORD HAD REGARD FOR ABEL AND FOR HIS OFFERINGS. The first was the cause of the second, for God was pleased with Abel's offerings because Abel himself was pleasing; for the old sacrifices did not please God by the work performed (ex opere operato), as the sacrifice of the new law does, but only by the work of the one performing it (ex opere operantis). Hence Rupert, book 4 On Genesis, chapter 2, says thus: "The Apostle says (Hebrews 11): 'By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain to God, through which he obtained testimony that he was just,'" etc. "'By faith,' he says, 'a more excellent one'; for in worship, or religion, each offered equally, and therefore each offered rightly, but he did not rightly divide. For Cain, when he offered his goods to God, had kept himself for himself, having his heart fixed in earthly desire. God does not accept such a portion, but says in Proverbs 23: 'My son, give Me your heart.' But Abel, first offering his heart, then his possessions, offered a more excellent sacrifice through faith." He explains this faith in chapter 4, where he teaches that Abel by this sacrifice of his prefigured and anticipated the sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist. "Because truly," he says, "the sacrifice which on that night our High Priest Jesus Christ instituted, although in outward appearance it is bread and wine, in truth it is the Lamb of God, the firstborn of all lambs or sheep that belong to the folds of heaven, to the pastures of paradise." Truly St. Augustine (or whoever the author is, for this does not seem to be the work of St. Augustine), book 1 On the Wonders of Holy Scripture, chapter 3, says: Justice, he says, was threefold in Abel: first, virginity, in not begetting; second, priesthood, in offering gifts pleasing to God; third, martyrdom, in shedding his own blood; to him is granted the honor of bearing the first figure of the Savior, who is seen to be virgin, martyr, and priest. And shortly before: "Abel," he says, "the prince of all human justice, was seized by martyrdom at the very beginning of the world, crowned with the triumph of his blood." And immediately after: "To this Abel the Lord Jesus Christ committed the primacy of human justice, saying thus: 'From the blood of the just Abel to the blood of Zacharias,'" Matt. 23:35.
Note: For "had regard" the Hebrew is iissa, which Symmachus translates "was delighted"; Aquila, "received consolation"; the Chaldean, "received with good pleasure." Properly iissa signifies "looked upon," from the root sha'a; but if you read it with different vowel points as iasca, it signifies "was delighted," from the root sha'a with double ayin, and so Symmachus and Aquila read it.
You may ask, by what sign did God declare that He was pleased with the offerings of Abel, but not of Cain? I answer: The Fathers commonly hold that God declared this by fire sent from heaven upon the sacrifice of Abel, but not upon that of Cain: for this fire consumed and devoured Abel's sacrifice, but left Cain's sacrifice untouched.
Luther and Calvin mock this as Jewish fables. But the very same thing is asserted and handed down by St. Jerome, Procopius, Cyril here, Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Oecumenius on Hebrews 11:4, and Cyprian, sermon On the Nativity of the Lord. Hence Theodotion translates: "and the Lord sent fire upon Abel and his sacrifice, but not upon Cain." For by this same sign of fire and conflagration of the victim God is accustomed to approve and accept sacrifices, as those of Gideon, Judges 6:11; Manoah, Judges 13:20; Aaron, Leviticus 9:24; Elijah, 3 Kings 18:38; David, 1 Paralipomenon 21:26; Solomon, 2 Paralipomenon 7:1; Nehemiah, 2 Maccabees 1:32.
Verse 5: But to Cain
BUT TO CAIN AND TO HIS OFFERINGS HE HAD NO REGARD, He did not send fire upon them. So Nazianzen narrates, sermon 1 Against Julian, that the two nephews of Emperor Constantius, Gallus and Julian, wishing to build a temple over the tomb of Mammas the Martyr, divided the work between them, but the part that was built by Gallus, who was truly pious and faithful, proceeded most successfully; while the part that was built by Julian, who was to become an apostate and was already corrupted in mind, could never hold together, because the earth trembling would remove everything, as it were, because the Martyr did not wish to be honored by one from whom he foresaw his companions would suffer insult; and because God, who looks upon hearts, admitted the work of Gallus as the sacrifice of Abel, but rejected the work of Julian as the sacrifice of Cain, says Nazianzen. St. Cyprian says brilliantly in his treatise On the Lord's Prayer: "God," he says, "looked not at the offerings of Cain and Abel, but at their hearts, so that he who was pleasing in heart was pleasing in his offering. Abel, peaceful and just, in sacrificing innocently to God, taught others also that when they bring their gift to the altar, they should come with the fear of God, with a simple heart, with the rule of justice, with the peace of concord. Rightly, since he was such in the sacrifice of God, he himself afterwards became a sacrifice to God, so that, being the first to show martyrdom, he might inaugurate by the glory of his blood the Lord's Passion, he who had both the Lord's justice and peace."
Verse 6: Why Has Your Countenance Fallen
WHY HAS YOUR FACE FALLEN? WHY DOES ANGER, hatred, envy against your brother are you wasting away, and betraying yourself with such sadness and dejection of countenance? Why with pale eyes cast down to the ground do you begin to plot fratricide? So Rupert. Hence the Arabic translates: "his countenance was saddened."
Verse 7: If You Do Well
IF YOU DO WELL, WILL YOU NOT RECEIVE? Both the quiet and joy of conscience, and My favor, and that by a similar sign, namely fire sent from heaven, I may attest that you and your sacrifices are pleasing to Me, just as I attested to Abel -- which now so torments you; and finally you will receive present and eternal goods: for all these are the reward of virtue.
For "you will receive" the Hebrew is se'eth, which means to bear, to lift up, to carry, to receive, and again to remit. Hence the Chaldean translates: "it shall be forgiven you," namely your envy and your impiety. The Septuagint translates: "If you offer rightly but do not rightly divide, have you not sinned? Be still." Which St. Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Augustine explain thus: Because in a right division, first things are to be preferred to second things, heavenly things to earthly; but Cain gave the first portions to himself and the second to God, and therefore did not rightly divide with God. Thirdly, others translate thus: "If you do well, will you not lift up?" -- supply "your countenance," as if to say: Will you not walk with upright countenance and live in joy and gladness? Hence Vatablus also translates: "If you do well, there will be exaltation for you," as if to say: You seem to grieve that your brother is distinguished and elevated above you; but if you apply yourself to doing well, you will be lifted up like him; but if you do evil, immediately sin will be at the door.
Sin
SIN, that is, the punishment of sin, which like a dog or Cerberus lying in wait (for this is the Hebrew robets) besieges the doors of sin, as the avenger of sin; this, as soon as you do evil, will be at your side, will bark at you, will bite you and tear you apart. This dog is the worm of conscience, the turmoil and indignation of the mind, the anger of God threatening the sinner's head, tribulation, anguish, and all sufferings present and eternal, with which God punishes sins. Hence the Chaldean translates: "Your sin is preserved until the day of judgment, in which it will be avenged upon you."
Note the prosopopoeia. Sin is here personified as a tyrant who with his attendants -- both lictors and mastiffs -- relentlessly pursues the sinner. For, as the Poet says: "Punishment follows the guilty one's head." And Horace, book 3 of the Odes, ode 3: "Rarely has punishment on its limping foot / Deserted the criminal who goes before it."
For, to say nothing of other things, it is a great punishment "To carry night and day in one's breast a witness, / With a hidden torturer shaking the lash within the soul."
The conscience of crime, therefore, being itself its own avenger, is a torturer and executioner, as St. Chrysostom beautifully teaches, sermon 1 On Lazarus. And St. Augustine in his Sentences, sentence 191: "No punishments," he says, "are more grievous than those of a bad conscience, in which when God is not had, no consolation is found. And therefore a deliverer must be called upon, so that he whom tribulation has trained to confession, confession may lead to pardon." So Alexander the Great, when he had killed Clitus, dearest and most faithful to him, while drunk, immediately raging with the consciousness of his crime, wished to inflict death upon himself, but was prevented by his men, as Seneca testifies, epistle 83. So Nero Caesar, according to Dio, after murdering his mother, used to say that he was haunted by the appearance of his mother, driven by the lashes of the Furies and burning torches, and could find safety in no place. On the contrary, "no theater is greater for virtue than conscience," says Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 2. And Horace in his Odes: "He who is upright in life and free from guilt / Needs not the javelins or bow of the Moor, / Nor a quiver loaded with poisoned arrows, / Fuscus."
Indeed, "a secure mind is like a perpetual feast." So St. Augustine, Against Secundinus, chapter 1: "Think," he says, "whatever you like about Augustine; only let my conscience not accuse me in the eyes of God."
But Under You Shall Be Its Desire, and You Shall Rule Over It
Calvin, lest he be compelled from this passage to admit free will dominating sin and concupiscence, judges that the pronoun "its" refers to Abel, not to sin, and that the sense is, as if to say: Do not, O Cain, envy Abel your younger brother; for he will remain in your power, and you as firstborn will rule over him. Only St. Chrysostom, homily 18, favors this exposition.
But no mention of Abel has been made here, and therefore the pronoun "its" cannot refer to Abel, as St. Ambrose teaches, book 2 On Cain and Abel, chapter 7; and St. Augustine, book 15 of the City of God, chapter 7. Hence the Arabic clearly translates: "in your choice is its desire, and you will rule over it." For choice is the proper act of free will, by which one rules one's own actions.
You will say: The pronoun "its" in the Hebrew is masculine; but chattat, that is "sin," is feminine; therefore the word "its" cannot refer to sin, but looks to Abel.
I answer: The Hebrew chattat is not only feminine, but also masculine; this is clear here when it says chattat robets, "sin crouching," -- for if it were feminine, it should have said robetsa. The same is clear from Leviticus 16:24, chattat hu, "it is sin," using "he," not "she."
You will say secondly: In Hebrew it is elecha tescukato, that is, as the Septuagint translates, "to you is its turning."
I answer: The sense of this phrase is: sin, and its appetite and concupiscence, will solicit you to consent to it, but in such a way that it must turn to you and seek and obtain consent from you; which our translator, as to the sense, clearly translates: "under you shall be its desire." For in the same way He said to Eve in chapter 3, verse 16: el ischech tsecukatesch, "to your husband shall be your turning," which our translator clearly translates as to the sense: "you shall be under the power of your husband." Hence there, just as here, it follows: "and he shall rule over you."
I say therefore that the word "its" refers to sin, not to Abel, and the sense is, as if to say: You can, O Cain, through the freedom of your will and My grace prepared for you, rule over your concupiscence and appetite for envy, as over a slave. What could be said more clearly in favor of the freedom of the will? Hence the Jerusalem Targum translates it thus: "Into your hand I have given power over your concupiscence, and you shall rule over it, whether for good or for evil." So explain St. Ambrose and St. Augustine above, St. Jerome, Rabanus, Rupert, Hugo, Bede, Alcuin, and Eucherius here; indeed even St. Chrysostom, in the cited homily 18, openly teaches that Cain could have ruled over his concupiscence. See Cardinal Bellarmine, who treats this passage, as well as all others, with equal learning and solidity.
And You Shall Rule Over It
You can rule over it, and therefore you ought to: for if you could not, neither would you be obliged. For God does not command man to do the impossible.
Note here how great is the dominion of the will, not only over external movements and actions, but also over internal appetites and passions. Though you may feel the greatest surges of anger or lust, resist them with your firm and steadfast will, and say: I refuse to consent to them, they displease me, I detest them; and you will master anger and lust, and you will be before God and men not irascible, but a gentle tamer of anger; not unchaste, but a chaste conqueror of lust. So great is the force and authority of the will. "Great," says St. Chrysostom in his sermon On Zacchaeus, "is the force of the will, which makes us able to do what we will, and unable to do what we will not."
Seneca saw this, who, for taming anger, gives this among other remedies in book 2 On Anger, chapter 12: "Nothing," he says, "is so difficult and arduous that the human mind cannot conquer it, and constant meditation cannot bring it into familiarity; and there are no passions so fierce and independent that they cannot be thoroughly subdued by discipline. Whatever the mind has commanded itself, it has achieved; some have succeeded in never laughing; some have forbidden themselves wine, others sexual pleasure, others all moisture for their bodies."
Therefore a certain holy doctor wisely and truly said: "Whatever you will with your whole heart, your whole intention, your whole desire, that you most certainly are." Do you will with your whole heart and efficaciously to be humble? By that very fact you are in reality humble. Do you efficaciously will to be patient, obedient, steadfast? By that very fact you are in reality patient, obedient, steadfast. Therefore he wisely counsels: "If," he says, "you cannot give or do great things, at least have a great will, and extend it to immense things." For example: you are poor -- have an efficacious will to give the most generous alms, if you had the means, and you will truly be most generous and liberal. You have small talents, small powers for promoting the glory of God and the salvation of souls: conceive an efficacious desire, and from your whole heart offer God a thousand souls, a thousand lives, a thousand bodies, if you had them; offer an immense desire of laboring and suffering whatever is arduous for His love and the salvation of many; and God will reckon your will as the deed: for a serious and resolute will is the source and cause of all virtue and vice, of all merit and demerit.
So St. Christina, virgin and martyr, breaking the silver idols of her father Urban, prefect of the town of Tyre in Italy, despised his blandishments with firm will, mocked his threats; neither by scourges nor by hooks was she torn so as to change her constancy; indeed, throwing a piece of her torn flesh at her father, she said: "Gorge yourself on flesh, wretch -- on the flesh you begot; you can devour your daughter, but you certainly cannot make her consent to your impiety." Then she is bound to wheels and burned with fire placed beneath, and cast into a lake; soon, after her father's death, she is boiled in oil, resin, and pitch by his successor Dion; then, led to worship the statue of Apollo, she overthrew it by her prayer. When Dion suddenly died, Julian succeeded him, who ordered Christina to be cast into a burning furnace, but once cast in she felt no harm; he threw her to serpents to be bitten, but the serpents, releasing her, attacked the sorcerer -- whom she herself revived. Julian ordered her breasts amputated, her tongue cut out, and herself to be pierced with arrows. Consumed at last by such martyrdom, she flew to heaven.
Behold how a resolute will rules over passions, torments, tyrants, and death: by this will Christina overcame her father, Abel overcame his brother -- not by fighting, but by suffering. So her Life records, as published by Surius, volume 4, July 24.
Verse 8: Let Us Go Out
LET US GO OUT. These words have fallen out of the Hebrew text; hence Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion did not read them, nor translate them. However, that they were formerly in the Hebrew is clear, because the Septuagint and the Jerusalem Targum read them. Hence St. Jerome acknowledges that he found the same in the Samaritan Pentateuch. Finally, unless you read those words, this passage will be incomplete: for it does not express what Cain said. Moreover, that Cain said these words rather than others is clear from what followed: for immediately Abel went out with Cain into the field and was killed by him.
Cain Rose Up Against His Brother
The Jerusalem Targum teaches that Cain began in the field to complain about God's providence and justice, and argued against the last judgment, against the reward of the good and the punishment of the wicked. On the contrary, Abel affirmed these things, defended God, and rebuked his brother, and for this reason was slain by him. How monstrous, therefore, was the fratricide of Cain, and how illustrious was the martyrdom of Abel. Wherefore St. Cyprian, Book IV, Epistle 6, exhorting the people of Thibaris to martyrdom, says: "Let us imitate, dearest brothers, the righteous Abel, who inaugurated martyrdom, since he was the first to be killed on account of justice."
Rivals reproached Horatius Cocles for his limp, to whom he replied: "At every step I am reminded of my triumph"; for he alone resisted King Porsena who was trying to cross the wooden bridge, and single-handedly sustained the enemy's attack until the bridge was broken behind him by his companions, and there, wounded in the thigh, he began to limp, as Livy testifies, Book II, Decade 1. Abel could have said the same to the fratricide Cain, and can still say it now.
Some think it probable that Abel was killed around the year of the world 130, from the fact that in this year Seth was born, whom his mother Eve, accustomed to bearing children frequently (annually, says Augustus Torniellus), promptly substituted for the slain Abel; so Pererius, Cajetan, and Torniellus in his Annals, which, after the fashion of Baronius, he arranged and described in order year by year from Adam to Christ.
Allegorically, Abel was a type of Christ slain by His own people, the Jews. So Rupert, following St. Irenaeus and Augustine.
Verse 9: I Do Not Know
I DO NOT KNOW: AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER (the Arabic has "watchman")? Ambrose, Book II, On Cain, chapter 9, notes here three of his crimes. "He denies, first, as if before one who does not know; he refuses the duty of fraternal guardianship, as if exempt from nature; he declines the judge, as if free of will. Why do you wonder that he did not acknowledge piety, who did not acknowledge his Creator?"
Verse 10: The Voice of Blood
THE VOICE OF BLOOD. In Hebrew it is "the voice of bloods," which the Chaldean with the Rabbis wrongly refers to the sons whom Abel would have had if he had not been killed, because Cain shed as much blood as would have sufficed for many through the propagation of sons whom Abel would have begotten: therefore they cried out with innumerable voices, those who would have been sharers of that blood. But it is clear that these things pertain not to posterity, but to the blood of Abel shed by Cain. In Hebrew it is "the voice of bloods," for "of blood," because the Hebrews call homicide, for emphasis (to inspire horror), "the shedding of bloods," that is, of blood: because in truth much blood of a person is poured out in homicide.
St. Ambrose writes beautifully, Book II, On Cain, chapter 9: "It is not his voice (Abel's) that accuses, not his soul, but the voice of his blood accuses, which you yourself shed: therefore your own deed, not your brother, accuses you. Yet the earth too is a witness, which received the blood. If your brother spares you, the earth does not spare you; if your brother is silent, the earth condemns you. It is both witness and judge against you. There is therefore no doubt that even the higher beings (the heavens, the sun, moon, stars, Thrones, Dominations, Principalities, Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim) condemned him whom the lower things condemned. For how can one be acquitted by that pure and heavenly judgment, whom not even the earth could acquit?"
It Cries Out to Me
As if to say: The guilt of your homicide, indeed of your fratricide, so voluntary, appears before Me, and from Me demands swift and terrible vengeance. It is a prosopopoeia. So St. Jerome on Ezekiel, chapter 27. There are therefore four atrocious sins which, in the language of Scripture, cry out to heaven: first, fratricide, such as was Cain's; second, the sin of Sodom, Genesis 19:13; third, the defrauded wages of workers, James 5:4; fourth, the oppression of widows, orphans, and the poor, Exodus 2:23. See here how God reveals and punishes the hidden homicide of Cain. Plutarch, in his book On the Delay of Divine Vengeance, has other remarkable examples of hidden homicide detected and punished.
Pope Innocent I aptly applied this deed and saying to the Emperor Arcadius and the Empress Eudoxia, because they had driven St. John Chrysostom into exile, and there, as Cain did to Abel, had worn him down with hardships, and therefore he hurls the thunderbolt of excommunication against them. Hear the letter worthy of so great a Pontiff, which Baronius cites from Gennadius and Glycas, in the year of the Lord 407. "The voice of the blood of my brother John cries out to God against you, O Emperor, just as once the blood of righteous Abel cried against the fratricide Cain, and it will be avenged in every way. You cast from his throne, without trial, the great teacher of the whole world, and together with him you persecuted Christ. Nor do I so much grieve for him: for he has obtained his lot, that is, his inheritance with the holy Apostles in the kingdom of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, etc.; but that the entire world under the sun has been reduced to bereavement, having lost so divine a man through the persuasion of one woman, who put on this farce and spectacle." And shortly after: "But the new Delilah, Eudoxia, who little by little shaved you with the razor of seduction, has brought upon herself a curse from the mouths of many, binding together a heavy and unbearable weight of sins, and adding it to her previous sins. Therefore I, the least and a sinner, to whom the throne of the great Apostle Peter has been entrusted, separate and reject both you and her from the reception of the immaculate mysteries of Christ."
From the Earth
Many report that Abel was slain in Damascus, and that Damascus was so named as if dam sac, that is, "blood-sack," because it drank and absorbed the blood of Abel. Understand this to mean not Damascus of Syria, as St. Jerome seems to hold: for that city drew its name and origin from elsewhere, as I shall say at chapter 15, verse 2; but the Damascene field near Hebron, filled with red earth (which in Hebrew is here called Adama), where Adam is believed to have been created and lived. So Burchard, Adrichomius, and others in the Description of the Holy Land, and Abulensis on chapter 13, Question 138.
Similar to Abel was St. Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia and martyr, killed by his brother Boleslaus as by another Cain, at the instigation of their mother Drahomira. For Wenceslaus, pious and innocent like Abel, governed his kingdom more by fasting, prayers, the hair shirt, and other pious works than by imperial power, clearly singing that verse: "Seven times a day I have spoken praise to You concerning the judgments of Your justice." Therefore, divinely foreknowing that death was being treacherously prepared for him by his brother who had invited him to a banquet, he did not flee, but fortifying himself with the Holy Sacraments, went to his brother's house; and after the fraternal and hospitable meal, on the following night while praying before the church, he was slain: and becoming a most pleasing sacrifice to God, the wall of the church was sprinkled with his blood, which his killers tried in vain to wash off and wipe away: for the more frequently it was wiped, the more vivid and bloody it appeared; and so it remained there indelible, as a testimony to so great a fratricide, crying out to heaven like Abel. Wherefore all the accomplices of so great a crime perished miserably: the earth swallowed their mother Drahomira alive in the castle of Prague. Boleslaus, like another Cain, was tormented by portents and terrors, and attacked in war by Emperor Otto in vengeance for the fratricide, was finally consumed by disease, deprived of both his principality and his life. Others, driven mad by demons, fearing their own shadow, hurled themselves headlong into the river. Others, having lost their minds, took flight and were never seen again. Others, struck by various and serious diseases, hated by all people, ended their lives miserably. So his Life and the Annals of Bohemia record, and from them Aeneas Sylvius in his History of Bohemia.
Verse 11: Cursed Shall You Be upon the Earth
YOU SHALL BE CURSED UPON THE EARTH. Both because the earth will be cursed for you, and will grudgingly and sparingly yield its fruits to you who cultivate it: so that it is a hypallage. The Hebrew has, "cursed are you from the earth," as if to say: You polluted the earth with your brother's blood, therefore through the earth you will be punished with barrenness.
Verse 12: It Shall Not Yield Its Fruit to You
IT WILL NOT GIVE YOU ITS FRUITS -- in Hebrew cocha, that is, "its strength." Now the strength of the earth is the abundant and vigorous fruits of the earth.
A wanderer and a fugitive -- fearful from a bad conscience, and, as the Septuagint translates, "groaning and trembling," namely both in soul and body, you will wander here and there. For the Greek to tremon, that is, "trembling," they refer to the bodily tremor in Cain, which was an indication of his terror and the dismay of his mind.
"When you till it, it will not give you its fruits." And because you, ill-starred and wretched, will be a wanderer and a fugitive upon the earth, as follows. Therefore the Caianite heretics were both deranged and blasphemous, who worshipped Cain, repeatedly asserting that Abel was of a weaker power and therefore was killed: but that Cain was of a stronger and heavenly power, like Esau, Korah, Judas, and the Sodomites; and they boasted that all these were their kinsmen: for they said Cain was the father of Judas. And they venerated Judas, because he had betrayed Christ, foreknowing that by His death mankind would be redeemed. So Epiphanius, Heresy 38; St. Augustine, Philastrius, and others on the heresy of the Caianites.
Verse 13: My Iniquity Is Greater
MY INIQUITY IS GREATER THAN THAT I MAY DESERVE PARDON. Pagninus, Vatablus, and Oleaster, following Aben Ezra, take avon, that is, iniquity or sin, to mean the punishment for sin, and so translate: "My punishment is greater than I can bear, or am able to bear." So also Athanasius to Antiochus, Question 96. Where note in passing that these shorter questions are not by the great St. Athanasius of Alexandria: for in them are cited St. Epiphanius and Gregory of Nyssa, who lived after St. Athanasius; indeed the author of them cites, at Question 93, St. Athanasius himself, and departs from him and follows another opinion. Nor however is the author of them the same as Athanasius of Nicaea, who wrote certain lengthy questions on Sacred Scripture; although perhaps both wrote their questions to the same Antiochus.
But generally the Septuagint, the Chaldean, our Vulgate, and the Greek and Latin Fathers take "sin" here in its proper sense, and think that Cain by these words despaired. Whence the Hebrew reads: gadol avoni minneso, that is, "my iniquity is greater than that I can bear or carry it;" secondly, more plainly and better, with the Septuagint, the Chaldean, and our Vulgate, you may translate: "My iniquity is greater than that He may bear and pardon it," that is, than that God may bear and pardon it. For the Hebrew neso signifies both "to bear" and "to pardon," because when one pardons another, he relieves him of a great burden; for by forgiving his offense he bears and carries it; for an offense and sin against God is a burden heavier than Etna, weighing upon the sinner. Whence our Vulgate translates, "than that I may deserve pardon," that is, than that by any penance I might obtain pardon, as if to say: I am utterly unworthy and incapable of pardon.
Hence with Cain, the Novatians and others gravely err, who hold that certain sins are so grave that even if one repents, God nevertheless cannot or will not pardon them. So St. Ambrose, Book I, On Penance, chapter 9.
There are four things, says Hugo Cardinalis, that aggravate sin, namely the quality of the sin, its frequency, its duration, and impenitence; but greater than all of these beyond measure is the mercy of God, and the merit and grace of Christ. Hear Him in Jeremiah 3:1: "You have committed fornication with many lovers; yet return to Me, says the Lord." Hear Ezekiel, chapter 18, verse 21: "If the wicked man shall do penance, etc., he shall live and shall not die: I will not remember any more all his iniquities which he has committed."
Verse 14: Behold You Drive Me Out
BEHOLD YOU CAST ME OUT TODAY FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH -- from my most pleasant and fertile homeland, says Oleaster and Pererius, and indeed from the whole earth, since You allow me to settle nowhere, but continually drive me from one region to another, making me an exile and fugitive, both from the land and consequently from people, as if to say: You make me the object of hatred of all people, so that neither do I dare to look upon them, nor do they deign to look upon me.
I Shall Be Hidden from Your Face
As a guilty man I will flee the presence of God the judge, I will seek hiding places. So St. Ambrose and Oleaster; secondly, I will be deprived of Your care, favor, and protection. So St. Chrysostom and Cajetan. Whence it is not necessary with Delrio to have recourse here to a hypallage, as if to say: "You will hide Your face from me, so that You may not look upon me with favorable eyes." Cain therefore says, as Lipomanus beautifully puts it: Behold, Lord, You have taken from me the fruits of the earth, You have taken away Your grace and Your protection, You leave me to myself, I dare not approach You for pardon; I will hide from You, I will flee as best I can Your judgment, I will be a wanderer and unstable everywhere, and if You do not pursue me, whoever else finds me will kill me, and I will not be able to defend myself.
Therefore Whoever Finds Me Will Kill Me
Note here in Cain the effects and punishments of sin. There are six. The first is trembling of the body; the second is exile and flight; the third is fear and dismay of mind. "Whoever," he says, "finds me will kill me." What do you fear, O Cain? Apart from you and your parents, there is as yet no other person in the world. He had fallen from the grace of God through sin; hence punishment and trembling: and not without cause. For first, Abel himself, though dead, began to pursue the murderer: "The voice of your brother's blood," says Scripture, "cries out to Me." For "God," says St. Ambrose, "hears His righteous ones, even when dead, because they live to God."
Because from the trembling of my body and the agitation of my frenzied mind, everyone will understand that I am one who deserves to be killed, says Jerome, Epistle 125, to Damascenus, Question 1, as if to say: I am an outcast, I am accursed, I am the hatred of God and of men, I will not be able to escape being killed by someone. Behold the omen, behold the dread of a bad conscience. So St. Ambrose. On the contrary, the just man trusts like a lion, and says: "Even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me," Psalm 22, verse 4.
Note: Cain in his impenitence feared death -- not of the soul but of the body. So St. Ambrose.
Fourth, the earth itself pursued Cain: "The voice of blood cries out to Me from the earth," as if to say: If your brother spares you, the earth does not spare you, says St. Ambrose: this earth, cursed for Cain, denies him fruits, and drives him out as a fugitive.
Fifth, the heavenly beings, and likewise the powers placed below heaven, inspired horror in Cain; for as Procopius says, besides terrifying lightning and flashes, Cain saw angels threatening him with death with fiery swords: if he cast his eyes to the ground, he seemed to himself to see serpents with their venom, lions with their claws, and other wild beasts rushing upon him with their weapons.
Sixth, Cain was a fugitive on the earth, and finally, hiding in the forests (if we believe the Hebrews), he was killed by Lamech; about which I shall speak at verse 23. Is it not true then, as St. Chrysostom says, that "sin is a voluntary madness and a self-chosen demon?"
Verse 15: It Shall Not Be So
IT SHALL NOT BE SO: BUT WHOEVER KILLS CAIN SHALL BE PUNISHED SEVENFOLD. For "sevenfold" the Hebrew has scibataim, which Aquila translates "seven times over"; the Septuagint and Theodotion, "seven vengeances," as if to say: He who kills Cain will be punished manifoldly and most severely; because he will be a second murderer, who followed the evil example of Cain as the first, and was not deterred from killing by his punishment, so severe; and because he kills the first murderer Cain, to whom God gave a pledge of life, and whom He wills to survive as a punishment and example for all, since life itself is his torment and death would be his consolation: so that for him to live long is nothing other than to be tortured long.
Hence Burgensis aptly judges that more punishment is here threatened against Cain's killer than against Cain himself, for the reasons already stated. Lyranus, Abulensis, the Carthusian, and Pererius deny this; and so they deny that they are compared here with each other; whence they punctuate and distinguish the passage thus: "Whoever kills Cain" -- understood: will be most severely punished -- full stop. Then they add, "shall be punished sevenfold," namely Cain; or, as Symmachus translates, "the seventh shall be punished," namely Cain, because in the seventh generation, namely by Lamech, Cain is believed to have been killed, having been left alive until then for punishment and as an example. But this punctuation is awkward, novel, and disconnected: therefore the former sense which I gave is the genuine one. Add that the Hebrew scibataim signifies not "the seventh," as Symmachus translates, but "sevenfold."
And the Lord Set a Sign upon Cain
You will ask, what kind? Certain Rabbis fable that it was a dog, which always went before Cain and led him along safe paths. Others say it was a letter impressed on Cain's forehead; others, a fierce and savage countenance. But the more common opinion is that this sign was a trembling of the body and a dismay of mind and face, so that his body and face spoke his sin. For that this trembling was in Cain is clear from the Septuagint; and it befitted Cain: "for nowhere does a sick mind dwell worse than in a healthy body."
Josephus adds, for what it is worth, that Cain became worse and finally became a leader of robbers and villainy, in the city of Enoch which he founded.
Verse 16: He Dwelt as a Fugitive in the Land
HE DWELT AS A FUGITIVE IN THE LAND. In Hebrew it is, "he dwelt in the land of Nod." So the Septuagint and Josephus, who take "Nod" as a proper name; our Vulgate however took it as an appellative; both rightly: for Nod signifies "wandering," "restless," "fluctuating," "fugitive." This land, therefore, to which Cain first fled, was called Nod, not as if whatever land Cain trod upon with his feet would shake and tremble, as some Rabbis have imagined; but it was called the land of Nod, as if you would say, "the land of flight," to which Cain the fugitive fled.
Verse 17: His Wife
HIS WIFE -- a daughter of Adam, and consequently his own sister. For at the beginning of the world it was necessary for sisters to marry brothers, say St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Procopius, which is otherwise forbidden by the law of nature, so that even the Pontiff cannot dispense in this matter.
He Built -- not then, but many (say 400 or 500) years later, says Josephus, when Cain had already begotten many sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, who could fill Enoch. So St. Augustine, Book XV of The City of God, chapter 8. Symbolically, the same author in the same book, chapter 1: "The first born," he says, "was Cain, from those two parents of the human race, belonging to the city of men; the second was Abel, to the city of God. Thus in the whole human race, when those two cities first began to run their course through births and deaths, the first born was a citizen of this world; but the second was a pilgrim in the world, belonging to the city of God, predestined by grace, chosen by grace, a pilgrim below by grace, a citizen above by grace." And shortly after: "It is written therefore of Cain that he built a city: but Abel, as a pilgrim, did not build one. For the city of the saints is above, although it begets citizens here, among whom it is on pilgrimage until the time of its kingdom comes, when it will reign with its prince, the King of Ages, without any end of time."
He Called It by the Name of His Son Enoch -- that is, Enochia. This was the first city in the world, in which Cain undoubtedly lived, and therefore he ceased to be a fugitive and wanderer toward the end of his life: yet the trembling of the body always clung to him.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, Book XVI of the Morals, chapter 6: The wicked choose their city on earth, the good in heaven: but see how brief is the age and joy of the impious: Cain had only a seventh generation, which ends in Lamech, in whom his entire lineage perished in the flood.
Verse 19: Two Wives
TWO WIVES. Lamech, the first polygamist, violated the law of monogamy established in Genesis 2:24. Whence Pope Nicholas, writing to King Lothair who was likewise a polygamist, calls Lamech an adulterer, as is found in the decree An non, 24, Question 3.
After the flood, when human life was shorter, and only Noah survived with his family, lest the human race be propagated too slowly, God dispensed that it should be permitted to have several wives. This is clear because Abraham and Jacob, most holy men, had several. But once the human race was sufficiently propagated, the more civilized among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans gradually began to reject polygamy, and finally Christ abolished it entirely, Matthew 19:4.
Verse 21: Pater (Jubal)
FATHER -- that is, inventor, author; Jubal therefore, son of Lamech, was the inventor of the organ and the harp; whence from this Jubal, who was joyful, merry, and jovial, some think the Latins took their words jubilare ("to rejoice") and jubilum ("jubilation").
Verse 22: Hammerer and Smith
WHO WAS A HAMMERER AND CRAFTSMAN IN ALL WORKS OF BRONZE AND IRON -- who was the inventor of the craft of smithing. The Hebrew literally reads: "Who was a sharpener," that is, "a polisher of all works of bronze and iron."
Verse 23: For I Have Slain a Man
BECAUSE I HAVE KILLED A MAN AND A YOUTH. You will ask, who was this man and who was the youth? The Hebrews, and from them St. Jerome, Rabanus, Lyranus, Tostatus, Cajetan, Lipomanus, Pererius, and Delrio, report that Lamech killed Cain, his own great-great-great-grandfather, in this manner. Lamech went hunting in the forest into which Cain had retreated, either for walking or to enjoy the cool air. His companion or squire, noticing the rustling and movement of leaves that Cain was making, told Lamech that a wild beast was hiding there. Lamech hurled his javelin and killed, not a beast, but Cain. When the deed was discovered, Lamech, seething with anger at his squire who had given the bad information, struck him down with a bow or club; and the squire died shortly after. So Lamech killed a man, namely Cain, and a youth, namely his squire. Nor does verse 15 present an objection; for there God only forbids that Cain be killed openly and knowingly: but Lamech killed Cain by accident and in ignorance.
This tradition, however, seems fabulous to Theodoret, Burgensis, Catharinus, and Oleaster: and it will rightly appear such if the circumstances which some add to it are included, such as that Cain was dwelling and hiding not in his city of Enoch, but in the forests; that Lamech was blind or dim-sighted, and so went hunting, and being deceived by his blindness from his companion or armor-bearer, struck Cain; that this companion or armor-bearer was Tubalcain, the son of Lamech, whom Moses would surely have named here, as would Lamech the father.
It is therefore certain that Lamech killed some man, whoever he may have been. Again, although Theodoret and Rupert think Lamech killed only one, who in the Hebrew song and rhythm is called "man" with respect to sex, and "youth" with respect to age (for Hebrews in poetic rhythm repeat and explain the first hemistich in the latter hemistich), nevertheless others commonly teach that Lamech killed two: for one is here called "man," the other "youth," and as it is in Hebrew, ieled, that is, "boy"; but a boy cannot be called a man.
Furthermore, a certain learned man in Emmanuel Sa wrongly translates these words as a question, and thus explains them: Since Lamech heard himself spoken of badly because he had taken two wives, and since they feared lest some evil might befall him on that account, he said: Have I killed any man, that you should fear for my life? If the slayer of Cain is to be gravely punished, how much more he who shall kill me? For both the Hebrew, and our Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Chaldean, and others read these words assertively, not interrogatively. Wrongly also Vatablus translates it conditionally in this way: if from any man, however strong, or from a youth who is powerful in strength, I were to receive a wound, I would kill him; for I am strong in might; there is therefore no reason, wives, for you to fear for me or your children on account of polygamy.
In My Wound, and a Young Man in My Bruise
That is, by my wound, by my bruise, or by the wound and bruise struck and inflicted by me, as is clear from the Hebrew. Second, others explain it thus, as if to say: By the wound with which I pierced the man, I bloodied myself; and by the blow with which I bruised the youth, I brought a dark bruise upon my own soul -- namely the mark and guilt of homicide, by which I am liable to be destroyed by an equal wound and bruise. Whence the Septuagint translates: "I killed a man to my own wound, and a youth to my own bruise." For this is what the Lord threatens to David the homicide: "You struck Uriah with the sword, therefore the sword shall not depart from your house forever," II Kings chapter XII.
And hence it is that homicides, with their conscience terrifying them, are always fearful, startled by shadows, frightened by the specters of the dead pursuing their killers and driving them to death. Sophronius gives a notable example in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CLXVI, of a robber who, having been converted and become a monk, constantly saw a boy approaching him and saying: "Why did you kill me?" Whence, having sought pardon and leaving the monastery, entering the city, he was captured and beheaded. This interpretation is deeper, but the former is simpler.
Verse 24: Sevenfold Vengeance
SEVENFOLD VENGEANCE SHALL BE GIVEN FOR CAIN, BUT FOR LAMECH SEVENTY-SEVENFOLD.
First, Rupert takes "sevenfold" as temporal punishment, and "seventy-sevenfold" as eternal punishment. Second, because Lamech, as Josephus attests, had 77 offspring, who all perished in the flood. Third, St. Jerome, and from him Pope Nicholas to Lotharius, and Procopius say: The sin of Cain was avenged sevenfold, and that of Lamech seventy-sevenfold, because the sin of Cain was wiped out in the seventh generation by the flood; but the sin of Lamech, and of the whole human race, whose type Lamech was (who in Hebrew signifies the same as "humiliated," says Alcuin), was wiped out in the seventy-seventh generation, namely by Christ: for there are that many generations from Adam to Christ, Luke III, verse 23.
Akin to this is the Chaldean version, which reads thus: if in seven generations vengeance shall be given for Cain, shall it not be for Lamech in seventy-seven? But Lamech did not have that many generations: for he himself with all his posterity perished in the flood.
Fourth, Lipomanus, Delrio, and others explain it thus: Lamech's wives seem to have reproached him for his killings, threatening that he too would likewise be killed by others. To these Lamech responds: "Because I have slain" -- that is, I have indeed slain, I confess, a man and a youth, and I have deserved death; but nevertheless if the slayer of Cain (who was a willing murderer) is to be punished sevenfold, surely the slayer of me (who am only an accidental and involuntary homicide, and who am penitent for the deed) shall be punished seventy-sevenfold, that is far more gravely: for I killed Cain unknowingly; and I only wished to chastise my armor-bearer, not to kill him.
But I say, for "vengeance shall be given" for Cain and Lamech, in Hebrew it is iuckam Cain vel Lamech, that is, Cain himself and Lamech shall be avenged and punished: for thus our Vulgate, the Septuagint, and others translate this phrase at verse 15. Therefore here vengeance is not threatened against the slayer of Cain and Lamech, but against Cain and Lamech themselves. Lamech therefore, out of the vehemence of his grief and repentance for his twofold committed homicide, says: If Cain, who killed one, was punished sevenfold, that is manifoldly, gravely, and fully; then I, who killed two, and who saw the punishment of Cain yet did not abstain from his sin, am to be punished seventy-sevenfold, that is far more gravely and manifoldly. So St. Chrysostom and Theodoret.
For this is a phrase and proverb familiar to the Hebrews, so that they say to be punished sevenfold for being punished gravely, fully, and in many ways; and to be punished seventy-sevenfold for being punished far more gravely and abundantly, and as it were immeasurably. For the number seven is the number of multitude and universality; but seventy times seven is the number, as it were, of immensity. Christ referred to this in Matthew XVIII, 22: "I do not say unto seven times, but unto seventy times seven."
Second, more precisely, St. Cyril says: Cain is punished sevenfold because he committed seven sins. The first, of irreligion, in that he offered lesser things. The second, of impenitence. The third, of envy. The fourth, that he deceitfully led his brother into the field. The fifth, that he killed him. The sixth, that he lied to God, saying he did not know where his brother was. The seventh, that he thought he could flee and hide from God, and that without God's knowledge and against His will he thought he could be killed and die, and thus escape the punishment of this life. But this interpretation is more subtle and minute than solid.
Alcazar thinks, in Apocalypse XI, 2, note 1, that seventy times seven is the same as 490: for this number is celebrated in Scripture and considered full and perfect; for if you multiply 70 by 7, you get 490. So when we say "three times four," we mean twelve; otherwise we would say "three and four." But this interpretation seems more subtle, and this number seems greater than is fitting. Just as therefore we say "twenty times three" for 23 times, so also "seventy times seven" for 77 times. A similar phrase is in Amos chapter I, verses 6, 9, 11: "For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn him back." For three and four signify the innumerable crimes of Gaza.
Scripture notes these things about Lamech, in hatred of polygamy and homicide; and so that we may know that the first polygamist Lamech was also the second homicide: for the fall from lust into quarrels and murders is easy.
In Hessius's opinion, Lamech boasts on account of his sons, who were inventors of such useful arts: that Cain, his ancestor, had not been punished for murder, much less could he himself be punished if he had committed a similar crime. For the words do not signify that a murder was actually committed by him, but are the words of a man exceedingly insolent and profane. Moreover, it appears that these words were inserted by Moses from a certain ancient poem: for the whole speech breathes a certain poetic sublimity. The sense therefore of these two verses will be: If on account of the slaying of a man or youth, wounds and blows are threatened against me, since a sevenfold penalty was decreed for Cain, in Lamech it shall be seventy-sevenfold. Herder, in his book On the Character of Hebrew Poetry, Part I, p. 344, considers that this song of Lamech sings the praises of the sword invented by his son, whose use and excellence against the hostile assaults of others he proclaims in these words: "Women of Lamech, hear my speech, attend to my words: I kill the man who wounds me, the youth who strikes me. If Cain is to be avenged sevenfold, in Lamech it shall be seventy-sevenfold."
Verse 25: Seth
"And she called" -- not Adam, but Eve, as is clear from the Hebrew micra, which is feminine. "His name Seth." Seth means the same as "thesis," that is, a placing or foundation; for the root suth means to place, to set. Eve therefore, after Abel was killed, seems soon to have begotten Seth, and to have called him thus, as the foundation of her offspring and posterity, and consequently of the commonwealth and likewise of the Church and City of God; for Seth was to be this in place of Abel, just as Cain was the head and foundation of the city of the devil, about which St. Augustine wrote in his book The City of God. Suidas adds that Seth, on account of his piety, wisdom, and astrology, was surnamed God, because he was the inventor of letters and astrology.
Moreover, the Sethian heretics were foolish, who boasted that they were descended from Seth, the son of Adam. These, says Epiphanius, Heresies 39, glorified Seth, and referred to him everything that pertains to virtue and justice, and even asserted that he was Jesus Christ. For they claimed that Seth was produced from a heavenly mother, who did penance because she had produced Cain; but afterward, when Abel had been killed and Cain cast out, she united with the heavenly father and begot pure seed, namely Seth himself, from whom the whole human race descended. Such were the customary ravings of heretics.
Verse 26: He Began to Call Upon
Enos in Hebrew means the same as weak, afflicted, wretched, of hopeless health, condemned to certain death. It seems therefore that Seth named his son thus in order to remind him and his descendants of their wretched lot and mortality, to which we are all condemned on account of sin. Just as therefore Adam is named from adama, as if "man" from "earth," so Enos is named from misery and mortality. Conversely, man in Greek is called anthropos, as if anathron, that is, looking upward; or, as St. Athanasius says in his treatise On Definitions, from the fact that he gazes upward with his face.
Second, man can be called Enos from the root nasa, that is, "he forgot," so that Enos means the same as forgetful, and in turn quickly to be consigned to oblivion. To this etymology the Psalmist alludes in Psalm VIII: "What is man that You are mindful of him?"
To this pertains what Josephus writes, that Adam predicted the destruction of the world and of mankind, and that twofold: one by flood, the other by fire and conflagration; and therefore the pious and wise descendants of Seth erected two pillars, one of brick, the other of stone, and either inscribed on them or enclosed in them their discoveries, arts, and sciences, for the instruction of posterity and to preserve their memory for future generations; and this with the plan that if the brick one should perish in the flood, the stone one might survive. This, says Josephus, still exists in Syria.
He Began to Invoke the Name of the Lord
As if to say, Enos was the author of men everywhere worshipping God properly. Whence the Hebrew has: then it was begun, namely publicly and in assemblies, under the direction of Enos, to invoke the name of the Lord. In the time of Enos, therefore, assemblies of men seem to have been established and to have begun to be gathered into the Church, for public prayers, public preaching and catecheses, for public worship of God through sacrifices, and other rites and ceremonies.
Thomas of Walden adds, and from him Bellarmine, book II On Monks, chapter V, that Enos established a certain special worship, more sublime than was the religion of the common people: for before Enos, Abel, Seth, and Adam had already invoked God. Whence they hold that Enos established something like a prelude and beginning of the Religious and Monastic life. Moreover, the Septuagint translates: "he hoped to invoke the name of the Lord." For the Hebrew huchal signifies not only "to begin" but also "to hope," from the root iachel; and hope is the cause of invocation.
The Rabbis wrongly translate: "then the invocation of the name of the Lord was profaned," as if idolatry began in the time of Enos. For although huchal from the root chol can mean "to profane," here however it descends not from chol, but from chalal, which in the hiphil has hechel, and means "he began, he commenced"; in the hophal it has huchal, that is, "it was begun," as our Vulgate translates, along with the Chaldean, Vatablus, Forster, Pagninus, and others generally. Nor correctly do Cyril, Theodoret, and Suidas translate: "he began to be called by the name of the Lord," as if the name of the sons of God was given to Enos himself, on account of his outstanding piety toward God, and to his children.
Of the Lord
In Hebrew this is the tetragrammaton name Jehovah. Whence Rupert, Cajetan, and others think that this name was revealed to Adam and Enos, and that they invoked God by it. But it is more true that this tetragrammaton name was first revealed to Moses, as I shall say at Exodus VI, 3. Moses therefore, who wrote these things, after he received this name from God at Exodus VI, uses it throughout earlier passages, even in Genesis, to address God, even though Adam, Enos, and the other Patriarchs at that time addressed God not as Jehovah, but as Elohim or Adonai.
St. Thomas thinks, II-II, Question XCIV, article 4, reply 2, that there was no idolatry in the first age of the world, on account of the fresh memory of the world's creation. But this reasoning does not entirely hold: for the fresh memory of the flood, and of so great a vengeance of God, did not prevent idolatry from soon creeping in again. Whence Torniellus and others think that there was idolatry even then in other families of Adam; and that therefore Enos opposed to it the public worship of the one God, and thus established the visible form of the Holy Church.