Commentary on Genesis 1 part 8/15

But what does 'God did not have regard' mean—by which Cain also was grieved and his countenance fell? One might ask, or how did Cain know that God had not accepted his offering, so that he should even be grieved? To this one might reply from the Book of the Covenant, in which it is written that fire descending from heaven received the sacrifices rightly offered; from which it is likely that Cain came to know it, since the fire did not come upon his offerings, while those of Abel were consumed by it.

This also came to pass in Leviticus;

for those who brought strange fire upon the altar suffered no small penalty, and Elijah the great prophet, contending against the priests of Baal, showed that the fire came down from heaven upon his own sacrifices, since they were holy.

These things, then, the exposition of the literal text supplies;

but the sense of the anagogical interpretation would be as follows:

those who play a part in virtue—not from genuine intention but for the sake of something else, displaying only the outward show—are certain procrastinators and reprobates, who do not offer firstfruits to God;

for the firstfruits of virtue is that which comes from the will;

the impulse toward it springs up from there.

This David teaches when he says:

'But his delight was in the law of the Lord.'

But the hypocrites, not having the will for virtue, feign the things of virtue either for the sake of shameful gain, as has been said, or for the sake of glory.

Being of this portion, Cain brought his offering after some days, whereas Abel without delay brings forth the firstborn creatures and the fat;

for the virtuous man, offering firstfruits, does not consider any of his own actions to be his own that is not befitting to God, just as the blessed Paul also says:

'Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me'; and the Psalmist:

'Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.' Abel, then, having tamed by reason his living and irrational possessions and made them steadfast, offered them to God as things proper to Him and not to the passions.

the unseemliness of the things done, from which also the face of the soul falls, and from which the bodily features receive dejection.

That the soul has a face, the oracle declares:

'The wisdom of a man enlightens his face,' and 'With unveiled face we behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord'—the perceptible face being signified in the words 'When the heart is glad, the countenance is cheerful,' whereas when it is in sorrow it becomes gloomy, which happened to Cain, being reproved by his conscience.

And the Lord God said to Cain:

'Why are you become very sorrowful, and why has your countenance fallen? If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, you have sinned.'

'To you shall be its turning back, and you shall rule over it.'

The love of God for mankind, surpassing all things, is here shown, in that He converses even with those who stumble, not permitting them to be sunk in their sins, but rousing them so that, coming to their senses, they may turn back to virtue—which even now takes place in the case of Cain, God speaking to him by way of an inward resounding in his mind:

'Why are you become very sorrowful?'—you have become the cause of this to yourself, and no other was the pretext of your sin.

And He also indicates the manner of the fault, saying:

'If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, you have sinned.' For all who consider that providence presides over all things and directs their affairs, offering thanksgiving, do so fittingly; but those who use it carelessly—so as to keep the precious things for themselves but to offer the paltry ones—these have used the division badly.

When Israel did this very thing, the prophetic word says by way of rebuke and reproach:

'If you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame or the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now to your governor.'

But also Ananias and Sapphira in the Acts of the Apostles—when many were bringing offerings for the needs of the destitute, they too promised the price of a field, from which, having kept back the half, they brought the other, using the division badly; which the foremost of the apostles, reproving and moved by the Spirit, said:

'While it remained, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own power? Why is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart?'—which also was here said by God to Cain:

'Why are you become very sorrowful, and why has your countenance fallen? If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, you have sinned.' For all sin who offer to God as though He were in need, being ignorant of what is said in the Psalms by God Himself:

'Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?' and again:

'Mine are all the beasts of the field, the cattle upon the mountains, and the oxen;'

for you have whatever is easily attainable from me, but I have all things; so that not being in need did He give commandment, but from these things He instructs symbolically that one ought not to practice virtue carelessly, but in a perfect and complete manner.

Then, lest the evil should advance, He exhorts him to be still from it, so that it may not, growing worse, work a more grievous ruin.

So also it is said to Zion, when she was moved in a disorderly manner—for such is the meaning of the name:

'Stand yourself firm, O Zion.' For since the rational creature is active, working either vice or virtue, reasonably, when it practices vice, it is proper for it to make that stand still, so that thus virtue may find its fitting place.

This indeed David also exhorts:

'Turn away from evil,' he says, 'and do good.' Be still, then, he says, do not advance in evil, do not through dejection reckon that your sacrifice was not accepted unjustly.

For many, often stumbling themselves and on this account not having God afterwards as fellow-worker with them, are displeased with providence; which God forbids in the case of Cain, saying:

these things are not offered to Him, but belong to the giver, returning to him because they found no place in God.

So also those who give alms in order to be seen by men have their reward from themselves, having nothing from God;

for they did not do this with a divine aim.

The whole exposition of the literal text, then, is most profitable for character even when taken thus plainly, teaching that offerings are to be made genuinely and not carelessly;

but since in what has preceded we have raised the foregoing matters to the modes of the soul, it is necessary to do this now as well.

The word of God, which is present according to the common notions and is present also to the conscience, watchfully reproves those who stumble, which is exhibited now as well.

For the hypocrites, insofar as they show virtue to be precious—even if they do not choose it—seem to do something right;

but since they use the division wickedly—leading the impulse from the depth of the mind toward their own pleasures, while feigning to perform the gift of outward show for God's sake—reasonably they are not acceptable, cleansing the outside of the cup and outwardly clothing themselves in a sheep's skin, but being inwardly ravening wolves;

reproving such men the Lord said:

'Why do you liken yourselves to whitewashed tombs?

Within they are full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.' But the virtuous, being wholly and entirely God's both in disposition and in deed, and even the human things—which indeed one sees in them for the sake of bodily necessity—performing these too wisely, use rightly the approach toward God, taking care for purity both of body and of soul; of whom Abel is a type, setting God as ruler and protector of his own deeds.

For this is proper to the virtuous man, the deed of the hypocrite returning back upon himself;

for God, seeing into the depth of the mind, does not accept the things done by such a one from himself.

And Cain said to Abel his brother;

and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.

The little-by-little increase of vice, when not hindered, reaches excess, and a sin hidden in the mind, when it is not restrained by reason, will bring the deed to completion, even though it seem to wait for a brief time.

This very thing is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles;

for when the governor had heard very many things from Paul concerning the divine teaching and had become fearful, again the passion of avarice pressed upon him;

for the writing Spirit says that he spoke to Paul:

'Having an opportune time I will send for you,' at the same time also expecting to receive money from him.

Something like this the accursed Cain also suffers;

for after being put to shame, holding out a little, he nurses the envy in his mind and speaks to his brother with guile:

And having gone through with it, he did not let go of his wrath, but setting upon him he slays his brother.

Some, wishing to raise even these questions, say:

With what weapon did he make use, to slay Abel? Yet there is nothing perplexing in this;

for even if not with iron, still it could well have been done either with a stone or with a piece of wood, which the book of the covenant also hinted at.

Scripture calls any killing whatsoever, however it comes about, a 'slaughter,' as is made clear in the Epistle of John:

'Even as Cain slaughtered his brother, because his own works were wicked, but those of his brother were righteous.'

And the phrase 'Cain rose up against Abel' indicates at once both the assault and the deliberate, voluntary impulse.

These things, then, the account of the history contains;

but since we were saying that Cain is a hypocritical figure according to the anagogical sense, such would be the things now to be said as well.

The brother of the outwardly visible man is the hidden man, the man in the mind;

showing itself in various ways, which the psalmist too, instructing us, declares in the first psalm, saying:

'Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly,' and a little further on:

'who shall yield his fruit in his season, and his leaf shall not fall away.' By 'fruit' he means the virtuous action that proceeds from disposition, and by 'leaf' the outward condition, which shows itself in bearing and in adornment and in the smiling display of the teeth.

Whenever, then, the hypocrite is zealous for these outward things, while his reasoning happens to be perverse, he slays his brother, having his mind out of tune with his outward appearance.

The 'plain' for such a one is the contrivance devised against those he deceives; advancing into which by his deception of them, he first leads himself into sin.

Of this kind, too, are the sophists, employing 'plain-like' speech, through which they lead their own brethren around into impiety.

'And the Lord God said to Cain:

Where is Abel your brother? And he said:

Am I my brother's keeper?' The God who loves mankind, out of his great goodness, visits again even those who have wholly estranged themselves from him, and through the visitation rouses them to awareness—which is exactly what he now does in the case of Cain. First he instils in him the words that come from conscience; then also, by saying 'Abel your brother,' he as it were weighs him down with the very appellation of kinship and leads him to a sense of the pollution.

The magnitude of the outrage is set before us, in that he killed one who was both a brother and a righteous brother—one whom God had made for succour and help—and destroyed him.

For this is what the oracle declares:

'Let a friend be to you at every season, and let brothers be useful in times of need;'

for it is for this reason that they are born.

For the account hints that this is the very cause of the existence of brothers.

For the divine governance, being unitive, does this through all things.

Indeed, in the Law also, since brotherly affection and that of those very near suffices for union, God does not permit these to be joined in marriage, but allows others besides sisters and near kin, so that through these there may be gathered together, from others as well, affection—the very thing which Cain trampled upon.

For one can see his hypocrisy also, as he says with reckless folly:

Am I my brother's keeper? For by the 'I do not know' his brazenness is shown, in that he supposed he could escape God's notice; and by the 'Am I the keeper?' his want of natural affection and his savagery, and thereby his senselessness, is made plain;

for it was fitting that he should have been his brother's keeper.

What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.

And now you are cursed from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand, for you shall till the ground, and it shall not continue to give its strength to you;

groaning and trembling you shall be upon the earth.

And the Lover of mankind instructs him even as he acts shamelessly, and though he thinks to escape God's notice, teaches him that this is impossible;

'The voice,' he says, 'of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground'—do not suppose that the pollution has escaped the sleepless eye of providence.

By the 'voice of blood' he means its manifestation, as also elsewhere:

'Behold, the wages of the labourers who reaped your fields, which has been kept back from you by fraud, cries out.'

For it is to be taken in this way too; but it is also possible that 'blood' is here spoken of in place of 'life' (soul).

One might say that for this reason he made mention of blood, because he had hidden the body.

And he mentions the pouring out, and how the earth opened its mouth to receive the blood, and 'of a brother' repeatedly, so that by magnifying what had been done he might put the savage-tempered one to shame.

And he brings upon him curses as well, fittingly, since he had wrought so great a deed, saying:

The earth shall mourn because of those who dwell in it. For it has been given for the purpose of bearing fruits to those who keep their reasoning undistorted; yet by God's love for mankind it supplies even to those who err the necessities, though again, by his ordinance, the fruits from it fail those who err, so that a turning back may come about.

But according to the anagogical sense, if we follow our earlier remarks, God might be charging the hypocrite that he perverts the life-giving power of the soul, which is the brother of the outward man, as has been said.

Wherefore it shall also be cursed, no longer yielding fruits, but squandering its ready ability upon what is useful, so that from this it may be brought down to the beginning of virtue;

for it is useful even that wickedness be thwarted, the ends aimed at from it not being attained, so that the toil that arises may implant a love of virtue, according to what has been said:

'Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall cross over to you.'

And groaning and trembling he shall be upon the earth, being thus judged, ever reproved by his conscience.

And Cain said to the Lord God:

My cause for being forgiven is too great;

if you drive me out this day from the face of the earth, then from your face I shall be hidden;

and I shall be groaning and trembling upon the earth, and it shall come to pass that everyone who finds me will kill me.

There lies embedded, even in those who estrange themselves from God, a word by which they take up thoughts about God himself as a lover of mankind and good;

and it is not possible for this good notion to be cut off, even though, through the depth of their wickedness, they are often ill-pleased with it.

Thus, for instance, those who are entirely unmindful of God, when they fall into distress, take refuge in prayers and supplications—which is also to be observed in the case of Cain.

For as one forgetful of God, having rushed to the murder of his brother and having with brazenness dissembled to him who asked:

Where is Abel your brother?—yet since not so much perversity was as yet present among men, he came to know, from the words of God (which he learned through the reproof concerning the things that had taken place within his conscience), that the eye of God is inescapable; and so he begs him not to reduce him to utter estrangement from himself, from which it would come about that he should groan and tremble and expect destruction from everyone who found him.

For he who is convinced that the protecting power of God has departed from him reckons all else to be fearful, and takes no confidence in anything he himself does.

And these things have been said by us with a view to the whole thoughtful sense of Cain's answer;

but let us also look at his somewhat confused answer, inasmuch as he was worthless and had no share in divine grace.

'My cause,' he says, 'for being forgiven is too great,' which might mean, according to the first sense, that my evil will be too great if you, O God, do not proceed against the wrong done against me;

for it belongs to one still under care that he should not be given up as beyond remedy.

This very thing is said by God in the prophet concerning those worthy of contempt and given over to a reprobate mind:

'I will not visit your daughters when they commit fornication, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery.'

For when he wishes to instruct those who are sinning yet are still capable of being turned back, he says:

'I will visit their iniquities with a rod and their sins with scourges, but my mercy I will by no means withdraw from them.' Now what he means here is this, that 'my blame will be greater, if you, Lord, do not proceed against me,' as has been said;

but as one gone astray and having suffered distortion, he supposes that, being cast out of the land, he shall also be cast out from the face of God.

But according to another sense he might be saying these things, that 'a greater evil will be mine, if I remain in the land, while you, O God, do not destroy me into non-existence;'

everyone who finds me being about to kill me.

And that the many, whenever they recognize in themselves an immeasurable multitude of faults, having in some way the notion that God himself will requite them, deem non-existence preferable—preferring an insensibility to sufferings over being—would be clear from what has been said by the prophet concerning the betrayers of Jesus:

'They shall wish that they had been burnt with fire.' And in another way too one might take it as he says:

If you drive me out—but with the 'this day' asking for a place of repentance, so that the present moment, spoken of as 'this day,' might be deferred.

He desired also, by what is called his own end, to fall under the protection of God, so that he might not lie exposed to slaughter at the hand of everyone who found him.

One might ask whom in the world Cain was afraid would find him and kill him, seeing that no one at all existed except himself and his parents.

To such a one it may be answered: first, that having the notion of a coming succession of human beings, he feared lest, as one who had wrought so great a defilement, he should be put to death by those who were to come as an object of loathing—since so great a pollution passed also upon those who should be born; and next, even if not this, he conjectured that divine powers would be avengers of his impious deed, which powers he had likely even seen, since wickedness had not yet been poured abroad.

And the Lord God said to him:

Everyone who kills Cain shall loose seven vengeances.

And the Lord God set a sign upon Cain, that no one who found him should slay him.

For a greater punishment than Cain's own supposition—namely, that everyone who found him would kill him—God, guarding him who had become the murderer of his own brother, says:

This is not for you a fitting penalty for the transgression, that you should be put to death by anyone whatsoever.

For such a one would loose seven vengeances, which signifies the complete punishment.

For often the number seven in Scripture is employed in place of perfection;

this is made clear by what is said:

There are seven eyes looking upon all the earth;

for God is surely not a body, that his eyes should fall under the number seven; rather it plainly teaches that his overseeing power is most full and great.

Others have said that, just as the Savior's manhood had seven spirits resting upon it—a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and godliness, a spirit of the fear of God—so also every man, being a perfect man before sin, unto whom the Apostle teaches that we too must attain, saying:

until we all attain unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ—having these things resting upon him; but if he should sin, he looses them, for which a most full and fitting vengeance ought to be exacted.

It is to be noted that the phrase 'everyone who kills Cain' is said either in the vocative sense, in place of 'O Cain, everyone who kills,' or of others concerning him, so that it means 'everyone who kills Cain'; and whoever says these are certain powers would not go amiss.

And to these same powers he has given a sign, that they should not slay him—which would be the very command of God himself;

for none of such judgments comes to pass apart from concession.

[blank lines here]—He set as a sign the inclination toward repentance that comes after transgressions, according to which he will not be easily overcome unto destruction.

For it is a great good not to stumble;

but to come, after one's stumblings, into repentance would be a second harbor, which God, ordering it through instruction, rouses so that one should not fall under the deceiver.

Such is the meaning that is suggested by what is said in the Psalms:

The light of your countenance, O Lord, was signed upon us—which 'light of the countenance' you would fittingly say is the Son or the divine thoughts.

For thus also 'to flee from before the bow' will come to pass, since the countenance of God is within us, as has been said;

and what follows next confirms it:

That your beloved ones may be delivered.

Therefore, out of his goodness, God gives a place of repentance even to those who have grievously fallen, so that there may again be a recovery of virtue.

So Cain went out from the presence of God and dwelt in the land of Nod over against Eden.

Taking Cain's going out from the presence of God not in a local sense, we say that everyone who sins comes to be outside of God, since we understand entering in to God in the same way, as the psalm says:

Enter into his presence with exultation;

and one enters into the presence of God by leaving behind all outward things, both sins and the things of sense, and becoming another, belonging no more to the world, so that thus he may become a partaker of the knowledge concerning God.

Cain went out from the presence of God; and we do not say that there is some place in which God exists, in which Cain was and from which he went out;

for God is uncircumscribed and not subject to places, even if a temple later came to be, which existed as a teaching of symbolic worship.

So Cain went out, having rendered himself unworthy of the presence of God, having become henceforth without any thought of him.

Concerning such persons it is said:

God is not before him; and concerning the sons of Eli it is said:

The sons of Eli, not knowing the Lord;

for even if they persevered in the temple, yet in disposition and in works they happened to be outside of him.

And that Cain went out in this manner, what follows makes plain:

For it says, And he dwelt in the land of Nod over against Eden. For Nod is interpreted 'commotion' (tossing);

for where should he who had departed from the peaceful virtue dwell, but in the tossing—an unstable and uncertain thing—which is wickedness? And 'over against' is well said too;

for wickedness is contrary to virtue.

We remember, then, that when we were treating of the casting out of Adam, we noted that he cast him out not as one who had gone forth of his own accord, but as one still having a spark of longing for the sojourn in the paradise of delight;

wherefore he settled him over against these things, as one who himself even arranged his dwelling.

For to those who do not sin grievously, since virtue is not far off but dwells near, some occasion is given, pointing out a swift return, an occasion given from God, which in Cain's case is not spoken of.

For he was neither settled nor cast out, having slipped away to evil with eager longing;

wherefore he also dwells in commotion, being ceaselessly troubled, since this is what he longed for—whereas the virtuous man is steadfast, because he has a strong standing, so that he can even stand with God, according to what is said:

But stand here with me; and by the Savior, concerning those who do not taste of death:

There are some standing here who were his acquaintances.

But Paul too, exhorting us not to be carried about by everyone unworthy of teaching, writes:

Stand fast therefore, and do not again be entangled in a yoke of bondage;

and the psalmist too says with thanksgiving:

You have set my feet upon a rock;

but concerning the wicked, as being ever worn down amid evils, it is said:

The commotion of their feet shall never stand still.

For it is a great sin to be ever moving about in evil, which the Word says he does not wish to be in Zion;

and having this desire, blessed David, that he might not fall from it, sang:

And let not the hand of sinners move me—that is:

let not the deeds of the sinner, of the devil, remove me from virtue.

And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch.

And he was building a city, and he named the city after the name of his son Enoch.

Certain persons inquire whence Cain got a wife, seeing there were no others than Adam and Eve—on which ground the malicious introduce marriage between brother and sister.

But they ought to have considered that no marriage of brother and sister is introduced from this.

For if, while other women existed, he had made use of his sister, the argument would be plausible;

[so too Noah,] for the sake of the world and that the ember of the human race might endure, being alone left as a wise man with his daughter, knowing that the world would again be set in order, for which reason there was need of succession—if he should use his daughter in a fitting manner;

and the argument appears to them not unbecoming, on the ground that there was no other woman.

This same thing appears to have taken place also concerning the daughters of Lot, which the fault-finders will indeed blame, but none of the discerning.

For, not supposing there was any other man because of the burning of those cities that had taken place, but assuming further, as young girls would, that all the earth had suffered such things by being consumed with fire, they say accordingly:

Behold, our father is old, and there is no man to come in unto us, as is fitting for all the earth; come, let us make our father drink wine;

and that they did this not out of passion, but leaving behind an ember, the one, coming together, urged the other also to do this—which she would not have done so readily had she been enslaved to passion, but in the same manner as the first had contrived, so the second also did it, for the sake of a further succession.

Cain, then, is not to be blamed in these matters, even if in many respects he went astray.

Cain knew his sister, but as his wife; for this designation is proper to the line of succession.

For this appellation is fitting for the line of succession.

Someone might inquire how, when only five human beings had been named—the parents of Cain, Cain himself, and his wife—he is said to build a city, a thing which requires a great multitude of people.

And whoever raises this question will also demand the reason why they made a city, when a single cave or even a very small dwelling would have sufficed for their habitation.

In response to which—(the rest of the page is left blank in the manuscript).

And to Enoch was born Gaidad, and Gaidad begot Maouia, and Maouia begot Mathousael, and Mathousael begot Lamech.

He recounts the generation of Cain, which, having reached as far as the seventh generation, perished when the flood came upon it.

But the line descending from Adam through Seth, whom God raised up, is preserved even until now.

For from this line came the household of Noah and those who were saved with him in the ark.

But if someone also wishes to raise these things to a higher (spiritual) sense, let him do so by taking the starting point of the anagogical interpretation from the meaning of the names, yet without indulging in frigid trivialities.

Philo too has spoken concerning these matters; let the lover of what is noble examine his words and receive the due benefit.