This post is on a serious subject, but it has a kind of funny beginning. I drink a lot of Diet Coke as far as Deena, my wife, is concerned. So, I try to be discreet and very circumspect about it. I have a favorite cup that I’ve used for years, and over the last few months, the lid has cracked a bit. What that means is that if I am drinking my beverage of choice in that cup with the cracked lid, little do I know that it’s leaving a brown spot on the tip of my nose where the syrup seeps through. Now, I’ve been called a “brown-noser” once or twice in the past, but having retired, there is no longer any incentive for me to pick up my boss’s dry cleaning and vacuum out his car. Nor must I worry about pleasing HR. A few days ago, Deena noticed “that spot” and called me on it. As I furiously rubbed it off, I told her that I felt like I had the mark of Cain (Genesis 4:15). We had a good laugh.
Then, I happened to remember a Sunday School lesson I gave about eight years ago on Cain and Abel. Like almost everyone who has read or heard Bible stories, I know that Cain killed his brother Abel in a jealous fit. Theologians and prognosticators since have feared the worst for Cain. Dante, in his Inferno (Canto 12), reports that Cain is now in the Seventh Circle of Hell, where people who commit sins of violence against others, nature, and themselves are sent to be tortured. In other words and according to Dante, God was furious with Cain and could not forgive him.
But as I prepared my lesson and read and reread the account, it seemed to me that God was feeling sadness more than anger. Having lost the company of one of the first two children of Adam and Eve (i.e., Abel), He did not want the other child (Cain) to die or be killed as well. So, I learned a few lessons as I prepared for class. One is that God is willing—even anxious—to forgive us when we sin.
Another lesson I learned is that while God is God and all-powerful, sometimes we, as a people and a society, treat others worse than God might treat us for the same sin. For example, if a person today in the U.S. kills his brother with premeditation under the exact same circumstances as Cain did, it would be filed as first-degree murder. While the offender might get life in prison, he could just as easily be executed by the state, regardless of how God might treat the offender.
As a caveat, I’m not suggesting that people “get away” with murder. I guess I am saying that when one life is taken, this should not necessarily lead to another loss of life in every single case.
Let’s proceed by looking at what fratricide is.
Fratricide
Fratricide is the deliberate killing of one’s brother (or sister). Some examples in history and literature include the killing of George, Duke of Clarence by his brother Edward IV in England during the War of the Roses. And, when Hamlet’s father the King of Denmark was killed by young Hamlet’s uncle (Claudius). Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky writes of murder most foul in The Brothers Karamazov, a drama where one brother slew the other.
But perhaps the most famous example is that of Romulus and Remus who fought over the founding of Rome.
Romulus and Remus
The founding of Rome was in 753 BC. The date and event was so important that calendar time in the ancient world was measured by how many years something occurred Ab Urbe Condita or since the founding of Rome.
Rome was established by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, who were abandoned by their parents for their own safety and suckled by a she-wolf. At one point a shepherd found them and raised them as his own. As young adults, they decided to build a city on the Seven Hills, where the Tiber River approaches the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in western Italy. However, the two brothers fought over the preferred site of the city, and Romulus, the elder brother, slew Remus, his younger brother. The letters SPQR in the mosaic tile stand for “Senatus Populusque Romanus,” or “The Senate and the People of Rome.” It was the Roman motto, similar to what “E Pluribus Unum” is for America.
The Dynamics of Fatricide
For a moment, let’s return to Genesis. Genesis chapter 4:3-5 tells us Cain’s motive in killing his brother:
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Psychologists and others who study human nature would tell us that there is rarely a single cause to incite one sibling to take the life of another, but Genesis does not provide any other insight. Nor do researchers indicate that there is a difference if one takes the life of a biological sibling or a step-sibling. Many of us have witnessed or personally experienced the sibling rivalry over grades or sports that occurs in families today. Therefore, it should be no surprise that most people who commit fratricide do so between the ages of 12 and 24, when hormones, identity formation, and experimentation with drugs and alcohol are at their highest.
Parental preferences play a role, too. Cain (and Romulus) were older than the brothers they slew. Could Eve have showered more attention and affection on Abel than on Cain? We cannot know. Since Romulus and Remus were orphaned, we cannot make any inferences in that case either. Most of us may have felt that older siblings in our families were held to a higher standard than their younger brothers and sisters, who might believe the younger sibling was spoiled. Or perhaps the reverse is true, as younger siblings can resort to violence as frequently as their older siblings. In any case, these feelings of resentment and injustice percolate under the surface for years before they erupt.
Other family dynamics include how well members practice impulse control and modulate their behavior. When violent, explosive behaviors or other crises are the norm between parents or other authority figures in the family, it is no wonder that children model this behavior themselves. These are impulsive acts (crimes of passion) that, in many cases, lead to fratricide, but in Cain’s case, there was premeditation as well, because Cain asked Abel to walk with him, presumably to some remote spot (verse 8).
Sibling rivalry
The formula for disaster among brothers or sisters can begin even before birth. Isaac in the Old Testament took a wife Rebekah and she conceived (Genesis 25:25). But her pregnancy was not normal. She felt at times that there was a war going on in her womb. Few women perhaps suffer that sort of agony during their term. The Hebrew verb used (וַיִּתְרֹֽצֲצ֤וּ) by the author of Genesis to describe her torment is a very unusual word which means to “break, bruise, oppress or crush”. Indeed, in verse 23 not only does God tell her she has twins, but God uses the term “two nations” or לְאֻמִּ֔ים וּשְׁנֵ֣י בְּבִטְנֵ֔ךְ(גוֹיִם֙). Some Hebrew commentators much later wondered whether the twins were not, in fact, wrestling with each other but rather they were each trying to get away from the other.
So, on top of the causes of sibling rivalry such as identity, jealousy, relationships, birth order, add destiny. Yet, neither Esau the first born of the twins nor Jacob died at the hands of the other.
Why choose to live with your guilt and shame?
Many people have a sense of pride that they do not need anyone’s help. Nor do they confront the unpleasant thoughts and feelings that bubble to the surface of their ego from their superego. No doubt upbringing and life experiences may play a role, but nothing truly excuses this nonfeasance. Elsewhere in this blog I mention the “hardwiring” of our conscience when it comes to good or bad. The Apostle Paul says we have “no excuse.”
Sometimes the guilt we experience and which should drive us to repentance has the opposite effect and leads us to pull away from God. For example, early in the sixteenth century God used the Spanish administrator Cabeza de Vaca to perform miraculous healings among the indigenous peoples of the Southwest U.S. On one occasion, de Vaca’s life was on the line and he was told by his Indian captors to heal a chief’s child who was at death’s doorway or die himself. One of his two companions from the Old World, Alonso del Castillo, had a profound sense of sin in his life and was afraid that God would not save the child because of his (Castillo’s) sins. Castillo was a decent but coarse man according to de Vaca, and Castillo undoubtedly lived a life in the flesh as many people do today. Yet Castillo’s unconfessed guilt kept him from approaching God for divine intervention on behalf of the dying child. When, with de Vaca’s urging, Castillo resolved this guilt—almost assuredly through prayer—they went to the tent where the child lay and ministered successfully to him.
It is possible that some do not ask for forgiveness because they either believe that God is all-loving (so why bother?) or he is unforgiving (so why bother?).
Faith is important at least by some point as far as the forgiveness of sins goes. I qualify this because one does not need a systematic theology worked out before God works in that person. As John Wesley used to say, “Preach until you have faith and then preach because you have faith.”
I’m encountering more than a few people who admit they need forgiveness, but they’ve had negative experiences growing up in Christian homes, which is unfortunate. I remember the character who played the mother (Olivia) on the television series *The Waltons*. Every time a child of hers misbehaved, they had to memorize a Bible verse (or a whole chapter of the Bible if they really messed up) as penance. But somehow, as we grow older, we must reckon with the problems in our past and not let them keep us from the blessings of the future.
And then there is the issue of “Why Christianity?” With at least half a dozen or more major religions in the world, why is Christianity and the “Christian God” the way to heaven? There are a number of possible reasons. Perhaps it was only the children of Abraham that responded to Jehovah. And many religions don’t provide a savior. In some, perhaps you are falsely assured you can work your way to heaven. It is here that faith must kick in.
You can assure yourself of absolution simply by praying to God to forgive you for your sins. Tell Him you are sorry for bad things that you’ve done or good things that you should have done but didn’t. Ask Him to forgive you for Jesus sake (Who died and rose from the dead for your sake). It does not matter whether you can remember every single sin in your life (at my age, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast). You want the love and companionship of your Creator who will walk with you for the rest of your life, and this is the door, the portal through which you must pass.
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#Cain_and_Abel, #Forgiveness.
