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Cain, Abel, and brutism

Kalman P. Bland

in Scriptural Exegesis: The Shapes of Culture and the Religious Imagination: Essays in Honour of Michael Fishbane

This chapter explores Maimonides' claims about the lack of humanity in Cain and Abel, and the bestial nature of all humankind. Drawing on bible, midrash, philosophy, and kabbalistic sources, the ... More

This chapter explores Maimonides' claims about the lack of humanity in Cain and Abel, and the bestial nature of all humankind. Drawing on bible, midrash, philosophy, and kabbalistic sources, the chapter reflects a breadth of approach and interests akin to Fishbane's own writings.Less

Homicide And Vengeance

Jonathan Burnside

in God, Justice, and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible

This chapter shows how biblical law distinguishes between premeditated, spur of the moment, and accidental homicide, and thus tries to strike a particular balance between harm and culpability. ... More

This chapter shows how biblical law distinguishes between premeditated, spur of the moment, and accidental homicide, and thus tries to strike a particular balance between harm and culpability. Central to this is the operation of the biblical laws of asylum, either at a divinely-approved altar or at a city of refuge. Biblical law takes seriously the value of human life—both the value of the victim's life and the need to protect the life of the offender, in certain circumstances. This is consistent with the limits that are set to blood vengeance and to other forms of vengeance, as expressed in the lex talionis. This is concerned with both quantitative and qualitative proportionality. The discussion includes some key biblical narratives, including the story of Cain and Abel.Less

Sweetening Judgment

Melila Hellner-Eshed

in Seekers of the Face: Secrets of the Idra Rabba (The Great Assembly) of the Zohar

This chapter explores the idraic myth of the birth of Cain and Abel and their archetypal role, the birth of Seth, and finally the ideal coupling of the divine male and female.

How Should One Read the Early Chapters of Genesis?

Walter Moberly

in Reading Genesis after Darwin

In the light of the enormous weight attached to the early chapters of Genesis in the history of biblical interpretation and in debates between science and religion over matters of origins, it is ... More

In the light of the enormous weight attached to the early chapters of Genesis in the history of biblical interpretation and in debates between science and religion over matters of origins, it is important to ask some basic questions as to the kind of material with which we are dealing. Through consideration of a number of significant examples, this chapter looks for pointers to the genre of the early chapters of Genesis. There is discussion of some of the numerous internal indicators of genre, whose general significance was noticed long before Darwin. Finally, some suggestions are made as to the difference these indicators should, and should not, make to reading Genesis today.Less

Tragical Mimesis and Biblical Interpretation I: Primitive Tragedies in Genesis

Paul M. Blowers

in Visions and Faces of the Tragic: The Mimesis of Tragedy and the Folly of Salvation in Early Christian Literature

This chapter moves straightaway into the first, and foundational, form of early Christian tragical mimesis, the interpretation of tragic (and tragic-comic) biblical narratives. “Dramatic” ... More

This chapter moves straightaway into the first, and foundational, form of early Christian tragical mimesis, the interpretation of tragic (and tragic-comic) biblical narratives. “Dramatic” interpretation was not a method all its own but drew upon both literal and figural reading of the scriptural texts, and focused on mimetic re-presentation of the narratives in ways that highlighted and amplified their tragic elements. It served a primarily “contemplative” mode, or theôria, of reading tragic narratives, conducive to a tragical vision of sacred history. The chapter turns to some case studies of tragical or dramatic interpretation of the primitive tragedies in Genesis: the precipitous fall of Adam and Eve and their recognition thereof; and the tragic sibling rivalries of Cain and Abel and Jacob and Esau. Attention is given to the specific Aristotelian elements of tragedy (plausible or realistic plots; characters’ fateful miscalculation, or hamartia; reversal of fortune, or peripeteia; discovery, or anagnorisis; pathos, et al.) which patristic exegetes discerned in these stories. Mimetic or dramatic interpretation enhanced these elements all the more as means to draw audiences into the cosmic significance of the narratives related to moral evil, the legacies of sin and death, the fear of determinism, and the justice and providence of God.Less

The Conglomerative Voice: Cain and Abel

Lois Gordon

in Reading Godot

This chapter relates Samuel Beckett's work to the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Waiting for Godot retells in a conglomerative voice, the tale of Cain and Abel, who are primal archetypes of ... More

This chapter relates Samuel Beckett's work to the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Waiting for Godot retells in a conglomerative voice, the tale of Cain and Abel, who are primal archetypes of innocence and brutality. It then relates the two stories, where Beckett transcribes the biblical lesson that even though we ought to be our brother's keeper, we are ruled by a loving divinity. It goes on to relate the context of the world after the Fall, where the universe lack a moral order and external rules or Law are mysterious, arbitrary, and potentially destructive. The chapter goes on to make more connections between Cain and Abel and Beckett's Waiting for Godot, front references to Genesis 4 itself, to the similarities and connections between the characters in each text.Less

The Formation of Narratives about Adam and Eve’s Descendants (Genesis 4)

David M. Carr

in The Formation of Genesis 1-11: Biblical and Other Precursors

The chapter opens with a survey of the extensive parallels between Genesis 2–3 and the story of Cain and Abel. Though some such parallels probably emerge from the modeling of elements in Genesis 4 on ... More

The chapter opens with a survey of the extensive parallels between Genesis 2–3 and the story of Cain and Abel. Though some such parallels probably emerge from the modeling of elements in Genesis 4 on the previous Eden story, a number of indicators suggest that the bulk of these parallel elements originated in a tradition, likely oral, about Cain and Abel and then Cain’s line leading up to Lamech. Numerous signs suggest that this Cain-to-Lamech tradition was not originally about the first human family but instead was a Judean tradition about the origins of the Kenites, a semi-nomadic group that is associated with regions in and around Judah and with metalworking. The ambivalence that the Cain and Abel story seems to express about Cain—for example, a brother murderer (Gen 4:8) yet enjoying special divine protection (4:15)—is similar to the ambivalence often expressed toward itinerant artisans in Near Eastern societies. Genesis 4, however, is not just a written presentation of this oral tradition. Rather, it appears that the author of Genesis 4 appropriated and adapted this oral tradition as an account of an initial primeval line of humanity, the Cain-Kenite line, that then was contrasted with a new line of humanity that descended from Adam and Eve’s third son, Seth, and then continued with Enosh (Gen 4:25–26).Less

Biblical Violence in Catholic and Calvinist Tragedy

Michael Meere

in Onstage Violence in Sixteenth-Century French Tragedy: Performance, Ethics, Poetics

This chapter analyzes biblical violence in Catholic and Calvinist tragedy by examining dramatic adaptations of the stories of Cain and Abel and David and Goliath. Thomas Lecoq’s Tragédie de Cain ... More

This chapter analyzes biblical violence in Catholic and Calvinist tragedy by examining dramatic adaptations of the stories of Cain and Abel and David and Goliath. Thomas Lecoq’s Tragédie de Cain (1580) imitates the early sixteenth-century Mistére du Viel Testament and uses Cain’s murder of Abel as a counterexample of virtuous behavior at the peak of the religious wars, encouraging spectators to behave peacefully toward their neighbors despite differing beliefs. The chapter then considers how the Calvinist tragedies by Joachim de Coignac (La Desconfiture de Goliath, c.1551) and Louis Des Masures (David combattant, 1563/1566) use violence as a positive, liberating force. David’s defeat of Goliath mirrors the Reformed Church’s hopeful victory against the Roman Catholic Church. This chapter argues that Coignac and Des Masures depict David’s violence as a morally good act, yet their plays raise theological, moral, and epistemological questions of when and why it is acceptable to kill.Less

Precursors to the Eden Narrative (Gen 2:4b–3:24)

David M. Carr

in The Formation of Genesis 1-11: Biblical and Other Precursors

This chapter offers a diachronically informed synchronic reading of the Garden of Eden story (Gen 2:4b–3:24) as a complex meditation on a mix of themes surrounding human identity and mortality that ... More

This chapter offers a diachronically informed synchronic reading of the Garden of Eden story (Gen 2:4b–3:24) as a complex meditation on a mix of themes surrounding human identity and mortality that are well attested in Mesopotamian literary texts. Where some scholars (including the present author) have been inclined to see Genesis 2–3 as formed out of distinct literary levels focusing on wisdom and (later) mortality, this chapter argues on the contrary that these themes cannot be separated in Genesis 2–3—that numerous integral components in the Eden story (e.g., the snake) relate to both, much as earlier Mesopotamian traditions (especially the Gilgamesh and Adapa epics) reflect on how humans might have godlike rationality but have no access to godlike immortality. In addition, there are signs that key elements of Genesis 2–3 may have originated from its being loosely modeled on the structure and emphases of an earlier oral tradition about brotherly fratricide that is more closely reflected in Gen 4:1–16.Less

“A Covenant of Death”

James P. Byrd

in A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood: The Bible and the American Civil War

Many southerners celebrated the war’s beginning. Others spoke in somber tones. Opinions flew in all directions after Sumter’s fall, as Americans reflected on what the war would mean. One constant ... More

Many southerners celebrated the war’s beginning. Others spoke in somber tones. Opinions flew in all directions after Sumter’s fall, as Americans reflected on what the war would mean. One constant presence, however, was the Bible. It helped Americans to brace for war. As the greatest crisis of their lives came into focus, they clung to the scriptures for comfort and justification. This time was remarkable for the variety of biblical responses to the war. Southern women struggled with their zeal for war, which many believed was inappropriate. If many wanted war, others drew back from the conflict, or at least worried about what the war would do to the nation, regardless of which side God was on. Just as northern preachers were sharpening their exegesis for battle, southerners did the same, as did Mormons, who hurled biblical attacks on both North and South from the West.Less

Melancholy and Community

in Terms of the Political: Community, Immunity, Biopolitics

Chapter 2 begins by placing these two seemingly contradictory terms in relation: only individuals may be melancholic, and they are so precisely because of their isolation, asociality, or distance ... More

Chapter 2 begins by placing these two seemingly contradictory terms in relation: only individuals may be melancholic, and they are so precisely because of their isolation, asociality, or distance from community. This chapter argues instead that melancholy is not something that separates individuals from a community, but that melancholy is the very form and content of community itself. Through a reading of solitude and a yearning for the ever-absent community in Rousseau; the melancholic nature of the Kantian subject; the superimposition of philosophy and melancholy in Heidegger, the chapter calls for a joining of these two terms toward a reading of community that is neither a goal nor an end, neither a presupposition nor a destination, but the condition, both singular and plural, of our complete existence.Less