One thing we can agree on when it comes to the bible. It is either true or it is not. If it's true then it could have been divinely inspired. If not true then there is nothing divine about it. Some fundamentalist have put forth the argument that it was divinely inspired but not divinely preserved. Of course that argument is so patently absurd as to not even deserve a response. We are already familiar with the Adam and Eve business so we will leave Adam as he tries to contemplate his missing navel and pick up the story in our KJV in Gen. 4:3. Ill give you a thumbnail sketch and if you want to go back and check your bible for accuracy please feel free. I use the KJV.
In the fullness of time it came to pass that the dueling duo, Cain and Abel, brought an offering to the Lord. Cain, being a farmer brought vegetables. Able brought forth the fat of his flock's firstlings. (Try saying that three times) God admits to a hankering for the smell of hot fat but doesn't care much for veggies.
Now pay attention because right here is where all the trouble starts.
First, God rejects Cain's gift. How outrageous to reject a gift from one of your own children. Anyone with even a modicum of manners would not pull a stunt like that. God is behaving like a spoiled 5 year old brat by refusing to eat his vegetables.
Second, why in the world does God need the flocks fat firstlings. Or for that matter a bunch of cucumbers and cabbages? After all he is the one who had just very recently made all this stuff. Remember? Gen. 1:24? On the sixth day? He made sheep and dinosaurs and giraffes and 10,000 kinds of beetles and rabbits and armadillos and at least 10 million other species. Giving God a sheep and cabbage would be like giving the head of GM a shabby used pick-up truck when he is rolling 42 Cadillacs per hour off the assembly line, all fitted out with On Star and a navigation system any of which he can choose for his own.
In any event Cain is so wroth over being humiliated by his God who up until now he thought was so kind and loving that he proceeds to kill Abel, his rancher brother, thus committing the very first murder in recorded history.
Why in heavens name would a God who just ran his very first humans off the assembly line want to treat one of them like a stepchild? Imagine a little 4 year old bringing Daddy a picture of an airplane he just drew and Dad wadding up the picture and throwing it in the trash. That's a good analogy of what God did to Cain.
Hang on; it's going to get even weirder.
So God curses Cain after he lied about what he did and told him from now on your cabbage and cucumbers and stuff won't grow and he would just have to hit the road. And Cain said, "Oh, that's too much! I can't bear that because every one that findeth me will want to kill me! So even though God was exceedingly wroth he decided to let Cain off the hook by putting a mark on him (it doesn't say where) and promising if anyone dare even lay a finger on him he (God) would kill them deader than a hammer. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him." Gen. 4:15
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord (Gen: 4: 16) and...whoa!! Wait a minute! Back up. Able is dead, so all we got is Cain and a sister who Cain will eventually impregnate and Adam and Eve. Just who is Cain going to encounter out there East of Eden? Even if we make a grand assumption that the inerrant bible failed to mention that Cain has some more brothers and sisters, they don't have a dog in this fight. So who will kill him? One could gather up everybody in God's creation, put them in a minivan and have seats left over. Cain and God appear to be shadow boxing with a problem that doesn't exist. So what's up with that? Well its a mystery that's what.
So even though Cain finds himself in the midst of the greatest labor shortage in history he goes on to Nod and builds a city and names it after his son, Enoch (who also happens to be his nephew since he is the son of his sister) Anyhow, Cain ahem,"knew" his sister, and built a whole city. By combining those two facts into one sentence it makes it easier to forget how Enoch got here.
But back to the gift thing. If I could proclaim just one message here at this most "religious" ($) hallowed holiday let it be this. If your brother-in-law gave you a big clear plastic container full of Wal-Mart tube socks for Christmas, don't let him see you standing in line at the return counter the day after.
Somebody could get hurt bad.
Merry Christmas everybody!! Try not to be full of wroth.
Philo who was a brilliant Jewish scholar from Alexandria, Egypt (home of the largest library in the world) and living during the time of Christ had the best answer. He indicated the Jewish scriptures were fables using allegories that Moses either invented or quoted those who had invented them. Christians saved his writings because he told about a Jewish group they thought were Christians. Evidently they never bothered to read the rest of his works.
ReplyDeleteProfessor I.M. Du Bious