Why Cain killed Abel: why two brothers could quarrel, the biblical scripture tells

Why did Cain kill Abel? For Eve

The Christian Church is well aware of its weak points, including dubious places in its founding document, the Old Testament, inherited from the Jews. The Church somehow puts a stop to those who ask it - why do chapters I and II of the Book of Genesis contradict each other? – they, in fact, set out two different versions of the creation of man.

Another weak point of the church, which, if picked, will turn into a festering wound, is the “wife of Cain.”

Let us turn to the situation that had arisen at the time of the murder of Abel by Cain.

Adam and Eve, the first couple, copulated and multiplied. They have two sons: the firstborn - Cain and the youngest - Abel. And that’s it, the Book of Genesis does not mention other children at this point. There are four on the planet: three males - Adam, Cain, Abel and one female - Eve.

Cain then kills his younger brother, supposedly out of jealousy for Yahweh's favor. The murder has been committed. I quote from Chapter IV of Genesis. “/16/ And Cain left Yahweh and settled in the country of Nod, opposite Eden. /17/ And Cain knew his wife, and she carried and gave birth to Chanoch,” says the Book of Genesis. A question often asked of the Church by meticulous believers who have carefully read the Old Testament:

Who is Cain's wife? After all, there are three people on earth, two of them are men... Enlighten, holy fathers!

The holy fathers usually answer the same thing: they say, the ancient Jews did not pay any attention to their daughters. And therefore, they say, they didn’t bother to mention the daughter or daughters who had already been born. This is all that the holy fathers can answer. However, the answer does not satisfy me personally at all, since among Jews a woman is very important, and according to their religious law, a child born from a Jewish woman is considered a Jew... Okay, I’ll help the holy fathers, I’ll throw a life preserver! The author of the Pentateuch of the Old Testament is considered to be Moses [Moses]. Many sources claim that Moses was Egyptian. He even has an Egyptian name, Moses (continue - Ramses, Thutmose...). The Egyptians had different historical traditions and customs than the later Jews. Among the Egyptians, the pharaohs always married their sisters, following in this example the example of the Egyptian primal gods: Osiris was married to his sister Isis, and his brother Set to his sister Nephthys. Fine. Incest shouldn't have bothered Moses. He probably honestly recorded the Egyptian traditional history of the first people. But someone corrected his story.

Judge for yourself. The fourth chapter of the Book of Genesis, which tells of the murder of Abel by Cain, mentions Cain's wife without naming her name, and lists Cain's offspring, naming names, including female ones. And chapter five, “the book of the genealogies of Man,” makes no mention of either Cain or Abel! Not a word about Cain: it seems that some editor worked on the end of the 4th and 5th chapters, but did not finish the work and left sloppy traces. Cain is censored. Cut out. They were trying to hide something. What?

Let us re-read the beginning of the 5th chapter of the Book of Genesis: “/1/ This is the book of the genealogies of Man. On the day when God created man, in the likeness of God he created him, /2/ male and female he created them, and blessed them, and called them: Man, on the day when he created them. /3/ And the Man lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat in his own likeness. In his own image, he named him Sheth. /4/ And the days of Man after he begat Sheth were eight hundred years, and he begat sons and daughters. /5/ And the whole days of Man that he lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.”

In the years after the birth of Sheth (note!) both sons and daughters were born to Adam (Man). But before the birth of Sheth, there is no mention of daughters. There is in chapter four the story of the first murder, and then a listing of the descendants of Cain. And in the pedigree of Man, neither Cain nor his descendants were found.

A reconstruction of events may look like this: apparently, Cain and Abel, adult sons, at one time moved away from their parents, and one took up farming, and the other, cattle breeding. After the first murder, Cain returned to his parents, to the country of Nod, which is “opposite Eden,” because Adam and Eve fled there, expelled from Paradise. It is not clear how the first parents, Adam and Eve, reacted to the murder of Abel. The holy book is silent about their reaction. Yahweh's attitude towards Cain is known (condescending and even intercessory). And so, be that as it may, his parents have a murderous son. Here it should be noted that the ancient Jews usually had a polygamous family. In addition, Cain was the firstborn son, which gave him a certain sacred aura. There is only one female available, his mother Eva. But no one has yet established what is possible and what is not; the taboo on incest does not yet exist. Everything for the first time.

The guess comes naturally: Eve, his mother, became Cain’s “wife,” he “knew” her, and she “carried and gave birth...”, because there were no other women on earth.

What did Cain do wrong? Yes, in fact, he did not violate anything. There were no customs yet. He rather founded the custom of the polygamous family.

If we widen the slightly opened crack and press the door of conjecture, then it is possible to assume that Cain killed Abel out of jealousy for Eve’s favor. The fact that this was their mother did not matter to them, there was no morality yet. If we accept this version: Cain killed his brother out of jealousy for the favor of the only female on earth - Eve, then the murder becomes more plausible. The Christian (and Jewish) version that Cain killed Abel out of jealousy for the favor of Yahweh, the persecutor of his family who expelled his parents from paradise, seems implausible in comparison.

This was the first incest and the first rape. There may have been no morality, but Eve was Adam’s female. She got used to Adam, got used to making love with him, getting pregnant and giving birth to children from him. And then the son is a killer.

Her son pouncing on her both surprised and frightened her at first. But the pleasure inevitably came anyway.

The shameful (hidden) pleasure of every woman from a certain dose of violence, coercion, goes back (I think, I’m not mistaken) to this act of the first incest-rape. Since then, the man has been breaking into the woman with more or less brutal violence. And this matrix of behavior (he enjoys violence against her, she enjoys his violent actions) could not be inherited from love with Adam. Eve, in fact, was a part of Adam, was cloned from his rib, and therefore the element of violence was absent in their love.

The Jews later cleaned up the text of the Egyptian Moses. Perhaps the same people added (putting it first) a new chapter of the Book of Genesis in the early Middle Ages, and this is reliably known; the practice of not recording cases of terrible crimes (for example, cannibalism) in the chronicles and municipal acts was widespread. The same thing apparently happened with the Book of Genesis. Indeed, from the point of view of the later established Jewish religious and moral code, Cain did something extraordinary and terrible: he committed the first murder and the first rape, also known as incest. And Eve gave birth alternately to Adam and Cain. This scandal was hidden. The Jews confused their tracks.

It is possible that while still teenagers, both sons, seizing the moment (Adam was not present, but could have been present), through whims, persistently forced their mother to have intercourse. And having grown up, they completely quarreled because of her favor, which was wrested from her every time. And Cain killed Abel and founded a rape mechanism in the matrix.

The material was first published in the May 2010 issue of GQ.

Photo: giphy.com

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Cain: Seal of Mercy

If you carefully analyze everything that the Bible says about Cain, the key word in determining his place in history will be “first.” Cain is the first child of Adam and Eve. That is, the first person, not directly created by God, but born from dad and mom. In addition, he is the first builder - the creator of the first city on our planet. But, alas, it is not for this primacy that people have been remembering his name for several millennia. Cain became the culprit of the first death on Earth. He killed his brother.

The reason for this murder was a feeling that subsequently many times pushed people to commit crimes - envy. The Bible says that Cain was a farmer and his younger brother Abel was a sheep herder. When the time came, each of them brought the results of their labors as a gift to God: Cain - part of the harvest, and Abel - the best animals of his herd. But God did not accept Cain's sacrifice. According to legend, fire sent by the Lord descended on Abel’s sacrifice and it, engulfed in flames, rushed to the sky. But the fire, signifying that the sacrifice was pleasing to God, never descended on Cain’s gift. And Cain was very upset. Obsessed with envy, he lured his brother into a field and killed him. For which he was cursed, branded and expelled from the place where he then lived.

But why didn't God accept Cain's sacrifice? It is clear that it is impossible to kill your brother in any case. And yet, didn’t Cain have, so to speak, extenuating circumstances? After all, both worked, each brought to God what they had, and suddenly such a different attitude towards sacrifices! Maybe Cain just needed to give up his farming and take up cattle breeding, since God wanted sheep to be sacrificed to Him, and not wheat and corn? But it is obvious that God does not need any offerings from people at all. Everything that a person can bring to Him as a gift was created by Him. And to suggest that God needs lamb more than vegetables is, to say the least, frivolous. The meaning of sacrifice is completely different.

After all, when a child treats his parents to sweets from a New Year's gift, which they themselves bought for him, he can choose the most delicious candies and marshmallows for them, or maybe, looking away, slip them a couple of sticky caramels. And if he regretted the most delicious delicacy, saving it for himself, the parents have something to be upset about. But the reason for this grief will be anxiety and bitterness for your child, who is growing up greedy.

Can man be considered just a toy in the hands of God? Does God have favorites and ugly ducklings? How does a person differ from a doll, and God from Karabas Barabas? Each of us, like one of the readers of Thomas, sometimes has such questions. Psychologist and regular contributor to our magazine Alexander Tkachenko tried to answer them.

Cain. Lovis Corinth. 1917

So it is with a sacrifice to God - the person himself needs it in order to show his love for Him. By sacrificing the best, a person seems to say: “Look, Lord, how I have multiplied what You have given me! Without Your blessing, these fruits would never have become so beautiful, take a part of them for Yourself!” This is how a person responds to Divine love and care with his love and gratitude. So Abel brought the best sheep of his flock as a gift to God.

What did Cain do? Unfortunately, he acted in the same way as a greedy child at a New Year’s party, and made his sacrifice according to the principle: “It’s on you, God, that it’s not good for us.” Saint John Chrysostom wrote about it this way: “Cain, it is said, brought a sacrifice to the Lord from the fruits of the ground. Then, wanting to tell us about Abel, the Divine Scripture says that he also made a sacrifice from his shepherd occupation: offer both from your firstborn sheep and from their fat. Look how Scripture shows us his God-loving intention and that he brought not just from sheep, but the firstborn, that is, dear, chosen, further, that from these firstborn he brought the most precious thing: and from their fat, it is said, that is - from the most pleasant, the best. Scripture does not notice anything like this about Cain, but only says that he brought a sacrifice from the fruits of the ground, which, so to speak, came across, without any effort or analysis.”

And, probably, it is not so important what exactly Cain sacrificed to God. In any case, it is clear that this was not the best part of his harvest, which means there is no need to talk about love for God here.

But by rejecting his sacrifice, God did not reject him at all. The non-acceptance of Cain’s gifts was, so to speak, an educational measure designed to awaken in him doubts about his own righteousness: after all, if God did not accept your sacrifice, then you are doing something wrong. God did not accept the fruits of Cain, giving him a reason to think about the reasons for this refusal, wanting to help him understand himself and return lost love to his soul. However, in the relationship between man and God, not everything is determined by the actions and intentions of God. A person is free to reject the help offered to him, perceiving it as an insult, and remain alone with his offense. Unfortunately, this is the choice Cain made.

God did not abandon him with His love even after he decided to kill his brother. Seeing how the mere plan of fratricide has already changed the very appearance of Cain, God turns to him with the following words: ...why are you upset? and why did your face droop? If you do good, don't you raise your face? and if you do not do good, then sin lies at the door; he draws you to himself, but you have dominion over him (Gen. 4:6–7). Sin at the door is the way Cain thought, which the omniscient God foresaw as clearly as we hear the spoken words. Thought is the door leading to action. The thought of murder is the path to murder. God made it clear to Cain that the plan to kill his brother was known to Him. However, at the same time, God does not threaten punishment, but explains to him, as if to a small child, how a person should behave when he is overcome by bad thoughts: sin attracts you, but you rule over it. But Cain again rejects this advice and warning. Moreover, even after killing his brother, Cain still did not want to hear God’s call, now to repentance for what he had done. Where is Abel, your brother? These are very scary words. God asks him this way not because he doesn’t know where Abel is. “What have you done, Cain? Think about where your brother is now because of you, come to your senses!” - that’s what was said in this seemingly simple question. But Cain had already completely petrified his soul: I don’t know, am I my brother’s keeper? This is how perfect sin affects a person: the heart becomes impervious to the voice of conscience, the mind becomes clouded, and now - he is ready to lie to God himself.

And God condemned him to exile from his native places and wandering, marking him with a special sign, which later came to be called the seal of Cain. It is difficult to say what it was. The Bible only says that God himself gave this sign to Cain (which, by the way, is where the saying came from: “God marks the rogue”).

The mark of Cain is usually understood as a kind of mark, similar to those burned on the forehead of convicted criminals. However, the Bible tells a completely different story. The sign God gave to Cain was not a punishment at all, but evidence that, despite the crime he had committed, he was under the protection of the Lord.

Moreover, God applied this sign to him at the request of Cain himself. Having opened the account of human deaths, he was very afraid that in exile he himself might be killed. And the Lord [God] made a sign for Cain, so that no one who met him would kill him. So God immediately stopped a possible series of murders based on blood feud, which could have flared up among the first people. And the notorious seal of Cain is not a sign of anger, but of God’s mercy, with which He treats all people without exception. Even to people like the first killer on Earth - Cain.

Sons of Seth and sons of Cain

We continue our conversations on the Book of Genesis. And we read the 1st and 2nd verses of the 5th chapter:

“This is the genealogy of Adam: when God created man, in the likeness of God he created him, male and female he created them, and blessed them, and called their name man, on the day of their creation.”

(Gen.5:1-2).

As we see, only the descendants of Seth are called “the genealogy of Adam.” The descendants of Cain are a useless generation of people. Scripture speaks about them as if reluctantly and, where possible, is silent.

It’s hard for each of us to remember something sad, minor. Memories of positive and spiritually significant things are pleasant. And we hasten to forget and erase the negative and the negative from our lives. But, on the other hand, the negative experience of our life and the lives of other people may also have a certain cautionary moment for us. As the Russian people say, “they learn from the mistakes of others.” The sad example of Cain's generation should alert us and force us to draw the right conclusions.

The expression “and he called their name man on the day of their creation”

testifies to the involvement of all of us in Adam, our forefather.
For the very word “man” means “Adam”. The New Testament says on this matter: “Of one blood He made the whole race of mankind to dwell upon all the face of the earth, having appointed appointed times and bounds for their habitation”
(Acts 17:26).

On the other hand, the fact that here again we remember the creation of Adam “in the likeness of God”

, indicates the dramatic changes that occurred with his (Adam’s) personal offspring, because it further says:
“Adam lived one hundred and thirty [230] years and begat [a son] in his own likeness [and] in his image, and called his name: Seth "
(Gen.5:3).
We have already talked about this earlier: the children of Adam, unlike their father, created in the “image and likeness of God
,” are born in his (Adam’s) fallen
“likeness... image
.
The sin we inherit from our first parents is part of our very nature. But can this mean that in the fall of our first parents we completely lost at least our participation in God’s “image”
and
“likeness”
and inherited only Adam’s sin?
For those outside the Church, this is obviously true. Alien to Christ, they are alien to God’s “likeness”
and
“image”
.
For the Lord Jesus Christ is called the Second Adam, because He restored in humanity the likeness and image of the Lord that had fallen in the first Adam. The Apostle Paul speaks about this with all certainty: “The first man is from the earth, earthy;
the second person is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, so are the earthy; and as is the heavenly, so are the heavenly. And just as we have borne the image of earthly, we will also bear the image of heavenly things” (1 Cor. 15:47-49).
This shows the fundamental difference between the “heavenly”
- those who believe in Christ - and
the “earthly”
- who do not recognize the power of God over themselves.

We are really too different and too different from each other - believers and non-believers. And this difference concerns not only moral aspects. We all sin: both those who believed in the Creator and those who did not believe. But let us pay attention to how differently we approach the problem of sin.

For an unbeliever, sin is not a serious enough problem. The atheists are not even ashamed of their bad deeds. It is said: “...they openly talk about their sin, like the Sodomites, they do not hide it: woe to their soul! for they bring evil upon themselves.”

(Isaiah 3:9).

A believer, on the contrary, always, having sinned, experiences inner unrest and remorse. For him, sin can be compared to a shipwreck, a complete collapse of his aspirations and hopes. The Apostle Paul, speaking about the moral crisis of Hymenaeus and Alexander, notes: “having faith and a good conscience, which some rejected, they suffered shipwreck in faith.”

(1 Timothy 1:19).
In my life, this is how I always perceive sin – as a shipwreck. Having sinned, I cannot sleep peacefully, my appetite disappears, my blood pressure begins to rise, I feel complete apathy, a loss of joyful perception of life. Are things different in your life? And how we rejoice when, through the holy Sacraments of Repentance and Communion, we are again transformed from the state of “children of wrath”
into
“children of God
.
Can anything even be comparable to such rejoicing and triumph? How similar is this joy of a saved soul to the joy that is conveyed by the following words from Scripture: “Behold, winter has already passed;
the rain has passed, stopped; flowers appeared on the ground; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land” (Song 2:11-12).

But let's return to our story from the Book of Genesis. It further says: “The days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred [700] years, and he begat sons and daughters.”

(Gen.5:4). The three main sons of Adam were identified earlier - Cain, Abel and Seth. Their names and personalities show the processes that took place in the society of that time, the mood that prevailed in it. Cain is a carnal (grounded) man; Abel – spiritual (heavenly); and Seth is spiritual (namely human), standing as if between good and evil, still making his choice.

A carnal person is one who is ready to acquire something in this life even at the cost of the suffering of others. This is not to say that such people are the majority.

Soulful - strives for good both for himself and for others, this is the completeness of his comfort. The vast majority of people are like this.

A spiritual person is ready to suffer for the benefit of others. There are the fewest of these on earth.

But here it is necessary to clarify that the spiritual is not far from the carnal (earthly). It is said: “But if you have bitter envy and contentiousness in your heart, do not boast or lie about the truth. This is not wisdom descending from above, but earthly, spiritual, demonic..."

(James 3:14–16).
And subsequent marriages between the “sons of men”
(“Cainites”) and
the “sons of God”
(“Sithites”) are clear confirmation of this. Maintaining a balance between good and evil is almost impossible, because either evil or good always wins.

The soulish man is the “Laodicean” type of religiosity, a very dangerous oscillation between good and evil. In essence, such a person is a hypocrite.

A spiritual person is a devout person who believes in God (who has placed all his hope and trust in Him).

Soulful - a believer in God (in His existence).

Carnal - atheist (atheist).

It is the “spiritual” who is in greater illusion. He is "neither cold nor hot"

.
He thinks of himself that he has become rich and has no need for anything, but does not know that he is “miserable, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”
(Rev. 3:15-17).
His faith is almost no different from the demonic faith; he only believes in the existence of God, but does not trust the Creator entirely, that is, he does not trust God. Such people can visit the temple, pray and fast, but always pursue only their own goals. Their hypocrisy is obvious. It is about such that the Son of God taught: “Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord!”
Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Heavenly Father. Many will say to Me on that day: “Lord! God! Have we not prophesied in Your name? and was it not in Your name that they cast out demons? and didn’t they do many miracles in Your name?” And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; Depart from me, you workers of iniquity (Matthew 7:21–23).
It is about such people that it is said: “...oh, if only you were cold or hot!
But because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16). – Hot things warm others, cold things can and do reach for warmth. But a lukewarm Christian does not change—he simply smolders. His nominal (purely external) religiosity is worse than unbelief. Such people may seek both political interests and vile profit in religion, but such people never seek God, because they consider themselves religious people, “believers.”

A spiritual person is a saint, such as Abel, Seth, Lamech, Enoch and Noah. Holiness always manifests itself as a result of awareness of one's own sinfulness (as in the case of Abel); as a consequence of God's blessing, sometimes by birth (as in the case of Seth); sometimes as a reward for sincere repentance and contrition for one’s own sins - as in the case of the murderer Lamech. The one who lives with full awareness that above him there is a seeing eye, a hearing ear and a book in which all his deeds are recorded, as in the case of Enoch, also becomes a saint; and the one who seeks salvation from sin only in God and with God is like the drinking righteous Noah. So, holiness happens in spite of kinship, and upbringing, and environment, and passions, and even despite a well-deserved curse - as in the case of Lamech and Noah (the supposed wife of Noah).

In the case of Noah, however, there is evidence from Scripture that she may not have been Noah's wife. The Book of Tobit (“deuterocanonical”) says: “Beware, my son, of every form of debauchery. Take for yourself a wife from the tribe of your fathers, but do not take a foreign wife who is not from the tribe of your father, for we are the sons of the prophets. From ancient times our fathers were Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Remember, my son, that they all took wives from among their brothers and were blessed with their children, and their descendants will inherit the earth.”

(Tob.4:12).
But our task is to consider precisely the different interpretations, which sometimes, although they do not reflect the factual side of the matter, still indicate a certain set of beliefs. The legend that Noema was one of the saved ones expands for us the range of Divine mercy to the “Cainites.” On the other hand, the well-known Old Testament text: “Or if I sent a pestilence to that land and poured out My wrath on it in bloodshed, to destroy people and animals in it: then Noah, Daniel and Job are in the midst of it, I live, says the Lord God, “neither sons nor daughters would have been saved;
by their righteousness they would save only their own souls” (Ezek. 14:19–20), - can be understood as evidence that only Noah was the last pure “Sethite”, and his children were not saved from the influence of the blood of Cain’s generation (infiltrated into the post-flood world precisely through Noema).

An atheist (atheist) is insane, therefore, possessed. It is said: “The fool said in his heart: “There is no God.” They became corrupt and committed vile deeds; there is no one who does good"

(Ps. 13:1).
Vile deeds and complete lack of goodness are the main causes of unbelief. Some people mistakenly think that education, science as a means of understanding the world, or a philosophical mindset contributes to unbelief. But Leibniz also said: “From a superficial study of philosophies a person becomes an atheist, and from a deeper study a believer
.
The main reason why people do not want to recognize God’s power over them is their attachment to sin. Christ said : “This is the judgment, that light has come into the world;
but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil; For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed, because they are evil” (John 3:19-20).

And we read further:

“All the days of Adam’s life were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died"

(Gen.5:5).

This is how the Holy Scripture speaks about the first death that occurred naturally.

Every minute about a hundred people die around the globe. And no one can buy her off. She, death, overtakes both the richest and the poorest, the righteous and the unrighteous, the young and the old, believers and non-believers. A person is already born into this life in order to die, but dies in order to live forever.

The word “death” itself has several meanings in Scripture: “a state that occurs at the end of earthly life,” as well as “a certain person who, by the will of God, carries out this task” - the Angel of Death. Death may occur as a result of illness, and here it is necessary that the person makes the necessary arrangements before its occurrence. It is said: “In those days Hezekiah fell mortally ill, and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord: Make a will for your house, for you will die and not recover.”

(2 Kings 20:1). – From the text read, it is obvious that the onset of death cannot be hidden from a person.

In our lives, almost always everyone lies to the dying. Doctors say: “you’ll get better”, relatives: “you’re fine, you won’t die.” Vile liars, they do not understand how important it is for a person to prepare for death: to have time to reconcile with God, solve the problem of debts and take care of the heirs.

We read further about King Hezekiah: “And [Hezekiah] turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying: “Oh, Lord! Remember that I walked before You faithfully and with a heart devoted to You, and did what was right in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept greatly. Isaiah had not yet left the city when the word of the Lord came to him: Return and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of My people: Thus says the Lord God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you; on the third day you will go to the house of the Lord; And I will add fifteen years to your days, and I will save you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for Myself and for the sake of David My servant.”

(2 Kings 20:2-6). As we see, the knowledge of imminent death transforms Hezekiah, he makes tearful repentance before the Creator, and the Lord heals him. His life is extended for another 15 years, and he has the opportunity to solve all his pressing problems. On the third day after his mortal agony, he was already praying in the Temple.

Death does not only occur as a result of illness. The Bible teaches that a person can die from old age and from wounds. Scripture says that death can be bitter for the dying, and it is no coincidence that the expression “mortal melancholy” exists. But sometimes death can be a welcome release from oppression and disaster. It is said about the prophet Jonah: “When the sun rose, God brought in a hot east wind, and the sun began to scorch Jonah’s head, so that he was exhausted and asked for death, and said: it is better for me to die than to live.”

(Jonah 4.8).
It is said about the last times that the tribulation of those days will be so unbearable that people will seek death for themselves, but will not find it: “In those days people will seek death, but will not find it;
They will wish to die, but death will flee from them” (Rev. 9:6).

But with all this, it is known that God does not want death even for sinners. It is said: “Do I want the death of the wicked? says the Lord God. Is it not that he should turn from his ways and live?”

(Ezek.18:23).

Ultimately, death will be completely defeated. The Lord says through the prophet Hosea: “I will redeem them from the power of hell, I will deliver them from death. Death! where is your sting? hell! where is your victory? I will have no repentance for that."

(Hos. 13:14).
All of us, doomed to death, in this life will walk “before the face of God in the light of the living
,” in His eternal life:
“For You have delivered my soul from death, [my eyes from tears,] and my feet from stumbling, so that I walked before the face of God in the light of the living”
(Ps. 55:14).

Many people ask themselves questions: how will people be resurrected and what will they be like after their resurrection?

Answering the first question, I would like to recall the words of St. Justin the Philosopher, he wrote: “Since the atoms (from which he, man, is created) are indestructible, it is not impossible for them to come together and unite in the same order and position and then form the same body as was previously made from them, just like , as if a mosaic artist makes an image out of stones... when they later fall apart over time or by the will of the artist, then he, having the same pieces, can collect and arrange in a similar order and make the same image"

(St. Justin, Philosopher and Martyr. Creations. “Pilgrim”, 1995, p. 477). Today, a person can, having restored the genetic code, recreate dead bodies and even replicate them (this method is called “cloning”). Moreover, God, who created man, can also recreate (resurrect) him.

Even if the body is burned or rotted in water, particles are still preserved, on the basis of which the resurrection of every human body is possible. The Prophet Isaiah said the following about this: “Your dead will live, your dead bodies will arise! Rise up and rejoice, you cast down in the dust: for Your dew is the dew of plants, and the earth will cast out the dead.”

(Isa.26:19).
Here we must remember that a person is conceived from one drop, as St. John Chrysostom, "life-giving seed"
.
Yes, and less than a drop, just one small particle of it - and a person is conceived. The resurrection of people will be similar to the descent of life-giving dew from heaven: “I will be dew for Israel;
it will blossom like a lily and take root like Lebanon” (Hos. 14:6).

Isn’t that what we see in the spring, when under the powerful sounds of thunderstorms in early May, nature seems to wake up and come to life. Thunder (!) - and everything starts to move, the growth of greenery accelerates, insects wake up and everything is filled with their buzzing, the color of the sky changes, and the person himself feels the beginning of special changes in his very body. The New Testament also speaks about the life-giving sound from heaven: “for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first

(1 Thess. 4:16);
and again: I tell you a secret: we will not all die, but we will all change suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet;
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-53).
The prophet Isaiah said: “Death will be swallowed up forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and will take away the reproach of His people throughout all the earth;
for thus saith the Lord” (Isaiah 25:8).
The prophet Ezekiel contemplated in a vision: “... there was a noise, and then there was a movement, and bones began to come closer together, bone to bone.
And I saw: and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew, and skin covered them from above, but there was no spirit in them. Then He said to me, Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe on these slain, and they will live. And I prophesied as He commanded me, and the spirit entered into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet—a very, very great army” (Ezek. 37:7-10).

But what will people be like after they are resurrected from the dead?

They will all be “to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

(Eph.4:13).
That is, everyone will be young and perfect. This will be the beginning of eternal youth, about which the Book of Job says: “God will have mercy on him and say: free him from the grave;
I have found propitiation. Then his body will become fresher than in his youth; he will return to the days of his youth" (Job 33:24-25).

A person freed from the grave will have a unique knowledge of God, and through the merits of Christ his complete redemption from the power of sin will be accomplished. It is said: “He will pray to God, and He will be merciful to him; He looks with joy on his face and restores his righteousness to man. He

(i.e. a person)
will look at people and say: I sinned and perverted the truth, and it was not repaid to me;
He (the Lord)
freed my soul from the grave, and my life sees the light.
Behold, God does all this two or three times with a person in order to lead his soul away from the grave and enlighten him with the light of the living” (Job 33:26-30). How pleasant it will be to walk in the light of the living and rejoice in the abundance of God's blessings.

In that world, people will be healthy both physically and spiritually: “And not one of the inhabitants will say: “I am sick”; the people living there will have their sins forgiven."

(Isa.33:24).
“Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will sing” (Isa. 35:5-6).

The natural world around us will also change: “for waters will break out in the desert, and streams in the desert. And the ghost of waters will turn into a lake, and the thirsty earth into springs of waters; and the dwelling of the jackals, where they rest, will be a place for reeds and reeds."

(Isa.35:6-7).
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former ones will no longer be remembered, neither will they come to the heart”
(Isaiah 65:17).

The animal world will cease to be a source of aggression both towards man and towards himself: “Then the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the ox will be together, and a little child will lead them. And the cow will feed with the she-bear, and their cubs will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the child will play over the asp's hole, and the child will stretch out his hand into the snake's nest. They will not do evil or harm in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

(Isa. 11:6-9).

Where will this wonderful world be? In heaven or on earth? The Holy Fathers have asked themselves this question since ancient times. St. Hippolytus, Pope of Rome, taught that “there the righteous will be able to step over the sea itself, if only it flows. There the sky will no longer be inaccessible to people, and the path leading to it will not remain impassable. There the land will not be uncultivated and filled with labor for people, but will be adorned with fruits. No animals will be born there, and the number of people will not increase, but one will always remain.”

(Metropolitan Macarius (Oksiyuk), “Eschatology of St. Gregory of Nyssa.” Publishing house “Pilgrim”, 1999, p. 104).

Truly the Kingdom of God will be “on earth as it is in heaven”

(“as in heaven and on earth” – Matthew 6:10).
Changes will occur not only at the religious-ethical level, but also at the cosmic-physical level. According to the ideas of St. Theophilus of Antioch, the blessed future awaiting the righteous is not a repetitive monotony; on the contrary, there is great diversity (Metropolitan Macarius (Oksiyuk), “Eschatology of St. Gregory of Nyssa.” Pilgrim, 1999, p. 24). But, before we enter this wonderful world, we will have to taste the final “penance” - death... It is said:
(Rom. 6 ). :23).

Once in Paradise, the Lord God said to Adam: “But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day that you eat from it you will die.”

(Gen.2:17).
Adam was created in God's world, where “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”
(2 Peter 3:8).
Adam was seventy years short of his thousandth birthday. He definitely died on that “day of God”, about which it was said: “for on the day that you eat of it you will surely die
.
Truly, as it is said in the Book of Job: “Are Your days like the days of a man, or Your years like the days of a man”
(Job 10:5).

When the first man Adam died, then, as legend testifies, people, not knowing what to do with his body, laid him on a mountain. The bright sun peeled off the skin from the head, and the sight of the exposed skull prompted people to name this place “GOLGOTHA,” or “skull mountain.”

About the first of the generation of Seth it is said:

“Seth lived one hundred and five [205] years and begat Enosh. After the birth of Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven [707] years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died. Enosh lived ninety [190] years and begat Cainan. After the birth of Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen [715] years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died. Cainan lived seventy [170] years and begat Maleleel."

(Gen.5:6-12).

By carefully considering the meaning of their names, we can give them an appropriate description.

Name Enos ( Enosh

) means “hot-tempered person”;

The name Kainan means “to acquire”;

The name Maleleel means “to praise God.”

The general characteristics of this part of the generation of Seth are as follows: the pious principle (Sif) cannot stop the animal nature (Kainan) in future generations, but the light of faith did not go out, and the praise of God (Maleleil) continued.

And we read further: “After the birth of Maleleel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty [740] years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died. Malaleel lived sixty-five [165] years and begat Jared. After the birth of Jared, Mahleleel lived eight hundred and thirty [730] years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Maleleel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died. Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years and begat Enoch. After the birth of Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died. Enoch lived sixty-five [165] years and begat Methuselah."

(Gen.5:13-21).

The name Jared means “to descend, descend”;

Enoch means “pupil”.

Methuselah - in the Synodal translation this name is transcribed, like the name of the “Cainite” Methuselah, the son of Mechiael, the father of Lamech (Gen. 4:18). In fact, the name of the Cainite Methuselah is pronounced Methushael

- “asking for death”, and the name of the “Sithite” Methuselah, the son of Enoch, is like
Matushalah
- “sending away, driving away death.” It is possible that he (Methuselah) had the gift of healing terminally ill people. And without a doubt, with his piety, he really pushed his own death beyond the reach of other mortals.

The general characteristics of this part of the Sethite generation are as follows: spiritual degradation continued (Jared), but correct spiritual instructions (Enoch) still brought religiously significant results (Methuselah), which, despite the fluctuations of the Sethite generation between good and evil, were preserved with amazing consistency.

Then we read: “And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred [200] years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was no more, because God took him."

(Gen.5:22-24).
"And Enoch walked with God
.
What do these words mean? First of all, they mean that times were difficult and it was impossible to “walk” (live) without God. Enoch was the kind of person who placed his entire trust in the Creator. The prefix et
before the word
elohim
means the conjunction “with”.
Therefore, the literal translation of this expression will be as follows: “walked with God” et elohim
.
Something similar is said about Noah: “Noah walked with God”
(Gen. 6:9).
et
is also present here .
But the context of the verse “he was a righteous man and blameless in his generation”
suggests a slightly different meaning. Which we'll talk about later.

So, to walk with God means to “act justly, love mercy.”

(Mic. 6:8).
One could say about one who walks with God along with the prophet Malachi, who testified on behalf of the Lord God: “The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his tongue;
He walked with Me in peace and righteousness and turned many from sin” (Mal. 2:6).

The 365 years of Enoch’s life correspond to the number of days in a year and testify to the spiritual completeness (integrity) of his short Life by the standards of antediluvian humanity.

“And Enoch walked with God; and he was no more, because God took him."

.
Such evidence of the end of Enoch’s earthly life is striking in its mystery, just like his “walk before God.” The whole life of this man of God is one great mystery. The Apostle Jude, as we have already discussed above, knew the Book of Enoch and even quoted it in his Epistle. Enoch was a prophet of God and, like another, post-flood prophet Elijah, he was also taken alive to Heaven. The Book of Revelation says that these two representatives of ancient times (antediluvian and post-flood humanity) will again appear in this world during the days of the reign of the Antichrist: “And I will give to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. And if anyone wants to offend them, fire will come out of their mouth and devour their enemies; if anyone wants to offend them, he must be killed. They have power to shut the heavens, so that there is no rain on the earth in the days of their prophecy, and they have power over the waters” (Rev. 11:3-6).
The last words about power - “to shut up the heavens
and
the power over the waters”
- are evidence that they are Elijah (who shut up the sky with his prayer) and Enoch (who prophesied in his days about the Flood as a judgment
“on all...the wicked in all the works that their wickedness produced, and in all the cruel words that ungodly sinners spoke against Him”
(Jude 1:15).

Next we read:

“Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years and begat Lamech. After the birth of Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years and begat sons and daughters. All the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died"

(Gen.5:25-27).

Methuselah lived longer than anyone else on earth - 969 years. Compared to the earthly life of his father (365 years), his life seems more than enormous. But what is the secret of such longevity?

Crime and Punishment

If you carefully analyze everything that the Bible says about Cain, then the key word in determining his place in history will be “first.” Cain is the first child of Adam and Eve. That is, the first man, not directly created by God, but born of people. In addition, he is the first builder - the creator of the first city on our planet. But, alas, it is not for this primacy that people have been remembering his name for several millennia. Cain became the culprit of the first death on Earth. He killed his brother.

But why, in fact, did God not accept Cain’s sacrifice? It is clear that it is impossible to kill your brother in any case. And yet, didn’t Cain have, so to speak, extenuating circumstances? After all, both worked, each brought to God what they had, and suddenly such a different attitude towards sacrifices! Maybe Cain just needed to give up his farming and take up cattle breeding, since God wanted sheep to be sacrificed to Him, and not wheat and corn? But, if you look at it, it turns out that God doesn’t need sacrifice at all. Well, indeed, everything that a person can bring to Him as a gift was essentially created by Him. And to suggest that God needs lamb more than vegetables is, at the very least, frivolous. The meaning of sacrifice is completely different.

After all, when a child treats his parents to sweets from a New Year's gift, which they themselves bought for him, he can choose for them the most delicious sweets, or maybe a couple of sticky caramels. But if he regretted sharing what was better, parents have reason to be upset. Of course, the point is not that they won’t get sweets. It's just that a child exchanged love for a chocolate hare.

So it is with a sacrifice to God - the person himself needs it in order to show his love for Him. By sacrificing the best, a person seems to say: look, Lord, how I have multiplied what You have given me! This is how he responds to Divine love and care with his love and gratitude. So Abel brought the best sheep of his flock as a gift to God.

And Cain, it seems, performed his sacrifice according to the principle: “It is on you, O God, that it is not good for us.” In the canonical biblical text there is only an indirect indication of this, but the Tradition of the Church has preserved a more detailed story about his sacrifice. According to one version, it was unripe grain and unripe fruits that could not be eaten; according to another, it was empty corn cobs. In any case, there is no need to talk about love here.

Moreover, even after killing his brother, Cain was not horrified by what he had done. To the direct question: “Where is Abel, your brother?” - asked by God to give him the opportunity to repent, he cynically replied: “I don’t know, am I my brother’s keeper?” But only a person with a completely darkened mind and a perverted moral sense can try to deceive God.

And God condemned him to exile from his native places and wandering, marking him with a special sign, which later became known as the “seal of Cain.” It is difficult to say what it was. There are all sorts of assumptions. The Bible only says that God himself gave this sign to Cain. Hence the saying: “God marks the rogue.”

The “seal of Cain” began to be understood as a kind of mark, similar to those burned on the forehead of convicted criminals. But the Bible says something completely different.

The sign God gave to Cain was not a punishment at all, but evidence that, despite the crime he had committed, he was under the protection of the Lord. Moreover, God applied this sign to him at the request of Cain himself. Having opened the account of human deaths, he was very afraid that in exile he himself might be killed. “And the Lord made a sign for Cain, so that no one who met him would kill him.” So God immediately stopped a possible series of murders based on blood feud, which could have flared up among the first people. So the “seal of Cain” is not a sign of anger, but of God’s mercy, with which He treats all people without exception. Even to people like the first killer Cain...

The Bible does not specifically say who Cain's wife was. The only possible answer is that Cain's wife was his sister or niece. The Bible does not indicate Cain's age when he killed Abel (Genesis 4:8). And since they both cultivated the land, they were most likely already adult men and, possibly, had their own families.

Adam and Eve had other children besides Cain and Abel.

Genesis 5:4

The days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred years, and he begat sons and daughters.

The fact that Cain feared for his life after killing Abel indicates that there were other children, and perhaps even grandchildren, of Adam and Eve at this time.

Genesis 4:14

behold, You are now driving me from the face of the earth, and I will hide from Your presence, and I will be an exile and a wanderer on the earth; and whoever meets me will kill me.

Thus, Cain's wife was the daughter or granddaughter of Adam.

Genesis 4:17

And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. And he built a city; and he named the city after the name of his son: Enoch.

Since Adam and Eve were the first (and only) humans, their children had to marry each other. God prohibited intra-family marriages much later, when there were enough people to eliminate the need for such marriages.

Leviticus 18:6–18

No one should approach any relative according to the flesh in order to reveal nakedness. I am the Lord. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is the nakedness of your father. The nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter, or your mother's daughter, whether born in the house or outside the house, you shall not uncover their nakedness. The nakedness of your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter, do not reveal their nakedness, for they are your nakedness. The nakedness of the daughter of your father's wife, born of your father, she is your sister by father's side, do not uncover her nakedness. Do not reveal the nakedness of your father’s sister, she is your father’s half-blood. Do not reveal the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s half-blood. Do not reveal the nakedness of your father's brother, and do not approach his wife: she is your aunt. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness. Do not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife, it is your brother's nakedness. Do not reveal the nakedness of your wife and daughter; Do not take her son's daughter and her daughter's daughter to reveal their nakedness, they are her half-blood; this is lawlessness. Do not take a wife along with her sister, to make her a rival, to expose her nakedness in her presence, during her lifetime.

Incest of people with similar genetics often results in genetic abnormalities in their offspring. The likelihood of genetic abnormalities increases if the father and mother have the same genetic problems (for example, a brother and sister). For spouses from different families, the possibility of the same genetic defects is minimal. Over the centuries, the human genetic code has become extremely contaminated as genetic defects accumulate, mutate, and pass on from generation to generation. Since Adam and Eve had no genetic defects, this allowed them and the first generations of their descendants to enjoy much better health than we currently enjoy. The children of Adam and Eve, even if they had genetic defects, were very minor, that is, intra-family marriages were safe for them. It is difficult for us to imagine that Cain's wife was his sister, but at first, since God created one man and one woman, the second generation of people simply had no choice but to marry their brothers and sisters.