It's a real pain for Mister Cain.

But not the end; perhaps the beginning ...

I like the hunky men; very physical!

Cain committed the first murder so he had to be punished.

You are placed under a curse and can no longer farm the soil: You will be a homeless wanderer on the earth. So Cain went away from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod.

Isn't that a kiddes' phrase for sleeping - 'he's in the land of Nod.'?

'Nod' is an ancient Hebrew word for "Wandering." Cain and his people became nomads.

But the bible suggests that God has a way of making good come from bad; and we are told that Cain "built a city and named it after his son Enoch." And it is very likely that he "Wandered" and "built his city" in Mesopotamia; the name means "between the rivers" - near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; just "up the road from" the Garden of Eden.

But one man couldn't build a city, singe handed.

Agreed. But don't think of a city as a huge place; perhaps a better translation might be "and Cain settled in one place." It's unlikely that it will ever be proved, definitely, but it all fits!

A map of Mesopotamia. Each black dot is the site of a really ancient excavation. The picture shows some typical ruins from, possibly, 2000 years BC buy many settlements are much, much older.

So you reckon that this is some sort of ancient family history?

Probably not as accurate as a true family tree, but giving the basic essentials so future generations could understand what happened and how "civilisation" began to develop from primitive times.

But I've got a question you can't answer!

Try me?

Cain had a son, Enoch, right?

Ye-e-e-s?

So where did Mrs Cain come from. Surely not Adam and Eve? Marrying your own sister is ...

Incest. And very definitely wrong in the Bible.

In some societies, such as those of Ancient Egypt and others, brother–sister, father–daughter, and mother–son, cousin-cousin, uncle-niece, aunt-nephew, and other permutations of relations were practiced among royalty as a means of perpetuating the royal lineage. In addition, the Balinese and some Inuit tribes have altogether different beliefs about what constitutes illegal and immoral incest. However, parent-child and sibling-sibling unions are almost universally forbidden. Children born of close incestous unions have greatly increased risk of congenital disorders, death and disability at least in part due to genetic diseases caused by the inbreeding.

I'll have a go at answering on Sunday : be patient!

 Next Bible Blog : Sunday 18th November 

Bloggus Interruptus

Bible Blogs are suspended for a few days

too much going on!

Back Thursday 15th November

For I am certain that nothing can separate us from God's love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below, there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Abel was Able to Worship God

Cain Was Less Interested?

Of course no-one agrees whether there really WAS a first man called Adam and a first woman called Eve; but many ancient civilisations have similar stories, so there is some ancient truth in the back of people's minds. The important thing about the story of the Garden on Eden is that it begins to explain why things go wrong - why there is bad in the world.

Then Adam had intercourse with his wife, and she became pregnant.

The Bible's hot on sex then?

She bore a son and said, “By the Lord's help I have gotten a son.” So she named him Cain. Later she gave birth to another son, Abel. Abel became a shepherd, but Cain was a farmer.

And the next little story shows the troubles in the Garden beginning to get worse.

A picture of a man. Is he setting fire to an animal? And the second man has some corn. And the coloured picture with weird writing shows the men with animal and corn again? What's going on?

The men are offering sacrifices to God.

That is even more gross than God digging Eve out of Adam's belly!

You may not like it but it was how they did things in ancient times. The offer of a sacrifice was to say thank you to God; for a good flock of new lambs or a plentiful Harvest.

Like putting 10p in the collection at church?

Moe like that than you might think!

Cain brought SOME of his harvest and gave it as an offering to the Lord.

Then Abel brought the FIRST lamb born to one of his sheep; and gave the BEST parts of it as his offering.

Spot the difference?

Cain's offering, SOME of the corn, was all a bit casual, "Am I bovvered?", But Abel's, the lamb, was the FIRST and the BEST.

So, the Bible says, God rejected Cain's offering but accepted Abel's. So Cain became...

Jealous, OR, full of envy

Then Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out into the fields." Cain turned on his brother Abel and killed him.

All because he was jealous of a dead lamb?

There was more to it than that. Lets go back a bit.

The Lord said, "Why are you angry? Why that scowl on your face?" If you had done the RIGHT thing you would be smiling! SIN is crouching at your door and you must overcome it."

But he didn't. He committed the first MURDER in history!

You'll be having a go at me again, next.

The murder was bad enough but, in many ways, the punishment was worse.

 Next Bible Blog - Sunday 11th November 

Would You Adam and Eve It? [3]

O.K. Let's finish the story

The snake was the most cunning creature God had made. The snake tempted the woman to eat from the forbidden tree. "If you do eat," said the snake, "you will not die but will become like God."

The snake was right; they didn't die, did they?

In a life and death way, no, they didn't. But think what the temptation means. Adam and Eve were tempted to disobey God when there was no need. There was plenty for them to eat. Mostly when people today disobey or do wrong, they know what "wrong" is - and they don't need to do it anyway.

NO COMMENT!

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Eve took some of the fruit, ate it and gave some to her husband who also ate it.

So they're in big trouble now.

Because they have disobeyed; because they have experienced what "wrong" is. Suddenly the perfect life has become spoiled. Perfection is DEAD. So, although they haven't physically died, their perfect life in the garden has gone for ever. All sorts of sad and bad things start to happen; and have been happening ever since.

What sort of bad things?

---------------------------------------- 

As soon as they had eaten the fruit, they felt guilty and naked; and sewed fig leaves together and covered themselves. That evening they heard God walking in the garden and they hid from him.

So they realised they'd messed it up?

Exactly. From total contentment in the Garden, their actions have let in...
SHAME

'cos they realise they are naked,
GUILT

'cos the know they've done wrong,

FEAR

of what God might do;
And it gets worse...

----------------------------------------

"Who told you thay you were naked?" asked God, "did you eat the fruit I told you NOT to eat?" The man answered, "The woman made me do it!" and the woman said, "The snake tricked me."

So they started

LYING 

and

BLAMING

each other

Sounds familiar? "It wasn't me, it was everybody else!" Where have I heard that before?

NO COMMENT! - again!

----------------------------------------

And God said "I will make the snake and the woman hate each other - and Woman will suffer paid in childbirth - and Man will have to work hard to make the soil produce crops - and This hardship will continue until you return to dust."

So the perfect life becomes the tough life. And I really hate snakes!

And to complete the punishment they are evicted from the Garden of Eden to cope as best they can with the real, dangerous and difficult world.

----------------------------------------

Makes you think; doesn't it

The story of the "fall" may be literally true or just a parable of the decline of the human condition, brought about by disobeying God, by abusing the richness of what he was providing for his people. In a very real way, all the bad things that humans do can be explained in these terms. Our failings are derived from "Adam and Eve's" failings.

You're making ME feel guilty now!

So maybe the Adam and Eve story does make more sense than you realise?

So where do they go from here?

 Next Bible Blog : Thursday 8th November 

Would You Adam and Eve it? [2]

"Adam and Eve It" : Believe it? (Cockney rhyming slang)

O.K. so you're saying that Adam and Eve were real people; not just a story?

I'm not taking sides at this stage. We do know that every single person alive today was descended from one woman so she can easily be called Eve. Presumably she had sexual relaions with some man whom we can all Adam. On the other hand many Christians are happy that Adam and Eve are an illustration of "man" and "woman" and their "fall" from the beauty and perfect that God intended.

I suppose, yet again, we'd better see what the Bible actually says. 

Yes we had; and I've used little snippets from that Lucas Cranach painting we looked at a few days ago, remember?

It's still weird.

Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and formed a man[c] out of it; he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live.

 From the soil? I came from mum's belly!

True. But the bits of you grew from the egg and sperm and those bits only exist because mum and dad ate food which does come from the soil. And when you die you go back to being soil - "dust to dust, ashes to ashes" (Words said in a typical funeral service!). So, in the "picture language" of the Bible ee are all made from soil!

----------------------------------

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the East, and there he put the man he had formed. He made all kinds of beautiful trees grow there and produce good fruit.

 So you would have everything you wanted

Precisely! God gave his special "creature" perfection. Remember the bit about the goldfish being given food and a nice clean bowl by creatures "outside" its universe? But, there was one small but important restriction!
----------------------------------

Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it. He told him, “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.”


Oooh! Spooky!

God gave his "creature" the freedom to choose and think for himself; but, warned him never to play with things that are bad. Keep clear of evil!

But they didn't die, did they? And where's his woman, wife, Eve, partner?"

----------------------------------

Then the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the flesh. He formed a woman out of the rib and brought her to him.

Is that what I think it is; God dragging a woman out of the side of a man? That is just gross!

It is only "picture language". Early people thought that a man had one less rib than a woman. So they tried to explain the difference - and give us a rather "silly" picture. But the idea behind the story is that woman is made exactly the same as man. An exact copy; but with certain differences in detail! Woman is just as special as man.

----------------------------------

So the scene is set for the big disaster ...

 Next Bible Blog : Tuesday 6th November 

Halloween Hangover

Was it such a good idea?

Yes, sorry. I was out late last night at a Halloween Party.

 Was it such a good idea?

We didn't drink - much. But we went trick-and-treating. And my costume was really cool.

Do you really think that taking the devil, evil and all that as a joke is a good idea?

It's not like that; it's a bit of fun. What's wrong with Halloween?

It was once linked to the Celtic festival of "Samhain", which comes from the Old Irish for "summer's end". Samhain was seen as a time when the 'door' to the Otherworld opened enough for the souls of the dead, and other beings such as fairies, to come into our world. The souls of the dead were said to revisit their homes on Samhain. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place set at the table for them. Lewis Spence described it as a "feast of the dead". Christianity adapted the idea and used the "eve" as a picture of getting rid of evil spirits before All Hallows Day on 1st November.

Thanks for the lecture. What's a Hallow when it's at home?

"Hallow" is a variant of "Holy"; so "Hallowed be Thy Name" in the Lord's Prayer is reminding us the God's name is Holy. On November 1st, some Christians chose to remember those people in the past who had done something special to encourange and strengthen the faith of other Christians.

So it's not bad, then?

It depends on how seriously you take the idea of "evil". Adam and Eve disobeyed God and caused all sorts of bother. Christians call that disobedience "Sin". Some people believe in a personal Devil; others think more of a general "force for evil".

Isn't that a bit silly?

In the Bible, the devil isn't red, doesn't usually have horns and doesn't have a funny forked tail. Usually the devil is pictured as a very plausible "being" who, with great subtlety, leads people astray; leads people into doing bad things.

Like the snake in the Garden of Eden?

Absolutely.

So you are saying that Halloween is bad because it's, like, playing at Devils?

"Playing" with anything that is intrinsically evil can't ever be a good idea. That's one very good reason why we have the story of Adam and Eve and the apple ...

The fruit!

... whoops, my mistake, the fruit! These are the snake's words in the Bible story,

Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the Lord God had made. The snake asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”

“We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,” the woman answered, “except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it.”

The snake replied, “That's not true; you will not die. God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad.”

I suppose I didn't know all that. I still think it's harmless fun.

Maybe you'll change your mind when we look more closely at the Bible Story. 

a contradiction in terms?

 Next Bible Blog : Sunday 4th November 

Would You Adam and Eve it? [1]

O.K. Eden might be real; but no-one was there to check on Adam and Eve!

Quite right; but no-one was there to see the creation; but the Bible seems pretty close. But does it really matter? The Important thing is what the story actually means. It explains how things started going wrong; not perfect for ever.

And did they have apples, then?

The Bible doesn't say it's an apple; never has done. It says "fruit".

Whoops, wrong yet again!

Over the years, lots of people have tried to illustrate the story of "The Fall", as it is called.

Look at that weird picture!

"The Garden of Eden" - painted by Lucas Cranach; born 1472, died 1553.

Lucas Cranach the Elder (Lucas Cranach der Ältere, 4 October 1472 – 16 October 1553), was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is known for his portraits, both of German princes and those of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, whose cause he embraced with enthusiasm, becoming a close friend of Martin Luther. He also painted religious subjects, first in the Catholic tradition, and later trying to find new ways of conveying Lutheran religious concerns in art.

He didn't paint the numbers in circles; that's to help people understand!

This fine old gent tried to imagine the story of Adam and Eve. He painted a sort of medieval cartoon strip; with bits of the story scattered around. We can match the numbers with main events of the story.

EPISODE 1 : God makes a man.

EPISODE 2 : God makes a woman "out of man" to be his partner.

EPISODE 3 : God tells them not to eat from the tree that brings knowledge of good and evil

EPISODE 4 : The woman is tempted, eats and gives some to the man.

EPISODE 5 : They are ashamed and hide from God.

EPISODE 6 : God punishes them and sends them out of the garden.

The picture seems crazy to you and me; see God as the wise old man again. But it was Mr Cranach's best attempt to explain the story in one hit.

So now for the sermon, I suppose. What does it all mean?

We will understand that by thinking about the actual words in the Bible story. And be ready to think again.

You keep making this really hard work.

 Next Bible Blog : Thursday 1st November