Raising Cain - Part 1

God Loves Dead Animals

A number of years ago, a close friend of mine had an unusual experience. At the time, she was also still a Jehovah's Witness. While she was going from door to door, giving out the Watchtower and Awake magazines, she encountered a man at one of the doors. Out the blue, the man asked her, "Do you know where Cain got his wife?" Before she could muster a reply, he answered his own question, "He married an ape. That's where we get the ape man."

This is a perfect example of how a very small amount of information can be worse than none at all. However, it does bring up a more serious issue. The Bible story of Cain and Abel is fraught with difficulties. This is a three part story on Cain and Abel, therefore let's run through a quick refresher of the story, and then examine some of the problems.

The Story of Cain and Abel

At the time of this story, the Bible tells us that Adam and Eve had two children, Cain and
Abel. Abel was a shepherd, and Cain was a farmer.

One day, they went to offer sacrifices. Cain brought his best produce, while Abel killed a sheep, and offered the fat pieces. God was pleased with Abel, but not with Cain. So, Cain became jealous, and killed his brother.

God then went looking for Abel, and couldn’t find him. So he asked Cain. After accusing him of murdering Abel, he sentenced him to banishment. He would be cursed and must move to the “Land of Nod”, where he would be a fugitive and a wanderer.

Cain feared for his life. He was afraid that if anyone found him, they would kill him. So, God put a “mark”, or as some translations put it, a “sign”, on Cain, which indicated that if anyone killed him, he would be avenged seven times.

Cain then accepted his banishment. He went to live in Nod, where he married and had a son. He then built a city, which he named Enoch, after his son.

This story is very short. In only twenty three sentences, it raises several thought provoking classical literary themes. In this chapter, I will deal with none of them. Instead, I will focus on the problems encountered by those who are foolish enough to believe that this story literally happened, just as the Bible records it.

Abel the Shepherd

The first problem that we encounter may be unique to some of the more silly brands of fundamentalism. Having come from one of these, I must deal with it.

Jehovah's Witnesses and some others, believe that humans did not eat meat until after the flood. Therefore, for approximately 1,600 years from creation to the flood, humans were vegetarians. They did not begin eating meat until this privilege was granted to humans in Genesis 9:3. In fact, Jehovah's Witnesses go one step further. They believe that even animals were vegetarians until after the flood. They believe that grass is the natural, god-intended food for lions and cheetahs. Fossils of carnivorous dinosaurs are rather troublesome to them, so they ignore them. Also, if God created the cheetah with such phenomenal speed, did there used to be a plant that could run? If you're a Jehovah's Witness, the answer to that question is yes.

This creates an interesting problem in the Cain and Abel story. As you recall, Abel was a shepherd. Now, don't forget that there are only four people on the planet. Acquisition of food must have been their top priority.

The question arises, if they didn't eat meat, what was Abel doing with all those sheep? Either he was a huge slacker (imagine 25% of the planetary labour force piddling around with their pets when they should be working), or he had some other purpose for them. Don't forget that there were no women, other than their mother. I will say no more.

Cain the Farmer

Again, remember that there were only four people on the earth (fair enough, it's possible that
maybe there were some other, unmentioned children at this time, but certainly not more than a handful, which doesn't materially change our story).

Now, we know that civilisation goes through various phases of development. It begins with hunter/gatherer, then progresses to nomadic, agricultural, and finally, urban. Cain seems to have progressed straight to agricultural, which is more than a little strange. The Hebrew nation at the time of Abraham, 2,500 years later, was still in the nomadic phase. They must have moved backwards.

To top it off, at the end of the story, Cain built a city. Civilization appears to have developed at lightening speed.

Part 2 will go live next Thursday, 9th September 2010.