Genesis iv: 1-12, 19, 21.
1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and
said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the
fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the
fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was
very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6 And the lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy
countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted: and if thou doest
not well, sin lieth at the door: and unto thee shall be his desire, and
thou shalt rule over him.
8 And Cain talked with Abet his brother: and it came to pass, when
they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and
slew him.
9. And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said
"Am I my brother's keeper?"
10. And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brothers blood
crieth unto me from the ground.
11. And now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth
to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto
thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
19. And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was
Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, ye
wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech.
One would naturally suppose that Cain's offering of fruit indicated a
more refined and spiritual idea of the fitness of things than Abel's of
animal food. Why Cain's offering was rejected as unworthy does not
appear.
There is something pathetic in Eve's joy and faith at the advent of
her first-born: "Lo I have a man child from the Lord." She evidently
thought that Cain was to be to her a great blessing. Some expositors
say that Eve thought that Cain was the promised seed that was to bruise
the serpent's head; but Adam Clarke, in estimating woman's reasoning
powers, says, "it was too metaphysical an idea for that period." But as
that is just what the Lord said to Eve, she must have had the capacity
to understand it. But all speculations as to what Eve thought in that
eventful hour are vain. Clarke asserts that Cain and Abel were twins.
Eve must have been too much occupied with her vacillating joys and
sorrows to have indulged in any connected train of thought. Her grief
in the fratricidal tragedy that followed can be more easily
understood. The dreary environments of the mother, and the hopeless
prophesies of her future struggling life, banished to a dreary,
desolate region, beyond the love and care of her Creator, is revenged
on her children. If Adam and Eve merited the severe punishment
inflicted on them, they should have had some advice from the Heavenly
Mother and Father as to the sin of propagating such an unworthy stock.
No good avails in increasing and multiplying evil propensities and
deformities that produce only crime and misery from generation to
generation. During the ante-natal period the mother should be held
sacred, and surrounded with all the sweetest influences that Heaven and
earth can give, loving companionship, beautiful scenery, music and
flowers, and all the pleasures that art in its highest form can produce.
As the women at this period seem to be myths, no one takes the trouble
to tell from whence they came. It is sufficient that their husbands
know, and it is not necessary that the casual reader should. The
question is often asked, whom did Cain marry? Some expositors say that
Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters living in different parts of
the planet, and that they married each other.
There seems to have been no scarcity of women, for Lamech, Cain's
great grandson, took unto himself two wives. Thus early in the history
of the race polygamic relations were recognized. The phraseology
announcing the marriage of Lamech is very significant.
In the case of Adam and Eve the ceremony was more imposing and
dignified. It was declared an equal relation. But with the announcement
of Lamech's, he simply took two wives, Adah and Zillah. Whether the
women were willingly captured will ever remain an open question. The
manner in which he is accustomed to issue his orders does not indicate
a tender relation between the parties.
"Hear my voice: ye wives of Lamech, and hearken unto my speech!"
As the wives made no reply, it shows that they had already learned
that discreet silence is the only security for domestic happiness.
Naamah the sister of Tubal Cain was supposed to be the wife of Noah.
Her name in Hebrew signifies the beautiful or the gracious. Jewish
doctors say her name is recorded here because she was an upright,
chaste woman, but others affirm the contrary because "the whole world
wandered after her." But the fact that Naamah's beauty attracted the
multitude, does not prove that she either courted or accepted their
attentions.
The manner in which the writer of these chapters presents the women so
in conflict with Chapters i and v, which immediately precede and
follow, inclines the unprejudiced mind to relegate the ii, iii and iv
chapters to the realm of fancy as no part of the real history of
creation's dawn.
The curse pronounced on Cain is similar to that inflicted on Adam,
both were to till the ground, which was to bring forth weeds
abundantly. Hale's statistics of weeds show their rapid and widespread
power of propagation. "A progeny," he says, "more than sufficient in a
few years to stock every planet of the solar system." In the face of
such discouraging facts, Hale coolly remarks. "Such provisions has the
just God made to fulfil the curse which he promised on man."
It seems far more rational to believe that the curses on both woman
and man were but figments of the human brain, and that by the
observance of natural laws, both labor and maternity may prove great
blessings.
With all the modern appliances of steam and electricity, and the new
inventions in machinery, the cultivation of the soil is fast coming to
be a recreation and amusement. The farmer now sits at ease on his
plough, while his steed turns up the furrows at his will. With
machinery the sons of Adam now sow and reap their harvests, keep the
wheels of their great manufactories in motion, and with daily
increasing speed carry on the commerce of the world. The time is at
hand when the heavy burdens of the laborer will all be shifted on the
shoulders of these
tireless machines. And when the woman, too, learns and obeys the laws
of life, these supposed curses will be but idle dreams of the past. The
curse falls lightly even now on women who live in natural conditions,
and with anaesthetics is essentially mitigated in all cases.
When these remedial agents were first discovered, some women refused
to avail themselves of their blessings, and some orthodox physicians
refused to administer them, lest they should interfere with the wise
provisions of Providence in making maternity a curse.
E. C. S.
MYTHS OF CREATION.
Nothing would be more interesting in connection with the "Woman's
Bible" than a comparative study of the accounts of the creation held by
people of different races and faiths. Our Norse ancestors, whose myths
were of a very exalted nature, recorded in their Bible, the Edda, that
one day the sons of Bor (a frost giant), Odin, Hoener, and Loder, found
two trees on the sea beach, and from them created the first human pair,
man and woman. Odin gave them life and spirit, Hoener endowed them with
reason and motion, and Loder gave them the senses and physical
characteristics. The man they called Ask, and the woman Embla. Prof.
Anderson finds in the brothers the threefold Trinity of the Bible. It
is easy to fancy that there is some philological connection between the
names of the first pair in the Bible and in the Edda. Perhaps the
formation of the first pair out of trees had a deep connection with the
tree of life, Ygdrasil, which extended, according to Norse mythology
throughout the universe, furnishing bodies for mankind from its
branches. It had three great roots, one extending to the nebulous
world, and this was constantly gnawed by the serpent Nidhug. There was
nothing in the Norse mythology that taught the degradation of woman,
and the lay of Sigdrifa, in the Edda, is one of the noblest conceptions
of the character of woman in all literature.
North American Indian mythology has the human race born of the earth,
but the writer cannot learn that women held an inferior place. Among
the Quiches the mothers and fathers of old slept in the waters, covered
with green, under a limpid twilight, from which the earth and they were
called out by a mighty wind. The Algonkins believed the human family
were the children of Michabo, the spirit of the dawn, and their supreme
deity. In their language the words earth, mother and father were from
the same root. Many tribes claim descent from a raven, symbolizing the
clouds; others from a dog, which is the symbol of the water goddess.
Dr. and Madame Le Plongeon relate that in their discoveries among the
buried remains of the Mayas in Yucatan, everything marks a very high
state of civilization. In one of the exhumed temples they found
pictures on the walls, which seem to be a combination of the stories of
the Garden of Eden and Cain and Abel. The Serpent was always the royal
emblem, because the shape of Yucatan is that of a serpent ready to
spring. It was the custom among the Mayas for the oldest son of the
king to be a priest, and the second son to marry the oldest daughter.
The pictures represent that the oldest son in this particular case was
dissatisfied with this arrangement, and wanted to marry the sister
himself. To tempt her he sends a basket of apples by a messenger. He
stands watching the way in which the present is received, and the
serpent in the picture (indicating the royal family), makes it
curiously suggestive of the temptation of Eve. The sister, however,
rejects the present, and this so enrages the elder brother that he
kills the younger, who accordingly is deified by the Mayas. The image
of Chacmohl was discovered by the Le Plongeons, and is now in the
possession of the Mexican Government. Perhaps these brothers were
twins, as the commentator says Cain and Abel were, and that gave rise
to the jealousy.
Nothing can surpass in grandeur the account in the first chapter of
Genesis of the creation of the race, and it satisfies the highest
aspirations and the deepest longings of the human soul. No matter of
what material formed, or through how many ages the
formative period ran, or is to run, the image of God is the birthright
of man, male and female. Whatever the second chapter may mean, it
cannot set aside the first. It probably has a deep spiritual
significance which mankind will appreciate when cavilling about the
letter ceases. To the writer's mind its meaning is best expressed in
the words of Goethe:--- "The eternal womanly leads us on."
C. B. C.