First part.
Of the work of procreation and of the state of marriage. Item, from Cain and Abel, concerning their birth and education.
We have now almost completed the greatest work and are through the most difficult text, in which the teachers have all been very angry with each other and we ourselves to some extent. Although it has not been so difficult for us, we have left the secret interpretations or allegories and have remained with the history and the actual literal sense. But because the majority of the commentators did not respect the same literal understanding, and held Origen, Dionysius and others in higher esteem than Moses himself, they were wrong and erred by far. What now follows does not have so much dispute and is easier; it also helps to confirm our opinion that everyone can see from it that Moses did not want to act and pretend allegories, but to describe the history of the first world in a simple way.
V. 1. And Adam knew his wife Heva, and she conceived, and bare Cain.
(2) After Adam fell into death through sin, he received a promise, as we have heard above, that out of his flesh, which was now subject to death, a new plant of life would be born to him. Therefore he easily understood that he had to beget children, especially because this blessing, "Grow and multiply," was not annulled, but confirmed with this promise of the seed that was to crush the serpent's head. Therefore, he did not create his Eve out of the lust and stimulation of the flesh, as we consider it to be.
But he was urged to do so by necessity, because they could not come to salvation in any other way than through the given seed.
(3) Therefore this saying, that Adam knew his wife, shall offend no man. For although this divine work of begetting children is considered dishonest for the sake of original sin, and pious, chastened ears are also annoyed by it when they hear about it, yet spiritual people should know how to distinguish between original sin and the creature. The work of begetting children is a creature of God, good and holy, for it comes from God who blessed it; and if man had not fallen, it would have been the very purest and holiest work. For as no man is afraid to speak, eat, and drink with his wife, for all these things are honest: so also the begetting of children would have been a very honest work.
4 And although this work remained in nature, even after it was corrupted, the devil's poison came into it, namely, the tickling of the flesh and shameful fornication, from which many an evil and many sins arise, all of which would not have been in perfect nature. But now we experience inordinate lust and covetousness of the flesh, so that even the marriage state cannot sufficiently defend many; otherwise there would be no adultery, no fornication, which unfortunately is all too common. This weakness of the flesh also occurs among the spouses themselves. All these are not works of creation, nor of blessing, which is of God, but of sin and corruption, which is of sin. Therefore they are to be separated from the creature of God, which is good, and of which the Holy Spirit was not afraid to speak.
Now it is not only no disgrace that Moses speaks here of the creation and blessing of God, but it has also been necessary to teach and write thus for the sake of the heretics.
for the sake of the Nicolaitans, Tatians etc., but especially for the sake of the papacy. For we see that the papists do not turn to that which is written above: "God created them male and female"; for they live thus, and thus they betroth and commit themselves, that they consider themselves neither male nor female. So they also do not turn back to the fact that above it is written: God the Lord brought Eve to Adam, and he said: "This is bone of my legs" etc. They also do not turn back to the promise and blessing that God said, "Grow and multiply." Nor do they turn back to the toe commandments, "You shall honor your father and mother." Nor do they consider from whence they came, namely, that they were born of the union of a man and a woman etc. They ignore, despise and reject all this, and force their priests, monks and nuns to vow eternal chastity, as if the life of the husband and wife, of which Moses speaks here, were condemned and rejected.
The Holy Spirit, however, has a purer mouth and purer eyes than the pope, therefore he is not afraid to remember the union and conjugal cohabitation of man and woman, which those saints condemn as shameful and impure. And the Holy Spirit does not do this in one place, but the whole of Scripture is full of such stories; so that even some have kept the young monks and nuns from the Bible for this reason, and have forbidden them to read it.
(7) And what shall I say? the devil has so fiercely and violently opposed this creature of God and the holy matrimony that the papists have forced people to conspire against marriage, have also established orders in which one should lead an unmarried life, and have condemned the married life altogether; therefore such ungodly beings have also had their punishment. For the examples are before the eyes, what fruits have followed from the impure celibate perennial; as one also finds in their own books such examples of abominable sin and fornication.
8 For St. Udalricus, a bishop of Augsburg, writes that after Pope Gregory had confirmed the priests' celibacy
He also commanded those who had married before the decree of celibacy to put away their wives, and he had them fish in a pond that he had in Rome, and more than six thousand children's heads were found in it; at which sight Gregory, as Udalricus writes, was very frightened and as soon as the ungodly decree of priestly celibacy was repealed again. However, Gregory's successors easily suppressed both this shameful thing and the godly abolition of the decree of celibacy, because they noticed that illegitimate life could not only gain money and property, but also serve for honor and power.
9 Such an example has also occurred in our time. For after the nuns in a small town in eastern Austria, called Kloster-Neuburg, had to vacate the monastery for the sake of their shameful lives, and the same was given to barefoot monks, who had to change several buildings for the sake of convenience, twelve large pots were found in the new cellars, in each of which a dead child had been placed. Such things have happened countless times, and therefore Pope Gregory, as reported by Bishop Ulrich, changed Paul's saying and said: Paul says, it is better to free than to burn; but I add: it is better to be married than to give cause for death.
In Rome, for the sake of the many children who were found, monasteries had to be erected, and the father of these children was called the pope, and they also first went before him in public processions; that I should be appalled by other innumerable things that my heart was afraid to say, let alone by them.
(11) Therefore, beware of these doctrines of the devil, and learn to honor the marriage state, even speaking honestly of it, because we see that God instituted it and is praised in the Ten Commandments, where it says, "You shall honor your father and mother." So also the blessing is included, "Grow and multiply"; and we hear here that the Holy Spirit, whose mouth is chaste and pure, is not ashamed to speak of it. The infirmities
but and the shame that has come to God's business through sin, we are not to make a mockery of it, but rather to cover it; as we see that God covers the naked Adam and Eve with clothes after the fall. For the marriage state is to be spoken of and held honestly, since we all come from it; and it is a nursery not only of the police, but also of the church and of the kingdom of Christ until the end of the world.
(12) But such honor of the marriage state is not understood by the pagans and other godless people, who only gather together the defects that are in the marriage state and in the female sex at the same time, but do not see the unclean from the clean, so that they keep the unclean, but the clean they do not see. Just as some impudent jurists judge this first book of Moses ungodly and say that it deals with nothing else than the Jews' bearing and begetting children. But would such not be worthy of sodomitical disgrace and punishment, especially if they also despise marriage itself and want to praise the unclean, celibate life of the priests? but we let them go and continue to listen to Moses.
(13) The Holy Spirit is not satisfied with saying that Adam knew Eve, but he also says, "his wife. For he does not want to hear about the life of a whore, that one is held here to one and there to another, but wants each one to be satisfied with his wife. And even though the same community of married couples is not as pure as it would have been in the state of innocence, God's blessing still exists and remains in the midst of such disorderly lust and all other misery, as is said here; not, however, for the sake of Adam and Eve, who had long ago become ashes when Moses wrote this, but for our sake, so that whoever cannot abstain may be content with his Eve and not touch other wives.
14 Now this way of speaking, "Recognized his wife," is used only by the Hebrews; for the Latins and Greeks do not speak in this way. Now it is a beautiful way, not only because it is spoken chastely and honestly, but also because it is something special.
interprets. For the Hebrew word jada has a much broader meaning than our word "to know". For it does not mean to know with the mind alone, but to feel and experience (that I speak thus). As when Job says of the wicked. "They will know what is there, act against God", he wants to say: they will feel and experience. So Psalm 51, 5: "I know my iniquity", that is, I feel and experience it. Item, Gen. 22, 12: "Now I have known that thou fearest the Lord," that is, I have felt and experienced it in action. Also Luc. 1, 34: "Because I know no man," or I know of no man. Mary has known many men, but she has not yet experienced or felt one. So also here, Adam recognized his wife, that is, he not only knew in his mind, but also found out in reality that his Eve was a woman.
(15) The fact that it says, "And she conceived, and bare Cain," is a sure sign that nature was better then than it is now. For the conjugal partnership was not so often without fruit as now, after the world was old; but when Eve was once known by her Adam, she conceived.
16 Here it is asked: why Moses says: "She gave birth to Cain", and not rather as he says afterwards in the 4th Cap. V. 25: "She bore a son and named him Seth." If Cain and Abel were also Adam's and Eve's sons, why are they not called sons? Answer: This happened for the sake of the descendants. For Abel perished bodily and was slain by his brother, but Cain perished spiritually and was lost because of sin; neither was the garden of the church and the kingdom of Christ planted by him, but his whole family perished in the flood. Therefore neither Abel, the blessed, nor Cain, the cursed, has the name of a son; but Seth was the one from whose lineage Christ, the promised seed, should come. Therefore, he is the first to be called Son.
And Heva said: I have overcome the man of the Lord.
(17) From this another reason can be deduced why Eve did not call Cain son, namely, that she did not want to call him son because of too much joy and reverence, but thought he would be something greater, namely, the man who would crush the serpent's head. That is why she does not call him just a man, but a "man of the Lord", as the Lord would have meant when he promised her: "Your seed shall bruise the head of the serpent.
(18) Although she lacked this hope, it appears from this that Eve was a holy woman and believed the promise of the future salvation through the blessed seed. And because she believes, she rejoices so much in her son and thus speaks magnificently of him: "I have come over the man of the Lord", who will keep himself better than I and my husband Adam kept ourselves in paradise; therefore I will not call him my son, but he is the man of God, promised and given by God. This, I say, may also have been the cause why she did not call Cain son.
(19) Now that Eve is so attached and clings to the divine promise and to the faith of the redemption that was to come through her seed, she does right. For through this faith in the future seed all the saints are justified and saved. But she is mistaken about her person and believes that it will be Cain who will put an end to the misery into which the devil had plunged her through sin. But she believes this out of her own delusion, without a certain sign and a certain word. The promise was certain and true, but there was nothing to indicate that either Cain or Abel would be the serpent's tramp.
020 For this cause she infereth the person, and miscarrieth, and giveth her son a glorious and joyful name in vain. For the text gives that Cain is called by the word that means to possess or to overcome, so that by this name she consoles herself against the harm she has received; and
She holds against this that she had lost life and blessedness through sin and the devil, this again, that she has now come over the same life and blessedness again through this seed. As if she wanted to say: I know well what we have lost through sin, but now I hope and speak nothing else, but that I have come to all this again: because I have come over the man of God, who will help us again to all the honor and glory that we have lost. Because Eve is all too sure of the promise, she hurries and thinks that this first son will be the one of whom the Lord has made the promise.
(21) But the poor woman deceives herself and does not yet see her sorrow, namely, that nothing else but flesh can be born of the flesh, that even through flesh and blood sin and death cannot be overcome. Nor does it know the time and hour at which this blessed seed, conceived by the Holy Spirit, would be born of a virgin into the womb; just as the patriarchs did not know this time and hour, although the promise has become ever clearer through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. So we also know today that there will be a last judgment, but we do not know the day and the hour; as also Christ says to His apostles Acts. 1, 7.
V. 2. And she went on and gave birth to Habel his brother.
(22) Whether Cain and Abel were twins cannot really be known, although it seems sufficient from this text and is believable. Be that as it may, Adam and Eve, when these two sons were born to them, had various thoughts, and thought that their redemption was at the door. Without a doubt Cain was the dearest child and was brought up wonderfully, but Abel was not in such favor and hope, as even their names show. Cain has a name from it, as the one who is to regain and acquire everything. But Abel is called vain, or that which is nothing and rejected. Some have it in our
Bibles translates: lamentation or sorrow; but that means Ebel, not Abel. Furthermore, the word Abel is very common in the Scriptures and is repeated several times in Ecclesiastes, Cap. 1, 2: "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." And Psalm 78:33: "Their days were all vanity," that is, they did not obtain the promise of the land of Canaan.
23 So Abel is called: from whom nothing is to be hoped for, or in whom one hopes in vain, but Cain is called: from whom one hopes for everything. So that these two names sufficiently indicate the parents' thoughts and inclinations about these sons: namely, that after the promise was from a seed, they thought it would be fulfilled through Cain, and after he alone would bring about everything well and happily, Abel would do nothing; therefore they call him Abel.
(24) And this hope was undoubtedly also the cause that these two brothers were not brought up equally well and diligently; for Abel had to wait for the cattle, but Cain was kept to his father's trade, that is, to farming, as to better business. Abel is a shepherd, but Cain a king and priest, as a firstborn, who was born to this hope of recovering everything.
(25) Now consider how God is so strange in His counsels. From the beginning of the world, the firstborn has been a great and glorious thing, not only among the people to whom God Himself ordained and commanded the right of the firstborn, but also among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, the work and the experience show that especially in the holy people of the parents hope was lacking in the firstborn, and those who were born after came to the first place, office and honor.
(26) For did not the first parents miserably miss the hope of Cain after he became a deadly slayer? Neither was Abraham the firstborn, but Haran. So Esau is the firstborn, but the blessing falls out of his brother Jacob. David was the youngest of his brothers, yet he was anointed king. And so it is with others
gone. For although by divine right the firstborn had the privilege of regiment and priesthood, yet they lost it and were preferred to them who were born after. -
(27) But where did this contradiction and reversal come from? First, from the fault of the parents (who brought up the firstborns tenderly and wonderfully), then also from the firstborns' own presumption. For after they were thus spoiled and corrupted by their parents, they then insisted on their right and despised and oppressed the other brothers. Now God is a God of the humble, who gives grace to the humble and resists the proud, 1 Peter 5:5. Because the firstborn are proud and proud, they are rejected from their right; not that they do not have the right of the firstborn, but that they exalt themselves of their gifts and become proud, which God cannot suffer.
Thus, when the angels in heaven, who had the very best and most beautiful gifts before the others, began to become proud and despised the humility of the Son of God, they were cast down to hell and became the very ugliest devils. For God does not like pride, and does not want one to approach His majesty, but to honor it everywhere; as He says in the prophet Isaiah Cap. 48, 11: "I will not leave my honor to another."
The people of Israel were God's property and the holy city of Jerusalem was His dwelling place. But because they forsook the fear of God, and defied and prided themselves on their gifts, they were destroyed and their city laid waste by the heathen. And we are afflicted with this common pestilence by nature, that we are not satisfied with God's gifts, but misuse them to revile and mock the God who gave them to us. Now God gives power, dominion, peace and other gifts, so that kings and rulers should recognize Him, honor Him and thank Him for them; but kings and rulers abuse them as if they were given to them so that they should trample underfoot their Creator, who gifted them so mildly.
(30) This is how it is with the household: God gives us healthy bodies, wives, children, food, etc., not that we should anger Him for the sake of such gifts, but that we should recognize His goodness and mercy and thank Him: therefore He has also allowed us to use and rule over almost all creatures. But how many are we who do this? Do we not almost all live with one another in shameful misuse of God's gifts? Therefore, he must use such counsel as the Emperor Vespasianus used. He was well pleased that his citizens and courtiers would become rich, and said: "A rich man would be like a sponge, which, when it has drawn full of water and is squeezed hard, returns the water in heaps. So does God: those whom he has fattened with his goods and made rich, he makes poor again when they are ungrateful and abuse his kindness and, as Mary says in her hymn Luc. 1, 53, "he leaves the rich empty.
31 Therefore this is the reason why he did not spare Cain, the firstborn, for he did not give him the firstborn to make him proud and despise God, but graced and adorned him so that he would honor and fear him. But because he does not do this, he must be rejected. And the sin of the parents who cherish such hopes also helps, as the names sufficiently show. For Adam and Eve have all their hope in the firstborn alone, whom they call their treasure. They consider Abel to be nothing and capable of nothing; but they adorn Cain as a king, because they consider him to be the seed that was given. Therefore they take great comfort in him, but he also becomes proud and Abel remains despised as a useless man.
32. But God reverses it all: He rejects Cain and makes Abel the angel and first among all the saints. For when he is slain by his brother, he is the first to be redeemed from the sin and misery of this world, and shines through the whole church that followed like a beautiful star because of the glorious testimony of righteousness that God and all Scripture gives him.
Thus Abel, whom Adam, Eve and Cain despised as a useless man, becomes the lord of heaven and earth before God; for after his death he is in a much better state than if he had had a thousand worlds with all their goods under him.
Thus it finally goes out with hopefulness and presumption against God. Cain relied on the firstborn and despised his brother, and did not believe the promise of Christ. But Abel, through faith, took hold of the promise made to Adam his father of the seed. And this faith is also the reason that he offered God a better and greater sacrifice than Cain; as the epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 11, 4 reports.
And Havel became a shepherd, but Cain became a husbandman.
(34) As the names show that the parents placed all their hope and comfort in Cain, so it also shows in both of their occupations or practices that their parents held them to. For although both of them are honest, Abel's profession belongs only to housekeeping, but Cain's belongs more to worldly rule. And because Adam is a husbandman, he keeps Cain, because he prefers him to Abel, for his trade; but Abel he relegates to the sheep, so that it should be seen that the latter would be considered a servant, but Cain a master by his parents.
V. 3. And it came to pass after certain days, that Cain offered sacrifices unto the Lord of the fruits of the field.
35) "After some days", that is, after some years had passed. Here we are told first of all that the dear pious parents, Adam and Eve, preached often and much to their children about God's will and about the service of God, because both Abel and Cain offer sacrifices to the Lord. But someone might ask: What or of what did they preach to them? They certainly had the most beautiful objects of holy sermons. They have often commemorated their first estate and paradise, and will undoubtedly preach to their children.
The same place, which was kept by angels, often measured and reminded them that they should beware of sin, by which they were miserably deprived and stripped of so many goods and gifts, live in God's fear and take comfort in His grace and goodness, then they would find a better one after this life. But who could tell everything that was good in the first life? The other part of the teaching will also have led them to this, namely the promise of the seed and future redemption from all misery and misfortune. The pious parents may have preached about such things to their children in a certain place and especially on the Sabbath. Therefore, through such preaching they were awakened and caused to sacrifice and serve God.
Second part.
Of the sacrifices in general, but especially of the first parents; item, of Cain and Abel.
(36) And this is the first text in the Scriptures in which sacrifice is mentioned. From this it can be seen that the habit of sacrifice is not new, but has been from the beginning of the world. Therefore it is no wonder that the way of sacrifice was propagated and handed down from Adam to Moses, and after that it was put into a certain order and manner by Moses, who undoubtedly abolished many useless things that were added by superstitious people. As can be seen in the examples of the pagan sacrifices in the poets Homer and Virgil, which the pagans undoubtedly took from the fathers and followed them, and which they also increased through superstition.
(37) Now this we are to consider especially in this text, that Adam and Eve are not only parents, feeding and instructing their children how to conduct themselves in this life, but also have a priestly office. For since they are full of the Holy Spirit and enlightened with the knowledge of the Lord, they are also priests.
Knowing the future Savior of Christ, they preach such hope of future salvation to their children, and admonish them that they thus show gratitude to a kind and gracious God. For it is certain that they have made and kept their sacrifices in no other way.
38 Now behold, beloved, what disciples are won by such a godly and good sermon. For here are two kinds of hearers: First, Cain, the firstborn, who is considered holy and thought to be a lord, is godless and does not believe the divine promise. Again Abel, of whom one thinks nothing and who is driven into the field to tend sheep and to wait, is pious, God-fearing and believing. And yet the godless Cain can hide his godless heart and thoughts and keep them secret in such a way that he listens to his parents' teaching as if God's word were a great seriousness to him, and also sacrifices, like his other brother, who is pious and God-fearing. This is why this is an example of the two churches, namely the right and the hypocritical one; as we will show more extensively in another place.
39 Although only the sacrifice and not the preaching is considered here, it should still be considered that they did not sacrifice without the preaching of the word. For God cannot be served with a silent work, but there must be a word that resounds in man's heart and in God's ears; just as the invocation of God's name came to this sacrifice.
40 But one asks here: Whether Cain and Abel had any word or commandment of God to sacrifice? Answer: Yes. For this is proven by all the histories of the Holy Scriptures, that the kind, merciful God, through His abundant grace, has always given and set up, in addition to the Word, an outward and visible sign of grace, so that by such an outward sign and work, as by a sacrament, men might be reminded and believe all the more surely that God wanted to be favorable and gracious to them. Thus, after the Flood, the rainbow appeared so that it could be a sure sign that God would henceforth give such a sign.
He did not want to let punishment pass over the world anymore. Abraham was given circumcision, as we will hear, so that he would conclude and be certain that God would be his God and give him a seed in which all nations would be blessed. In the New Testament we have baptism and the sacrament of the altar as visible signs of grace, that we should believe and thereby conclude with certainty that our sins are canceled by Christ's suffering and that we are redeemed by His death. Thus, the Church has never been so devoid of external signs that one could not have known where God actually and certainly wanted to be found and encountered.
41 Although the world almost follows Cain and misuses such signs of grace for hypocrisy, it is truly an unspeakable grace and mercy of God that He shows Himself to us in so many ways. How then this grace and gift is highly praised, Proverbs 8:30, 31: "I had my delight daily, and played before him always, and played upon his ground; and my delight is with the children of men." But the Hebrew word sagak is not well translated: to play; for this praises wisdom, that she had an eye on men first of all and revealed herself to them. As if she wanted to say: "I have always given myself to men to see and to hear, so that they have heard and found me present in sacrifices, in the circumcision, in the smoke offerings, in the cloud, in the red sea, in the bread of heaven, in the brazen serpent, in the tabernacle of Moses, in the temple of Solomon, in the fog, etc. and it has been my pleasure that I thus showed and revealed myself to the children of men.
(42) And Adam took special comfort in the fact that after he had lost paradise, the tree of life, and other comforts that were his signs of grace, God had given him another sign, namely the sacrifice, by which he could understand that he was not yet completely rejected by God, but that He still took care of him and looked after him. For this is what God indicates by lighting the sacrifices with fire from heaven and consuming them; as
we read about the sacrifice of Moses and Elijah. For these were certain signs of divine grace, which the poor people needed, so that they would not be without some light and knowledge of the grace of God.
(43) So now our morning stars are the word, baptism, and supper of the Lord, to which we look as to certain signs of the sun of grace. For we may safely conclude and say that there is Christ, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life, since there is the sacrament, baptism, and the Word. Again, where these signs of grace are not there, or are despised by men, not only is there no grace, but also abominable errors must follow, that people devise other services and set up other signs. As the Greeks worshipped Apollo, and other peoples other devils, as the Egyptians worshipped Anubis, Serapis, the crocodile, garlic, onions; the Romans Jupiter, Quirinus and the images of shame Priapus, Venus etc.
44 As was the case in the papacy. For after these signs of grace had become small and despised, idolatry could not rest, but sought other signs, such as monastic vows, orders, pilgrimages, intercessions of the saints, and others; all of which are full of error and wickedness, and yet poor people accept them as if they were certain signs of divine grace. There you will not hear a bishop, a high school, punishing such blasphemy, or making people believe something better. For if the light of the gospel and these signs of grace, given by God, are lost, there can be no lack of them, people must run after them, to which their heart's desire and lust drives them. As the Jews first despised the tabernacle and the temple, and sacrificed in the woods and under the trees, until at last the parents led them away, and out of unmercifulness slaughtered their own children.
(45) Such strange and weird idolatry shows what a great gift it is to have the word and the signs of grace that God has indicated and commanded. Now if the Gentiles had followed in the footsteps of the Jews...
they would never have fallen into such terrible and outrageous idolatry. If they themselves, the Jews, had paid attention to the word, they would never have undertaken such blasphemous sacrifices. If we had kept baptism and the sacrament of the altar in the respect and dignity in which we should have kept them, we would not have become monks; nor would anything have been taught in the church about purgatory, the sacrifice of the Mass, and other ungodly things. But since the light of the Gospel has been extinguished by the godless popes, it has been easy to persuade people to commit such abominations.
46 Therefore it is an unspeakable gift that God not only speaks to men through His word, but also gives visible signs of grace in addition to the word; as in the New Testament are baptism, the sacrament of the altar and absolution. Now those who despise such signs or consider them worthless are worthy to buy the pope's filth for balm, to worship and to praise: for why do they despise the goodness of the divine majesty? And since they could have the most certain signs of grace at home without all expense and effort, they despise them and run to Rome, to St. James etc., consume their money over it, wear out their bodies and finally, how cheaply, lose their souls to it. Therefore, praise be to God in eternity, who has helped us again through his word from such terrible idolatry and various errors, and has gifted us with his signs of grace so that we can have them at the door, even in our home and bed.
(47) Thus, from the beginning of the world, when God wanted to confirm and make certain the promise of our blessedness, He directed that men should have certain signs to comfort them in their sins and to raise them up by trusting in divine grace. For in the sacrifice, it is not the work that counts, but God's grace and the power of divine promise that God Himself arranges such a service and promises to accept it. That which is now with us is baptism and the Lord's supper, which is with the Lord.
Adam according to the promise had been the sacrifice. For God revealed His grace in the sacrifices, and indicated by the kindling and consuming by fire that He was pleased with them.
(48) Adam instructs his sons in such worship that they give thanks to God, praise God and have certain comfort and hope from His grace and mercy. Cain, however, is ungodly, puffs himself up and exalts himself over the firstborn, despises such beautiful preaching of his father, and sacrifices as his father commands him, but has a hopeful delusion in himself, as if he were holy, and thinks that God will put up with such work for the sake of his person. But Abel, who according to his name counts for nothing before him, also sacrifices, but in the faith of the promise, as the epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 11, 4. says.
V. 4: Andabel also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat. And the Lord looked graciously on Habel and his sacrifice.
(49) He who looks at the work in itself alone cannot prefer Abel to Cain. For the Jews, as they are saints of works and always cling to works, are pretending to foolish dreams here: Cain had not sacrificed deliciously selected grain, but chaff, therefore he was rejected with his sacrifice.
50 But the epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 11, 4. judges differently and says that Abel offered a better sacrifice to the Lord in faith; therefore the defect was not in the sacrifice that they offered, but in the person who offered. And the faith of the person was the weight that made Abel's sacrifice delicious and pleasant, but Cain's unworthy and wrong. For Abel believes that God is kind and gracious, therefore his sacrifice pleases God; but Cain relies on the honor of being the firstborn, and despises his brother as a useless and unfit person. But how does God's judgment go against this? From the firstborn he makes a secondborn, and again from a firstborn he makes a secondborn.
He makes a firstborn from a secondborn. For he looks at Abel's sacrifice and indicates that this priest's sacrifice is pleasing to him, but Cain is not pleasing to him and he is not a true priest.
51 The word shaah, "God saw," is a broad word that I have diligently explained and interpreted in a writing against Latomus. But this word is used by Isaiah, as Cap. 17, 7: "At that time a man shall cleave unto him that made him"; item, Cap. 66, 12: "On your knees you shall be held kindly." For this is what he means, that when a mother holds her child on her lap, she shows him a cheerful and loving gesture. Such a showing is indicated by this word, therefore it spreads much further than the word "see". For when a mother looks at a child, she shows him at the same time a laughing and friendly gesture, as if she loved the child. In the German language, however, there is no word so that this could be given properly and completely, so I know of none in the Latin language either.
52. Moses speaks almost thus, 2 Mos. 33, 15: "Where your face does not go, do not lead us up from there", that is, create that we always have your signs with us, in which you let yourself be seen that you are with us and keep it with us. Such signs were, as also said above, the pillar of fire, the cloud etc. Although Moses does not actually say what kind of sign it was that God was pleased with Abel's offerings and sacrifices, it is nevertheless credible that it was a fire that fell from heaven and took hold of the sacrifice and consumed it in the sight of all, and that God was pleased with Abel's sacrifice. And thus God shows that he examines the hearts and kidneys, as Jerome says, because he does not look at the firstborn of Cain, but looks at the heart of the despised Abel.
(53) And here we begin to separate and divide the church into two churches; one, which is a church in name only, but in deed is nothing but a hypocritical and bloodthirsty church. The other, which is barren, desolate, and under the cross, and
Suffering, and against the hypocritical church before the world is nothing else but Abel, which is a vain trifling. For Christ Matth. 23, 35. also calls Abel righteous, and makes him the beginning of the church of the God-fearing, which will remain until the end of the world; just as Cain is the beginning of the church of the wicked and bloodthirsty until the end of the world; as Augustine also holds up this history in the book de Civitate Dei.
(54) In this we are given a great lesson and comfort when we count both churches from this origin and beginning, and consider how God has always governed this with wonderful counsel, that the right church has been great and strong at one time, but small and weak at another, and yet has always been so, that the hypocritical and bloodthirsty church has had glory before the world, and the right church, which God loved, has been afflicted and martyred. For there it has already gone, as the promise reads, that the serpent's seed should bite the seed of the eunuch in the heel; as we learn even today. Therefore such a game and misfortune should not frighten us; but it should comfort us that we learn by experience that our adversaries do just such a thing against us as the bloodthirsty Cain did against the righteous Abel.
(55) For we are not the first from whom the false church takes the name of the church by force and calls us heretics, kills us, and boasts that it alone is the right and true church; do not even dare to usurp this name with sword, fire, and all abominable tyranny. For this also happened to the pious Abel, yes, to the Lord Christ Himself, who was no priest, no king in Jerusalem, but was brought to the cross by the priests and rulers. "But now we must," says Paul Rom. 8, 29, "become like the Lord Christ."
For this reason the true church is hidden, banished, considered heretics and killed. Cain, however, has a great name and is the only one in whom it is hoped and expected that he will accomplish the greatest things. Therefore he also leads against his
Brother a hostile heart and strangles him. And this history does not belong to the worldly or domestic regiment, but to the church. For Abel is not killed for the sake of any worldly or domestic business, but for the sake of the service of God. And Cain is not satisfied with being a master of the house, but he also wants to be a son of God, a pope and father of the church. Therefore he submits himself to the judgment of the sacrifices, condemns his brother as a heretic and beats him to death.
(57) Just as Christ prophesied in John 16:2 that His church would have to be in many dangers, so that whoever kills the pious will think he is doing God a service. Therefore, those who want to be the holiest are the plague and persecutors of the church. Again, the true church is not considered to be the church, but, after the name of Abel (who is not only the figure but the beginning of the true church), it is considered to be nothing; so also that when it is killed, those who kill it think that God does not ask anything about it; for Cain is a lord and king who does everything and is all-powerful.
(58) But here we find the offense against which we are to contend, that we do not therefore think as if we were not the church, because our adversaries so surely condemn us and cruelly persecute us in all manner of ways, but that we hold the cross and such condemnation to be certain and undeceiving signs of the right and true church; as also the 10th Psalm, v. 1 ff. Psalm v. 1 ff., and Psalm 72:14: "Their blood shall be esteemed precious in his sight"; and Psalm 116:15: "The death of his saints is esteemed worthy in the sight of the Lord." Here you hear that those who are thus killed are by no means out of God's concern, but that such deaths are counted precious and worthy in His sight. Therefore, they are certainly God's people whom God takes care of.
(59) Therefore, let us tolerate the cruel raging of our adversaries against us and thank God that we are not among those who kill, who violently and cruelly attack other people's property and bodies for the sake of the name of the church. For the histories of all times bear witness to this,
that the right church has always been suffering, but the false and hypocritical church has violently proved itself against the right one and condemned it.
(60) Therefore we have no reason to doubt, but we can be sure that the church of the pope is a Cain church, but we are the true church. For just as Abel did no harm to Cain, so we not only do no harm or suffering to the false church of the pope, but we also allow ourselves to be plagued, condemned and killed by it. We do not tell lies about it, but the whole world knows how often we have been banished, cursed and condemned by them with various judgments. People have also been found who have wanted to carry out such serious and cruel judgments almost in all corners of Europe. Neither Spain, nor France, nor England, nor the Netherlands, nor Bohemia, nor Poland, nor Hungary, nor Austria, nor Bavaria, can be subjected to such tyranny and unjust rage. What else have they persecuted but the true Christian, prophetic and apostolic doctrine? And who can say further that the right church is not easily and actually recognizable? Shall we say that the church is there, where nothing pure nor righteous is taught, but where all unrighteous tyranny is practiced and great good and violence is? or there, where the consciences are served with right doctrine, where also for the sake of doctrine there is the cross, contempt, poverty, disgrace and other burdens, which the small group of the pious has always had to bear, as one reads in the histories?
(61) Therefore it is not only useful, but also very sweet, that one can so certainly and actually distinguish both churches and recognize one before the other. One is the blasphemer and ungodly, namely the harlot in the beautiful purple robe, which bears the name of the right church; the other is not considered anything and must suffer, hunger, thirst and be oppressed, as Christ says in Matth. 25, 35, that he must suffer hunger and thirst in the world.
62. but there will follow a judgment between the satiated and the hungry, between the goats and the sheep, and between Abel and Cain, in which
God will show and prove that He is pleased with the suffering and hungry Church, but He rejects the hypocritical and bloodthirsty Church. This is our comfort and, as it were, a sugar, so that we would and should overcome our misery and persecution in the world. And all this belongs to theology. Now let us return to the worldly and consider God's judgment.
It truly amazes us why God allowed Adam's first son, to whom the firstborn in the entire human race was due by birth, to fall so horribly, so that his entire race perished and was destroyed in the Flood. But this is the very cause for which, as said above, God mocks Adam so bitterly and scornfully, since he says, "that he should not become like ours," and had the garden preserved by the cherubim. For he wants to ward off and dampen the presumption and hopefulness that is, as it were, implanted in man through sin: and we are so constituted that we can bear nothing less than this dampening of hopefulness. We see what pride and courtliness there is among the nobility for the mere name of being noble, which is a vain and futile nobility, for they do not get it by virtue or by helping the country and the people much.
It is said of Plato that he thanked God for three things: first, that he was created a man and not an unreasonable animal; second, that he was a Greek, born in Athens, and not a barbarian; and third, that he became a man-person and not a woman. The same folly is heard of the Jews also, who boast that they were born men and not wild beasts; Jews and not Gentiles; men and not women. But tell me, what is it> that one thus boasts of his descent or birth? What is it that an ass adorned with chains of gold and silver in court not only esteems himself better than another common man, but also exalts himself against God? The Greeks despised the people of all countries and called them barbarians; but the Romans have
Finally, this disgrace, that they were not called barbarians, was remedied by many excellent and honest deeds. In sum, the better each nation has wanted to be before another, the more it has risen and become proud. This is the nature of all men and the nature of sin.
But look here at God's judgment. Cain could justly and truly boast of his highest nobility, for he was the first to be born of men: but as much as his descent is more praiseworthy and glorious, so much is his fall more dreadful. That is why experience has given rise to the saying, "The children of great lords seldom prosper. And such a shortcoming applies not only to individuals, but also to entire great kingdoms. For the Greeks were especially famous and had a great reputation before other nations because of their honest deeds and good arts. But have they not fallen into great disgrace because of it and finally been miserably destroyed and devastated? You will see this in other nations as well.
For this reason God was well pleased to let Cain fall, so that the whole world would be an example of him, and no one would have to boast of his noble tribe or great lineage, just as the Jews boasted of their father Abraham and the Greeks of their great wisdom. For God wants to be feared, but he wants us to be humbled. But it is generally in vain; for we turn little to such great wrath of God, that the first men were corrupted, and the noblest nations laid waste and destroyed.
Therefore, experience testifies and proves that it is true, as the Virgin Mary sings in her song Luc. 1, 52: "He has cast down the mighty from their seats. For what is most noble and best becomes most unimportant and is rejected by God; not that the work itself is void and reprehensible, but that it is counterfeited by diabolical presumption and hopefulness. And that in the world it is thus customary to admit, even the heathen have seen: as the saying of a philosopher indicates, who, after being asked, What did God do in heaven? answered, He exalteth the lowly, and exalteth the high.
is, he humiliates. But they have not understood the reason why it happens.
Our flesh and reason consider it a great honor that one is a man and not a woman; yet we see that God has diligently arranged it so that man would not be born of man; and Christ himself wanted to be called the seed of a woman and not of a man. How could men have so greatly exaggerated this honor if God had wanted Christ to be born of a man? But this honor is entirely taken from men and given to women, who must be subservient to men, so that men should not boast but humble themselves. And since a woman cannot give birth without a man, God has also ordained that women give birth not only to males but also to females. For human nature cannot make proper use of honor, but always abuses it for the sake of hope, and rebels against the one from whom it received the gifts. This is the reason why Cain falls so hard and loses the right of the firstborn, namely, that we should fear God, thank Him, and be careful not to abuse His gifts for the sake of hope.
V. 4. 5. And the Lord graciously looked upon Havel and his sacrifice. But Cain and his sacrifice he did not look upon graciously.
This is an excellent text, which should therefore be diligently noted, thoroughly understood and properly practiced, so that it would be enough that in the New Testament faith and trust in God's mercy against trust in works is praised and commended with such a clear testimony; as it is soon commended in the beginning of the world with very clear and bright words. For does not Moses, in saying, "God graciously looked upon the sacrifice of Habel", clearly indicate that before the work, God looks at the person, what kind of person it is? If the person is good, his work is pleasing to him; but if the person is not good, his work is not pleasing to him.
70 Now this is the summa of our doctrine, that we teach and confess that God accepts the person rather than the work, and
that the person does not become righteous or just by his good or right work, but that the work becomes good and just by the person who is righteous and just; as the text proves here. For because God holds to Abel, he also holds to his sacrifice; and because he does not hold to Cain, he also does not hold to his sacrifice. This opinion is clearly stated in the text, and our opponents cannot deny it. And from these words follows a very clear and good conclusion, namely, that Abel was righteous before his work, and that the work pleases God for the sake of the person, not the person for the sake of the work; as our adversaries fight and pretend that man becomes righteous from works and not from faith alone.
71) So the master of the epistle to the Hebrews looked at this text with pure and clear eyes, when he says Cap. 11, 4: "By faith Habil offered a greater sacrifice than Cain, by whom he received testimony that he was righteous, since God bore witness to his offering. Cain also sacrifices and does so sooner than Abel. But he sacrifices puffed up by the honor of his birth, and hopes that God will be pleased with the sacrifice because it is done by a firstborn, so he comes without faith, without confession of his sin, does not ask for mercy and forgiveness of sin, does not trust in God's mercy, but hopes that his sacrifice cannot please God for any other reason than that he is the firstborn. Just as all saints of works do, whose thoughts, mind and spirit are directed solely to works, for the sake of which they hope and think to be pleasing to God, but do not trust in God's mercy, nor do they hope that God will forgive sin for the sake of Christ. Cain was also such a man. For it would have been impossible for him not to please God if he had had faith.
(72) On the other hand, Abel realizes that he is an unworthy and poor sinner, so he takes refuge in God's mercy and believes that God is merciful and wants to have mercy on him. So God, who sees into hearts, judges between these two brothers who sacrifice to Him at the same time, and does not reject Cain for the sake of Cain.
Abel's sacrifice was not good (for if he had offered a nutshell to God in faith, it would have been pleasing to God), but that the person was evil and without faith and full of pride and hope. Again, he holds himself to Abel's sacrifice, because he is pleased with the person; as the text clearly adds, God first looked at Abel and then at his sacrifice. For if one is pleased with a person, he will put up with anything he does; since, again, anything done by one's enemy is contrary and repugnant to him.
Therefore, this is an excellent text, so that it is clearly proven that God does not look at how great, how much, nor how delicious the work is, but simply looks at the faith of the person; just as He does not despise the work, no matter how small, unworthy and rejected it is, but only despises the unbelief of the person. What is it then that the Jews praise Jer. 7:4, "the temple of the Lord", "the temple of the Lord"? What is it that the papists boast so much about the mass, about the woolen shirt, about great work, about great, many and delicious works, because God does not ask about the works, not even about those that he himself has commanded, if they are not done in faith? as the now reported saying of Jeremiah also indicates. Much less, however, does he inquire about the works that men devise and invent without God's word; but he looks to and inquires only about faith, that is, that one may take comfort in it and rely on it for Christ's sake; for there the person first begins to please God, after which his works also please him. Thus, God does not like Cain's sacrifice because he, as an unbeliever, does not please Him. Again, Abel's sacrifice is pleasing because he pleased God first for the sake of faith, not relying on his worthiness, nor on his sacrifice or work, but only on the promise of the seed of the woman.
74 And so this text goes to our doctrine of justification, that a man must be righteous above all his works, and be accepted of God without all works through grace alone, which faith takes hold of and considers certain. For faith does not make a person righteous as a work, but as a
He makes us righteous by taking hold of God's grace and mercy, shown in Christ. In this faith and trust in God's mercy, the church lives and floats with a humble confession of her sins and unworthiness, hoping that God will forgive her for Christ's sake.
The works that follow are, as it were, testimonies of this faith, which God also accepts, not for themselves, but for the sake of faith or for the sake of the believing person. Not only does the other church, namely the Cain church, not have such faith, but it also pursues it and believes, as Cain does here, that it will please God for the sake of works. But this hope is hostile to God, for he cannot suffer the contempt of his grace etc. This text is certainly worthy of careful consideration.
Third part.
How Cain did not behave properly in rejecting his sacrifice and how he is punished over it.
V. 5 Then Cain was very angry, and his mind became distorted.
This following text will give us some trouble for the sake of grammar, but I hope we will get through these difficulties easily and well. We have now heard that Cain missed his hope after he despised his brother and thought that he wanted to have preference with God and be the most distinguished for the sake of the firstborn, as he was with his parents. But God's judgment is different from the judgment of men. For He indicates that He is pleased with Abel, but Cain does not please Him and is rejected. This is why Cain is furiously angry with his brother, for he cannot be satisfied that he is banished and deprived of both his rule and his priesthood, as we will learn later that kings and princes can tolerate nothing less than the punishment of the church. For they are not satisfied with this,
that they are kings and princes, but they also want to be righteous and holy before God and rob themselves of the title of the church. So Cain also becomes angry when he sees that the glory of righteousness and grace before God is taken away from him. For what is that but to be cast out of the church and banished? But he is so much more satisfied with this, so much better than his brother. For now he thinks: Behold, now your brother will want to be lord, after he sees that I am despised and cast out by God. Therefore Moses adds the word "very", because he wants to indicate that Cain will be very and violently angered, that he will be publicly disgraced, even though he wanted to be the most distinguished.
We also see such a Cainian anger in the Cainian church of the pope: for what offends the pope, cardinals, kings and princes more than that I, a poor beggar, teach that one must prefer the reputation of God to their reputation, and punish in the name of the Lord what is worth punishing? They themselves recognize that there are many things among them that need a good and sharp reformation, but that a poor beggar of low standing and sex should appear and do this, they cannot stand at all. Therefore they oppose it with their force and want to dampen us with it.
There is no wrath on earth more cruel than that of the bloodthirsty church and hypocrites. For in the worldly authorities' wrath there is still a little kindness; as we see that no such cruel murderer is led to punishment, with whom the people would not have a little compassion. But when this false and bloodthirsty church comes upon one who is of the right church, it is not enough for it to shed his blood, but it also blasphemes, curses and curses him and practices cruelty on the poor dead body. Just as the Jews were not satisfied with the fact that they had put Christ on the cross, from which they could take no more than a dead corpse; but because he was thirsty, they soaked him with vinegar and gall, and as his soul is now running out, they blaspheme him. There is no such fury in political or worldly anger.
(79) Therefore the wrath and anger of the false church is a devilish wrath and anger, which began with Cain and continues with all the Cainites. And we can truly boast that we also have such a wrath, like the pious Abel, on our necks. For who would doubt that the bishops and some fierce princes could strangle us all in a moment, and, as that Roman tyrant said, if we had all one neck, they would not with all pleasure strangle and murder us? For behold, what some years therefore have gone by for assaults, thou wilt say that I speak the truth.
80 But that Moses further says: "And his spirit was disguised", is spoken in a Hebrew way, and thereby not only the work is meant, but also such an angry heart, which could not rest; but because it cannot do harm, it must let its anger see its spirit. And it is to be believed that Cain will never again have looked cheerfully, nor will he have spoken kindly to his parents as before; if he should have answered them, he will rather have grumbled than spoken words. When he will have looked at his brother, he will have turned pale, will have shown a hostile face, and will have let a fierce and vengeful heart be heard from all his gestures.
(81) Moses means all these things when he says that his gestures were disguised. For he does not speak of one gift or one part of it, but of all gifts and movements. As Paul also said in 1 Cor. 13, 5, according to this Hebrew way: "Love does not behave in an inappropriate way", that is, it does not frown, does not look sour, does not threaten with its mouth, but shows a fine, sincere, friendly and cheerful face etc. For such a gesture stands well, but those stand badly and are blasphemous. Therefore this word also describes the hypocritical anger, that Cain could neither see nor hear his brother, nor talk with him, nor eat nor drink with him etc.
82) If anyone wants to see an example of such Cainian wrath, let him join a papist who either follows his doctrine and his teachings, or is a papist who is a papist and a papist.
If a man wants to be praised for his faith or his piety, he will find a devilish anger and resentment in him; so that a judge's anger against him does not seem to be anger, but the greatest kindness and sincerity. For with him nothing is angry but the hand, and is displeased with the vice alone, not with the person. But the Cainite's anger uses the eyes, frowns, opens the mouth, arms the fist for revenge. In sum, anger and revengefulness looks out of all limbs and gestures and that without ceasing. For the anger does not deteriorate with time or pass over, like a worldly or domestic anger. Now follows a fatherly and very serious admonition of his father Adam, who would have gladly advised and helped his son; but such anger suffers no counsel, and hears Cain and such Cainites neither father nor mother nor God Himself.
V. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why are your words disguised?
These words prove enough that Cain was not only grieved once in this sacrifice, but that from that very hour he went along grieved, sad and grim, not looking rightly at either father or mother. As we have said of Pharisaic anger, that it used to disguise the whole offering. For Cain considered it a great mockery that Abel, whom he had always despised and of whom even his parents had thought nothing, was preferred to him in the sacrifice, that is, in the presence of his father and his mother, and that God allowed himself to be heard and told that he was worthy of the regency and priesthood.
(84) Now, as he is sufficiently aware that he has an estranged mind toward his brother, he is admonished by his father Adam. For I believe that these words were spoken by Adam himself, and Moses said that the Lord had spoken them, so that Adam was already justified and enlightened and graced with the Holy Spirit. What he therefore received according to God's word from the Holy
When the Holy Spirit says it, it is rightly attributed to God, as if he had spoken it. Just as those who now preach the gospel are not only teachers and preachers, but Christ speaks and teaches in them. And such words were undoubtedly spoken with great earnestness. For he saw that his son could not bear the scorn, and was grieved and sorrowful because he had lost his firstborn and priesthood. So he also understands well what the tempter could do to a corrupt nature, because he had done so much harm to man while he was still perfect. Therefore, he is careful, begins and preaches a serious sermon, which, although none of the fathers has yet interpreted it worthily, because perhaps the fathers did not have time for other church business, let us nevertheless try it, not without fear and improvement, as I hope.
V. 7. Is it not so? if thou art godly, thou art pleasant; but if thou art not godly, sin rests at the door.
I cannot be sufficiently surprised that Moses was able to wrap and force such great and excellent things into so few words. Our translation has not really given the words sufficiently; and although Augustine was not at all inexperienced in the Hebrew language, he nevertheless did not know it thoroughly. For thus he gives this text: "If you sacrifice rightly and do not share rightly, you have already sinned, therefore refrain from it. What sin means here is known to those who have been taught Hebrew, although Augustine's opinion, which he deduces from these words, is theological and good. It can also be seen that the seventy interpreters were not sufficiently equipped and skilled for the great work they undertook. Therefore let us leave aside how others have translated and interpreted it, and follow the Hebrew text, which is certain and thus holds: "If thou be devout, thy sin shall be forgiven thee, or lifted up; but if thou be not devout, sin resteth at the door" etc.
Now it is ordered by nature so that the words, as also Aristotle says, to the work,
and not the work or trade should serve the words. And Hilarius has a saying, which is well known and is also cited by Peter Lombardus, that words should be understood according to the action that is put into the words and presented in them. Therefore, when one wants to explain a thing, one should always first consider what the subject is that is being discussed. And when this has been done, one should then direct the words, if grammar will suffer it, to the thing, and not the thing to the words. And because the rabbis and others who follow them do not keep this rule (for they have lost the things and stick only to words), they often get into the habit of giving very uncomfortable and clumsy interpretations to many things. Because they do not have such thoughts as one should have of spiritual things, of which the Scriptures speak, they get completely away from the matter and direct the words to carnal and futile thoughts.
Now it is certain that the Jews have lost Christ altogether; how then can they rightly understand either the gospel or the law? For they know neither sin, nor grace, nor righteousness; how then can they rightly explain such passages? Our sophists are almost the same. For what do they have that is pure and righteous about these important things? Because they do not understand the matter correctly, it is impossible for them to understand the words correctly. For although knowledge of language, that is, that one understands the manner of speech and the words, must first be, knowledge of facts, that is, that one sees and understands the whole matter correctly, is the most important thing. For if the things themselves are confused, the words also come to a different understanding and thus become entirely a new grammar.
Gerundensis has a very beautiful knowledge of the language (as there are many now who are far ahead of me in Hebrew grammar). But because he does not understand things correctly, he has done this text wrong. For thus he gives it: "If thou be godly, thy sacrifice shall be more acceptable than thy brother's; for thou art the firstborn.
Here you hear that he understands and knows the words, but he does not know the matter. For God deals with this trade to indicate that He does not respect the firstborn. How then can the sacrifice for the sake of the firstborn be better?
But the master of the epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 11, 4 understands what the matter is, therefore he speaks differently of this trade, namely, that Abel did a pleasing sacrifice in faith. Thus Jerome's translation is also better, since he gives it thus: "If you are pious, you will enjoy it; but if you are not pious, sin" (he has added the little word "your") "will rest at the door. But this does not yet mean that the matter has been explained correctly. For the word seeth, which means to alleviate (levare), he takes for accipere, which in my opinion no one can praise. But he has this from the Jews, who are under the delusion and understand it in this way, that where Cain would have sacrificed well and mildly, God would have repaid him. Therefore, I will now explain what my simple mind and opinion is of this text.
90 First of all, it is necessary, as I said, to understand the matter correctly and to have a firm foundation that cannot be lacking. Now this is the one reason, that God does not like anything that does not come from faith, according to the common and well-known saying of Paul, Rom. 14, 23: "What does not come from faith is sin"; and Solomon, Proverbs 15, 8: "God has an abhorrence of the sacrifice of the wicked. The other reason is that sin is such an abominably great and grievous thing that it cannot be wiped out by any sacrifices, by any works, but only by grace and mercy, which must be taken by faith; as is also indicated and proved by the first promise of the seed of the woman, without which there is no redemption. The rabbis do not have these foundations, for such understanding comes only from the Spirit of Christ, who, like the sun at noon, enlightens what is dark. Therefore, whatever goes against these foundations and is not in accordance with them, we may boldly reject as ungodly and false.
(91) Although I am not opposed to the word "sin" being understood either of past or future sin, it seems to me to be more convenient that it should be understood generally for sin, and all power lies in the word seeth, which comes from nasa and means: to alleviate, to raise. But here is a clear example of what a great difference there is between the knowledge of words and of things. For if you want to apply the word "alleviate," "elevate," to a bodily thing, it means to raise up or set on high; as Isa. 6:1: "I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne." This is much different from what is written in Psalm 32:1, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven," or "are abolished," and yet in both places it is only one word. This, in Isaiah, a grammarian understands, but this he does not understand, for he does not know what the thing is that is spoken of here. For to lift up a chair is another thing; so also to lift up sin is another thing, namely, to forgive, to cancel, and to take away sin.
Therefore, this is the opinion: If you were pious, that is, if you believed, you would have a gracious God. And this would be a right lifting, that is, forgiveness of sin. But since I see that God has not kept to your sacrifice, it certainly follows that you are not pious; nor is your sin yet lifted, but it remains.
This is especially fine, that by the word "lift" he compares the sin to a great burden that lies on Cain and presses him so that he cannot breathe unless it is taken away from him. But the epistle to the Hebrews indicates the way in which we are relieved of such a burden, since it says in Cap. 11:4 that Abel made a better sacrifice in faith. So the words or grammar and the matter are consistent, namely, that God regards faith and considers only those who believe to be righteous. For these words: "If you were pious," are serious words, so that Adam punishes Cain severely and thus wants to say: "Your pride and hope has corrupted you, for you are evil.
And thou didst defy thy firstborn, and thoughtest that thou wouldest be acceptable unto God for the same: but I see that because God doth so judge and condemn thee, thou art without faith: for God doth not condemn any but the unbelieving.
94 No rabbi interprets this text in this way. For they do not see that Adam, as Paul also does, is presenting the gospel to his son and reproaching him: "He who believes will be saved," Marc. 16, 16. item Rom. 3, 28: "Faith alone makes one righteous. For what else is said here, but that God is gracious to those who believe in the Seed of the Gospel and cast away all trust in works and their own merit? If you would do this, says Adam, your sin would not weigh you down, but you would be relieved of this burden and would not look so grim and angry; for God has promised that He will not impute sin to anyone who believes etc.
95 If these words are to be applied to past sin, they are also a fatherly and serious admonition, saying, "You have not believed until now, and now you are rejected; if you continue in this way, you will be cast out altogether; but if you do good or are righteous, that is, if you believe in the seed that has given, I promise you that it will yet come to pass that you will be purged of your sin, so that, as the 32nd Psalm says, your sin will not be imputed to you. Psalm v. 2, your sin will not be imputed to you.
The fact that it says, "Sin lies or rests at the door," is a rhetorical description of sin, which I would like to see used for a proverb. For this is actually the nature of sin, that it lies or rests like a wild animal that has fallen asleep, because it is at work, that is, because it does not bite, does not frighten nor offend, but rather flatters and tickles. So when first Eve and then Adam ate the forbidden apple in paradise, they never thought that God would pay attention to it, much less that they would fall into such severe punishment. For just as one can better deal with evil and wild animals
when they are full and want to sleep: so sin is also sweet, because it is at work, and its poison is not felt, but it lies and rests. For who hath ever seen a miser look sour, when it goeth to him to great gain? And who has ever seen an adulterer grieve when what he desires happens to him? But if one were to lash his skin with a whip or break his head with a hammer, the same affliction would leave him. But because sin is at rest and punishment is not felt, the miser's greatest pleasure is to touch gain, and the adulterer's greatest pleasure is to have dealings with another's wife. It can also be seen as if there can be no measure or end to such pleasure and joy.
Therefore Adam does not speak here only of Cain's sin, but he indicates in general what kind and quality sin has in itself. For that which befell Cain befell all. Before Cain sacrificed, he boasted of the advantage of the firstborn, despised his brother and wanted to be the most distinguished. At that time sin lay and rested, but at the door, that is, in a place that was not quiet and not at rest. For through a door one goes out and in, therefore it is not good to sleep there. And this also belongs to the nature and characteristic of sin, that even though it rests for a time, it still rests there, because it cannot rest long; as Christ says Match. 10, 26: "There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed." For the wicked thinks that sin rests and is hidden; but it cannot rest at the door, but is finally revealed and comes to light. For door and sleep and rest are quite contrary to each other, or, as it is called, opposita in adjecto. For as darkness is in the light, so also rest is in a restless place, and such things are by nature contrary to each other. So this can be understood of any sin, past or present.
98. but if anyone wants to understand it from future sin, it remains one opinion, so: if you harm your brother, and hold the grudge you have in your heart, I say to you that
Your sin will probably rest, but "front door", that is in a very restless place, because it must finally wake up and catch you, like a fierce wild animal. And so it went. For when Cain had committed the fatal stroke and buried his brother alone, sin rested. But for how long? No longer, for until the voice came upon him, "Where is thy brother Habel?" Therefore this description of sin is right, and so it is with every sin that it rests at the door. For such are the thoughts of men: because no man knoweth their sin, they think it will remain secret and hid. But it is revealed and awakens where one is not pious, that is, believes that God wants to forgive it for Christ's sake.
So these short words, spoken in the manner of proverbs, contain an excellent teaching, namely, that nothing remains hidden, but everything is revealed; as Paul also says in 1 Tim. 5:24: "The sins of some men are revealed, that they may be judged beforehand. And especially we see and experience that God's judgment goes especially over gross sins. For many are murdered secretly, and yet through strange opportunities and means the perpetrators of such murderous deeds come to light. Therefore Adam admonishes his son not to dwell on his sin, for it will not remain hidden; but one will be found who will bring it to light and punish it. And it rhymes with this opinion that the poets paint Cupido (the desire) bare and blind. Because we let ourselves think that sin is secret and hidden, we think that other people do not see it either. But God reveals in the end even the most secret and hidden.
100 And this I consider to be the right and simple understanding of this text, namely, that Adam, as a father, admonishes his son to believe in God and the promised Seed, and God will be gracious to him. But if, he says, you indulge your lusts, your sin will rest, that is, it will seem to you that it is secret and hidden; but it will rest at the door, that is, in such a place that it will not rest long.
or hidden. For what lies outside the door is seen by everyone who goes in or out.
(101) As I said above, we should not forget the most important doctrine, how God has always let himself be seen and heard from the beginning of the world, that he is a judge between your flesh and spirit and does not look at the person. For Abel he regarded not for works, but for faith only, that he might sacrifice unto him. But he did not look upon Cain, nor did he hold to him, not because his work was not seemly or good enough, but because he was without faith, and it did not help him that he was the firstborn son.
102 And this is a strong argument against the Jews, who, as John 1:13 says, boasted of their blood, that they were Abraham's children. For if they were to be preferred because of their blood or lineage, Cain would have had much to boast about. For what is it that the Jews boast that God spoke to them through Moses? Shall we then consider Adam, the first teacher, to be a lesser teacher than Moses was? He was truly higher and greater in many ways. For he did not teach, as Moses did, how to circumcise people and perform other ceremonies, which were necessary for the wild and naughty people to prevent idolatry; but he taught how to believe in the promised seed, which would crush the serpent's head. But Cain's firstborn nor other advantages did not help him; for God looks only to faith in the promised Seed, as in the New Testament Paul clearly says: "Those who have faith are Abraham's children"; and John 1:12, 13: "To those He gave power to become children of God, who are not of the blood, nor of the will of the man, nor of the will of the flesh, but who believe in His name."
I consider this to be the right and proper meaning and opinion of this text. For first of all it agrees with the reason of the holy scripture and with the matter; secondly, against such an opinion is also the
Grammar does not, but it explains the thing still to be and some. But because the rabbis do not know the matter, it does not help and promote them anything that they know the words. For how foolish it is that some of them take the word, "It will be removed," as if Adam had meant to say, "You will be able to lift up the face that has now fallen and been disguised. Now and then, even the new teachers paint such foolish glances, although we should be grateful to them for their faithful work in giving the text grammatically, even though theology is needed that judges and teaches rightly about things alone.
But do not let her have her way, but rule over her.
Some have very foolishly tried to force this saying, as if free will could be proven with it; although it is clear that Adam does not think that Cain can do this, but only admonishes him and commands him to do it. But it does not follow that we can immediately do what we are commanded. The lust of sin, he says, is with you, that is, as Paul says Rom. 7:5: "Sin is in your members"; item Gal. 5:17."The flesh lusteth against the Spirit": but thou shalt not be condemned because thou feelest sin in thee: but if thy sin offend thee, be thou master of it by faith, and let it not have dominion over thee, lest thou perish: as Paul also commandeth Rom. 8:13, that the works of the flesh should be put to death by the Spirit.
(105) Therefore this saying is for us to learn from it how the Christian's life is in this flesh, namely, that it is an eternal battle of the spirit against sin. Whoever is lazy and does not prepare himself for this fight will easily be overcome. And it can be seen that Adam did not want to preach this sermon only to warn his son to beware of future sins, but also to comfort him with it; for he sees that the son has become sorrowful, because he was rejected by God, and sin now lies against him and wants to drive him to revenge. "But be thou," he says, "of sins.
Lord," you will find a gracious God who will forgive sin.
(106) And here is the word maschal, which the Lord also used above, when he said to the woman, "Let the man be thy master. For as he wills there that the woman should be subject to the man, obeying him, and not presuming to master all things, but since she will do so, the man should have power to punish her, and forbid her such things: so also he says here, Sin shall provoke thee, and bid thee revenge (for that is what is said here, her lust shall be toward thee); but say thou, Sin, I will not follow thee, and hold to thee, and be her lord. Therefore it is an exceeding comforting admonition, that because we are no longer under sin for the sake of the seed given, we shall be lord of sin. For Adam combines both the fear of God and faith. Because sin is at the door, we are to fear God, and because He is gracious and merciful, we are to believe Him.
Fourth Part.
How Cain murders his brother and is called to account for it, and how he acts on this.
V. 8. Then Cain talked with his brother Habel.
Our translation holds that Cain said to his brother: Let us go out. But the rabbis have also invented it, of whom I have said above how much they are to be believed. Lyra says that Aben Ezra writes that Cain told his brother how severely he was punished by the Lord. But who would believe that which has no testimony from Scripture? Therefore we retain the opinion that the Scriptures point to, namely, that now that Cain has been rejected, he gives way to his anger, and over and above the fact that he sinned before, he now also adds this and despises his parents and God's word, thinking thus: "To me, as a firstborn, the promised seed should rightly belong; but the loose and despised Abel, the firstborn, should have the promised seed.
is preferred to me by the divine prestige after the fire from heaven has burned and consumed his sacrifice. What do you want me to do? I will cover and conceal my anger until I see a convenient opportunity to take revenge on him.
Therefore I understand these words: "Cain talked with his brother", so that Cain did not let his anger against Abel be noticed, but behaved towards him as a brother, talked with him, dealt with him, as he was well satisfied with the divine judgment. As we have a similar example of Saul, that he showed himself friendly to David, and said 1 Sam. 24, 21: "I know that you will become king after me", but meanwhile he thinks how David might be killed and how this might be prevented. In the same way Cain may have spoken to Abel: I see that you are chosen by the Lord, therefore I grant you such grace and blessing. For so do hypocrites, giving good words and offering themselves for great friendship, until they have occasion to do harm.
109 And that it has this opinion here, the circumstances prove. For do you not think that if Adam and Eve could have had some suspicion of this murder, they would have punished Cain and kept him from it; or would have taken Abel away and helped him out of danger? But because they see Cain behaving differently and talking to Abel in a friendly manner, as if he were a brother, they think there is no danger and that their son will comply with his father's admonition. And this pretense also deceived Abel: for if he had worried about it before his brother, he would have fled, as Jacob flees when he fears Esau's wrath. What makes Jerome believe the rabbis and say that Cain quarreled with his brother?
Thus Cain is an image and figure of all murderers and hypocrites who murder the pious under a godly and good pretense. That is why he is possessed by the devil, keeps his anger secret, waits for the opportunity and talks kindly to Abel, as his dear brother, so that he can attack him the sooner without displeasure.
(111) Therefore this text belongs to teach us how murderers and hypocrites are accustomed to behave and to give confession. For this is certainly how it is: every Cain speaks brotherly to Abel, as one brother to another. Again, every Abel believes Cain as his brother, and is thus beaten to death, and the pious parents are also deceived. So now the pope and bishops speak and counsel much about the peace and unity of the church; but whoever does not understand the contradiction in their suggestions is truly deceived. For it is true, as the 28th Psalm v. 3. says: "The wicked and evil-doers speak kindly to their neighbor, and have evil in their heart"; for the nature of all hypocrites is this, that they lead a good appearance, speak kindly, pretend to be humble, patient, sweet, give alms, and yet their heart is full of murderous and poisonous suggestions.
Therefore we should learn to know Cain, and be most careful of him when he speaks in a friendly and brotherly manner, as with his brother; as now our adversaries, pope and bishops, speak with us, because they act as if they were serious about the unity of the church and seek comparisons of doctrine. But if they could have a convenient opportunity to fall upon us, to rave and rage, you would probably hear otherwise. For in their little pot nothing boils so surely as death, and under their kind and good words lies hidden all harmful poison.
And it came to pass, as they were in the field, that Cain rose up against his brother Habe, and slew him.
Here is the gloss of such kind words. Cain was admonished by his father in God's stead to beware of future sins and not to doubt that God would be kind and merciful and forgive his past sins. But what does he do? He despises both of these things and indulges in his sin, as all wicked people do; for Solomon, Proverbs 18:3, rightly says: "When the wicked man comes to the depth of sin, he despises his sins.
but shame and scorn overtake him."
Nowadays our ministry cannot be accused. We teach, exhort, plead, rebuke, and try in many ways to bring people from security to the fear of God: but the world opposes it like a wild beast, continues in security, and follows not God's word, but its lusts, which it wants to disguise with a good appearance. And how it happened to the prophets and apostles in this case, we have before our eyes and our own experience teaches us. For although our adversaries are so often admonished and convinced, and know themselves well that they are wrong, they nevertheless do not desist from this murderous hatred against us.
Therefore learn here what a hypocrite is, namely, one who pretends to serve God and his neighbor, yet does nothing less; but hinders and destroys the service of God and strangles his brother. For all false friendliness and dissimulation goes to the end that it may have the better opportunity to do harm. For if Abel had been so hardened in his wrath, and had been so devilishly angry, he would have thought for his life, and would have fled. But because Cain does not notice any of them, but speaks kindly to him, as he had done before, Abel is corrupted before he has any danger.
No doubt Abel, seeing that Cain had pressed upon him in earnest, would have pleaded with him and admonished him not to defile himself with such a sin. But because Cain's heart was possessed by the devil, he did not ask for his brother's plea or entreaty; but just as he had previously despised his father's faithful admonition, so he also despised his brother, even though he was already falling at his feet.
117 All of this teaches us what cruel tyranny the devil still practices daily in human nature, which he has previously defiled and burdened through sin; as Paul therefore calls us Ephesians 2:3, "children of wrath. 2, 3 "children of wrath". And 2 Tim. 2, 26. he says that we are caught in the snares of the devil, to his will. For if we
If we are nothing more than men, that is, if we do not keep faith with the blessed seed, we are all like Cain and lack nothing more than opportunity. For if our nature is left without the Holy Spirit, it is led and driven by the evil spirit, so that Cain was driven. Now if there should be in some men so much ability or free will that they could withstand the power of the devil, then such gifts should certainly have been in Cain, to whom the first-birth and the promise of the blessed seed were especially due. But it is the same with all: where our nature is not helped by the spirit of God, it cannot sustain itself. Why do we praise so many futile things of free will? Now follows another peculiar text:
V. 9 Then said the Lord unto Cain, Where is thy brother Habel? And he said: I know not; shall I be my brother's keeper?
Oh, dear God, how far poor human nature deteriorates when it is driven by the devil! Cain has now committed a death stroke, and perhaps the slain Abel has lain unburied for several days. Now when Cain comes home to his parents at the usual time, but Abel is absent, they become worried and say to Cain: "You are here, but where is Abel? you come home, but he is absent; the cattle go without their shepherd: therefore say where he is? Here Cain becomes angry, and answers with little reverence, "I know not; am I then set over my brother as keeper?"
119] And it happens to him what happens to all the wicked, namely, that they accuse and blame themselves the most when they want to excuse themselves; as Christ also said in Luc. 19:22: "From your words you will be judged, you servant of a fool. Thus the heathen have a fine saying: A liar must be careful, even though they have understood nothing of God's judgment and conscience, but have relied solely on experience in worldly affairs.
must judge and speak. For it is true that liars put themselves in much danger, and often speak against themselves in such a way that they can be proven to be lying in their own words. Therefore the Germans say in the proverb that lies are a fruitful thing; for one lie gives birth to seven others, so that one must feed and adorn the first one. Now it is impossible that the conscience should not once come out and betray itself, if not in words, then with gestures; as countless examples prove. But I will only mention one here.
In Thuringia there is a small town on the Orla, called Neustadt, where a whore strangled her own child, which she had given birth to secretly, and threw it into a pond. Now the matter comes before the authorities, who are simple-minded people and know no more convenient way to get to the bottom of such a deed than this: They summoned all the virgins in the town to the town hall and questioned each of them, since they could easily sense and note from the speeches and gestures of the others that they were innocent of it, except for one who had committed the deed. Since the one who had committed this evil deed had been summoned, she did not wait until she was asked, but soon came forward, made a great noise and said that she was innocent of such a deed; from this she soon became suspected by the authorities that she did not have to be so innocent, because she had apologized so highly before all the others. They therefore had her seized by the guards, whereupon she soon confessed that she had strangled the child. Such examples happen a lot every day, as people make themselves suspect with many excuses and accuse and betray themselves. For it is true, as has been said above, that sin rests, but at the door.
But Cain thinks he is excused because he says he was not appointed as his brother's keeper. But what else does he do, because he calls his brother, but that he is not his brother's keeper?
he confesses that he should be his guardian? Doesn't he also accuse himself of being a stranger against his brother, also gives the parents this suspicion that they worry that there must have been a murder, because Abel is nowhere to be found? In paradise Adam also apologized and blamed Eve. But Cain's excuse is much more foolish here. For in excusing his sin, he does nothing but make two sins out of one, whereas a sincere confession of sins obtains grace and overcomes wrath.
In the history of St. Martin, we read that when he had absolved some great and great sinners at one time, the devil punished him and asked, "Why is he doing this? Then St. Martin answered him: Why should he not do it? He would have absolved him if he had said from his heart that he was sorry and repented that he had sinned against the Son of God and asked for mercy. But the devil does not do that, but he insists on his sin and defends it.
This father of lies is followed by Cain and all hypocrites, who either deny or excuse their sin; therefore they cannot come to forgiveness. For we see at home in our houses that when one has sinned and still wants to excuse and defend himself, the wrath becomes greater and greater. For if the wife, children, or servants have done something and have sinned, and still deny it, the father of the house becomes much more angry; but since the sin is confessed, it is either forgiven, or some of the punishment is lessened. Now this is really the way of hypocrites, that they cover up or deny their sin and strangle the innocent under a holy pretense.
Here let us see how the sins increase and follow one another. First, Cain sins with his presumption and unbelief that he is superior to the firstborn, thinking that God will be pleased with him because of his merit. This hope and glory of his own righteousness is followed by envy and hatred against his brother, after he has certain signs that he is preferred to him. This envy and hatred is followed by hypocrisy.
and lies, that he promises his brother, whom he wants to have dead, friendly, so that he makes him the more secure. Hypocrisy is followed by death; death is followed by the fact that he still wants to excuse the sin. The last degree, which soon follows, is despair, which is finally the heavy fall from heaven into hell.
Although Adam and Eve do not deny their sin in paradise, they confess it very weakly and coldly, and blame it one on the other, Adam on Eve, Eve on the serpent. Cain, however, goes even further; for he not only does not confess the death blow, but also lets himself be told that his brother is none of his business, that he should look after him and take care of him. Thus he sufficiently shows that his heart is turned away from his brother. Because Adam and Eve therefore confess their sin, even though coldly, they are forgiven and are punished more easily; Cain, however, because he so stubbornly denies, is rejected and falls into despair. Our Cainites, popes, bishops and cardinals also have to provide themselves with such a judgment, who, although they strive day and night for murder and death, still speak like their father Cain, they know nothing about it.
In common parlance one says: What do the Romans care that the Greeks die? For we think that no danger concerns us but our own. But how is this consistent with God's command that we all live among ourselves as brothers? Therefore Cain accuses himself harshly with this one, saying that his brother is none of his business. If he had said to his father, "Alas, I have strangled him, and now I am sorry; punish me as you will," counsel would have been found. But because he denies the sin and does not want to accept his brother against God's commandment, his sin is increased and there remains no hope of grace.
(127) And Moses has put these words with special diligence as a testimony and memorial to all hypocrites, whom he describes masterfully and shows how horribly they are seized by the devil and embittered against God, his word and church. For this murderer, Cain, did not have enough of it, that he
had slain his brother against God's commandment, but he continued in sin, and when God asked him about his brother, he was also angry with him. But I say, therefore, that God asked him, that though Adam spoke thus to his son, yet he did it by divine authority and by the Holy Spirit. But is this not a kind word in such an abominable sin: "Where is thy brother Habet?" Nor does the hypocrite and murderer answer so defiantly and arrogantly that he says he does not know, and is still angry at being spoken to about it. For such is the word of a stiff-necked spirit that is angry against God.
To this sin he adds a worse one. For when he is to be accused of the murder he committed, he goes to accuse God and wrangles with Him, saying, "Am I set up as my brother's keeper? He also honors neither God nor his father. For he does not say, "Lord, I do not know;" he does not say, "Father, have you made me a guardian over him?" for that would have been a sign of reverence toward God or his father; but he answers defiantly, as if he were the Lord himself, and makes it publicly known that it displeases him to be spoken to and asked by the one who had the power to do it.
This is the right painting of all hypocrites, who are still very stiff-necked and hopeful in public sins and yet want to be taken for the holy of holies; they do not want to yield to God and His word when He punishes, but oppose Him, quarrel with Him and excuse their sin; as the 51st Psalm v. 6 also says that God is judged by men, but in the end He remains righteous. Such a stubbornness of the hypocrites Moses wanted to depict here.
But what is the result of such presumption? Namely, that he accuses and blames himself most severely by excusing himself too much; as Christ Luc. 19, 22. also says: "From your words I judge you, you rascal." For the same servant, wishing to be esteemed holy and pious, said vv. 24, 25: "Lord, I knew that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou didst not sow; therefore thou art a hard man.
I have hidden my penny." How could this servant have accused himself more harshly? Just as Christ turns these words against him. This is the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
131. But these examples serve us not to fight against God; but if you find in your conscience that you are guilty, beware of it with great diligence, lest you quarrel either with God or man, excusing yourself and defending your sin; but do thus to Him: If God holds and aims his spear at you, do not turn away or run away from him, but rather have recourse to him with humble confession of your sin and ask for mercy, and he will stop and spare you. On the other hand, since he comes so much closer to you and is so much more hostile to you, so much further do you dare to flee from him by denying and excusing sin. Therefore, nothing is better, nor more certain, than to come before God with confession of sins; for in this way it happens that because God wins and overcomes, we also overcome through Him.
This is not what Cain and the hypocrites do, but when God turns his spear against them, not only do they not humble themselves and ask for forgiveness, but they also hold a spear against God, as Cain does here. He does not say, "Lord, I confess that I have slain my brother, forgive me for it;" but regardless of the fact that he is to be blamed, he blames God and says, "Have I been set up as a guardian over my brother? But what else does he accomplish with this defiance, but that he freely confesses that he asks nothing according to this commandment Deut. 19:18: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"; item, according to this Matt. 7:12: "Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you." For this law is not only written in the Ten Commandments, but is also written in the hearts of all men; nor does Cain fight against it, and testifies himself that he does not ask anything about it, but despises it.
133 Therefore Cain is an image and an example of a man who is not of simple wickedness, but of deep and great wickedness, namely, who is
is a bloodhound and yet a hypocrite and wants to be considered holy; he also wants to accuse God himself rather than be considered the one to be accused. This is what all hypocrites do, blaspheme God and crucify His Son, and yet they want to be righteous. For when they have committed death, blasphemy and all kinds of sins, they seek how they can excuse and cover them up. But in this way they give themselves away and are condemned by their own judgment.
Thus, because Cain wants to be too pure, he stains himself most ugly and thinks he is doing well by saying, "Shall I take care of my brother? But with this very answer he accuses himself most shamefully. So that in every way, as Hilarius says, ungodly nature and foolishness are together. For if Cain had been as wise as he is wicked, he would have excused himself much in another way. But now, because God so ordains that ungodly and foolish must be with one another, he accuses himself. And for this reason it is easy to defend the truth against the adversaries. For just as Cain bears witness to himself with words and actions that he does not respect his brother, but is an enemy to him, so they also reveal their ungodly nature in many ways.
Therefore, great and important things, from which much can be learned, are held up to us here, namely, that God does not allow hypocrites to remain hidden for long, but forces them to make themselves known when they think and deal with how they can cleverly conceal and cover their hypocrisy and sin.
But Moses is not of so many words in describing such things as the pagans, who often decorate and adorn an argument or argument in this and that way. Thus we also learn that no human eloquence can paint or reach the concerns and emotions of the heart, and it often happens that with many words one makes an emotion that one wants to describe darker and smaller than it is in itself. That is why Moses leads a different way and shows whole heaps of arguments with few words.
137 For above (v. 8) he said: "It happened while they were in the field. With these words he indicates that the murderer Cain had seen on this occasion how he could make himself over his brother if he were alone; so the circumstances indicate sufficiently that Abel will not have been idle at that time. For he was in the field, doing the work that his father had given him to do. Here Moses also shows that the parents did not worry about any danger. For though they feared at first that Cain's anger might break out into greater sin, yet Cain, with his good words and false kindness, had brought it about that they could have no further evil suspicion of him. For if they had had some suspicion of him, they would certainly not have let Abel go to the field alone, but would have given him his sisters, of whom he would undoubtedly already have had several; or the parents themselves would have stayed with him and by their reputation would have encouraged such an atrocious deed. I have also said above that Abel was therefore secure in his heart and never thought about it; otherwise he would have fled if he had suspected something bad about his brother. But when he hears that Cain is well pleased with God's judgment and is pleased with his honor, he does his work in the field without worry or fear.
138. But which speaker could sufficiently state here that Moses says with one word that Cain has rebelled against his brother? One finds certainly now and then many horrible words, so that one expresses and indicates cruel deeds; but how can Cain's misdeed be painted more horrible and more terrible, than it stands here painted? "He rose up," says Moses, "against his brother," as if he wanted to say: He was Cain's brother, with whom he had also been brought up and had lived and dealt with until then. But Cain not only forgets such friendship and fellowship, but he also forgets that he and his brother Abel had lain under one heart. So he also does not consider what a heartache he caused to his parents with a
Nor should it be considered that this was his brother, who had never done him any harm. For although Abel had received the praise that he had made a pleasant sacrifice, Cain knew well that Abel had not sought it, nor had he asked for it, but that it had been done by God. Finally, he did not consider himself, that after he had been in the highest favor and esteem of his parents, he would easily lose it with this misdeed and fall into the greatest anger and displeasure.
One reads of a painter who had painted the history of Iphigenia, how she was slaughtered and sacrificed. And after he had painted everyone who stood by and watched, with such a gesture that one could see that such a thing went to his heart and had compassion, he had covered up her father's head, which had also been at this spectacle, to indicate that in such a case, one could not show the parents' great sorrow and affect, nor paint it.
I think that Moses did the same here, because he reports the history of how such an atrocious deed happened with only one word: "Cain was enraged. How much essence should Cicero or Livius make of it, who would describe all circumstances in detail: namely, how Cain would have been enraged, and his brother would have been frightened, lamented, wrung his hands before him and begged for mercy? Nor would that be enough to say about it. Therefore Moses is right to describe such a thing, of which one cannot say enough, only a little, and with few words he gives instructions to think about such things, which are obscured and obscured with many vain words, like a beautiful face with painted color.
So also, when he goes on to say, "He struck him dead," he is not talking about a common death blow, as we see that people sometimes do harm and murder for little cause. For such death-slayers are frightened and grieved soon after the deed is done; they also feel sorry and see how the devil has blinded them.
But Cain is not frightened, nor does he repent, but denies the deed.
Of such a devilish hatred of the hypocrites, which cannot be satisfied, Christ speaks when he says John 16:2: "Whoever kills you will think he is doing God a service": how the priests and kings flooded Jerusalem and filled it with the blood of the prophets, and triumphed over it, as if they had done it well, because they considered it a zeal for the law and the temple of God.
143) Such tyranny is now also practiced by the pope and bishops, who are not satisfied by the fact that they have so often banished us and shed our blood, but they also want to eradicate our name and destroy it from the land of the living; just as the 137th Psalm v. 7. points to such hatred and resentment: "Those who say, 'Clean off, clean off,' even to their own soil. Such is a devilish and not human hatred and resentment. For human anger and resentment diminishes with time, and at least ceases when a man has avenged himself and cooled his temper: but such Pharisaic resentment daily increases and grows stronger; for it is cloaked with a good appearance of piety and godliness.
Therefore Cain is the father of all such murderers, who kill the saints, and know not the measure nor the manner of their wrath, because there remaineth a little hernia of them; as the Lord Christ's example also showeth. For of this there is no doubt, Cain will have hoped to keep the honor of the firstborn, if only Abel were suppressed and killed. In the same way, the wicked think, they will also promote their tyranny; but when they find that their hope has been in vain, they fall into despair.
What do we think now, what a miserable being, lamenting and sighing will have been found, since such an atrocious deed will have come before the parents? But I will keep silent about it, because it takes a man who is eloquent and thoughtful. But it is a great wonder that they did not soon die of grief. For this makes all harm greater and more dreadful, that their firstborn son, who had been well behaved
and good hope was upon him, had committed such a miserable and atrocious murder.
If Adam and Eve had not received special help and consolation from God, they would not have been able to overcome this domestic misery, for it is such a trade that no one knows of. That is why they did not have this consolation, to which we commonly turn in sudden and unforeseen accidents, namely, that the same thing had happened to others, and we were not the only ones to whom it happened etc. For Adam and Eve at that time had no more than these two sons; although I believe they also had daughters; therefore they had none of the examples of other people, of which we have many in all kinds of accidents.
Who would doubt that Satan did not increase and increase the heartache of the first parents with a new temptation? For so they will have thought: Behold, this is the fault of our sins, that in paradise we wished to be like God, and through sin we became like the devil: this also happened to our son, whom alone we loved and held great, but the other, who was pious, we regarded as nothing in comparison with him. We also hoped that he would be the one to crush the serpent's head, and behold, he himself was crushed by the serpent, yes, he also became like the serpent, because he became a murderer. But where does this come from? Is it not true that it comes from the fact that he is our son and born of us, and we are also born of sin? Therefore, this misery has come from our flesh and from our sin.
Therefore it is to be believed, and is also shown by the order and number of years, that the afflicted parents will have been so frightened and afflicted by this fall that they will have abstained from childbearing for a long time. For it can be seen that Cain, at the time he committed the murder, was at his thirty years, under or over; between that time they may have had several daughters.
have. For when it is said that Cain took a wife, he undoubtedly took one of his sisters. And he himself says afterwards v. 14, 15: "Whoever finds me will strike me dead, but the Lord made a sign on him that no one should strike him dead. Therefore it is believable that Adam had more children at that time. But that only these two, Cain and Abel, are mentioned, is for the sake of this excellent and remarkable history; item, because these were the first and foremost. For I fully believe that Adam and Eve were very fruitful for the first thirty years and begat many children. One also finds something of Adam's daughters Calmana and Dibora; I do not know, however, whether those who write it are also to be believed. Since one sees from Moses that Seth was born a long time after this death blow, it seems to me to be quite credible that the first parents, Adam and Eve, were so much frightened by this house disaster and terrible misfortune and were grieved by it that they abstained from childbearing for a long time. All this Moses does not report at all, but only recently indicates that the reader should have reason to further think about and contemplate this excellent history, which he hardly sketches with very few words and indicates from afar.
Now I come back to the text. Cain is evil and a mischievous man, and yet he is regarded and respected by his parents as a special gift of God. On the other hand, Abel, according to his name, is not considered anything by them, but before God he is a righteous, holy man; as Christ also told him in Matth.
23, 35 and calls him the "righteous Abel". But Cain cannot stand this divine judgment and not only thinks that he could satisfy and quench his resentment if he had struck his brother dead, but also thinks of keeping the firstborn in this way. But he is still far from these thoughts that he sins by this death blow. Because he is the firstborn, he thinks he is free to do so and is well justified in striking him to death, as I consider it, not with iron weapons.
(for these were not yet in use at that time), but rather with a shillelagh or stone.
After the deed is done, he is satisfied and thinks that it can remain secret and concealed, because the body is hidden and out of sight; which he either buried himself or threw into some water, so that he could be all the more certain that it could not be found by the parents. Because Abel stayed away a little longer than he was used to and did not come home, the Holy Spirit instructed Adam to ask Cain in these words: "Where is your brother Habel? And here it comes to pass that Adam's prophecy and preaching, of which we have just heard, comes true, that sin rests at the door. But Cain thinks that he has put his sin to rest and into a hidden place. And it is so: for sin resteth, but at the door. But who opens the door? The Lord, who awakens this sin that is at rest and hidden, and brings it to light.
This is how it must be with all. For if you do not come first by repentance and confess your sin to God, God comes and reveals the sin, for He cannot suffer anyone to deny his sin. As also the 32nd Psalm v. 3. 4. says: "Since I wanted to conceal it, my bones faded away, and my sap dried up, as it becomes dry in summer." For though sin has its rest and quietness, yet it is a rest at the door that cannot long endure nor be hidden.
I understand that Moses says that the Lord spoke in this way, as it was said above that Adam spoke through the Holy Spirit, as in the person of God, which he conducted as a father against his son; therefore, this form of the Holy Spirit to speak boasts and affirms the parents' office and authority, namely, that the children hear God and are obedient to God when they hear the parents and are obedient to them. And I believe that Adam recognized and knew from the revelation of the Holy Spirit that Abel had been slain. For he passes judgment on a death blow, when Cain says nothing about it, but diligently conceals and hides it.
Fifth part.
How Cain is punished because of his murder.
153. How do you think that Eve will have been upset when she has heard such things? Because it is actually such a heartache, which has not been able to say. Now this sorrow hit Adam the closest. Because he is a father, he must officially punish his son and banish him for his sin. For though he does not strike him dead again (for the law that murderers should be struck dead again is not given until after this, in the ninth chapter, since the patriarchs saw that there was much strangling and killing), but keeps him by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with a sign that no one should kill him: yet it is a great punishment that is laid upon him and all his descendants. For by reason of the curse upon his body, he must also be cast out of the house, and driven away from his parents, brothers and sisters, who after him remained with the parents, as with the church.
Now Adam could not have done this without great heartache, so Eve could not have heard it; for father is father and son is son: therefore he would much rather have spared him and kept him at home. As we see, the slain are at times reconciled and made up with the friendship and brothers of those who are slain. Here, however, there is no reconciliation, but Cain has to be fugitive from the earth. Therefore the parents have two kinds of sorrow and heartache. For they see that one son is slain, but the other must be banished by God's judgment and cast out from the community of the other brothers.
When I speak of the ban and the expulsion from the church, you do not have to look at our church, which is large, wide and made of hewn stones. For Adam's church or temple has been a tree or hill in the open air, under which
they gathered together when they heard God's word and wanted to sacrifice, for which they had erected and elevated altars: and God was with them when they sacrificed or heard God's word, as Abel's example shows. Other histories also show that the altars stood in the open air and that sacrifices were made on them. How it would be good for many reasons that people would still come together in a free place under heaven, kneel there together, pray, worship, thank God, bless each other etc.
From such a temple or church, which was not in a certain place, Cain is cast out, and thus punished twice: first with a bodily punishment, that the earth is "cursed", and the badge of a murderer is attached to him; secondly with a spiritual punishment, that he is expelled by the ban, just as from another paradise and church of God.
The jurists also use this text, and make great use of it, that the Lord first inquires into the whole transaction before he passes judgment. This means that no one is to be condemned unless the matter has been thoroughly investigated beforehand, and the culprit has been summoned to court and ordered to confess the crime. As it says above in Genesis 3:9 about Adam: "And the Lord called Adam, and said, Where art thou? And afterwards in the 11th Cap. V. 5: "The Lord came down to see" etc.
But let us leave this worldly doctrine and look at the most beautiful and theological doctrine and consolation, namely, that the Lord asks about Abel who died. For here the resurrection of the dead is clearly indicated; for God here testifies that He is a God of the dead Abel and asks after the dead Abel. For from this we conclude that if there were no one to take care of us after this life, then the slain Abel would not have been inquired about. But now God asks about Abel as he is dead, does not want him to be forgotten but remembered, and asks where he is. Therefore God is a God of the dead, that is, therefore even the dead live and have a God who provides for them and makes them blessed in one.
Another life, which is much different from this temporal life in which the saints are troubled.
For this reason, this text should be noted, that God takes care of Abel, who is dead, and for his sake rejects and condemns Cain, the firstborn and the living. This is truly a great and important thing. The dead Abel lives, and is canonized by God Himself in another life, better and more glorious than all those whom the Pope has ever canonized. The living Cain, however, is excommunicated and dies an eternal death. Abel's death is indeed cruel and terrible, because he did not suffer death without great agony and torture and without many tears; but nevertheless it is in truth a salvific death, because he is now in a better life than before. For in this temporal life we live in sins and are subject to death; but that life is eternal and without all physical and spiritual distress and affliction.
God does not ask about strangled sheep and dead cattle, but He asks about dead people. Thus it follows that men have to hope for a resurrection and have such a God who leads them out of bodily death into eternal life and asks for their blood as a precious and valuable thing; as the 116th Psalm v. 15 also says: "The death of his saints is worthy in the sight of the Lord."
161. and this is the glory of the human race, acquired from the seed that tramples the serpent's head. For this is the first example of this promise, which happened to Adam and Eve, so that God would show that the serpent does not harm Abel, even though it causes him to be strangled. For this is it that it bites the seed of the woman in the heel, but in biting it, its head is crushed. For God asks for the dead Abel's blood for the sake of faith in the promised Seed, thus indicating that He is His God, as the following words also indicate.
V. 10 And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of your brother's blood cried out to me from the earth.
Until now Cain's sin has rested at the door, and we have heard enough how much he has tried to have rest. For when he is asked where Abel is, he answers that he does not know, and becomes a liar in addition to being a murderer. But the same answer shows sufficiently that these words were said by Adam himself and not by the divine majesty. For he thinks that his father, as a man, would not know about this sin, which he could not think of the divine majesty. Therefore, if God had spoken to him, he would have answered differently. But now he thinks that he is dealing with a man alone, he denies the deed and says: "I do not know. For how many dangerous ways can a man perish? One is eaten by wild animals, another drowns, the third perishes in another way.
Therefore Cain never thinks that his father should suspect him of having slain his brother. But he cannot deceive the Holy Spirit who is in Adam. Therefore he accuses him publicly in the person of God, saying, "What have you done?" As if to say, "Why should you deny the deed? You will not be able to deceive God, who has revealed this to me. You think that your brother's blood is now buried and covered in the earth, but it is not covered and covered at all, but it calls out to God from the earth. That is, I mean, to awaken and bring to light the sin that rests at the door.
Therefore, this text is full of comfort against the murderers and enemies of the Church. For it teaches us that our suffering, blood and death, fills heaven and earth with their cry. That is why I believe that Cain was so shocked and dismayed in his heart at the words of his father, "What have you done? For he must have thought: "Since my father knows about the death stroke I have committed, there is no doubt that God, the angels, heaven and earth will also know. Where shall I unhappy
What is the best place for me to go? Where should I go in or out?
And this still happens today to the murderers. As soon as they have committed the deed, they are so frightened and troubled in their conscience that they freeze and are dismayed and think that heaven and earth have changed and do not know where to flee to; as the poets also speak of Orestes, that he has become insane from fear. Such a terrible thing is the calling of blood and evil conscience.
This also happens in other grievous sins, and those who are afflicted with sadness of spirit feel that they are just as frightened, for they make themselves believe that all creatures have changed. When they talk to people they know and hear them, they think that their voices and gestures have changed; wherever they turn their eyes, they think that everything is black and horrible. Such a cruel and terrible beast is an evil conscience. And where such people are not particularly comforted by God and raised up again, they must take their own lives from despair, fear and impatience over their pain.
But Moses speaks briefly here, as he is wont to do, but in such a way that one could not speak of it more expansively. And this is first of all a fine figure, that he assigns a "voice" to the blood, which fills heaven and earth with its cry. For how can this be a small or little voice that God hears from the earth above in heaven? Therefore, since Abel was gentle and quiet before, when he was still alive and endured violence, now, when he has died and is buried in the earth, he becomes impatient about the injustice; and since he was not allowed to speak a word against his brother before, now he cries out indignantly, and makes God angry with his cry, so that he has to descend from heaven and denounce and punish the murderer. Therefore Moses also needs a complete word here. He does not say: "The voice of your brother speaks", but "shouts"; like the crier does, who calls the people together with a loud voice.
168 But all these things are written, as I have said above, that
We see that our God is merciful and loves his saints, takes care of them and asks for them: but again he is angry with the murderers, is hostile to them and wants to punish them. And such comfort is especially necessary. For when we have to suffer, we think that God has forgotten us and asks nothing more about us: for if he would take care of us, we think, such suffering and misfortune would not befall us. And Abel might also have thought: God does not ask anything about me, otherwise he would not have let me be strangled so miserably by my brother.
But see what follows. Doesn't God take care of Abel more and more diligently than he could have taken care of himself? For how could Abel have avenged himself on his brother while he was alive, than God avenges him now that he is dead? And how could he have held such terrible judgment over his brother while he was alive, as God holds over him here? For now the blood of Abel cries out, who was gentle and quiet during his life; item, Abel now accuses his brother before God that he is a killer, since he concealed and tolerated all his brother's violence during his life. For who betrays Cain that he has strangled his brother more than, as the text says, "the blood" of Abel, which fills the ears of God and men with constant cries until they are displeased?
This, I say, is very comforting, especially to us who have to suffer all kinds of persecution from the pope and godless princes for the sake of doctrine; for they have exercised the highest power and tyranny over us: thus, not in Germany alone, but also in other places throughout Europe, they have raged against devout Christians: still the whole pabstry makes a joke of such sin and despises it, yes, still considers it worship. Therefore it still rests at their door, but will be revealed in its time. For the blood of the fine martyr Leonhard Kayser, shed in Bavaria, is not silent. The blood of Heinrich von Zütphen, shed in Dietmarn, is also silent. Likewise, the blood of D. Antonius, an Englishman, whom the English cruelly and unheard of strangled, is not silent. That I
Others, of whom there are many thousands, let alone those who were not so famous because of their name, have also confessed their faith and become martyrs. The blood of all such will not be silent, but God will come down from heaven in his time and bring judgment on earth, which will be so heavy and unbearable for the enemies of the gospel.
Therefore, we must not think that God will not respect our blood; nor must we think that He will not take care of our suffering; but He will also count our tears in His sackcloth, as the 56th Psalm v. 9 speaks of. Thus the cry of the blood of the righteous pervades the heavens and the clouds until it comes to the throne of God and drives him to avenge the blood of the righteous, Ps. 79:10, 11.
172. But as these things are written for our consolation, so they are written for the terror of our adversaries. For what do you think is more terrible for tyrants to hear than that the blood of those they have slain should cry out and constantly accuse them before God? God is long-suffering, especially now that the end of the world has come. Therefore, sin rests for a long time and vengeance does not follow immediately. But it is certainly true that this sin enrages God the most, so it will never go unpunished.
I do not believe, however, that this judgment on Cain was passed soon after the first day, but that it will have taken several days. For God is long-suffering by nature, and waits to see if sinners will repent; but for this reason He does not always remit punishment, for He is a righteous judge of the dead and the living, as we confess in our faith. We also see that he holds this judgment soon in the beginning of the world over these two brothers. The living murderer he judges and condemns, but the dead Abel he justifies. He expels Cain and drives him into such fear that he thinks the whole world is too narrow for him; for he feels that he is nowhere safe after he sees that God wants to avenge such blood. But again he lets Abel be safe and have good space
not only on earth, but also in heaven.
How can we still doubt that God counts and considers the sufferings and afflictions of His own in His heart? that He also misses our tears and writes them on diamond tablets, from which the enemies of the church can in no way erase them, unless they repent righteously. Manasseh was the greatest tyrant and the most horrible persecutor of the pious, 2 Kings 21:1 ff; therefore he could not pay for such sins with his misery and imprisonment; but since he recognizes his sin and repents righteously, God shows him mercy, 2 Chronicles 33:12, 13. 33, 12. 13. Thus Paul, Acts 9, 6., so also popes and bishops have this one way before them, that they recognize their sin and ask for forgiveness. If they do not do this, God will demand the blood of the pious from their hands in wrath; let no one doubt it.
Abel is strangled, but Cain is still alive. But, dear God, what a miserable life this is! For he would well wish that he had never been born, because he hears that he will not only be cast out, but must also face the vengeance of sins and death every moment. And it will be the same for our adversaries and persecutors of the church in his time.
V.11. And now cursed be thou upon the earth, which hath opened her mouth, and received thy brother's blood at thy hands.
So far we have heard how Cain's sin was revealed through Abel's blood and how he was convicted of it by his father Adam. Item, that God's judgment was passed on these two brothers in such a way that the one was not only justified, but also canonized and declared a saint, as a firstborn of this given seed; but the other, who was the firstborn, was condemned and cast out, as the following text indicates. Now Moses continues and tells the punishment that followed this death blow.
177 And it is first of all particularly well to note
The diligence of the Holy Spirit. For since Adam is punished above because of sin, Adam's person is not cursed, but only the earth; yet not in a bad way, but as it were an excuse is added to the earth. For it says above, "Cursed be the ground for your sake"; as Paul also says in Romans 8:20 that the creature is subject to vanity without its will. For because it has borne sinful man, it must also, as an instrument, bear the curse; as the sword, gold, and such like things are often cursed, because thereby men sin. This is the most beautiful dialectic, so that the Holy Spirit thus makes a distinction between the earth and Adam. He puts the curse on the earth, but he preserves the person.
But here the Holy Spirit speaks differently of Cain, for he curses the person. Why? Did the death-slayer Cain commit a greater sin than Adam and Eve? No, but because Adam was the root, and from his blood and flesh Christ, the blessed seed, was to be born. Therefore this seed is spared, and for the sake of this blessed fruit the curse is taken from Adam's person and placed on the earth, so that Adam suffers the curse of the earth, but not on his person, because from his lineage Christ was to be born.
179 Because Cain fell from this honor through sin, his person is cursed, and it is said to him, "Cursed be you," so that we may understand that he is set apart from the honor of the promised seed, and that he should not have such a seed in his lineage, through which the blessing should come. Therefore he is altogether cut off and excluded from this glorious honor of the seed to come. For Abel was now killed, therefore he could not have children, but Adam must serve God for the rearing of children, and after Cain is rejected, the hope of the blessed seed remains on him alone until Seth is born to him.
180. they are short words, but well worthy of much and diligent consideration, that it may be said to Cain, "Cursed be thou"; that is, thou art not the one of whom
the blessed seed is to be hoped for. With this word Cain was excommunicated and cut off like a branch from the trunk, so that he could no longer hope for the honor he desired. For he desired that the honor of blessing might come from him, but the more he desired it, the less he obtained it. As happens to all the wicked, the more they strive and try to do their thing, the more they fall.
181 And here there are two churches which are most vehemently opposed to each other. One is Adam's and all believers', who have the hope and promise of the blessed seed; the other is Cain's, who has lost this hope and promise through sin and cannot come back to it. For Cain's whole lineage perished in the flood, so that there was not a single prophet, not a single saint, nor a single head of the true church from his lineage. So even with this one word, that it is said to him: "Cursed be you", everything is denied and taken away from him.
But it is written: "on earth", which word is as it were a relief of this terrible anger. For if he had said "in heaven," he would have completely taken away all hope of happiness from his race. Because he says that he will be cursed on earth, he threatens him that he will be deprived of the hope and promise of the seed; but it still happened that some individuals from Cain's lineage went to Adam by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and were saved, as happened afterwards. For although the Jews alone had the honor and promise of this seed (as the 147th Psalm, v. 20, says: "He does not do this to a Gentile"), the Gentiles, that I may speak thus, had the right to beg, and out of God's mercy received this very benefit, which the Jews had for the sake of the truth or promise of God.
183 Thus the Moabites and Ammonites were denied the rule of the church; and yet there were many individuals among them who followed the religion of the Jews.
have accepted. Thus Cain and his family were deprived of the right to sit at table in the church, but they were neither denied nor deprived of the right to beg for this grace. For although Cain was forbidden the right to sit at table because of his sin, he still had the right to pick up the pieces with his dogs if he wanted to. This is what the word minhaadamah means, "on the earth".
For this reason I wanted to indicate that it seems credible that many of Cain's descendants went to the holy patriarchs. But there were private persons in the church and outside of the office and regiment, as those who had completely lost the promise of the aebenedeieten seed, which should be born from their body. Now it is a great thing that one loses the promise, but nevertheless this curse is so alleviated that the right to beg is still left to them and heaven is not denied to them, if they would only keep to the right church.
But Cain undoubtedly undertook to prevent this in many ways. For he established new services and invented new ceremonies, so that one would think he was also the church. Those who therefore fell away from him and gathered to the true church have been saved, even though they had no hope of the glory of Christ being born from their bodies. Now we come back to the text.
This is a strange figure of speech, that Moses speaks of the earth as of a beast that opened its mouth and drank Abel's innocent blood. But how is it that he accuses the earth in such a horrible way, which did not give its advice? Yes, that is even more, because the earth is a good creature of God, this happened against its will and with reluctance; as Paul says Rom. 8, 20, that "the creature is subject to vanity against its will". Answer: This is done for the terror of Adam and all his descendants, that they should live in the fear of God and beware of death. For Adam wants to say: Behold, the earth has opened its mouth.
and your brother's blood devoured, which should have devoured you murderer. The earth is good to the pious and godly, but to the wicked it is full of clefts. Adam speaks such horrible words to frighten and disgrace the slayers. And there is no doubt that when Cain heard such angry words from his father, he, like Judas, would have been so startled and dismayed within himself that he would not have known which way to turn. For these words: "Who has taken your brother's blood from your hands", are horrible words and express the cruel evil of the death stroke more clearly and distinctly than one could paint them.
V. 13: When you build the field, he will not give you his property.
To Adam he said above, "The earth shall bear thee thorns and thistles," but here he speaks differently, saying, "Thou hast watered and fertilized the earth, not with a wholesome and fruitful rain, but with the blood of thy brother; therefore it shall bear thee less than it bears others, because the blood which thou hast shed thereon shall hinder its strength and capacity. This is the other part of the punishment, namely the bodily curse, that the same earth, built by Adam and Cain at the same time, should be more fertile for Adam and bear more according to his work than for Cain, to whom it will not give its ability after his work because of the blood, which hinders the earth, which nevertheless wanted to give its fruits gladly according to its strength and ability.
But here we must also say something of the grammar that Moses calls the earth haadamah in this place here; but in the following saying: "Inactive and transient you shall be on earth", erez stands. Now adamah is called according to the grammar such a place or place of the earth, which one builds and on it trees are and other plants, which serve for the food. Erez is the name of the whole earth, whether it is built or unbuilt. Therefore this cursing goes especially to the earth or field, which one builds for the need and food, that where Adam carries an ear three hundred grains, Cain,
the death-slayer, who hardly gets ten of them, so that he sees evidence everywhere that God is hostile to bloodshed and punishes it.
You shall be inactive and fleeting on earth.
This is the third punishment, which is still seen and nourished in all murderers. For where they are not tolerated, they have nowhere a certain seat, nor a certain place, and here are two words, no vanod, "inactive and fleeting." I use to distinguish between these, that no means an uncertainty or inactivity of the place where one is; as now and the Jews are inactive, because they have no certain nor fixed place, and must worry every hour that they are called to wander. Nod, however, signifies an uncertainty of the place which one desires and brings up according to it; that if one has no certain place where one can stay, this is added, that if one must vacate such an unstable or uncertain place, one does not know where to go further. So that there are two punishments in one, namely, that one cannot stay, nor know where to go, if one is driven out of an uncertain place. Thus it is written in the 109th Psalm, v. 10: Venoa januu banav, "His children must go astray", that is, they must not find a certain place anywhere, so that if they are in Greece one year, they must wander the other year in Italy and so on.
(190) How miserable the Jews are now, for they have nowhere to put themselves. But in addition to this misery, God also imposes another on Cain, that when he is driven out of a place and expelled, he should not know where he will go out; that he must therefore float between heaven and earth and sit nowhere with certainty, nor have a certain place either for a dwelling or for a refuge.
191 Thus one sin is avenged with three kinds of punishment. Firstly, Cain is deprived of the spiritual honor or church government, because the promise of the sacrilegious seed, which was to be born of his lineage, is taken away from him. Secondly, he will be deprived of the earth; this is the house punishment. Thirdly, he will have to live in the
To go astray and have no lasting place is the worldly punishment.
And yet the way to the church remains open to him, but without promise. For if, as I have said, some of his descendants have kept to the true church and the holy patriarchs, they have been saved. So also the housekeeping remains for him, but without blessing; item, the police that he can build a city and live there, but must be uncertain how long. Therefore he is a real beggar in the church, housekeeping and police.
193 But with this punishment is this mitigation, that he is not slain again soon for the sake of the death stroke, as the law of the death slayers is given afterwards; but that he is given as an example to others, that they fear God and beware of death strokes. That is enough about how Cain sinned and what his judgment and punishment for the sin was.
But here it is argued that the pious must suffer such curses and punishments, but the wicked are well off. For so Paul says in 1 Cor. 4, 11, that he is unfaithful or in error and has no certain place. And so it is with us who preach the gospel and teach the people at this time. For we have no certain place, and must either wander about in misery, or be provided with it every hour. It is the same with Christ, the apostles, prophets and patriarchs.
195. The scripture says of Jacob Gen. 25, 23: "The greater will serve the lesser." But must not Jacob be a servant, since he goes into misery out of fear of his brother? And when he returns, he falls at his brother's feet and begs him. So Isaac is the poorest beggar, and Abraham his father goes about among the nations, and has not a foot wide on the earth, as Stephen says, Acts 7:5. But Ishmael is the right king, and has begotten of himself sons, who are princes in the land of Midian, before Israel comes into the promised land. And it shall come to pass soon after, that Cain built the city of Hanoch at the first, and out of him came shepherds,
Many masters of works in brass and iron, singers and pipers etc. All of which is an indication that the punishment and cursing is wrongly attributed to Cain and his lineage. For the right church is most oppressed by this, since the wicked, on the other hand, enjoy happiness and prosperity.
This affliction has not only affected the pagans, but also the saints themselves, as the Psalms indicate in many places (Psalm 37 and 73). And the prophets, as Jeremiah Cap. 12, 1, are often displeased when they see that the wicked are free and free from all misfortune, but they must be troubled and afflicted in many ways. Where then, someone might say, is the curse of the wicked? Where is the blessing of the pious? Is not the contradiction true? Cain is said to be unfaithful and fugitive, and yet he first builds a city and a certain place where he can stay. But we will answer such questions and arguments superfluously hereafter and continue in the text now.
Sixth part.
The behavior of Cain in his punishment.
And Cain said unto the Lord, My sin is greater than this, that it should be forgiven me.
197 With this text Moses caused a lot of trouble to the grammarians and rabbis, because they work themselves to pieces here and torture this text whimsically. Lyra relates several opinions that have interpreted it affirmatively, as if Cain had said in despair that his sins were greater than that they should be forgiven him; as we have also interpreted it. And Augustine also kept this understanding; therefore he says: Cain, you are lying, because God's mercy is greater than all sinners' distress and misery.
The rabbis, however, interpret it as a question to be answered in the negative, as if Cain had asked himself: Is my sin greater than that it could be forgiven me? But should this opinion
If Cain had not recognized his sin, but had also excused it and defied God, it would follow that Cain had not recognized his sin, but had also excused it and defied God, as if he had interpreted such a punishment to him, which he had not deserved. Thus the rabbis almost everywhere falsify the meaning in the Scriptures. Therefore I begin to be hostile to them, and admonish those who read them that they may read them with diligent consideration and judgment. For though they have received some things by tradition from the fathers, yet they have falsified them manifold, wherefore they have often deceived Jerome. And the poets have not made the world so full of fables, as the godless Jews have made the Scriptures with false interpretations. Therefore it costs us no small effort that we may have the text pure and free from their glosses.
This is where this error comes from, that they are grammarians, but they do not understand what is said in the text, that is, they are not theologians. Therefore they must be absent and torture both themselves and the Scriptures. For how is it possible that one should judge rightly of unknowable things? Now the whole matter in this place is this, that Cain is accused in his conscience. And this is such a judgment and accusation that no godless person, not even the devil himself, can bear it; as St. James says in chapter 2, v. 19, that even the devils tremble before God, and Peter says in 2 Epist. 2, 11, that even the angels, who are mighty in strength and power, cannot bear the judgment that God will pass on the blasphemers. So also Manasseh says in his prayer, v. 4, 5: "Before your wrath everyone is terrified."
Such sayings and examples show sufficiently that there was not so much courage in Cain at this judgment that he should have laid himself against God and entered into speech and answer with Him. For God is an almighty fighter and directs the first storm at the heart and seizes the conscience. The rabbis know and understand nothing of this: therefore they speak of this judgment of God as if it happened before men, either denying the wrongdoing or excusing it. But God's
Judgment is another thing, in which you are either justified or condemned from your words, as Christ says Matth. 12, 37.
Therefore Cain recognizes his sin, although it does not hurt him as much as the punishment that is laid upon him. It is therefore an affirmative statement, which testifies to the frightening despair. And that he thus speaks out of despair is also indicated by the fact that he does not add a word that indicates reverence, and does not say: Oh dear God, or, dear Father, my sin is greater, but his conscience is so distraught and burdened with terror and despair that he cannot think whether there is still hope of grace and forgiveness. Thus the epistle to the Hebrews says of Esau, Cap. 12, 16, 17: "He sold his firstborn for the sake of food. But know that afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no room for repentance, though he sought it with tears." So Cain also feels the punishment here, and it hurts him more than the sin; as all do who fall into despair.
These two words, mineso and avon, give much work to the grammarians. Jerome gives the text thus: "My sin is greater than that I can earn forgiveness." But Sanctes Pagninus, a learned and, as he regards me, also diligent grammarian, gives it thus: "My punishment is greater than that I may bear it." But with the way we would make a martyr out of Cain and a sinner out of Abel. I have said above of the word nasa, that when it stands by the word "sin," it means to lift up or take away sin; as we speak in our common way, to forgive sin, and forgiveness of sins. Thus Psalm 32:1, Aschre neeu pescha, literally reads, "Blessed is he that is freed from iniquity or sin." This we say, "Blessed is he whose sin is forgiven," or, that sin is removed; as Isa. 33:24: "The people that dwell therein," nesu avon, that is, "their sin shall be removed and forgiven."
203. the other word avoni is derived from the word anah, which means: to suffer hardship or misery; as Zech. 9:9: "Your king is coming.
to thee poor", or miserable and afflicted, since our (the Latin) translation has: mitis, meek; as Psalm 132, 1: "Remember, O Lord, David and all his meekness", that is "suffering". This is also the origin of the word humilitas, lowliness, which Mary uses in her song, Luc. 1, 48. This gave Sancti cause to translate the word avon: punitio, punishment, although here it means misdeed or sin, as in many other places of the holy scriptures; as also the word levare, to raise, which stands next to it, indicates.
204 Thus we see that the grammarians, who are nothing more than grammarians, and do not understand theological matters, have their torment in such sayings, and torment and torture not only the Scriptures, but also themselves and the hearers. But first of all one should be sure of the matter and the right opinion, that they are one and the same and agree with each other everywhere; then one should apply grammar to them. But the rabbis hold the contradiction. Therefore it grieves me and vexes me that the teachers and holy fathers have commonly followed them.
V. 14 Behold, thou hast driven me out of the land this day, and I must hide myself from thy face, and be iniquitous and fugitive upon the earth. So it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall find me shall strike me dead.
From these words it is clear that this judgment was spoken and passed through the mouth of Adam. First of all, Cain recognizes that he will be cast out of the house and world government, and then also from the church. What difference there is between the words adamah and erez, we have said above, namely, that erez means the whole earth, but adamah a piece of land or field that one builds. Therefore Cain's opinion is: "I must now flee from you out of the place I have built, and the whole earth is open to me, but I will be inactive and fugitive on it, that is, I will not have a certain place anywhere. As with us the fugitive murderers are punished with misery. And these words sufficiently indicate how it is to be understood that Adam said above: "For-
Cursed be you on earth", namely that Cain had to be in misery. And this is a political punishment, by which he is excluded from the worldly community or society.
But that he says, "I must hide myself from your face," is the church punishment and the right ban. For since the priesthood and regiment was Adam's, and Cain is excommunicated from Adam because of his sin, the honor of the priesthood and regiment is taken from him at the same time. But why Adam inflicted this punishment on him, we have heard above. "If you," he says, "build the field, he shall not give you his wealth," that is, you are cursed and your work is also cursed. If thou shouldst therefore abide with us in this land, we must die with thee of hunger: for thou hast corrupted and poisoned the earth with thy brother's blood. You will have to carry such blood around with you, and the earth will exact its punishment on you.
207 There is almost such a saying in the first book of Kings, Cap. 2, v. 29, 31, 32, 33, where Solomon commands Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, "Strike Joab dead, that thou put away from me the blood which Joab shed in vain, and from my father's house; and let the Lord pay his blood upon his head." etc.; "But David, and his seed, and his house, and his throne, have peace for ever before the Lord." As if he wanted to say: If Joab will not be punished because of the wrongful death stroke, then the whole kingdom will have to pay the same punishment and perish by war. So Adam also wants to say here: If you stayed in this land, God would punish us so much for your sake that the land would never bear fruit.
(208) Here we will answer the question mentioned above. It is said to Cain, "You shall be iniquitous and fugitive on earth," yet Cain first builds a city, and afterward his family grows and multiplies to such an extent that it has deceived, oppressed and devastated the entire church of God, except for eight people from the family of Seth. The other whole great multitude, which is in the Sint-
Cain followed, as the text clearly says Genesis 6:4: "The children of God took unto wives the children of men, and begat tyrants, which were mighty in the world." Because Cain has such a great lineage and builds a city first, how is it true that he is inactive and volatile on earth?
209 We will answer this from the text, for what we have just said from the New Testament of Paul, the apostles, Christ and the prophets, is of a different opinion. Now when Adam says, "Thou shalt be iniquitous and fugitive upon the earth," he says that he lets him go without any command or commandment. He does not say, "Go to the morning;" nor does he say, "Go to the noon;" he does not name a place where he should go, nor does he give him a command as to what he should do, but rather he casts him off altogether, letting him go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants; he does not ask anything about it, nor does he give him an escort or a promise that he will have protection, nor does he say: God will take care of you and protect you; but just as the whole air is free for a little bird to fly wherever it wants, but has nowhere safe where it can be safe from the attack of other birds: so Cain is also left there by his father. Cain feels this and therefore adds: "Whoever finds me will strike me dead.
But Adam was in a different and better situation. He had sinned and was put to death because of sin; but when he was cast out of Paradise, God commanded him to do a certain work, to build the land in a certain place; so He also clothed him with a garment of skins. All this, as we said above, was a sign that God wanted to take care of him and protect him. But above all this was the glorious promise that God made to the woman of the seed that would crush the serpent's head. Cain has none of these things, but is badly left in an uncertain place and work, without any promise or command, like a bird that wanders uncertainly in the free air. This actually means: to be inactive and uncertain.
211 All who have neither the word nor the commandment of God, by which a certain place and person is indicated, are thus uncertain and inoffensive. In the same way, we were under the papacy, where there was no lack of worship, of certain works and exercises: but all this was done and carried out without God's word and command; which was a real Cainian challenge, namely, not having God's word, not knowing what to believe, what to hope for and what to suffer, but doing and carrying out everything for an uncertain outcome. For what monk has ever been who could have said for certain that he had done this or that right? For there was nothing there but the laws of men and what reason had devised and invented without God's word. In the same way, we were all unaware and went astray, like Cain, not knowing what God would think of us and judge us, whether He would be merciful or unmerciful, loving or hostile, because that is how we were taught at that time. Thus, the entire lineage of Cain was uncertain and unknowable, for it had no promise or commandment from God, nor did it know how it should live or die. Therefore, if some have come to the knowledge of Christ and have united with the true church, it was not by promise but by grace.
212. but Seth, who was born afterward, had a certain promise with his lineage, along with certain oerter, certain form and order of worship, whereas Cain was in vain. For although he built a city, he was uncertain how long he would dwell in it, for he had no promise from God. But what we have without God's promise, we are uncertain how long we will have it, for the devil can disturb or take it away at any moment. Again, when we walk with God's commandment and promise assured and prepared, the devil fights against us in vain; for God assures and fortifies everything by His commandment. Therefore, if Cain were a lord of the whole world and had all the treasures of the world under him, yet because he had no
If he is promised divine help, is also deprived of the protection of angels, and has nothing else to rely on but human suggestions, he is quite unaware and uncertain. As he goes on to say:
That's how it will go for me, that whoever finds me will strike me dead.
This is a very clear consequence. For since he is forsaken by God and his father's help, has no more right to the priesthood nor to the regency, he sees that he has nothing certain before him but that whoever finds him will kill him. For he is excommunicated spiritually and worldly. Nevertheless, God still shows two benefits to such a rogue. He has lost the reign and the church, but he keeps his life and gets another generation. For God promises him that he shall be protected and secure in his life, and gives him a wife for this purpose. This is a twofold blessing, which is not to be despised, and which even Cain could not have provided for himself, since he first heard the verdict from his father. But this happens to him so that he may have the opportunity and the space to repent, even though it happens to him by chance and without commandment. For God does not add a certain promise. How we came to grace under the papacy by chance (that I call it so). For we had no certain promise before us that it would come to pass that the truth would come to light and the Antichrist would be revealed while we were still alive. But this double blessing happened to Cain also for the sake of the elect. For it can well be believed that many of Cain's descendants have been saved, who have gone to the right church and converted, just as it happened afterwards to the Jews and the Gentiles.
214. it was a serious and severe law that none of the Moabites and Ammonites should be used for church offices, and yet many of them, both of the Moabites and Ammonites, were saved, who came to the kings of Judah and served them. Thus Ruth, the aged mother of our Lord and Saviour
Therefore, that I speak thus has been an accidental grace, which has not been assured beforehand by a certain promise.
215: Naaman, 2 Kings 5:17, is the king of the Ninevites, Ion. 3, 6, item Nebucadnezzar, Dan. 4, 34, Evilmerodach, 2 Kings 25, 27, and others from the Gentiles were saved by accidental grace. For they did not have the promise of Christ like the Jews. So Cain was also given the protection of his life, a wife and descendants for the sake of the elect, who were to be saved by chance grace. For although his lineage, as is now said of the Moabites, was to live under the curse, yet some of the patriarchs moved from it and became friends.
V. 15 But the Lord said unto him, Nay; but he that killeth Cain shall be smoked sevenfold.
In the epistle to Damasus, Jerome writes that Cain asked the Lord to put him to death, and he confidently holds to this opinion as certain and true. Lyra also follows this, and says straightforwardly that this is concluded and follows from the text itself. But they may thank their rabbis for such an error. For the correct understanding is that no one should strike Cain dead. For here it is a matter of divine judgment and God leaves the murderer a consolation, because he gives him life and lets him move afterwards.
But how is it possible that because God holds a judgment, the godless man should ask for death? Yes, because death is a punishment for sins, he flees and shuns it as a punishment; therefore, let such rabbinic talk go. The same then is, that Lyra says, how one should divide this text and that the opinion is: Who kills Cain, shall be punished severely; and that it stands: "shall be smelled seven times", they interpret thus: He shall be punished in the seventh generation.
218 The rabbis are worthy of such fables and lies after they have seen the bright light.
of the New Testament. But they make two kinds of work for us, because we have to save and purify the text from such falsifications and punish useless and false glosses at the same time. For this reason, however, I am in the habit of denouncing them at times, so that it may not be said that we arrogantly despise them or that we have not read their books and do not respect them. For we read and understand them; but we read them with deliberation and judgment, and do not admit that Christ is obscured by them or that God's word is falsified.
Therefore the Lord does not change his judgment that Cain should be cursed on earth. But he shows him this accidental grace for the sake of the elect, who should still be saved from this cursed people and the rest of the host, that he says that Cain should not be struck dead, as Cain was afraid. And there is no need to tear the text as Rabbi Solomon does, who after these words: "Who will kill Cain", puts a point that it is an "aposiopesis", as in Virgil: Quos ego! sed motos praestat etc., and draws the following words: "shall be smelled sevenfold", to Cain, who was killed in the seventh generation. For Cain begat Hanoch, Hanoch Irad, Irad Mahujael, Mahujael Metusael, Metusael Lamech.
221 Therefore we condemn this foolish opinion and have good reason and right to do so; for it is contrary to what God has said before, who does not waver and is of a different mind than a man, 1 Sam. 15, 29. And this is to be diligently looked at and respected in all Scripture, that the following opinion
is not contrary to the first. That they also say that Lamech's punishment was the Flood, Lyra refutes this rightly and says that the Flood was a common punishment of all the wicked. Therefore we leave such lies and keep the right mind that after Cain was afraid that he would be slain by anyone who met him, the Lord forbids it and sets a punishment on it that is seven times greater.
But Lyra also disputes how he can deserve sevenfold punishment who slays Cain, when Cain had slain his brother? But why is it necessary to search so closely for God's counsel and will in such matters, especially since it is certain that Cain will be allowed and permitted the protection of accidental grace, or, as we say, a promise and blessing, as the Law gives.
For the promises, as we have often said, are of two kinds: the first of the law, which, that I speak thus, is reduced to our works; as this is Isa. 1:19: "If ye will obey me, ye shall enjoy the good of the land"; item Ex. 20:6: "I am the Lord thy God, which do good in a thousand measure unto them that love me"; as also this was above: "If thou be upright, thou shalt be accepted. But such promises of the law commonly have with them their threats. Different are the promises of grace, where there is no threat: as this is Deut. 18, 18: "I will raise up for them a prophet like you"; item Jer. 31, 33: "I will write my law in their hearts"; item Gen. 3, 15: "I will put enmity between you and the seed of the woman" etc. Such promises are not based on our works, but on God's goodness and grace to do so. As we have the promise at baptism, sacrament of the altar, the key etc. in which God presents His will, grace and work to us.
God does not make such a promise to Cain here, but only says that whoever kills him will be smelled sevenfold. But Adam had such a promise of grace, and Cain, because he was the firstborn, should have inherited and received it as an inheritance from his parents. It was
but a rich promise of eternal glory; for God promised a seed that would crush the serpent's head without all human merit and work. For there was no condition: if you sacrifice, you will be pious etc.
(225) Now if you hold against this promise what is said here to Cain, it is like a piece of bread given to a beggar. For life is not promised to him, but it happens to him that God threatens those who would strike him dead. But he does not say, "No one shall kill you"; nor does he say, "I will rule and guide the others in such a way that they shall not strike you dead," for then Cain would surely have come before God and his parents again; but he alone maintains that people shall not strike him dead. Now if it were a promise, it would have to be one that was based on the works of men: and yet it is not to be despised, as the promises of the law contain excellent things.
226 Augustine says that God gave such power to the Romans in ancient times for the sake of their excellent redemption. Just as even today, countries in which people abstain from death, adultery and theft have greater gifts than those who do not abstain from such sins: and yet the police and worldly regiments, even if they are ordered and ordered for the best by reason, have nothing more than such temporal promises.
The church, however, has eternal promises of grace, which, although Cain did not have them, it was nevertheless something great that the bodily promises remained to him, namely, that he would not be killed again immediately, but would still take a wife, beget children, build a city, build the land, raise livestock, and not be completely excluded from all human fellowship and society. For God was not only able to take all these things away from Cain, but also to send him all kinds of sicknesses and diseases, such as the plague, epilepsy, stroke, stone-weight, podagra etc. And yet, people are arrogantly arguing how God could have increased Cain's curse sevenfold. How he takes away all blessings from Cain above,
Both spiritual and temporal, he restrains the same here and commands that no one should strike him dead, but does not promise him that all men will obey this command. Therefore he is still inactive and uncertain, although this bodily promise is there. For it may come to pass, that, if he continue wicked, he shall be slain at once: again, if he keep himself right, he may live longer; for nothing certain is promised him. And so the promises of the flesh or of the law are uncertain and accidental, though they are great and glorious.
Whether Cain was slain, I cannot say for sure, because the holy scripture does not clearly report it. This alone can be proved from the text, that no certain promise was made to him, but that God had left him in an uncertain and unfaithful life, and had only threatened and forbidden the wicked that Cain should not be slain, so that certain punishment should follow such a deed; but had not promised him that he would oppose it and defend himself against it, so that he would not be slain. Now we know the nature of the law and how it works, namely, that the least of the people always obey it. Therefore, although it is not written at what time, where and by whom Cain was slain, it is nevertheless plausible that he was slain; however, the Scriptures do not remember this, just as they do not remember how many years he lived and on what day he was born and died. For he perished and died with his race, as it is said in Proverbs: sine crux, sine lux, et sine Deus (without cross, without light, and without God), with the exception of a few who have been preserved and saved by accidental grace.
But here is still another question: Whom these words: "Who finds me, will strike me dead", concern? For it is certain that at that time there were no more men than Adam and Eve and some daughters. Therefore I would like to answer that Moses sees with these words that the wicked flee when no one is chasing them, Proverbs 28:1, and make danger for themselves where there is none. As we still see in the case of the slayers, that they are afraid when it is safe and without any danger, and can nowhere be satisfied.
For it seems to them everywhere as if they see death before their eyes.
But because in the commandment of God it follows: "He who kills Cain shall" etc., then this cannot be drawn solely on Cain's fear; for Cain had sisters, and was perhaps most afraid of the one whom he took to wife, that she would avenge her slain brother. He also had uncertain thoughts of a longer life, and saw that more sons would be born to Adam, and was therefore afraid of all of Adam's descendants. So the fear also makes it greater that God alone shows him an uncertain grace. For I do not think that Cain was afraid of the wild beasts, lest they should kill him. For what is it to the beasts that God threatens sevenfold punishment to him who would strike Cain dead?
And the Lord made a sign unto Cain, that whosoever found him should not slay him.
What kind of sign this was, is not found in the holy scriptures; therefore one has invented this, the other that. But they all agree and understand it thus, that it was a great trembling of Cain's head and all his limbs, and indicate such a cause that it is not to be believed that God moved, changed or mutilated a limb in his body, but left the body as it had been created, but only added an outward sign to it, which everyone could see, namely, a trembling and quaking. These are the thoughts of the fathers, which, though they are not evil, cannot be proved from Scripture. For it could have been another sign, as we see in almost all death-witnesses, that they soon use their eyes, look rigid and cruel, and no longer have the natural sweetness that is in the eyes.
232: Let it have been a sign, whatever it has been, it is truly an abominable and terrible punishment that Cain must carry it on his person all his life as punishment for such an abominable death blow, and in addition, with this shameful, ugly and abominable sign, he is considered by his parents to be a guilty one.
hated monster into misery. For even if the life he asked for remains, it is still a life of shame, as it had a shameful mark and sign of the death blow on it, not only so that he should remember his sins and grieve over them, but also so that others would be deterred from the death blow. He could not remove or erase this mark with any remorse, but had to carry it as a sign of God's wrath and punishment of the death blow throughout his life, like misery, cursing and other punishments.
233 But here it is to be noted that above the word harag stands, that is, to strike to death. But here the word nakah means to strike, so that he will not only secure him from death, but also from all danger that follows death. But it is, as I said before, an assurance of the law. For he only forbids that no one should strike Cain dead, and threatens with sevenfold punishment; but he does not promise him that everyone will obey this commandment. But it is better for Cain to have such a promise of the law than to be without any promise at all.
V. 16 So Cain departed from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, beyond Eden, toward the east.
This is also a strange text, and it is a wonder that the rabbis, according to their kind, did not invent something strange and monstrous about it. But here Moses lets the reader think about how miserable and pitiful the parting was. The dear pious parents had lost Abel before: now, by God's command, the other son must also go into misery full of curses for the sake of sin, although the parents had consoled themselves that he would be the only heir of the divine promise, and had therefore loved him very much from his youth. However, they are obedient to the commandment of God and expel him according to the order.
That is why obedience to God or fear of God is praised and praised here. They had also learned it through their own experience in paradise,
how it would not be an easy sin at all to deviate from God's commandment. Therefore they will have thought: Behold, our sin is punished with death and other innumerable miseries, into which we are cast after we are cast out of Paradise: because therefore our son also hath sinned abominably, it is not fitting for us to resist the will of God and His righteous judgment, though it is a great sorrow to our hearts and grievous.
236 We know from the story of the woman from Thekoa that she asked Joab to intercede for the fugitive Absalom. For she said in 2 Sam. 14, 2. ff. that after she had already lost one son, it would be very unreasonable that she should be deprived of the other. And Rebecca said Gen. 27:45 to her husband Isaac, when she realized that Esau was angry: "Why should I be deprived of both sons?" But Adam and Eve overcame this heartache and thus killed the paternal and maternal affections at once. For without understanding that one must be obedient to the will of God, they were also warned by their own example. For before they were expelled from paradise because of sin, but now they are worried that if they keep their son with them against God's will, they will be expelled from the whole world.
This is truly a strange history, which greatly praises obedience to God and exhorts to the fear of God; as Paul also does in the first epistle to the Corinthians, which is written entirely against the security of men's hearts. For although God is gracious and merciful, one should not sin because of it; for he alone is gracious and merciful to those who fear him.
As it was the greatest sorrow of the parents that they had to lose their son, so I think that this parting must have hurt Cain very much. For he must leave not only the common lodging, his dear parents and their protection, but also the right of inheritance of the firstborn, the privilege of the regiment and priesthood and the church community. That is why the text says that he went out "from the presence of the Lord. But now we have said above what the
Scripture calls the "face of the Lord", namely the things in which God reveals Himself to us and shows that He assists us. Thus, in the Old Testament the faces of the Lord were the fiery pillar, the cloud, the mercy seat. In the New Testament they are baptism, the sacrament of the altar, the ministry of preaching, and the like. For by these things God shows Himself to us as a visible sign that He is with us, takes care of us, and is favorable to us.
So Cain went out from the place where God showed Himself and revealed Himself, and where Adam had his seat as a high priest and lord of the earth, and came to another place where there was no face of God, nor any visible sign, so that he could have consoled himself that God was with him and inclined toward him; without keeping the things that are common to all creatures, even to animals, as sun and moon, day and night, water, and air. For these are not signs of the unchanging grace of God, but are signs of divine blessing and kindness toward all creatures.
240 Therefore this was a miserable departure of Cain, which would not have happened without weeping and crying, that he had to divorce his parents, who nevertheless in such loneliness and inactivity let a sister follow him as wife, who lived and lived with him, but did not know how both, the son and the daughter, would fare. Therefore, in this case, their grief and heartache will be greater, because they will have to lose three children at once. And how could one think and speak differently of it, because afterwards follows: "Cain recognized his wife"?
241. Where then did Cain remain? Moses says: "in the land of Nod". This name comes to the country from the unfaithful and uncertain inhabitant. But where is this land? Beyond Eden, toward the east. This is a remarkable text: Cain comes to a certain place, located after the morning; but how he comes there, he was not sure, because it was the land of Nod, in which he could not sit down with certainty. For there was no face of God, which he had left with his parents, who dwelt so as to have Paradise either by the side or after the evening.
had. But Cain became a fugitive and moved to your morning, so that the Cainites were distinguished from Adam's family by the paradise, which lay in the middle. This text also proves that paradise remained even after Adam was expelled from it, and was only completely destroyed by the Flood.
242 Thus the text also agrees with their thoughts, which hold that Adam was created in the land of Damascus, and when he was subsequently driven away because of sin, he dwelt in Palestine: so that the center of paradise had been, where afterwards Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Jericho had been, in which places Christ and John most abode. For the fact that the present occasion is bad is due to the Flood, which destroyed everything and changed the mountains, waters and springs. And it may be that the place of the skull, where Christ sacrificed himself for our sins, was there afterwards, where the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in the times of paradise; so that, as far as the place is concerned, death and damnation, which the devil introduced, and life and blessedness, which Christ has restored to us, meet.
243 Daniel does not use a new way of speaking in vain, Cap. 9, 26, when he says: "The sanctuary will be destroyed and come to an end like a flood. As if he wanted to say: The first paradise was destroyed and torn apart by the flood; but the other paradise, in which the redemption took place, will be destroyed and devastated by the flood of the Romans.
244 To such thoughts rhymes also this, that as Babel was the ruin of the Jewish people, so this accident soon took place, that Cain and his family dwelt in the place of the earth, where afterwards Babel was built. These are my thoughts and suppositions, which I have in part from the fathers. But if they are not true, they are nevertheless probable and have nothing ungodly in them. For after the Flood, Noah made many other designs for the earth.
For by such a mighty and raging water the mountains have been worn away, the springs of water broken up, and the streams of water changed.
Seventh Part.
Of the lineage of Cain and the lineage of the pious.
V. 17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and bare Hanoch. And he built a city, and called it Hanoch, after the name of his son.
It is surprising that Moses describes the lineage of the children of Cain rather than the children of God. But this is done according to God's special counsel. For the children of this race surpass in this life the children of God according to the first promise, for the seed of the woman has a spiritual blessing, but the seed of the serpent brings under itself the bodily blessing, for it bites the heel of the seed that is given: so that the bodily is earlier than the spiritual.
246 But in this there is a great disparity afterwards. For although Cain's lineage is told at the beginning, we see that the Holy Spirit takes more care of the lineage of the pious. For he does not set a mere register of the names, but also diligently counts their years, and reports when they died. He does not only say what they have done, as is said here about Cain's children, but what the Lord has done and said to them, what he promised them, how he helped them in times of need, how he blessed them etc.
247 These things are not remembered in the wicked generation of Cain, but when Moses said: Cain begat Hanoch his son, and built a city, which he called after his son's name, he soon breaks off, remembers them no more, and immediately buries Cain with such words; so that he asks nothing after his life or death, but remembers only the bodily blessing, how they begat and built children. For
Just as God did not take away the gift of begetting children from the murderer Cain, He also left him the gift of ruling and reigning. But he lost such a rich blessing of the earth, because the earth drank his brother's blood into itself, as we have indicated above.
The Holy Spirit tells us this, so that we may see how there were two churches so soon in the beginning: one of the children of Satan and of the flesh, which multiplied suddenly and greatly; the other of the children of God, which was weak and multiplied slowly. Although the Scripture does not remember how they lived together, nevertheless, because it is said, "I will put enmity between you and their seed," etc., one can easily understand and know for certain that Cain's church was poisonously hostile to Adam's church. So the text also shows clearly enough that the children of men have become so powerful and have taken over that they have almost turned the whole church of the children of God around and destroyed it. For in the Flood no more than eight people were preserved; the rest of the great multitude and race perished and perished in the water because of sin.
This is a common lament at all times, that when the true church improves and increases, it opposes the devil and the wicked with all its might. But it is made weary by the wickedness of the enemy and either gives way to the rage of the enemy and allows itself to overcome the cross and temptations, or allows itself to be dampened by pleasure and riches. Thus Adam's lineage, through such a protracted war with the children of men, has grown weary and weak, and has lain low except for eight men who have been preserved. For since the ungodly nature had the upper hand and the pious also gave way, God finally came and preserved the remaining small group of the pious, but the others, who at the same time had seduced others and had themselves been seduced, he gathered together under one judgment and punished them at the same time. We hope and believe that this will also be the case at the Last Judgment.
250 There are many questions here: Who was Cain's wife? and at what time did he commit the death stroke? Whether he did it before he took a wife or since he was already in the married state? And the Jews say that when Eve gave birth, she always gave birth to twins, a male and a female. Therefore Cain took his sister Calmana in marriage, but Abel took Diboram. Whether this is true or not, I do not know, it is also without all danger of the church, whether one can already know such a thing so certainly and just not. It is certain that Cain had his sister in marriage. Although no one can prove for certain whether he already had her when he committed the death stroke, the text almost leads to the conclusion that he was already a husband; for it says that the inheritance was divided between the two brothers, because Abel was commanded by his father to raise cattle, but Cain to cultivate the land. Therefore I wanted to believe well that they all were already married at that time.
251 And therefore it is also true that it is said above that Cain and Abel sacrificed to the Lord after some days. For they interpret this to mean that these new husbands sacrificed the firstfruits of the year that had grown for them during the first year of their marriage, namely, Cain the firstfruits of the earth, and Abel the firstfruits of the sheep. The same season was the autumn, when they gathered together what had grown out of the ground, just as the Jews had the Feast of Atonement at that time. For it seems that Moses diligently noted the examples of the fathers, read them together, and put them into a law. Because the new husbands wanted to thank the Lord for His blessing and each offered his gift, but Abel's gift was pleasing to God alone, Cain's heart was possessed by Satan and filled with resentment and enmity against his brother, from which this miserable death stroke finally followed. This is the opinion of the Jews, which I relate because it seems to be in accordance with the truth. For as I said above, one should read the writings of the Jews in such a way that we have the right to judge from them,
not to be taken, but to keep what is true, but to reject and refute what is fictitious and false.
252 If Cain had not yet been married at that time, then it is truly a much more miraculous event that he has subsequently been given a wife, and the virgin who has taken him is worthy of great praise. For what could she have greatly rejoiced in such a marriage of her brother, who had been a death-slayer, cursed and rejected from the church? And no doubt she would have asked her father, why he would give her, as an innocent, to a cursed murderer and cast her into misery? So she was also afraid of the example and worried that he would deal with her as he had dealt with his brother.
Therefore, Adam had to be a good speaker about this matchmaking and persuade the daughter to follow him, for although Cain was cursed and bore the punishment of sins on his neck, God would still consider her innocence and preserve and bless her. There is also no doubt in my mind that God will have bestowed upon Cain many blessings and special benefits throughout his entire family for the sake of his wife, who had taken this bloodthirsty brother in holy faith against God and obedience to her parents. For just as Christ was a servant of the circumcision for the truth and certainty of the promise made to the Jews, but a servant of the Gentiles for mercy's sake, Rom. 15:8, 9 (for the Gentiles had no promise), so also the same fortuitous grace befell Cain's family. Therefore there are two opinions about Cain's marriage state: but which one is true and certain, I do not know. If he became married after the death blow, then his wife is to be praised highly and particularly that she preferred the parents' power and will to her will and allowed herself to be married to an accursed murderer.
254 But I think that the first opinion is more similar to the truth, because we have a clear testimony in the text of the divided inheritance. And therefore the woman Cain out of necessity
Because man and woman are one body, Adam did not want to separate them from each other and the woman also had to bear a part of the curse and the punishment of the man. Just as Cain's descendants also received a part of the blessing that happened to the innocent woman. Thus Pharaoh was preserved in Egypt in Joseph's time, Gen. 41, 39: The king of the Ninevites was also preserved, Jon. 3, 10, even though they were not of the people of God. I also consider that some of Cain's descendants have been saved, even though Cain had completely lost the promise of the seed he had given.
Cain's lineage and descendant".
255 As for the names of the descendants of Cain, I hold that they were not in vain, nor were they invented by chance, but by special counsel, nor without special meaning, as were the names of the pious patriarchs. Adam means a man; Heva a mother of the living; Cain an inheritance or possession; Habet vanity or vanity. Such meanings are also in many pagan names. For surely there is at times in the names a secret divination. So Hanoch is also a name of a special meaning and future hope, for the comfort of Cain or rather his wife, who called him Hanoch, from hanach, that is, he gave or dedicated to his own.
256 And this word is often found in Moses, when he says in Deut. 20:5, "He that hath built a new house, and hath not yet dedicated it, let him not go forth to war. Now here "to dedicate" means to possess, to enjoy, and when this happens for the first time, it always happens with joyful signs and congratulations. So when Cain's wife was born, Cain said: Hanoch, "dedicate"; because it is a command form. As if he wanted to say: This beginning must be happy and blissful for us; my father has cursed me and I am rejected from his face because of my sin, I must live alone and the earth does not give me its ability, it does not give me the ability to live alone.
But if I had not sinned, God would have given it to me more abundantly; and yet God now shows me an accidental grace; that is a good and happy beginning, let it be well begun. As Hanoch here in Cain's lineage is the beginning of bodily blessing, so afterward in the pious lineage Enoch is the first, under whom religion and spiritual blessing arise and prosper.
What is said about the built city belongs to history. But I have said above that after Cain was separated from the righteous church and driven into misery, he became an enemy of the righteous church. That he therefore first builds a city is to prove that he not only despises the righteous church, but also wants to persecute and suppress it. For thus he thought, Behold, I am now driven from my father into misery, and am accursed; but yet I have children, and have good hope of a great generation. What is it to me that I am cast out from my father? I will build a city, and therein will I also gather a church: my father goeth with his church always.
So he did not build it for fear or protection, but out of a certain hope of prosperity, hope and desire to rule. For he was not afraid of his father and mother, who had already driven him to another land; neither was he afraid of his children; but he puffed himself up and defied the chance of grace, and, as the world is wont to do, he sought opportunity to rise. On the other hand, the children of God are concerned about another city, which has a firm and certain foundation and is built by God Himself, as the epistle to the Hebrews says in the 11th chapter, v. 10.
V. 18. But Hanoch bore witness to Irad.
I do not know what one could say of this name, which it means, because from what it comes, one does not know so actually. And nevertheless I hold for it that it is not a coincidental name, but has also a special interpretation. In the book of Joshua
Cap. 7, 2. A city is called Ai, which word is also used as a generic name and means a heap, which a building makes when it has fallen down or collapsed. Now if you make the word Irad out of this name, it means a heap that is falling down. So Hanoch called his son Irad, so that he might be blessed, and go down with a great heap, that though Cain's family might be like a desolate heap because of the transgression, yet it might not wholly perish, but be preserved and multiply. Now if anyone has anything better to say about this, I will not despise it, for in dark matters counsel is needed.
Irad witnessed Mahujael.
This name is made from mahal, which means to eradicate, and that is, to have begun or to have dared; so much so that it means that Cain's lineage has increased and multiplied to such an extent that he may set himself against the true church, despise and persecute it, as that now has become very rich and has acquired wisdom, honor and great multitude. For these are almost the pieces, so that the right church is always overcome by the world and the false church.
Mahujael witnessed Methusael.
261 Meth means death, eel, to desire or demand, from which comes Saul, that is, demanded. This name is more defiant than all the others, because I understand it to mean that they threaten to avenge their dead parents, whom the other church had punished with rejection and misery.
Methusael witnessed Lamech.
Until now, the Cainites seemed to challenge and triumph over the true church without punishment and resistance. But this name indicates that God punished them around the time Lamech was born. For it comes from the word that means to humiliate, to make low, or to suppress; although it can also be understood as meaning that at the time Cain's lineage increased to such an extent that the right church was completely suppressed by him.
263. these are Cain's descendants and
Heirs who were undoubtedly wise and high people. I also believe that some of them were saved by accidental grace, as I said above, but the majority of them hated and persecuted the true church in the most hostile way. For they did not want to give Adam's children anything beforehand, therefore they also arranged their special services and other things to dampen Adam's church with them. Because the false church was separated from the true church, I believe that Cain gave his sons and daughters together, and Cain's family began to multiply especially under Lamech; therefore Moses stops telling the story here.
V. 19 Lamech took two wives, one named Ada and the other Zilla.
Two questions are asked here. First of all, the theologians argue whether Lamech took two wives out of unchastity or for some other reason. And I do not think that he did it only out of unchastity, but because he wanted to increase his family out of desire to rule, especially if God punished Cain's family at that time with a pestilence or other ruthlessness, as the name indicates. For then Lamech thought to rise again and to increase the lineage again. As still the Turks and other barbarian peoples take a lot of women, so that they get people and can order the house regiment and police stately and keep it going.
Now Lamech's wives are called adah, that is, adorned or adorned around the neck. For adi means female adornment, and adah means to put on or adorn. She may have had this name because she not only ruled the house and was finely adorned, but she was also beautiful in other ways. The other is called Zilla, which means her shadow.
V. 20. And Ada bare Jabal; of whom find heredity, which dwelt in tents, and drew cattle.
Jabal comes from the verb jabal, which means to bring or carry.
V.21. And his brother's name was Jubal; from whom find origin the fiddlers and pipers.
Jabal and Jubal come from one word and is called jubal one who is brought here. But both names are a wish for the increase of the family. For Cain's descendants took care that they would be superior to Adam's children in number and quantity, and with this blessing they undoubtedly defied the true church, as it would be a certain sign that they were not rejected by God, but were also His people.
And Zillah also gave birth to Tubalcain, the master of all kinds of bronze and iron. And the sister of the Thubalcain was Naema.
Thubalkain is said as much as: bring goods and possession; as the Latins of strength and increase have such names, Valerius and Augustus. Naema has the name of loveliness or pretty figure. And this is the family of the Cainites, which multiplied innumerably. Therefore Moses says nothing more about it.
The Jews, however, not only told Moses their names, but also reported what each one's handicraft and work had been, a strange delusion, which one rejects and considers foolish, namely, that Cain's descendants therefore had to learn various handicrafts and arts, that the earth had been cursed for them, therefore they had to feed themselves and make do in another way, and thus some had become shepherds, some ore and iron polishers. Some, however, have taken to singing, whistling and playing the violin, so that they could obtain grain and other food from Adam's children by such means. But if the Cainites had been so poor and had suffered hunger, they would have forgotten the pipes, violins, harps and other instruments in their poverty; for those who are hungry and thirsty do not ask for music.
The fact that they have invented music and have taken care to devise other arts shows that they have had enough and superfluous of everything that belongs to food;
Because of this, they were not satisfied, like Adam's children, but went into the arts, so that they wanted to be mighty and have special praise and fame before others as skillful and sensible people. But I believe that there were some among them who went to the right church and accepted Adam's religion.
As Moses describes the generation of the wicked, or the false church, as it was before the flood, so it still is, and so it will remain forever, until the flood of fire. "For the children of this world are wiser than the children of light in their generation", Luc. 16, 8. Therefore they promote and increase their own, boast of themselves and their own, get riches, honor and power. But the true church lies in contempt, is plagued, oppressed, rejected etc.
V.23. 24. And Lamech said unto his whites, Adah and Zillah, Ye wives of Lamech, hear my speech, and know what I say; I have slain a man to my wound, and a young man to my bruise. Cain shall be smote seven times, but Lamech seven and seventy times.
Until now Moses chose the generation of the children of the world, whom he buried and put into oblivion according to this story, having left them no promise of either temporal or future life. For beyond the accidental and common blessing of begetting children and multiplying and nourishing, they have nothing. But they have become so strong and powerful that they have filled up the whole world, and have also finally oppressed and devastated the holy generation of God's children, who had the promise of the life to come, and have sunk them into such deep wickedness and godlessness that only eight people remain. Although there is no doubt that some will be saved, both before and after the Flood, the Scriptures say nothing about this, so that we may fear God and keep and live according to His word. But there must be stony hearts, which the example of the Flood, such cruel procedures one has to all the
lines has not had, can not meet and move.
273 After Moses has been silent about the wicked and has buried them, he tells a little story about Lamech, but does not express the nature of it. Therefore I think that in the whole holy scripture there is no text which is so variously acted and martyred as this one. For although ignorance is not of many words, yet it is full of error and false delusion; whereas wisdom is of plain and simple words. Now I will count the common opinions about this text.
The Jews have such a fable. When Lamech had grown old and had seen evil, he was led into the forest by a young man to hunt and shoot game, not for the sake of the game, but for the sake of the skins (this is a very clumsy thing, and one soon hears that it is a lie). Cain, however, had lain hidden in a thick bush and had not only repented there in the desert, but had also sought some rest and safety. Then the boy, who was holding and drawing the bow for Lamech, thought that there was a deer in the same bush and told Lamech to shoot at it; so Lamech shot and killed Cain against his opinion. But when he found that he had committed murder, he struck the boy, and he died of it. So, they say, a man and a youth were slain by Lamech. But such lies are not worth answering and refuting. For Moses himself refutes them sufficiently, because he does not say that Cain fled into a desert, but that he built a city, that is, that he led a regiment and established a kingdom for himself. The time also does not fit: because that Cain should have lived until Lamech became old and blind is not believable.
275 The Jews also say that after Lamech had killed Cain, his wives did not want to live with him any longer for fear of the punishment that might come upon him again. Therefore Lamech had to comfort the wives again and to take them with him.
He said that he who would slay him would be punished seven and seventy times. They also told such lies about his sons, whom he had taught to make weapons and armor to destroy people. The others say that this is negative speech and that Lamech wants to say: If I had slain a man like Cain slain his brother, then I would be worthy of being rejected by you etc.
Therefore, this is my opinion, that these words, "Cain shall be smelled seven times," are not to be considered as if they were God's words. For the same generation had no word of God; how then can it be considered that Lamech was a prophet, because he had no word of God? As Jerome also claims: because from Adam to Christ, according to St. Lucas Cap. 3, 23. ff., so many generations can be reckoned, he says that after seven and seventy generations Lamech's sin was abolished by Christ. But if it were a matter of such lying and inventing, one could probably invent whatever one wanted from the Scriptures. But Jerome forgets that Lamech is the seventh after Cain. Therefore, such words are not to be held as those that are said above to Cain; for those were God's words, but these are free and presumptuous and not true words of a godless man and murderer, which are taken from the words of Adam to Cain and invented. For why does he not let himself hear such words before his church, but at home alone before his wives?
It may well be that the pious and godly wives have been grieved because of the manslaughter committed by their husbands. That is why the godless murderer, so that he would seem like his father Cain, wanted to comfort his wives in such a way that they would not think that he also had to be slain. For this is what the godless church is wont to do: it always wants to prophesy from its head; but such prophesying is nothing and vain. So we can have this some piece from the text, namely, that Lamech does not preach this from God's word, but from his own head.
278. But as far as Cain is concerned, I consider it
not that he was slain by Lamech, but that he perished long before Lamech. But because there was eternal hatred and enmity between Cain's and Adam's church (because the Cainites did not want to be outcast and excommunicated people), I think that Lamech had slain a fine man and young man from the lineage of the righteous, like his father Cain had slain his brother Abel, and that he wanted to protect himself in this way after the example of Cain. For he was undoubtedly a man of good sense, mighty and famous in authority, and increased his food and his household in a new way, and the example that he first took two wives will also have troubled and challenged the church of the pious in many ways, as such people do who are prudent and wicked. Therefore, he armed his own with weapons, wealth and pleasure, so that he would overcome the true church everywhere, which clung to the holy faith, kept God's word and the divine service pure and righteous, and was only concerned about the same, but did not pay much attention to the other things, which were temporal and worldly.
But it is probable that about that time the first patriarch Adam died. For this reason Lamech kept to the same occasion, so that he would take over the reins and rule everything alone, as the world still does. For the church, which is in the midst, as it were, is oppressed and pressed from both sides, namely, by the tyrants and bloodthirsty, and by those who deal in pleasure and temporal cares. For just as the tyrants use force and the sword, so these deal with good and smooth words.
280 Therefore Moses tells with special diligence that the bloodline of the Cainites also went to the pleasures and sorrows of this life. And Christ also indicates that much blood was already shed before the Flood, when he says Matth. 23, 35: "All the righteous blood that was shed on earth will come upon you, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias. And that Moses afterwards Cap. 6, 5. says that
392 etc. ii,"-70. interpretation of Genesis 4:23, 24. w. i, "o-m,. 393
Before the Flood, the wickedness of men became great on earth; this he says not only of the sins and wickedness of thieves and adulterers, etc., but he applies it to the tyranny of the Cainite church, which raged with the sword against the holy race of Adam, and calls Cain's descendants tyrants for the sake of the cause. This causes me to think that Lamech has taken his father's way and has killed a fine famous man at the same time as his son from the holy fathers.
But it is especially tyrannical that, after he has been punished by his wives, he does not let himself be sorry for the deed, but even though he is afraid of the punishment, he still despises it. "I have," he says, "slain a man," but what is that to you? that will be "a wound to me," not to you. "I have slain a young man for a wound," that is, I will have to suffer and be punished for it, and not you. But what more contemptible thing could he have said in a public sin? Therefore, these are my thoughts. For the text indicates that the Cainite tyrants have lived in pleasure and have prospered. And even these words of Lamech indicate that he was a proud man, who did not grieve anything for the sake of the committed death stroke, but boasted even more as if he had a good cause. For the Cain church always excuses its tyranny and violence, which it practices on the pious; as Christ Jn 16:2 says: "Whoever kills you will think he is doing God a service by it." Therefore Lamech goes on to say:
V. 24. CainM shall be smelled seven times, but Lamech seven and seventy times.
He prefers himself to his father as if he had a more just cause to kill. He also wants to protect himself against those who should avenge the death blow on him. For these are not the words of the Lord, but of Lamech himself; as the priest also does, who keeps himself safe with violence, tyranny, threats, with the ban etc. so that he may be safe; for he has Cain's and Lamech's conscience. Whoever acts contrary to this, he says, he shall know,
that he would fall into the wrath and disfavor of St. Peter and Paul.
For Lamech is an example of the world, on which Moses wanted to paint and show what kind of heart the world has and what its will and wisdom is. As if he wanted to say, "This is what the seed of the serpent does, this is what the children of the world do: they gather money and goods, seek pleasure and power, then abuse them by tyranny against the true church, which they persecute and strangle: and in such great sins they have no fear, but are still proud and secure, and boast, Ps. 11, 3: "What shall the righteous do?"; Ps. 12, 5: "Our tongue shall have the upper hand, it is ours to speak; who is our Lord?"; item, Ps. 10, 11: "The wicked saith in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hath hid his face, he shall never see it" etc.
That this is the opinion of this text is evident from the matter itself, although the words do not make it so clear. For the true church has an eternal enemy, the devil, who, under a semblance of holiness, drives the wicked against their brethren; as Christ says John 8:44, that the devil is a liar from the beginning. Thus it is written from time to time in the Scriptures that the wicked shed their blood; as Ps. 72:14: "Their blood shall be esteemed precious in his sight"; item Ps. 116:15: "The death of his saints is esteemed worthy in the sight of the Lord"; and Ps. 44:23: "We are slain daily for thy sake." Here now count the histories.
Just as the church has at all times given its blood to the ungodly and false brethren to drink, so also in the beginning at the first time it had to suffer over itself its enemies, whom the Scripture calls tyrants (Genesis 6:4) and says that the earth was full of their violence and their will. Among them was Lamech, who might have been a man like Julius II or Clement VII, who practiced the highest cruelty and tyranny and still wanted to be considered and called the most holy; as Lamech here wants to be considered the one who had a just cause for his deadly blow. Therefore, he threatens a much greater punishment to the one who has done this.
Death blow would avenge, because which was set from divine power on the death blow Cain.
Thus, from the beginning of the world, the church was plagued with crosses and persecution until God had to destroy the whole world with the flood because of the wickedness of man. And so Pharaoh, when his wickedness was fulfilled, was drowned in the sea, Exodus 14:28, and when the wickedness of the Gentiles was ripe and full, Exodus 15:16, they were destroyed and cut off by Moses and Joshua. So also the Jews, when they persecuted the gospel, were destroyed, so that not one stone was left upon another in Jerusalem. The Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Greeks and Romans are similar examples.
Therefore the scripture does not say whom Lamech slew: it only says that he had committed a death stroke, and, unrepentant, like his father Cain, had still wanted to defend it, and had set up a commandment to testify that he had a just cause of killing. If this opinion is not absolutely correct, it is nevertheless true that Cain's family was bloodthirsty and hated and persecuted the true church.
Secondly, it is also true that Lamech had no word from God, and therefore his words are not to be understood as those spoken to Cain, which was the voice of truth: but Lamech's words are words of hope, which portray Satan's kingdom and the false and hypocritical church, which is secure in its sins and still boasts of them as if they had been well done.
The lineage of the righteous and the pious.
V. 25 Adam again knew his wife, and she bore a son, and called his name Seth. For God has given me," she said, "a seed without seed for Habel, whom Cain slew.
Until now Moses has spoken of the generation of the wicked and has said little about it, but now he is completely silent about it and begins to describe the pious and the true church. And first of all the saying is to be noted that of Seth said
It says, "She called his name Seth. For Moses did not speak in this way of Cain when he was born, nor of the righteous Abel, nor of Hanoch afterward, nor of others. So that Moses wants to indicate that this is the first man to whom the promise made to his parents in paradise was directed. Eve also points to this when she indicates the cause of this name; and here she shows her faith and fear of God not indistinctly by giving the son such a name.
The fact that she again remembers Cain's death stroke also indicates that there had been fierce enmity between these two churches and that Eve had to see and suffer many unjust things from the Cainites. Therefore, she remembers the shameful death stroke here again, that Cain had wanted to destroy the righteous seed, so that he would keep the rule alone. But God be remembered, she says, who has given me another seed for the righteous Abel.
Notice, however, that Moses, after his own fashion, puts great and important things into very short words, so that he wants to encourage the reader to diligently ponder the works of God. We have said above about the mourning of the parents and their reasonable sorrow, and I still find no reason why I should not believe that after Cain's death no son was born to Adam except for Seth. For the pious parents were shocked by the danger they had tried and abstained from childbearing. Therefore, I believe that a special promise was made to them by an angel, by which they were again comforted and assured, namely, that such a son would be born to them, who would have and fulfill the promise completely; that although Cain's lineage would now have to be lost because of sin, this son's lineage would nevertheless be preserved until the seed that was given would come into the world.
292 For that they will have had such a special promise, this shows that Eve makes a short sermon to the name, and Moses uses a peculiar way of speaking, which he has used of no one, that he says: "And she called his name
Seth." This name Seth comes from the word shath, which means, he has laid, fortified. For Eve wants to indicate that this son would be, as it were, the foundation on which the promise of Christ would rest and stand, whether more sons would be born to them. She does not give him a proud name, like Cain, and still gives to understand that no one would suppress Seth's lineage.
293 So the Cainites were cast out by their parents and remain under the curse without all promise, and have no further use for grace, except what they accidentally inherited from the pious generation as beggars, not as heirs, which we called accidental grace above. For this reason Moses does not remember those who came from Cain's lineage, so that he makes a distinction between the two churches: one is righteous and has promises of the life to come, but in this life it must be under the cross and poor; the other is godless, but in this life it has happiness, prosperity, wealth and power.
And Eve, the mother of us all, is praised as a holy woman full of faith and love, that she praises and extols the right church in Seth so gloriously and asks nothing about the Cainites. She does not say: I have another son in Cain's place, but she prefers the slain Abel to Cain, who was the firstborn. Therefore not only faith, but also special obedience is praised in her, that she does not allow herself to be annoyed by God's judgment, nor does she dispute it, but she changes her judgment herself. For she had despised Abel as soon as he was born; but of Cain she had thought great, when he should inherit and possess the promise. Here she holds the contradiction and wants to say: "Abel was everything to me, because he was righteous, but the wicked Cain killed him; therefore another seed was given to me in Abel's place.
295. nor is she attached to the maternal nature and heart, nor does she excuse or diminish her son's sin, but because Cain is rejected by God, so she
She also cast him out, and relegated him with all his family to the Gentiles, who live without certain grace, without any but that they have taken accidental grace, as beggars and not as heirs.
It is a miracle that the pope's church, which has created such a large and innumerable group of saints, did not place Eve, who was full of faith and love and suffered much for it, among the saints. Perhaps it is a sign that she preferred to follow the Cainites rather than the Holy Church.
I leave aside the foolish and clumsy fable of the Jews, how Lamech brought the two disobedient wives before Adam as before a judge, and when Adam commanded them not to deny their husband his duty, they reproached him why he denied his duty to Eve? Then Adam, who had abstained from his wife from the time when Abel was slain, lay with her again, lest by his example he should give others cause for everlasting chastity, and the world should remain unpolluted. Such fables show the impure thoughts of the Jews. As they also are, that they dispute how within a hundred years after Seth was born, Cain grew to the seventh generation. Such questions are thought up by godless people to blaspheme the Scriptures and to interpret them evil. Such is also that they think that Cain was conceived in paradise, since the first perfect righteousness was still in the parents. But where does such a thing go but that one wants to abolish Christ altogether? For what do we need him for, if original sin has been removed? Therefore such lies are not worthy to be spoken of, but the enemies of Christ and persecutors of grace are worthy of them.
Thus we have in Seth a new generation, which is born and given from the promise that the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. Therefore such name rhymes well with him, that Eve enjoys her happiness with it, namely, that this seed should last and not be able to be suppressed etc. And this word is also in the 11th Psalm, v. 3.
have ravished what you have laid as a foundation." Thus the Hebrew word rhymes with the German word: seth, it stands.
V. 26. And Seth also begat a son, and called his name Enos.
The word jikra, refers to a man, that one understands that the father called the son thus. Above it is said of a woman, namely, that Eve gave such a name to her son. Therefore it is not one kind of language, but two kinds, which one cannot give in Latin language thus. But Enos is called a troubled and miserable man, as it is written in the 8th Psalm, v. 5: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" Therefore Seth indicates that at that time there was a special persecution and distress of the church. For the old serpent, who had brought man out of Paradise and strangled Abel, who was dear to God, did not sleep and was not idle. Therefore, after the consolation that Seth is born, another challenge or fear soon follows, which the pious parents want to indicate with this name. For it should not be considered that these names were just thought up or invented, but that they either have a prophecy in them, or are taken from the beginning.
At that time they began to preach the name of the Lord.
The rabbis understand this from an idolatry, that at this time one began to give the name of the Lord to the creatures, as sun and moon etc. But Moses does not speak here of the family of the Cainites, but writes what the godly family of Adam had done; namely, that after Enos was born, the right worship and true invocation of the name of the Lord had begun.
And here is explained most beautifully what is meant by serving God, namely, calling upon the name of the Lord, which is a work and service of God in the first tablet, which commands the right service of God. But the invocation of the name of the Lord also includes the preaching of the word, faith or
Trust in God, the confession etc. in itself, as Paul also summarizes it finely Rom. 10, 13. 14. However, the works in the other table also belong to the service of God, but they are not drawn directly to God.
After the confusion caused by Cain in Adam's house, the pious generation gradually began to gather and multiply, and became a small church, in which Adam, as a high priest, governed everything through the word and pure doctrine. Moses says that this began around the time when Enos was born. This name, although it indicates that the church had suffered great damage and disruption in the course of time, was nevertheless restored by God through His grace and mercy and given this spiritual blessing, so that they came together in a certain place and taught, prayed and sacrificed, which had perhaps been either forbidden or prevented by the Cainites. And here again we see how the promised seed is in battle with the serpent and crushes its head.
The fact that Moses does not say that they began to call on the Lord, but on the "name of the Lord", is rightly referred to Christ; as he is also called in other places schem jehovah ("the name of the Lord"). And from this is concluded a fine opinion that one began to call on the name of the Lord around the time, that is, that Adam, Seth, Enos admonished their descendants that they should wait for salvation, believe the promise of the seed of the woman and through this hope of the Cainites overcome deceit, cross, persecution, enmity, injustice etc. and should not despair of their salvation, but should rather thank God, who would one day redeem them through the seed of the woman.
For what could Adam and Seth have taught that was better and more useful than the Savior, Christ, who was promised to their race? And this is in accordance with the right way and order, which one should keep in the teaching of religion. For the first tablet is to be taught and practiced first. And when this is understood, then is the
The other table is easy to understand afterwards, yes, it is also easy to fulfill the other table. For how can there be a lack of other lesser fruits and works (commanded in the other table) if the teaching is pure, if one believes rightly, prays rightly, gives thanks to God rightly etc.?
At the same time, God wanted to comfort the poor and afflicted church of the pious, so that they would not despair, but rather take comfort in the future redemption. And so we see throughout all history that consolation and the cross always follow one another. Since Joseph's parents and brothers were afflicted and hungry, Joseph had to comfort and feed them in Egypt, Gen. 47, 11. Since they were further oppressed and afflicted by godless kings, Moses delivered them from bondage, Gen. 3, 7. And since they were captives in Babylon, Cyrus released them, 2c, 2 Chron. 36, 22. 23. 36, 22. 23. For this is the way God always leads: when He allows His own to be oppressed by the violence and cunning of the devil and the world, He comforts them and raises them up again, gives them prophets and pious teachers, who help the church up again when it begins to decline and stop and resist the devil and his fierce raging for a while.
Here we must give a certain and correct explanation, as I also said above, what Moses calls worship, namely: not ceremonies invented and arranged by men, nor images erected, nor such child's work of human reason; but the invocation of the name of the Lord. Therefore, this is the highest worship that is pleasing to God and commanded in the first tablet, which includes fear of God, trust in God, confession, invocation, preaching etc.
For the first commandment requires faith, that you believe that God is a helper in due time: as is said in the 9th Psalm v. 10. The other demands true confession and invocation, that we call upon God's name in danger and give thanks to God. The third requires that we teach rightly, defend and preserve the pure and sound doctrine etc. These are the right and proper services that God wants. He does not want sacrifices, nor money, nor anything else.
Other, but the first tablet he wants you to have, that you hear God's word, contemplate and teach, pray, fear God etc.
If this is done, the services or works in the other table will follow of their own accord. For it is impossible that he who performs the services in the first table should not also perform the other table. As also the 1st Psalm v. 2. 3. says: "He who delights in the word of God and speaks of it day and night, he is like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which brings forth its fruit in its season, and its leaves do not wither." This is a clear consequence that does not fail. For he who believes in God, fears God, calls on God in times of need, praises Him and thanks Him for His good deeds, gladly listens to God's word and constantly observes His works, and teaches others to do the same: how can he offend his neighbor? Should he not be obedient to his parents? How could he also kill, commit adultery etc.?
309 Therefore let the first tablet be held up to the people, and let them be instructed in the very first thing, which is the right worship: for this is to make a good tree, out of which good fruit will grow afterward. But our adversaries turn it back, and want to have the fruit before the tree is there.
But I believe that at the same time an outward and visible ceremony is done for this service. For this is God's way, that He always lets a visible sign go beside the word. When Cain and Abel sacrificed, God showed them a visible sign that He graciously accepted Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's. This may be what happened here. This may also have happened here, since the Church began to flourish again and God's Word was taught publicly with great prosperity and improvement and continued well, God added a visible sign so that the Church could certainly conclude that God was pleased with it.
311. And God has delayed this sign, what it was, perhaps a fire from heaven or something else, until the third generation, so that people would learn how to be satisfied with the word. But after they were satisfied with the mere word in
When they had comforted the Cainites in all their afflictions and temptations, God, according to His mercy, also gave them a visible sign, appointed a place for them, as well as people and some ceremonies, so that the church could gather, practice its faith, teach and pray. etc. For when one has this, namely, the word and the first table, then, when God does visible signs to it, a church is made of it, in which people practice teaching, hearing, taking sacrament etc. Then follow the works of the other table, which are worship and pleasing works for those alone who have and practice the first table.
312 Now Moses praises such a gift here with short words, because he says that they began to call on the name of the Lord; not that it was done by the Cainites, as the Jews interpret it, but by Adam's God-fearing children and descendants, who were the only true church at that time. Therefore, if some of Cain's descendants were also saved, they had to keep and go to the right church.
313 So this is the sum of these first four chapters, that we should believe that after this life there is a resurrection of the dead and eternal life through the seed of the woman. This is the portion of the pious and faithful, who in this temporal life are subject to all misery, violence and persecution. The wicked, on the other hand, have the goods and power of the world, which they use against the true church. For in the first chapter it is shown that man was created for an immortal and eternal life, because he was created in the image of God. This also shows
to the commandment in the second chapter v. 17: "The day you eat of this tree, you will die of death. For it follows that Adam and Eve would not have died if they had not eaten of the forbidden tree. Therefore, through sin, they fell from the immortal being into the mortal one, and thus they beget from themselves all their descendants equally mortal. In the third chapter, however, immortality is again negated by the promise of the seed of the woman. After that, in the fourth chapter, there is a public example of eternal life, because Abel lives, even though he was slain by his brother and taken into the bosom of God, who testifies that his blood cries out.
The following fifth chapter is written primarily for the sake of Enoch, who was taken up by the Lord. For though it must necessarily follow, for the sake of the number of years of the generation of the pious, yet in it there is something special and excellent, that he says that Enoch did not die, like Adam, nor was he slain, like Abel, nor torn by lions or bears; but was taken up by the Lord himself to immortality, so that we should believe in the seed of the woman, the Lord Christ, our Redeemer and Conqueror of the devil, for whose sake we should also wait for an eternal and immortal life after this wretched and mortal one.
The Jews do not see or understand that these five chapters are in perfect harmony with one another, for they do not have the true sun, the Lord Christ, who makes all things clear and reveals them, through whom we have forgiveness of sins and eternal life.