Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the Creation

by Martin Luther

Wherefore, it behooves us all to guard against such doctrines of devils as these, and to learn to hold marriage in all reverence; and with all reverence to speak of that holy life, which we see God himself has instituted; and which we hear is commended of him in the Decalogue, where he says, "Honor thy father and thy mother," to which holy matrimony, is also added the blessing, "Be fruitful and multiply." And concerning this holy marriage it is, that the Holy Ghost is here speaking, whose mouth is holy and chaste. But all those sins and vices, and all that turpitude which have entered into the originally pure creation of God by sin, we ought not to agitate, or deride, or touch, when speaking of holy marriage, but rather carefully to cover them; just in the same way as we see that God covered the originally naked Adam and Eve with coats of skin after their sin. For marriage ought to be treated and spoken of by all as honorable, being the holy union from which we all are born; and which is, as it were, the seminary not only of each nation but of the Church and kingdom of Christ unto the end of the world.

This high glory of marriage however the heathen and profane men do not understand. Therefore, all they can do is to collect the vices which exist in the marriage life itself, and in the abandoned female sex. And thus, separating the unclean things from the clean, they retain the unclean only; and the clean they see not at all. Hence also, certain profane lawyers so irreverently judge and speak of this book of Genesis as to affirm that it contains nothing more than the marriage doings of the Jews. Are not then such men as these, I ask you, worthy of living to see marriage despised and unclean celibacy introduced, and themselves, subjected to its crimes and punishments, which exceed even those of Sodom?

The Holy Spirit however thought it not enough to say here "And Adam knew Eve;" but he also adds, "his wife!" For the Holy Spirit approves not wandering lusts and promiscuous intercourse! He wills that every man should live content with his own wife. And although, alas! even that union of married people itself is very far from being pure, as it would have been had man continued in his state of innocency; nevertheless even in the midst of the vices of lust and of all the other calamities of the fall of Adam, the "blessing" of God on marriage still stands unaltered. For the fact of Adam knowing Eve his wife, which Moses records, was not written for Adam and Eve's sake. When Moses penned these words, Adam and Eve had long been reduced to their original dust. It was for our sakes therefore that this was written; "That those who cannot contain might marry," 1 Cor. 7:9, "live content each with his Eve, and not desire strange women."

This expression, "knew his wife," is a phrase peculiar to the Hebrews; for neither the Latins nor the Greeks so expressed themselves. It is a form of speech particularly beautiful; not only on account of the modesty and reverence it preserves, but on account of the peculiarity of signification it conveys. For the verb YADA has a much more extensive meaning than the verb "to know" in our language. Thus, when Job says, concerning the wicked, "They shall know what it is to act against God" he means that they shall feel and experience the consequences of such actions. So, when David says, "For I acknowledge my sin," Ps. 51:3, his meaning is, I feel and experience what it is to sin. Again, when the angel of the Lord says to Abraham, "For now I know that thou fearest God," Gen. 22:12, his meaning is, "I know by sense and experience." And again, when the Virgin Mary said unto the angel, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man," Luke 1:34, her meaning is the same as that of Job, David, etc. For, it is evident that Mary knew many men, but she had neither known nor experienced any man, as man or the male of God's creation. It was in this manner therefore that Adam "knew Eve his wife," as it is expressed in the present passage. Adam did not know his Eve as an object of sight or of a speculative knowledge, but he experienced in reality what she was as the "woman," whom God had created such.

That which follows, "And Eve conceived, and bare Cain," is sure evidence that the human nature was more excellent and perfect then than it is now. For there were originally no unfruitful embraces, as there are now in this old age of the world. As soon as Eve was known by her Adam, she was immediately impregnated and conceived.

II. Here a question may arise, why Moses says, "And bare Cain!" Why he does not say, And bare a son, Cain; as below, verse 25, where his expression is, "And she bare a son, and called his name Seth." Both Cain and Seth were sons. Why, then, are they not both called "sons"? The answer to this question is, that these different expressions of Moses were so ordered on account of the posterities. For, Abel being murdered by his brother, perished corporally; but Cain by his sin perished spiritually. And yet the generation or seed-bed of the Church was not propagated from Cain, though he was still alive corporally; for all his posterity perished in the flood. Therefore neither the blessed Abel, nor the accursed Cain, has in the Scriptures the name of "son." But Seth was the one from whose posterity Christ, that promised Seed, was ordained to be born. Seth therefore is the first of the children of Adam and Eve, who is counted worthy the name of "son."

V. 1b. And Eve said, I have gotten a man with the help of (from) Jehovah.

From this expression of Eve there may be gathered another reason why she did not call Cain a "son." It was the greatness of her joy and of her reverential awe, which prevented her from calling Cain a "son." For she thought something greater concerning Cain than a natural son. She considered Cain would be that man who should bruise the serpent's head. And therefore she does not say simply, "a man;" but, "a man of Jehovah," implying that he would be that man concerning whom the Lord God had promised her that her Seed should bruise the serpent's head. And although Eve was deceived in this her hope, yet it plainly appears that she was a holy woman, and that she believed in the salvation that was to come by the blessed Seed. And it was because she believed this, that she so greatly rejoiced in the son which she had borne, and that she spoke of him in the exalted terms contained in the text before us. It was as if she had said, "I have gotten a man of God, who will conduct himself more righteously and happily than I and my Adam conducted ourselves in paradise. Therefore I call him not my 'son.' He is a man of God, promised to me and shown to me of God." It might have been for this latter reason also, as well as for the former, that Eve did not call Cain "a son."

With respect therefore to Eve's adhering so closely to the divine promise and believing so firmly in the deliverance that should surely come through her Seed, in all this she did rightly. For, by the same faith in the "Seed" that was to come, all the saints of old were justified and sanctified. But with respect to the individual intended by the promise, she erred. She believed that it was Cain who should put an end to all those calamities into which Satan had hurled man by sin. This faith of Eve however rested on a certain opinion of her own, without any sure sign and without the sure Word. The promise indeed was true, and certain, and sure; but nothing was said or signified definitely, whether it was Cain or Abel who should be that great conqueror of the serpent.

In the matter therefore of determining the individual, Eve was deceived; and consequently her giving to her son so proud and joyous a name was all in vain. For the text shows that Cain was so called from the verb KANAH, which signifies "to possess," or "to acquire." So that by this name Eve consoled herself against the evils she had brought upon herself, and set against them the acquisition of eternal life and salvation, which she should obtain by her Seed, against that loss of life and salvation which she had incurred by sin and Satan. It was as if she had said to her Adam, "I remember with sorrow what we have lost by our sin; but now, let us speak of and hope for nothing but recovery and acquisition. I have gotten a man of God, who will acquire and recover for us that glory which we have lost." It was this certainty of the promise therefore and her sure faith in it, which drew Eve into this haste and caused her to think that this her first son was the Seed concerning whom the Lord had made the promise.