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

by Martin Luther

All this idolatry, so various and so widely wandering out of the way, plainly shows how great a gift of God it is to possess the Word and those signs of divine grace, which God himself set forth and commanded. And if the Gentiles had been willing to follow in the footsteps of the Jews, they would never have fallen away into those monstrous idolatries under which they were sunk. And so also with respect to ourselves; had we held Baptism and the holy Supper of our Lord in that esteem in which we ought to have held them, we should never have become monks. Nothing concerning purgatory, nothing concerning the sacrifice of the mass, nothing about those other like iniquities, would ever have been taught and handed down to us in the Church. But after the light of the Word had been put out by the wicked Popes, it was easy enough to thrust upon men all these abominations.

Unspeakable therefore is this gift, that God not only condescended to speak unto men by his Word, but added also to the Word these visible signs of his grace; as in the New Testament, Baptism and the Supper of our Lord. Are not those therefore who use these signs in a manner beneath their dignity, or who treat them with contempt, worthy of being left as they are to purchase the Pope's dung, as the richest balsam, and to worship it, and to pray to it? For why dared they despise such goodness of the divine majesty? They might have had, if they pleased, these sure signs of the grace of God at their own houses without any expense and without any labor. But despising these, they travel to Rome and to Compostella, etc.; and thus spend their money and afflict their bodies, and at length most justly lose their souls. God be blessed forevermore, that he has in this our day recalled us by his Word from these mighty errors and idolatries, and has so enriched us with the signs of his divine grace, that we may have them before our doors and in our home and even on our beds.

It was in this manner that God at first and from the very beginning of the world, in order to confirm his promise concerning our salvation, took this care that men might always have signs by which they might comfort themselves under their sins, and might lift up their heads by a confidence in the divine grace. For it is not the dignity of the work or act itself, but the mercy of God and the efficacy of the divine promise in the sacrifice, which are availing unto the worshipper. It is because God hath ordained these acts of worship, and because he hath promised that they shall be well-pleasing unto him, that Baptism and the Supper of our Lord are to us, what the sacrifice and offering after the promise were to Adam. For God in those sacrifices revealed his grace; and he approved those same sacrifices by himself igniting them and consuming them by fire from heaven.

II. And it was to these acts of worship that the first father brought up his sons; that they might in this manner render their thanks unto God, might bless God, and might conceive a sure hope in the mercy of God. But the wicked Cain, inflated with the dignity of his first birth-right, despised all these most blessed preachings of his parent. He brought his offering indeed as his father had commanded him; but, puffed up with the high opinion of his own sanctity, he imagined that God would approve the act of the worship itself, because of the dignity of the person, the worshipper. And Abel, who, according to the name given him, was nothing in his own eyes, also brought his offering; but he worships God thereby through faith in the divine promise; as it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb. 11:4.

V. 4a. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.

Here, if you look at the acts of their worship themselves, you can see no reason for preferring Abel to Cain. For the Jews expose their absurdity by their dreams when they say that Cain did not offer chosen wheat, but chaff only; and that was the reason why he was rejected of God. But the Jews are self-righteous worshippers and cleave unto the works themselves. The judgment of the Epistle to the Hebrews however is quite different; the testimony of which is, that it was "By faith that Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain," Heb. 11:4. The fault of the offering therefore did not lie in the things which were offered, but in the person who offered them. And it was the faith of the person and its weight, which gave the value to the offering made by Abel! But Cain, by the state of his person, rendered the offering which he made of no avail. Abel believed that God was good and merciful, and it was this faith that rendered his offering acceptable to God. Cain on the contrary trusted in the dignity of his first birth-right and despised his brother as a man of naught in comparison with himself. What therefore in the end was proved to be the judgment of God? God made the first-born to be as the after-born, and the after-born to be as the first-born. For he had respect unto the offering of Abel, and showed that the offering of this priest was acceptable unto himself; and, on the other hand, he declared that Cain was not acceptable to him and that he was not a true priest in his sight.

The Hebrew expression, SCHAAH, has a very wide signification; and I have carefully explained its full meaning in my paper against Latomus; and also, its like signification, as found in the prophet Isaiah. "In that day shall men look to their Maker, and their eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel; and they shall not look to the altars, the work of their hands," Is. 17:7, 8, and likewise, Is. 66:12, "And ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees." The full meaning of the original expression therefore and its allusion are, that when a mother cherishes her babe in her bosom and looks upon it, she views it with a glad and delighted eye. This is the meaning, the allusion and the figure, which the original expression conveys. Its signification therefore is much more extensive than that of the common verb, "to see," or "to behold." For when a mother looks at her babe, she smiles upon it with delight and carries in her countenance a peculiar expression of love. The modern expressions of our language do not contain a term by which the full import of this original word can be conveyed; nor does the Latin language, as far as I know, contain any expression adequate to its satisfactory translation.

Quite similar is that which Moses says in Exodus 33:15, "If thy presence (facies tuae) go not with me, carry us not up hence," that is, grant that we may ever have thy signs with us in our midst, by which thou appearest always before us, and makest manifest thy presence with us and thy favor unto us. And these signs, as I have said, were the pillar of fire and the cloud, etc. And though Moses does not, in this portion of the divine history explain what that sign was, by which God showed that the offerings of Abel were acceptable unto him; yet it is very probable that his acceptance and pleasure were manifested by fire sent down from heaven, by which the offering and the victim were ignited and consumed before the eyes of all present, by which it was plainly shown that God was delighted with the sacrifice Abel offered. For by this divine manifestation God showed that he judgeth the heart and the reins; because, in these two offerings, he "had not respect" unto the glory of the first birth-right of Cain; but, on the other hand, he "had respect" unto the mind of the despised Abel.

And here the whole Church first begins to be divided into that church, which is "the church" in name only, but which in reality is the church of hypocrisy and the church of blood; and into that other church, which is barren and desolate in appearance, and subject to sufferings and to the cross, and which, before the world and in the estimation of that church of hypocrisy, is really the Abel; that is, vanity and nothing. But Christ himself, who also makes this division and difference, calls Abel the "righteous" one and makes him the beginning of the Church of the godly, which shall continue even unto the end of the world. While Cain is the beginning of that church of enmity and blood, which also shall continue unto the end of the world; as Augustine also setteth forth this history in his book, "The City of God."

A great doctrine therefore and a great consolation are set before us, while we trace both these churches to these their original fountains, as it were, and when we mark that wonderful counsel, with which God has ever ruled and overruled these things; ordaining that the true Church should at one time be greater and at another time less; yet, so that the hypocritical and the bloody church should always have the glory before the world and should crucify the true Church, which is the beloved of her God. For even thus at the beginning did commence the practical fulfilment of that divine prediction, that the seed of the serpent should bite the heel of the blessed Seed. And this same enmity and biting we experience to this very day. Therefore we ought not to be affrighted by this our appointed lot. It ought rather to be unto us a great consolation that we learn by our own experience to suffer those very things at the hands of our enemies, which the bloody Cain inflicted on the "righteous" Abel.