196. These things are often a stumbling-block, not to the world only, but even to the saints, as the Psalms in many places testify. And the prophets, also, are frequently found to grow indignant, as does Jeremiah, when they see the wicked possess freedom as it were from the evils of life, while they are oppressed and afflicted in various ways. Men may therefore inquire, Where is the curse of the wicked? Where is the blessing of the godly? Is not the converse the truth? Cain is a vagabond and settled nowhere; and yet Cain is the first man that builds a city and has a certain place to dwell in. But we will answer this argument more fully hereafter. We will now proceed with the text of Moses.
| VI. | CAIN'S CONDUCT WHEN PUNISHED. | |||
| 1. | How he despaired. "My punishment is greater" etc. | |||
| a. | These words have greatly perplexed interpreters [197]. | |||
| b. | The way Augustine explains them [197]. | |||
| c. | The explanation of the rabbins [198]. | |||
| * | How the rabbins pervert the Scriptures and whence their false comments [198-199]. | |||
| d. | Why the rabbins' interpretation cannot be accepted [200]. | |||
| e. | The true understanding of these words [201]. | |||
| * | The punishment troubles Cain more than his sin [201]. | |||
| f. | What makes these words difficult [202]. | |||
| * | The right understanding of the words "Minso" and "Avon" [202-203]. | |||
| * | Grammarians cannot get at the right meaning of the Scriptures [204]. | |||
| * | How we should proceed in interpreting Scripture [204]. | |||
| 2. | How Cain viewed his political punishment [205]. | |||
| 3. | How he viewed his ecclesiastical punishment [206]. | |||
| * | Why Cain was excommunicated by Adam [206-207]. | |||
| * | In what sense Cain was a fugitive and a wanderer [208-209]. | |||
| * | Adam received his punishment in a better way [210]. | |||
| * | The meaning of being a fugitive and a wanderer. How the same is found among the papists [211-212]. | |||
| * | The grace of God was guaranteed to Seth and his posterity [212]. | |||
| * | Why no temptation can harm believers [212]. | |||
| 4. | Cain's fear that in turn he would be slain [213]. | |||
| * | God shows Cain a double favor in his punishment. Why he does this [213]. | |||
| * | Whether any of Cain's posterity, under the Old Testament, were saved [214-215]. | |||
| 5. | Whether Cain prayed that he might die, as Augustine, Lyra and others relate [216-217]. | |||
| * | The fables of the rabbins cause Luther double work and why he occasionally cites them [218]. | |||
| * | Whether God changed his judgment upon Cain [219]. | |||
| * | Why God still showed Cain incidental grace [219]. | |||
| * | The fables of the Jews concerning Cain's death and Lamech's punishment [220-221]. | |||
| * | It is foolish to dispute concerning the sevenfold vengeance to be visited upon the one who slew Cain [222]. | |||
| * | The divine promises. | |||
| a. | They are twofold, of the law and of grace [223]. | |||
| b. | The promise Adam received [224]. | |||
| c. | Whether God gave Cain one of these promises [224-225]. | |||
| d. | The kind of promises well organized police stations have [226]. | |||
| e. | The promises the Church has [227]. | |||
| f. | Cain's promise is temporal, incidental and incomplete [227]. | |||
| * | Was Cain murdered [228]. | |||
| 6. | How Cain had cause to fear, even though there were no people on the earth except Adam and Eve and his sisters [229-230]. | |||
| * | The sign that is put upon Cain. | |||
| a. | Can anything definite be said of it. What the fathers thought of it [231]. | |||
| b. | Why this sign was placed upon him [232]. | |||
| c. | How he had to carry it his whole life [232]. | |||
| d. | How the sign was a confirmation and a promise of the law [233]. | |||
| 7. | Of Cain's departure, and his excommunication from the presence of Jehovah. | |||
| a. | The first parents in obedience to God made Cain an outcast [234-235]. | |||
| b. | How the first parents overcame their parental affections in expelling Cain [236]. | |||
| * | What should urge men to flee from their false security [237]. | |||
| c. | His expulsion must have pierced Cain to the heart [238]. | |||
| * | What is the presence of Jehovah [238]. | |||
| d. | How he went from the presence of Jehovah, to be without that presence [239]. | |||
| e. | It was a sad departure, both for Cain and his parents [240]. | |||
| f. | Whither he resorted [241]. | |||
| * | What meaning of "in the land of Nod" [241]. | |||
| * | Of Paradise. | |||
| (1) | The deluge very likely destroyed paradise [241]. | |||
| (2) | Where was paradise [242]. | |||
| * | Of the Deluge. | |||
| (1) | The deluge destroyed paradise [243]. | |||
| * | Cain lived where Babylon was built later [244]. | |||
| (2) | The deluge gave the earth an entirely different form [244]. | |||
VI. CAIN'S CONDUCT UPON BEING PUNISHED.
V. 13. And Cain said unto Jehovah, My punishment (iniquity) is greater than I can bear (than can be remitted).
197. Here Moses seems to have fixed a cross for the grammarians and the rabbins; for they crucify this passage in various ways. Lyra recites the opinions of some who see in this passage an affirmation, considering it to mean that in his despair Cain claimed his sin to be greater than could be pardoned. This is our rendering. Augustine likewise retained this view of the passage, for he says, "Thou liest, Cain; for the mercy of God is greater than the misery of all the sinners."
198. The rabbins, however, expound the passage as a denial in the form of a question, as if he had said, "Is my iniquity greater than can be remitted?" But if this rendering be the true one, Cain not only does not acknowledge his sin, but excuses it and, in addition, insults God for laying upon him a punishment greater than he deserves. In this way the rabbins almost everywhere corrupt the sense of the Scriptures. Consequently I begin to hate them, and I admonish all who read them, to do so with careful discrimination. Although they did possess the knowledge of some things by tradition from the fathers, they corrupted them in various ways; and therefore they often deceived by those corruptions even Jerome himself. Nor did the poets of old so fill the world with their fables as the wicked Jews did the Scriptures with their absurd opinions. A great task, therefore, is incumbent upon us in endeavoring to keep the text free from their comments.
199. The occasion for all this error is the fact that some men are competent to deal only with grammatical questions, but not with the subject matter itself; that is, they are not theologians at the same time. The inevitable result is mistakes and the crucifixion of themselves as well as of the Scriptures. For how can any one explain what he does not understand? Now the subject matter in the present passage is that Cain is accused in his own conscience. And no one, not only no wicked man, but not even the devil himself, can endure this judgment; as James witnesses, "The devils also believe and tremble before God," Jas 2, 19. Peter also says, "Whereas angels which are greater in power and might cannot endure that judgment which the Lord will exercise upon blasphemers," 2 Pet 2, 11. So also Manasseh in his prayer, verses 4 and 5, confesses that all men tremble before the face of the Lord's anger.