Cain, East, Time, and Life
A few nights ago, I had the opportunity to host a small group Bible study at my home, and for the lesson, we focused on Genesis 4 and the Bible’s first genealogy. Part of my lesson involved sharing with my friends different ways to approach biblical genealogies; they do more than just show us who is in what family! Granted, as Bill T. Arnold notes in Genesis: New Cambridge Bible Commentary, “Genealogies do not make for exciting reading” (82). But we worked through Genesis 4:17-26, uncovering the literary design and symbolism interwoven within the family tree.
But it was what came before the genealogy, a mini narrative crafted within one verse (Genesis 4:16), which has kept my mind rotating around a profound and yet perplexing idea involving Cain, the east, time, and life. But before unpacking my confusion (and hopefully coming to some understanding), let’s set the scene.
"Cain Slaying Able," Pier Francesco Mola, ca. 1650-52.
Adam and Eve have just been exiled from the garden of Eden (spiritual death?) and are making their way in a new world outside the paradise the narrative showcased just one chapter prior. Adam and Eve conceive a child “with the help of the Lord” (Genesis 4:1; did Adam and Eve have fertility issues following their banishment?), giving birth to Cain, then Able. The narrative then moves into the elder’s jealousy and self-centeredness, leading to the first murder recorded in the bibical narrative. God rhetorically inquires into Able’s whereabouts (Genesis 4:9, echoing his response following the Fall in Genesis 3:9ff), to which Cain infamously responds, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). God then pronounces on Cain three curses: 1) to be cursed from the ground, 2) to be a fugitive, and 3) to wander the earth (Genesis 4:11-12). Cain is overwhelmed by this decree, even adding another curse upon himself (“from your face I shall be hidden” [Genesis 4:14]). Graciously, God places Cain under his protection and gives him the ambiguous mark on his forehead (Genesis 4:15). But, in typical human fashion, Cain immediately rebels against God:
“Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden” (Genesis 4:16).
And it was this tiny verse which occupied my thinking for the past couple days, and which, hopefully through writtten reflection, some clarity will materialize. This verse may seem straighforward. But what is really going on in this verse, particularly in connection with Cain, the east, time, and life?
My professional background is in literary studies, so whenever I encounter a perplexing text and have no idea how to interpret it, I follow a process of pre-interpretive steps:
1) Identify where the difficult passage/lines appear in the context of the larger piece.
2) Read the text for understanding; what do the lines literally say?
3) What other contextual, linguistic, and/or literary factors do I need to consider in order to make sense of the confusing lines/passage?
Step 1 has been quickly summarized above, situating verse 16 in a larger narrative context. But what about step 2, what the lines actually say? Let’s consider each part of verse 16 by separating it into three parts: 4:16a, 4:16b, and 4:16c.
Genesis 4:16a:
“Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord”
Ok, so who went away from whom? Cain “went away” from God, ironically right after God promised to protect Cain from anyone who would kill him for his actions against Able. As Andrew Steinmann notes in Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary, “The author is careful to note that Cain left God’s presence. God did not abandon Cain, but the unrepentant Cain produced his own estrangement from God” (74; see also Neil Brain Peterson’s Genesis: A Pentecostal Commentary, 62 for a similar observation). Cain symbolically rejects God’s provision for his life by freely choosing to leave God’s “presence,” or in Hebrew “face” (פָּנֶה [pāne]). In a seemingly self-fulfilling prophecy, Cain does the very thing he claims is a curse on his life in 4:14, but with a twist. Whereas Cain says “from your face I shall be hidden,” Cain tries hiding God’s face from his life, by turning away from him. Of course, Cain cannot escape God’s presence, but he can try to evade God, a fruitless endeavor. Which brings us to the second part of verse 16.
Genesis 4:16b:
“and settled in the land of Nod”
What was one of the curses God bestowed on Cain in 4:12? To be “a wanderer on the earth.” And what does Cain do immediately after turning away from God? Settles, in a land called Nod.
Having understood what happens literally in the line, we now turn to the third step in the pre-interpretive process: considering contextual, linguistic, and/or literary factors. We are going to linguistically focus on three words in this line: settled, land, and Nod.
In Hebrew, settled is the Hebrew verb ישׁב (yšb) meaning primarily to sit down, with other meanings such as inhabiting, dwelling, or marrying.
Land, in Hebrew, is the noun אֶ֫רֶץ (ʾereṣ) the same word used in the creation account when God created the “earth” in Genesis 1:1. However, as J.A. McGuire-Moushon notes, ʾereṣ can also denote “a specific area, such as a country or territory” (Lexham Theological Wordbook, edited by Douglas Mangum et al.). And so land, in this instance, could refer to a territory.
Finally, we have the proper noun, Nod, which comes from the Hebrew נוֹד (“nwd”) meaning to be aimless or homeless.
So, considering these three words in light of their linguistic context, we have a deeper understanding of the line’s literal meaning. Cain went and set up habitation in a territory literally called “homelessness.” Now we see the ironies and interpretive possibilities begin emerging.
Cain was cursed to be a “wanderer” or נוֹד (“nwd”), the exact word used for the territory he settled in. In effect, God cursed Cain to be homeless, and out of rebellion Cain tries to settle (i.e. not be homeless), but does so in an area literally called “homeless.” While we used steps in the pre-interpretive process to get a deeper meaning of what the text is actually saying, we are still not at the interpretive, authorial intent stage, something we will come to after we determine what the third and last segment of verse 16 is saying.
Genesis 4:16c:
“east of Eden.”
Spoiler, it is this portion of the verse which has been occupying my mind for the past couple days. But before we get into that, let’s go through our pre-interpretive steps again. What is this line literally saying? The land of homelessness is placed in geographic relation to Eden. Nod is located east of Eden, the place where Adam and Eve were exiled from. Now, let’s again turn to the linguistic aspects at work in this line.
East in Hebrew is קִדְמָה (“qidmah”) meaning either opposite (to) or (to the) east.
Robert Anderson Street, in the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, acknowledges Eden strikes similarities with “the Hebrew verb eden, meaning ‘delight’ or ‘pleasure,’” (458).
So we have a territory called homeless located to the east of delight. Now we have all the contextual, linguistic, and literal factors to begin considering our interpretation, and hopefully, the author(s) intention behind such details.
Literally, we see Cain turn away from God to go settle in homelessness, the very curse bestowed on him, in a territory east from the land his family was exiled from. Figuratively, Cain rejects God (turns away from him) and tries rebelling against God’s curse by settling when he was cursed to wander. But Cain’s rebellion comically backfires when he dwells in the land of his curse. How can Cain settle in a place called homeless? Such irony took us a while to get to, but for the Torah’s original audience, they probably laughed out loud at these comedically ironic lines.
But what about the symbolic nature of the east? In a western conception, we tend to think of the east as promise and light, just as the sun rises in the east, suggesting new beginnings and a bright future. And part of this iconography is shared with our Ancient Near Eastern Israelite neighbors. As Leland Ryken et al. note in Dictionary of Bibical Imagery,
The Semitic cultures of the ancient Near East tended literally to orient themselves (i.e., to face) east (Heb qedem “forward,” “east”). […] This orientation pervades much biblical literature to affirm the east as the source from which blessing and respite come (Gen 2:8; Rev 7:2–3), perhaps echoing the westward movement of the sun from the east. The direction one faces points to origin and not destination, a fact confirmed by the words for past and future, cognate with the terms for east and west. (225).
The eastern direction symbolically represented blessing, as God’s light pervaded across his ʾereṣ. Indeed, the words west and east are Hebrew cognates (a word sharing an origin with another word, often holding similar meanings and sounds) to the Hebrew words for future and past respectively. Thus, as Leland Ryken et al. observe,
The imagery is of one heading into the unknown future backwards (west) by facing the past (east). In the same way spatial orientation toward the east, such as the east gate of the temple, has come to imply and endorse in certain narratives movement away from the east. Movement toward the east in Genesis, consequently, consistently appears in the context of rebellion and sin. (225)
And this is where my query over the past couple days comes into the picture, finally!
If the east symbolizes God, but also movement towards the east represents rebellious sinning, how do we interpret Cain’s movement east towards Nod?
According to ancient Israelite conceptions of time, the only way to move forward into the future was to face the east, but rather than moving forward towards the east, which also signifies the past, the believer would walk backward into the future while keeping one’s focus on God (the east). And of course we want to progress forward into the future in our lives and not regress into the past. But why would it be rebellion to move into the east if such a direction is associated with God?
I was confused about Cain’s movement towards the east, thinking he was actively facing eastward as he moved east. However, I forgot a very important detail from verse 16, and it’s right at the beginning: “Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord.” Metaphorically, absolutely, Cain rejected God and spiritually turned away from him. But within the literal narrative, this detail reconciles how Cain could move into the past while not keeping his focus on the east, and it all has to do with the backward direction of time conceived within ancient Israelite cosmology.
Within the narrative, Cain metaphorically and literally turned away from God; rather than facing east, he turned westward, which is a Hebrew cognate for the future. Rather than keeping his sights on God, he turned his sights on worldly aspirations in the future, like building his own city, presumably to protect himself from others because he did not trust in the Lord’s provision (Genesis 4:17). But as soon as he looks into the future (westward), he starts going “east of Eden.” The image, then, is of Cain turning to the west (the future) and walking backwards into the past, the exact opposite of the believer who is facing the east and walking backwards into the future. Cain’s perspective was skewed and not focused on God, showing the solution to a seemingly paradoxical image of the east’s association with God and sin. The east (the past) becomes representative of sin when the individual faces to the west (the future, and away from God). But this symbolism inverts when the individual faces the past (the east) as a reminder of God’s promise, power, and provision, as the sun lights the way for the believer to walk confidently backwards into the future (the west).
This interpretation metaphorically illustrates man’s challenge in life. Humans continually look to the future, to what will come next, to what could be. But while doing so, we miss the present, or, more than likely, we end up reverting to negative actions, bringing us into the sinful past, all because our focus is on the western future. But what if we shift perspective? I queried my pastor about this issue today, and he helped me conceive of Cain’s issue in a different light, pointing out to me how Cain’s focus was skewed. What Cain thought was forward movement (going into the east because he was thinking about his future) only led to his regression in life. Just read Genesis 4:17-24 to see the fruit of Cain’s excursion eastward.
So what does this mean for our lives? How can such a literary interpretation of a mini narrative bunched at the start to the Bible’s first genealogy speak to us today? Well, it means keeping our eyes, as Jack Sparrow would say, on the horizon. Just make sure you pick the right horizon!
*All scripture quotations come from the English Standard Version.