Friday, November 17, 2023

Matthew R. Schlimm on Cain being the Recipient of the "Divine Word" in Genesis 4

  

In Gen 4:1-16, readers receive their first glimpse of life outside Eden. There they encounter the two sons of Eve, and they learn that the elder becomes angry when divine favor falls not on him, but on the younger. God intervenes and speaks to Cain about his anger, which is quite remarkable given that the divine word in Genesis is reserved for the most significant of developments, including the creation of the world and the establishment of various covenants. And yet in sharp contrast to divine words elsewhere, God’s word in ch. 4 falls flat. Cain refuses to heed God’s warning, He kills his brother after Abel has done nothing wrong. Fratricide represents one extreme of what can happen with anger. (Matthew R. Schlimm, “Emotion, Embodiment, and Ethics: Engaging Anger in Genesis,” in Bodies, Embodiment, and the Theology of the Hebrew Bible, ed. S. Tamar Kamionkowski and Wonil Kim [Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 465; London: T&T Clark, 2010], 151-52)