Berashit (part 3) Genesis 1:1-6:8

Where is THAT written? 

As noted in an earlier discussion on Berashit, the Book of Genesis was originally a single scroll with no chapter numbers or verse numbers. Those things were added much later, and Christians and Jews have their own systems. Sometimes they match, and sometimes they don’t.

Paragraph and verse numbering is useful when telling someone where to find a specific statement. But it is also useful to cause an interpretation that wasn’t ever there.

Let’s take the story of Cain and Abel, for example, which takes place in chapter 4, and has 26 verses.

Within these 26 verses there are a number of stories. Because of a perceived common thread, it seems logical to group all of them together. And yet, by doing just that, many people will hold the Cain and Abel story completely different than how it is presented. For example, many believe that Cain killed Abel out of jealousy even though the text doesn’t say so.

Why?

Because you have this story (verses 3 through 7) that tells us:

Abel burnt and offering to YHVH, and so did Cain, but YHVH indicated that he liked Abel’s offering better, telling Cain that he could do better.

You then have the next story (verses 8 through 16), that tells us:

Cain kills Abel, YHVH wants to know where Abel is, Cain gets mouthy and God says that He can hear Abel’s blood crying from under the earth (in the OT, when you died, you went to Sheol, a place of the dead for all people, typically). Cain and YHVH argue a bit, they come to an understanding, and Cain leaves and starts building cities.

Many people assume that these different stories must have a connection of some sort, and start creating dialogue to create that connection.

The narrative is silent on the matter. Like Esau’s jealousy of Jacob, years could have gone by and the reason for the anger could have been completely unrelated to the previous story.

I get a lot of people who respond to me when I ask them to show me where their interpretation is written down, “Well, what else could it have been?!” This is a classic case of “arguing from ignorance”, meaning, “I can’t think of another reason, so this must be true.”

The Jewish sages came up with a number of other reasons why Cain killed Abel.

In one case, they claim that twin girls were born with Abel (triplets?) and one girl was born with Cain (twins?). “[Cain said] ‘I will marry the additional sister because I am the firstborn.’ Abel said, ‘I will marry her because she was born with me.” And so, they fought over a woman. (Berashit Rabbah 22:79)

(These additional girls are based on interpreting the number of time the object identifier “et” appears in the sentence. Such an interpretation is not based on grammar, but on Midrashic interpretation only).

In another case, they claim it was about property and power, as to who would rule over the land verses the movable property. (Berashit Rabbah 22:7).

Surely, a creative person can come up with even more possibilities. But remember, it is fine to do that, just remember that they are inserts of your own making,

Taking stories that are barely connected and adding narrative to make it flow better is fine – just don’t confuse the insert with the narrative itself, which is often the case. It is for this same reason that some believe that Abraham was met by three angels and fed them lunch (the text calls them “men”) only because an unrelated story that followed (two angels going to Sodom) had angels, and they connected the two tales.

This happens a lot.

What’s in a name? 

In case you weren’t aware of it, the actual Hebrew names of these two brothers was Qayin and Hevel. The texts doesn’t tell us why Hevel (Abel) was named so (it typically means “foolish”, “vain”, “absurd”, etc. – not a positive name.) But Qayin…that’s an interesting one, especially when many translations omit what was going on in 4:1 –

“And the man “knew” (lay with) his woman, and she became pregnant, and she gave birth to Qayin and she said, “I have acquired/created (from the root, Qanah) a man with YHVH”.

Could this be where the expression “there are always three in the bed when a couple are having sex” comes from? [/smirk]

A lot of translations say, “help of YHVH” instead of "from/with YHVH", even though “help” isn’t in the text. After all, many are uncomfortable with YHVH being something other than a helper. The KJV gets it right (one of the few times). The Aramaic Targum changes it to read, “I have acquired a man from before YHVH” to eliminate any anthropomorphic references, as it often does.

Conclusion 

If someone says that a narrative exists, always confirmation that it does. If it is an interpretation, accept it as such, and don’t treat it as an authentic part of the narrative. When the text uses anthropomorphic expressions concerning God, you can always count on the Aramaic Targum to shout, “No, no…don’t look at that. Ignore the man behind the curtain!”

As I keep reminding you, the Torah is a collection of stories. There are thousands of stories stitched together. Don’t assume that they were written by the same person, or during the same period, or that one story has a direct flow from the previous and into the next. As you will see with any real reading of the Torah, timelines often jump forward and backward and unrelated tales are often strung together.

There's an ancient expression, "There is no before or after in the Torah" to address why there is often a flow of stories with a dizzying spin, going in one direction and, suddenly, going into a different one. That has to do with how the text was written - it is an anthology, stitched together, and then numbered as though those numbers have any real meaning.

As an educated reader, it is your job to make such a distinction.