III.
Ge 4:16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son-Enoch.
18 To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.
19 Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah.
20 And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.
21 His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute.
22 And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.
23 Then Lamech said to his wives: "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for hurting me.
24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
(NKJV)
Thomas Scott on these verses:
Verses 18-22. The sacred historian cursorily mentions a few of Cain’s descendants, but not in that particular manner in which he afterwards gives a genealogy of the line of Seth to Noah.—Lamech is the first on record who deviated from the original institution of marriage, by taking more than one wife; and this did not occur till the earth was considerably replenished with inhabitants. Some of his sons became remarkable as the inventors of useful and ingenious arts; but no intimation is given that any of them were pious persons. ( Marg. Ref.)
This brief summation treats the Cain lineage with all the glory and concern it would seem to deserve. but we'll spend a little more time. This pattern testifies to the pattern of all human beings.
Thomas Haweis:
Verses 19-22: We have some account of one of Cain’s posterity; and as we might expect, a bad father and a worse son.
1. His taking two wives. He (LaMech) was the first, probably, who had transgressed the divine institution: he began the bad custom, but better men followed him. How hard, when custom hath established sin into a law, to escape from the pollutions that are in the world!
2. His remarkable family. Wicked men often prosper, and flourish like a green bay tree for a time; but their end is, to be consumed together. Be not thou envious then, though his house be increased. We have the names and occupations of his children: (1.) Jabal, the father of shepherds, celebrated for his knowledge in breeding and keeping cattle. (2.) Jubal, a musician, and the first inventor of it. (3.) Tubal-Cain, famed for his works in brass and iron. (4.) Naamah, their sister, the beautiful, as her name signifies. It seems not improbable, in this degenerate race idolatry began; and Lamech being the Jupiter, his sons are the Pan, Apollo, and Vulcan, and his daughter the Venus of the heathens.
Observe, 1. Amidst all their worldly inventions, no mention is made of God or his service: as long as the worldly mind can profit or please itself, it looks no higher.
2. Wicked men may be made very useful in their generation.
3. Though music was first invented by a bad man, God hath made it subservient to a good end. ‘Tis a pity the professors of music should, in their conduct, choose rather to imitate the inventor Jubal, than the reformer of it, David.
This gives me the stepping off point.
Cain's line seems to be referenced in legends . Haweis touches on it. But there are echoes. The Titans before the Greek Gods. The Ice Giants of Norse mythology.
The Greek mythology carries an interesting legend concerning the Titans:
THE TITANES (Titans) were six elder gods named Kronos (Cronus), Koios (Coeus), Krios (Crius), Iapetos (Iapetus),Hyperion and Okeanos (Oceanus), sons of Ouranos (Adam) (Uranus, Sky) and Gaia (Eve) (Gaea, Earth), who ruled the cosmos before the Olympians came to power. When their father was king he imprisoned six giant brothers of the Titanes--the Kyklopes (Cyclopes) and Hekatonkheires (Hecatoncheires)--in the belly of Earth. Gaia was incensed and incited her Titan sons to rebel. Led by Kronos, five of the six brothers, laid an ambush for their father, seizing hold of him as he descended to lie upon Earth. Four of them--Hyperion, Krios, Koios and Iapetos--were posted at the four corners of the earth to hold Sky fast, while Kronos in the centre castrated him with an adamantine sickle. After they had seized control of the cosmos, the Titanes released their storm giant brothers from Gaia's belly, only to lock them away shortly afterwards.
This interests me because of the word "nephilim" which will arise later. Noah's children spread throughout the world seem to have carried the truth of Cain's race with them and had it altered by time and repetition. We'll spend time on that in another blog, but this pre-shadows it.
But more to discuss here,
Cain founded society. One minister I heard suggested that there is only one acceptable city in the world: Jerusalem. All the rest stem from our Cain urges. We want a place to call home.
But we clear the forests to make the home, We clear the land for farming. We build to have permanent homes. We clear ALL the woods. We expand and take up space.
Note, It is a common thing for fierce and bloody men to glory in their shame (Php 3:19), as if it were both their safety and their honour that they care not how many lives are sacrificed to their angry resentments, nor how much they are hated, provided they may be feared. Oderint, dum metuant--Let them hate, provided they fear. How impiously he presumes even upon God's protection in his wicked way, Ge 4:24. He had heard that Cain should be avenged seven-fold (Ge 4:15), that is, that if any man should dare to kill Cain he should be severely reckoned with and punished for so doing, though Cain deserved to die a thousand deaths for the murder of his brother, and hence he infers that if any one should kill him for the murders he had committed God would much more avenge his death. As if the special care God took to prolong and secure the life of Cain, for special reasons peculiar to his case (and indeed for his sorer punishment, as the beings of the damned are continued) were designed as a protection to all murderers. Thus Lamech perversely argues,
"If God provided for the safety of Cain, much more for mine, who, though I have slain many, yet never slew my own brother, and upon no provocation, as he did."
Note, The reprieve of some sinners, and the patience God exercises towards them, are often abused to the hardening of others in the like sinful ways, Ec 8:11. But, though justice strike some slowly, others cannot therefore be sure but that they may be taken away with a swift destruction. Or, if God should bear long with those who thus presume upon his forbearance, they do but hereby treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath.
Now this is all we have upon record in scripture concerning the family and posterity of cursed Cain, till we find them all cut off and perishing in the universal deluge
Ge 4:16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son-Enoch.
18 To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.
19 Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah.
20 And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.
21 His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute.
22 And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.
23 Then Lamech said to his wives: "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for hurting me.
24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
(NKJV)
Thomas Scott on these verses:
Verses 18-22. The sacred historian cursorily mentions a few of Cain’s descendants, but not in that particular manner in which he afterwards gives a genealogy of the line of Seth to Noah.—Lamech is the first on record who deviated from the original institution of marriage, by taking more than one wife; and this did not occur till the earth was considerably replenished with inhabitants. Some of his sons became remarkable as the inventors of useful and ingenious arts; but no intimation is given that any of them were pious persons. ( Marg. Ref.)
This brief summation treats the Cain lineage with all the glory and concern it would seem to deserve. but we'll spend a little more time. This pattern testifies to the pattern of all human beings.
Thomas Haweis:
Verses 19-22: We have some account of one of Cain’s posterity; and as we might expect, a bad father and a worse son.
1. His taking two wives. He (LaMech) was the first, probably, who had transgressed the divine institution: he began the bad custom, but better men followed him. How hard, when custom hath established sin into a law, to escape from the pollutions that are in the world!
2. His remarkable family. Wicked men often prosper, and flourish like a green bay tree for a time; but their end is, to be consumed together. Be not thou envious then, though his house be increased. We have the names and occupations of his children: (1.) Jabal, the father of shepherds, celebrated for his knowledge in breeding and keeping cattle. (2.) Jubal, a musician, and the first inventor of it. (3.) Tubal-Cain, famed for his works in brass and iron. (4.) Naamah, their sister, the beautiful, as her name signifies. It seems not improbable, in this degenerate race idolatry began; and Lamech being the Jupiter, his sons are the Pan, Apollo, and Vulcan, and his daughter the Venus of the heathens.
Observe, 1. Amidst all their worldly inventions, no mention is made of God or his service: as long as the worldly mind can profit or please itself, it looks no higher.
2. Wicked men may be made very useful in their generation.
3. Though music was first invented by a bad man, God hath made it subservient to a good end. ‘Tis a pity the professors of music should, in their conduct, choose rather to imitate the inventor Jubal, than the reformer of it, David.
This gives me the stepping off point.
Cain's line seems to be referenced in legends . Haweis touches on it. But there are echoes. The Titans before the Greek Gods. The Ice Giants of Norse mythology.
The Greek mythology carries an interesting legend concerning the Titans:
THE TITANES (Titans) were six elder gods named Kronos (Cronus), Koios (Coeus), Krios (Crius), Iapetos (Iapetus),Hyperion and Okeanos (Oceanus), sons of Ouranos (Adam) (Uranus, Sky) and Gaia (Eve) (Gaea, Earth), who ruled the cosmos before the Olympians came to power. When their father was king he imprisoned six giant brothers of the Titanes--the Kyklopes (Cyclopes) and Hekatonkheires (Hecatoncheires)--in the belly of Earth. Gaia was incensed and incited her Titan sons to rebel. Led by Kronos, five of the six brothers, laid an ambush for their father, seizing hold of him as he descended to lie upon Earth. Four of them--Hyperion, Krios, Koios and Iapetos--were posted at the four corners of the earth to hold Sky fast, while Kronos in the centre castrated him with an adamantine sickle. After they had seized control of the cosmos, the Titanes released their storm giant brothers from Gaia's belly, only to lock them away shortly afterwards.
This interests me because of the word "nephilim" which will arise later. Noah's children spread throughout the world seem to have carried the truth of Cain's race with them and had it altered by time and repetition. We'll spend time on that in another blog, but this pre-shadows it.
But more to discuss here,
Cain founded society. One minister I heard suggested that there is only one acceptable city in the world: Jerusalem. All the rest stem from our Cain urges. We want a place to call home.
But we clear the forests to make the home, We clear the land for farming. We build to have permanent homes. We clear ALL the woods. We expand and take up space.
Why then," it will be asked, "are the Big Tree groves always found on well-watered spots?" Simply because Big Trees give rise to streams. It is a mistake to suppose that the water is the cause of the groves being there. On the contrary, the groves are the cause of the water being there. The roots of this immense tree fill the ground, forming a sponge which hoards the bounty of the clouds and sends it forth in clear perennial streams instead of allowing it to rush headlong in short-lived destructive floods. Evaporation is also checked, and the air kept still in the shady Sequoia depths, while thirsty robber winds are shut out.
-- John Muir, "Sierra Big Trees," 1901, p. 74, reprinted 1980 by Outbooks, Golden, Colorado
-- John Muir, "Sierra Big Trees," 1901, p. 74, reprinted 1980 by Outbooks, Golden, Colorado
"As land is overused and scorched by the hot sun and no rain, it dries up and vegetation cover diminishes due both to drought and wildfires. Lack of vegetation leads to further loss of humidity and increases erosion rates. So, deserts expand even more."
full article available at :
www.ciesin.columbia.edu/docs/002-159/002-159.html
www.ciesin.columbia.edu/docs/002-159/002-159.html
The deforestation Meher-Homji describes could be chalked up to deforestation by ax and saw. Call it land use. It can be done for firewood, clearance for crops and livestock, or for export into the world market for logs and chips. Either way, transpiration volume dives, and downwind areas go dry. It's not the sole player in drought-creation, but it has its own effect.
The Sahara lies east of Eden.
The Sahara (Arabic: الصحراء الكبرى, aṣ-ṣaḥrāʾ al-kubrā , 'the Greatest Desert') is the largest hot desert, and third largest desertafter Antarctica and the Arctic.[1] Its area of 9,400,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi)[citation needed]is comparable to the area of the United States.
For a map to give you an idea of the size of the desert: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Sahara_satellite_hires.jpg
3. The Sahara used to be rich, fertile farmlandThe Sahara was not always this big, poorly populated sandbox. As recently as 6,000 BC, grains and millet were grown across much of what is now the Sahara. In fact, prehistoric cave drawings have been discovered in parts of the Sahara that actually depict the flora as green and thriving.
So what happened? We moved in centuries ago and we made ourselves at home and...The result is the largest "hot" desert in the world. Oh, there are oases and there's the Nile and this and that, but largely there is desolation there, East of Eden.
I realize ecology is not a favorite subject among many Christians since the Gaia movement has turned the Earth itself into a religious object, also a heritage from Cain. But the research here feeds the truth about Cain. I find it usual of God's irony that a science perverted by Cain's notions leads to evidence of Cain's failures and destruction.
Destruction not directly caused by Cain, of course, but caused by an idea he planted in men's minds. No nomadic life. No hunter gatherer thing. There are thorns and brambles and lions and tigers and bears...Oh, my.
I realize ecology is not a favorite subject among many Christians since the Gaia movement has turned the Earth itself into a religious object, also a heritage from Cain. But the research here feeds the truth about Cain. I find it usual of God's irony that a science perverted by Cain's notions leads to evidence of Cain's failures and destruction.
Destruction not directly caused by Cain, of course, but caused by an idea he planted in men's minds. No nomadic life. No hunter gatherer thing. There are thorns and brambles and lions and tigers and bears...Oh, my.
And the desert they created forced them into nomadic life there.
Recall God's curse. That the land would not yield good things to Cain. That he would be nomadic. And never settle. I wonder if the largest desert in the world is the result of God's curse being permanent. The land where Cain chose to dwell forever marked as Cain was marked.
Caravans, herds driven from spot to spot. In the American West, we learned to share range, letting cattle feed first and then sheep who grazed much closer to the soil. moving the herd on, letting the range grow back. Apparently they learned the nomadic life to keep nature at bay.
Only civilization moved into the Sahara area. Nomads were forced to settle in countries. Tribes took up residence. And the excessive farming life that had depleted the land now took over again with the result that the Sahara is growing. Countries hoping to industrialize refuse to let nomadic life revive. Already industrialized ones see no worries so long as they can mimic the West and run pipelines and desalinization plants. And, meanwhile, the Sahara is growing.
Recall God's curse. That the land would not yield good things to Cain. That he would be nomadic. And never settle. I wonder if the largest desert in the world is the result of God's curse being permanent. The land where Cain chose to dwell forever marked as Cain was marked.
Caravans, herds driven from spot to spot. In the American West, we learned to share range, letting cattle feed first and then sheep who grazed much closer to the soil. moving the herd on, letting the range grow back. Apparently they learned the nomadic life to keep nature at bay.
Only civilization moved into the Sahara area. Nomads were forced to settle in countries. Tribes took up residence. And the excessive farming life that had depleted the land now took over again with the result that the Sahara is growing. Countries hoping to industrialize refuse to let nomadic life revive. Already industrialized ones see no worries so long as they can mimic the West and run pipelines and desalinization plants. And, meanwhile, the Sahara is growing.
I find it something more than ironic that an area perhaps suffering because of people trying to imitate the U.S. is roughly the size of the U.S.
So Cain's idea developed to still defy God, to create a home God denied him, carried as much a curse for the generations after him.
And he has a wife. We don't know when he got a wife. We don't know where he got a wife. The Bible doesn't tell us. We can only guess.
My guess, his sister, born outside Eden like him. I suspect he was "married" before his exile, but we have no idea. God had His motives for leaving us with mysteries associated with each step of our beginnings. Perhaps so we could explore our imaginations, or pursue anthropology to discover the traces of his truth, the "lost" tribe of the Hittites that turned out to be real we knew them all along just had them by a different name, or perhaps so we could simply learn to trust Him with the details we don't know.
Lets look a little bit at the progeny:
Jabal is NOT the father of shepherding as Haweis suggests, that was Abel, But Jabal was the father of nomads, living in tents, raising herds and moving. He offered the human solution to the problem of the cursed land. We couldn't make the land be productive so he found a way to live off the land and NOT till it. Later on, Seth's line would follow this strategy as well. Abram lived this way until God found him a home. Moses. also a shepherd, took his people on a 40 year nomadic life. Later, the Jews would be scattered by God and live as nomads in the nations of the world, waiting for their homeland to be returned. God blessed that area around Jerusalem to the Jews so that, today, since it has gone into their hands, it is the most fruitful land of the world. Notice God specifically blessed it. All around it, the Sahara grows.
Jubal founded music. Now please hold onto your yelling, but, music is NOT, in and of itself, WORSHIP. I am profoundly tired of the term "worship leader" being applied to the choir master or singing performer before the sermon or the music director. Worship entails a lot of things of which music is an arm. Praising God in song is fine and I have a collection of "worship" CDs and clearly feel free to use them from YouTube. When used correctly, music IS a FORM worship and surely works to praise the Lord in the right hands, but please, please please, lets not dub it alone as WORSHIP because for some of us who can't sing worth a fig, we hardly see it as worship alone. We choke our way along and admire the power of music in the hand so those who love the Lord and have mastered expressing it that way, even find ourselves uplifted by it, but human music was not originally a creation to serve God. It may in fact have been a perversion of the songs of heaven recalled by Adam and Eve when they were walking with God.
Music is a tool for human expression and it can be used to praise God or create an arena of doped up unsaved rocking and rolling to anti-Christian "vibes". It may serve to sooth the soul but that soothing might actually become the god to those listening. We need to beware: sometimes the singer becomes the god to the listener.
We hear a lot about Satan being the "worship leader" in heaven since evidence seems to indicate he was the choir master. Do we think about angels becoming fans and those being the ones he misled? He took his groupies with him when he fell.
By all means worship in music, but keep the focus on the Lord. Admire the musician's skill. Just recall The Rolling Stones made an album called "Their Satanic Majesties Request". That a "Christian" metal rock group turned into less than Christian. That all those performers like all of us can be overcome by power and praise for them.
The great beauty bore a son who worked in metal.
The story of forging is that it was crested for tools and for weapons. Like music and the nomadic life it carried that dual curse. used for what people saw as good and used for what people saw as evil. But the tools could be used to kill and war could be used as defense, so even that view was skewed by fallen reasoning.
Ge 4:23 Then Lamech said to his wives: "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for hurting me.
24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
(NKJV)
THIS one gets treatments that vary:
Jamieson and company:
Genesis 4:23
Lamech said unto his wives--This speech is in a poetical form, probably the fragment of an old poem, transmitted to the time of Moses. It seems to indicate that Lamech had slain a man in self-defense, and its drift is to assure his wives, by the preservation of Cain, that an unintentional homicide, as he was, could be in no danger.
Then Matthew Henry:
Ver. 23.
By this speech of Lamech, which is here recorded, and probably was much talked of in those times, he further appears to have been a wicked man, as Cain's accursed race generally were. Observe,
1. How haughtily and imperiously he speaks to his wives, as one that expected a mighty regard and observance: Hear my voice, you wives of Lamech. No marvel that he who had broken one law of marriage, by taking two wives, broke another, which obliged him to be kind and tender to those he had taken, and to give honour to the wife as to the weaker vessel. Those are not always the most careful to do their own duty that are highest in their demands of respect from others, and most frequent in calling upon their relations to know their place and do their duty.
2. How bloody and barbarous he was to all about him: I have slain, or (as it is in the margin) I would slay a man in my wound, and a young man in my hurt. He owns himself a man of a fierce and cruel disposition, that would lay about him without mercy, and kill all that stood in his way; be it a man, or a young man, nay, though he himself were in danger to be wounded and hurt in the conflict. Some think, because (Ge 4:24) he compares himself with Cain, that he had murdered some of the holy seed, the true worshippers of God, and that he acknowledged this to be the wounding of his conscience and the hurt of his soul; and yet that, like Cain, he continued impenitent, trembling and yet proud. Or his wives, knowing what manner of spirit he was of, how apt both to give and to resent provocation, were afraid lest somebody or other would be the death of him.
"Never fear," says he, "I defy any man to set upon me; whosoever does, let me alone to make my part good with him; I will slay him, be he a man or a young man."
"If God provided for the safety of Cain, much more for mine, who, though I have slain many, yet never slew my own brother, and upon no provocation, as he did."
Note, The reprieve of some sinners, and the patience God exercises towards them, are often abused to the hardening of others in the like sinful ways, Ec 8:11. But, though justice strike some slowly, others cannot therefore be sure but that they may be taken away with a swift destruction. Or, if God should bear long with those who thus presume upon his forbearance, they do but hereby treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath.
Now this is all we have upon record in scripture concerning the family and posterity of cursed Cain, till we find them all cut off and perishing in the universal deluge
Some modern science has an interesting view of our behavior.
"Recently a number of philosophers and neuroscientists have argued that-based on a current understanding of the human brain-we are all in a way sleepwalking all the time. Instead of being the intentional authors of our lives, we are simply pushed around by past events and by the behind-the-scenes machinations of our unconscious minds. even when we are wide awake, free will is an illusion.
"Philosophers with this viewpoint argue that all organisms are bound by physical laws of the universe wherein every action is the result of previous events. Human beings are organisms. thus, human behavior results from a complex sequence of cause and effect that completely out of our control. the universe simply does not allow for free will. Recent neuroscience studies have added fuel to that notion by suggesting that the experience of conscious choice is the outcome of the underlying neural processes that produce human action, not the cause of them. Our brains decide everything we do without "our" help-it just feel like we have a say."
"The World without Free Will" by Azim F. Shariff and Kathleen D. Vohs
Scientific American
June 2014
This view would, of course, eliminate the idea of sin. we were only doing what the universe had shaped us to do. Of course, it also means we give the universe, nature, random events, the power of God.
So Lamech was either thinking he was more powerful than God or nature or randomness or that unconscious that hounded Freud or Jung. He didn't sin in either murder or manslaughter (Which always sounds to me like something worse, but it could be my unconscious mind making me think I can choose th make a judgement) because he never had the consciousness to...
I'm sorry. Years ago, I saw a movie starring Jimmy Stewart, Ben Gazzara and lee Remick called "Anatomy of a Murder" based on a realcase which occurred in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The accused had killed a man for raping the murderer's wife. He got off because the lawyer pleaded temporary insanity based on "irresistible impulse." This was on TV, a movie from 1959. Whenit was ver the lawyer went to collect his fee and the murderer and wife had left town, leaving a note from the husband saying he had "an irresistible impulse" to leave town. I w]really don't want to stand before God and tell him he set the universe in motion and that led me to gossip abut my neighbor, lust after my teenage girlfriend and want to kill the guy who cut me off in traffic. I strongly suspect the lake of fire will not burn any cooler because I blamed my unconsciousness.
Perhaps Lamech planned the first insanity plea. "I killed them because THEY made me angry."
More likely, the sin of the great-great-great-grandfather passed to the progeny. Maybe reading God's mercy as weakness as Henry suggests.
Which leads to those who seemed to know God was merciful.
"Recently a number of philosophers and neuroscientists have argued that-based on a current understanding of the human brain-we are all in a way sleepwalking all the time. Instead of being the intentional authors of our lives, we are simply pushed around by past events and by the behind-the-scenes machinations of our unconscious minds. even when we are wide awake, free will is an illusion.
"Philosophers with this viewpoint argue that all organisms are bound by physical laws of the universe wherein every action is the result of previous events. Human beings are organisms. thus, human behavior results from a complex sequence of cause and effect that completely out of our control. the universe simply does not allow for free will. Recent neuroscience studies have added fuel to that notion by suggesting that the experience of conscious choice is the outcome of the underlying neural processes that produce human action, not the cause of them. Our brains decide everything we do without "our" help-it just feel like we have a say."
"The World without Free Will" by Azim F. Shariff and Kathleen D. Vohs
Scientific American
June 2014
This view would, of course, eliminate the idea of sin. we were only doing what the universe had shaped us to do. Of course, it also means we give the universe, nature, random events, the power of God.
So Lamech was either thinking he was more powerful than God or nature or randomness or that unconscious that hounded Freud or Jung. He didn't sin in either murder or manslaughter (Which always sounds to me like something worse, but it could be my unconscious mind making me think I can choose th make a judgement) because he never had the consciousness to...
I'm sorry. Years ago, I saw a movie starring Jimmy Stewart, Ben Gazzara and lee Remick called "Anatomy of a Murder" based on a realcase which occurred in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The accused had killed a man for raping the murderer's wife. He got off because the lawyer pleaded temporary insanity based on "irresistible impulse." This was on TV, a movie from 1959. Whenit was ver the lawyer went to collect his fee and the murderer and wife had left town, leaving a note from the husband saying he had "an irresistible impulse" to leave town. I w]really don't want to stand before God and tell him he set the universe in motion and that led me to gossip abut my neighbor, lust after my teenage girlfriend and want to kill the guy who cut me off in traffic. I strongly suspect the lake of fire will not burn any cooler because I blamed my unconsciousness.
Perhaps Lamech planned the first insanity plea. "I killed them because THEY made me angry."
More likely, the sin of the great-great-great-grandfather passed to the progeny. Maybe reading God's mercy as weakness as Henry suggests.
Which leads to those who seemed to know God was merciful.
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