Ok, picture this…
It’s Day 8, or so…
The world and the firmaments still have that “new universe” smell us mortals love so much.
Now, by Day 20 let’s say, Cain kills Abel.
But, explain to me, how was he to know this was wrong?
We didn’t get the Ten Commandments until long after that “new universe smell” disappeared!
Not trying to justify Cain, but this has always sat with me a little funny…has anyone else wondered about this?
artistic license enough said
any way thou shall not Kill , is a mis translation as with many things
Jewish people can kill others gentiles and their own as long as it with good cause , just killing somebody because you feel like it isn’t acceptable (these days either)reasons , executions and War is perfectly acceptable types of killings
Cain wasn’t born until after Adam and Eve were tossed out of the Garden–for eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
My guess is that it ties in with that “knowledge of good and evil” bit; god just expected them to know that it was wrong. The Ten Commandments only came down because several thousand years of examples had proven to the Big Guy that people just didn’t Get It, and he had to engrave it in stone so they’d think, “Huh, killing’s bad? Go figure. What? No golden cows? No way!”
I’m not sure how reliable that site is.
Not to murder another human being should be an intuitive thing…one should understand that no one (who has not committed some sort of henious crime, at least, but in Cain v Abel, that was not an issue) else has less of a right to live than he himself. Or, as the Talmudic phrase goes, “Is your blood any redder than his?”
In any case, part of why Cain did not pay for the sin with his own life is because he did not have a proper understanding of death. (While to not murder someone should be intuitive, it’s an almost moot point if the nature of murder is not truly understood.)
BTW, while this doesn’t change the nature of your question, you should note that murder is forbidden well before the Ten Commandments. It’s one of the commandments given to Noah and his descndants after they leave the ark - see Genesis 9: 5 - 6.
I think Cain was punished because he got cute with God. You know the line Am I my brother’s keeper? when asked where Abel was at. Then Cain worried about what people would do to him and so God gave him a sign so he would not be harmed. Who were those other people? That is another thread.
I don’t think that was being cute with G-d. I think that was a serious question. “Am I my brother’s keeper? Do I have a responsibility over him?”
<< Jewish people can kill others gentiles and their own as long as it with good cause >>
I beg your pardon?? What sort of bullshit antisemitism is this??
Man, I wish it were true. I would love to be able to kill that asshole who ran the red light because she was talking on her cellphone. Would have saved a lot of trouble with cops and paperwork and insurance companies, too, if I could have just offed her there and then. And everyone at the site would have applauded me and said that was “good cause.”
Anyway,I hope to hell that you are trying to say: the commandment “thou shalt not kill” is a mistranslation. A better translation would be “thou shalt not murder.” And ancient Israelite law, like modern law in most countries, recognizes that there are incidents, such as accident, self-defense, and acts of war that are not “murder.”
The problem I had with the whole Cain and Abel thing was always the mention of their wives. Adam & Eve were the first people, C & A were their sons. OK, so where did the wives come from?
Curious…which translation do you prefer?