David John
Have you ever noticed what and when Eve in the book of Genesis says something? There is her exchange with the serpent (Gn 3: 2-3) Adam (Gn 3:6 – though no words are recorded) and God (Gn 3:13). But I took interest in what she says after the birth of her sons, or what she does not say. With Cain, she says, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” (Gn 4:1) With Abel, she says, well, nothing. With Seth, she says, “God has appointed for me another child instead of Abel, for Cain slew him.”
In the various languages, the “gotten” in Gn 4:1 basically seems to get at the meaning. It is a kind of purchasing or acquisition. It suggests a kind of accomplishment that results in an ownership. In any case, it seems to suggest that Eve was the central figure in acquiring Cain, and God was her helper. We have to remember that Eve was in a fallen state at this point, as was Adam. So why would she see Cain this way?
Let me provide one possibility. The male disposition tends to see things as acquisitions, especially in the fallen state, and so one wonders if this rubbed off on Eve. Eve was his treasure. And in her fall, she desired her man and he “will lord if over her.” This suggests among many other things that she will take on his disposition, even if it is against her own. That is how he “lords if over her.” Her own natural disposition would be to embrace and treasure this child that grew in her body as a gift. But she did not. And so one could think that with Cain, she saw him like Adam might have seen him, as an acquisition. An object really. Not as a gift in the image of God and wholly from God.
With Abel, nothing is recorded from Eve. Of course, we know that much must have been said. But why the silence in scripture? Abel was the second child. Maybe in her fallen state, Eve was underwhelmed after being overwhelmed with her first acquisition. Cain probably became a bit spoiled, demanding, expecting. And so her first acquisition was perhaps something that reduced her spiritedness about life. And so Abel comes along and she was certainly happy, but this one was not seen as a welcome acquisition. At the same time, Abel likely was not seen as a gift from the Lord either, a gift in His image. And so nothing worthy was said, hence nothing was recorded.
But then Cain kills Abel. Cain’s disordered desires rise up. Likely he had failed since he was a child to recognize the glory and honor due to his loving God, his Creator. His spiritual state made it impossible for him to make a right offering to the Lord. And this comes out in his response to God’s response to his offering. The Lord rejected his offering. And Cain did not respond with humility and contrition. Instead, he became angry. At who? God his Creator! All of this would have been the spirit that he inherited from his mother and perhaps from his father. He was first hers, then God’s. and so she passed on to her acquisition that God was second. He, like his mother, should be the determiner of right and wrong. Who is God to say what is a good offering?
Of course, he is not capable of murdering God because God was not yet man. And of course, God cannot be murdered. But, here was Abel, the righteous one. One could imagine Abel being less than treasured as a son. He should have been treasured as a child in the image of God. But after Cain, likely he was not. And so he suffered. He must have turned to his Creator in that suffering, and his Creator turned to him as a loving Father and embraced him. So, when Abel gave from his flock, it was welcomed with open arms.
Cain was not so open in his arms. Out of his anger toward God, he then turned to this mortal son of God and killed him. It was the next best thing. Cain who could not kill God killed God’s loved one. And Abel’s blood is drunk by the ground and even the ground turns against Cain.
Now back to Eve. Her suffering in this must have been great. She would have seen the corruption in the heart and soul of her son Cain. She probably also came to see her role in this. And thus her role in the death of Abel. And in this suffering, she comes to a deeper understanding of who she is as a mother, and a deeper understanding and love for her children. It would have been in her natural disposition as a mother to love her children as a gift. And so, this suffering awoke this natural disposition. And likely, her tears also awoke that same love in Adam, and through her, he came to see the gift of his own children in a deeper way, as a gift from his loving Creator.
Then Adam and Eve get to see the unfolding vengence springing from the soul of Cain into Cain’s own children and grandchildren. It grows until it is seventy-sevenfold in Lamech.
And so with this unfolding sorrow comes a deeper understanding and love for his wife and their children. Perhaps this is the deeper layer of meaning that led Adam to “know her again” as bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. After the fall, he likely could only see her in lust. Suffering opened the doors to so that he could rejoice in her once again.
And Seth is born. He is given to her from the Lord and she now sees the greater depth of this little gift. She recognizes the degree to which this little child is first and foremost from God. The Greek Septuagint uses the word “resurrected” rather than appointed. It even moreso suggests God’s magnificent generosity and that Eve in proclaiming this, now recognizes it in her mind and heart. And of course, this pre-figures the resurrection of Jesus, and of all of us.
My point, is this seems to be a moment in which God brought Eve through suffering from a deformed relationship to her children into one that was more authentic and right. Now, for the first time, she could be an authentic mother.
These of course are some speculations, but there really is a recorded difference in Eve’s words spoken in response to the birth of Cain and those spoken in response to the birth of Seth. And nothing in scripture is without meaning. If what I propose is true, how glorious is God in his correction and healing of our souls. And this would then be true from the very start, with his first son and daughter. He was raising them spiritually from the dead.
This story tells us a great deal about being a man and a woman and how God redeems us.